Topic: User Impressions/Reviews Thread

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I finally made it to the end of Dragon Age Inquisition - possibly the most boring RPG ever made.

It's an overlong, grindy, slog of a game, with combat, skill trees and progression that seems designed for a game about a third of the length it actually is. How people were able to invest hundreds of hours into this, I do not know.

I finished it in around 50 hours - well, that is sort of a half lie. It was more like over a hundred hours, in total. Both times I have tried to play this, I hit the same wall in the last 20 or so hours. The first time though, there was no new Dragon Age just a few months away, so simply cutting my losses and doing something more exciting like watching paint dry was an option. This time, not so much. As such, I engaged with a 20 or so hour battle to not give into the tedium and play literally anything else.

You need to finish this, I kept telling myself, you need this knowledge for The Veilguard! But it's so boring I’d whine back to myself, I just don’t know if I have the strength to keep doing the same static combat encounters and the same two world activities over and over again, I would plead with myself. I’d take a deep breath, grip my controller firmly and look ahead - I know, I know, I would say to myself like All Might trying to reassure a civilian trapped under rubble - But have no fear, my friend! You’ve only got to kill ten more rams and we can do the next story mission!

I dunno, maybe in 2014 this open world design was considered good, I appreciate the open world fatigue we have today was not the same ten years ago, I also appreciate we had recently come from Dragon Age 2, which took place in about four or five unfinished environments in a loop. If you had lived in a basement your whole life, even a carpark must seem quite exciting if its got a blue sky above it. But all I can say, is 2024 me doesn't like that Inquisition is just a big, empty, parking lot filled with MMO style busywork to create some sort of unneeded pacing mechanism that makes the whole game worse by existing.

And I mean Inquisition certainly reviewed well on release, so clearly some people stepped out of the unfinished walls of Kirkwall and looked upon Inquisition with wonder. But if you do a search for Inquisition online in 2024, many results are negative. I mean it's the internet, so that probably hasn’t shocked you. But I feel like the devil is in the details here.

You see, many of the replies aren’t the usual - I must run to the defence of a game I like and I must take your criticism of a game I enjoy, whether fair or not, like it's a personal attack on me and respond with that context in mind! No, most replies are a sort of silent, indirect no eye contact nod as they say something like “hey man you know, not everyone’s definition of fun is the same man. Heheh.” and then slide you a piece of paper across the table all secret agent style, eyes darting around the forum hoping no one is watching.

You look and see its 20 links to NexusMods, all of which are mods which introduce either basic quality of life additions that are baffling to not be included or mods that have been created over the years to address and carve out much of the game's most tedious aspects. The guy then gives a half smile, nods knowingly at the document in your hand, and shuffles away with sad slumped shoulders.

And while this whole review may all seem like wry bile, I promise it comes from a good place. I love the Mass Effect trilogy. A series I revisit every few years. The cinematic BioWare RPG just isn’t really something that exists any more. And also sorta never had, especially not within the triple A space, anyway. We don't really have any other game series quite like Mass Effect or Dragon Age.

At the heights of Inquisition's biggest story beats, its grand set pieces, its dramatic staging, its operatic score and then in all those quiet moments in between with your wonderfully written and performed companions, you’re reminded of that now much meme’d “BioWare Magic” and just how special it once was. How it once meant something and was the glue that held these games together.

You never played the original Mass Effect for its combat, as chucking a biotic dropped your framerate into single digits and your companions ran into walls, no, it was for all the moments in between those moments. Combat and missions were just something to overcome, to get to the good parts. The story, the next dramatic choice and the next quiet moment with your favourite companion.

Inquisition tries to fix this problem, to try and make the whole package reach for the same high bar. To make the set pieces not something you'd just rush through to get to the meat that came after them. But the problem is it also for some reason came with this mountain of MMO busywork tedious filler, and while mods do an excellent job of cutting down on a lot of this, there currently exists no way to remove this entirely, as its too woven into too many systems to be completely cut out. Like a tumour on the stem of where one's brain and spine meet.

If it was possible to remove all of that stuff, then you would have here BioWare's opus. One of the greatest RPGs ever made. One of the greatest achievements in gaming. But that isn't the game we have. And I can't weigh my feelings on a game based on the 30 hours I enjoyed, if there was another 20 hours of boredom so overwhelming it risked swallowing me whole. Maybe you disagree and that is okay.

