Topic: User Impressions/Reviews Thread

@Ralizah @nessisonett I've actually been doing that for a long time now, to a point where it's become an obsession of mine to play through games in release order. Otherwise I wouldn't feel comfortable playing through them. At the moment I'm going through the RE titles in order and you have no idea how amazing it was to play through the PS1 trilogy and then play RE0. I came to appreciate certain aspects of that game a lot more compared to when I started out with REmake last year (no tank controls, better graphics, better voice acting and so on). I seriously can't wait to play RE4 now.

@RogerRoger Cheers mate! Yeah, and I feel like it's the same thing with Sonic games as those always deliver a killer soundtrack while not always delivering the best gameplay. I think that's why a lot of people still think fondly of Sonic 06 due to the phenomenal music even though the rest of the game wasn't that great. I think it's important to really cover all aspects of a game in order to make it as memorable as possible. Music after all is a great way to remember things and so I think it's just as important as the other aspects of a game.

Just finished Red Steel 2 on Wii. This was one of the most engaging experiences I've had on the Wii of all the games I've played and it shouldn't come as a surprise considering it's one of the few Wii games that utilised the Wii MotionPlus accessory.

The game is a first-person hack and slash game with shooting mechanics but just like in Skyward Sword, you have to be precise with your attacks in order to perform well. You swing with the Wii remote just like with a sword and the wider you swing, the more powerful your attacks will be. At first the enemies are very easy to defeat and this is mostly due to a combo you learn early on where you dash forward and stab them once and they're knocked down for a finisher. But later on, enemies will keep their guard up and just like in Skyward Sword, you need to attack them in the direction they're holding their sword in order to defeat them.

The enemy variety in general was very good and you'll encounter enemies that will have to be taken down in so many different ways, such as dashing around them and stabbing them in the back or causing a shockwave that will keep them down momentarily. Then you also have guns at your disposal, which I mostly used to take down the floating robot enemies. Although the shotgun and the machine gun were useful for a while against the tougher enemies when I didn't have many other options. But once I unlocked the last couple of special moves, I pretty much only used my katana for the remainder of the game since these moves were really powerful and useful.

As you can probably figure out, there really isn't much of a story in this game. You play as a "kusagari" who is the last one of their clan and you're out to seek revenge against the other clans for having killed everyone else in your clan. The setting of the game is basically a mix between the Wild West and Feudal Japan (i.e. samurais), hence why you carry both a katana and guns. You explore towns mostly in the desert and the buildings are inspired by Japanese architecture, such as shrines or even modern buildings with Japanese texts on them. Overall, I think this was a very interesting and unique setting for this game.

One aspect that I really liked is the progression system. You upgrade stuff with the money you find and you're constantly getting money throughout the game. You can get them by shooting floating sheriff stars, finding hidden tokens, breaking boxes, cracking safes, opening lockers, defeating enemies and so on. Then you have so many different options on how you can spend your money. You can get more armour and health, buy more guns, upgrade certain attributes of the guns, increase damage output of the guns, upgrade the damage output of your katana, increase the power of your abilities as well as buy special moves. For a game like this, there's more customisation than I thought. And in contrast to most other games, you can definitely feel the difference in the upgrades. For example, now that I have maxed out the damage output of my katana, I'm taking down the more difficult enemies much easier than before. It truly feels like I've grown stronger so to speak. Fully upgraded guns also help mow down groups of enemies that can guard against your katana attacks. And finally, unlocking the last special moves really help against tougher enemies by basically knocking them down in one hit, which is awesome.

I don't have much to say about the music because there wasn't any particular track that stood out to me. The music is pretty much standard affairs in terms of action games like this.

So all in all, this was truly an immense joy to play on the Wii because it's one of the few Wii games that actually utilised the motion controls of the Wii remote to its fullest potential. Most Wii games tend to only have waggle mechanics, but Red Steel 2 had great motion controls and they were actually responsive. I would say that this is the best game on the Wii in terms of accurate motion controls and engaging combat. I highly recommend playing it if you're looking for a refreshing experience amongst all these traditional games that come out today.

