#just finished the mainline games and now making my way through the spin offs | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

minterim · 6 months

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i just finished filling out @janmisali's how many Super Mario games are there now survey! it was a ton of fun, i recommend giving it a shot to see how you think about murky video game taxonomy!! however my explanations of my methodology got a bit wordy, so much so that i couldn't submit my response LOL. so i'm putting them here instead :>

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my (loose) criteria are: for pre- super mario brothers games in this bracket, all are non-canonical (to the extent that a mario canon exists), and only count as being non-canonical if mario is clearly in the game from the outset, whether that is clarified through the title, or other surrounding material (manual, flavourtext, widely accepted history for donkey kong, etc). the other condition there is that i have to be able to find evidence of mario's presence with very little effort.

if a game doesn't have mario in it at all (dk3 and so on), then it's not a mario game because the other ones barely are in the first place.

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ok this is becoming slightly more complicated now. the game watch and game and watch games are minor spinoffs, they remain canonical in that they are adaptations of super mario bros for different devices. given that they are adaptations, they dont count as distinct entries in the super mario series.

ive decided that sports games and other games that mario appears in as the mascot are also extra-canonical -- i dont think mario, in the story of the mushroom kingdom such as it is, ever went on a big bar in space to play alleyway. ymmv. the principle holds for golf and tennis and whatnot, for the entries so far at the very least.

i think it makes sense for games that predate super mario bros 1 which feature franchise characters/world elements to be non-canonical as opposed to spin-offs; you can't spin off of something that doesn't exist yet, in my assessment. games taking place in the mushroom kingdom or featuring franchise characters doing things in contexts that make sense count as minor spinoffs, e.g. yume kojo doki doki panic and super mario bros special. NOT counting dk classics because they werent spinoffs initially, you cant retcon them into spinoffs. again, ymmv

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ok. the allstars games and other such re-releases ARE mainline mario games, because when you boot them up you play a mainline mario game, but they are NOT distinct entries.

the -land games are spinoffs, wario is a mario character, and remains a part of the mushroom kingdom mythos up until warioware, which ill have to decide upon sooner rather than later.

dk for gameboy IS a mario spinoff, because the narrative has been change to 1. exist and 2. match (closely enough with) other mario games (bros 1 and odyssey, as far as i can tell).

dkc is NOT a mario game (he is not in it in any way afaik). i would classify it as a donkey kong game, in a way that i wouldnt any of the previous dk titles. this is the point at which donkey kong becomes separate ip from mario. they cross over still, but its two equivalent entities bumping into each other, as opposed to a smaller element of one's canon re-emerging.

the dr marios arent canon, that's a different guy. mario is not a doctor in the mushroom kingdom i know. maybe this is an alt-universe mario? who knows

the karts are also not canon. or rather, they are extra-canonical, in that those ARE the characters we're familiar with from the super mario series, but they arent playing their roles, theyre playing golf or go karts or whatever. its like actors hanging out behind the scenes in character

wario blast can be a canonical spinoff i guess. wario seems like the kind of guy who would throw bombs at people like that. bomberman is there somehow too

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games that include mario (or his friends that havent established a specifically non-mario franchise of games, read: not donkey kong) as a mascot or the main player character count as mario games.

if the mario characters in the game are not acting in alignment with their behaviour in the mainline series* then the game is a non-canonical mario game.

this includes karts, picrosses, tetris attacks and so on. if the game is a single title with little-to-no follow-up, it is a minor spinoff, if it spawns a larger series or garners prestige in some other way, its a major one.

*i dont have a good definition for this. for now: a platformer starring mario as a player character with a plot set that typically involves fighting bowser and saving peach while in the mushroom kingdom. thats the distinction for now though it definitely doesnt hold for the later games. sorry 😐

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ok, all of my previous points still carry over wrt sports and party games not being canonical. the sports ones are the "actors" who play the mario characters hanging out and playing tennis or whatever while in character. however the rules with party seem slightly different -- i maintain that theyre non-canonical to the main super mario series; mario getting along with boos and bowser and so on seems contradictory to the series' events. plus, the mario party world seems like a separate instance of the mario world regardless, so im placing them into a separate mode of canonicity: kids playing with action figures, or game pieces, or better yet, amiibos. no hint of continuity beyond the player and the friends they party with ^_^

i've elected to dub the wariowares as non-mario games. theres a simple reason for this: he's not in them as a character. the wario that runs around is pretty well removed from the wario that has menaced mario in the past, unlike the wario in wario land. theyre not necessarily *not* canonical, but i feel this wario is more likely to fit into the "actors playing golf" canon than the "nare-do-well of the mushroom kingdom" canon, if that makes sense.

the REAL rub for this round are the RPGs. i let super mario rpg fall into the spin-off category because i feel like that could feasibly be the "main" mario (the character from super mario bros). this could be equally true of paper mario, and mario + luigi super star saga mario. and these marios aren't necessarily contradictory! the mario games have a very malleable canon! that is, until mario + luigi: paper jam, which brings two of these marios face to face (note: havent played any of these games yet, heavily referencing the super mario wiki). given that luigi finds the paper mario characters in a book, this states pretty directly that paper mario is fictional within the main mario canon: paper mario is not the same man as super mario from super mario 64. now, does this retcon mean that all the prior paper mario games are fictional within mario canon? maybe. it could ALSO be that the paper mario stories really DID happen in the main mario universe, and we (as players) experienced those events through the interpretive lense of paper... but a good amount of gags/mechanics/etc rely on paper mario being made of paper. poetic license..?

i think im going to classify the paper marios as stories ABOUT the main mario WITHIN that continuity, kind of like star wars legends 'dubiously canonical' material. i think this places them as non-canonical within the structure ive built up here, which is unfortunate, because i liked the idea of all the rpgs being different perspective cameras on the same guy... oh well

^^ take the discourse about the rpgs with a grain of salt because, again, i have not played any of them and thus they may directly contradict my notions of canon. whoops!

PS. oh yeah i think i forgot to mention this in the last one: smash games arent mario games. they are games that have mario in them. but mario would not hit his brother luigi or his dear friend peach. and thus this version of mario cannot be the same one as in super mario bros.: the lost levels.

(same theory as the mario party action figures situation. except the kids that are playing with the action figures are now teens)

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[n/a]

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the sports ones (strikers, baseball) have started having narratives that can fit into the mainline canon, kinda. im choosing to include the baseball games - i reckon that baseball kingdom could be in there, thats fine. though ive chosen to exclude the strikers games, everyone's really angry and violent in those ones and that doesnt seem right to me

the clock and the calculator don't count because they aren't uh. games

also ive lost track of the distinction between major and minor spinoff. i had one but i don't remember what it was at this point

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with the sports games i tend to err on the side of non-canonical, even if there is a narrative in which all characters behave more or less in character. because i find it hard to believe that wario or waluigi would follow the rules of tennis

also i dont think that a crossover with final fantasy really tracks, you know?

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super mario maker isnt canon but super mario maker 2 is. because 2 actually has a story mode and 1 doesnt. i think

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i think ive covered it all in my previous responses? my system broke down a little bit but i think ive been mostly consistent!

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i think if they never got made theyre not games, and if they did get made but never came out they cant be considered mario games. because mario never appeared in them. because no one did because they never came out. i think my reasoning is failing here but i stand by excluding them

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to try and sum my methodology up: it's only a mario game if mario, or a character from the mushroom kingdom, is the main character or mascot. a character cannot make a game a mario game by their presence if they are a version of the character that has defined their own game series completely disconnected from mario and the mushroom kingdom (donkey kong games and warioware games are considered disconnected in this manner and are not mario games, however, wario lands and original donkey kongs are). games in which a mario character is a minor character in an ensemble cast also aren't mario games.

if the characters that make the game a mario game are doing things that would contradict the characterisations from super mario platformer series* or are acting in a purely mascot capacity, the game IS still a mario game but is non-canonical (assuming its a game at all. looking at you clock and calculator). additionally, if the games take place in some kind of separate continuity (mario party, strikers, paper mario, etc) they are non-canonical, or if good and evil characters who would normally take the opportunity to try to apprehend each other are in proximity and do not (kart, tennis, golf, etc), i excluded them from canonicity. for the latter category, i liken the mario cast to a group of actors hanging out off the clock while remaining in character, in the same way actors in real life might act for a charity event. crossovers are also more than likely to preclude a given game from canonicity. i do not think mario, as he is in the mushroom kingdom, has met solid snake or sephiroth. also, i maintain that dr mario is a different man from mario. as he is still A mario, they remain mario games, but because he is not THE mario, they are non-canonical.

the distinction between major and minor spin-off is foggy in this taxonomy. mainly its based on popularity, proximity to the mainline, critical and audience reception, and vibes.

mainline super mario games are platformers in which mario progresses through levels in different worlds using powerups to save someone. they also have to be considered mainline to count. not a great definition but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

the iteration of a given mainline game that counts as a distinct iteration is the one i consider most Definitive. the factors that go into Definitiveness are these: earliest released version > plot that best fits with established canon (donkey kong gameboy) > version with most included game stuff.

my maxim for what counts as a mainline super mario game was: "if someone wanted to play through the super mario series one at a time, but not non-super mario games, what games would it make sense to include?" no idea if what ive ended up with here tracks with that but here we are

this was a fun little thought experiment!! thanks for putting this together, i learned a bunch about this weird little series

PS. that mario sweater maker game is incredible btw

#no idea if this makes any sense in hindsight. i also should probably have checked for consistency in my responses.#but i am tired now #i really do encourage giving this thing a look btw! plus video its a follow up to of course. both a great time :]

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mycomicbox · 1 year

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You seem to be a huge fan of RPG’s what is your RPG favorite game and/or series?

Man, where do I even begin? You can't make me pick just one! I'm just going to go down the list of RPG series that I've played and enjoyed:

Pokémon: My bread-and-butter series since I was 9. My first game was X, but since then, I have played all of the mainline games from the Game Boy to the Switch (currently playing through Violet). I just love battling with those funky lil' creachers :3

Mario & Luigi (and by extension Super Mario RPG): A very charming Mario spin-off series with some unique twists on the RPG formula, mainly with using timed button presses to execute attacks. Unfortunately, the developer AlphaDream shut down a few years ago, so this series is probably dead...

Undertale and Deltarune: C'mon... do I even need to go into detail?

EarthBound/M🌏THER: I love medieval fantasy, but it's sometimes fun to avert tropes. Rather than playing as a knight or mage slaying dragons and goblins, you're a bunch of ragtag kids using PSI and baseball bats to fight animals, gang members, and animated objects. Plus, the series is full of great jokes and overall just OOZES charm. Also MOTHER 3 made me cry.

OMORI: The one that you were probably expecting. Lovely music and presentation, a heart-wrenching story, and beautifully displays mental illness without making a mockery of it.

Final Fantasy: I've only played a few of these (I, III, IV, V, and currently playing through IX), but I have enjoyed the ones that I have played. I've heard good things about VI, VII, X, and especially XIV (though XIV is an MMORPG and those intimidate me). I have to say that my favorite so far is V, simply because of the excellent job system. Speaking of job systems...

Bravely Default: A series that I've gotten into back in May of this year, and it recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary. A sister series to Final Fantasy that's basically a love letter to the JRPGs of old, with an excellent job system and a unique twist on turn-based combat with the Brave and Default commands. The fandom is frustratingly small, however...

Now for some RPG series that I'm wanting to try:

Persona: When the Switch port of Persona 5 Royal dropped, my brother and I both pitched in money to buy it, so I do own it. I just haven't touched it yet because I have so many other unfinished games on my plate. I WILL get to it, though, and that's a promise. If I like it, I might pick up P3P and P4G once those release on the Switch.

Dragon Quest: I've only played the first one so far and when I finished it, I was like "yep, that certainly was an RPG from the NES". Even though it isn't necessary, I want to try to play the games in numerical order (skipping over X because I can't read Japanese), though like I said, I want to clear out my backlog first.

Octopath Traveler: Love the 2D-HD style, and I've heard that it does have a job system of some kind. Also there's apparently a sequel on its way.

Fire Emblem, Triangle Strategy, and Final Fantasy Tactics: I'm lumping these together for one reason. All of the games I've listed so far are your standard turn-based RPGs, with your units on one side and enemies on the other. However, I am open to trying more tactical/strategy games where positioning matters. I've head good things about FFT, and I did find TriStrat at Walmart for relatively cheap. In the case of FE, however... what game do I even start with?

#ask #pokemon #mario and luigi rpg #super mario rpg #undertale #deltarune #earthbound #mother series #omori #final fantasy #bravely default #persona #dragon quest #octopath traveler #fire emblem #triangle strategy #final fantasy tactics #rpg #jrpg

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crest-of-gautier · 5 months

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IM BACK IN THE FUCKING BUILDING!!! (i played 2.5 hours of PQ today!!!)

some thoughts under the cut! today has been mostly exploring the 2nd spot/floor of the group date cafe and i'm like 79% done with it :3 (and i did the whole arrest the food bandit! quest today)

i really enjoyed returning to this game, the sidequests and character interactions i saw today were fun!

i was particularly endeared by naoto's enthusiasm and interest in aigis, i think it's really neat that he's just so curious about her! i mean.. who wouldn't be LMAO

there was also an event where aigis says:

"Including incidents within Tartarus, Junpei-san has now run into a total of 27 dead ends."

and i honestly thought that was the funniest shit ever??? and how they go on to talk about how aigis's data is piped to fuuka's database on her pc. i really enjoyed how this interaction highlights this aspect of aigis and fuuka's relationship, they definitely make a good team given fuuka's inclination toward technology.

i think that's what a running theme of persona spin-offs are to me- i just enjoy seeing other ways in which the different character dynamics between cast members can be expressed!

and i think that's why i really enjoyed doing the arrest the food bandit quest too- i'm very endeared by the dynamic between the velvet room family. i feel like from what i remember in mainline persona games, it's something that only really gets alluded to in the attendants' dialogue lines (as opposed to seeing the siblings actively talking to each other). i fucking love elizabeth she's great.

there's something about the attendant's curiosity toward life (and how much they have to learn) that i find very charming, but i also think that this aspect of them is great for like.. absurd situations that don't make me cringe. (this is a not-so vague at teddie, i find that atlus tends to focus on teddie's more grating traits aka Hitting On The Girls?? which im not fond of LOL)

the way theo was the culprit because he didn't understand that chie was speaking in hyperbole about yosuke being a dead man if something bad happened to the meat jelly is just. the funniest thing ever. so have an excerpt of my reaction/liveblog document from obsidian that has some transcriptions of the event:

like genuinely. i love the velvet room attendant family a lot. i think they just hit a lot of Appeal PointsTM for what i personally find interesting in fiction (characters learning their way through life who have wonder and curiosity for the world), so i've just been?? thriving off of any interactions they get from the sidequests??? it's great.

mechanics-wise i am very interested in seeing if there's stuff i still can unlock...? it's been kind of a pain in the ass to level up sub-personas specifically (i haven't finished the legendary medicine quest bc i needed to raise a guy up to get an agility binding spell... and now that i did raise the guy i just need to Use It). so i am assuming that there's a mechanic that compensates for the lack of arcana bonus exp LOL (and i'm pretty sure in P5R you could sacrifice ur personas to each other?? can we do that here? thanks.)

anyway that's all for pq liveblogging (more like reflecting but y'know). i'm excited to pick up the game again- i might try and finish the group date cafe this month assuming i don't get carried away with other thingiemajigies!!

