@Ralizah, yeah, you get a completely different costume if you opt for a Dark transformation over a Light one, plus a different focus on your overall stat increase, and different abilities/spells to learn (for example, when Reitz transforms to Class 2, if you go with Light she will be able to learn spells that buff your party, however if you choose Dark she will learn spells that nerf enemies instead).
@Kidfried, great write-up. It doesn't sound like my kind of game, but it does look to have a stunning aesthetic.
@RogerRoger, thanks for reading, and I really enjoyed your Sonic Adventure 2 write-up as well. My best friend when I was younger had the GameCube version & we played it a lot, oftentimes switching off between levels, but mostly just raising Chao, lol. I also really dig the "City Escape" & "Live & Learn" tracks, and usually have them on my phone, lol.
Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
Focus on You (PSVR). I had actually went through this months ago, but didn't want to do a write-up until I played around in the post game mode, which I recently did.
Gameplay:
A VR dating sim spread out across 8-10 chapters or so, taking you a few hours at most. In each chapter you'll be in a different location (such as a park, classroom, cafe, home, beach, etc.) where you'll be in a stationary position (though you can look around obviously, and at certain points you'll move to a different area in the room) and interact with objects & people in your immediate vicinity.
Most of the gameplay revolves around dialogue choices when talking to Yua (the girl whom you are trying to woo) or texting a friend on your in game phone, and taking photographs with your in game camera (more on this to come). Otherwise there are ocassional small minigames where you'll have to make a cup of coffee or a smoothie for Yua when you are at work in the cafe, and other things of that nature.
As I mentioned before you take photographs, which is the main gameplay element. There's a shoot in almost every chapter, and in these segments you're sort of taken out of VR (when pulling out your camera) and look at things through a flat image floating in the void (I guess simulating looking at the screen of a digital camera). You can rotate the screen to portrait & landscape orientations & implement a "beauty mode" (which focuses on Yua, or whatever else it is you're photographing, and blurs the background), and you can ask her to do one of three different poses in each scenario (you'll have the option to move on after the first couple poses, but you can take as much time as you need).
While you can effect some things (such as choosing between 2 different outfits for Yua to wear during a chapter), I'm not really sure if it's possible to "lose" the game or get a bad ending. I know you get a trophy for doing things like making her favorite type of coffee or smoothie, but as there's no way to figure that out other than trial & error, I don't think it effects the end outcome (maybe the reward is just seeing her response in the moment).
Upon clearing the game you unlock a post game area where you can listen to the game's soundtrack, look at all the photos you've taken, and replay the game's chapters in a "free play" state, placing Yua in any outfit & hairstyle you like (you can unlock outfits not worn during the story, so maybe that's the reward for doing things like making her preferred coffee during the story?)
Come now, you can't go swimming in class.
It is possible to play with Move controllers (which I don't yet have, but should be getting), but you can play with the Dualshock as well.
Audio/Visual:
Graphically it looks stunning, seriously one of the best looking VR games I've played. Sure, that leads to some blurriness in some of the more detailed environments, but as the vast majority of things you interact with are up close & there's no quick movements, it's never a problem. Whatever the case, my inner weeb was excited about getting to sit in a Japanese style classroom
Anyone like "Rony" brand electronics (actually, it does a good job looking like Sony when not right up on you due to the resolution).
The soundtrack consists of soft melodic tunes & piano riffs that fit the romantic tone of the game.
Story:
You play as a student in an Arts high school into photography, and after noticing your skill while in a local park, fellow student Yua Han recruits you into one of her own projects. You see, she's an aspiring fashion designer & she needs someone to shoot her in some of her designs for an upcoming competition. Along the way you two will become more than partners on a project.
I won't say it's award winning or anything, but the VR setup makes it many times more engaging than any traditional VN dating sims I've tried.
Conclusion:
It was something a bit different, but I'm glad I gave it a go, as I found it to be a unique experience and much more investing than a traditional dating sim.
Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
@Kidfried Hooray, KR0 and Hollow Knight are probably the two games from this gen I'd love to be able to talk about more with people!
I utterly loved the art style of the game and the soundtrack is one of my favourite. The bluegrass tracks are fantastic; THAT scene, and the music in it, is an absolute iconic moment; and the music that sees out the final act is chilling. The rest of the minimalist ambient music is just perfect.
Like you say, the choices in the game are cleverly done as they make it feel like your story but without affecting the direction the game takes. Act 4 has the most choice, and encourages a second play through, as you can see the story from different perspectives.
The pacing was a little weird as Act 4 was a behemoth and I had to take a little time away from the game afterwards.. but then Act 5 is done and dusted in no time. I would have been pretty miffed if I'd waited the years it took to make after Act 4 came out!
It is absolutely one of the most unique games I've ever played and one hell of an experience.