@LtSarge Sounds like a fun, arcade-like experience. I was never a fan of the Wii's reliance on motion controls, but certain games were elevated by fully leaning into them, and it sounds like this is an example of that phenomenon.

Have you played the first game?

@Ralizah Nope, never considered playing it because it wasn't that good apparently. It tried to incorporate accurate motion controls but it failed, which is why most people hold the sequel in much higher regard because that game actually managed to deliver. Although I'd lie if I said that I'm not at least curious to try it out. Maybe I'll check out a playthrough online and see how it plays.

Ninja Five-O (AKA Ninja Cop in PAL regions)
Platform: GBA
Time to Completion: 5 hours

Ninja Five-O is an action-platformer video game released by defunct developer Hudson Soft for the GBA in 2003. You play as Joe Osugi, a detective (and ninja, obviously) who has been sent in to infiltrate and dispose of terrorist cells that are committing crimes throughout the city while prioritizing the rescue of hostages held by them. Each area where a crime is occurring is headed by a Boss, a ninja that has been given supernatural powers by the Mad Masks they wear on their face.

Very little of this is explained in-game, by the way. Narrative in this game is limited to seconds long splash pages that use basic phrases to paint the scene, like "terrorists are robbing the bank!" or some such. Regardless, as you could probably tell from the previous synopsis, this game isn't exactly high art. It sounds like the plot to a schlock 80s action movie, and that turns out to be a... pretty good description of the vibe the game is going for. It's stereotypical, dumb, and entertaining, which is all a game like this really needs to be. It did well with critics, but was unfortunately cursed with poor sales, leading to a limited production run for the cartridges. That, combined with the game's rise in popularity years on as people rediscovered it via emulation, has made it one of the rarest and most valuable games on the system. Loose cartridges run hundreds of dollars, and you're looking at thousands if you want a copy with a box and manual.

Controlling your ninja is a fairly simple affair. For melee, Joe has access to a sword, which can be used to slash through enemies with the GBA's shoulder buttons. This attack is extremely powerful, but the extreme close range and animation time it requires leaves Joe exposed to enemy attacks, so it's only going to be your go-to when you've thoroughly learned the timing of enemy attack animations and can squeeze in an attack. More often than not, you'll be relying on shurikens to take out your enemies. While comparatively weak, these wonderful things can be used from afar to the heart's content, since he appears to possess a limitless number of them.

Your ranged attack will change as Joe finds energy boosters throughout the level that cause him to change color and become a more powerful ninja. By the time Joe has upgraded twice, his weak shurikens have been transformed into deadly lasers that immediately kill smaller enemies and significantly weaken stronger ones. Of course, this is balanced by the way Joe loses access to his power-ups when he takes damage. Functionally, it's similar to the way Mario will lose access to power-ups when he's damaged in his 2D games.

The signature mechanic in this game is your ninja's grappling hook, which you can extend or retract at any time and use to quickly scale the walls of the facilities you're infiltrating. I was actually really satisfied with it, as it strikes a nice balance between the simplicity and ease-of-use of the legendary Bionic Commando's influential grappling hook mechanic and the complex, physics-based movement of the fishing pole grappling found in the cult Japanese platformer series Umihara Kawase. It's easy to combine a swinging descent with a mid-air sword slash to quickly dispatch foes in more open areas, and, in general, this is one of those games were more skilled players can make the gameplay feel like poetry in motion. And it's a good thing the grappling isn't too difficult to control, since the level design will be putting you through the ringer by the end of the game.

The first couple of levels in the game are fairly conservatively designed, with a lot of room to swing around and experiment with the grappling hook. You'll start out at a bank, which is surprisingly vertical, forcing you to contend with wide spaces and enemies that are able to attack you from multiple elevations. But the actual amount of precision platforming required is pretty small. The enemies thrown at you from the start are pretty basic mooks who telegraph when they're going to fire their weapons. The hostages I mentioned need to be rescued from them, which requires proper timing, because if you attack the enemy at the wrong time, you'll kill the hostage instead and lose a ton of health when you do as a penalty, often leading to an instant death if you're not already at full health (the terrorists are hugging the hostages to their bodies and using them as human shields when not actively firing their guns at you). Over time, as you go on to progressively harder stages like the harbor, the airport, and the cave (before the insane final level, where every inch of it is filled with stuff trying to kill you), the game will gradually introduce more difficult enemy types (like other ninjas who will ambush you after materializing out of thin air, machine gun-toting baddies, or the particularly annoying flamethrower-wielding foes) as well as stage hazards like pits filled with spikes and areas that require grappling between walls in order to reach particularly inaccessible doors.

