#for all of its faults; its fun. it has a gameplay loop that is consistent and fun when u get the hang of it

[samarecharm]

geniunely not trying to put words in ur mouth im geniunely asking: what do you actually like about persona 5? from all ur rants im just wondering why you didnt drop the game bc it seems (again, im not trying to put words in ur mouth) that it simply not for you? i geniunely have not felt any of the issues you bring up outside of the writing ones and i cannot tell if i'm just easily pleased and not good at discerning what a good game is or we simply have dif things we enjoy in a video game. i hate getting tone across text but im asking out of geniune curiosity im not trying to attack your opinion (;-;)

Nah, i dont feel like ur attacking me, and I hope u dont feel the same when u see my complaints! Lmao. In my defense, I am replaying the game for the first time after completing my first file back in 2020, so alot of the faults i kinda shrugged off in my first playthrough are now glaringly in my face now that I no longer have the confusion and interest in learning the main story to keep me occupied. The game is clunky all the way through, and at some times, even frustratingly so.

But despite that, i do like this game. Alot! Its probably one of my top games ever if im being honest!

This ended up way longer than I intended, so im putting it under a readmore to keep the post short on dashboards

If i had to describe what I liked about the game in the simplest way imaginable…I think I would say, I like how the game makes me feel :) I like the music. I like the vibe. I like the immersion from city to city, and I like the premise! I like the characters and I like the connections you make with these characters! As im replaying this game, i am most excited to see Akira and his comments about the world :) i like hearing everyones voices, I like their little interactions in Mementos, and I like seeing them fight!

P5 is the first game I played in the series; its the game that introduced me to SMT in the first place! And it (smt) is a series that my longtime best friend LOVES and never thought hed be able to share with me! It is a game i keep very near to my heart; it has influenced me in ways i did not think would happen in the short couple of years since i first finished it. It genuinely keeps me awake some nights thinking about the world this game has created, and I think that is a testament to the impact its had, be it good or bad.

The joke about wishing theyd make a persona game that was Good is that despite all of its numerous flaws, the games manage to snatch your attention and pull you in anyway. Imagine if they made a game that had all of those things that i mentioned I loved, but done Right and executed Properly?? Where I got to have a story that made sense and didnt need to be spoonfed to me (in like an HOUR of dialogue and scenes; an HOUR!), and characters that talked and bonded beyond the tiny snippets of interaction theyre allowed to have in mementos? Combat that let me use PERSONAS i liked instead of BUILDS that stop me from getting instakilled throughout the entirety of the endgame, and a Persona building mechanic that didnt feel like I was shooting in the dark looking for possible fusions that end up not even being useful in the endgame.

Ive mentioned it before, but I complain so much bc I have seen what a good p5 game looks like, and its Strikers almost to a T. Combat is still your typical warriors-esque style combat, but it is at least different from the turn based strategy of the main game. Characters talk to each other freely, they hang out and comfort each other in a way that feels more connected that the base game. Strikers implements the ability to see ALL possible fusions with ALL registered personas, not just the ones in your Stock, so you can fuse easily without having yo consult a guide. The story feels like it makes SENSE with antagonists that feel morally grey and sympathetic. Genuinely, alot of the complaints for p5 I had were almost immediately rectified in this game.

But please also know that the praises I sing for this game is only bc of the groundwork laid by p5 and the world it created. Thats what I like about this game, that it had such a captivating premise and cast of characters, that a DIFFERENT company was able to hit the ground running with them. P5 had alot happening in that game, but i think what it had most was potential. The effort put into this game is astronomical, and the possible connections you can outright MISS if u arent paying attention was worth the money and time to implement; even if it meant that it could be considered a waste of resources to higher ups.

Books and games and part time jobs???!! Silly little cutscenes that add nothing to the game PLOTwise, but define and flesh out the personality of your protagonist. There was alot of love put into this game, and its evident by the fact that we have NOT seen a new persona game released; they bank on existing titles bc they are unwilling to make a game like this from scratch again. They dont want to ‘waste’ resources on good voice acting and a complex, overarching story; they dont want to waste money on scenes a player may never see, on routes a player may never get to experience. Making a game that gives u even the slightest bit of freedom means more money in programming and detailing that freedom. This has been an issue for a WHILE, and its a miracle that the gaming landscape had space for a colossal title like p5!

I complain bc I want better, and I do not think that is inherently at odds with my love of this game. In b4 im told to get good; ive played on hard and tested out merciless (its NOT fun, im making godbuilds again and its boring 😞). Its not the most accessible turnbased rpg; theres no colorblind modes, and the affinity system is convoluted and overwhelming. Combo moves are hard to keep track of and it can be incredibly frustrating to see your turns being skipped or seeing characters take extreme technical damage without understanding WHY it happened. The fact that they KNEW the game was desperate for qol improvements by the time royal came out, and instead of updating the base game to have those improvements too, they just pushed the royal edition out for people to play instead. It sucks! Customers and fans deserve better than being forced to shell out money for a game they already played !

As the gaming climate gets more and more hostile and unbearable, I think it is good to look at your games critically, and understand why products come out subpar. Persona 5 is a fun game that has a nice cast and an interesting premise, but it is ultimately tied down by its refusal to build on existing building blocks regarding its combat, and it insists on having insulting and downright out of character dialogue and scenes to appease the audience its designed to be targeted to. It is easy to forget sometimes that queer ppl are infact NOT the prime target of these games, its cishet gamer bros from aged 16 to 40 who will laugh at homophobic comments, who drool over a 16 yr old girl with a 16 yr old mindset and a grown womans body, who need to be placated with constant sexual comments to deal with a convoluted story that will inevitably make zero sense until its laid out for you before the literal end of the game.

Its bad. Its good. Its so shallow and its unbelievable that they thought having the plot twist make ZERO sense until they showed CUTSCENES of YOUR character discussing Goro and his connections to the metaverse for endgame SHOCK VALUE was more important than just having your team be smart and piece it together over time. Its shit. Its literally amazing. It let you FUCK your teacher ??????????????what the FUCK. They also let me shoot a god in the face w the best looking ult persona in the world so i can ignore that shit. And ultimately that is how i got through the game. Lol.

#chattin #answered #i have mentioned it before but i did NOT romance anyone #u know why? bc i literally didnt know it existed #i maxed out ann and the game was like ‘hey. this next decision is important’ #and i was like. huh. u know what. i have not looked up a guide until now. thats scary. i dont want to lose a confidant… #and learned that. #so uh. i really DID go through the game bot realizing i could date anyone. even the adults. #anyway. this was alot. and i tried to keep out alot of my other complaints #bc i have so many. but they are like. either nitpicky things or things that are issues in lots of games too #like the models suck in this game but i can look past that. graphics are always bottom on the list of complaints #and i do like the little animations!! i like akiras little tics #and i like seeing personas do their casting animations; shiki ouji and nekomata are my faves #i distinctly remember that being a thing i wished to see more of. #bc i liked thinking of what joker would look like fighting for Real #and then i remembered him being in smash so i was like COOL. ill look at those #and then i got STRIKERS and it was exactly what I wanted #i think #the game is like. #its bad. but in ways that i wouldnt call another game bad #like back 4 blood is BAD bad. its awful. the gameplay is bad. the story was shit. and the servers shut down within a year or two of launch #risk of rain 2 is bad in the way that it continuously obscures and withholds information to the player. its tedious and frustrating #but unlike b4b i LIKE ror2 and will continue to enjoy it. #bc the gameplay loop FEELS satisfying #and ultimately thats how i feel about p5 #for all of its faults; its fun. it has a gameplay loop that is consistent and fun when u get the hang of it #im playing on hard again since merciless is just me making the right instakill builds while i pick up my team over and over again #and theres still a challenge in having the endgame weapons and armor #its satisfying! and i think its satisfying bc I was given the luck of having this be my introduction into the series #maybe i would have a better opinion on the game if i came from p4. or maybe not! who knows !

[kittenfemme27]

Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate

So, at this point, its a pretty cold take to say that Batman could address the crime related problems of Gotham City by funding development programs, education, and other social programs that would help "criminals" get on the right path. That Gotham Citys notorious Villains wouldn't even be motivated to be such huge and over the top personalities if it wasn't for the fact they had an equally huge personality with which to combat each others Narcissistic Personality Disorders against. That Gotham City, for all its faults, would be a better place without Batman ever having stepped foot in it, and that Batman is honestly just a little bit of a crypto fascist. Everyone's said it, or at least thought it, and everyone's pretty much in agreement that it's true to some extent or another.

Except DC, of course, who continue to make millions pushing Batman as the one true and only good savior of the ailing city. Who continues to make comic after comic showcasing the various villains become near caricatures of themselves as they get more and more cartoonishly evil to foil batmans plans, while bruce himself gets more and more wise to the point of being a near omnipotent God who has accounted for each and every possibility in the entire universe. This personification of the Dark Knight is very important to DC, and while they attempt to sometimes show Bruces "philanthropy" within the comics, they often somehow exacerbate just how much of a problem it is that Bruce and Waynecorp effectively own Gotham, and why the concept of The Batman is a problem in and of itself.

So it was pretty par for the course then that, for a short time between 2009 to 2015, DC Comics teamed up with Rocksteady Studios and Warner Brothers Montreal to create the Batman: Arkham video game series that featured the exact same crypto fash Bat that fans have come to know and love. The Arkham series was a western take on the popular Japenese game genre that we know today as "Character Action". It's a bit of a hard genre to describe, but its typically distinguishable by being a Third Person game in where your character takes on hordes of enemies and is very, very powerful right from the get go. Where you have combo meters that break on the slightest bit of damage and the combat revolves just as much around being stylish and impressive to look at, as it is engaging and outrageously difficult. From a gameplay perspective, DC and Rocksteady couldn't have picked a better superhero to go with when adapting the Character Action genre to the west. Batman has no powers, and relies entirely on his gadgets and martial arts training to effectively subdue those in front of him. This allowed the Arkham series to shine as a half Character Action, half Stealth Puzzle game, creating what was effectively a 3D Third Person Metroidvania Brawler. It was a match made in Heaven. The end result of the Arkham Series popularity created an entire genre of combat and gameplay styles that have majorly impacted and outlived the Arkham series, with pretty much any super hero game afterwards being simply an Arkham game with a skin. It also meant that Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, the publisher, had an effective cash cow they could milk for everything it was worth. Immediately after the publication of the first game, Batman: Arkham Aslyum, production began on a second game titled Batman: Arkham City that was much larger in scope. Set to be an open world that took place in all of Gotham as the inmates of the Aslyum escaped and overtook the city. Batman: Arkham City was released in 2011 to absolute critical praise and from that point on, the Arkham Series of games was here to stay and here to become a franchise with yearly release Al-a Call of Duty. A mobile game came out the same year as the second game, and every year after following you had at least 2 games in the Arkham-verse release thereafter. Rocksteady, bless their overworked and creatively burnt out hearts, could not keep up with this demand while they developed a sequel to Arkham City that was meant to be even larger in scope. Warner Brothers instead then tapped an in-house development team, WB Games Montreal, for a prequel game that took place as the Batman was finding his footing and dealing with his first major crime outbreak.

This prequel came to be known as Batman: Arkham Origins and was released in 2013. It's widely considered by fans of the series to be the black sheep of the series. Having none of the original charm or excitement of the first games, as it was made to be a yearly entry into the series rather than with the care and attention that Rocksteady put into the previous two entries. Warner Brothers Interactive however were very, very sure that they wanted to put all their eggs in this new Arkham prequel themed basket and developed not just one, not just two, but three separate spin offs! These spinoffs were as follows:

- An iOS mobile fighting game that had the same name as the original game developed by the Mortal Kombat developers Netherrealm Studios(Fun fact: This is the 2nd iOS Arkham fighting game they had made at that point.)

-An animated direct to video sequel-to-the-prequel titled "Batman: Assault on Arkham" that ultimately bombed pretty hard.

-And finally the game I'll be writing about today, a Playstation Vita/Nintendo 3DS (And later PC/Xbox 360/Playstation 3 release with updated textures) side game that was also sequel-to-the-prequel known as Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate.

Even reading this back in 2020, I cannot fathom why they had such confidence in this series as to fund this many projects in this specific prequel time period of the Arkham Universe. Needless to say, all of these were critical failures. But being one of the 6 people left in the world who still excitedly owns a Playstation Vita in 2020, I was goaded by the other 5 to give the final spin-off game a shot.

And so I did.

I want my 8 hours of life it took to complete it back.

Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate is a 2.5D Metroidvania that tries really, really hard to be a mainline Arkham game despite being designed primarily as a Metroidvania. For those unaware, a metroidvania is a genre of game that features a large map with procedural upgrades that allow you to access more and more of the map, often requiring you to remember locations so that you can backtrack to them and try out new upgrades to see if they let you into these new areas. Blackgate follows this formula and does it very, very, very poorly.

You might be feeling a bit of confusion here, though, as earlier within this article I described the Arkham main line series as essentially a 3D Metroidvania style of games. And given this earlier comparison, when going into Blackgate I honestly expected this combination of an Arkham game that was more focused on being a Metroidvania to be really good! Metroidvanias are one of my favorite types of genres and I'm regrettably a fan of the Arkham games, so I was all set and ready to settle into what I was hoping would be a good game, or at least a decent one.

The issues with the genre this game has decided to cram itself awkwardly into are immediate and apparent the moment you boot the game. Being 2.5D, which in every other instance I've ever seen means "Plays exactly like a 2D game in every way, but is just done in 3d and thus uses 3D Models" Blackgate decides that sort of consistency is beneath it and constantly shifts its own perspective. Its never not a sidescrolling camera view, but its levels also have you make turns in L-Shaped corridors that mean your map screen is entirely useless. In Metroid: Zero Mission, for example, your map is a side on view of the chambers. It has long sections that go up and down in what is effectively the Y axis, and long corridors that go left and right in the X axis. This is how every single Metroidvania does its Map screen, including other 2.5D Metroidvanias I have played in the past. To do so otherwise would destroy any sense of understanding of verticality that exists within the game world. No Metroidvania ever "turns" in the middle of a corridor into another corridor that suddenly goes forwards and backwards on what would be the Z axis.

In Blackgate, however, your map screen is a top-down view of Arkham Aslyum that has corridors that go forwards and backwards, left and right, and does noting to denote any verticality in any of the areas. What this effectively means is that  you're going to spend an annoying amount of time moving forward into a corridor and then hitting your map button to try and discern exactly where the hell you are in relation to the rest of the world. It doesn't help then that the facility of Arkham Aslyum is not traversed normally, as almost all doors and elevators and any set of stairs are non-existent and the ones that are there do not work or are not accessible. The Facility is in ruins due to the events of the game and that means you will constantly be working your way through crawlspaces and vents or even simply holes in the floor or cieling that allow you to progress around the map. Again, this betrays a core tenat of any Metroidvania, as backtracking to locations is a huge and important part of the core gameplay loop. Doing so in Blackgate is like pulling teeth trying to remember which vent took you where and what specific level of verticality you need to be on that takes you where you want to go.

The combat is copy/pasted directly from any other arkham game, where you magnetically snap between enemies and have a combo meter that is broken if you're hit as well as a parry system for incoming attacks. This system, in short, does not work in the slightest in a side scrolling perspective. Not only are enemies often grouped up in a way that makes keeping a combo impossible, but for some reason you are almost always unable to counter someone who is about to hit you if you're not directly facing them. Effectively this turns every fight into a chore where you are just trying to get through it as quickly as possible while trying your best to maintain a combo. In the mainline arkham series, they eventually start adding enemies that have to be taken out in special ways, such as stunning them with your cape or jumping over them as they have armor on their front. Blackgate tries to do the same thing, but effectively gives up after 2 unique enemies as the system just doesn't allow for anything else. The combat isn't absolutely the worst i've ever played, but its definitely the worst version of the Arkham combat system's that i've ever seen. To top it off, the Boss fights within the game are all "Puzzles" of a kind where you must navigate a room in a specific way to hit a Boss 3 times. The frustrating aspect of these puzzle based boss fights is that they may only be solved one way, with no room for experimentation with the Batmans various arsenal of Gadgets and Tools, and also that any mistake will instantly kill you and reset your progress to the start of the fight. These are, in a word, frustrating. More often than not they become a trial of repetition to try and find whatever way the game wants you to subdue the Boss.

An example of one of these incompetent boss fights that irked me the most would be the Black Mask fight. Within this fight, you come in from the left side and use a batarang to take out a single light out of a row of them. This may lead you to believe that you must take out all the lights and take out Black Mask in complete darkness. This is not the case. Instead, you must take out one single light and then duck into the crawl space under the masked Villain, then come out of the end of the vent below him, and hit an alarm on the side you used to be on. This causes him to start shooting in that direction at the sound. At this point, you may think you sneak up behind him and take him out while he's distracted. Unfortunately, you'd still be wrong! Trying this will result in him immediately realizing you're behind him and turn around, filling you with bullets and instantly killing you. What you must do instead is to go back into the grates while he moves towards the center of the arena. At this point, you must jump up from the grates when prompted to one-hit KO him, being one of the few bosses you do not have to hit 3 times. A fun fact about this fight however, is that if you miss that opportunity then the fight soft locks and you have to let him kill you to restart. Every fight is like this, with this much incompetence abound.

You may have noticed at this point that I have neglected to mention any of the Bats arsenal or Toolkit that you use during the course of the game. That is because, frankly, it does not matter. The upgrades you get simply allow you to go into different doors or different vents or break holes into walls but that's it. They serve no other gameplay purpose, no other combat role, nothing. A common trend within Metroidvanias is that the upgrades you get are dual purpose. An example being the Ice Beam from literally any Metroid game. This is both a damage up and allows you to stunlock difficult enemies, it also allows you to freeze enemies and turn them into platforms with which to progress the further into the map. No gadget within Blackgate serves this dual purpose, and as such there's barely any point to even bring them up other to lament their boring design.

The problem with Gadgets is moreso just a part of a much larger pacing problem that the entire game suffers from. Blackgate is divided into three maps, wherein you must search different wings of Arkham Aslyum to find The Joker, Penguin, and Black Mask as they have all escaped and cordoned off each zone into a headquarters for their respective gang of thugs. Something quite common within Metroidvanias is non-linearity, wherein you can get to an objective in any way that you have access to via your upgrades. There are numerous methods where you may even "Sequence break" the game, or do something earlier than you are intended to do so by the natural flow of the game. This is not a design oversight, it is an intentional part of the formula. I can only assume then that splitting up the game into these 3 chunks was an attempt at recreating this non-linearity. But it effectively does not matter. At a certain point in any of the maps, you will be stopped and told to go to another to procure an upgrade to proceed. There are no other options. There is no sequence breaking. There isn't even a point to explore anywhere else. You cannot progress the game until you do exactly what it asks of you. No matter what order you'd actually like to do it in, you will take on Penguin, then Black Mask, then The Joker. You are not allowed to deviate from this path. The fact that this linearity is forced onto you just makes me wish the ability to pick and choose your map had just been taken out and the charade of non-linearity taken away, as it feels more like a slap in the face that everytime I tried to explore somewhere, the game halted me and told me I wasn't allowed to do that.

So, at this point all I have left to cover is the story. As it is, its bare bones. Prisoners have escaped, you need to go chase them back into their cells and restore peace in Arkham, meanwhile Catwoman is helping you out over comms and guiding you to where you need to go next. The opening of the game actually has you spend about 10 minutes chasing catwoman, only to be stopped by literal police when you catch her, to which Bruce simply tells them that the law is actually in his hands as the Batman, and then proceeds to beat up and subdue these police while letting Catwoman escape, who then secretly triggers the entire charade within Arkham so that she may escape with Bane who is hidden within a literal fucking panopticon inside the lowest bowels of the Aslyum. Standard Batman story, very by the book.

But there is something much, much more interesting at play within Blackgate. Something I'm not entirely sure the developers intended. I started this article with a preamble about the latent fascism of Bruce Wayne and the reason for that is because the game seemingly understands that these things are a problem. Within the game, you often can hear the low level grunts that you can fight around the various maps long before they see you. If you simply wait a moment and listen to some of their idle dialogue, they have a surprising amount of complaints about their crazed villainous bosses, but they've also got quite a lot to say about the state of Gotham itself. These citizens of the disastrous city will often lament that they have no other choice than to work for one of these absolute lunatics. They often state they know they will likely die on this job, and that they know they are disposable to their bosses, and generally that they do not like the positions they are in job-wise. However they're very clear in stating that they no choice. No education, being a convicted felon, and most of all with Batman patrolling the streets? A life of crime that leads directly into a stint on Arkham Aslyum is the life of a good 80% of Gothams population. They even talk at times about forming unions before laughing off the idea as they know they will be outright murdered by one of their respective bosses.

So Blackgate is aware of the issues of Batman, right? Its grunts repeatedly belt out the same problems that any easy criticism of Batman has. The problem, however, is that because these are grunts of a gang and because Batman is supposed to be Cool and The Good Guy, these are meant to be treated as jokes. Not legitimate criticisms, not actual problems, just stupid things that stupid criminals are saying. Blackgate is obsessed with maintaining the image that Batman is actually in the right morally for everything he does. An image it only struggles to maintain as its revealed later that Bruce's corporation, Waynecorp, FUNDS Arkham Aslyum. Those upgrades you get? they are various upgrades left around by Bruce's construction teams ON PURPOSE in case a prison riot ever happened. Meanwhile, a minor bossfight early on has a, and I wish I was joking here, black man in prison for a crime he didn't commit directly tell Batman that not only does he not want to hurt him(Penguin has him at gunpoint and forces him to fight you, thus the boss battle) but that he did not commit the crime he was thrown in jail for, and that if batman was at gunpoint with no other option he'd do the same things. Batman simply responds that he, being the rich white man that he is, would never be in the same position as his enemy. Subtle racism, I guess, is another one of Batmans infinite gadgets on his toolkit.

I cannot stress enough how deeply fucked up this all is. Bruce spends his days funding a what is essentially a private prison that he controls in a city that is so poor he is the de-facto owner of it, only to spend his nights putting whoever he decides is a bad person into these prisons while creating the conditions that lead to so many people following a life of crime. The game is explicit about this. It does not do like the rest of Batman media and shy away from the criticisms of Bruces latent fascism, it lays them completely bare. But it expects that you will think Batman is actually morally justified for creating this prison pipeline he directly profits from while he gets to LARP at night as a spectre of justice. It's despicable and while I don't think it was done on purpose, it was clearly a rushed game made very quickly for handhelds so that there'd be a yearly Arkham game, it says a lot about our consumption of superhero related media which already has many problematic aspects that the creators of this game expected, and were likely right to expect, that we would find this latent fascism and prison pipeline inherently understandable and even morally justified and badass. It's one of the reasons I couldn't wait to simply put the game down and never think about it again. Something I'll be glad to do as soon as I finish this article.

So, final words then.

Blackgate is a shit game. Its a shit metroidvania, with a shit upgrade system, a boring story, WILDLY problematic politics and a take on Batman. It doesn’t work as an Arkham game, it doesn’t work as a Metroidvania, it barely functions as anything even remotely interesting to put your time into, I don't know why Warner Brothers was so invested in this world. I don't know why they put so much money into the Origins timeline. But we're all better off with the fact that it failed and that after Arkham Knight, the final of the Arkham Trilogy(from Rocksteady), they planned to end the series.

Oh wait, they're making a Suicide Squad game set in the Arkham-verse due to release in 2021, apparently.

Fucking hell.

#Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate #Review #Played on: PS Vita

[scoutception]

Final Fantasy I review: a pragmatic evolution

Final Fantasy; one of the largest and most influential game franchises out there, and my personal favorite video game series. It’s kind of surreal to think that it started out as what was basically an unlicensed Dungeons & Dragons adaptation from a failing company that only approved it to try to top Dragon Quest, like so many others back then. For all the faults it had, like being so utterly buggy that it artificially increased difficulty through things like mages not actually being able to gain more power for their magic, and several spells not even working, period, it pulled through with an innovative team building system, a great soundtrack that would help cement Nobou Uematsu as one of the great video game soundtrack composers, and a much more developed exploration system compared to Dragon Quest, giving you access to vehicles like an airship. For this review, however, I shall be reviewing the PSP version of Final Fantasy I, which is quite a different experience, for reasons I shall tackle shortly. Otherwise, in we go.

Story

The story is about a world home to 4 elemental crystals of earth, fire, water, and wind, which once blessed the land and its inhabitants with peace. However, the Four Fiends, the Lich, Marilith, the Kraken, and Tiamat, have since corrupted the crystals, depriving the world of their blessings and causing the appearance of monsters across the land. Despite the bleakness, however, the people keep faith in one thing: a prophecy stating that four Warriors of Light will appear one day to restore the crystals and defeat the Four Fiends. 400 years after the first of the fiends appeared, the Warriors of Light finally arrive at the town of Cornelia, where they are tasked by its king to save his daughter, Princess Sarah, from Garland, a traitorous knight, who has taken her to the Chaos Shrine. Afterwards, the king builds a bridge in gratitude, allowing them to skip over to the next town and beat up some pirates for their ship. Most of the “plot” of this game takes the form of fetching key items and chains of deals that stand in the way of you actually taking the fight to the Fiends, with the worst taking place right after getting the ship, involving almost every single area you can even visit at that time. It was probably a bit more interesting at the time, especially compared to Dragon Quest, but it’s a huge drag nowadays.

