@mookysam So, the lily pad level was weirdly easy for me this time, considering I died 40+ times in the original trying to get it. I got the lily pad shine on my fifth try, although I prepared for 40+ attempts beforehand. I found that being more conservative with the water nozzle helped. Really, even getting out to that island turned out to be way harder than the challenge itself.
The pachinko level is weird, because, if you know how to hold the stick when you launch, it's really quite simple, but otherwise it feels infuriatingly random where you'll end up. Still an ill-conceived challenge regardless.
What really does me in with the chucksters is both the dramatic difference even the smallest change in angle will make and how often that angle being wrong equates to instant death. Also, some of those levels require you to manipulate a LOT of chucksters before you get to the goal. Ugh.
I don't mind the barebones presentation for the 3D All-Stars games in general, but it annoys me that Nintendo wasn't even concerned about stabilizing the framerate. As you point out, it gets positively chunky in Delfino Plaza.
But yeah, Galaxy is the true hero of this release, as expected. Playing the other two before it only helped to highlight how much Nintendo's 3D Mario games have improved over time.
Currently Playing: The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy (PC)
@Th3solution, great Uncharted review! I'm probably the only person on this site (the world even) who has never played an Uncharted game to completion (I partially played the first on the PS3 through a rental, but that was it). Good to hear it still holds up. I think I have the trilogy thanks to PS+, so I probably should give it a try someday.
@mookysam, nice Sunshine review! I played it for the first time last year (on Switch), and while it is janky in spots, I do think it's a lot better than 64, and didn't run into any major problems with the camera, and quite enjoyed the FLUDD-less levels for the most part. It probably helped that I didn't set out to %100 it, though.
Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
Dragon Quest Heroes: the World Tree's Woe and the Blight Below (PS4)
The first entry in the Warriors/Musou style spinoff of the long running Dragon Quest JRPG franchise.
Gameplay:
Like most Warriors style games, it is a mission based action game where you take a party of 1-4 characters into battle against hundreds of foes. While most other Warriors titles have you taking control of a battlefield by completing various tasks (such as capturing forts, defeating important named foes, etc.) DQH tends to be a much more singularly focused experience. Maps (particularly in story mode) tend to be smaller in scope compared to it's contemporaries, and while you sometimes get a pretty basic objective (such as "defeat all monsters"), the game largely has a "tower defence" style bent to it, and you'll more often than not be tasked with protecting a specific location (such as a gate or statue) or an NPC (escort mission style) from waves of enemies as your sole objective in a mission.
Escort mission the game, pretty much.
Maps tend to be more maze-like, where you have to figure out the best way to stem the incoming tide of enemies so you can safely venture out to slay the "Mawkeepers" (tougher enemies that guard the portals mooks endlessly spawn from). To do this you'll need to summon your own monsters to the battlefield (which you can do after picking up dropped "monster medals" from defeated monsters) in key defensive positions, as well as take advantage of other strategic elements, such as stones dotted across a map you can warp to (they need to be activated first, but only once, so it's completely viable to leave your main objective unprotected your first go around as you go around activating all the stones, that way you can make use of them from the start on future attempts) or map specific elements such as cannons or switches that open & close gates.
I'll be honest & admit I really didn't care for the general gameplay loop in this. Don't get me wrong, mowing down hundreds of mooks can be as fun as ever (and it was kinda a relief whenever I didn't have to protect something), but general character control felt a little more heavy & not as snappy as other Warriors titles, and whenever you had to protect an NPC that has their own weapon they have a tendency to bum rush the strongest enemy that's currently in their "zone", even if they only have a sliver of health left, which makes for many a failed mission. Plus, I encountered at least one bug during a story mission where I had to protect a barricade, and the game considered it a failed mission whenever it reached half health (I've since watched a couple gameplay vids of people completing the mission with much lower barricade health, so it had to have been a bug, and not that isolated as I found a thread discussing the issue on the Steam forums). Luckily, you keep all EXP, Gold, & enemy drops you obtain in failed missions, so at least there's always some level of growth.
I will concede that I enjoyed the boss battles that closed out each chapter, and while they have nothing on the boss encounters seen in something like FFVII Remake, they do tend to be more involved than your typical Warriors bosses, and were nice & challenging IMO (though it has a tendency to reuse bosses, or at least pallet swapped versions of them, as regular enemies later on, which is a bit of a pet peeve of mine).
Each character has a series of combos they can execute with various combinations of the Square (light attack) & Triangle (heavy attack) buttons, Cross is used to jump, and Circle activates Tension mode whenever it's guage is built up (think the "Musou" mode from other games. you'll get a brief all around stat boost & status effect immunity, followed up by a screen filling super attack once the guage empties, or if you pull it off early by pressing Circle again). By pressing one of the shoulder buttons you'll bring up the special attack (these attacks use MP) & Healstone (these heal everyone in your party, though not any NPCs you're protecting) menues, another shoulder button makes you guard, another is dodge, and the last one switches between characters.
