So, I could give you a small, non-spoilery recommendation that'll make your life 100x easier, because, if you don't know it's going to happen, it'll totally blindside you if you're not careful. But that could possibly intrude on you allowing yourself to be totally surprised by the game. And it's... one heck of a surprise when it happens the first time.
@Foxy-Goddess-ScotchyAlready got to the crimson heads, eh? I was 15 or so when I first played this, and I was so freaked out when the zombie I'd killed in a tight corridor an hour early suddenly rose up and started running after me that I hastily smashed the power button on the GC and quit playing the game for a few days.
Currently Playing: The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy (PC)
Level of Completion: All stages completed (53 S Ranks; 10 A Ranks; 1 B Rank). 70 hours of total playtime.
Type of Game: Turn-based tactics game. Unlike the developer’s other big tactics series, Fire Emblem, there are no RPG elements to this game, as nothing carries over between missions. You make do with what you’re given at the start of each mission.
Premise: Some time after meteors rain down on the Earth and destroy civilization, the existing order of the world collapses. The main character is a young survivor named Will, who is taken in by a rogue military captain who now uses his squad to try and maintain some semblance of justice in a wasteland where the weak have no protections from the cruelties of the strong. Insane generals, factional/ideological conflicts, and a bizarre disease that makes flower burst from the heads of the infected all factor into the narrative as it progresses.
What I Liked:
There’s an actual narrative in this game. It’s nothing deep, but people have actual personalities, and dialogues aren’t merely jokey interludes meant to separate missions like in previous games.
The pool of units in this game is easily the most balanced in the entire series, and, more than in previous entries, I often found myself relying on almost the entire set to accomplish my goals. The various buildable units in your unit are designed to complement each others' strengths and weaknesses, and you'll quickly be punished by the CPU for trying to ham with a bunch of OP units that don't properly address stage conditions, enemy positioning, and the available pool of resources the enemy has to call on.
Units can now level up and gain EXP in missions, which helps to increase their effectiveness against enemies. This little addition actually adds a lot to the game.
The changes to CO powers, unit selection, and map design in this game makes Days of Ruin, by far, the most strategically pure and challenging game in the series. The player is now more consistently rewarded for following through on a strategy to route the enemy as opposed to just zerg rushing the enemy in every map (although this can still be employed at times to often devastating effect). Moreover, while CO powers, properly utilized, can help to turn the edge in a battle, their effects are drastically limited and consistently more difficult to trigger. This helps curb the annoying tendency to over-rely on OP CO powers to help you beat a difficult opponent.
While the story itself is fairly serious, there’s a good bit of goody dialogue between characters that helps to lighten the mood. This is most evident in the “war room” dialogues. Ostensibly designed to help you complete a mission by giving you hints, dialogues in the war room are often filled with amusing scenarios and interactions between characters.
The OST is pure rock and roll, and, even if the compression of the sound files keeps the tracks from sounding as good as they might have on more powerful hardware, it’s compulsively listenable.
The main single-player campaign in DoR is one of the longest and most satisfying in the series.
What I Disliked:
There's not quite as much content as in the previous entry, Advance Wars: Dual Strike. Although you could probably make a quantity/quality argument here. And there's still a ton of content here.
While it was cool at the time, it undeniably sucks that it's now impossible to access content that was gated behind Days of Ruin's online mode. It's also one less mode to engage with if you didn't play the game before Nintendo shut the DS' online down.
While I get the reasons for the change, I feel like the muted color palette of this entry takes away from the series' unique visual identity a bit.
This game was undeniably a step forward for the series on the narrative front, yet the modern player shouldn't expect too much. Characters are incredibly tropey. The plot, while interesting, is a bit underdeveloped, and less unique a decade on, when post-apocalyptic stories have been increasingly common (at the time this released, the only game with a similar theme I can recall is Fallout 3). And while, as previously mentioned, the dialogue can be a lot of fun, there are also moments that skate dangerously close to over-localization. The treehouse crew clearly added a lot of humor to the script that wasn't there originally, and it doesn't always land. In general, I'd say this series was still lagging far behind the Fire Emblem franchise on the narrative front.
The game never really bothers to reward the player for going out of their way to ace missions. Perhaps this should be its own reward, but I always like when games have a tasty-looking carrot to dangle in front of my face and compel me to persist in my quest for perfection. Earlier AW games were better on this front.