#pq #lizz.txt #lizz.jpg #sorry for the amogus scs but i like having some screenshot there to indicate my progress LMAO #to think the last time i played this game was oct 7th!!!#that was 6 weeks ago... hopefully it wont take that long for me to pick up the game again HAHA #with most of my sploon-ing being done for this drizzle season 2023 i am thinking that i'l probs have time to play more pq #the only thing that wil stop me is drawing. LOL. ohh the wippy grind never stops #but i love the persona characters :) i really enjoy playing the games because i really enjoy sitting down and appreciating interactions-#between the characters and seeing how it pans out. it gives me inspiration but also it makes me happy and thats important #i haven't done anything since that first bit of my fes replay either btw. I WANT TO THOUGH... im just so... (gets distracted easily)#anyway uh im not gonna ramble any more in the tags when my post is already long under the cut. goodnight!

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casualotptrash · 3 years

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Fixes to the Persona Series

Oh boy I hope you all are ready to talk about this for the hundredth time!

My recent tirade about the FES vs Portable discussion started to make me think about what I think could be done in the next coming installments of the series to make it either feel a bit more fresh or just as an overall improvement. Now, I know many of the things I’m about to say have been said time and time again, but...this is my post so I’m going to give my opinion on this :)

Enjoy and feel free to vent with me about your biggest gripes with the series, because I’m always ready for a salt-fest.

(This post will pretty much have any spoilers about Persona 3, 4, and 5 (including Royal) so beware if you haven’t finished those)

To clarify right off the bat, anything I don’t mention in here as something I would fix I either don’t think it is a problem or I just happened to forget it.

1. Player Gender Options

(Royal Spoilers)

Starting off with a great one, I think that an improvement to the series would be to allow an option between a male and a female MC. I don’t think this choice would affect the story in Persona 3 or 4 very much (and we’ve seen that with Persona 3), but I have imagined and seen so many fanfics about how it would actually be a really interesting twist for Persona 5. For most of the story it probably wouldn’t matter too much, but it could impact the first palace so much. The first palace/story arc is already one of the best arcs in the game, so imagine if the player could relate to Ann and Shiho on an even deeper level? To be clear, I’m not saying the player has to be sexually assaulted or something, but I imagine Kamoshida would at least treat the player more like Ann rather than just a delinquent nuisance.

Also, and this just came to mind, but picture this: in the third semester Maruki actualizes things that he thinks will make others happy. Obviously, Joker and Akechi are against this. In the game itself there are a lot of clues to point that Joker does care about Akechi, and does want to see him again, but in the end they both agree that they need to fight for the real world that they worked for, not for a fake reality. If Joker was a female, they could still go the route of doing this (especially if romancing Akechi was an option? Or they just hint at them having feelings but Akechi doesn’t want to commit because he’s a self-loathing boi who needs to work on himself first).

Alternatively...what about a badass narrative of a girl, in a powerful position as the leader of the Phantom Thieves, fighting against a man who believes he knows what’s best for her and tries to appease her by just bringing back Akechi? Kinda like a “Yeah fuck what you did, you just need Akechi/a man and he’ll make you happy” type of thing. Obviously this would all be subtle, because I do think Maruki has good intentions, but he also blames himself for all of the hard things Rumi has gone through and may internalize that as women needing a “strong man” to protect them. Of course this might seem too preachy for people, but I thought it was an interesting idea to run with and that some people could relate to the whole “Woman trying to think and do things for themselves? Nah just sit in your little fake world and be happy, thanks.”

(Sidenote, Sae would be such a good role model...after her change of heart of course. You crush it girl.)

However, I do understand that this could be a lot of extra work, especially when the game is so long and tedious. That’s why I would also be fine with the strategy of “switching off” per say. By that I mean if Persona 5 has a male MC, then Persona 6 would have a female MC, and if a 7th game was made (in 2040 or whatever) then it could go back to a male. This would eliminate the issue of having to record all the voice lines twice or any other extra work that would come with having to make both genders an option. Honestly I know this option doesn’t matter too much to people, they just want an MC who is either a self-insert or actually a character (more on that later), but I do think it would be a very nice inclusion especially for the female fans of the game. It kind of sucks that three of the most popular games in the series all have male protags, and the female protag who was introduced often gets shafted for very dumb reasons. (Oh no, you have the option to romance a kid that most people don’t even choose or like, that means she’s a p*do! :I I know this comment is normally a joke but seriously it’s not funny).

2. Setting of the game (not transfer but also maybe involve the other games?)

(Spoilers for the Arena games and Persona 5/Royal)

So there are two main points to this suggestion: where the game takes place and how it relates to the other games.

As we all know, the three latest entries in the mainline Persona series have all followed a certain trend. They are all high schoolers, who transfer to a town, and know basically no one there. This formula has been repeated for the last three games, and while they are still great games, I think this trend needs to change. Any amount of switching this up would be better than nothing in my opinion. For example, the MC could be a new college student who goes to a new place for college (if they wanted the MC to move somewhere), and there meets the party members who are a mix of people who also don’t know the area (new to the college) and those who do know the area/some people there. This would appease people who have been really wanting an MC to not be a high schooler, while also giving the feel of meeting new people and seeing a new place.

On the other hand, the next game could take place in the MC’s home town, where plot stuff happens and they connect more to the people they already knew (aka party members) to solve the plot stuff. They could be in high school or college, either I think would work, but it would appease people who don’t just want to be a transfer student each time and also have some connection to the characters prior to the game. However, this would be difficult to do given the current “flow” that the games have, that is that the MC doesn’t know anything and has to ask a million questions. It would be very strange to go up to someone you have known most of your life and ask them a basic question, which is why that style of storytelling(?) would not fit well with this and other methods would need to be used.

Now, for the second point, I understand that they don’t make strong connections to the other games because they want each game to be able to be played as a stand-alone, and not to hold people back by forcing them to play the other games to understand this. Makes sense, but usually what happens is that people play one game in the series and then try another game, if they really like the one they started with. After playing through the ones they want to, and if they like them, then there is an appreciation for the series as a whole. Of course Atlus sneaks in little references here and there, like having the P4 gang go to Iwatodai or some TV news announcements on P5 that allude to Adachi and other characters, but those cant always cut it. One of the biggest letdowns I would come to know is the fact that the Shadow Operatives are not mentioned at all, outside of those small references, in P5.

Persona 5 literally has the PT’s broadcasting all of their heists, and includes major government officials like Shido. There are also the mental shutdowns/psychotic breakdowns, which also have people confused, along with how the PT’s steal hearts in the first place. I don’t know about you all, but this seems like the perfect opportunity to get the Shadow Operatives involved. This is like...literally what they were made for? Investigating persona/shadow activity and such, and we already know that the PT’s deeds reached at least Hawaii so it would be strange for the SO’s to have not heard anything. There are headcanons that they were blocked by Shido or something, which is pretty interesting to think about/develop, but it was only thought up to make an excuse for why they aren’t there. Persona 5 introduced a lot of people to the story, so yeah some people would probably be very confused about who the SO’s are and stuff, but it could payoff in the long run for long-time fans and those who play the other games after.

Depending on the story of P6, I don’t think it would be a bad idea to start including casts from the other games into newer ones...especially when each game introduces 8-9 new characters per game, and those games usually get made into spin-offs that include the characters made in the previous games! Counting only the characters introduced in the previous games (3-5), Persona Q2 has 33 characters (11 P3, 10 P5, 10 P4, and 2 P3P, this includes the velvet room assistants for each respective game). That’s a ton! Sure, having new characters each time is part of the fun, but I believe there is definitely a way to split them up. I don’t think it would be too much of an issue to have a smaller party member group (you can only have 4 fight at a time anyway), that way there is still the enjoyment of seeing new characters, while also filling up some of those spots with preexisting ones.

3. Characterization

This kind of piggybacks off of the second point, but personally I think they need to stop with the self-insert protags. First, like I mentioned earlier, it kind of messes up the “flow” of the game since they have to pretend that the character doesn’t know anything because the player doesn’t know anything (yet). For example, how many times did the option to say “Probation?” or “Expelled?” or something like that come up as a dialogue choice in P5? Too often, in my opinion. I assume anyone over the age of 15 would probably know what those things mean, but in case anyone doesn’t they have to make it an option to say.

Adding onto this, it also seems like people start to like the characters a whole lot more when spinoffs or movies/animations come out that really expand on the character, because in those games/mediums the player is taken out of the self-insert role. I would say out of the three games, the Persona 3 protags have the most characterization in game through their dialogue. I haven’t watched the movies, but I heard it fleshes the MC out a lot more. In Persona 4...well, I see what they’re going for but I also feel like Yu has the personality of a cardboard box. The animations definitely helped out this one, as did Arena, and I’ve seen other people agree that they liked Yu a lot more after playing/watching those things.

As for Persona 5, I think they tried to give Joker some characterization (and oddly enough “Joker” has a lot more to him than Akira/Ren, but he still fell more on the side of self-insert. P5 the animation is...of questionable quality, but I think Xander did a good job in the Dub (which is the one I watched) in trying to make him feel more like a human being. I haven’t played Strikers, but I assume it goes more on the route of P5 because you’re still controlling Joker. Oddly enough, I feel like the dancing game gave him the most characterization? Call me crazy, but his dance moves and voice lines just ooze of his suave, friendly, and supportive attitude. I wish that they took whatever those voice lines embodied and just put them into the game, because I would like Joker a lot more than I already do (which, to be clear, I do still like him a lot).

Although this doesn’t have much to do with the characterization, it would also be nice if Atlus could just put the “canon name” in the game while also still having the option to choose your own name. Again, this might add a little more work but maybe if someone chose the “canon” option then their name could be spoken in voice lines, but if they don’t then the names would be left out (except for text) like usual. Honestly this is mostly up to personal preference because I like some of the “not canon” names more so I would want to use those if I could, but I also don’t like having the characters just randomly cut off in the end of sentences when they’re saying your name. Just kind of breaks immersion, which is probably why I really like Joker because at least they say “Joker” quite a bit.

(Little rant, but why do the PT’s get like two group names? At first Morgana defaults to “The Phantom Thieves of Hearts” but then when you get to choose the name of your team, that name is what shows up instead. However, everyone still calls you the “Phantom Thieves” and the gang refers to themselves as that too! I get naming the group is kind of cool, but I would have preferred if they were just called The Phantom Thieves (of Hearts) and that way their name could be spoken in dialogue too.)

4. Choices matter...please? (romance and regular dialogue)

This might be easy or difficult to implement, I’m not so sure because I’m not a game developer, but I really wish choices mattered more in this game. I feel like most of these suggestions (especially later on down the list) are just little things that could be added to the game that would really amp it up, and this is one of them.

When I talk about choices mattering, I do not mean that dialogue should be so open that there are branching paths and that your choices affect the story. What I mean is that you could choose two different options and not get the same exact answer. I get that this isn’t always the case, but when it is it feels very strange. In this same vein of things, please stop with the illusion of choice because everyone sees right through it. I didn’t really see this as much in P3, and I still need to finish P4, but it was definitely apparent with P5. I felt that so many times in the game there were two options that were just “Option A” or “Synonym for Option A” as the choices.

Along the same lines, I think it would be great if romance choices were actually acknowledged. Again, there is a little of this in P3 and P4 where some party members comment on your relation to the other party members (Ex. Junpei saying to take care of Fuuka if you date, Yukari stating that Akihiko probably wouldn’t want FeMC going on a group date if they’re dating, and Yosuke coming to assumptions about who Yu spends the summer festival with), but they are very few and far between. I also saw no evidence of this at all in P5, which was pretty disappointing. In fact, in Persona 5 Royal if you are dating Ann and go on the Christmas Date with her, she makes some comment about not wanting the others to find out about them. Like...girl, considering someone can finish Ann’s social link as early as June or so on NG+ I’m pretty sure your friend group would notice if you’ve been dating for 6 months?? I know that romance is definitely not the focus of the game, but if you’re going to include it why is it shoved into the farthest corner and never touched?

Don’t get me wrong, it is cute to see the romances in the game play out and such, but on the same hand I can see how much better it could be. In reality it kind of sucks to romance someone in the Persona games because no one acknowledges it, and you only get like 3-4 small scenes in each game to spend with them (beach in P5, festival in all, Christmas in all, valentines except for 3, White Day in P5R). Just imagine if you could take a walk in Kyoto with whoever you romanced, or were able to take your partner to the Jazz Jin in P5R and they would get like special date dialogue or something? Very very small additions, but it would go a long way in making the romances feel a bit more connected.