After killing all of the Fiends, the game decides to pull a twist: as it turns out, an evil force 2000 years in the past is still stealing the power of the crystals, originating from the Chaos Shrine. After traveling through a time portal, and killing all the Four Fiends again, the game pulls a bigger twist: they find Garland at the bottom of the shrine, having been sent back in time by the Fiends. Using their power to transform into the monster Chaos, he then used his power to send them into the present, creating some time loop that allows him to live forever. After defeating him, the Warriors of Light are returned to the present, having retroactively prevented any of the disasters from taking place, even ensuring Garland would never betray Cornelia. Doing this erases their memories of their journey, but the legend of it still lives on.... somehow. It’s not exactly a deep plot, but it can still be decently entertaining to go through, especially with the vastly improved translation of the later versions, which gives quite a bit of dialogue a surprising amount of charm.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Final Fantasy I is about the most standard NES era RPG you could get. You travel on a world map, exploring towns and dungeons and getting into random encounters, with the battle system also being a very standard turn based system, selecting all your party’s actions at the beginning of each turn, and having choices of attacking, using magic, using an item, defending, or attempting to escape. You gain the use of a ship, a canoe, and eventually an airship which pretty much invalidates any other form of travel for navigating the world map, though the ship can only dock at certain spots, and the airship can only land on grass tiles. This can pose a problem to a new player, as the continents are large and often force you to land farther away from your goal than you might expect. This is doubly bad as the game initially seems to lack a map feature, which can make navigation very difficult sense the map loops when you reach an edge of it. While there is actually a map you can access on the world map, which even displays the locations you’ve discovered, you can only bring it up by hitting a button combination the game never outright tells you, only being mentioned, and backwards, at that, by some brooms in an early area (it’s ok, it’s the home of a witch), which could be passed off as random nonsense if you’re not in the mood to think laterally.

The most interesting gameplay feature FF1 has to offer is its party building system. Instead of just gaining predetermined characters as you go on like, say, MOTHER, or only having one character, like Dragon Quest itself, you have 4 party members all the time that you select at the start of the game, picked from 6 different classes: the Warrior, the very standard physical fighter with great attack and defense, whose only real downside is being very reliant on equipment, the Monk, who is pretty much the opposite of the fighter, being a physical fighter who specializes in fighting unarmed, to the point of equipment actually lowering his attack and defense after a while, making him very cheap to use, and very broken after the first few levels. There’s also the Thief, which is bad on defense, but is good for attacking and has superior speed. The second half of the classes are magically focused. The White Mage specializes in healing and support magic, though they also have offense in the form of the Dia line of spells, which is effective against undead, and Holy, one of the major attacking spells of the series. The Black Mage, conversely, focuses on offensive magic, though they also have access to some very good buff, though they’re perhaps the most vulnerable of any class, with abysmal HP growth, at that. Lastly, there’s the Red Mage, the jack of all trades, master of none. They can use swords, have good defense, and access to both white and black magic, though they’re worse at all of those than the classes that focus on them individually, and can’t use most of the later game spells or equipment, though since you’re stuck with your chosen classes all the way, they’re never an outright burden, and plenty of people find them great regardless.

Aside from leveling up from fighting random encounters, you power up your party by buying equipment, or finding it in dungeons or other areas, and buying spells from towns. There’s 8 spell tiers in all, with all having 4 different spells per tier for both black and white magic. However, the spellcasters can only know up to three spells for each tier, with the red mage having to use those spaces for both white and black magic. Some tiers have better spells than others, with most spells more complex than simple healing or damage usually not being worthwhile. However, a lot of spells and equipment available around the time you get the airship is not actually usable by your party members, and this is because of a sidequest offered by Bahamut, the king of the dragons, to go within the Citadel of Trials and retrieve a rat tail. Doing so will cause for your party members to class change, aka basically promote into stronger classes. The Warrior becomes the Knight, the Monk becomes the Master, the Thief becomes the Ninja, the White Mage becomes the White Wizard, the Black Mage becomes the Black Wizard, and the Red Mage becomes the Red Wizard. This grants them better stat growth and access to stronger equipment and spells, and the Knight and Ninja gain white and black magic, respectively.

The NES version of FF1 is infamously difficult, but over the many ports, starting with the Playstation version, and most notably advanced with the GBA version, the game became much, much easier. Whether it be the fixing of damaging bugs or the ability to save anywhere instead of the world map, which, granted, was only sensible considering portable console, to switching the spell system from each tier only being usable a certain amount of times before needing recharging at an inn, something borrowed from Dungeons & Dragons, to switching to a much more traditional MP system, to just a general rebalancing of the classes, it makes for a much easier game to get through. Too easy, honestly. You gain experience much, much faster, so as long as you fight the majority of the encounters you get into, you’ll quickly end up overpowered. It’s very easy to reach level 99, and much of the best equipment is easy to get. However, I don’t think the easier difficulty, and the general simplicity of the gameplay, are necessarily bad things. On the contrary, it makes the game very easy to pick up and play through, and it’s surprisingly fun despite how simple the combat is. This, I think, is the saving grace of the game, and even if that doesn’t satisfy you, the bonus content added in the later ports are the highlights of the game.

The GBA version added four bonus dungeons collectively called the Soul of Chaos, unlocked after each Fiend you defeat. These dungeons consist of a set amount of different, and often wacky, floors that load in a randomized order. While the first two dungeons are fairly standard and short, stuff begins picking up with the third, and the fourth is a 40 floor gauntlet of fun and creative little challenges and maps. In addition, each dungeon contains cameo bosses from Final Fantasy 3-6, complete with remixes of their boss themes for the PSP versions. These include Shinryu and Omega, who are the hardest bosses in the GBA version, and Gilgamesh, one of the most famous characters in the series. All in all, these dungeons are actually really fun to go through, as long as you’re properly leveled, and are definitely refreshing compared to how most RPGs handle bonus dungeons. On that subject, however, is the Labyrinth of Time, added in the PSP version. It consists of time puzzles, 30 in all, though you only do so many in each run, that ends with a fight against a newly added superboss, and the usurper of the title of hardest boss in the game, Chronodia. The catch is that Chronodia has 8 different variations, with different rewards and bestiary entries for each, and which one you encounter depends on how many puzzles you finish in time, and how many you only complete after running out of time, causing a fog to roll in that saps you of your HP and MP, and allows random encounters while in the puzzle areas. While creative, the Labyrinth of Time is overall maddeningly difficult and not fun. This is one to skip if you value your sanity.

Sound & Graphics

The graphics of FF1, again, judging the PSP version, are actually really good. The characters look distinct, and the monster graphics especially are great, and represent Yoshitaka Amano’s designs for them very, very well.

The areas are also surprisingly well designed. From the ruins of the Chaos Shrine, and the complete version of it as the final dungeon, to the underwater ruins that house the lair of the Kraken, to, most notably, the flying fortress of the Lufenian civilization, home to Tiamat and far advanced compared to all the other locations, especially in the original NES version, where it’s a space station, of all things.

As for the music, it holds up amazingly. Aside from many of the most famous themes of the series, such as the Preude, themes like the town theme and the Chaos Shrine theme are amazingly atmospheric, and it overall still stands out as one of the best soundtracks in the series to me. Even if he wasn’t involved in the rearranging for the remakes, this was a significant step for composer Nobou Uematsu.

Conclusion

Despite how fond I am of this game, my recommendation rating depends. If you’re looking for a nice, easy to pick up RPG, perhaps as an introduction to the series, or to RPGs in general, I would give this a recommended. If you’re looking for much past that, however, I would give it a not recommended. As transformed as it is, it is still a very old game underneath, with unclear goals, very barebones gameplay systems, and with all the innovation it did have swept away over the years. Still, if nothing else, it’s a very respectable start to Final Fantasy. Until next time.

-Scout

#final fantasy #gaming #long post #game review #jrpg

[gamerszone2019-blog]

FIFA 20 Review

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/fifa-20-review/

FIFA 20 Review

I’ve had to reassess the way I’ve played FIFA this year, which is something I haven’t had to do in many years through all the tweaks, changes and so called “game-changing mechanics”. FIFA 20

feels different to previous years; in some ways for the better, but in others not. Volta, a brand-new way to play FIFA that offers a breath of fresh air to the series – albeit not without its own faults – is here, but does it come at the expense of the game as a whole?

Every IGN FIFA Game Review Ever

Last year, many of FIFA 19’s gameplay innovations were based on the attacking game, from timed-finishes to the basics of how the ball could be nudged into space with a flick of the stick. FIFA 20 swings the pendulum back the other way and puts much more emphasis on the other side of the ball. The way you defend has been overhauled and has never felt more crucial. You can no longer heedlessly charge at a defender, hold down the tackle button, and hope for the best. You’re punished for not thinking about defensive play to the same extent you would building an attack, due to the high level of risk-reward when going in for a challenge; time it well and you’ll likely take the ball cleanly and win possession. Misjudge the timing, however, and you’re punished with a foul or left watching as your opponent skips over your trailing leg.

The way you defend has been overhauled and has never felt more crucial.

“

This is due in part to a new weapon attackers now have in their arsenal in the form of strafe dribbling. You can square up to a defender by holding the left bumper and attempt to shimmy past, ultimately creating a yard of space needed for a cross or shot. It’s a useful tool that provides more options when in control of the ball. If successful, at the very least you’ll get fouled, giving you the chance to try out the new way set-pieces are taken. EA has seemingly taken inspiration from the now-dormant PGA Tour golf series when it comes to taking direct free kicks, because now you first place a target where you want to aim, then add spin with the right stick as the taker approaches the ball. This technique opens up new possibilities and can produce some great-looking finishes. It’s initially difficult to get to grips with but I found myself enjoying it greatly, especially in comparison the simplistic ways they’ve worked in previous games.

For more on specific gameplay changes, check out the video below:

Get past your man without being chopped down, however, and you’re in luck, as you’ll likely have the pace to ward them off and bear down on goal. This is thanks to a welcome adjustment of how player speed works in FIFA 20. A common FIFA 19 frustration was how easily slow defenders would often be able to catch up with much faster attackers; I’m happy to report that’s no longer the case here, and the sight of an aging Mats Hummels quickly closing in on a spritely Raheem Sterling is no longer a regular occurrence.

Add another new addition, the set-up touch, and a devastating combo is possible. By rolling the ball into space by holding the right bumper and flicking the right stick, you’re then able to hit a vicious shot on goal. This often creates some blockbuster moments and, when pulled off correctly, feels great. Sadly, FIFA 20 provides little opportunity to actually achieve this, because the set-up animation feels like it takes an age to complete, and often you’re crowded out by tenacious defenders before getting your effort on goal away.

FIFA 20 and VOLTA Mode

This loops back to the defensive overhaul implemented in FIFA 20. Defensive AI is far more intelligent and they’ll intercept passes and block shots much more often. Lofted through balls are no longer anywhere near as effective as they once were, as defenders are better at reading the game and provide more of a challenge than I’m used to when playing FIFA.

As a result I’ve found myself playing more on the counter-attack, which in turn has led to my biggest frustration with this year’s outing: it feels completely two paced. The players have returned to being lightning-quick, but that feels completely at odds with the speed at which the ball wants to move. New ball physics cause it to bobble and get slowed down grass more realistically, which admittedly looks great, but it also interrupts the flow of the game. It’s like listening to a song with someone sporadically pressing the half-speed button every time you hit a groove.

My biggest frustration with this year’s outing: it feels completely two paced.

“

This, coupled with the more realistic ways players turn, both on and off the ball, slows down the pace considerably, and some players’ turning circles are unusually large. I’m all for creating as authentic a football experience as possible – and something that FIFA excels in its presentation – but I fundamentally want it to be fun first. For me, football games have often been at their best when they don’t take themselves too seriously and embrace the silly side of the game. Whether that be the long-lost penguin outfits in the golden era of PES or the pure slapstick, arcade fun of FIFA Street. Luckily, there is still room for plenty of that in FIFA 20, even if it’s hard to find in its core 90-minute match modes.