In terms of powering up your characters, they level up (general stat boosts) upon earning enough EXP (characters not in use earn EXP, but at a slower rate), by spending skill points on upgrades (you earn skill points every time you level up, and can learn/upgrade special attacks, upgrade combos, obtain extra stat boosts, and unlock other boons), by equipping new weapons/orbs (you buy these at the shop back at base, and the new items that appear at the start of each chapter are universally better than what came before, though a few characters have super weapons earned through late/post game side quests), and by equipping accessories (you synthesize these back at base with monster drops, and they offer boons non-stat related, such as protection against status effects or damaging terrain).
From my experience there are only 13 playable characters in the game (outside of any potential DLC, which I haven't checked), and while this means the scope of the franchise that it represents is quite small, the characters it does have are well realized & play very uniquely. It has a whopping 4 OC's (Luceus, Aurora, King Doric, & Isla), 4 reps from DQIV (Alena, Kyril, Maya, & a secret character), 2 reps from DQV (Bianca & Nera), 2 reps from DQVIII (Jessica & Yangus), & 1 rep from DQVI (Terry, who is also the protag of the Dragon Quest Monsters spinoff series). Barring Terry, all the characters present are from titles I've actually played, so lucky me.
In between missions you'll spend time at your base of operations which houses the world map (which you select to set out on missions), the aforementioned weapon & orb shops, the aforementioned synthesis shop, the Mini Medal shop (rare collectables you obtain from a variety of sources that you can trade for synthesis recipes, monster drops, & a special selection of weapons), the side quest counter (more on these next), accolade counter (earn Mini Medals for earning achievements & defeating certain numbers of enemies), the mail counter (mostly just goofy letters awarded upon completing a sidequest, but certain sidequest rewards are obtained here as well), a Church (saving & refilling Healstones), & a Tavern (swap out party members here).
A fresh group of sidequests become available at the start of each chapter (and in post game), and while there are a number of them that offer a bespoke mission, the majority just ask you to defeat "X" number of this enemy type or collect "Y" number of this enemy drop. The problem with this is that, as far as I could tell, there's absolutely no way to replay missions (story or otherwise). Instead, when you select a certain location on the world map (unless there's a new mission to play) you're only option is to take on an endless wave of enemies at one of three difficulties (which determine which monster types spawn, which you can check by pressing the touch pad). This makes grinding out the "Kill X enemies, or collect Y items" type quests (or heck, grinding in general) the absolute worst kind of rote grinding imaginable. You'll be roped into doing quite a bit of them too, as worthwhile upgrades are locked behind them (like expanding the number of enemy drops you can hold, number of total Healstones, and number of monsters you can call to your side in battle), and story mission difficulty ramps up quickly enough that you'll need to do most of them to stay properly leveled, in my experience.
The only missions not completely pulled from availability after completing them are the boss fights, as souped up versions of them get their own map locations (appearing as caves) after you clear their associated chapter.
Oh, each character also has a couple of alternate costumes to unlock (via sidequests...), but they're all pallet swaps, so nothing too interesting, and kind of disappointing considering DQVIII & DQXI both offer actual alternate costumes (like armor sets, bunny outfits, etc.) for party members. Apparently there are a couple of interesting armor sets available as DLC, but this only applies to Luceus & Aurora (the player character OC's).
Story:
It takes place in a kingdom where humanity & monsters have lived in peace for as long as can be remembered, however strange events are afoot & monster kind turns against humanity. After securing Arba (the capital city), King Doric and his head knights Luceus & Aurora (the two player character choices) head out to protect the troubled kingdom & find out what's going on with their monster friends (which happens to involve slaughtering them by the hundreds, lol), and along the way they team up with iconic DQ personalities, who've been mysteriously transported to this realm.
It's a simple story with legendary heroes of light & dark lords awaking from slumber, but it works, especially since such simple tropes are what set up most DQ games proper. The strength of DQ's stories has always been the games' eclectic casts, and as an all star crossover, you'll get your fill here (I especially enjoyed Alena, Kyril, Jessica, & Yangus).
Most of the time the cast hangs out at the tavern back at base, where they'll usually have something new to say after every mission or so.
DQ tends to have a way with wordplay & puns, and this holds true here as well. Even the iconic "Puff-Puff" gag makes it's return here, though I'm not sure what exactly triggers it (every once in awhile a party member at the tavern will treat you to a "Puff-Puff" of a various kind, though this only happened to me twice. Once from Kyril, & once I think from Bianca. From what I understand there's one from each party member though?).
Writing is always in top form.