5. LGBT Romances

I went into this in some detail in Part 3 of my FES vs Portable debate post, so I to save your eyes from reading more I’ll just quickly say that Atlus definitely needs to add in more LGBT romance options because it’s ridiculous at this point. The fact that you can’t romance any guy (because all of the MC’s are male, this is not including the FeMC stuff because that’s not typical in the Persona series) but can have a whole harem (despite what they may do to you) is just ridiculous. They’d rather let you date a fully-fledged adult than someone of the same gender.

Also they’re cowards for scrapping the Yosuke romance and that’s that :)

6. Fixing Social Links

Link to the stand-alone post about this section.

I literally was going to include this in this post, but this section alone (which I knew was going to be the biggest) was almost as large (a few hundred words off) than everything prior to this point put together. I’ll make a separate post with just this section soon, but this criticism of mine can basically be boiled down into the fact that the main growth of a character should happen outside of their social link in order to avoid tonal whiplash in the story, and that this will fix the problem of some characters feeling “one-note” if you do not do their social links/confidants. Essentially, go back to the P3 method.

However, something that needs to be fixed for all of the games is that you shouldn’t only get social link points for saying what the person wants to hear. I get the train of thought that if you say what they want to hear they will like you more, but that’s not how real friendships work? Obviously you shouldn’t be saying something that offends them and think it will raise your points, but sometimes people just need to hear things?

I can think of three standout examples: Nozomi in P3 (Gourmet King), Mishima in P5, and Shinya in P5. Nozomi’s link is a hot mess in of itself, but it was very frustrating to at one point just be like “Hey can you chill?” when he’s trying to induct you into a scam/cult or whatever, and it reverses the social link. Like ok buddy fuck you too, I was just trying to say no and that you need to stop scamming people?? For Mishima in P5 (I’ll go more in depth on him in a later post), it’s just kind of strange that you can clearly see him starting to obsess about the PT’s but you can’t really tell him he needs to stop until the social link demands it. Even then, the only way to get points is pretty much to go “Wow Mishima, you’re the best! You’re the reason we exist! We love you!!!” and it just feels kind of wrong. Shinya’s is very much along the same line as that, except you basically have to do something even worse and encourage him to keep being a bully? Thankfully P5 doesn’t reverse confidants, but I probably would have done so with Shinya because I kept telling him he shouldn’t bully others until I realized how to get points with him. It just feels wrong to encourage such behavior until the character suddenly realizes they’ve been acting wrong. No shit, I’ve been trying to say that.

I think social links need quite the fix to them, but this is definitely one of them. Strong, real relationships are not just built upon telling the other person what they want to hear.

7. Have Characters Hang Out

This is mostly a suggestion based off of P5′s downfall in this aspect. I think that P3 and P4 did a good job at showing the characters hang out in other aspects, or hang out separately outside of the MC. P4 had a lot of good group hangouts, but not many scenes without the MC. P3 had the opposite where members kind of hung out together a bit, but also showed or mentioned them hanging out without the MC. However, P5 didn’t have much for the group hangouts and also I can’t really recall a single scene of the party members hanging out outside of the MC.

Along with all of the problems I mentioned earlier with the cardboard cut-out personalities, I feel that this contributed to P5′s group feeling a bit less cohesive. Obviously when they all hung out they acted like a real group of friends, but it’s hard to see it as legitimate when 95% of their hangouts are just meetings for the Phantom Thief stuff. The only times they hang out outside of the PT stuff is the TV station, the fireworks festival, helping Futaba + the beach trip, and the culture festival. Like I said, I can’t recall them hanging out together outside of being with the MC/PT business, although I could have missed some stray text message if one was mentioned.

In this aspect, P5 feels like a small step down from P3 and a huge step down from P4. I think some of the events in P4 are a bit unnecessarily long, but at least they go through the effort of showing that the group is also a real friend group, not just people trying to solve the murder. Strikers may be a step up from P5, but I haven’t played it yet so I can’t judge that.

Also bring back school trips to prior locations of Persona games. Imagine P5 group going to Inaba and it turns out this is the small country town that Joker came from? And they sprinkle in references to P4? *chefs kiss*.

8. Remove/Change Certain Tropes

(Spoilers for the babe hunts, stupid ass hot springs scenes, and Ryuji abuse after certain palace)

By that spoiler tag, you can probably tell that this is the category I’m most passionate about. I can deal with social links feeling a bit disconnected. I can deal with the MC being a self-insert. What I cant deal with anymore? These. Dumb. Ass. Scenes.

Let me explain (insert Sojiro voice here)

Every game has three main tropes. One, the babe hunt scenes. Two, the hot springs scenes. Three, one character being dunked on by everyone else. I’ll go through each, scream about my feelings about them, and why they need to change.

First, the babe hunt scenes. I don’t have much of a problem with this trope to be honest, I just think it could be done better in some games. I actually think the one in P3 was quite funny, because the group treated it like an “operation” which added a bit to humor. Truth be told, I was just a bit disappointed in P3P FeMC route when you didn’t have your own version of the “babe hunt” thing. I know Yukari and Mitsuru aren’t the types to go hunt for boys, but perhaps the MC could have suggested it as a fun idea. In P4, this scene happens in Okina and largely remains the same as the P3 formula, but I think it lacks just a bit of the humor that the P3 one had. Lastly, in P5 this scene happens during the beach trip but compared to the others it’s pretty...lackluster?

It shows a montage of Joker, Ryuji, and Yusuke talking to girls but no actual dialogue goes on. After talking to three or so, Yusuke disappears and this is when Joker and Ryuji meet the two “flamboyant” men again. This time, the men either chase them down or call after them (?) depending on if you’re playing Vanilla or Royal. I don’t like how they use these men in the first place, but on top of that it kind of takes the “babe hunt” out of “babe hunt” if you don’t actually...hunt for babes? Like no actual dialogue is spoken when trying to convince the girls, which was most of the fun in the other scenes. You don’t even have free reign to walk around at the beach, and the scene is formatted in a more cutscene type of way. It just makes P5′s babe hunt fall flat in many ways, and overall I finished the scene with a strong “meh.” The only good things about this was watching Makoto and Ann defend themselves and Yusuke with the lobsters.

Now for the hot springs scenes....hoo boy.

Simply put, in my opinion, these scenes suck ass in almost all of the games. P3 is the least egregious in my opinion, for a couple reasons. First is that it shows that Junpei and Ryoji were kind of trying to peep on the girls, and Akihiko and MC were just dragged into it. They have some funny dialogue, and in FES and Portable they even included the option to try and evade the girls. I found the little evade minigame to be really fun, even though every time I can’t help but fail because I want to say “It was a cat!” I find it interesting that there is the option for the men to get off scott-free, and that their dialogue after the trip is over changes slightly because of this.

On the FeMC side, I also find it fun that you have the reverse of the minigame and actually seek out the boys. My only letdown with this entire scene is if the boys are caught. I get it, it’s supposed to be funny with Mitsuru executing them and such, but as a reasonable person with a brain it seems really dumb to me that Mitsuru would just punish all of them when it’s just Ryoji and Junpei’s fault? This is nothing against Mitsuru, but her actions just seem so...exaggerated for some reason? Like Mitsuru is usually smart, and even if she is embarrassed I don’t get why she would punish innocent party members. A huge disappointment for me was that the FeMC isn’t able to stop Mitsuru from doing this either. Not even a choice to try and encourage Mitsuru or discourage her (so both options would be available). You just kinda sit there and watch, even after Akihiko say “It was a misunderstanding!” or something. For me it was especially strange because MC was dating Akihiko at that point, so why wouldn’t I try to hear him out? Just struck me as kind of dumb.

If I thought that was dumb, P4 and P5 were out to really make me roll my eyes and sigh in disappointment. Unlike P3, which has most of the scene being pretty good besides the very end where Mitsuru punishes the boys, the P4 and P5 scenes are all bad. This is not the first time anyone has said it, and won’t be the last, but they aren’t funny scenes in the slightest.

In P4, it’s actually the girl’s fault that they’re in the hot springs when the boys walk in. They stayed over their allotted time and into the time when boys are supposed to be in there. So what do they do? Get flustered, yell at them, and throw buckets at the group. Oh, and they don’t listen to the boy’s protests at all. Really.

Who thought this was a good idea?? The girls even realize after that they were in the wrong, say they should apologize, but I don’t think they ever show a scene of them apologizing after. This whole scene, like the hot springs ones in general, are just exaggerated (ie. throwing masses of buckets) to be funny, but they really fail in my opinion. It just serves to make the player kinda angry (since they’re usually on the receiving end) and make the girls look wildly unrealistic and dumb. I have never really thought that needless physical abuse is funny, so these scenes are just the bane of my existence apparently.

There actually isn’t a hot springs scene in P5, but they did add one in Strikers.

If they wanted to still do these scenes, maybe they could switch from making it “just beat up the boys” into something else. For example, the girls could try to peep, or walk in on the boys. Equality y’all, sometimes girls can do those things too (but still don’t beat them up. Just don’t beat anyone up). If none of that happens, or maybe that’s how the scene ends, the rest of the scene could just be a chill, relaxing scene between those involved. Essentially, how the scenes go before the whole “lets beat up the boys” thing comes in.

Lastly, on basically the same vein as why I don’t like the hot springs scenes, I’m starting to get real sick of the “let’s shit on this one character” trope. In Persona 3, I don’t think it’s that bad because they kind of do it with Junpei but they also give him a lot of character development, and eventually the sort of hostile shitting on him turns into just gentle teasing.

For P4 I still don’t think it is too bad, because Yosuke is kind of the one being shit on but he also does the same to the other people in the group? I suppose the only thing that really sticks out to me is how Teddie abuses Yosuke’s wallet (making him buy/pay for a lot of stuff with his hard earned cash), but I also don’t like Teddie at all in the first place so I may be biased about him. Oh well, he still shouldn’t do those things and I don’t really find it funny but to each their own.

However...this problem walks and rocks the fucking runway in Persona 5. Namely, this happens with Ryuji. The most obvious aggressor in this is Morgana, because him and Ryuji butt heads so often, but the other thieves kind of do it as well. Obviously they don’t do this all the time, but it’s extremely frustrating when they do. Morgana getting into arguments with Ryuji at the drop of a hat get old very quick, and the other thieves poking a bit of fun about how dumb Ryuji can be is also not that riveting. Despite all of that, the scene that highlights all of this is the scene after Shido’s palace collapse.

You all knew this was coming, but I couldn’t resist talking about it. The scene is so tone deaf in so many ways that it takes away all of the emotional impact that they were trying to build. Even the first time I watched this scene, in which I didn’t think they would kill off Ryuji, I could still sympathize with the group being concerned about him. Then when he shows up they...just beat him up and leave him unconscious next to a pole while they walk away? Wow.

On all subsequent playthroughs I just skip this scene, but I truly cannot understand why that was the angle they went for. Were they trying to insert some humor right after an emotional scene? That can be done in certain cases, but....why??? It’s so unbelievable it’s almost laughable. It’s not even like the bath scene where the the girls think the guys are trying to peep on them. It’s simply because he survived which I assume is what they wanted!

“Oh no you made us thought you were dead (even though he didn’t because he couldn’t control any of this), we’re going to beat you up!” Now you just make the characters look like irrational idiots.

Seriously Atlus, stop doing this. In most cases it just serves to make the player kind of frustrated, and in this case it it literally takes all of the emotional weight out of the scene and makes me think worse of the entire female cast. Please. Stop.

Well that’s the end of that. I don’t think I said anything too revolutionary, although my opinions about the social links and characterization might get me some flak. I just want the characters to be more than one personality trait... This was a really long post again, so kudos to whoever made it to this point!

Next time, on Dragon Ball Z Casual’s pointless posts: something Persona related :)

#long post #persona 3 #persona 3 portable #persona series #persona 4 #persona 5 #persona 5 royal #p3 #p3p #p4 #p5 #that's a lot of p's #ready to get shit on for my opinions #but maybe just ask me first before doing so #who's ready to play persona 6 when it comes out and be slightly disappointed #I am!#but I'll still like it because it's persona

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cosmiciaria · 4 years

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Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate Review! (spoiler free - long post)

It's done! I finished my first AC game ever! And I loved it!! YAAAY!!

First things first: this is going to be an honest review. I liked the game, A LOT, more than I expected, actually, but it has flaws. Not many that I could find personally, but it has. But before I delve deeper into it, let's have an overview of the game.

AC: Syndicate is the ninth?, installment in the Assassin's Creed franchise. It's a sequel to Unity, that came out just a year before, but you don't need to play any of the other AC games to plunge into this one (or any of them, to be honest), since each game tells a self-contained story. If you've been living under a rock for the past decade or you don't know a thing about videogames, Assassin's Creed games follow a character in the present time, joining the Order of the Assassins, warriors and masters of stealth that have been at odds with the Templars since time immemorial. The Templars desire the pieces of Eden, magical artifacts created with ancient technology by the Precursors, gods and goddesses that somehow bear the names of the Roman pantheon members. These pieces of Eden are extremely dangerous in the wrong hands, but have been long lost to the folds of History and withered pages of books. The Assassins must find them in today's world, through the genetic memories buried within the DNA of the descendants of the Assassins that at some point in History have come into contact with those artifacts.

Well, that premise is true for all Assassin's Creed games. This time, we're following the same initiate we met during Black Flag and Unity, if I'm not mistaken. The previous games have followed Desmond Miles, an actual character with a face, but in these "in-between" installments, the initiate is a faceless placeholder for the player to incarnate them. But, to be honest, the present timeline is, uh, what's this word…

BORING.

Nobody cares what's going on in the present! Let's move on to the actual plot!

Syndicate takes us to Victorian London! Through the DNA of the initiate we travel in time to 1868, to the middle of the British capital. Our protagonists this time is a pair of twins: Jacob and, lo and behold, Evie Frye. I say "lo and behold" because this is the first official female assassin protagonist that we have in the mainline series of games. Prior to this game, we have Liberation which also followed a female assassin, the real first one, but that game is a spin off and mostly overlooked, since it came out only for the Vita sadly back in the day (although there's a remaster for the ps3!). Either way, all previous Assassin's Creed games (if Syndicate is the ninth, then you got the number) have starred male assassins as their protagonists. In Unity this came to a great peak when in the multiplayer co-op players were unable to play as female avatars, which caused a great ruckus. As Syndicate intended to mend many of the problems players found in Unity, we have now an official, canon female character in the main series! And I say: CHEERS TO THAT!