@RR529 Glad you enjoyed my review, thanks for saying so! My old schoolfriends and I used to alternate levels in our favourite games as well... ah, good times. You're not alone in liking those tracks you mention, as they're often people's most popular picks. I heard them live once, in a room full of Adventure fans who were all singing along. Since I'd never played the games, I was so confused!
Sounds like Focus on You mixed things up for you a little, which is never a bad thing. I think a relative once brought a Rony camera home from a Taiwanese market. Let's just say, it went well with his new Kevin Klein jeans and Bolex watch.
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@Kidfried Interesting write-up for an interesting sounding game. I've grown wary of the 'artsy walking sim' genre as of late, but this one seems unique. I like the dynamic you highlight of the game filling in the holes of its story by engaging in a sort of structural dialogue with the player. I'll admit I had no idea what this was about, exactly, but I felt like you did a superb job highlighting what makes it interesting.
I'll need to add this to my wishlist!
I take it you played on PS4?
@RogerRoger Oho, this is Shadow the Hedgehog's first appearance, eh? I'll confess I never played this one. I'm glad the Chao Garden returned, though. Because that, combined with the Chao minigame you used to develop the things on the Dreamcast's VMU, was probably my favorite part of that game.
It sounds decent. Nice to know they cut the some of the inane fat for this entry to create something tighter and more satisfying.
@RR529 Neat. While the PSVR seems to lack a bit in big exclusive blockbuster titles, I'm really interested in these more niche and unique titles that try to do something less explicitly video gamey.
The devs including some generic stand-in for Sony in a PS4 game is a bit amusing. Do you happen to take your virtual girlfriend to a "WcDonalds" at any point?
@Ralizah You should absolutely hop on Sonic Adventure 2, it’s like if a 3D Sonic game was actually good. By that, I mean it doesn’t have any glaring horrible problems or a fatal flaw, which 99.9% of Sonic games have. I know some people prefer having hub worlds but I feel they break up play and always felt a bit pointless.
I played it on my Switch for the simple reason that I had way too many games to play on my PS4. I don't know if it's the best platform to play on, really. The portability was nice, but at other times I really felt that this game required you to be alone, and not be in a public park or anything.
On the other hand, playing it on the road can have it's own benefits. I played the end of Act 4 at midnight wile sitting at a desolate station, waiting for some train to come to take me home. Felt right.
Anyway, the music and sounds are among the highlights of the game. The song @Thrillho posted brings back memories immediately. So if you're buying it on Switch, be sure to use headphones at all time.
(The graphics are celI-shaded, so this game will look good on any platform regardless of its graphical power. I played it on my TV too and must say I wasn't disappointed at all.)
@Ralizah Yes, this was Shadow's debut. I never used to like him that much, but he's rapidly become one of my favourite characters of all time. He's not exactly groundbreaking, but he can be surprisingly layered at times, with just the right amount of ambiguity.
Anyway, thanks for reading (especially as it was sandwiched between many other, more interesting reviews on the previous page)! If you do ever want to play Adventure 2 then, from what you're saying about the Chao Garden, I'd recommend getting a version with the Battle subtitle (either via its DLC on Steam, or by tracking down an old GameCube disc). I neglected to mention that the Battle content also adds a few extra minigames for your Chao to play, including Chao Karate. If that whole side of the game draws you in, then I'm sure you'd get a kick out of them.
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@RogerRoger nice review of sonic adventure 2! You've made me remember some of the other bits of this game such as the rouge/Knuckles levels and Sonicio Kart which I played a fair bit on the GameCube. One of the mortal Kombat games had a similarly half-baked but still fun while it lasted kart mode. I also remember hatching eggs in the Chao garden for ages, and unlocking a few different Chao gardens and it being tedious. Also connecting my game boy advance to the GameCube and downloading the chaos to it for whatever reason! (Probably just because I could!)
@ralphdibny Thank you! Yeah, from what I recall, unlocking the "Heaven" and "Hell" Chao Gardens takes a heck of a lot of time, and a stupid amount of grinding. I had a friend who helped me see them on my PS3, but there's no chance I'd ever do it myself in this PC port.
For now, I'm just super-curious to see how Mortal Kombat handled karting. To the YouTubes!
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@Ralizah, unfortunately there's no "WcDonald's" appearance, which is a big missed opportunity now that you bring it up! (I always got a kick out of it when I first seen it in InuYasha, and was amused to find out it's a common "off brand" location in a lot of Japanese anime/games).
If things go right I should be making more regular VR reviews. Due to my limited PS4 time these days, the general briefness of VR titles is a lot more appealing right now, and I just got in a pair of Move controllers so my options are wide open.
Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
@Ralizah after buying doom 3 on 3 separate occasions (pc version when it came out, BFG edition on PS3 and finally the Switch port) I have finally finished all it has to offer!
I've read your review and also @RogerRoger 's thoughts and I think I largely agree with most of it.