And while there are plenty of holes you can poke into Inquisition, I'm still sort of in awe of how well it all holds together, despite the visible duct tape barely holding the skeleton in one piece. Unlike Mass Effect which felt like a trilogy of games with a clear vision, the Dragon Age trilogy is kind of a big mess, with Dragon Age 2's problematic development well documented (it is also way way better than I think the reviews give it credit for, but that is a conversation for another day). As Inquisition referenced things as far back as the first game - probably the most disconnected from the trilogy - as old faces returned to play major roles and close out past threads, as new developments threaded backwards into previous games, you just gotta take off your hat I think.

In a way though, that just sorta makes it all the more heart breaking that the main descriptor I'd levy towards Inquisition is that its honestly just sorta dull.

Oh well, onto Trespasser I go and then I am finally free.

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This is a review after 45ish hours of Zenless Zone Zero (ZZZ from here on out), but I'm also going to caveat that right now the game offers three chapters, two interludes (and then a bunch of other stuff around that, too). Each chapter and interlude presents its own closed narrative, but there are wider narrative threads which are seemingly going to be explored forever more as new patches are rolled out, so I can't truly give you a complete review of this game at this time, just my feelings for this game at this point in time.

Alright, with that preamble out of the way, here is more of it. I’d always avoided gacha games, I already actively dislike free to play models in general, and hearing the horror stories over the years of just how predatory gacha games were, meant I never had any interest in engaging with them. However, I think a lot of people have found Summer 2024 in gaming a bit of a funk. A red hot opening four or so months, giving away to a bit of a gaming wasteland (outside of the indie space anyway). So one night with no games taking my fancy, I saw the ZZZ icon on my PS Dash and I’d been seeing a lot of buzz for this one, so I gave it a download…

I was not ready for just how good this turned out to be. Like don’t get me wrong, it isn’t high art. A lot of it has a sort of previous gen double AA JRPG vibe, with its small environments with limited interactive elements, each area requiring a brief trip into a loading screen to access, with a story that is mostly pretty small scale, told for the most part sort of like a visual novel and combat takes place mostly in the same few environments, broken up by a board game like pacing mechanism which feels very low budget.

But what it does have, is a core combat system refined to near perfection, and a surprisingly rich set of interlocking systems, that carefully unfurl like a flower over your 30 or so hour journey, so you never feel overwhelmed by it all but end up with granular build craft choices that go beyond some games I paid the sixty dollar entrance price for.

Beyond that, every character has such an interesting kit, with deep build craft options to really focus every character into a specific role of your choosing and a really expertly tuned core gameplay system that anyone can pick up and play and really enjoy, but with more than enough hidden depth so those who really want to push against this game and express true mastery can absolutely do so.

Also, while the story may be pretty small-scale JRPG fluff, with a lot of archetypal characters, the game bleeds good vibes and just has such a strong sense of style and identity. And when there are proper cutscenes, they are really premium and go so damn hard, and there are more of these than you might expect, too.

In terms of monetisation, based on my experience with other free to play games, and the gacha horror stories, I figured I wouldn’t be able to take a step in ZZZ without it pushing an advert in my face asking me to buy something. Instead I walk away still not entirely clear what ZZZ’s business model actually is?

I think the main idea is that you unlock characters via the slot machine system, and while there is a pity system in place, there is only duplicate protection to a certain point and most of the pity thresholds kick in long after the number of pulls any free to play player could likely reach, unless we're talking staggered pulls over weeks, or months. When you run out, you run out (until the next event or whatever is added into the game to give you the materials you need for another free pull - but each pull is like spitting into the ocean). The only other option then if you want to keep pulling is converting real world money into premium currency to buy more pulls. But the thing is, there is no punishment as far as I can tell in just… not doing that?

I got through all the content with the characters I had access to just fine. I unlocked every A Rank Agent and three S Rank Agents in my time playing, which are the highest tier of Agents currently (although what separates them, I have no clue) and two of the S Ranks I barely used, as I didn’t like their playstyle. In fact, two of the starter agents you get, Nicole and Anby, ended up being two of my most used Agents and carried me through some of the hardest content I had access to at this point in the game.