I MUST address this because it was one of the two reasons why I bought this game. I was never interested in the AC games but I've always wanted this one, because you could play as Evie Frye. As a female cis person, I find the lack of canon female protagonist to be baffling, to say the least (the actual word I'm looking for would be "annoying"). I'm not going to say that I'm forced to play as a male character all the time, because nobody forces me to play any game, I play them all because I wish to – but the truth is that, for many years, the videogame industry has been directed at one public only: boys. And some boys, for some reason, won't play the game if the protagonist is a girl or looks like a girl. And I don't care if the presence of a female character breaks your history immersion and whatnot: we have fricking magic in this game, do not throw historical accuracy at me for it. So, Ubisoft: I AM GLAD you created Evie Frye. She's fearless, she's relentless, she's clever, she has a clear goal in mind and solves every little piece to make the bigger plan work. She's badass without throwing her femininity off the window, and for a change she's the one saving the man in distress. I love her and her cloaks. Also she's cute as hell.

I am ALSO GLAD that Ubisoft created Jacob Frye! Jacob is a good balance to Evie, since he's more impulsive, a brawler, and likes throwing himself into battle. He speaks with fists, while never leaving his morals aside. He shows disregard for careful plans, but ultimately works in favor of them. He might sound a little stupid when I picture him this way, but he's not: he follows the creed strictly, during the assassination missions he shows clear precision, planification and ingenuity, and most importantly, he has a golden heart, and knows his ideals and principles very well. And for the love of Minerva, he's so handsome I might die.

So the Frye twins are both your protagonists this time! During the open world map and sidequests, you can switch between them on the fly. But during main missions, one of them will be assigned for you to play as and you'll be forced to complete the quest with either of them. Evie favors stealth, whereas Jacob is all about combat. This allows the player to tackle the game and the different activities as they see fit. If you're patient, probably Evie will be best for you, but if you can't handle the stealth, choose Jacob and start throwing punches! The city of London is open for you to choose the way you can liberate it.

And that takes me to my second reason why I bought this game: London.

For a not native-English-speaker as myself, who has learned and studied British English for over ten years, London will always hold a soft spot in my heart. Two years ago I was finally able to realize my dream and visit the city for the first time ever. I cried when I stepped out of St. Pancrasse station, understanding that my feet were touching English ground. So when I saw that this game not only offered me the chance to play as a female assassin, but it would also allow me to revisit London, I didn't think twice.

We follow Jacob and Evie to London, where they must meet Henry Green, the assassin watching over that city, in pursue of an important Templar figure: Starrick. Along the way to assassinate him, we'll take down other important Templar members, all responding to him. As I will keep this spoiler free, let's leave it at that. Let's just say that Starrick is in London, controlling every nook and cranny, while his second in command, Lucy Thorne, is reservedly researching the leads of a possible piece of Eden that might be hidden in the city's most secretive places.

London is so well recreated, I cried once when I stopped in front of the Big Ben. You're only able to visit and play through a portion of the city, around the Thames and Westminster, but still, even small though it seems, the map is big enough and full of activities to fulfill. The streets feel alive with its multiple, many, MANY npc's walking, running, driving carriages, interacting with each other, often having conversations as well! I was astonished when I was walking with Evie down an alley and an npc waved his hand to another npc that was some feet away, and the first one rushed to the second one to greet each other. It was such a realistic thing to see on the street that I was amazed at the technology behind it. As always, AC games excel at the presentation of countless npc's, each with a different animation and voices. On top of that, the city looks gorgeous, with so many details that I often stopped to stare, especially in the most emblematic buildings, like the different train Stations, the Parliament, St Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, and, of course, the Buckingham Palace. Everything is so faithful and vibrant and alive, that… yes, I love it. I fricking love it. I travelled again there in this game and I'm thankful for it.

There are nine sequences with 4 to 7 memories each, and all of them are different and unique enough to make them memorable. In particular, the main assassination quests were complex, using exclusive scenarios to the mission, offering the player different paths to tackle the killing – they were my favorite out of all the game. The last mission was *chef kiss*.

Apart from the main missions, you can slowly liberate each neighborhood from the Templars' claws. Each borough has a set of different activities to complete in order for you to "conquer" it. Gang wars, bounty hunts, Templar hunts, there's a lot to do. It might seem a lot at first, but you'll soon see the patterns across the sidequests, only to (unfortunately) realize that they're all the same. These can get tiresome and repetitive after a while, but they're also the best way to level up and earn money quickly. My personal favorite were the child liberations, because I felt like I was doing a good deed and also as if Charles Dickens himself was asking me to do it.

Oh, yes, Charles Dickens is in this game! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT, because I don't! He's one of my favorite authors, so, to be GIVEN a QUEST by HIM, I'm in tears guys, do you understand why I loved this game so much??

But Dickens isn't the only historical person that you'll encounter: Darwin also makes an appearance, as well as Marx (of whom I believed to be in Brussels, but I guess he visited London at some point – now I want an AC game set in Brussels), and Alexander Graham Bell, who will be your DaVinci of this game (Oh, now I want to play Ezio's games), offering you new toys to tinker with as you pave your way across the city. There are other historical people, but I won't mention them, since they're probably a spoiler, so I'll let you be surprised!

You'll have like a "hub world", or more like, a hub train – a train will be your hideout, your base, where you'll collect money, take some quests, interact with some characters and buy stuff cheaper. This train will constantly move around the city – sometimes I found myself appearing on the other side of the map because I was studying and investigating the things the train offered. I really liked the idea of a "moving base house", also it's quite fancy, and besides, I love trains. This game just keeps bringing me the good content.

Evie and Jacob are good protagonists – I'm not going to say they slay at it, but they serve the purpose. They're quite stereotypical, specially Jacob, as he seems to follow the trend Ezio imposed back in the day, and to which Arno also contributed – and Evie is quite the "polar opposite", a cliché often used on twins to express how "different they are". Their personalities are nothing new; what is endearing and worth noting, though, is their interactions. At first I thought "this is going to be another of the never-ending cases of twins acting like friends instead of siblings". I do come across this mistake more frequently than I'd like to, only broken by some exceptions (World of Final Fantasy is a really good one), even more if the twins are a boy and girl. I'm not saying twins shouldn't be friends themselves, but they're siblings first, for the love of Juno, and most creators who put twins into their stories don't seem to remember how siblings treat each other. Luckily, this game proved me wrong, since the Frye twins showed me that they're real siblings: not because they quarrel (they do, sometimes, quite forced in my opinion), but because of the way they look at each other, they care for each other, they often joke about the other, the familiarity and complicity they treat some topics with, because of the small banter that you can hear them have in the train hideout, how Jacob teases Evie with Henry or how Evie teases Jacob for the cloaks he's wearing – that, all of that, all combined, make up for a good sibling relationship and show me that these two have been brother and sister for a while now. I'm glad they ended up being one of the exceptions to this godawful rule among the fictional twin characters. I would've liked, though, maybe a few more scenes with them having a real heart to heart – I think we were robbed of one or two (specially after sequence 8 if you ask me- Jacob please, let's talk, baby).

Henry is another important character – although I thought he'd be more important. He ultimately appeared in less missions than I expected, and is soon relegated to be Evie's love interest and that's it. And even that is, uh… a little underwhelming. I kinda shipped them at first, then I was like "please, they're FRIENDS, don't force this", only to see myself getting disappointed. I think Henry needed more screentime for me to care more about him, and I definitely believe that, after that mission with Evie, we needed a cutscene with an explanation. It was kind of forgotten later, and he felt more like a plot device than anything else. I'm sad, because he could've been a great opportunity to show us a bit of Indian culture, and also because by the end of the game he's treated like another protagonist, when it doesn't feel like he'd earned it, though, considering the whole game. My opinion.

There are other characters worth mentioning, like Freddy Abberline, another historical person, whose running gag about disguises soon grew on me; Clara O'Dea, a little girl who asks us to liberate her fellow children friends from the claws of foremen who exploit them and acts like a little spy for us; Ned Wynart, who brings trans representation into the game; and some other sequence exclusive characters, who I won't mention because it will spoilerish. Let's just say that Jacob comes across a very interesting man.

On the technical department, I already said that London looks great, but I want to stress this: the whole game looks great. From cinematography to animations, I think they nailed the direction in this one. As my first AC game I can't speak for the others, but this one is a gem. I must mention though that the game crashed on me only once, and I was looking for the "destruction trophy", the one that asks you to break 5000 destructible items of the city – well, it seems I had destroyed enough and the game couldn't take any more wrecked chaos across London, but other than that I didn't encounter any bug nor any trophy didn't pop up. It looks great and it plays great: the controls are responsive, you swiftly dash across the city feeling unstoppable – sometimes controls didn't do what I wanted but it wasn't the game's fault, it was mine, so I can't blame it for my own stupidity.

The soundtrack is also such an unexpected jewel in this game. The solemn tracks that play on the background while you're peacefully traversing the city – some are lyrical and dramatic, others go well with a rainy suburb. The vibrant and electrifying tracks during battles or escapes did bring all the Sherlock Holmes movies vibes to the game. It was all – so English, if you catch my drift. The music did fit well with the British atmosphere they were aiming for.

The ending is satisfying – don't expect an opera prima, or a huge revelation, or groundbreaking plot twists. The story is fairly lineal in its presentation: this is the goal? Alright, the whole game goes for it. We can say that it's quite predictable, but let's be honest, we're not here for the ending or the things that might happen to discover the characters in the present time, we're here to assassinate people with our beautifully hidden blade – wait, that sounded way too violent – we're here for the gameplay, for the historical events, for the feeling of being an assassin, and for some world-building regarding the Precursors.

In regards to that, I cannot not mention the World War I Simulation – a rift in time appears in the Thames towards halfway through the game, and you can enter it – it will take you forward in time, to the same London that is now under the attack of the German. In this more modern time, you play as Lydia Frye, Jacob's granddaughter, also an assassin, who collaborates with no other than Winston Churchill to defeat the Templars. In this kind of DLC episode we learn way more about the Precursors, Juno, Minerva and other important figures to this world-building, that it's mostly lacking in the rest of the game. This simulation does feel like a DLC since it only offers a few hours of gameplay, the metaphor isn't in vain – it's a huge change of pace, it plays a little different since you'll be doing war stuff, and you also visit a portion of the city that isn't available in the main game: the Tower Bridge. It IS worth playing, though, not only for the trophies or for the extended map, but for what I said earlier: world-building. Juno plays a big part in this simulation, and I encourage you to play it, even though it's optional. Slowly but steadily, the world of the Precursors is unfolding before our very eyes. Also, Lydia, YASS another female assassin joins the family!

All in all, Syndicate is a positive experience. Sidequests are repetitive and mostly boring after you complete the first borough, some characters needed more screentime, Evie and Jacob could've used a sensitive cutscene with a deep conversation – but the mechanics, the gameplay, the city, the main missions, the relationship between the twins, the customization of weapons and outfits, and the fact that I literally entered Buckingham Palace after killing a royal guard or two – that, is more than enough to compensate for what it's lacking. You might be tired of the same formula over and over if you're a fan of the franchise, but do give the twins a shot. If you never play an AC game before, try this one out – it might turn you into an AC fangirl, like it did to me.

I'm a trophy hunter myself, so I'll try to platinum it! And now my eyes are intent on Unity, because, if you've seen this post, you know that Arno and Élise resemble two of my oc's, so now I need that game to be injected into my veins, thank you very much.

#assasins creed #assassins creed syndicate #syndicate #evie frye #jacob frye #henry green #evie and jacob #maxwell roth #videogame review #review #ubisoft #london #queen victoria #fredderick abberline #winston churchill

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pixelgrotto · 5 years

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The horrific Resident Evil playthrough, finale

Approximately one year ago I began the somewhat mad quest to shove as much Resident Evil into my brain as quickly as possible. I blazed through thirteen games, a handful of spin-offs, and as much supplementary material I could get my hands on. I chronicled my thoughts each step of the way via posts here, on Twitter and in a massive ResetERA thread where a lot of good people gave me advice on how to proceed with the series. Not all of the stuff I experienced was great (those Paul W.S. Anderson movies come to mind), and sometimes this massive undertaking felt like work, but now that I’ve come to the end, I can say that it was worth it, because it’s quite the feeling to bring yourself from having zero knowledge of something to morphing into a Wiki-reading fiend in just a year. At this time in 2018, I had only the barest notion of what this series was about and who characters like Jill Valentine or Leon Kennedy were. Now, I could probably write a pretty heated Twitter thread about how Jill needs to be brought back to the forefront of the series not just with a remake of Resident Evil 3, but with an entirely new game, because she’s been sidelined for years despite being the central figure in promotional material like the fancy artwork that I’ve posted above! Ahem.

My initial desire to become more familiar with Resident Evil has been part of a larger push in recent years to consume more horror media, mostly because as I get older I find myself increasingly attracted to eerie stories that I was too much of a weenie to dive into when I was younger. Some of it probably has to do with the fact that as an adult I now find stuff like health concerns, existential dread and paying taxes to be more horrifying than things that go bump in the night, but part of it is also because that even as a scaredy cat kid, I was always kinda intrigued by macabre stuff like Resident Evil, even if I couldn’t bring myself to play through the games.

Now that I’ve plowed through the franchise, I wish I could go back and whisper to my younger self that aside from the first game, RE7 and perhaps bits and pieces of both versions of RE2...Resident Evil isn’t all that frightening. The series does have its jump scares and gore, but it quickly crosses genres into the realm of action, and even in its more tense entries, Resident Evil stays dripping with a fine dollop of cheese, either through B-movie dialogue or moments when the main characters wink at the camera and suddenly take a zombie to suplex city. Action, comedy and horror are unusual but frequent bedfellows, I’ve learned, and with RE embodying all three of these genres, translating them to the realm of electronic entertainment via a format emphasizing survival, it’s only appropriate that this is the franchise that has come to serve as the face of spooky thrills in the video game world.