Conclusion: A satisfying and lengthy tactical experience that is easy to learn how to play but only really reveals its full potential when the player takes the time to experiment, strategize, and replay missions for better scores. Attempts at making it more of a coherent narrative experience are admirable. Unfortunately, a lot of emphasis was placed on the new online multiplayer mode, which has been long abandoned, and the presentation is never elaborate enough to really sell you on the new direction IS seemed to be taking the famously gameplay-centric series. Ultimately, while I really liked this game, I did kind of miss the old, cheerier aesthetic of previous games.
Well, I finally have the God of War classic series under my belt now. Finished GOW 3 last week.
Again, with how identical they are, it's hard to get really in-depth, but thankfully there's enough changes in it to talk about.
The combat is the same as it ever was. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. However it has been improved with the new weapons. Previously, they were more like secondary powers like Typhon's Bow or weren't as fleshed out as Kratos' blades. Now, the additional 3 weapons you get over the course of the game are just as viable as his blades, as well as having unique abilites: one weapon can briefly summon an enemy, another can destroy certain objects, and the last can do continuous damage by holding the attack buttons. There's also 3 side weapons that now take up their own separate, regenerating meter, while magic attacks are tied to the weapon currently equipped.
The graphics are easily the best of the old God of War games, since this is the first PS3 entry. It has it's niggles, like texture pop-in and some weird animation, but environments and most characters look great.
As for the story, as the finale of the old series, it's every bit as epic as it needs to be, and does try to pull on the feelings a bit in regards to Kratos himself. It's a bit better than the past games, but it's also where the characters are at their most ruthless, including Kratos himself. The game itself is a bit of a downer, as you are the one destroying everything.
Anyway. Definitely a good game, and probably the best in the series for me. I know there's Ascension as well, but I haven't been able to get a copy of it, or sure if I want to play it after 5 God of War games. Not sure when I'll get Dad of War either.
"We don't get to choose how we start in this life. Real 'greatness' is what you do with the hand you're dealt." -Victor Sullivan "Building the future and keeping the past alive are one and the same thing." -Solid Snake
Hitman 2 (2018). I was expecting it to be a fairly standard stealth game, but I'm glad to see that it was much better than that. I completed the main Hitman 2 campaign, as well as the Hitman 1 (2016) campaign and bonus Patient Zero missions from the DLC Legacy Pack. Missions were completed on medium difficulty and I also did some of the story missions (including all the recommended ones).
This game involves the main character Agent 47 trying to assassinate various awful people. How you do that is up to you. There's a huge variety of ways to do every mission, thanks to the large number of disguises and assassination methods available.
Pros:
Lots of disguises. Many of the characters in each level are wearing uniform that you can steal. Each costume has their own benefits, and can grant you new opportunities. For instance, when disguised as a chef, people won't complain if you go in the kitchen or hold a sharp knife. Guard uniforms let you carry guns around the area.
There's various ways to kill each target. Options include stealthily taking them out when nobody's looking, causing an accident, poisoning, sniping from afar, or going in guns blazing.
Mission stories: These are optional stories that can crop up in various places in each mission. If you follow them, then they will guide you through a few events, usually helping you out in some way. Often these will reveal some interesting background info about your target, and will sometimes set up a cool method to kill your target.
Has various locations around the world. There's great variety in the locations, and every one feels different to each other.
Most locations have a large map that's fun to explore. There's plenty going on and lots of people going about their lives. Exploration can also be beneficial, as you might find a useful item or disguise, or overhear some helpful info leading into a mission story.
Cons:
The limited nature of elusive targets. These are extra targets that only appear in the game for a limited time, and then they're gone. If an elusive target is available, then it'll only let you have 1 attempt at it. This means that some content is now inaccessible, for instance anyone buying the game today won't be able to kill Sean Bean's character unless they bring back that target.
Overall, it's an excellent game, with the main appeal coming from each location being a large open sandbox containing multiple methods for eliminating each target.
Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hacker's Memory for PS4
A much more positive review after the raking that I gave Resident Evil 0!
A Little Background
So my knowledge and time with Digimon is fairly limited. I'd usually end up watching the anime (the first season at least) with my kids on the tv when it came out over here in the UK. But that was twenty years or so ago now 😅.
I also saw the film with them (that as it turns out was actually three shorts mashed and spliced together) plus my daughter had (still in the house in fact) the original Digimon World game for PS1 and I've played it once or twice over the years but wasn't too fond of the digital pet aspect.