For more a full match of FIFA 20 in 4K, check out the video below:

The Marred Volta

Volta is the grandstand addition to FIFA 20 and is an amalgamation of FIFA Street and the more recent story-based Journey mode. In many ways it’s a successful combination: there’s a lot of variety and perhaps even enough to do to to warrant a standalone release without provoking too many gripes. That alone nullifies the argument that FIFA 20 is just a reskin of the previous year’s version.

There are three ways to play Volta: Tour, League and Story, each of which is appealing in different measure. Tour is where you go to play matches against the CPU, using squads pulled from the server that have been built by other players. Once you beat a squad you can recruit a player from that team to join yours, similar to Need for Speed’s pink slip system. It also allows you to choose which of the 17 worldwide locations and forms of street football you’d like to play. Each of these global arenas has been beautifully crafted and has its own unique atmosphere, while also offering a genuinely different gameplay experience – though some with greater success than others. I much preferred the larger pitches like Rio de Janeiro’s favela or the Berlin gymnasium rather than the claustrophobic cages of Tokyo’s sky-high rooftops.

To see all of the different Volta modes, check out the video below:

Matches on these smaller pitches often descend into chaos, with balls bouncing between knees, concrete and chain fences, and very little football actually taking place. Repeatedly hitting shoot to see where the bounces was often the most successful tactic, repeating until it finds the back of the net. But on more open pitches, Volta really comes into its own. There’s time and space to pass the ball around, with enough scope to add flourishes like tricks and flicks. That said, if you overplay flair you’ll be punished, because Volta is much more rooted in classic FIFA than the old Street games. There are no bonus points for skills moves, they’re just another way to help win the match. It feels good to achieve a balance of the two, even if in my heart I yearn for the days of getting Peter Crouch to panna every opponent in sight.

If you overplay flair you’ll be punished, because Volta is much more rooted in classic FIFA than the old Street games.

“

There are subtle differences between the matches, some more engaging than others. Futsal is the pick of the bunch and the one most grounded in the traditional 11v11 game. The lack of walls to bounce the ball off provide an extra challenge and prevent matches descending into something akin to pinball. 4v4 and 5v5 play much like Futsal and are also enjoyable, with the major difference being manual shooting. This takes some getting used to, especially if you’re used to the assists the core game gives you, but it’s ultimately rewarding.

3v3 rush and 4v4 rush aren’t quite so enjoyable. It is essentially a three or four-aside match with one crucial difference – there are no goalkeepers. You therefore rely on defensive players to block incoming shots, something they’re often not that great at doing. Countless times I’d watch tame shots trundle towards a defender, only for them to let it roll past and straight into the goal. This happened regularly, with both AI and player-controlled defenders, leaving me infuriated when matches ended up 15-14. On the rare occasion a player blocked the ball, it would more often than not ping back to the attacker, who would then score anyway. This, coupled with the compact arenas, means you rarely ever feel in control of the outcome of a rush match, so it’s doubly frustrating a majority of Volta’s campaign mode is made up of these games.

To watch the first 11 minutes of Volta Story, check out the video below:

As for Volta’s story, it’s pure cheese and its cliché-laden plot will be familiar to anyone who has seen an underdog sports movie. The Journey’s branching storylines are gone, replaced by a rags to riches narrative that’s functional if forgettable. The acting is mixed, with one-dimensional robots sitting alongside more believable characters, like your loyal best friend, Syd. Although the cutscenes often feel repetitive, Volta is never the slog The Journey was, and is over in five to six hours. Progress is only halted if you lose a match, meaning you have to start the whole tournament again, which can mean replaying up to three or four matches. This can be frustrating, especially if it consists of the less appealing three or four aside rush ruleset.

Volta is never the slog The Journey was, and is over in five to six hours.

“

Naturally, there’s a wealth of customisation available. Importantly, these vanity items – tops, shoes, hairstyles and so on – can be purchased only with Volta coins, a currency earned through playing matches within Volta, which is currently a microtransaction-free zone. While I spent time tailoring my player’s look at the beginning of the story mode, I soon settled on a style I liked and little attention to it afterwards. However, I can really see customisation coming into its own in the Volta League mode.

League is Volta’s online game and is where you’ll likely spend most of your time, especially after completing the story mode, which offers little replay value. The premise is simple: face off against other online opponents to climb the rankings, while at the same time showcasing your squad and vanity items. Its approach is similar to Seasons in the core game, opening up every match type and location.

Volta is also available in kickoff mode should you fancy a quick game, alongside the options to add house rules. Last year’s selection are still present, with survival mode a particular highlight, especially as Volta means you’re reduced to one player each.

Modes, Modes and More Modes

Outside Volta, there are numerous additions to other modes in FIFA 20. House Rules gets a couple of new options: King of the Hill is a possession-based mode I can see myself spending little time with, while Mystery Ball is pure madness. Every time the ball goes out of play a new appears on the pitch, with a different ‘perk’ altering its physics each time. These include dribbling, speed and shooting boosts, to one ball that has all three combined. Panic ensues every time this ball comes into play, because the player in possession can breeze past defenders before slapping the ball into the net. It’s the kind of silliness I want from FIFA and continues the trend of last year’s fun additions.

Mystery Ball is pure madness.

“

Ultimate Team also benefits from House Rules modes this year, with a couple exclusive to FUT. Max Chemistry and Swaps modes are fun, but I can’t see them being a massive time suck for people already invested in FUT’s loop. They’re found in the new FUT Friendlies section, meaning you can take your assembled squad offline and play with a friend. It’s a quality-of-life improvement for those who don’t want to worry about player fitness or contracts running down.

For a full match of Mystery Ball, check out the video below:

For those going online, there are new Season Objectives. Much like a battle pass system, it sets challenges which rewards items only exclusive to this mode. Some are vanity items that express more of that welcome silliness in FIFA, introducing such things as a retro 16-bit ball and a dabbing unicorn tifo for your stadium. These are all positive changes that add a bit of personalisation to the FUT experience, which is much needed when a lot of squads are filled with the same handful of players, causing the whole thing to become a little homogenised.

Unsurprising Mechanics

One thing that hasn’t changed are the microtransactions. Card packs are still available and people will continue to buy them. EA has stated it has no plans to alter its approach to “surprise mechanics” unless laws are passed. As of yet, very little progress has been made on this front, but who knows, maybe by the time FIFA 21 comes around things might have changed. There have been baby steps made this year in regards to cards. Icons will now cost less on the transfer market, but the chances of obtaining one via a pack are still ludicrously low. In short, microtransactions still look to be an issue in FUT 20, with many fans vocal about their inclusion and inherent pay-to-win nature.

For more on changes to FUT in FIFA 20, check out the video below:

Another thing people have been hoping for is an overhauled career mode. For years now, it’s been overlooked. To be fair, in FIFA 20 some additions have been made, but none are big enough to make it an instantly more appealing game mode than it was last year or the year before that. Much as in Volta, you can now select to be male or female when choosing your playable manager, which is a step in the right direction. But apart from that, a largely ineffectual morale system and unimaginative press conference sequences are entirely underwhelming. It’s sad to see a mode that used to be my go-to in FIFA continue to formerly be my go-to in FIFA. Hey, there’s always next year.

Source : IGN

#Game News #Game Reviews

[derkastellan]

Musings: “Having fun” XP - Ha!

spI just received my copy of The Hero’s Journey, 2nd edition and opened it up to a random page. XP awards. Browse... browse... XP awards for doing chores for the GM... browse... what?!

Making everyone at the table laugh out loud. 75 XP

Role-playing rewards are already... dubious. Chore rewards - depends on the style of reward. But for making people laugh?

The reward for making everyone laugh is an enjoyable game. It is rewarding in itself. Tying it to a price tag or award actually might invite clowning around and making the game less focused. Every GM has to hit the right tone for their game, but rewards is something the human brain quickly tries to get more of. That’s how we’re built.

Admittedly, I give out regularly awards for good role-playing and fun in-game things like when somebody just does a hilarious take on their character but stays consistent on what they are. They’re not just playing it for laughs. The reward then is a fleeting resource - the “Inspiration” of 5th edition D&D or a benny in Savage Worlds, both basically coming under the heading of free reroll or single-roll advantage. 

But this game awards XP... a permanent resource that drives how fast characters advance. Of course this game’s XP system already looks broken for modern sensitivities. Or at least mine. While trying to modernize the old school rules system it is based on it leaves a lot of the old sludge in... 

Humans (as opposed to demi-humans) gain more 15% more XP when being awarded XP. (Yet another attempt to do what Gygax did: Make demi-humans more attractive to play, then penalize players in some form for chosing them as a disincentive to playing them.)

Different classes advance differently fast. Your rogue type will advance faster than your wizard. (Leveling a group together is actually my preferred way. Players like it and it often is seen as “fair,” even though your mileage may vary.)

Combat only awards XP only if posing a real danger to the party (somebody likes 3rd edition, eh?) and only once per session. 

On quick browse I fail to see a section on skills, so one does wonder what else besides playing a something akin to a typical dungeon adventure in this game. I mean, yes, you can role-play anything, but you need tools to solve problems. Skill-like abilities are knit into the classes and are few and far between.

Ah, my bad, look, there’s a profession/occupation system. This game could use some sensible editing. Its universal resolution mechanic is explained on page 81 and not very prominently. Similarly to DCC where the professions are like borrowed from, they are not very useful. It’s certainly not something that will set two characters of same class (sorry, “archetype”) apart from each other.

But I digress. From my vantage this XP system is problematic. True, if you hit all its buttons you might make up to 975 XP per session - considering level 2 might be attainable as soon as 1,250 XP for some classes not bad, right? But this XP system tries very hard to force the table ambiance in a hamfisted way. Rewarding good team-work might make sense, but wouldn’t it make more sense if the group actually achieves its goals? If your goals are not easily achieved, doesn’t that encourage by itself the players to work on a solution together? There seem to be no milestone awards recommended in this section, so the core gameplay loop is not - by looking at the rules alone - working towards a goal, but simply adventuring, adventuring, adventuring without the context of an adventure.This might make sense in an endless dungeon but if the group has goals, it might make sense to reward achieving goals with XP.

Anyway, don’t reward laughs with XP. That’s all I wanted originally to say. Players will notice, they will notice it ties to a reward, and this makes you as the GM the arbiter of what’s funny. The “everyone” condition is poorly conceived, after all you have to take note, mentally, of “this was funny” so it will be always your funny bone that plays into this, it’s hard to objectify. Plus, some people ain’t funny. Don’t punish them. They’re not funny, it’s usually not their fault, and this ain’t a game of comedy - or is it?

And laugh about what? Oh, don’t open that can of worms.

#rpg #musings #roleplaying #the hero's journey #osr #old school #pen & paper

[williamsjoan]

Double Cross Review — An Inter-Dimensional Extravaganza Made Boring

I’ll be blunt from the start and say that Double Cross is a disappointing game. The game is not poorly designed or broken, it even has some good ideas, it’s just painfully unoriginal and ultimately boring. This becomes an even bigger disappointment when you consider how developer 13AM Games really put themselves on the map with Runbow for Wii U. It was unlike most other platformers that came before it, taking advantage of color in unique ways to create a fast-paced game that was super fun in multiplayer.

Unfortunately, Double Cross is the opposite in many ways. Its visuals look flat despite cool designs and animation, the focus on story proves to be frivolous because of lackluster writing, and its gameplay mechanics, while solid, feel wholly uninspired. When combined with the game’s incredibly short length and occasional technical problems on Switch, the game’s milquetoast nature ultimately means I can’t recommend this game over tons of other great platformers that are available on the Nintendo Switch and PC.

“The game is not poorly designed or broken, it even has some good ideas, it’s just painfully unoriginal and ultimately boring.”

As I mentioned in my preview, Zahra works for an inter-dimensional policing agency called R.I.F.T.. At the start of the game, a traitor masquerading as Suspect X allows their cohorts to break into R.I.F.T.’s headquarters in the Extraverse, kicking off a large scale investigation by Zahra into who or what is behind this major attack.

The game tries to keep to keep this mystery as the focal point throughout the whole game, though the culprit does become fairly obvious part-way through. A minor last-minute twist did pique my curiosity, but the game ended before the concept presented could be fully explored. Conversations are displayed in what the developers describe as visual-novel inspired scenes, though there aren’t actually any dialogue choices.

The artwork and character design is actually quite good, which helped me get through the mostly generic and clunky dialogue. With how much emphasis Double Cross does occasionally try to put on the narrative, I was never consistently drawn to writing, only a couple funny jokes and characters like Agent Pineapple who is a master of disguise and in love with a woman named Ms. Ham.