Resident Evil’s also in a very good place at this moment in time. RE2Make has gotten well-deserved praise from just about everyone who’s played it, and after a moment where it looked like Capcom was going to tilt the mattress and upset the delicately placed bedfellows - emphasizing action and over-the-top comedy more than horror - now it appears that the devs have gotten their heads straight and maintained the balance once more. There’s still room for improvement and careful experimentation though. As the series forges ahead into the 2020s, I hope that Capcom doesn’t get drunk off of RE2Make’s success, milking its formula to exhaustion. I want at least another mainline game to utilize the first-person perspective of Resident Evil 7, which worked better than I ever would’ve imagined, and I’d also like to see the Revelations sub-series, which was supposed to focus on stories that took place in between the main games, continue - in spirit if not in name. (A Revelations 3 or similar spin-off with fixed camera angles - perhaps in a mid-tier budget point ‘n click style a la Detention - would be something that I’d love, though Capcom probably will never go in that direction.) Finally, I’d like Resident Evil to remember that it had fabulous female representation in its earlier entries. The later titles have mostly had male protagonists front and center, which directly reinforces the trope that it’s okay for survival horror games to star the “must be protected” ladies, but anything action-orientated should star dudes so that male players can have their power fantasy trip. This can easily be fixed by doing what I said in the first paragraph - bring the queen Jill Valentine back.

Finally, because these sorts of franchise reflections are never complete without a good ol’ fashioned list... Here’s how I’d rank the mainline games, complete with a snappy sentence or two for each.

Resident Evil REmake - Because if I had to recommend just ONE game for someone to get a decent idea of this series’ mechanics and themes, it would be this one.

Resident Evil 4 - It’s survival action instead of survival horror, but when the gameplay’s this good, can you really complain?

Resident Evil 2 - Over 20 years old and still a thrilling experience. The epitome of the fixed camera angle games.

Resident Evil 7 - I was afraid that the change to a first-person perspective would alienate me, but I beat this game in two days and couldn’t put it down.

Resident Evil RE2make - Almost as good as the original, and a great sign of the franchise’s future.

Resident Evil Revelations 2 - Worth playing for the return of Barry Burton and the moving story alone, which is basically about fathers and daughters, loss and acceptance.

Resident Evil 1 - The OG that started it all. A little clunky to play in this day and age, but the magic’s still there.

Resident Evil 6 - The equivalent of an overstuffed exploding cake, RE6 is excessive as hell and sometimes infuriating...but one thing you could never call it is boring.

Resident Evil 5 - A solid series entry about Chris Redfield punching boulders in Africa, this one’s excellent if you play it co-op. Solo, a little less excellent.

Resident Evil Zero - RE probably didn’t need this prequel showing what Rebecca Chambers was doing on the night before she got stuck in Spencer Mansion, but good chemistry between the main characters makes it worth experiencing.

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis - A lot of folks love this one, but IMO it feels less noteworthy than RE2 and RE1, probably because it was originally designed as a spin-off. I rank it low but am eager to see how a RE3make could boost it.

Resident Evil Revelations - Jill Valentine’s in a wetsuit that clings to her booty this whole game and she hangs out with a partner who looks like Russell Crowe. Aside from that, Revelations is fine but kinda forgettable.

Resident Evil: Code Veronica - The only RE that truly annoyed me with backtracking and some cheap bosses, Code Veronica is technically still an okay game. But Steve Burnside is a garbage character.

Thus, we bring the horrific, 2018-2019 Pixel Grotto Resident Evil playthrough to a gentle finish. *Cue relaxing save room theme here.* It’s been fun, ladies and gents. I need to rest up a bit and try some other games that aren’t survival horror for a while. But I like the idea of doing more series playthroughs in the future...

And I think Silent Hill might be a good choice for the next one.

The header artwork is a textless version of the radical Biohazard 20th Anniversary poster that Capcom put out in 2016.

#pixel grotto #now playing #video games #resident evil #biohazard

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morshtalon · 5 years

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Shin Megami Tensei If...

(Part 8 of the MegaTen thing)

So, the previous main title in the franchise managed to close off its continuity in an effective, satisfactory, appropriately big manner. We wouldn't be looking at a new mainline game for 8 years this time around, so during that time a slew of spin-offs were released, the first of which being Shin Megami Tensei If...

Given these conditions, I can only speculate the designers gave themselves significant amounts of leeway as far as actually designing new stuff was concerned. Aside from 2 or 3 new pieces, all the music is recycled from SMT 1 and 2. The ones from 2 now have an actual melodic line, something that was strangely absent in their game of origin, so technically there's something new in them. Regardless, having just finished SMT2 prior to starting this game, two whole games with the exact same battle tracks was pretty grating to me.

Random art has also been borrowed from 2 in places. Most of the demons look the same, naturally, but some character art has also been lifted and modified slightly. Again, having just gone through 2, this feels like a weird milking of 2's material, as if they had stuff left over from its development and, in a Roger Corman-esque move, decided to just throw a new game together with it while they still had time. "If..." came out the same year as SMT2 as well, so good on them for being efficient with their assets...?

The gameplay, however, has undergone some changes. Most of them, I would say, actually make the battles more involving and fun. In SMT2, there were two "rows" of character boxes, but it made little to no difference in actual gameplay. Now, the party members in the back row can't use melee attacks, having to resort instead to either special skills or their gun. Furthermore, enemies won't be able to reach your back row guys with melee attacks, and they WILL target them a lot, so you can get some use out of it as well.

Ammunition is finally not just a piece of equipment anymore, and there's actually a counter representing how many bullets you have left (there's still no magazines or reload command, though, you're only limited by the standard max item stack size of 99). Sometimes, it can be annoying to keep restocking ammo and buying it in bulk, but I liked the potential the idea has of making you have to use your special ammo sparingly. This is something that could have solved SMT1's problem of overpowered status effect bullets, for example. It's underutilized here, however, and for the most part you can just buy regular bullets and call it a day.

Magic is a lot more effective this time, but the MP costs for spells are now very steep, so you'll still want to just stick to the support classics (tarukaja, rakunda, mediama, etc.) Instead of using attack magic. I would like to see magic being more useful in the future, though, and again, the potential has been opened and, with further tweaks, things can start heading toward great places.

With these changes, one again feeling like a contrarian, this game was harder to me than 1 and 2 were. Not a lot harder, mind you, but hard enough to demand some attention. In practice, though, this just meant that it took longer for me to properly set up all the essentials for having a breezy time with SMT games. Once it was ready, it was back to auto-battle time, but not always, though. I had to stop and change my moves quite a bit, especially as it was getting close to the end. The final dungeon throws enemies at you that are much beyond the level of one just playing the game normally without grinding, and things got pretty intense up there, forcing me to go back and readjust my demons and strategies a few times. Overall, I liked the raw battle aspect of it a lot more than I had previosuly with the franchise. It was more complex and involving, and felt like the systems were maturing. They're still juvenile here, but many cool things have begun to take shape, and I appreciate SMT If... for being their herald.

However, the unfortunate truth begins to creep in as I reflect about what it was all in service of. Bluntly put: The story and level design both suck. The plot is simplistic and inexorable; what would have been an arc in a game with a bigger scope is the whole game's plot here. There's no escalation and no surprises. The game sets things up, sends you jumping through pointless hoops on a meandering journey with the barest of juicy interactions, then quickly wraps things up and sends you on your way without so much as a second thought on its own events. Sure, there are multiple paths decided by who you partner up with at the beginning of the game, but outside of a superficial character study regarding the main villain, nothing of much intellect is contributed to a player's brain that hasn't been gathered in countless other, more involving RPGs before.

The hoops you have to jump through are simplistic mini-arcs surrounding sectioned off dungeon exploration. It reminds me of the very first game of the series, it's just a collection of errands with minimal interconnectivity. They're kind of short, too, and it results in the game feeling boring and repetitive at the same time it seems reductive and minimal in hindsight.

I suppose I have to talk about the Domain of Sloth, because it's the most baffling part of the entire game. The object here is to waste time. Several people are digging different holes in the walls, and there's either 7 or 8 "steps" between their start and end points. Each person digs a step further once the moon rotates fully, and each phase of the moon takes roughly, let's be generous here, 16 steps to move one sixteenth of a full rotation. Got that?

Well, if you javen't figured it out, the object of this "dungeon" is to directionlessly walk at least 2048 steps (16x16x8) until everyone is done digging their tunnels so you can go and see what's at the end of each. It's honestly elusive to me why they would think this was a good idea for a "puzzle". Did anybody ever playtest this? If they did, I have to assume at least someone was like "this is really boring and stupid, guys, shouldn't we change this puzzle around? Make the player have some agency over its progression?" and was quickly shut down by the higher-ups because they had deadlines to meet or something.

Regardless, other than that, I kind of dig the dungeon design of the other areas. Eventually they get pretty confusing and make liberal use of darkness tiles, teleport tiles, multiple stairways, holes that drop you to a floor below, and whatever tricks the dungeon design has accrued through the franchise's history. To some, it might be rage-inducing beyond the point where they can reasonably be expected to soldier on, and I can understand that, but I like it when the game doesn't pull any punches and is not afraid of using all aspects of its design. In my mind, it they really feel like sticking with the first person pseudo 3D bull honkey all the way through 1994, they might as well use the possibilities that such a manner of constructing levels gives them. For what it's worth, in the scope of dungeon crawls, it's not nearly as bad as it could be. I managed to clear the whole game with no outside help whatsoever, while in a game like Wizardry, I can barely get past the first floor with extensive hints as to what I could do to make life easier.

SMT If... does have things going for it. The battle gameplay is better than ever, a host of new, interesting ideas were being experimented with, and the level design, in a raw kind of fashion, showcased some bits that I personally found more captivating than dungeons in SMT1 and SMT2. However, the essence of a game like this is the story glue holding it all together, and this game falls flat on its face with its reductive, meandering, fruitless narrative. It fails to give the good aspects of the game any context, and turns it into a borefest. It has nothing over SMT2 besides being a little harder, and while it sows interesting seeds for future franchise titles to harvest, in itself, it fails to rise much above the previous entries in regards to interest. The experience of actually playing Shin Megami Tensei If... is one of disappointment and frustration at seeing the design milestones that, given the scope of the SMT series, the game fails to capitalize upon. My score for it is 4.4 out of 10, which is extremely harsh considering I technically had so much good to say about it, but this is not a game that's more than the sum of its parts. It's kind of like eating raw eggs, then gulping down some flour, chewing on a block of butter, and finally, sniffing sugar off the table. Could have been a yummy cake with some care, skill and preparation, but instead it's just a catastrophic mess to your taste buds.

#shin megami tensei #review #megami tensei #megaten #rpg #game

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zaggitz · 5 years

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My Top Ten Video Games of 2018

Well, here were are again, my friends. After the non stop roller coaster thrillride of VIDEO GAMES 2017, can 2018 live up to the hype??? I’m gonna go ahead and say no right off the bat, but while every single week wasn’t filled with a new incredible genre defining experience like last year, we still had some genuine certified bangers in the mix, many of which I think will remain important to me as the years go by. It should be noted this is the first year since 2014 where a Trails game hasn’t hit the market, so for the first time ever since I started writing these lists, a Trails game will not reign victorious at the end. Scandalous! Impossible!! Shit year tbh, but we’ll get by.

Outside of games this year is maybe the best year of my entire life?? I got out of a years long slump, started an actual genuine career path, and then somehow managed to fenegle falling in love into the whole mix. These lists have always come from some greater sense of yearning to reach out and communicating how I feel about things I love to anyone who will listen, but right now all I can think of is about how happy and lucky I am for my life to have taken the turns it did this year. 2019 is gonna have to try real hard to break my stride.

If you’d like to read my previous rambly lists, here they are:

2015

2016

2017

Anyway without further ado, here’s ten games that aren’t Trails of Cold Steel 3(WHEN??):

10. Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales

This one is only at the bottom of the list because I didn’t have time to finish it. I loved getting to jump into the world of the witcher again. The world is dark and gritty and the choice are morally grey and the writing is impeccable and gwent is even more fun to play as a main mechanic than it was in the Witcher 3 as a minigame. I can’t wait to dive back into this one come the new year.

9. Radiant Historia: Perfect Chronology

One of the most well written and executed time-travel-based JRPGs I’ve ever played. It’s a story about trying to fix mistakes, about different perspectives trying to understand each other instead of fighting over differences.

It’s got an overall theme of realizing how important you can be to the world around you despite seeming insignificant that really resonated with me, an amazing cast of characters and it also just happens?? To be really fun to play??

8. The House in Fata Morgana: A Requiem for Innocence

That I didn’t play the first game the year it came out is a damn crime, this series of gothic tragedies has such special, meaningful and important themes of redemption and sacrifice and finding the people who will survive the world with you no matter what. It tackles mental illness, lgbt topics with an immense amount of respect and tells some of the most heart wrenchingly real and gutting stories, but it all culminates in the most viscerally satisfying way.

This sequel delves into one of the most unspoken parts of the original while also offering promising and hopeful glimpses into the future. It’s absolutely a must play if you in anyway liked the original.

7. Wandersong

Now here’s one that came absolutely out of nowhere. This game just oozes joy out of every pore. You play as a dandy bard who can only interact with the world via music trying to save it from being destroyed. Heavy themes of pacifism and the internal struggle of doing your best when you know for a fact your best won’t be good enough cover this thing like sprinkles on the most delicious and colorful donut.

Another thing I love is how every single chapter of this game plays differently, one will be a pirate adventure where you steer a ship with pirate shanties, the other will be a Majora's Mask still town sim, it goes on like this, and it never once gets boring. This game will make you smile the biggest smile from start to finish.