Oh, the game also makes liberal use of one of the DS4's unique features, the built in speaker! All spoken dialogue is fed through the TV and the DS4 at the same time. While this is kind of neat during the heat of battle (character chatter from the controller will be louder or quieter depending on how close you are to the speaker on the battlefield), it gets kind of tiring back at base, where you'll have NPCs blaring the same lines at you at full volume everytime you want to save, visit the shop, etc.
Graphics:
I will say it's a nice looking game that nails the vibe of the DQ franchise, and has all the typical environmental locations.
There'll be a lot of various particle effects going on, and many marble & stone floors are plenty shiny.
Likewise all the iconic DQ sound effects, music, and various voice accents & speaking patterns are here and accounted for, for better or worse.
There's no performance issues as far as I could tell, other than the aforementioned barricade bug.
Conclusion:
As someone who has really enjoyed the other licensed Musou games I've played such as Hyrule Warriors DE, Fire Emblem Warriors, One Piece Pirate Warriors 3 (might be my favorite, and I'm not even a big OP fan), and even Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, I was looking forward to this as someone who likes the DQ games, and while there are aspects of it I do like, in the end I found it to be a slog to finish, and chose not to bother with any of the post game stuff (which apparently includes a total of 3 superbosses). To be honest the experience will likely put me off trying out the new Hyrule Warriors for awhile, and especially the second DQH game (which I hear is a lot better, apparently).
Bye, we're off to return to more enjoyable games!
Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)
@RR529 Sorry to hear you didn't really get on with DQ Heroes. A musou game oriented around escort missions sounds dreadful, honestly. Lack of optional costumes, poor mission variety, and small, mazelike levels don't sound ideal, either.
I've been tempted to snag this a few times in sales, so I'm glad I didn't.
It's a shame, really, because a proper ARPG Dragon Quest that still had all the other things that go into this series would probably be a lot of fun.
Nice work on the review!
@mookysam As far as I can tell, Galaxy is locked 60fps. It's very nice after all the jank in 64 and Sunshine.
RE: Mario 64, what gets me is that Nintendo could have put in the visually improved NDS version of the game, but I guess just upscaling the N64 version was easier. Zero effort for one of their most iconic games.
At least Galaxy had some effort put into it. The gyro/touch controls felt like a great evolution of what they accomplished with the IR sensor on the Wii.
@mookysam Yeah, if I can ever find it for a decent price, I'm very tempted to review Mario 64 DS as a separate entity.
...actually, as I typed that out, I realized that Mario 64 DS is also on the Wii U VC. Guess being a Wii U owner still pays off at times.
I think I'm waiting on Age of Calamity until Nintendo releases something that can run it at more than 25fps. Whereas, from what I hear, Persona 5 Strikers runs perfectly on the system (near locked 30fps, anyway), like you would expect an exclusive to do.
@mookysam I've heard 64 DS works well with the circle pad on the 3DS. I imagine it likely works well with actual analog sticks as well. ANYTHING is better than a D-Pad for a 3D platformer, lol.
Same here. Even though I slowly seem to be replacing my Wii U collection with Switch ports, I don't own a Wii, so it serves that function well. I just wish all the GBA games on here were also available on Switch. Nintendo choosing to put GBA games on a home console but not on an even more powerful hybrid that would be an amazing host platform for all of their games is the sort of moon logic that infuriates me.
I think I'll probably download some of the VC games as well. I bought Kokuka on 3DS recently after hearing about it being delisted in other regions. Not excited about buying an expensive-ish 3DS eshop game at full price, but it beats permanently losing access to a game I've maintained a very mild level of interest in for a long time.
AFAIK, the AoC demo was a fairly good indicator of how the game as a whole performs. Maybe they've patched it post-launch, but I've not heard of any improvements. I was already kind of sour on the game once my worst suspicions about it were realized anyway, so the poor performance just killed any interest I had at the time. If it works better on a Pro model or something, I'll definitely get it, though.
Currently Playing: The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy (PC)
@RogerRoger Whenever I finish and review Persona 5 Royal, there's a DS4 gimmick in that game that's equal parts bizarre and delightful that I'm looking forward to mentioning. I also like when developers actually use the hardware in creative ways.
@RogerRoger I remember having the same experience nearly dropping the controller with Resogun. Although it’s a cool system with a lot of potential, I also prefer the sound quality of using headphones, so the DS4 speaker features don’t get to shine unfortunately. (Ex. - I think the controller coos like a baby in Death Stranding when you have to rock BB, as well as the light turns color to yellow). Maybe someone who doesn’t use headphones can confirm this. I just have bog standard TV speakers without a surround-sound set up so the headphones are so much better as a whole.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@RogerRoger I’m seeing a lot more utilization of the DS4 light bar in games I recently played. God of War definitely used it to change colors and I seem to recall flickering a time or two out of the corner of my eye. Another prominent game I played recently did some similar things. Maybe Ghost of Tsushima or RE2... can’t remember.