During her adventure, Zahra has to find evidence around three worlds, Gootopia, Reptarria, and The Funderdome, in order to arrest the main culprit of that area and build her case to take down Suspect X. While the investigative portion of the game seems like it would feed into a hidden collectibles system that has players scouring the environment of each level in order to track down the clue needed, that is not the case. Instead, levels are fairly linear for the most part, usually handing the needed evidence or requiring players talk to the right person once they get back to R.I.F.T. to turn it into evidence.

Upgradium is the main collectible within each level. This is added to an experience bar at the end of a level, with each level up granting Zahra new passive abilities, permanent upgrades, or special attacks. This progression system is actually structured well, rewarding those who really try to sink their teeth into the game. While I still think Double Cross would’ve benefited by making the evidence more hidden or stages more quest-like, upgradium does still work well as a fine collectible. If only the base gameplay loop was more interesting.

Zahra has standard platforming abilities like punching, jumping, and kicking, as well as some other special attacks and the ability to dodge roll through lasers. That being said, Double Cross’ main hook when it comes to platforming is the proton sling, a grappling hook of sorts that lets Zahra swing through levels or pull down doors in certain situations. Sadly, that feels like the only real twist among the standard platforming gameplay, and it’s something titles like Flinthook have done before in a better designed and original way.

“Still, none of these [mechanics] feel wholly original or even superior to what’s present in Double Cross’ contemporaries in any way, which makes Double Cross feel derivative to a fault.”

The proton sling’s implementation feels a bit unnatural in some of the levels, which do try to make the most out of the mechanics present with things like goo that impact movement, a timer whittling down until a train explodes, or a series of arcade-like challenges tailored around Zahra’s abilities. Still, none of these feel wholly original or even superior to what’s present in Double Cross’ contemporaries in any way, which makes Double Cross feel derivative to a fault.

Part of Runbow’s beauty was how simple the game was, but in a slower paced single-player game with a strong gimmick like this, that simplicity ends up hurting the game without any real hook. Yes, you can choose the main fifteen levels in any order, but when none of them stand out that kind of mechanic doesn’t make me want to return to them and play in a different order next time, despite the game’s short length.

Unfortunately, that short length is another huge blow for Double Cross. As I’ve stated, not much from a gameplay standpoint is abhorrent, there’s just not enough room within the game and its 18 levels (including the tutorial room) to really let unique ideas get fleshed out or to make the game feel like anything more than painfully derivative. Even the levels themselves suffer from padding at some point with entire sections focused on killing enemies with the overtly simple and uninteresting combat.

The one saving grace of those combat sections is the highlight it puts on the game’s animation and character models which are surprisingly creative and fluid. Even if characters aren’t memorable due to bad dialogue, their designs do still stick out in my mind. While that segment of Double Cross’ visual design is good, even it can’t escape being a mixed bag. Environments all feel surprisingly flat and simple with barely enough interesting things going on to keep me invested in the game’s longer levels.

People voiced issue with this back when the game was first revealed, and it unfortunately still hasn’t been completely fixed despite the fact that 13AM took the criticism to heart. Something like Runbow could get away with simpler environments because of its focus on strong and striking color. In a game where Zahra is supposed to be visiting living and breathing worlds, that plainness doesn’t work as well.

Like with many other parts of Double Cross, the environmental art isn’t poorly drawn or designed, it just ends up portraying dimensions that feel more flat and lifeless than the developers were probably intended. The game also suffers from a few technical problems at launch on Nintendo Switch. The framerate would occasionally stutter in intense moments and there were even a few points where the sidescrolling got a bit jittery.

These minute, but sometimes noticeable, technical problems, as well as the length, were truly what pushed me over the edge into not recommending Double Cross. While the game can be harmless enough, its short length and few technical problems really ensure that it’s not worth the price or effort to play when there are other similar platformers on the Nintendo eShop and Steam right now.

I really hate to have compared Double Cross to so many other games during this review, but it just goes to show how trite and unnecessary the game ultimately feels. It isn’t a poorly designed game as its controls are fluid and responsive and most of the levels present are designed well with the gimmicks they play with. Double Cross’ story and its investigative backdrop even contain some neat ideas that would benefit from being fleshed out further. That being said, as they stand, most of those aforementioned things suffer from what seems to be a lack of ambition.

Double Cross ultimately plays things too safe to its own determent with mechanics that can be found, and are done better, elsewhere. Coupled with the title’s short length and a few technical problems on Nintendo Switch, the experience isn’t worth its cost. I see a great game here under the skin, one that incorporates the investigative elements into gameplay, features more polished writing, and has the vivid visuals of something like Runbow.

“Double Cross ultimately plays things too safe to its own determent with mechanics that can be found, and are done better, elsewhere.”

Sadly, this is not that game, despite having laid the groundwork for some elements that I would like to see fleshed out in other games. Double Cross is fairly superfluous, sci-fi platformer that’s just adequate enough to get by, and that’s exactly what makes it so frustrating when you know the talented and passionate team it comes from.

The post Double Cross Review — An Inter-Dimensional Extravaganza Made Boring by Tomas Franzese appeared first on DualShockers.

Double Cross Review — An Inter-Dimensional Extravaganza Made Boring published first on https://timloewe.tumblr.com/

[ninches96]

Why Torna will always be the Golden Country

Apologies to those who have the pleasure of hearing this opinion on a daily basis, but Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is a good game. In fact, in a year that brought us Mario Odyssey and Breath of the Wild, Xenoblade stood out as my favourite game I played in 2017. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to defend this opinion shortly, but in the interim I’d like to give a brief backstory of my relationship with Xenoblade.

I didn’t Play Xenoblade 1 or X. Actually, it wasn’t until Xenoblade 2 came out that I even considered buying it at all. The only reason I bought it at all was to round out the ‘Year of Nintendo’ having bought a new AAA Switch game every month. I didn’t even play other Japanese RPGs like Final Fantasy and games like Octopath Traveller didn’t interest me in the slightest after playing Xenoblade.

The basic premise of Xenoblade is that you are a Driver, basically a swordsman, who has up to three Blades at a time. Depending on which Blade you have engaged at any given time, you have different elemental attacks which have individual effects. Rex, the protagonist, accidentally encounters the most powerful Blades in existence. First is Pyra, an Aegis who becomes the main companion of Rex and is the key component to the story. Then there’s Malos and Jin, the antagonists, who want Pyra dead for reasons that only 100 hours of gameplay can really make clear.

When I played Xenoblade, it took me hours and hours and hours to finally clock the combat system, by which point they’d added various combos, gauges and other factors to start thinking about. Every time it stepped up the complexity, I was drawn further in. And, though everyone else hates it, I found the cutscenes to be fun and enjoyable. The story managed to suck me into learning everything about the universe that I knew nothing about, in a way that Skyrim never coaxed me into.

Where Xenoblade Chronicles 2 falls short is in its length, clocking in at well over 100 hours from start to finish and immeasurably longer if you’re interested in all the side quests. Also the combat system, while is engaging in isolation, can get tedious during grinding and uninteresting side-quests. Oh and the map/waypoint system leaves a lot to be desired. And there’s too many blades which bond with a given driver permanently. And Poppi is a super irritating blade to try and manage. Despite all these factors, the sheer scope, beautiful environments and complicated storyline kept me hooked to the point where a year on I’m still itching to get back on and start a new game from scratch, then start a new game plus to 100% it. If I had another 300 hours to spare, I would.

This year, the Xenoblade team made a magnificently unique choice. They released a DLC pack called ‘Torna: The Golden Country’, a prequel that explores Jin, Malos and the characters you meet only in flashbacks during the main game. Well, yes that’s been done plenty. But this DLC is also a stand alone game. You can walk to the shops and buy Torna without having touched the main game.

Torna is perfectly crafted to exist as a standalone game to those who have no idea Jin is destined to become a villain in the future as well as for those who know everything about Lora’s future but want to learn more about her past. Lora in general, actually, is an excellent protagonist compared to Rex. She is flawed and heroic in organic ways where Rex was built to be a generic, blank-slate, hot-headed but good-willed kid like we’ve seen time and time again.

If you’d not guessed it yet already, Torna: the Golden Country being a standalone game is the perfect way to release this game. Not only because it entices people into the franchise with a much more manageable £20 price tag, but because it lets me get away with calling it my Game of the Year 2018.

Lets start with the squad. Xenoblade 2 has Rex, Tora, Nia, Vandam, Zeke and Morag as the main components of the party, each of which has 1 ‘key component’ blade who has their own character traits and 2 more blades which are assigned by the player. That makes it incredibly busy and gives you lots to keep track of. This works in a 100 hour campaign, but for a 20-30 hour DLC pack it would be far too much. That’s why Torna has just 9 (playable) characters. Lora, Adam and Hugo will always be your party and each has exactly 2 blades. This compacts the experience and allows the developers and the player to focus all their attention on these  characters to develop them all as much in 20 hours as Xenoblade 2 does in 100. Admittedly Hugo felt a little generic, as though he’d already had his story arc, but that’s of little consequence.

The world is compacted down too, Xenoblade 2 sees you scouring dozens of Titans (basically islands) with snow, plains, cities, forests, oceans and all kinds of different environments, each with its own distinct feel. Torna has just two Titans to worry about, the sprawling Gormott, which exists in Xenoblade 2 as a similar but distinctly changed map, and Torna itself, which is divided into several sub-sections for ease of navigation. It would have been nice to have one extra environment to explore, but these two are all you really need. Gormott is so vast that it’s easy to forget what you’re doing because you saw a chest in the distance while Torna is compact and incredibly functional, making it easy to catalogue all there is to do and work at it methodically. This also make the enemies you fight consistent and there tends to be more of a focus on animals than generic human soldiers than the full game.

The story itself is engaging but curiously, fails to address a lot of the questions I was left with at the end of Xenoblade 2. Adam in particular is an elusive character in Xenoblade 2’s flashbacks but we meet him in Torna after he’s done his ‘legendary’ stuff without ever finding out what it was.  It does an excellent job of going over the basics without dwelling on stuff we already heard Rex talk about every half hour in the main game but I can only hope these gaps in the story can be filled in through future games.

Some smaller changes include the campfire crafting, which replaces a majority of the NPC interaction in the main game. Shops are few and far between so you must make do with what you can make yourself. In the grand scheme of things, very little is changed with this alteration besides (as I’m sure you’re sick of me saying) condensing the gameplay down.

The only considerable drawbacks from the game, which if you’ve read any other reviews you’ll be more than aware of already, are that the voice acting is a very acquired taste and the characters will repeat the same half dozen phrases in combat for the entire adventure. More frustrating though is the wall you come against at two points in the game. There are two segments in which your only quest will become ‘do X side quests’, amounting to around 50 side quests that are unavoidable to complete the game. This didn’t affect me because the side quests were a natural part of my progression in the game, so I was only ever a couple away from my target anyway but if you were hoping to blast through the story without touching the optional quests, you will get angry. The optional quests themselves vary a lot from ‘kill x enemy’ to genuinely engaging sub-plots that span the whole game. Generally I found them to be an enjoyable extension of the game rather than a chore but I can see why others would disagree.

When Ubisoft talked about their Donkey Kong DLC for Mario Vs Rabbids, they explained how the DLC was actually quite a lot easier than the main game was in its later levels. It was an expansion, not an extension. Given that Torna is marketed for both newcomers and veterans, it’s easy to see how the complicated gameplay would be a barrier for one of these two groups. Newcomers would have to learn a 100-hour gameplay loop in 1/5 the time or veterans would be left bored that their hours of learning were wasted as Torna becomes too easy. The gameplay is by far the best part of Torna.

The very basic concepts are still in place, Lora still has her Blades and they grant her powers. You still have two other team members and all of you have various elemental attacks that can combo together. Where Torna refines the work of its predecessor is that Blades and Drivers can both be playable in combat. Rather than Pyra granting Rex a fiery sword, Jin can step forward in battle and Lora grants him bonuses. They have special attacks that trigger when they’re ‘tagged out’ which deal more damage and make encounters more interactive. You feel more like a team of 3 characters rather than a Pokemon Trainer with his Fire, Ice and Electric types. There’s also a more effective Elemental Combo system which makes it laughably easy to set up an enemy with all 8 elements and ‘break’ them for a massive chain of damage. This would probably get on my nerves but later in the game, they start to punish you for over-extending. Certain bosses deal immense damage to you if you leave elemental orbs for too long, giving you the choice between setting up and breaking as quickly as possible with the risk of it backfiring or learn new techniques to win battles without elemental attacks. In addition, there being only 9 characters to think about means the developers could build real synergies between them which are easy enough to work out without spending hours trawling through the wiki.