6. God of War

Remember Kratos?? He’s back, in open world action-RPG form. I sort of grew up with the original GoW trilogy and am of the opinion that they aged about as well as I did(which is fuckin not gracefully, teenager me was a fuckin mess). God of War is out of its edgy teenager phase now, and just barely squeaking out of its holier than thou college student phase into a game that actually has a few things to say, fun characters, an amazing world, and a paternal relationship that is kind of actually a joy to watch unfold despite everyone making fun of the game for it.

This game is like twice, maybe three times as long as the original trilogy which hilariously kind of makes those games feel like a prologue to this one. I suppose the real ironic thing is they kind of are?? They were shallow angry games with nothing to say but their existence created a character that, under the right light, under THIS light, could actually be extremely compelling and fun to watch grow alongside his boy. This series went from one I was glad to see gone to one I can’t wait to get more of.

5. Yakuza 6: The Song of Life/Yakuza Kiwami 2

It’s absolutely insane that Yakuza is popular now. I got into this series 10 years ago and at the time every single new yakuza release was a blessing and a curse; blessed because holy shit they actually put out a new Yakuza game and cursed because oh god it sold like shit and they probably won’t localize the next one why did they localize the zombie spin-off it almost killed the series nooooo don’t localize that give us the samurai games instead.

So anyway, this year I finally finished my journey playing through all 7 mainline Yakuza games. The journey of Kiryu Kazuma has come to an end and I have seen every step he’s taken. Yakuza 6 itself had kind of a really rough new engine that Kiwami 2 ended up refining, and from a gameplay perspective these games are basically the same, for the most part(Kiwami 2 is just better). Neither of these games come close to touching the masterful highs of Yakuza 0 but from a story perspective I think the respect and love this series has for its protagonist is unmatched, and while I was sad to see him go, I will never forget that big good crime boy and his whacky antics.

Ganbare, Kiryu-san...sayonara!!!!

4. The Messenger

This game fucking rules, I really don’t know how to do it justice, I played it on a whim and fell in love with it for the time it took me to beat it in a way that I haven’t done with a game in a long time. The gameplay is fluid and fun, the writing is charming and legit hilarious at times and the soundtrack, oh baby the soundtrack, if this wasn’t a year where Celeste came out this game would win every single award for OST of the year, I would fight anyone who disagreed.

The main gimmick of this game once you reach the halfway point is being able to shift between the 8 bit past and the 16 bit future, and every time you do the music will warp to fit those aesthetics and the game does this so freaking seamlessly, it’s amazing. The final level in particular meshed the music so well with the narrative that I was like fist pumping the whole way through the final sequence of the game.

It rules extremely hard, play it. Yes, you, you reading this right now, play this game so these people will make more for me. Please?

3. La-Mulana 2: The 0th Body, The 9th Spirit

Chalk this one up for game of 2018 I most can’t wait to replay and do a bunch of quick runs of. The original La Mulana is one of my favorite games of all time and this sequel delivers more of all the stuff I love while streamlining a lot of the more obscure and obtuse solutions. The music, the bosses, the world, all of the best things about the first game were all just as on point in this one.

The game evokes a sense of mystery you can only really achieve in a sequel to a game like the original La Mulana by constantly making you question the lore you already knew from the original. This all culminates in a sidequest that for a game as inscrutable as opaque as LM2, I still ended up getting really really emotionally invested in.

I don’t think there will ever be a La Mulana 3, and if that’s the case I’ll be able to leave this series happy, these two games complete each other in such a huge way, and will remain some of my favorites for years to come.

2. Celeste

I swear to god, this game was my Game of the Year for 9 whole months. I have never in my life played a game with this much precision perfect game design. This is maybe the tightest most consistent feeling platformer of all time. It’s like basically perfect on a gameplay level. That it meshes it’s gameplay with it’s themes so well is what truly makes it stand out and transforms it into not only a viscerally satisfying, tough but fair game, but an emotionally resonant masterpiece that will stick with me for years to come.

Celeste is a game about climbing a mountain. Celeste is a game about overcoming depression and anxiety and learning to cope and better yourself. These things are not interchangeable, the challenges you face as a player in this game all tie in perfectly to the main character, Madeline’s struggle to just fight through her self doubt and self loathing. It’s an extremely real tale, despite how fantastical the visuals are. It’s a game about fighting and screaming and clawing at that fucking Mountain to give you a way to have your heart again, and it’s absolutely wonderful.

The game is difficult, but every personal triumph accompanies one in game, and it lets you truly feel the feelings the game is trying to evoke alongside it. This is the kind of game that only comes once or twice a decade. I’d be extremely surprised to see anything hit this level any time soon.

1. Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age

This is the gold standard for all JRPGs now as far as I'm concerned. There are series that go deeper, that go harder, that go all the way in with their music but no game out there exists that is so confidently just the classic all encompassing idea of a JRPG like this one. This game is pure comfort food, it knows exactly what it is and what it is is a fun heartwarming and charming classic JRPG “chosen one gets the cool sword and fights the dark lord” tale and damn it if it hasn’t been a while since we had just a good one of those.

Haha, just kidding.

A third of the way through, this game takes a dramatic shift and flips everything on its head in a way that hasn’t been really seen or executed this well since FF6. Suddenly the comfortable is taken away, the world is scary, bleak, and the themes you missed, that were simmering in the background since the start of the game start to boil over to the surface. The world is darker but the people in it are warmer, they hold themselves together until the day comes, and the game will find ways to make you cry you would never expect from a series this traditional. These themes all culminate in a super satisfying finale that, while not entirely happy, at least leaves the world in a better place than it was before, with it’s people that much closer.

Now what if I just didn’t write any of that and told you why I really love the game.

Credits roll, and the post game, that is to say, the final third of the game, begins. What if the shift never came, how would the world be different? How would these characters acrs resolved? Who would live? Who would die instead? What does this happening mean to the world? What does this new future hold?

In one simple moment, you answer all of those questions, and Dragon Quest XI becomes a prequel to Dragon Quest III (which was a prequel to DQ1 but that’s less important).

All of a sudden this entire series has lore, everything is connected in a way it had never been for 30 years, and it fits so seamlessly and perfectly that it could only have happened in a series like Dragon Quest, which has had the same writer across all 11 games. As a fan who had played all the available english games this was such an insane rewarding moment. I struggle to really compare it to anything else outside of maybe like…

Oh shit.

OH SHIT.

Outside of goddamn Trails.

Ya’ll know what that means right?

That’s right, Trails wins game of the year once again. STILL THE KING BABYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

#game of the year

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entergamingxp · 4 years

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The Definitive Ranking of Every Halo Story Campaign

April 9, 2020 2:30 PM EST

After playing through every mainline Halo game over the past year or so, here’s how every entry’s campaign stacks up against the rest.

For the past year and a half or so, I’ve been gearing up for the release of Halo Infinite by revisiting every mainline game in the series. Despite having played nearly all entries countless times, this was the first instance in nearly a decade that I was finally returning to some of these classic shooters. I also did this seven-game playthrough with fellow DualShockers writer Michael Ruiz, and speaking for us both, I think it ended up being some of the most fun either of us have had with video games in a hot minute.

Of course, now that I’ve finished my playthrough of the saga, there’s only one thing left to do: rank every game in order from worst to best. Using math, science, and my own objectively correct intuition, I’m going to let you know which Halo game is the cream of the crop and which ones just can’t match up. You’ve surely seen Halo game rankings, but I can promise you: this is the only one on the entire internet that is completely factual.

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Also, as the title indicates, my rankings here are only going to be based on the campaigns from each Halo entry. While I have spent a fair amount of time with each game over the years and can still recall my feelings of multiplayer, Forge, Firefight, Spartan Ops, and a variety of other features that have been present, we’re just going to be sticking to nothing but campaigns for this ranking. So before you go yell at me in the comments and tell me that I should’ve put one game higher or lower than another, keep this in mind.

7. Halo 5: Guardians

If you clicked on this article and expected to see Halo 5: Guardians in last by default, well, you weren’t wrong. Unlike a lot of other fans, I really didn’t remember strongly disliking Halo 5’s campaign before playing it again here recently. Upon finishing it up a little under a week ago, yeah, I can now reaffirm that it’s definitely not great.

Overall, there isn’t one major thing I can point to in Halo 5 that makes it a lesser experience than every other entry. Instead, it’s a death by a thousand cuts situation. Most notably to a lot of fans, myself included, playing as Locke and Osiris Team for 80% of the campaign isn’t as fun as it is to play as Master Chief. Then there’s also the fact that the squad-based gameplay that 343 tried to lean into with this entry just doesn’t work well at all. Since the game is more focused on fighting as a team, 343 littered the environments with way more enemies than in past entries, leading to me and my companions being downed in this installment way more than any other Halo campaign. Plus, I cannot begin to express how lame it is to have to fight one boss nearly ten different times over the course of the game.

There are some redeeming aspects of Halo 5, but those mainly are present in the game’s multiplayer offering, which, as I said, isn’t being taken into account here. As such, Halo 5: Guardians easily stands as the worst in the series and makes me somewhat nervous about Infinite‘s prospects later this year. If anything, I’m glad that Halo 5 at least prompted 343 to return to the drawing board and create an entirely new engine before continuing on with the development of the franchise.

6. Halo 4

This one was actually really tough for me because largely, I think Halo 4‘s campaign is pretty darn good. For 343’s first outing, Halo 4 ended up boasting a tight, concise campaign that feels excellent to play. Like, seriously, before 343 really mixed up the franchise’s control scheme with Halo 5, 4 was the best installment in the series by far with the “classic” shooting stylings. Not only that, but all the new additions to the game in the way of new enemy types, new weapons, and new vehicles all felt great to me.

I think the only reason it didn’t end up going higher on this list is just because I really cannot get invested in the new direction that Halo 4 took the series’ story. Look, I’m not a big Halo narrative guy by any means. I’ve never read any of the novels, listened to spin-off podcasts, and honestly, I don’t care if that TV show ever gets up and running. Still, I just find it hard to care about Master Chief’s current struggle with the Forerunners. DualShockers‘ own Steven Santana wrote a piece for us a few months back talking about how Halo‘s storytelling felt better when it was smaller, and I totally agree with that. For all of the qualities of Halo 4 that I like, I wish it was a bit easier to get invested in.

5. Halo 3

Despite being the game where Master Chief finishes the fight, Halo 3‘s campaign isn’t as great as I remember it. Yes, there are standout levels like The Covenant and Tsavo Highway that are excellent, but it’s the missions in between that I forgot were so straightforward and bland until this recent replay. This isn’t to say that the campaign is bad though, because it absolutely isn’t. Halo 3 has so many memorable moments, it ends on a high note, and altogether just wrapped up the initial Halo trilogy in a fantastic way.

Halo 3 is arguably the zenith of the franchise’s popularity and it’ll likely never get bigger than it was when it launched in 2007. Even though it’s my least favorite installment in Master Chief’s original three-game outing, Halo 3 is still excellent in its own right and is a game that an entire generation of players will look back fondly on for years to come.

4. Halo: Combat Evolved

It’s honestly wild how well Halo: Combat Evolved holds up. For a game that is nearing its twentieth anniversary (that’s so bizarre to even say), Combat Evolved still feels fresh to this day. Having played through the game countless times in my life already, I was really surprised in this most recent playthrough at how fun the game still is. This just speaks to how well-polished and realized Bungie’s initial outing was on the original Xbox.

Comparatively, Combat Evolved doesn’t reach the same highs as other campaigns in the series, but from front to back, it’s still a much stronger experience than a handful of other installments. As such, it slots in nicely right here in the middle of the pack.

3. Halo 2

In the opening hours of Halo 2, Master Chief prevents a bomb from blowing up his ship. He then drags that bomb with his bare hands to an airlock, jumps out into space with it, flies into the middle of a Covenant ship, and then detonates it before safely landing back aboard his own aircraft.

Halo 2 is far and away the most memorable campaign in the Master Chief line of Halo titles, which is crazy because you don’t even play as Chief in about half of the game. Bungie’s bold idea to place you in the shoes of the Arbiter, the initial antagonist of the first Halo, paid major dividends in this sequel. Not only did this decision help spice up each mission a bit and make them feel more varied, but it further fleshed out the world of Halo to great effect. The way that Master Chief and the Arbiter’s stories also end up crossing over near the conclusion of the game is also fantastic.

Halo 2 also just has so many little things that really put it over the top, too. The game’s score features the work of legendary guitarists Steve Vai and John Mayer, the ending cutscene is perhaps one of the most iconic in the history of video games, and the Anniversary edition which launched with Halo: The Master Chief Collection is a truly fantastic remaster. If Combat Evolved was the game that brought console shooters to the masses, this sequel is what made Halo a household name.

2. Halo: Reach

From the outset of Halo: Reach, you know how the campaign is going to end. Not only had Reach’s history been well-documented in Halo lore, but the campaign opening itself makes it clear that you will not be surviving this mission. And with this at the forefront of your mind, it makes Reach all the more compelling and intriguing to play.

Even though the entire Halo series is set on the backdrop of war, Reach is really the only game that captures that wartime atmosphere. Some of the missions within Reach are set on the backdrop of massive battlefields, reminding you constantly that you’re just one cog in this larger scheme. Plus, Reach is one of the few Halo entries that actually makes the Covenant feel threatening, unlike the fodder that they can sometimes be for Master Chief. Reach also makes you feel overwhelmed in the best way possible, with the epilogue mission really nailing this idea more than anything else.

Bungie really went out on a high note with Halo: Reach. Not only is the storytelling and journey of Noble Team perhaps the best single arc in the series, but some of the new ideas, guns, and mechanics that were introduced here worked incredibly well and are still present in the franchise to this day. Bungie was really starting to take the Halo saga in some interesting directions before its work on the series ended. At the very least, I’m glad that the studio gave us Reach before moving on.

1. Halo 3: ODST

I’m going to be honest: I’m shocked that Halo 3: ODST ended up reaching the top of my list here. To me, stepping into the shoes of an overpowered super soldier is half of the allure in playing each Halo campaign. For the best installment in the series to end up being the spin-off entry of Halo 3 that doesn’t have you playing as a Spartan and instead forces you to utilize a faceless, voiceless soldier shouldn’t work as well as it does, but here we are.