The level design in this game is interesting. Instead of a linear, point A to point B progression structure, each level is designed in a metroidvanian structure, and you'll have to explore and find keys through each level in order to unlock other doors with other keys until you rescue all of the hostages and gain access to the key that will allow you to leave the level. As befits a game structured around exploration, there are also multiple sections of each level which aren't required for completion, but which, when explored, will throw enemies and (oftentimes) extra resources your way. It's fun, and keeps the game feeling fresh when you inevitably die and have to play a level over again, because you learn the ideal way to quickly carve through each level by the time you've mastered it.

That is, by the way, something that deserves mention: while the game is often brutally difficult and forces you to start a level over from the beginning if you die, it balances this out by completely dispensing with anything like a life system. You get unlimited retries of each level, and the game never forces you to play through more than one level in a go without dying. It's tough, but not unfair.

You'll also face off against one of the Mad Mask ninja bosses at the end of each stage, although these encounters tend to be somewhat uninspired and are probably the worst parts of the game.

Once the game ends, you'll gain access to an unlockable hard difficulty and a challenge mode where you're tasked with doing time trial runs on each level. These are actually a lot of fun, because you're forced to memorize the layout of these stages and find unique ways to shave time off in order to reach the goal by the end. This shift from killing enemies and rescuing hostages to completing the levels as quickly as possible really makes your approach the game differently and helps you to appreciate the excellent level design.

Ninja Five-O is an easy recommendation if you're lucky enough to find a copy, already own one, or don't mind delving into the controversial world of video game emulation. Its small, metroidvanian levels are perfect for quick attempts when you have a few minutes to spare, and the game is action-packed enough that each run at a level is guaranteed to be good fun, regardless of how frustrating the circumstances behind your numerous deaths end up being. The only real criticism I have of this game is that much of the difficulty in the final level felt cheap, to the point where it started to feel like it was punishing the player for trying to finish the experience. But one questionable level shouldn't put you off an otherwise solid action-platformer that's perfect for portable play sessions. Solid 7.5/10. It's getting docked half a point for the music, which I've linked throughout, and am not a huge fan of.

@RogerRoger Oh yeah, the piece on Shin Megami Tensei would have been the first dedicated GBA game review, wouldn't it? There are actually a lot of GBA games I'd love to talk about on here. I'm hoping to get to the GBA Metroid games sooner than later, especially considering the new Metroid game releasing in a few days is the first mainline sequel we're getting in that series since Metroid Fusion on the GBA.

The subject matter is definitely a throwback to 80's action schlock. I think the GBA was probably the last handheld where we got a lot of very old-school games like this as commercial releases.

In general, the level design and difficulty was well considered, but yeah, that last level's difficulty didn't feel organic at all. Have you ever seen a poorly made Mario Maker level where the creator spams stage hazards and strong enemies as a substitute for actually good level design? That's what it feels like. Thankfully, I got through it after numerous attempts and, eventually, an unfortunately large amount of profanity!

That's a full playthrough in under an hour. This person makes it look easy as hell, lol.

Thanks for reading!

@Ralizah Great review! I've actually heard about Ninja Five-O from somewhere else. I don't know if it was from someone on the forums, a friend of mine or if I read it on some other site. I think it might've been the latter since you mentioned that it's a Metroidvania game and I used to look up top lists for that genre a lot some time ago and one site might've had that game in their list. Either way, I remember being curious to play this game since I'm not familiar with many older Metroidvania titles. It sounds like it could be good fun even if it's quite challenging. I don't have any way of playing it now, but maybe Nintendo will add it to Switch Online one day if GBA games are ever added. I'd definitely give it a go then!