In a way it’s a little distracting, but it’s also a nice touch when we’ll implemented
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
Better late then never @Ralizah but I got round to reading your Bowser's Fury review (I'm working my way through your galaxy one as soon as I post this!)
I've actually ended up watching some extended gameplay of Bowser's Fury so I actually know how this title plays out and the progression is handled in this compared to all the other mario games I've neither seen or played (but have an obvious gist of how they play seeing as they are just platformers).
First of all I very much approve of the usage of metal in the Fury Bowser segments. Very nice indeed! 😎 It did honestly throw me for a loop and a half though (especially the vocals which ended up reminding me a bit of FF X and the first appearance of Sin) as the first time you see him when you start up the mode it does have that rather lovely, albeit very ominous, orchestral track instead.
It's nice Bowser's Fury makes Boswer come off more like an actual threat rather then the bit of a nuiscance he's looks to been as of late (I mean he looks fairly nice in that Tux in odyssey... but it's not exactly very threatening)
Though the whole mechanic of having to wait for Bowser to fury to obtain certain cat shines does seem a bit obnoxious (and ironically make him a bit of a nuisance), especially if you don't have any Boswer amiibo that let you summon Fury Bowser at will.
The music you've posted is rather lovely indeed and some of the other stuff I've heard is fantastic too. And it does look very nice too and it's very cool to see them impliment a photo mode a too!
Uhhh... Yeah the whole everything being a cat thing is a bit overkill to say the least. Cat Mario has always looked a bit funny to me anyway for some reason... But yeah EVERYTHING being cat themed is kinda taking the piss 😅
The islands having mutiple varients to them with the various objectives seemlessly popping up as you return is really cool and well implimented I thought... Though the missions themselves do look a little repetitive at times (Like the cat & kitten missions you mentioned).
Overall very good stuff Ralizah with your review (Nice little bits on regarding it's perfomance as well) and glad to hear you enjoyed your time with it!
I finally finished reading your Super Mario Galaxy review as well @Ralizah and boy was it worth the wait! I don't have as much to say about this compared to Boswer's fury as I haven't seen any footage of it... But you've really made me want to try it out!
I loved the way you weaved the game's soundtrack throughout the review rather then just leaving it as a small section at the very end. It's very majestic, beautiful even, and suits the grandoise nature of the game and paired with your writing made it all the more enjoyable.
It's a very informative review that's filled to the brim with admiration for the title and you should really be proud Ral. Utterly fantastic.
Oh and you mentioned Galaxy 2 a couple of times in your review... Is the ommision of it from the 3D All Stars Collection come off as rather notable to you or are not quite as fond of the title?
Not so much a full review from me (as this isn't really where my skills lie!), but just thought I'd share some impressions on Tomb Raider (2013) and Rise of the Tomb Raider.
So I spent a good chunk of my Christmas and New Year obsessing over the Uncharted series - eventually finishing six titles within as many weeks. Craving something similar, but having exhausted the series, I looked towards Tomb Raider. These two series are so often compared, plus I grew up with the original Core Design games and really enjoyed Tomb Raider 2013 when it first came out, so thought I'd give the modern trilogy a spin.
Tomb Raider (2013) still holds up well as a standalone title. Gameplay-wise it combines the combat and action setpieces that Uncharted is known for with wider spaces, backtracking, and RPG elements. Although I'd argue that Tomb Raider is weaker in the former (the combat is much easier and your encounters are usually briefer and simpler, and the action sequences generally aren't as diverse or exhilarating), the latter is a somewhat welcome addition that helps this game to carve its own identity. In particular the ability to gain skill points to enhance Lara's skills, as well as to collect salvage to modify your weapons, gave me an additional thing to look forward to while playing through the story. The world is littered with secrets to collect and reasons to backtrack if you're into that - but I'll get back to that in a second.
For me, the story is one of the stand-out features of this game. As a continuity reboot, this game seeks to explain how Lara became the eponymous Tomb Raider, through her fight for her and her crewmates' survival following a shipwreck on a mysterious island harbouring a murderous cult trying to resurrect an ancient queen. Playing as a less-experienced Croft does a lot to make the player feel more vulnerable - and for the first few hours of the game it maybe does feel a bit more survival horror than your typical tomb raiding (although, Tomb Raider as series did always have horror elements!). Overall the tone is much darker than Uncharted - the personal stakes are higher, the deaths are gorier (and allies aren't immune to death!), and even the colour palette is muted to go along with this. Journals add an extra dark layer to the story but, if I'm honest, I mostly skipped over these as I'd be keen to get to the next section.