Otherwise I've not exactly kept up to tabs with the anime or the various games it's had over the years.
Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hacker's Memory (DS:CS-HM from this point on) is a side story that starts a touch before and alongside the events of Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth
You play as Keisuke Amasawa (You can only change his first name), a plain faced (It's an actual design choice and brought up for laughs a number of times) teen, who's had his EDEN account stolen.
EDEN being an online virtual reality/Digital cyberspace that everyone uses and is vital to daily life. Keisuke is accused of being a "hacker" because of losing his account and considered a delinquient, shunned at school and eventually leaves it to join a Hacker group called Hudie consisting of; Ryuji Mishima, Erika Mishima and Chitose Imai, to find out what happened to Amasawa's account and get it back.
Naturally a bunch of other crazy stuff happens along the way.
What I like
The Evolution Mechanics
There's 340 or so Digimon in DS:CS-HM. Unlike Pokémon where Squirtle turns into Wartortle and that's it til it becomes Blastoise... In DS:CS-HM you can Digivolve and De-Digivolve your digimon to your hearts content.
There's not just a set path either.
You can start off with a fire Digimon and decide you don't like it and end up going for a water digimon instead only for it to end up as a light digimon.
You'll have to reach certain stat requirements though for the numerous evolutions with some easier to obtain then others and as you go along evolution chains there'll be higher and harder stat requirements to attain... But there's usually one that's within your grasp at least without serious extra levelling or using the ABI (DS:CS-HM's unique version of EV's) stat.
The Battle And Party System
There's four main types for Digimon: Vaccine, Data, Virus & Free that a digimon can be. There's also 9 attributes or sub types: Water, Fire, Plant, Lightning, Air, Earth, Light, Dark & Neutral.
With the evolution mechanics I already explained, a battle system that has 3 members at a time with a party total of 11 (More on that a little later) you can prepare yourself for a number of sitations
It's not too hard of a system once you get used to it and it's pretty fun. I played it on the Hard difficulty setting throughout the entire game and at times it got pretty challenging, especially in the middle chapters where you have to balance out your team more but can't fully power them up yet.
So there's also a limit on your party limit. You can't just rock up to ultra/mega and steamroll everything ... each Digimon has an amount of memory they take up so you have to mix and match the varying stages of evolution and such... it adds a strategic element to things as you balance out your party (You get two items sporadically throughout the game to increase your memory capacity)
Plus each Digimon has six moves. 1 (Or sometimes 2) specifically tied to that 'mon and the remaining slots can be used as you see fit, no restrictions at all with a total of twenty skills they can learn before some have to be deleted to learn new ones.
So combined with the evolution mechanics you can have a WHOLE lot of strategic choice with your 'mons.
The Farm System
So like Pokémon there's a daycare like system called the Digifarm that's run by the character Merei. You start with one island that can hold ten 'mons and can gain up to five islands throughout the game to hold a total of fifty 'mons overall (There's also a seperate digibank option that works like Pokémon's pc boxes)
However unlike the daycare not only can your Digimon lvl up (at a much slower rate then in Pokémon) but you can make them develop items at random for money, train your Digimon' stats (The leader 'mon of the farm affecting which stat is being trained and ABI determining how much it can be trained) or you can have them search for cases (or items if you've got all the cases available at the moment)
The Story... When It's In Focus
Thinking on this... It reminds me a bit of Dragon's Dogma in this regard. I quite like the story that's told throughout the game but it's not always the main focus.
I appreciated the more personal stakes that are involved in it, particularly in the last few chapters rather then what seems to be a more sterotypical JRPG
BIG OL SPOILERS FOR DIGIMON STORY: CYBER SLEUTH - With a cliche of saving the world that the original game seems to have (Though maybe there's something more personal and hard hitting to that. I'd have to play the original to find out as DS:CS-HM is a side story)
Still I found it enjoyable and to my surprise... I did actually get a little misty eyed at the end of it!
Plus I quite like the characters even if there's a few clichés here and few tropes there with a touch of 1 dimensionality to some characters. Hudie being quite a tight knit grop for the most part!
Throughout it there's some neat ideas... Things you've no doubt seen before in other media with a slight twist... There are a few dark moments in this and I hear a whole lot in the original.
What I don't like
The Padding
There's.... A decent amount of padding in this game.