I think a few things I'd differ on, though not massively, are the audio logs. I listened to all of them but maybe not so religiously. Often I would listen to them while reading the e mails so I may not have taken in all the information but I think I got a general sense of what was going on. If the audio logs were longer than the e mails then I'd carry on listening while playing. I quite enjoyed finding them though and thought they were a good addition to the sort of game that Doom 3 is.
The other thing is the flashlight, which I honestly can't imagine - especially at my current age - having the patience to play this game without the BFG "upgrade". I think if I was younger and had more time I'd enjoy the flashlight management of the original Doom 3 but I am glad it was the way it was in my play through. That being said, the battery life of it somewhat emulated the intended feel. There were a lot of times I was doing a bit of resource management with regards to the flashlight battery. Turning it off and on to conserve it, particularly in that sequence you mentioned where you hug a brightly lit specimen container.
This game was really long, especially if you include the expansion packs. I think my playthrough times were more or less similar to yours and the Lost levels added another 3 hours so I guess I spent around 26-27 hours with this game. It could drag at times but I was determined to see it through on this occasion! But that's a lot of gameplay for £8 (forgetting the money I spent on the PC and PS3 versions).
Hmm what else, I did notice there was some "music" in one of the lost levels Hell areas that had kind of that similar baby wailing noise like doom 64. Not much else to say on that apart from my recognition of it!
I liked all the enemies, I had no idea until I was well into the expansion packs that what I was calling a Cyber-Dog was actually supposed to be a Pinky. That was kind of a weird turn out! The arch vile was definitely an annoying baddy and I'd frequently expend some rocket ammo on those suckers just to get rid of them. I did think the way the Cacodemons flew around after you shot them was really funny, a bit like throwing an inflatable ball around in a swimming pool. Those Mancubi were real s***heads though! Especially with their gammy mouth monitors, very creepy! I'm glad the pain elementals were left out of this one... Also those cyber cherubs were freaky! It's quite a scary game on the whole.
The grabber gun I thought was ok, I messed around with it a bit but I think like you say it wasn't as necessary to the game as it was in half life 2. Catching projectiles was a ballache unless I used the artifact first which meant the grabber only got much use in the RoE expansion and was left largely untouched in the Lost Levels. The Super shotgun was a welcome addition though and bar a few bits of the game, was my weapon of choice for most of both expansions.
For some morbid reason, despite being an atheist so it's not actually that morbid for me, I am quite obsessed with Hell and different depictions of it. I just find it quite interesting so Doom 3's interpretations were quite cool. My favourite bit of hell was in the Lost missions expansion though. I thought the iconography stuck out a lot in that version of hell. Maybe I liked the more open areas in it too, especially the bit that had the demented crucifixes.
Generally I think I quite enjoyed the brevity of the lost missions expansion and I think perhaps that the main game was split up more noticeably into 8 level chunks similar to that then it might have helped the pacing and made it feel a little less long.
Overall, I really enjoyed the game but I am glad it's over and now I'll be onto Doom 16. Ive seen mentions of collectables in the game club thread so I might make more of an effort to find them on this play through than I did last time.
Edit: one thing I forgot to mention is that one of the load screens mentioned multiplayer but I can't find it in the switch port so goodness knows what happened to it!
@Kidfried Sorry I am behind but an excellent review - I have had Kentucky on my to play list for some time but this has really made me want it. I think I will wait till sales and get this on Switch since I can play in bed.
@RogerRoger Ohhh I have recently acquired this on my PC and have only played the first world. I am terrible at the gameplay but then I am terrible at 2d Sonic's. That said, I enjoyed the review.
Now I may be an idiot, but there's one thing I am not sir, and that sir, is an idiot
First, a little bit of background on this review. At the start of lockdown this year, I bought a few PS3 titles online at a rather cheap price and had one of those was Mirror's Edge, a game that I had always wanted to play last gen but never quite got round to it. I didn't do full impressions but did put a few brief thoughts on another thread when I finished it. Overall, I enjoyed the game for what it was - it had aged, but it was a little different, had an interesting world/environment. It made me interested to play Catalyst but someone recommended I wait for a sale. Long story short - thanks to whoever it was that recommended that because it spent under £8 on it.
Mirror's Edge was a linear narrative story where you went from essentially level to level with story and exposition that explained your objectives. You used your parkour abilities to run through these levels with some combat mixed in (though was very much an aspect that was ignored). The replayability came from bettering times and redoing levels with challenges - this game is a staple amongst speed runners for obvious reasons and I can see the appeal.
Catalyst, on the other hand is that old adage - bigger is not always better. In fact, in this case, it is way worse. This game is open world, which on paper DOES sound like a natural evolution for this game. If the first game was about replaying it and finding your own quicker routes etc., why not have an open world where you are free to explore? Sounds great right?