Compared to every other Halo entry except for maybe Reach, ODST just oozes a distinct tone and feeling that is never present in other campaigns. Backed by the best Halo soundtrack of them all, ODST‘s focus on isolation in a somber environment makes it wholly unique compared the loud, bombastic tone that is frequently found in other installments.

More than anything though, I think what I realized I loved the most about ODST was just how the campaign was constructed. Instead of just going from one mission to the next without pause, Halo 3: ODST is a semi-open world title for some brief portions. You’ll have to wander around the streets of New Mombasa and try to figure out what happened to the rest of your squad before being launched into a flashback sequence that details what they’ve been up to. It’s a simple idea on paper, but it’s one that makes ODST feel more cohesive in its storytelling than any other Halo campaign.

I’ve had a lot of ideas in recent months about how 343 Industries should look to construct Halo Infinite’s campaign and I really hope that they look to ODST for inspiration. While we don’t know what Infinite might look like just yet, if the game does go in a more open-ended direction, ODST‘s template blown up on a larger scale could potentially work out really well. If the Halo series wants to bounce back moving forward, 343 would be smart to borrow ideas from the franchise’s best campaign of them all.

April 9, 2020 2:30 PM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/04/the-definitive-ranking-of-every-halo-story-campaign/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-definitive-ranking-of-every-halo-story-campaign

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oneddashone · 5 years

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Games of the Year 2018

2018 was, for me, when I finally escaped the zeitgeist of well-reviewed, non-Nintendo, big-budget AAA games. Red Dead 2, Spider-Man, God of War—in previous years, the collective siren song of each of these games' Recommended or Essential tags on Eurogamer would have been too much for me to resist, but not this year—the Nintendo Switch almost completely cannibalized my game time in 2018.

It's an object that brings me joy in a way the PS4 and Xbox could never hope to achieve. Sure, part of it is just a victory lap for a Nintendo fanboy that rarely gets them anymore, and part of it is certainly the added flexibility of the handheld/console duality at the heart of its design. But it's also something more than that. Something I've struggled to define.

Nintendo's release calendar in 2018 was, in my eyes at least, as near-perfect as you can get when dealing with something as volatile as game development. Every month there was a new and interesting big box release, a few interesting digital-only games, and probably a patch to one of your favorite games from 2017 that made it a blast to play all over again. I know that it's been criticized, and that Nintendo's stock was even down at one point because of a perceived negative reaction to the games they put out this year, but I just can't comprehend that—to me it felt perfect.

Anyways, on to the list.

(Side bar: some have already scoffed at some of the inclusions here due to strict Gregorian merit. I quite like how Polygon worded their policy on their list:

You may notice the inclusion of games that were either fully released or made available in Early Access prior to 2018. Because many games change from update to update, let alone year to year, we will include previously available games that receive a significant update within the year or become available on a platform that substantially impacts how that game is experienced.

End side bar)

RECOMMENDED

Night in the Woods

Danmaku Unlimited 3

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon

Yoku’s Island Express

Mario Tennis Aces

Octopath Traveler

The Messenger

Valkyria Chronicles 4

Dragon Ball FighterZ

Mega Man 11

Forza Horizon 4

Dark Souls Remastered

Diablo III: Eternal Collection

Civilization VI

Tetris Effect

Gris

I'm really happy with the diversity of games in this part of the list. From Dark Souls to Gris, there was truly something for almost any type of video game fan this year. I still think about the music from Night in the Woods, the characters from Valkyria Chronicles, and the stages from Mega Man 11. Octopath Traveler perfectly scratched the JRPG itch (even if I still have over half the game to go), and Mario Tennis Aces was the most competitive I've been in an online game since probably Arms. Danmaku Unlimited 3 is wholly underrated as a modern shmup, and regardless of how you feel about racing games, you owe it to yourself to experience the fields of rural England flying by in Forza Horizon 4—one of only two games in this list that I didn't play on Switch, actually.

ESSENTIAL

Celeste

Hollow Knight

Dead Cells

Into the Breach

Pokemon: Let's Go Eeevee

Super Smash Bros Ultimate

This part of the list is just bonkers. I feel like there have been past years where literally all of these could have finished #1.

Celeste touched me with its story—not something I've said about many games, especially those that are most well-known for their precision and difficulty. Hollow Knight was a complete joy when it landed on Switch this Spring. I immediately put dozens of hours into it and played it exclusively for weeks, and I still have more to find. Dead Cells quickly replaced all the other roguelikes I was regularly dipping into, and still hasn't given up its roost there. Into the Breach was the exact strategy game I needed to get back into that genre, at a time when I desperately wanted to get back into that genre. Pokemon Let's Go Eevee was *the* father/daughter game this year—we've played it together, sure, but we've also bonded in discussions about elemental strengths and weaknesses, correct support character strategy, the merits of grinding, etc etc etc (I’ve also started my own save file—it’s that good). And SSB Ultimate came on late but hit hard—I played it with friends every night for weeks after release. This one is gonna last well into next year and beyond.

Hollow Knight, Dead Cells, and Into the Breach were also all games that my PC friends were playing and that I knew I'd probably be into, but doubted I'd ever get the chance to experience myself. That they all made their console debut on the Switch in the same calendar year speaks to how strong that calendar was for Nintendo, I'd say.

GOTY

Monster Hunter World (and Generations Ultimate)

For all the Nintendo love on this list—and yes I realize I'm cheating by also sneaking Gen Ultimate on here—it's one of the only games I played on PS4 that takes the top spot.

2018 was the year of Monster Hunter for me. I had played multiple games in the series up to this point, but the two that came out this year completely nailed what makes these games great—and they're two totally, completely different (but equally wonderful) games.

Generations Ultimate technically came out later in the West, but it's also clearly the older game. The 'ultimate' in the title isn't marketing happenstance—this is a huge, over-stuffed collection of the 'best of' MonHun's first four mainline and spin-off games. Everything good about MonHun before 2018 is in this game, and it's as bloated as you'd expect. I played with a multitude of weapons, styles, and arts, and still didn't come close to scratching the surface of the vast amount of stuff in this game. I'm still playing it and plan to continue for some time.

Monster Hunter World, on the other hand, came out all the way back in January but is almost a completely new game. A lot of the dumb cruft from 10+ years of game history has been whittled down into one of the most intensely satisfying experiences I had this year. I played around 90 hours—some alone, some with my trusted hunting buddy Tommy, and some with a full group of hunters from Detroit Arcade Club—and I never felt like I wasted a minute. I love that they've added some light MMO elements (in the form of daily and weekly bonuses, mostly). I love that the maps are one coherent place now, and that monsters attack each other in unscripted encounters. I love that whetstones are infinite and you don't stop and cycle through an animation every time you pick a flower. There was just so much to love in this game, and it sets the table beautifully for the next ten years of Monster Hunter.

It was a good year in games. Maybe not as stuffed as last year, and certainly not quite hitting its extreme highs (I couldn't even write about Breath of the Wild last year, it was too good), but on the whole it was steady in quality and refreshingly varied in its executions. Here's to another year in games like this one.

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virginieboesus · 5 years

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7 Of My Favourite Game Series Of All Time

There are so many great series out there when it comes to gaming, especially when looking at retro games. Many of the big name, AAA series are incredibly famous, which is great for the video game industry as it brings more attention to the industry. However, it also means that there are a large number of video game series that go undiscovered by the majority of gamers.

That’s why I wanted to list out my top 7 favourite video game series. Now, I will say that I am using the official definition of a series, which simply states that the series must be a set or sequence of related media. Therefore, the minimum number of games that a series needs in order to qualify for this list is 2. With that in mind, let’s get started!

7. Silent Hill

The first on the list is also one of the two most famous on the list as well. Back in the early days of Survival Horror, there was a war between two game franchises that really dominated the genre. On one side, you had Resident Evil. On the other, you had Silent Hill. For me, the clear winner for the PS1 and PS2 generations had to be Silent Hill. The original four games were exquisite examples of psychological horror, scaring you more with hidden meaning and enemies that you can’t see.

From there, the main series went downhill a bit but redeemed itself (in my opinion) with Downpour and the amazing Shattered Memories. All 6 of these games have created lasting memories for me, and I still enjoy going back and playing them to this day.

6. Dot Hack

Next up, we technically have two series in one; Project dot//Hack and dot//Hack GU. I’m including them both because GU is technically a direct sequel to Project dot//Hack, despite also being considered its own series. The games are based upon an anime revolving around a virtual reality MMORPG, which also features as the prequel to the video games as well. The amount of world-building throughout the original anime, both series of games, plus the side-story anime that came with each entry in Project// dot Hack was incredible. You got a real sense of both the “in-game” and “real” worlds.

On top of that, the combat was enjoyable, mixing menu driven fighting with MMO style action RPG combat. The storylines for all of the entries were great, piecing together a huge overarching plot at the same time! Oh, and the developers went out of their way to make the game feel like an MMO; you can trade with “other players”, sometimes your characters will be “offline” and not available to party with, and you can log out of the MMO part to check forums and read email! It’s crazy how much depth the games offer.

5. Galerians

So, this entry is the reason why I’m using the rule that 2 games count as a series. Galerians as a series features the eponymous Galerians for PS1, and Galerians: Ash for PS2. There is also an anime version of the first game called Galerians: Rion, and a manga prequel that I’ve never been able to get my hands on. I’ve mentioned many times before how much I love Galerians on the PS1 (you can read about that here), but I really enjoyed both games and the anime version.

Without repeating myself too much, the Galerians series takes the typical Survival Horror setup and turns it on its head. Rather than being a police officer or security guard facing off against scientific experiments, you are the scientific experiment and have to survive against the police and military. This, along with some very entertaining (and gory) gameplay, all come together to create a wonderful example of early Survival Horror.

4. Fatal Frame

Sticking with Survival Horror for the next entry, we come to my favourite solely horror series of all time; Fatal Frame. Whilst there have been so many horror games and series throughout the years, Fatal Frame is the only one to truly freak me out. In fact, Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly took me years to finish because I would just get so creeped out, and I’m ashamed to admit that at all. Taking full inspiration from Japanese mythology regarding the afterlife and ghosts, each game features some of the most spine-tingling gameplay I’ve ever experienced.

For example, in Fatal Frame 2, the ghosts can actually move through all parts of the game world, without the need for doors or other boundaries. So whilst you may run away from a ghost in one room of a house, they might suddenly appear almost anywhere else in the game! This creates a constant sense of dread, which is incredibly well done. If you are a fan of horror games and haven’t tried Fatal Frame yet, you are doing yourself a disservice!

3. Final Fantasy

Come on, you must have known that Final Fantasy was going to be on this list. I mean, as a J-RPG fan, even if you prefer other games to Final Fantasy, you have to admire the sheer power that the series (or rather, franchise) has on the gaming industry. Sure, it hasn’t been able to hit the same heights that it once reached in recent years, but I still adore the series as a whole. I mean, I own the large majority of the games.

Final Fantasy got me into J-RPGs, which very quickly became one of my two favourite genres (the other being horror, as you could probably tell from this list), so I also have to respect that aspect of the franchise. But honestly, I just find myself getting lost in the games and their stories. Characters are usually relatable, and the storylines are incredibly memorable. But really, I don’t think I need to explain why Final Fantasy made this list, do I?

2. Megami Tensei

So, what J-RPG series would I rank higher than Final Fantasy? Well, as this is a personal list, there are two. The first of these is Megami Tensei; one of the most convoluted yet incredible J-RPG series I’ve ever played. Each game is it’s own story, at least in the mainline Megami Tensei games. However, you also have a bunch of “spin off” games that have since created their own series within the Megami Tensei meta-series.

For example, the most well known of these spin-offs would have to be a little game series with 5 entries called Persona. Perhaps you’ve heard of it? Another would be Digital Devil Saga with 2 games, then there are the Devil Summoner games with 4 entries, the 9 Shin Megami Tensei (plus another one coming soon-ish), 2 Devil Survivor games and a bunch of single spin-offs as well. Megami Tensei is an enormous, behemoth of a series overall, and I thoroughly adore it. The art style, gameplay innovations and very dark storylines mesh perfectly with what I want from a video game series.

1. Shadow Hearts

The last game series on this list, and my favourite game series of all time has to be Shadow Hearts! I mean, to be fair, if you have been reading this blog for a while now (or follow me on Twitter), you’ll know that Koudelka is my all time favourite game. Well, that’s also the first game in the Shadow Hearts series. So that, alone, is reason enough for Shadow Hearts to top this list. But despite that, the Shadow Hearts games themselves are beyond outstanding. They are incredibly dark in their subject matter (the first town you visit in Shadow Hearts 1 is full of cannibals and demons trying to eat you), overflying with comedy that happens at just the right time, and introduced the world to the Judgement Ring battle system.

These games, as a whole, have never left my gaming heart, and I doubt they ever will be. The series was cut short after Shadow Hearts: From The New World (the 3rd Shadow Hearts titled game and 4th in the series, including Koudelka) didn’t sell well, which is a real shame. These games are all fantastic, and I cannot sing their praises enough. Sure, From The New World wasn’t as good as the others, but it was still thoroughly enjoyable. If you’ve never played one of these games, I highly recommend them!

And That’s All Folks

So those were my top 7 video game series of all time. Yes, I am fully aware they fit into two categories; J-RPG and Survival Horror… But after all, those are my two favourite genres when it comes to gaming, so that was always going to happen.

What is your favourite video game series? Let me know in the comments below!

from More Design Curation https://www.16bitdad.com/7-of-my-favourite-game-series-of-all-time/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=7-of-my-favourite-game-series-of-all-time source https://smartstartblogging.tumblr.com/post/180259145405

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smartstartblogging · 5 years

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7 Of My Favourite Game Series Of All Time

7. Silent Hill

6. Dot Hack

5. Galerians

4. Fatal Frame

3. Final Fantasy

2. Megami Tensei

1. Shadow Hearts

And That’s All Folks

What is your favourite video game series? Let me know in the comments below!

from More Design Curation https://www.16bitdad.com/7-of-my-favourite-game-series-of-all-time/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=7-of-my-favourite-game-series-of-all-time

#More Design Curation

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pixelgrotto · 5 years

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The horrific Resident Evil playthrough, interlude three

Resident Evil’s a franchise that has almost as many spin-offs as it does main games, and when I told a friend several months ago that I was going to attempt a series playthrough, he was like, “Dude, aren’t there thirty of those?”