Even in the last few chapters where the story ramps up... There is for example a "main" mission that the protagonist HAS to do involving escorting someone around restuarants in a comical fashion that ends with a digimon battle for the right to do a critical review of the food
(Even if I did like the absurdity of this... It's still jarring)
If these were sidequests (which they are they just didn't want you to miss them for some reason) rather then designated as main missions I wouldn't have a problem with them at all and probably played them all anyway cus there's some pretty neat items you get from them.
It makes more sense in the beginning of the game when you're still getting used to it and the protagonist is getting used to being in Hudie but it defintely can get annoying to do something completely unrelated to the four or so main arcs/plot points of the game.
The ABI Stat Grind
So it's a mechanic similar-ish in design to EV's from the mainline Pokémon games. Except you have to gain ABI first in order to distribute it across your stats.
This is is done mainly by Digivolving and De-Digivolving your Digimon (Though you can rarely get an item or two that increases ABI by a bit) ... with the higher leveled up they are and higher up on the evolution chain the more ABI you gain once you 'volve them up or down (De-Digivolving giving you more ABI)
At the highest lvl of 99 and highest point of the digivolution chain of Ultra (The chain being Training 1, Training 2, Rookie, Champion, Ultimate, Mega, Ultra (Not all 'mons have ultra forms) ) you get maybe 35 or so ABI once you 'volve them down to Mega.
With a cap of 200 Abi and a stat boost total of 150 (... I'm not sure why either tbh) it'll take you a while to get there... especially if you don't stack up the exp boost item! (That I actually happened upon by chance early on!)
Still it's not fully needed... some evo's need you to meet an ABI requirement but that's usually pretty low at around 20/40 that should be pretty obtainable
No English Voice Acting
This one is pretty small potatoes in the grand scheme of things... but some english voice work would've been pretty nice as it'd add a bit more weight/emotional heft to things in my opinion
Some Japanese voice work gets on my nerves (For example I don't like Teddy's (from persona 4) JP voice or Rise's either). In this I'm not terribly fond of JimmyKen's VA but if there was an english cast I probably would've really liked this glam rock/KISS like hacker.
You can turn the voices off via the settings if you so choose (by turning the voices to 0%) but I did end up keeping them and the digimon voices on (Those are rather limited and maybe just a phrase or so during battle that are turned off by a seperate setting)
There's a surprising amount of the game that isn't voiced though. This is more of a budget issue I'd imagine then anything from what I can tell but it is a fairly long rpg as well.
Again this is a lower budgeted game so there's a bit of leeway to this in my mind as you know from my SMT3 Nocturne 'view a while back i'm not too fussed on no va at all to be honest.
Some Design Choices
This also is more of personal preference but most of the digital area/dungeons are a bit basic with pixels or some kind computer based motiff to designate them as such and a bit generic looking... There are a few areas that do REALLY stand out but Kowloon and Under Kowloon (The two main dungeons you'll see a lot of) look pretty much the same.
Again it's a smaller budgeted game and sized too (It's 5GB big) so I can understand once again and it's not a major problem just personal preference.
This happens to the Digimon themselves too as there's a handful of reskins. In something like final fantasy (or any rpg) it's not a problem really if there's a goblin that maybe later on you fight a blue variant of it... But in something like Pokemon or Digimon I feel it's particularly lazy to have a diferent coloured variant. Again there's only a handful (I've seen 300+ digimon in my game and there's maybe 5 that look the same) just it's worth calling out!
Because they're Digital monsters and supposed to be computer programs there's a lot of metal/cyborg-y designs that creep into the evolution chains near the end.
There are a few odd design choices throughout! But most are pretty good!
Additional points
It's 5GB big... Just thought i'd reiterate that.
Being able to save anywhere and anytime is especially nice (No thanks to it being available and made in partucular for VITA)
The music is pretty decent. Probably nothing i'd consider a must listen but it's enjoyable enough with stuff all around the spectrum!
Missions usually only take around 20 minutes... So it's a good game to play in short bursts (Again probably because of it being made for VITA primarily)
There's no recap feature... so good luck if you've left it for a while and forgotten what you're supposed to be doing!
There's an intital lvl cap for each new Digimon that you obtain but you'll get past it pretty quickly (Each time you Digivolve up or down the Digimon becomes lvl 1 again and the cap increases til it's eventually 99)
One boss is EXTREMELY cheap with a panic/confusion mechanic that you'll proabably die against first time.