I wasn’t lying when I said Xenoblade Chronicles 2 was my favourite game of last year, standing tall above Mario and Zelda and Splatoon and Pokemon. It was so imperfect that it’s really easy to talk about the problems it had. And, as I hope to explain one day, it is not as good as Odyssey and Breath of the Wild were last year. But it was by far my favourite game. Torna systematically deconstructs Xenoblade 2 to find out where those faults were and how they can be addressed. Torna doesn’t take a 100 hour adventure and cut it down to 20 hours. It fits 100 hours of depth into 20. It makes me truly excited to see how Xenoblade 3 takes the same 20-hour experience and extends it back out to 100.

If the huge investment and complicated gameplay put you off buying Xenoblade Chronicles 2, or if you’re wanting an excuse to jump back onto the Titans of Alrest, Torna: The Golden Country is a must-have.

[gamerszone2019-blog]

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey Review - Unfulfilling Journey

New Post has been published on https://gamerszone.tn/ancestors-the-humankind-odyssey-review-unfulfilling-journey/

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey Review - Unfulfilling Journey

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey sure isn’t afraid of throwing you into the deep end. My first foray into Panache Digital’s survival game began as a young ape alone in a dark forest, the imagined laughs of hyenas and snarls of tigers echoing in the trees in a confusing cacophony. Before I could finish reading the message detailing my very first objective, a warning popped up and demanded I dodge out of the way–of what, I couldn’t be sure. Not knowing what to do, I couldn’t respond in time, and my ape was left alone, scared, hallucinating, bleeding, and poisoned, my screen a milky display of dark green and shifting shadows. I had absolutely no idea what I was supposed to do or where I should go. I began to wander and, thankfully, about 30 minutes later I found the rest of my clan.

At first, I believed the entire ordeal was simply a poor start. As it turns out, that first journey through the confusion of a dangerous jungle, blindly limping in different directions in hopes of finding someone to help me, is a fairly accurate depiction of what your journey in Ancestors will regularly entail. My time with the game saw me suffer similarly disorienting fates over and over, testing me to figure out what I’d done wrong and then do my best to adapt. Ancestors prides itself on giving you as little information as it can and daring you to rely on your ingenuity and resourcefulness to survive. Though the game fulfills its promise to do the former, it fails to deliver a compelling reason as to why you’d even want to rise up to the challenge of the latter.

You play as a member of an ape clan in 10 million BC Africa, and you try to ensure your lineage continues through to two million BC–the time period archaeologists say our ancestors’ evolution finally transitioned us from ape-like beings into a new, more human species. To survive that long, you need to manage how much you eat, drink, and sleep while also steering clear of predators and taking care of injuries. As your life continues, and you interact with more aspects of the world, you grow smarter and acquire new skills, which you can then pass on to your descendants. Upon death, you take control of another ape within your clan and continue the process, striving to evolve into a brand-new, more human-like species before your entire clan completely dies out.

Every second of real-world time translates into a minute in-game–except during sleep, which speeds this equation up. Your in-game progress produces opportunities for further clan evolution to then jump ahead in time by months, decades, or millennia. If you or one of your clanmates becomes pregnant, for example, giving birth to a baby will cause you to leap forward 15 months. For significantly larger jumps in time, exploring as an adult with a baby on your back will allow you to accrue energy to further improve your neurological network and unlock new abilities, which then allows you to advance a whole generation and move time forward a full 15 years. A jump in generation can be followed by an evolution, which moves you to a new, calculated placement on the timeline that’s dependent on which advancements you make. Adapting your metabolism to new plants doesn’t give you as huge a boost, for instance, as learning to use rocks as tools. Evolutions push you ahead tens of thousands of years, providing the most efficient way of getting from 10 million BC to two million BC.

It’s definitely not easy, though, especially since your clan needs to sustain itself throughout those eight million years in a single lineage. Though your clanmates learn what you do in real time, losing an entire clan means you have to restart from a brand-new lineage and relearn everything you’ve previously discovered. If your clan dies after you’ve adapted to eating fish, for example, you’ll not only need to go through the entire process of reacquainting your diet, but you’ll have to teach your new lineage how to make fishing spears all over again. When it’s a few minutes of knowledge lost, it’s not that big of a deal. But when you’re losing hours of progress, it can be quite disheartening.

Instead of saving your skills and knowledge between runs, Ancestors records your progress by keeping track of how far you travel. Initially, you can only begin a new lineage on a cliff within a jungle. However, you can discover and unlock other starting points in the jungle, and even reach other biomes, such as a lake-filled swamp and arid savanna. Unlocking these new start points provides welcome variety–as each environment contains its own unique ecosystem of creatures and plants as well as its own set of weather-based challenges–but your primates always begin in the same clueless state. Even if you already know what to do, you’ll have to retrace your steps and go through the same motions over again to recreate the same conditions that pushed your ape’s neurological network to evolve to where you were in the game before your clan was wiped out–ideally with more of your clan intact this time so you can go further.

This gameplay loop can be immensely frustrating, and it’s one that gets more drawn-out the more you play. By my fourth lineage, it was taking close to two hours to retrace my steps and redo everything I had already had to relearn a few times already. There’s nothing in the game that allows you to recover from a failure and quickly rebuild what’s been lost, either, which is demoralizing when your downfall is your own fault and downright frustrating when it’s just bad luck. I’ve lost entire clans because of my own hubris, sure, but I’ve also lost a clan because, after going through an evolution, the game randomly spawned my clan next to a tiger’s den and there were no materials nearby to make weapons. I spent the final 15 minutes of that eight-hour run helplessly watching my entire clan be slowly devoured before needing to start over.

I couldn’t go back and try a different approach to escaping the massacre of that unfortunate run because there’s no manual save feature in Ancestors. The game saves automatically when you discover a new location or go to sleep, with each lineage tied to one save file. You can manually back up your save to your PC, but there’s no easy or straightforward in-game solution to help you avoid a punishing death.

What small satisfaction the game does provide is consistently ruined by violent predators, though the threat does lessen once you make it far enough into the neurological network’s expansive skill and perk tree.

Having to redo everything you’ve already done also keeps you from discovering new things–which is paramount to surviving and one of the few good parts of Ancestors. With practically zero tutorials, Ancestors forces you to be experimental in order to succeed. There’s joy to be had in bashing different items together to see what happens and then compiling and testing hypotheses. As much as I was frustrated by needing to redo the entire process of creating the aforementioned fishing spear in repeated playthroughs, I felt genuine accomplishment in figuring it out the first time. Most of Ancestors’ puzzles can be solved with logical sense, so the challenge comes in figuring out where to find the materials you think you need. Granted, this being a game, there are occasionally arbitrary hurdles you need to jump through to build certain tools, but you’ll typically only find these associated with more advanced, late-game tasks.

You don’t get to enjoy much of the satisfaction in discovering new things and regularly evolving, though. Predators repeatedly sneak up on you and interrupt your efforts, which typically causes you to drop whatever you were messing with. It’s disheartening to want to explore and forge new tools, only to then have to put your odyssey on hold to limp back to your clan and deal with your injuries–and then be attacked again almost immediately upon heading back out. Yes, the jungle is a dangerous place. But when a tiger leaps out of the reeds to aid a crocodile that’s trying to eat me, it’s a stark reminder of how Ancestors upholds the need to rise to the challenge of survival above the experience of evolution. Historically, it makes sense, as our ape ancestors undoubtedly lived many more years as prey than predator. But in the context of a video game, the constant barrage of spawning enemies gets in the way of the gameplay loop of learning, responding, and evolving–a roadblock that’s only chipped away at and eventually toppled once you acquire the skills and tools so that your entire clan can work together and put up an adequate defense against the creatures that hunt you. Much has to be done to get to that point, though, so contending with larger predators–especially the collection of deadly wildcats that stalk and pounce on you at seemingly every quiet moment–feels unfair early on, especially in areas where there are no trees to escape up into. Dealing with their near-constant attacks or the wounds they inflict can make it discouragingly difficult to actually experiment and evolve.

The closest you come to feeling safe while playing Ancestors is when you’re up in the trees. You spend a lot of time in the branches as a result, but unfortunately there’s no easy way to travel between them. You can climb practically anything in Ancestors provided you have the stamina, so scrambling up into a tree is a quick, painless process. However, with no way to easily course correct yourself–and since trees are rarely positioned in a straight line–you typically only get to enjoy a few seconds of fast-paced, energetic movement before you run out of branch, plummet to earth, and possibly break your legs if you were too high up. And that’s a shame, because it’s actually pretty fun to leap from branch to branch once you’ve got the swing of things. There just aren’t many opportunities to use what you’ve learned once you’ve got the mechanics down. Upon leaving the forest, your chances slim down even more, as the follow-up areas are sparse on the first environment’s signature large trees.

Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey lingers for far too long on its most toilsome aspects. The game does reward initial experimentation, but then asks you to repeat processes over and over again without any means of securing your legacy. It’s an absolute grind to reach the closest that Ancestors has to an endgame goal–survive for eight million years–and one costly mistake, whether the game’s or your own, can erase everything you’ve accomplished. What small satisfaction the game does provide is consistently ruined by violent predators, though the threat does lessen once you make it far enough into the neurological network’s expansive skill and perk tree. But as it stands, investing in Ancestors’ journey demands too much effort for too little reward.

Source : Gamesport

#Game Reviews

[williamsjoan]

Double Cross Review — An Inter-Dimensional Extravaganza Made Boring

I’ll be blunt from the start and say that Double Cross is a disappointing game. The game is not poorly designed or broken, it even has some good ideas, it’s just painfully unoriginal and ultimately boring. This becomes an even bigger disappointment when you consider how developer 13AM Games really put themselves on the map with Runbow for Wii U. It was unlike most other platformers that came before it, taking advantage of color in unique ways to create a fast-paced game that was super fun in multiplayer.

Unfortunately, Double Cross is the opposite in many ways. Its visuals look flat despite cool designs and animation, the focus on story proves to be frivolous because of lackluster writing, and its gameplay mechanics, while solid, feel wholly uninspired. When combined with the game’s incredibly short length and occasional technical problems on Switch, the game’s milquetoast nature ultimately means I can’t recommend this game over tons of other great platformers that are available on the Nintendo Switch and PC.

“The game is not poorly designed or broken, it even has some good ideas, it’s just painfully unoriginal and ultimately boring.”

As I mentioned in my preview, Zahra works for an inter-dimensional policing agency called R.I.F.T.. At the start of the game, a traitor masquerading as Suspect X allows their cohorts to break into R.I.F.T.’s headquarters in the Extraverse, kicking off a large scale investigation by Zahra into who or what is behind this major attack.

The game tries to keep to keep this mystery as the focal point throughout the whole game, though the culprit does become fairly obvious part-way through. A minor last-minute twist did pique my curiosity, but the game ended before the concept presented could be fully explored. Conversations are displayed in what the developers describe as visual-novel inspired scenes, though there aren’t actually any dialogue choices.

The artwork and character design is actually quite good, which helped me get through the mostly generic and clunky dialogue. With how much emphasis Double Cross does occasionally try to put on the narrative, I was never consistently drawn to writing, only a couple funny jokes and characters like Agent Pineapple who is a master of disguise and in love with a woman named Ms. Ham.

During her adventure, Zahra has to find evidence around three worlds, Gootopia, Reptarria, and The Funderdome, in order to arrest the main culprit of that area and build her case to take down Suspect X. While the investigative portion of the game seems like it would feed into a hidden collectibles system that has players scouring the environment of each level in order to track down the clue needed, that is not the case. Instead, levels are fairly linear for the most part, usually handing the needed evidence or requiring players talk to the right person once they get back to R.I.F.T. to turn it into evidence.

Upgradium is the main collectible within each level. This is added to an experience bar at the end of a level, with each level up granting Zahra new passive abilities, permanent upgrades, or special attacks. This progression system is actually structured well, rewarding those who really try to sink their teeth into the game. While I still think Double Cross would’ve benefited by making the evidence more hidden or stages more quest-like, upgradium does still work well as a fine collectible. If only the base gameplay loop was more interesting.

Zahra has standard platforming abilities like punching, jumping, and kicking, as well as some other special attacks and the ability to dodge roll through lasers. That being said, Double Cross’ main hook when it comes to platforming is the proton sling, a grappling hook of sorts that lets Zahra swing through levels or pull down doors in certain situations. Sadly, that feels like the only real twist among the standard platforming gameplay, and it’s something titles like Flinthook have done before in a better designed and original way.