Also, more importantly perhaps, the game never actually explains to you how to convert these currencies or suggests this is something you should do. When you do figure out how, they haven’t really done anything to make this monetarily attractive at all. I guess the whole business model is just sort of working on an assumption that whales gotta whale and they’ll figure out how to dump money into the game regardless, so the game just leaves the rest of us alone? And don’t get me twisted, if that is the model, this might be the best free to play model of all time.

And obviously I’m not here trying to gaslight you to tell you its a good system. You can clearly see the places where certain things would be unlocked or earned if it was a premium title, that aren’t earnable cause it needs to feed the gacha engine, and that sucks. Like I don’t think any free to play game is better because its free to play, but I just think out of basically any free to play game I’ve played, this has absolutely the best free to play model I’ve experienced and I can’t believe I am saying that given all I heard about gacha games.

I think my overall net spend I believe has been about 15 quid (a battle pass, a currency pass and a welcome bundle), and at no point did I ever feel like I needed to buy these things nor did I feel pressured into buying these things. In fact, it was the opposite, I was having such a wonderful time and was so confused by the fact the shoe never dropped where it suddenly demanded I pull out my wallet, I instead felt more like I was giving a goodwill donation for all the hours of enjoyment this gave me otherwise for free.

And honestly, I guess it does pay off in a way, as instead of walking away from ZZZ feeling like I’ve been robbed blind telling you to avoid this predatory sinkhole at all cost, I feel like I’ve walked away from ZZZ robbing it blind. I played one of the best games of the year, for free! If this post inspires you to pick up ZZZ too, and maybe buy a battle pass, a currency pass and a welcome bundle and then you go on to tell a friend about the great time you had, who then also downloads the game and buys…

Oh….

Yeah, actually, maybe the business model behind this game is genius after all.

Hopefully more free to play games take note.

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Bakeru (Steam - Also Available on Switch)

• A 3D Platformer where most levels have a "wide linear" approach, where there is generally a "beginning to end" flow, but generally with a greater emphasis on exploring for secrets & CAG-lite combat encounters rather than precise platforming challenges (though you'll get a bit more of that in the latter half of the game). The best comparison I could make would be Kirby & the Forgotten Land (Switch) if you've played that (though I'd say that Bakeru's levels can get wider than that).
  
  
  
  
• There a few other level types though, such as the occasional auto scroller (these all have isometric perspectives & focus a bit more on platforming than usual), or vehicle level (these tend to go by much quicker, and are easier, than most other levels & usually take the form of a race or Star Fox esque 3D shmup level).
  
  
  
• In terms of collectables, each level has 5 pieces of Trivia to find (most levels are based around one of Japan's many prefectures, and these factoids usually relate to their specific culture/history), and 3 Souvenirs which are a bit harder to collect (these again usually relate to the area the level is set in, although the first one is always just a region pennant). A few levels also have a hidden Tanuki (a Japanese type of Raccoon) to find and are generally the hardest to locate.
  
  
  
  
  You collect Trivia by talking to this little dude dressed like yellow poo, and Souvenirs are located in Gachapon capsules.
• Things start out pretty linear, as you go from one level to the next on a set path on the world map, however about 15 levels in you unlock a ship called the Bunbuku (which doubles as a little hub world where your Souvenirs are displayed... and triples as a transforming mecha that you pilot in certain boss fights) which lets you freely fly over Japan's landmass & levels unlock in regional groupings (usually 4-6 levels will become available at once, and you can complete them in any order before unlocking that region's boss level).
  
  
  Your Souvenirs are displayed on a wall that wraps around nearly the entirety of the Bunbuku's interior! (There are over 120 of them to collect!) The Tanuki you find also hang out there (as well as a few other story characters), and depending on the number you've found, you can get a few basic stat upgrades for it's mech form.
• It's not quite as snappy as something like a Mario or Astro Bot, but it generally controls well & is fun even if it's on the easier side (you do unlock a few transformations after beating the first few bosses that augment your combat style, but I honestly never felt the need to use them. Especially since you get an achievement for beating each boss without transforming, so I did without). The only transformation I used was one that makes you smaller at the expense of being able to fight, but only because it allows you to access areas you otherwise can't within levels (it's the only transformation required for exploration). It has about 60 levels (keep in mind at least 10 of those are probably boss fights) & I completed it in just over 20 hours with everything collected (I only had to replay levels 3 or so times throughout my entire run through in order to nab a missed collectable. I mostly got them all my first run through). It helps that, aside from a few later levels, not many levels have hard locks that prevent you from backtracking to collect anything you missed. There isn't any sort of post game content or new game +.
  