Domination battles are endless (providing you keep searching in the farm for them) and Territory battles usually add a neat little challenge to things with a constant status effect.
Overall
It's not for everyone and it has it's faults, but I ended up really enjoying this game!
Considering I paid £11 for it brand new and played it for 107 hours or so (with a bonus dungeon waiting for me, an offline collisseum to go through, some trophies to potentially go back and obtain and a new game plus waiting for me too...) I REALLY got my money's worth.
Not every game needs to set the world on fire.
8/10 for me
A 7/10 or possibly lower to everyone else as it won't be everyone's cup of tea.
I can defintely seeing myself replaying it like next year and enjoying it once again
There does seem to be a few things I missed/didn't fully get by not knowing what happened in the first game... but I didn't miss that much I think. It is more or less it's own thing.
And actually Resident Evil Zero was praised.
83 on metacritic for critical review, user score 8.7 For the Gamecube release
70 metacritic for critical review, user score 7.8 for the HD Remaster
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Weird. I've ALWAYS heard people bash it. Even going back a couple of gens. It's probably part of the reason I never bothered playing my copy.
Currently Playing: The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy (PC)
Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask 3DS. It's one of the more weird and wacky Zelda games, but it's also one of the best.
The 3 day cycle was very well done in this game. I was worried at first that this was going to cause a lot of repetition, but it turns out that's mostly not a problem. Since you get to keep key items, masks, songs, and banked money at the end of each cycle, it meant that there's very little repetition when you warp back to Day 1.
Characters will do different things depending on the time and day, making this game feel a lot more alive than other Zelda games. The notebook automatically keeps track of what's going on, making it easy enough to manage the different events.
Another thing I really like about this is the hint system. If you get stuck, there's a shrine in an easily accessible area that you can crawl into that'll show you visions to help guide you. If you don't want any hints, then this shrine is easily avoided. Zelda games generally have these areas where I miss something important, then spend a long time trying to figure things out, then usually having to resort to a walkthrough. With Majora's Mask, looking at an occasional hint meant that I could reach the end credits without frustration.
Dungeons in this game are rather good. There's plenty of depth to them, and they require plenty of exploration and some thinking to reach the end of them. The number of dungeons does feel a little low compared to some of thw other Zelda games though.
Out of the three 3D Zelda games I've played (Ocarina of Time 3DS, Wind Waker Wii U, Majora's Mask 3DS), its really hard to choose a favourite. They're all great in different ways.
@Kidfried Great write up and I agree with everything you say. I got Burnout Paradise on 360 a while back for free with Games with Gold and it was alright. I can see at the time it was probably a great game. However with games like The Crew and Forza Horizon there are better options for the kind of game they were looking to accomplish. Now the people that give it such high praise are probably looking through rose tinted glasses, which isn't bad thing more power to them but to someone who's coming into Burnout Paradise now.....
Still it's not a bad game, I played it enjoyed it for what it was worth but then I moved on. If I have an itch to play an open world racing game would I play it? Probably not due to as you said there is the Horizon series.
RetiredPush Square Moderator and all around retro gamer.
So I recently decided to wrap up my second playthrough of Bloodborne last night. I finished the base game and had done all the DLC except for 2 bosses - Laurence and the Orphan Kos. Hadn't even tried the Orphan. I have also got half way through the Chalice Dungeons but I was getting burnt out. So I still need to get one weapon and get to the Ptumerian Queen for the platinum, and do the last 2 bosses for the DLC 100%.
Now I am torn with what to fully commit to next. I want to go into Bloodstained but I got it on Switch so waiting for a patch. Might give Detroit a go.
Now I may be an idiot, but there's one thing I am not sir, and that sir, is an idiot
@Rudy_Manchego I mentioned it in the game thread but I do consider Detroit a nice palate cleanser type game, one that is more of a sit back and enjoy the story type of game. Since you’ve been a little burned-out on high intensity combat and difficulty, I think it’s a good one to recharge your batteries on, so to speak.
@Th3solution That's what I was thinking. I fancy something where I am not sat bolt upright and having to give 100% concentration. Unless there are loads of non signposted quicktime events
Now I may be an idiot, but there's one thing I am not sir, and that sir, is an idiot
Well... I've beaten the chris side now of REmake @Ralizah
Honestly I might have to sit on a review for it, let my thoughts stew for a while... This is quite a toughie to pin down what I liked and didn't like about it
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