“Still, none of these [mechanics] feel wholly original or even superior to what’s present in Double Cross’ contemporaries in any way, which makes Double Cross feel derivative to a fault.”

The proton sling’s implementation feels a bit unnatural in some of the levels, which do try to make the most out of the mechanics present with things like goo that impact movement, a timer whittling down until a train explodes, or a series of arcade-like challenges tailored around Zahra’s abilities. Still, none of these feel wholly original or even superior to what’s present in Double Cross’ contemporaries in any way, which makes Double Cross feel derivative to a fault.

Part of Runbow’s beauty was how simple the game was, but in a slower paced single-player game with a strong gimmick like this, that simplicity ends up hurting the game without any real hook. Yes, you can choose the main fifteen levels in any order, but when none of them stand out that kind of mechanic doesn’t make me want to return to them and play in a different order next time, despite the game’s short length.

Unfortunately, that short length is another huge blow for Double Cross. As I’ve stated, not much from a gameplay standpoint is abhorrent, there’s just not enough room within the game and its 18 levels (including the tutorial room) to really let unique ideas get fleshed out or to make the game feel like anything more than painfully derivative. Even the levels themselves suffer from padding at some point with entire sections focused on killing enemies with the overtly simple and uninteresting combat.

The one saving grace of those combat sections is the highlight it puts on the game’s animation and character models which are surprisingly creative and fluid. Even if characters aren’t memorable due to bad dialogue, their designs do still stick out in my mind. While that segment of Double Cross’ visual design is good, even it can’t escape being a mixed bag. Environments all feel surprisingly flat and simple with barely enough interesting things going on to keep me invested in the game’s longer levels.

People voiced issue with this back when the game was first revealed, and it unfortunately still hasn’t been completely fixed despite the fact that 13AM took the criticism to heart. Something like Runbow could get away with simpler environments because of its focus on strong and striking color. In a game where Zahra is supposed to be visiting living and breathing worlds, that plainness doesn’t work as well.

Like with many other parts of Double Cross, the environmental art isn’t poorly drawn or designed, it just ends up portraying dimensions that feel more flat and lifeless than the developers were probably intended. The game also suffers from a few technical problems at launch on Nintendo Switch. The framerate would occasionally stutter in intense moments and there were even a few points where the sidescrolling got a bit jittery.

These minute, but sometimes noticeable, technical problems, as well as the length, were truly what pushed me over the edge into not recommending Double Cross. While the game can be harmless enough, its short length and few technical problems really ensure that it’s not worth the price or effort to play when there are other similar platformers on the Nintendo eShop and Steam right now.

I really hate to have compared Double Cross to so many other games during this review, but it just goes to show how trite and unnecessary the game ultimately feels. It isn’t a poorly designed game as its controls are fluid and responsive and most of the levels present are designed well with the gimmicks they play with. Double Cross’ story and its investigative backdrop even contain some neat ideas that would benefit from being fleshed out further. That being said, as they stand, most of those aforementioned things suffer from what seems to be a lack of ambition.

Double Cross ultimately plays things too safe to its own determent with mechanics that can be found, and are done better, elsewhere. Coupled with the title’s short length and a few technical problems on Nintendo Switch, the experience isn’t worth its cost. I see a great game here under the skin, one that incorporates the investigative elements into gameplay, features more polished writing, and has the vivid visuals of something like Runbow.

“Double Cross ultimately plays things too safe to its own determent with mechanics that can be found, and are done better, elsewhere.”

Sadly, this is not that game, despite having laid the groundwork for some elements that I would like to see fleshed out in other games. Double Cross is fairly superfluous, sci-fi platformer that’s just adequate enough to get by, and that’s exactly what makes it so frustrating when you know the talented and passionate team it comes from.

The post Double Cross Review — An Inter-Dimensional Extravaganza Made Boring by Tomas Franzese appeared first on DualShockers.

Double Cross Review — An Inter-Dimensional Extravaganza Made Boring published first on https://timloewe.tumblr.com/

[williamsjoan]

Double Cross Review — An Inter-Dimensional Extravaganza Made Boring

I’ll be blunt from the start and say that Double Cross is a disappointing game. The game is not poorly designed or broken, it even has some good ideas, it’s just painfully unoriginal and ultimately boring. This becomes an even bigger disappointment when you consider how developer 13AM Games really put themselves on the map with Runbow for Wii U. It was unlike most other platformers that came before it, taking advantage of color in unique ways to create a fast-paced game that was super fun in multiplayer.

Unfortunately, Double Cross is the opposite in many ways. Its visuals look flat despite cool designs and animation, the focus on story proves to be frivolous because of lackluster writing, and its gameplay mechanics, while solid, feel wholly uninspired. When combined with the game’s incredibly short length and occasional technical problems on Switch, the game’s milquetoast nature ultimately means I can’t recommend this game over tons of other great platformers that are available on the Nintendo Switch and PC.

“The game is not poorly designed or broken, it even has some good ideas, it’s just painfully unoriginal and ultimately boring.”

As I mentioned in my preview, Zahra works for an inter-dimensional policing agency called R.I.F.T.. At the start of the game, a traitor masquerading as Suspect X allows their cohorts to break into R.I.F.T.’s headquarters in the Extraverse, kicking off a large scale investigation by Zahra into who or what is behind this major attack.

The game tries to keep to keep this mystery as the focal point throughout the whole game, though the culprit does become fairly obvious part-way through. A minor last-minute twist did pique my curiosity, but the game ended before the concept presented could be fully explored. Conversations are displayed in what the developers describe as visual-novel inspired scenes, though there aren’t actually any dialogue choices.

The artwork and character design is actually quite good, which helped me get through the mostly generic and clunky dialogue. With how much emphasis Double Cross does occasionally try to put on the narrative, I was never consistently drawn to writing, only a couple funny jokes and characters like Agent Pineapple who is a master of disguise and in love with a woman named Ms. Ham.

During her adventure, Zahra has to find evidence around three worlds, Gootopia, Reptarria, and The Funderdome, in order to arrest the main culprit of that area and build her case to take down Suspect X. While the investigative portion of the game seems like it would feed into a hidden collectibles system that has players scouring the environment of each level in order to track down the clue needed, that is not the case. Instead, levels are fairly linear for the most part, usually handing the needed evidence or requiring players talk to the right person once they get back to R.I.F.T. to turn it into evidence.

Upgradium is the main collectible within each level. This is added to an experience bar at the end of a level, with each level up granting Zahra new passive abilities, permanent upgrades, or special attacks. This progression system is actually structured well, rewarding those who really try to sink their teeth into the game. While I still think Double Cross would’ve benefited by making the evidence more hidden or stages more quest-like, upgradium does still work well as a fine collectible. If only the base gameplay loop was more interesting.

Zahra has standard platforming abilities like punching, jumping, and kicking, as well as some other special attacks and the ability to dodge roll through lasers. That being said, Double Cross’ main hook when it comes to platforming is the proton sling, a grappling hook of sorts that lets Zahra swing through levels or pull down doors in certain situations. Sadly, that feels like the only real twist among the standard platforming gameplay, and it’s something titles like Flinthook have done before in a better designed and original way.

“Still, none of these [mechanics] feel wholly original or even superior to what’s present in Double Cross’ contemporaries in any way, which makes Double Cross feel derivative to a fault.”

The proton sling’s implementation feels a bit unnatural in some of the levels, which do try to make the most out of the mechanics present with things like goo that impact movement, a timer whittling down until a train explodes, or a series of arcade-like challenges tailored around Zahra’s abilities. Still, none of these feel wholly original or even superior to what’s present in Double Cross’ contemporaries in any way, which makes Double Cross feel derivative to a fault.

Part of Runbow’s beauty was how simple the game was, but in a slower paced single-player game with a strong gimmick like this, that simplicity ends up hurting the game without any real hook. Yes, you can choose the main fifteen levels in any order, but when none of them stand out that kind of mechanic doesn’t make me want to return to them and play in a different order next time, despite the game’s short length.

Unfortunately, that short length is another huge blow for Double Cross. As I’ve stated, not much from a gameplay standpoint is abhorrent, there’s just not enough room within the game and its 18 levels (including the tutorial room) to really let unique ideas get fleshed out or to make the game feel like anything more than painfully derivative. Even the levels themselves suffer from padding at some point with entire sections focused on killing enemies with the overtly simple and uninteresting combat.

The one saving grace of those combat sections is the highlight it puts on the game’s animation and character models which are surprisingly creative and fluid. Even if characters aren’t memorable due to bad dialogue, their designs do still stick out in my mind. While that segment of Double Cross’ visual design is good, even it can’t escape being a mixed bag. Environments all feel surprisingly flat and simple with barely enough interesting things going on to keep me invested in the game’s longer levels.

People voiced issue with this back when the game was first revealed, and it unfortunately still hasn’t been completely fixed despite the fact that 13AM took the criticism to heart. Something like Runbow could get away with simpler environments because of its focus on strong and striking color. In a game where Zahra is supposed to be visiting living and breathing worlds, that plainness doesn’t work as well.

Like with many other parts of Double Cross, the environmental art isn’t poorly drawn or designed, it just ends up portraying dimensions that feel more flat and lifeless than the developers were probably intended. The game also suffers from a few technical problems at launch on Nintendo Switch. The framerate would occasionally stutter in intense moments and there were even a few points where the sidescrolling got a bit jittery.

These minute, but sometimes noticeable, technical problems, as well as the length, were truly what pushed me over the edge into not recommending Double Cross. While the game can be harmless enough, its short length and few technical problems really ensure that it’s not worth the price or effort to play when there are other similar platformers on the Nintendo eShop and Steam right now.

I really hate to have compared Double Cross to so many other games during this review, but it just goes to show how trite and unnecessary the game ultimately feels. It isn’t a poorly designed game as its controls are fluid and responsive and most of the levels present are designed well with the gimmicks they play with. Double Cross’ story and its investigative backdrop even contain some neat ideas that would benefit from being fleshed out further. That being said, as they stand, most of those aforementioned things suffer from what seems to be a lack of ambition.

Double Cross ultimately plays things too safe to its own determent with mechanics that can be found, and are done better, elsewhere. Coupled with the title’s short length and a few technical problems on Nintendo Switch, the experience isn’t worth its cost. I see a great game here under the skin, one that incorporates the investigative elements into gameplay, features more polished writing, and has the vivid visuals of something like Runbow.

“Double Cross ultimately plays things too safe to its own determent with mechanics that can be found, and are done better, elsewhere.”

Sadly, this is not that game, despite having laid the groundwork for some elements that I would like to see fleshed out in other games. Double Cross is fairly superfluous, sci-fi platformer that’s just adequate enough to get by, and that’s exactly what makes it so frustrating when you know the talented and passionate team it comes from.

The post Double Cross Review — An Inter-Dimensional Extravaganza Made Boring by Tomas Franzese appeared first on DualShockers.

Double Cross Review — An Inter-Dimensional Extravaganza Made Boring published first on https://timloewe.tumblr.com/

[williamsjoan]

Double Cross Review — An Inter-Dimensional Extravaganza Made Boring

I’ll be blunt from the start and say that Double Cross is a disappointing game. The game is not poorly designed or broken, it even has some good ideas, it’s just painfully unoriginal and ultimately boring. This becomes an even bigger disappointment when you consider how developer 13AM Games really put themselves on the map with Runbow for Wii U. It was unlike most other platformers that came before it, taking advantage of color in unique ways to create a fast-paced game that was super fun in multiplayer.

Unfortunately, Double Cross is the opposite in many ways. Its visuals look flat despite cool designs and animation, the focus on story proves to be frivolous because of lackluster writing, and its gameplay mechanics, while solid, feel wholly uninspired. When combined with the game’s incredibly short length and occasional technical problems on Switch, the game’s milquetoast nature ultimately means I can’t recommend this game over tons of other great platformers that are available on the Nintendo Switch and PC.

“The game is not poorly designed or broken, it even has some good ideas, it’s just painfully unoriginal and ultimately boring.”

As I mentioned in my preview, Zahra works for an inter-dimensional policing agency called R.I.F.T.. At the start of the game, a traitor masquerading as Suspect X allows their cohorts to break into R.I.F.T.’s headquarters in the Extraverse, kicking off a large scale investigation by Zahra into who or what is behind this major attack.

The game tries to keep to keep this mystery as the focal point throughout the whole game, though the culprit does become fairly obvious part-way through. A minor last-minute twist did pique my curiosity, but the game ended before the concept presented could be fully explored. Conversations are displayed in what the developers describe as visual-novel inspired scenes, though there aren’t actually any dialogue choices.