And this is where my main criticism lies - pacing. This is probably all personal preference - but I found little to motivate me into exploring the wider world around me. Sure, if a secret tomb or chest was in my path, I would consider exploring it - but anything beyond that felt like a massive halt in the pace of the game. The game is a juxtaposition of very tense story-telling and open segments with backtracking and collectathon missions, which generally doesn't sit right with me. Luckily these things are optional, so I didn't have an issue skipping them.
Overall, this was a fairly solid game with fairly diverse gamplay elements that is made memorable by the tense situations that Lara is put in. Definitely a respectable start to a new continuity.
Rise of the Tomb Raider follows on from Tomb Raider (2013) by giving us Lara's first big adventure as the eponymous tomb raider. I'll keep things short and say that, while I generally enjoyed this game, I was left diappointed.
You may wonder why Lara has decided to go into tomb raiding following the disastrous events of the first game. In attempt to clear her late father's reputation as a crackpot historian, Lara ventures into Siberia to find the lost city of Kitezh, which he believed to hold the secret to immortality. Unfortunately she faces competition along the way, stumbling upon a military organisation known as Trinity which are willing to do whatever they can to obtain such a treasure. The story seems very cliche and...well, it is. Honestly I don't think it ever really gets better than that. There is some further drama between the characters along the way - but none of it is particularly compelling, nor does it come close to any of the character interactions of the Uncharted series (which I believe to be one of that series' strong points).
The gameplay is more of the same, except with some enhancements. Now more experienced, Lara now has access to a wider repertoire of tools for fighting (different arrow and bullet types) and climbing (climbing arrows, a grappling hook for swinging and making more difficult jumps) - these are welcome but fairly minor in the grand scheme of things. Puzzles seem to be more abundant - I'm fairly neutral on this, but this is a welcome addition for Tomb Raider veterans who enjoy the puzzle-focused nature of previous entries. However, probably the most notable change gameplay-wise is in the implementation of open spaces and resource gathering. Rise expands the crafting system from 2013 to include a number of resources - with different resources needed to craft different items. This adds an extra layer of complexity to anyone interested in crafting but, personally, this just made the process more tedious. Rather than appreciating the surroundings***, entering each area became a tedious process of using "survival instinct" to scan for, and gather, resources. Again, this was a massive break of pace in the game - much more so than 2013 - and worked to its detriment IMO.
*** To add - generally I found the environments in this game to be quite forgettable. I'm generally not a fan of snowy environments in games...and this game has a lot of it.
Altogether, while Rise of the Tomb Raider retains some of the core elements that keep me interested, it really went in a direction that was off-putting for me. I was motivated to finish the game to see where the story went, but also felt that it fell really flat.
So far these seem like good games that probably aren't 100% to my tastes.
I'm curious to know what direction Shadow of the Tomb Raider goes in, and whether it really is for me. Does it just go further into the things I was less keen on with Rise?
Again, I have no aversion to open world, collectathon, metroidvania, or RPG elements (some of my favourite games are in these genres!). Perhaps I've been coming in with the wrong mindset just off of Uncharted - looking for something that is as exciting, action-packed, and with as engaging (if cliched) a narrative.
RE: Bowser's Fury: Yeah, the inclusion of metal was a pretty inspired choice as a way to add to the perceived danger of Fury Bowser. I think the segments would have worked out better overall if he was actually more of a threat, but, as with Galaxy, I think the koopa king is in top form here. He'd become quite defanged over years of overexposure in various games and spinoffs. Bowser's Fury makes him scary again, and I like that.
I'm a bit more mixed on the choice to connect levels seamlessly via an oceanic open world setting ala The Wind Waker, but it's definitely a refreshing break from the usual style of Mario game design. The best Mario games almost all take chances and try out weird new concepts.
RE: Galaxy: The music was just too good to stuff into one corner. It has one of the best video game OSTs of all time, and was a MASSIVE departure from the scores for previous Mario games, and Nintendo games in general.
As for Galaxy 2... it's not a bad game. A lot of people prefer it to the original, and I do understand their position, but, for me, the game removed way too much of what made Galaxy special. The melancholy, the sense of beauty, the space theme (aside from gravity manipulation mechanics, Galaxy 2 barely feels like a space-themed game at all) and the way new mechanics and level designs were integrated with that theme, the approach to level design in general... it streamlines or removes too much entirely. Honestly, despite the title, it feels much more like a predecessor to the 3D Land/World games than it does a successor to Mario Galaxy.
I do think Galaxy 2 is worth remembering, nonetheless, and I hope it gets ported to the Switch at some point for people who don't own a Wii.
@timleon You know, the more I read about the recent Tomb Raider games, the more I have to wonder why it's taking me such a long time to get to them. Because, frankly, the idea of an Uncharted-esque adventure game with actual exploration, wideness of level design, and light RPG elements seems splendid.