The answer. Not so much. The world looks nice and at first, I was really liking the game. You could do missions, side missions, deliveries, timed races etc. There is lots to do. The problem though is that it gets old very quickly. Yes, the open world looks nice and opens up as you develop new abilities. However it isn't really open world - there are points where you HAVE to follow certain routes. Just through playing the campaign stories, you'll find yourself running the same routes over and over again. Now in theory, you could try and find new ways around where you are allowed to but ultimately, you are more than likely to just use the map assistant that directs you where to go. The main hub area that connects areas of the maps meant you are continuosly running through the same locales.
There is fast travel, but it comes part way through the game and you need to revisit your safe houses (which allow you to smart travel) manually before you can use it as a fast travel point. I quickly became bored of doing timed runs or even extra deliveries. Yes, these get you XP to upgrade abilities but these upgrades didn't make things seem much different so I just stopped doing them and focused on big side missions and the story missions. Even with just doing the story missions, you'll be retracing your steps over and over again. The problem is that the world is so similar to itself, you can't memorise the routes as they all look the same.
The campaign itself is probably about 8 ish hours and when playing the story missions the game is pretty good - it's ALMOST like playing the original. There are some good set pieces and the missions give focus. The story is OK but for some inexplicable reason, completely retcons almost every element of the first game for... well I don't know? They reworked several characters from the first game which makes this a reboot I suppose? I have no idea why. It's not like the original had some complicated lore or something that needed retconning.
A plus is that the character animations are really good, voice acting is pretty standard but it looks and sounds good overall. I had real issues with the combat and difficulty. The combat was my least favourite part of the original but this seemingly gives you less options but makes the enemies harder. One particular enemy set is so powerful that if they punch and connect, you go on your back and roll over (a very long animation) by which time the enemy has time to swing another punch. In the climax you fight two of these and twice i got caught in a loop of being punched between them and could not recover. In the end I defeated them by running around in circles for ten minutes and kicking one in the bottom any time I could sneak a swift foot in.
Apart from that, sometimes the traversal isn't perfect - again, this is most likely my skill but I just didn't have the interest to get better. I fell to my death a lot and if you want to get good scores in time trials you need to learn multiple routes that are not the one the map gives you and get every move perfect. I just didn't have the interest to do so. A lot of deaths feel unfair. However when it does work, it feels good and the movement is fast and performance is good on the whole.
The game ends with the expectation of a sequel - something I add, not as a spoiler, but a warning. I doubt EA will pay for another game given this one's reception (I believe it did not sell well).
If you liked the original then this might be worth a play but I'd recommend you focus on story missions and try to pretend it works like the original.
Now I may be an idiot, but there's one thing I am not sir, and that sir, is an idiot
@Rudy_Manchego Thanks, glad you enjoyed my review and fingers crossed you can get to grips with Sonic Adventure 2 when (or if) you return. If you think I could help, tag me!
Excellent write-up on Mirror's Edge Catalyst. I was supremely disappointed with it at launch, being a pre-existing fan of the original, and wholeheartedly agree with your conclusions. I only had fun when I was stuck playing its linear story beats, as I could forget all the superfluous sandbox nonsense EA had crammed in. Running the same routes to return to base, over and over, became beyond boring. I put it back in its box after eight hours and haven't touched it since.
You're right, if there's ever a sequel it'll probably be another soft reboot (or remake of the original) as it's been too long to pick up any of either game's plot points. The original ended on a cliffhanger as well, so I was flabbergasted when Catalyst didn't even bother to acknowledge it.
Such a shame, and a huge missed opportunity to create an ongoing franchise. Ah well.
"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."
@RR529 Interesting thoughts on Trials of Mana there. The idea of choosing you party and main character is an interesting one, particularly as it changes the final boss. Did you just have the one run through or have you tried different characters? Is the story very specific to the people you choose or vague/generic enough that it will be fairly similar with different characters?
@RogerRoger GeneDrive and MegaSis sound like NES era Finally Fantasy enemies I find it funny that despite being a fan of the Blue One in the 16 bit era, I had no idea some of these games you describe even existed. It always feels weird to hear about Sonic games with anything other than fast flowing platforming (probably one of the reasons Sonic Forces felt so wrong to me) and playing as Robotnik himself seems even stranger!
@ralhdibny Nice little thoughts on DOOM 3 to go with what others have said. I haven't played the older games much but I like that old school enemies liked CyberDog are in the new games too. I hope you enjoy DOOM 2016!
@Rudy_Manchego I only played the demo of the original Mirrors Edge and thought it was a clever idea but wasn't sure it could carry a whole game. I can see that an open world should be great for this sort of game but cleverly designed, linear levels shouldn't be knocked; the Uncharted series has done pretty well out of the latter! I'm kind of surprised that more combat light parkour style games haven't been made, especially in VR.
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