The artwork and character design is actually quite good, which helped me get through the mostly generic and clunky dialogue. With how much emphasis Double Cross does occasionally try to put on the narrative, I was never consistently drawn to writing, only a couple funny jokes and characters like Agent Pineapple who is a master of disguise and in love with a woman named Ms. Ham.

During her adventure, Zahra has to find evidence around three worlds, Gootopia, Reptarria, and The Funderdome, in order to arrest the main culprit of that area and build her case to take down Suspect X. While the investigative portion of the game seems like it would feed into a hidden collectibles system that has players scouring the environment of each level in order to track down the clue needed, that is not the case. Instead, levels are fairly linear for the most part, usually handing the needed evidence or requiring players talk to the right person once they get back to R.I.F.T. to turn it into evidence.

Upgradium is the main collectible within each level. This is added to an experience bar at the end of a level, with each level up granting Zahra new passive abilities, permanent upgrades, or special attacks. This progression system is actually structured well, rewarding those who really try to sink their teeth into the game. While I still think Double Cross would’ve benefited by making the evidence more hidden or stages more quest-like, upgradium does still work well as a fine collectible. If only the base gameplay loop was more interesting.

Zahra has standard platforming abilities like punching, jumping, and kicking, as well as some other special attacks and the ability to dodge roll through lasers. That being said, Double Cross’ main hook when it comes to platforming is the proton sling, a grappling hook of sorts that lets Zahra swing through levels or pull down doors in certain situations. Sadly, that feels like the only real twist among the standard platforming gameplay, and it’s something titles like Flinthook have done before in a better designed and original way.

“Still, none of these [mechanics] feel wholly original or even superior to what’s present in Double Cross’ contemporaries in any way, which makes Double Cross feel derivative to a fault.”

The proton sling’s implementation feels a bit unnatural in some of the levels, which do try to make the most out of the mechanics present with things like goo that impact movement, a timer whittling down until a train explodes, or a series of arcade-like challenges tailored around Zahra’s abilities. Still, none of these feel wholly original or even superior to what’s present in Double Cross’ contemporaries in any way, which makes Double Cross feel derivative to a fault.

Part of Runbow’s beauty was how simple the game was, but in a slower paced single-player game with a strong gimmick like this, that simplicity ends up hurting the game without any real hook. Yes, you can choose the main fifteen levels in any order, but when none of them stand out that kind of mechanic doesn’t make me want to return to them and play in a different order next time, despite the game’s short length.

Unfortunately, that short length is another huge blow for Double Cross. As I’ve stated, not much from a gameplay standpoint is abhorrent, there’s just not enough room within the game and its 18 levels (including the tutorial room) to really let unique ideas get fleshed out or to make the game feel like anything more than painfully derivative. Even the levels themselves suffer from padding at some point with entire sections focused on killing enemies with the overtly simple and uninteresting combat.

The one saving grace of those combat sections is the highlight it puts on the game’s animation and character models which are surprisingly creative and fluid. Even if characters aren’t memorable due to bad dialogue, their designs do still stick out in my mind. While that segment of Double Cross’ visual design is good, even it can’t escape being a mixed bag. Environments all feel surprisingly flat and simple with barely enough interesting things going on to keep me invested in the game’s longer levels.

People voiced issue with this back when the game was first revealed, and it unfortunately still hasn’t been completely fixed despite the fact that 13AM took the criticism to heart. Something like Runbow could get away with simpler environments because of its focus on strong and striking color. In a game where Zahra is supposed to be visiting living and breathing worlds, that plainness doesn’t work as well.

Like with many other parts of Double Cross, the environmental art isn’t poorly drawn or designed, it just ends up portraying dimensions that feel more flat and lifeless than the developers were probably intended. The game also suffers from a few technical problems at launch on Nintendo Switch. The framerate would occasionally stutter in intense moments and there were even a few points where the sidescrolling got a bit jittery.

These minute, but sometimes noticeable, technical problems, as well as the length, were truly what pushed me over the edge into not recommending Double Cross. While the game can be harmless enough, its short length and few technical problems really ensure that it’s not worth the price or effort to play when there are other similar platformers on the Nintendo eShop and Steam right now.

I really hate to have compared Double Cross to so many other games during this review, but it just goes to show how trite and unnecessary the game ultimately feels. It isn’t a poorly designed game as its controls are fluid and responsive and most of the levels present are designed well with the gimmicks they play with. Double Cross’ story and its investigative backdrop even contain some neat ideas that would benefit from being fleshed out further. That being said, as they stand, most of those aforementioned things suffer from what seems to be a lack of ambition.

Double Cross ultimately plays things too safe to its own determent with mechanics that can be found, and are done better, elsewhere. Coupled with the title’s short length and a few technical problems on Nintendo Switch, the experience isn’t worth its cost. I see a great game here under the skin, one that incorporates the investigative elements into gameplay, features more polished writing, and has the vivid visuals of something like Runbow.

“Double Cross ultimately plays things too safe to its own determent with mechanics that can be found, and are done better, elsewhere.”

Sadly, this is not that game, despite having laid the groundwork for some elements that I would like to see fleshed out in other games. Double Cross is fairly superfluous, sci-fi platformer that’s just adequate enough to get by, and that’s exactly what makes it so frustrating when you know the talented and passionate team it comes from.

The post Double Cross Review — An Inter-Dimensional Extravaganza Made Boring by Tomas Franzese appeared first on DualShockers.

Double Cross Review — An Inter-Dimensional Extravaganza Made Boring published first on https://timloewe.tumblr.com/

[williamsjoan]

Double Cross Review — An Inter-Dimensional Extravaganza Made Boring

I’ll be blunt from the start and say that Double Cross is a disappointing game. The game is not poorly designed or broken, it even has some good ideas, it’s just painfully unoriginal and ultimately boring. This becomes an even bigger disappointment when you consider how developer 13AM Games really put themselves on the map with Runbow for Wii U. It was unlike most other platformers that came before it, taking advantage of color in unique ways to create a fast-paced game that was super fun in multiplayer.

Unfortunately, Double Cross is the opposite in many ways. Its visuals look flat despite cool designs and animation, the focus on story proves to be frivolous because of lackluster writing, and its gameplay mechanics, while solid, feel wholly uninspired. When combined with the game’s incredibly short length and occasional technical problems on Switch, the game’s milquetoast nature ultimately means I can’t recommend this game over tons of other great platformers that are available on the Nintendo Switch and PC.

“The game is not poorly designed or broken, it even has some good ideas, it’s just painfully unoriginal and ultimately boring.”

As I mentioned in my preview, Zahra works for an inter-dimensional policing agency called R.I.F.T.. At the start of the game, a traitor masquerading as Suspect X allows their cohorts to break into R.I.F.T.’s headquarters in the Extraverse, kicking off a large scale investigation by Zahra into who or what is behind this major attack.

The game tries to keep to keep this mystery as the focal point throughout the whole game, though the culprit does become fairly obvious part-way through. A minor last-minute twist did pique my curiosity, but the game ended before the concept presented could be fully explored. Conversations are displayed in what the developers describe as visual-novel inspired scenes, though there aren’t actually any dialogue choices.

The artwork and character design is actually quite good, which helped me get through the mostly generic and clunky dialogue. With how much emphasis Double Cross does occasionally try to put on the narrative, I was never consistently drawn to writing, only a couple funny jokes and characters like Agent Pineapple who is a master of disguise and in love with a woman named Ms. Ham.

During her adventure, Zahra has to find evidence around three worlds, Gootopia, Reptarria, and The Funderdome, in order to arrest the main culprit of that area and build her case to take down Suspect X. While the investigative portion of the game seems like it would feed into a hidden collectibles system that has players scouring the environment of each level in order to track down the clue needed, that is not the case. Instead, levels are fairly linear for the most part, usually handing the needed evidence or requiring players talk to the right person once they get back to R.I.F.T. to turn it into evidence.

Upgradium is the main collectible within each level. This is added to an experience bar at the end of a level, with each level up granting Zahra new passive abilities, permanent upgrades, or special attacks. This progression system is actually structured well, rewarding those who really try to sink their teeth into the game. While I still think Double Cross would’ve benefited by making the evidence more hidden or stages more quest-like, upgradium does still work well as a fine collectible. If only the base gameplay loop was more interesting.

Zahra has standard platforming abilities like punching, jumping, and kicking, as well as some other special attacks and the ability to dodge roll through lasers. That being said, Double Cross’ main hook when it comes to platforming is the proton sling, a grappling hook of sorts that lets Zahra swing through levels or pull down doors in certain situations. Sadly, that feels like the only real twist among the standard platforming gameplay, and it’s something titles like Flinthook have done before in a better designed and original way.

“Still, none of these [mechanics] feel wholly original or even superior to what’s present in Double Cross’ contemporaries in any way, which makes Double Cross feel derivative to a fault.”

The proton sling’s implementation feels a bit unnatural in some of the levels, which do try to make the most out of the mechanics present with things like goo that impact movement, a timer whittling down until a train explodes, or a series of arcade-like challenges tailored around Zahra’s abilities. Still, none of these feel wholly original or even superior to what’s present in Double Cross’ contemporaries in any way, which makes Double Cross feel derivative to a fault.

Part of Runbow’s beauty was how simple the game was, but in a slower paced single-player game with a strong gimmick like this, that simplicity ends up hurting the game without any real hook. Yes, you can choose the main fifteen levels in any order, but when none of them stand out that kind of mechanic doesn’t make me want to return to them and play in a different order next time, despite the game’s short length.

Unfortunately, that short length is another huge blow for Double Cross. As I’ve stated, not much from a gameplay standpoint is abhorrent, there’s just not enough room within the game and its 18 levels (including the tutorial room) to really let unique ideas get fleshed out or to make the game feel like anything more than painfully derivative. Even the levels themselves suffer from padding at some point with entire sections focused on killing enemies with the overtly simple and uninteresting combat.

The one saving grace of those combat sections is the highlight it puts on the game’s animation and character models which are surprisingly creative and fluid. Even if characters aren’t memorable due to bad dialogue, their designs do still stick out in my mind. While that segment of Double Cross’ visual design is good, even it can’t escape being a mixed bag. Environments all feel surprisingly flat and simple with barely enough interesting things going on to keep me invested in the game’s longer levels.

People voiced issue with this back when the game was first revealed, and it unfortunately still hasn’t been completely fixed despite the fact that 13AM took the criticism to heart. Something like Runbow could get away with simpler environments because of its focus on strong and striking color. In a game where Zahra is supposed to be visiting living and breathing worlds, that plainness doesn’t work as well.

Like with many other parts of Double Cross, the environmental art isn’t poorly drawn or designed, it just ends up portraying dimensions that feel more flat and lifeless than the developers were probably intended. The game also suffers from a few technical problems at launch on Nintendo Switch. The framerate would occasionally stutter in intense moments and there were even a few points where the sidescrolling got a bit jittery.

These minute, but sometimes noticeable, technical problems, as well as the length, were truly what pushed me over the edge into not recommending Double Cross. While the game can be harmless enough, its short length and few technical problems really ensure that it’s not worth the price or effort to play when there are other similar platformers on the Nintendo eShop and Steam right now.

I really hate to have compared Double Cross to so many other games during this review, but it just goes to show how trite and unnecessary the game ultimately feels. It isn’t a poorly designed game as its controls are fluid and responsive and most of the levels present are designed well with the gimmicks they play with. Double Cross’ story and its investigative backdrop even contain some neat ideas that would benefit from being fleshed out further. That being said, as they stand, most of those aforementioned things suffer from what seems to be a lack of ambition.

Double Cross ultimately plays things too safe to its own determent with mechanics that can be found, and are done better, elsewhere. Coupled with the title’s short length and a few technical problems on Nintendo Switch, the experience isn’t worth its cost. I see a great game here under the skin, one that incorporates the investigative elements into gameplay, features more polished writing, and has the vivid visuals of something like Runbow.

“Double Cross ultimately plays things too safe to its own determent with mechanics that can be found, and are done better, elsewhere.”

Sadly, this is not that game, despite having laid the groundwork for some elements that I would like to see fleshed out in other games. Double Cross is fairly superfluous, sci-fi platformer that’s just adequate enough to get by, and that’s exactly what makes it so frustrating when you know the talented and passionate team it comes from.

The post Double Cross Review — An Inter-Dimensional Extravaganza Made Boring by Tomas Franzese appeared first on DualShockers.

Double Cross Review — An Inter-Dimensional Extravaganza Made Boring published first on https://timloewe.tumblr.com/