  
  
  
  In spite of having so many levels, each one is thematically distinct or combines things in such a way that it never became boring, and I was looking forward to what the next one would bring.

In conclusion, I'm actually surprised that Nintendo skipped out on localizing this one themselves (it's developed by Good Feel, the studio behind Yoshi's Crafted World & this year's Princess Peach: Showtime, and honestly this "feels" like a larger game than either. You can really tell it was a passion project they poured their all into). Granted, at least this means it was able to be published on Steam, where I didn't experience any of the performance issues that apparently plague the Switch version (which may play into the Big N's decision to pass on it), but it's a shame that it's probably going to be overlooked (on Switch because it released the same month as Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, and generally because it released the same month as the biggest platformer of the year, Astro Bot), because it's honestly a great time.

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Life is Strange: True Colors
Rating: 5/10

Alex Chen has long suppressed her 'curse': the supernatural ability to experience, absorb and manipulate the strong emotions of others, which she sees as blazing, colored auras.

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Life is Strange: True Colors has been a confusing time for me. The second game in the franchise was the one that truly got to me and remains dear to me after all this time, so I went in expecting this game not to match the incredibly high bar the previous one set. After all, why hold a game to a standard when the standard would be one of the most meaningful narratives I’ve personally experienced? I’m not in the business of setting up a story to fail. As much as I would’ve loved to say that it turns out the game proved me wrong, that’s not going to be the case here. While this all sounds like it’s setting up a myriad of negative impressions, it’s actually a lot more mixed than that. Haven Springs, the setting of this newest entry, is charming, gorgeous and full of likeable characters that I connected with and wanted to learn more about. The Life is Strange formula is at full display here, with its setting and cast full of promise, so why did the game feel so… soulless?

Your protagonist in this game is Alex Chen, a 21-year old moving to Haven Springs to live with her older brother after spending most of her life in foster care. In traditional fashion for this franchise, her power? Reading people’s emotions. It all sounds like an interesting concept, and it’s one that admittedly is used to great effect throughout the game. The emotions you feel from other people are often heartbreaking and make it impossible not to want to help. It’s a fantastic jumping off point for building out characters and developing them over the course of the game, yet that’s exactly what seems to be missing here. While your power is used a good amount, there’s such a sizable cast of characters that each one basically only gets one scene to really shine. You learn about their trauma or whatever’s keeping them busy at the moment and then their story is… over? Of course you will still see them throughout, but any development from that point on is surface level and generally not engaging the player in any way.

One example which I’ll keep as spoiler free as possible is a lovely lady who’s dealing with a rather heavy medical issue. You help her one time when Alex feels she’s become overwhelmed by emotion as a result of it, and then that’s about the end of it. I formed an attachment to her because the game wanted me to feel for her, but then the game refused to give me any further opportunities to engage with that feeling again. From that point on, I’m simply watching her from the sidelines (understandably still) struggling with her issue, but given no agency to interact with her regarding it again. The game roped me into someone’s deepest anxiety only to make me feel entirely helpless in the following chapters. It’s busy instead teaching me about every. other. person’s. trauma while then pulling that exact same trick off again and again. Now, I’m not delusional enough to think I can fix any of these people in the short timespan this game takes place in, but to simply throw bad situation after bad situation at me with no time spent to build any of them out from their initial reveal becomes tiresome. Alex starts feeling like a simple trauma magnet, which I wouldn’t exactly say is a fun place to be in for either the character’s or the player’s position.

And yet, while this could then be developed in a way where this clearly starts overloading our protagonist and take the story in interesting turns, instead the main takeaway is just that our character is highly empathetic. Which is a good thing! That is, until you quickly realise that’s basically all the character does now. With so much time being spent on other people and their storylines, the character we actually spend our most time with starts to fade into the shadows. I described Alex Chen in short earlier for introduction’s sake, but ultimately the character doesn’t venture far beyond that introduction. She feels like almost nothing more than a vessel for you to engage other people with. Not quite a blank canvas, but one missing a noticeable amount of paint to truly get invested in. Her personality is nothing to write home about either. A sweet, empathetic gal who’s trying her best in a bad situation and doesn’t give up. She’s somewhat shy, deeply hurt… it’s just nothing that makes her stand out as a protagonist. It’s the store-brand personality they could’ve picked up off the shelf and one missing any type of identifying factors.