Thirty’s an exaggeration, but there are about eleven spin-off games, give or take a bunch of mobile quickies that only came out in Japan. I’m not counting the “big” spin-offs like Code: Veronica or the Revelations titles, because those are essentially mainline releases with pivotal, canon story elements. I’m talking about games like Resident Evil: Survivor, an early PS1 effort that tried to fulfill the series’ first person perspective fetish with clunky results, Resident Evil: Dead Aim, a light gun shooter, and Resident Evil: Outbreak, an online game that let you tag team with buddies to escape Racoon City.

I decided to pick and choose which of these spin-offs I’d sit down to play, since quite a few of ‘em are mediocre, others have components that are now difficult to get running (Outbreak’s online multiplayer) and I just didn’t have the necessary hardware, like a PS2 light gun, to fully enjoy stuff like Dead Aim. (If you want a more comprehensive study of all of these games, then check out Avalanche Reviews’ Resident Evil Retrospective, which he began at around the same time that I started this playthrough.) I finally settled on Resident Evil 1.5, Resident Evil Gaiden, Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles and Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles as the ones I was most interesting in experiencing...and honestly, it was a mixed bag.

Resident Evil 1.5 - This isn’t so much a game as it’s a leaked beta release of what would eventually become Resident Evil 2, and the reason I chose to play this is because it’s famously different from the final product. Thanks to lots of behind-the-scenes development drama, Resident Evil 1.5 (still shown as 2 in my screenshot up there) is an unfinished build that was scrapped and heavily reworked before it became the RE2 that we know today. The differences between this and the final version are stark - the famous Raccoon City Police Station is a modern office building rather than a gothic hall of weird puzzles and art, the enemies include strange foes like zombie gorillas, there was no partner zapping system, and there’s a whole different character available from the get-go named Elza Walker. Elza, initially just a random motorcycle-riding civilian who crashed into the police station during the zombie outbreak, later became Claire Redfield in order to create a connection with Chris Redfield of RE1. I’m kind of fascinated with her, since it’s rare to get a glimpse of a character that was totally revamped during a game’s development, and I mostly ignored Leon to dabble through portions of the playable build with her. I say “dabble” rather than “play” because you can’t exactly finish RE1.5 - all you can do is wander around rooms and use a debug menu to teleport to different spots before giving up and watching a playthrough of someone more experienced do this on YouTube. At the end of the day, RE1.5 is more of a fascinating look behind the curtain than it is an actual game, and the final version of RE2 is definitely superior. It’s no wonder why the devs decided that a drastic revamp was needed, since RE1.5, even in its unfinished state, feels kind of samey to RE1. That said, I remain enamored with Elza Walker and her slick motorcycle suit, and I ain’t the only one, since it’s available as a skin for Claire in the upcoming Resident Evil 2 remake.

Resident Evil Gaiden - RE Gaiden is a game that got infamously bad reviews upon release, with reviewers crapping on it for not being like the PS1 games. This is kind of unfair in hindsight, because it was released for the darn Game Boy Color, of all systems, and there was no way we were going to get an accurate copy of an experience which originated on hardware that was much more powerful. If anything, it shows how bad gaming journalism was in the early 2000s (you could make the argument that it still is bad, but that’s another story altogether), because honestly...I kinda enjoyed Gaiden? It’s flawed to be sure, but it comes darn close to taking the experience of “survival,” always at the heart of this series, and distilling it down to an 8-bit formula. The setting is a huge ship, just like Resident Evil Revelations (which oddly seems like it borrowed a lot of concepts from this game), and you’ve got to do the usual schtick of running around, collecting ammo and items and dodging zombies. Combat takes place from an RPG-esque first-person perspective that I liked because it struck me as an elegant reminder of Sweet Home, and you’ve got a constantly moving slider bar for each weapon with a key point in the middle that you need to hit in order to accurately fire off a shot. It’s novel but frustrating at times, since advanced weapons have the slider moving so damn fast, and it’s totally possible to end up in a fail state by running out of ammo. You can do this in any Resident Evil game, technically, but it feels more plausible here. Case in point - I got all the way to the final boss and was unable to beat him because I had no bullets. Dang! Still, despite its rough edges, Gaiden feels like a sleeper that didn’t quite deserve the bashing that it got upon release, and for a spin-off designed by a small British studio who had previously only made Mary Kate & Ashley and Tazmanian Devil games, it’s worth a look for people who always wondered what RE would be like in 2D.

Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles/Darkside Chronicles - I’m grouping these Wii rail shooters together because I expected to enjoy ‘em the most, since they contain remixes of the plots of RE1 to Code: Veronica and also new bits of lore, like the actual story of Umbrella’s downfall. (Why Capcom never stuck this in a mainline game and relegated it to a chapter in a Wii spin-off remains one of the company’s more bizarre franchise decisions.) Unfortunately, I couldn’t finish them, because I realized while playing both that...I don’t really like rail shooters very much. I mean, I think stuff like Time Crisis is okay in the arcade, when you’ve got a partner by your side and a physical zapper in your hand. But playing these after the fact and solo via the Dolphin emulator just isn’t as fun, though they are technically well made, for what it’s worth. I think my issue is that rail shooters take nearly all movement away from the player, and to me a vital facet of this series since day one has been exploration, so to be ushered from location to location with not much to do but blast zombies in the head just isn’t very appealing to me. The camera work in both games was also too much for me to handle, particularly in Darkside Chronicles, which has near constant shaky cam and gave me a headache after ten minutes. Overall, I think the new lore is worth checking out, at least via a YouTube collection of all the cutscenes, but I couldn’t bring myself to play these to completion. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised, since I found the Time Crisis-style shoot ‘em up sections of RE5 and 6 to be kinda aggravating, but I was hoping to be surprised. This wasn’t the case, and part of me also finds both of these games to be something of a depressing reminder of the Wii era, where just about every major franchise got a gimmicky spin-off designed around the motion controls of Nintendo’s white box. It happened with Soulcalibur, it happened with Dragon Quest, and it happened with Resident Evil. The Umbrella Chronicles and Darkside Chronicles are certainly on a higher tier when it comes to Wii spin-offs, but...I still think they aren’t for me.

And with that, I wrap up this so-so experience of Resident Evil side stories just in time for the big B.O.W. in the room... Resident Evil RE2make releases in two days, and you bet that I’ve got it pre-ordered and ready to load.

All screenshots taken by me.

#pixel grotto #video games #now playing #resident evil #biohazard #resident evil 1.5 #biohazard 1.5 #resident evil gaiden #biohazard gaiden #umbrella chronicles #darkside chronicles

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virginieboesus · 6 years

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My Top 7 PlayStation 2 Survival Horror Games

Survival Horror has always been one of my favourite genres when it comes to video games. There’s just something about the innate fear and adrenaline rush that these games give you that makes me come back for more. No matter if they are more action focused or designed to just get under your skin, Survival Horror games have a way to stick with you for years after you’ve finished them. They’re just so memorable.

Admittedly, some are memorable for all of the wrong reasons, but that will be a separate feature post in the future. Today, we’re going to look at my personal top 7 PlayStation 2 Survival Horror games. So, let’s get started!

7. Silent Hill 2

Silent Hill 2 has to be on this list, doesn’t it? I mean, it is my second favourite in the Silent Hill series. The reason I didn’t include it higher on the list is that, when I went back to it, it didn’t hold the same levels of tensions that it used to. Silent Hill 2 gave us Pyramid Head and an incredible story, but honestly, as a game, it didn’t really do that much different. The gameplay itself feels very normal, with nothing that truly stands out. It just felt like the first game with better graphics.

The music, however, is outstanding. I still listen to the soundtrack regularly. On top of this, the game does instil a sense of fear as you make your way through the town. But Silent Hill 2’s real selling point is the storyline. The characters, plot and events are all incredibly memorable and can be interpreted in many ways (except for the twist, as that is pretty clear-cut).

6. Resident Evil: Outbreak

The Resident Evil series had already received a small number of spin-offs by the time we got to the release of Outbreak. From the utterly atrocious Resident Evil: Survivor for PSX (there’s a review of this game here) to the truly dreadful Resident Evil: Gaiden for the Gameboy Colour, none of the spin-offs had been particularly good. So I went into Resident Evil: Outbreak with very low expectations. Don’t let that fool you though. The reason I ended up loving the game is that it was put together almost immaculately. Again, I have revied RE: Outbreak here, but it is safe to say it was the first spin-off done really well (note: Code: Veronica isn’t a spin-off, as it was originally named Resident Evil 3 in development, with Nemesis as a planned spin-off)!

The changes in gameplay, such as multiplayer that didn’t make the game easier, an infection rate and the ability to combine household items into weapons were all great additions to the game. On top of that, it managed to really capture the struggle and fear of being in Raccoon City during the titular outbreak. To this day, RE: Outbreak is one of my favourite games in the series, so it was always going to get a spot on this list.

5. Forbidden Siren II

The Forbidden Siren series (known simply as Siren outside of Europe) has all but faded into dust now, with the latest game (Blood Curse) coming out on the PS3 and nothing really happening with the series since then. Considering how amazing the second game in the series was, this is a real shame. Set on a lonely island that is inhabited by monstrous-looking people with murderous intentions, the gameplay is where Forbidden Siren II really stood out from the crowd.

For example, the enemies are largely indestructible. You can hurt them enough to stall them if you are lucky, but they never actually die. That means that you’re always being hunted! That, in and of itself, is a terrifying feeling. However, nothing with really prepare you for the sight-jacking ability in the game. With this, you can “jack” into enemies that are nearby to work out their positions. It is designed to make it a bit easier to avoid confrontation. But when you jack into an enemy and realise they are looking right at you, the sense of sheer dread that fills your body is unexplainable.

4. The Thing

Funnily enough, my favourite horror film of all time is John Carpenter’s The Thing. The man is a genius, and the movie is incredible. So, the fact that the PS2’s The Thing is a canon sequel to the movie (and thus also the recent prequel movie) is a huge bonus right off the bat. However, that isn’t the only reason why The Thing is featuring on this list. It also has the honour of being one of the very select few games made from movies that are actually good!

The Thing manages to capture the constant feeling of dread and loneliness, as well as distrust and psychology unease that the movie portrayed so well. You actually get the same sense of fear buried deep inside you that you would if you were in the movie yourself. On top of this, the game managed to mix slightly more action-orientated gameplay with the themes of Survival Horror without taking away from the fear itself. This is something later games in the genre (such as Resident Evil 5 and 6) completely failed to do. As such, The Thing definitely deserves a spot on this list, at least in my opinion.

3. Resident Evil 4

Okay, let’s be honest; you probably knew Resident Evil 4 was going to make this list. I mean, how could it not? It was the last true Survival Horror game in the series until the release of Resident Evil 7 for the PS4, and it revitalised the genre, bringing it back to the forefront of the gaming industry. The radical changes to gameplay, such as Resident Evil switching from fixed camera angles to an over-the-shoulder view, were huge. In fact, such a massive change wasn’t seen again until the aforementioned Resident Evil 7 switched to first-person.

On top of this, the fact that the game is essentially a giant escort mission adds so much to the tension. Not only do you have to survive, but you need to protect an absolutely useless character that follows you almost everywhere. The enemies were fun and new, yet still felt like they belonged in Resident Evil, and the bosses hadn’t quite got to the point of being giant insects that you fight on top of skyscrapers yet. Leon also finally made a return to the series, after not being seen in a mainline title since Resident Evil 2. This was a huge game and was immensely successful.

2. Silent Hill: Shattered Memories

Time for an unpopular opinion now; whilst Silent Hill 2 is an amazing game, it isn’t my favourite in the Silent Hill series. It is very close, but Shattered Memories actually takes the prize. I know that many of you are now planning how to feed me to Pyramid Head, but honestly, I just preferred the psychological elements of Shattered Memories. The fact that the game changed depending on how you acted, what you looked at in the game and what decisions you make was incredible. In fact, the enemies themselves would also change design and shape depending on how the game psychologically profiles you. That is an outstanding piece of game design right there.

Sure, the actual “otherworld” areas weren’t anything like as gory or terrifying as other Silent Hill games, but they didn’t need to be. It was the changing nuances of the game that really freaked you out. The fact that the game was reading you and adjusting itself to scare and unnerve you specifically was unreal. This was definitely, for me, the most memorable Silent Hill experience I have had to date.

1. Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly

My personal number one pick for the best Survival Horror game on the PS2 goes to Fatal Frame II (also known as Project Zero II). Why? Well, the best way to explain it is to tell you just how long it took me to finish this game; 5 years! It is the only Survival Horror game to ever bury its way so deep into my skin that I had to stop playing it. Everything from the atmosphere to the ghosts themselves drives that dread deep inside you. The storyline is outstanding, dealing with ritual sacrifice and the afterlife, through the eyes of two young sisters.

On top of this, the only way to defend yourself (as is the main gameplay mechanic in Fatal Frame games) is with a camera. You need to take photographs of the ghosts to hurt them! This means you need the time and skill to line up your shots and take them at the opportune moment to deal high damage. Everything about Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly is incredible, and to me, it is the pinnacle of Survival Horror game design.

And That’s All Folks

Those are my personal top 7 Survival Horror games for the PS2. I know that many will not agree with me, especially about Silent Hill 2, and that’s ok. After all, if we agreed with each other all of the time, life would be pretty boring. So I stand by my decisions because that’s just what they are; my decisions based on my opinions.

Do you have a favourite PS2 Survival Horror game? Let me know in the comments below!

from More Design Curation https://www.16bitdad.com/my-top-7-playstation-2-survival-horror-games/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=my-top-7-playstation-2-survival-horror-games source https://smartstartblogging.tumblr.com/post/173466301300

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