@RogerRoger Yeah, it's unfortunate though that I wasn't part of that hype because I pretty much only bought Red Steel 2 because it came bundled with the Wii MotionPlus, which I wanted to have in preparation for Skyward Sword the following year. But yeah, I grew up with the Wii so I have a special fondness for games with motion controls even if most people don't like them. The Wii especially had so many different games and as you might already know, I love variety in games so that system resonates a lot with me. Games like Red Steel 2 are definitely what I need right now in a time when I've played so many games lately with the same basic formula.

@LtSarge Thanks! I don't have high hopes for it being reprinted or being official redistributed, unfortunately, seeing as how the developer tanked and the publisher, Konami, can't really be counted on for anything good anymore. If you ever get the opportunity to play it, though, it's worth your time. Great mix of arcade and metroidvanian game design.

While I go out of my way to support the industry as much as I can, this sort of game is one reason why I hope the emulation scene online stays healthy. There are so many minor classics that would have been lost to time otherwise.

@RogerRoger 😂 I forgot you specifically reviewed the GBA version of Everything or Nothing. Kinda similarly, I'm just used to the James Bond games you talk about being Playstation or PC versions.

This is an interesting subject, though. When I update the directory again, I might include stats on which systems have enjoyed the most reviews for their games.

I'm actually kinda torn on whether I'm going to replay the other 2D Metroid games before tackling Dread. I'll probably just play Dread and then save a full series replay for a later date.

Yeah, that escape sequence sucked. 1.5 minutes, and you have to dodge environmental hazards, engage in expert platforming, etc. At least I could take my time with the rest of the level. You'll understand why I heaved a heavy sign of relief when I finally got through it!

@RogerRoger I've been really happy with the growth of this thread so far! And yeah, with 90% of the stuff I play being on Switch, I could see that swinging the numbers toward Ninty's system. Although, eventually, I'd like to have a nice spread of reviews across multiple platforms. The only real non-entity in terms of living platforms being represented is Xbox, but I just don't see a world where that's going to be changing for me, personally.

For my part, I should have at least two PS4 reviews coming before the end of the year, in addition to Nintendo stuff.

I've played all of the mainline handheld games (some of them multiple times), but have slacked on the spinoffs stuck on consoles like Other M and the second and third Prime games.

@RogerRoger Fantastic review, Rog. A great read, and it sounds like unfortunately it’s a more enjoyable read that the game was to play. It’s a shame really. I know how much you were looking forward to this game.

@RogerRoger Great write-up mate. Too bad that you didn't find this version that enjoyable, although it sounds to me like you had issues with the gameplay in general and these issues were present in the original Wii version as well, such as the double-jumping being mapped to the same button. Not to mention that platforming in 2D levels could prove troublesome when double jumping at the wrong time. I guess the experience will be different to everyone, some may be lucky to not run into these issues while others will be less fortunate.

It really is annoying when even the best Sonic games are not being received well today due to the developer not putting enough effort into the games. It feels like this series is cursed to constantly deliver poor titles, either because they have technical issues or because the gameplay just doesn't sit well with the player. Really hope the next Sonic game turns out good.

The Evil Within Review - The Quintessential Survival Horror Game

To say that I enjoyed The Evil Within would be a major understatement. I’ve been playing this game every day since the beginning of this month and that’s because I just couldn’t stop playing it. This is the longest horror game I’ve played so far and I don’t think there’s another horror title besides its sequel that is longer than it. There’s just so much content here and the thing is that more content doesn’t mean a better game. But in this case, it does because the content is of such high quality. It took me roughly 20 hours to finish the game and I enjoyed every minute of it. I’m genuinely impressed by how much there is to do without bogging down the overall experience and that’s one of the reasons for why I think it’s the quintessential survival horror game.