I'm bumping Tomb Raider 2013 up my list. Not least because I recently purchased the PS4 version on sale for cheaps.
Thanks for contributing your honest and well-thought-out feelings on these games!
@timleon Fantastic Tomb Raider reviews! I enjoyed reading them and can mostly agree with your well organized assessment. A few comments —
I do agree that, although there is a tendency for people to compare Tomb Raider with Uncharted (aka “Dude Raider” as someone recently remarked) they really are different styles of games. The Uncharted masterclass of breakneck pacing, cinematic moments, character interactions, and overall storytelling is not really the focus of Tomb Raider. I agree with you that the first TR game has a reasonably good narrative, but the style of game design means that the story unfolds in a less natural way and can be off-putting if a person is expecting that level of cliffhanging narrative. And I agree that, although I enjoyed Rise of the TR for what it was, I found the story to be the most forgettable and least engaging of the series. And I think it’s not necessarily the story’s fault, but as you eloquently explain in your review, it’s more because of the way the game unfolds it’s narrative in a rather start-and-stop style because of the interspersed survival elements. And I also have never been a fan of snowy settings in games. I’m glad I’m not the only one. I think it’s subconsciously why I could never get excited about the HZD expansion, but I digress...
As for Shadow of the TR, I’m sure you’ve heard or read by now that some of the criticisms you have of the first two games, Rise in particular, are less of a problem in Shadow. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find that the exploration of areas feels more natural and each area you travel through seems to hold more interesting story elements and gameplay which is less tedious. At least that’s how I felt. It is still not like an Uncharted game, though. And although I liked the story miles better than the story in Rise, it isn’t one in which you’ll fall in love with character interactions and well fleshed-out relationships. But I really like the jungle setting a lot and the core conflict which drives Lara through the game. And the best part about it is that she returns to tomb raiding. It has the best tombs, puzzles, and exploration in the series. There is some combat and survival, yes, but it doesn’t feel like it gets in the way of the fun parts like climbing, discovery, and solving a satisfying ancient puzzle for treasure. Definitely let us know how you get along with it! I’m always glad to see new people discover these games!
@Ralizah@Th3solution Thanks for the feedback! It's my first time posting in this thread and quite nice to hear others' thoughts in relation to my experience.
@Ralizah I'd say give it a go! These are objectively great games, even if they don't do as much for me personally as the Uncharted games do. Did you play Lost Legacy? I really like how they approached more open level design in that title, but Tomb Raider goes a whole lot further.
@Th3solution Yeah, I tried not to be too harsh on these games as I was very much coming in from the perspective of Uncharted (this is partially why I was reluctant to call these reviews and more "impressions"...I don't doubt that my thoughts were coloured by my expectations going in!) Beyond the surface-level similarities, they are quite different. Funny you mention Horizon Zero Dawn actually - because in my mind, Tomb Raider really feels like a hybrid of Uncharted and Horizon. Unfortunately, I just love the latter two much more - I feel they do a better job at being what they try to be, whereas, while taking elements from both, I never felt that Tomb Raider reached the heights of either game.
Great to hear about Shadow though, and that really makes me keen to try it soon (after maybe a week's break...). I've actually heard very little about it. A jungle biome is appealing, as my favourite memories from the old Tomb Raider games largely lie in Tomb Raider 2's Great Wall and especially Tomb Raider 3's India. What you describe actually sounds reminiscent of my earlier experiences of the series!
@RogerRoger So this is the GBA game you were playing! I'll admit, the music you posted sounds pretty good, and would serve well to get the juices flowing.
I'm definitely sharing in that experience of fully completing games I've beaten but never seen all of in the past more recently. Given my recent completionist streak, the way I used to play games feels shockingly haphazard by comparison.
While I play almost no licensed games, I do kind of miss these smaller, bespoke portable versions of games. Even if I find the Switch's ability to play full fat modern home console games away from the TV to be insanely impressive, there's definitely a sacrifice insofar as an entire type of video game has effectively vanished. It's increasingly looking like the 3DS was the swan song for dedicated handhelds as a whole, and, with them, the types of games that would only be made for and released on low-resolution handheld devices.
Those screenshots look amazing, by the way. Did you find them online somewhere?
An impressive piece, as usual. If I ever get around to rebuilding my GBA collection, I'll absolutely keep an eye out for this game, as it sounds like a lot of fun, unnecessary headaches aside.
Currently Playing: The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy (PC)
@RogerRoger 3DS era will always be tops for me. Portable games were still recognizably portable games (nobody would mistake the 3DS catalogue for something from a home console), but the hardware was still ambitious enough to do impressive things that were simply impossible on older handhelds. And you also had the benefit of a touchscreen device that wasn't beset with gimmicky, because developers had already exhausted their "creativity" during the NDS generation, so the touchscreen was usually only used for stuff that made sense and objectively improved the controls and user interface. Only time I ever blew on my 3DS was either when playing NDS games or when I wanted to see the little icons on the dashboard spin around (very cool easter egg). 3DS was also the first handheld capable of gyro aiming. It was a perfect moment in time before the sun would set on the dedicated handheld game forever (not TECHNICALLY the actual hardware; like with Switch Lite, I expect future Ninty hybrids to continue receiving cheaper, dedicated handheld models).