Eventually, we do get more information about her past and how she became the person she is today. It’s what I was waiting for! However, the downside is that this all comes way too late into the story to have any meaningful impact. If anything, I would say this is the part that is actually the worst executed within the whole game. The sequence of events where you learn more about her takes up the majority of the game’s final chapter, making the overarching narrative come to a grinding halt. Genuinely, the biggest event of the whole narrative takes place and that is the exact moment the writers chose to take a journey down memory lane and develop a character further that needed this for the last four chapters. It waits until the last possible moment and is simply too little too late. Now if this sequence was expertly crafted and masterful storytelling, maybe you could look past that. If the late addition of it served its narrative, maybe you could look past that. Instead, it’s a repetitive slog of sequences that adds nothing of actual worth to the current events and is then followed up by what is practically the ending of the game. This particular decision of the game’s pacing was absolutely mind boggling and infuriating to me. It’s not often I get this far into a game and then start begging for it to end right before the finish line, but it’s an unfortunate feat that this writing team managed to pull off.

Finally, my last major complaint regarding the game’s narrative is how utterly shoved in the romance choices felt. The game offers you up two possible options, with one very obviously preferred to the other. I’m not even sure as to why they bothered to have the second romance option when they so clearly intend for the one to be canon. Even with that though, it could be all good if you don’t make a big deal out of it and just go with the flow. But that flow felt so unnatural. I’m not usually particularly picky with my romance paths in games. If a game offers, I’ll choose whoever I feel is best for the character in their particular situation. That’s just it with this game however. Neither one feels fitting for the character in that moment. Alex is struggling with plenty of demons, experienced traumatic events even within the timeframe of the game’s narrative and is clearly trying to find herself. So why is this game’s narrative so dead set on finding you a lover? Why is one of the characters practically throwing themselves at you to take big life decisions with them roughly two weeks after meeting them? Why does a story about someone who felt abandoned and trying to find a place to belong turning into a badly written romance drama? The whole idea felt so out of place here with the protagonist they gave us and honestly made me rather uncomfortable. Even with someone like myself who is usually not picky with my romances, this is the first time I felt like I had to actively make an effort not to end up with someone. And yet, that is ultimately impossible.

The one thing I will give this game credit for is the choices they weaved into the narrative. They’re often generally very good, morally ambiguous choices with no obvious right or wrong answer to them. I definitely had to sit with a few of them a while to think through all the possibilities and consequences before I felt like I was making the right decision. I suppose morally ambiguous might be easier to write when you know both the inner emotions of the person making the decision as well as the person it affects, but it’s still a part of the narrative that is worth giving credit to. I wish they’d approached the romance subplot with the same amount of caution.

Now, while yes, I have many problems with the narrative, I did fully play through it being invested and wanting to see where the story could go. Like I said before, Haven Springs is a properly great setting that is just beautifully realised within the game. Though I have to say, I think a majority of the credit for that goes to the team behind the art of this game. It’s just absolutely gorgeous from stunning landscapes to buttery smooth graphics and design. I think it’s easily the best setting the whole franchise has offered, so it’s a shame that the narrative taking place within it wasn’t quite on that level. Speaking of, Life is Strange is well known for its hard-hitting and well placed soundtracks, but I can’t help but think this entry also fell short to that standard. I think there’s plenty of memorable moments within the previous games, even including Before the Storm, where the soundtrack just endlessly elevated the experience, but I can’t say I ever felt the same here. It’s not like they changed anything about the type of sound they were going for with this one, but the songs just don’t feel as well placed or matching the vibe as well as they did in the preceding games.

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Verdict: I think the most frustrating thing with this game is that a lot of its potential within the narrative just feels so wasted. It’s a truly fantastic setup that is then unfortunately marred by subpar writing. Most of the issues I listed wouldn’t even be unsolvable within its current state, but it saddens me that it seems the writers just didn’t recognise them during the process to do anything about them. All in all, it’s a valiant effort to add to the franchise, but I think it’s easily the weakest of all the games so far. I hope they’ve learned some lessons from this one and that the upcoming Double Exposure will blow our socks off, but for now I’ll have to remain cautiously optimistic at best. Maybe we should be bringing Don’t Nod back into the fold if this entry is any indication of the franchise’s future.