When it comes to the story, it’s hard to go into details without ruining it. So instead, I’m going to summarise the beginning of the game and hopefully you’ll be able to at least understand the premise. You play as a detective named Sebastian Castellanos when one day you hear on the dispatch radio that something’s up at the local hospital. You go to investigate with you partner Joseph and a junior detective named Kidman. When you explore the place, you find out that everyone in there is dead. Looking at the security footage, a mysterious hooded person with supernatural abilities was recorded killing everyone. As you turn around, he’s standing right behind you. He touches you and you black out. When you wake up, you realise that you’re in a completely different place and nothing seems to make sense. Welcome to the world of The Evil Within.

Subsequently, the story won’t tell you much of what’s happening as you’re left to gather information on your own through notes and diaries. You’ll frequently meet up with other characters but as a whole, the story is simply meant to push you forward to the next chapter. Most of the time, you won’t understand what’s going on but eventually, it will become clear to you exactly what’s happening. Once I realised it, and the reason behind it, the story started resonating more with me and I became even more interested in finding out how it all ends.

While the story takes a back seat in this game, the gameplay most certainly does not. When you start playing, the game will first teach you about stealth. You only start with a revolver with very little ammo and that’s it. You can punch the enemies but it doesn’t do much damage, it’s mostly there to help you push them away so that you can recover. Instead, you’re encouraged early on to sneak up behind enemies and kill them with a knife though their head. I found this part of the game very interesting and refreshing as previous survival horror games I’ve played such as Resident Evil and Dead Space haven’t had stealth at all. So I think it’s nice that this game included that as an option in order to help you preserve resources. It also made the experience more tense as you’re constantly on the lookout for enemies so that you don’t get spotted. Not to mention that there will be tons of traps placed everywhere, such as tripwires, bear traps and proximity bombs. Suffice to say, you won’t succeed in this game if you rush though each area as you’ll have hordes of enemies chasing you and traps blasting you everywhere.

That’s why this game can be a rather slow experience as you’ll have to be careful not to trigger traps or alert other enemies. Furthermore, there's a strong focus on resource gathering. Not only ammo, but also the game's own currency called ‘green gel’. As you find safe rooms throughout the game, you’ll be able upgrade you character through various ways, such as health, weapons and ammo storage. That’s another reason why it’s important to take your time and explore every nook and cranny in order to perform successfully.

As you progress, you’ll find more weapons, such as shotgun, crossbow, sniper rifle and even the classic magnum. There will also be different ammo types for your crossbow, for example freeze and explosive bolts as well as harpoons. Freeze is great against multiple enemies as they’ll instantly die once thawed out and explosive is good against multiple enemies as well but I tend to mostly use them against bosses. The harpoon is good for impaling enemies and getting them stuck to walls so that they can’t move. You can find these in the levels or craft them using the parts you’ve collected by disarming the aforementioned traps.

Another aspect of the gameplay is matches. Remember burning zombies in Resident Evil Remake so that they wouldn’t turn into Crimson Heads? It’s sort of the same thing here, except that they’re a very efficient way of getting rid of enemies that are lying down. One trick that’s very useful throughout the game is shooting an enemy once in the leg so that they fall down and then you burn them by using a match that will instantly kill them. If there are other enemies near the burning body, whether they’re standing up or lying down, they will also become engulfed in flames and die. Simply put, matches is a very efficient way of taking out enemies when you’re low on ammo. You don’t have to prepare gasoline or anything like that, just stand above a body and with the touch of a button, they’re on fire.

As a whole, I absolutely loved the gameplay of this game as you have so many different options for how you want to tackle a situation. You can either do it stealthily, go guns blazing, use your various ammo types to freeze or explode enemies, or just burn them all with matches. The weapon variety is definitely impeccable.

Speaking of variety, this game has so many different environments for its levels and this is another reason why I find it to be the quintessential survival horror game. It basically has every conceivable setting for a horror game: hospitals, farms, caves, catacombs, urban areas, water areas, factories, markets, churches, subways and even a mansion that’s a throwback to the first Resident Evil, which is so cool. If there’s one thing this game does right, it’s the variety of the levels. And the levels themselves are designed very well. They are mostly linear and don’t feature that many puzzles. It’s supposed to keep things moving along at a brisk pace and considering it can already be a slow experience having to play carefully and gathering resources, I appreciate the linear approach with minimal puzzles.