GBA would definitely be second place for me, though. Lots of really good games on that device. It was also, interestingly, one of the first handhelds that benefitted heavily from ports of previously home console only games. Nowaways, you can play stuff like The Witcher 3 portably, but, back then, being able to play SNES games on a handheld device was pretty awesome and mind-blowing.
Both 3DS and GBA were somewhat lower-selling hardware that didn't have immense libraries like their predecessors, but I feel like this just made room for the high-quality library on this devices to really shine.
I really hope we see a proper GBA virtual console or mini console one day, since its best games can be pretty intimidatingly expensive now.
I'm impressed you found images with such high clarity on google, which is why I asked. With the exception of PS2 games, which I'll sometimes emulate on my PC JUST to get high quality screenshots, I also have to use online screenshots to show off older games, and the quality and sizing of them are usually fairly wonky. The screenshotting tools on modern consoles (especially on Switch, where I can post them straight to twitter) are such a godsend.
If someone told me a couple of years ago that I'd enjoy reading lengthy analyses of ancient James Bond video games, I'd have laughed in their faces. But you do a good job making your reads entertaining. And I even have half a mind to try out some of these games after some of your more glowing pieces!
Although it's a tough choice between whether I enjoy the passionate, effusive joy found in reviews you do of your favorite games over the hilarious schadenfreude experienced when reading a piece you write about a game you really hate.
Completion Status: All puzzles completed across both games, totaling 8.5 hours of playtime. No achievements for the first game, but I collected all but one of Puzzle Agent 2's achievements (the one I'm missing would've required me to play through the entirely of the second game pretty much perfectly from beginning to end, which I'm not really willing to do)
Professor Lameton
The Puzzle Agent games were developed by a very early career Telltale Games back in 2010 as part of a pilot program exploring alternative types of game design to supplement their episodic licensed adventure game model (as most readers will recall, they hit it big on this front not long after with their Walking Dead series). I'll be talking about this game and its direct sequel, which released a year later, as one entity, because they're really one experience. The gameplay and presentation are identical between the two games, and the mystery from the first game isn't really resolved until the second game.
The plot is, put nicely, absurdist. Nelson Tethers, the character you play as, is a member (the only member, in fact) of the FBI's puzzle research division. A bit of welcome satire is introduced early in this regard, as it's clear almost immediately that Tethers is bored out of his mind and really has nothing to do in this largely pointless pocket of the federal government. His tedium is brought to an end when he receives a field assignment, however: the lone factory that appears to supply the President of the United States with his preferred type of eraser (as in, pencil eraser) has mysteriously shut down production, and isn't responding to communication attempts, so Tethers is put on the case to find out why factory management isn't responsive. Tethers arrives in the strange little town of Scoggins, Minnesota, where the factory is situated, and quickly finds himself ensnared in a bizarre mystery involving a local cult, lost astronauts, strange scientific formulae, missing persons reports, and sightings of so-called "Hidden People." The key mystery seemingly tying all of this together is the inexplicable disappearance of the factory's foreman, Isaac Davner, and finding him becomes something of a fixation for Agent Tethers.
Despite the initial stupidity of the premise, this is still a lot to work with, and it could have been executed well. (Very) early on, there's a pleasant sense of mystery to proceedings: everyone in town is acting squirrely, and Tethers keeps experiencing strange phenomena. Unfortunately, this potential is largely squandered: the plot becomes dumber the more you learn about it, and, especially in the second game, a kitchen sink approach is taken to explaining the mystery. You start out with something manageable, with cover-ups, cults, and possible supernatural phenomena, and by the end of the second game, the plot is some sort of bizarre mess that attempts to tie together aliens, sentient garden gnomes, big foot, government conspiracies, mind control devices, etc. It's like the writers were trying to poke fun at bad conspiracy writing and you end up with something so convoluted and weird that you don't really care about anything that happens because none of it means anything.
Structurally, these games are dead ringers for the long-running Professor Layton series on the Nintendo DS/3DS. In particular, the very first game in that series, Professor Layton and the Curious Village, is called to mind: in both properties, you play an investigator with an aptitude for puzzle solving who is asked to journey out to a strange little town to solve a mystery that everyone seems to be in on, all the while hunting around for hint coins and solving puzzles for the puzzle-obsessed locals, each of which you're scored on depending on how many times it took you to get the answer and/or how many hints you used to solve them. Instead of hint coins, you hunt around for pieces of used chewing gum stuck everywhere, which Nelson Tethers will then disgustingly put in his mouth when he needs a hint because gum helps him to think. The scoring system in the Puzzle Agent games strikes me as a bit odd, though, as, unlike the Layton games, there's nothing really incentivizing skilled play. The grades you earn don't ultimately affect anything. In the Layton series, getting more Picarats (the currency obtained from solving puzzles) would go toward unlocking a variety of extras and bonuses after the game was done. But there's no post-game content here. It's all very barebones, in fact: Puzzle Agent 1 only has 37 puzzles total, with a similar number of puzzles in the second game.
I wouldn't necessarily mind a miniature Professor Layton-esque experience, but the failings of Puzzle Agent 1 & 2 highlight was made that other series special. The Layton games didn't always have amazing plots, but they held together as narrative experiences because of the engaging connection the professor had with his young apprentice, Luke Triton. Later games had large casts of interesting characters. Puzzle Agent has a cast of characters, but they're all utterly forgettable, and the writers didn't really bother to build up a connection between the main character and anyone else in the town. This would have been fine with sufficiently good mystery writing, but, as I established, the plot is ridiculous and not meant to be seriously considered.
What's left then? Well, gameplay, I suppose. Puzzles, primarily, aside from point-and-click adventure game navigation around your environments, which barely even counts as gameplay. The puzzles here actually aren't terrible, but considering how few they are, they're really lacking in variety. There are only a few different types of puzzles, so you'll have a sense of deja vu as you play through the game. The Layton games had similar puzzles as well, but those games had several hundreds of puzzles each, so some level of repetition is expected. With 37 puzzles or so in each Puzzle Agent game, you'd think each one would be unique and well-considered. The game also has an issue with occasionally explaining a puzzle poorly, which might cause the player to have to guess at the rules the first time through if they want to get a sense of what they're supposed to do. Once or twice, it also expected me to know things that I don't think were necessarily reasonable to expect from a logic-based puzzle, such as one that presented a sequence of numbers and challenged me to find the pattern and guess the next number in the sequence. I came to discover that there was no independently discoverable sequence, but that it was, in fact, the number pi, and the game wanted me to input the numbers seven or eight digits in. Now, dear reader, maybe you're a mathematic prodigy that has memorized pi past the first three numbers, but I ended up having to look it up, because I had no other means of answering the question.
With that said, I feel like I'm probably being harsher than I probably should be, because most of the puzzles are fun and well-considered, and these games scratched a very particular itch I've had for years since I finished the Layton series.
The unique visual style in these games is the result of a collaboration between Telltale Games and Canadian cartoonist/animator Graham Annable. Stylistically, it's almost indistinguishable from his work in comics, and while it's not a style I'd normally take to, the offbeat designs of these bug-eyed weirdos meshes well with the generally parodic feel of the games in general. Scoggins feels like a rudimentary send-up of the American Midwestern setting prominently featured in films like Fargo. With that said, the low production quality of the project should be noted: the animation featured in this game is VERY basic, and you won't notice a lot of movement on-screen at any one time.
Sound design-wise, there's next to nothing in the way of music, which is a bit disconcerting, but I did appreciate the fact that these games are fully voice-acted. And the voice acting is decent!
The Puzzle Agent games aren't terrible. The art design is unique, the offbeat style of the humor elicited a few chuckles from me, and the fundamentals of the game design, which feel ripped straight from Professor Layton, are solid enough. Unfortunately, the games don't feel fully developed, are lacking in puzzle variety, feature next to no music, and, in what is ultimately the series' biggest sin, there's no real reason to care about any of the characters, or even the story more broadly, which feels like two subpar, four-hour episodes of Gravity Falls and almost entirely falls apart near the end anyway. With that said, given the emphasis on puzzle-solving and their short length overall, the games don't wear out their welcome, and I can't really say I disliked them. Given how similar and interconnected the two games are, I'm giving them a combined score of 5/10.
@RogerRoger Humble Bundle clutter, more accurately. Tokyo Dark was the only one of these games I actually wanted in my library. The others just came along for the ride when I bought bundles for other games. With that said, there's something fun about checking out obscure games that nobody has discussed in years. You occasionally find some real treasures that way. The musty corners of online PC gaming marketplaces have traces of that same magic small video rental stores used to have before the internet demystified everything.
These games were actually also released on mobile, I believe! But yeah, a game doesn't need to be perfect, but it does need to excel in something, and this one... doesn't. It's forgettable, frankly. The premise is a lot more attractive than the actual execution.
And yeah, agreed on satire/parody vs pure bad writing. There's value to be had in lovingly playing with common genre tropes, but that still requires some actual effort to be expended.
Thanks for reading!
Currently Playing: The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy (PC)
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