One thing to keep in mind is that this game can be rather challenging. I played it on normal difficulty and I believe playing it on casual will only give you more ammo but it will still be a challenging experience. This will definitely put off a lot of people, as evident by the trophy list on PS4 since only roughly 50 percent of the players have managed to beat the first boss. I recommend playing it only if you have already experienced multiple survival horror titles before and are familiar with the genre. Because this game will truly test your skill and this is made even more clear with the boss fights. Some may have already heard about them, but the bosses can be absolutely ruthless. Most of them will kill you in one hit and I have mixed feelings about this aspect. On one hand, it will force you to take them seriously and play at your very best in order to get past them. But on the other hand, it can get rather annoying getting killed over and over. There will also be chase scenes and these segments can also kill you in one hit. Thankfully, there are plenty of checkpoints throughout the game and they are very well-placed so it should never feel unfair. Personally, I really enjoyed the challenging aspect of this game as it made you truly appreciate all the weapons and items that you find, and it made you think more creatively on how you want to tackle each situation.

In terms of sound, there isn’t much music since it’s a horror game but the atmosphere was definitely enhanced by the creepy sounds. The enemies always let off eerie noises when they are nearby and the screams of the bosses will make you even more frightened of them. There is however one track that stood out to me and that’s the theme of the safe room. Whenever you get in close proximity of one, you’ll always hear the beautiful theme of Clair de Lune by Debussy:

So all in all, I loved The Evil Within. While the story wasn’t all that great or memorable, the challenging gameplay was so satisfying and an absolute joy to experience. I had so much fun playing this game and the fact that it offers so much high quality content has turned it into my favourite horror game of all time. I still have the DLC left to play and I can’t wait to eventually experience the sequel, which I’ve heard is even better than the first one! Simply put, I highly recommend playing this game, as long as you have experience with survival horror titles that is.

Stats are up on the main page. They're just under the directory. PS4 is actually still in first place by quite a massive degree. Shockingly, the people on the Playstation forum prefer discussing and reviewing Playstation games!

PS5 games are a little on the low side since I chose to count PS4 games being played on the PS5 as PS4 reviews.

@RogerRoger 😂 I've seen some really wild glitches and bits of gameplay footage from the Switch version of Sonic Colors. They really messed up that release. I was OK with the remaster targeting 30fps on that platform (if you play on handheld tech, you can't expect parity with home console versions for most games), but it turns out the framerate was the least of that game's issues.

Surprisingly thorough (and scathing) tech analysis of Sonic Colors: Ultimate. It seems like the poor remastering annoyed you enough that it poisoned your experience with the actual game, which is unfortunate, since I know you're a huge Sonic fan.

Interesting to hear that the control scheme was never improved now that Sonic Colors is free of the limiting Wiimote format, although perhaps that points to the lack of care taken with this release in general.

I actually rather liked the musical snippet you posted, and, looking up that ending song you mentioned, I have to say I found it intolerable in both iterations. The synthesized voice drove me up a wall.

But, yes, the music could be worse...

You'll excuse me, but I'm STILL reeling from how bad that soundtrack is!

@LtSarge You're really on a roll with these games!

Nice piece on The Evil Within. It does sound decent. Especially the environmental variety. When I first played the game, I only got about an hour in, and something rubbed me the wrong way so badly I stopped playing and sold the game, which never happens! I might have to see about picking this back up in a Steam sale or something. The inclusion of stealth in combat is probably something that should have been done in the Resident Evil games, considering their emphasis on survival and resource conversation. Sneaking past enemies HAS to be better than running past them and hoping they are unable to grab you.

Claire de Lune playing in the save rooms is a pretty cool touch. I always really liked the way the melodic tunes in the save rooms for RE1 helped the player to emotionally unwind for a few moments, since you knew you were safe when you heard it. Claire de Lune is even better, though, given how beautiful the music is.

And yeah, I've heard some great things about the sequel. The way it's structured seems pretty unique for a horror game: VERY Silent Hill-inspired, which is always a plus for me.

@Ralizah Cheers mate! Yeah, this game can honestly be a hit or miss with most people. I think if you're prepared to set aside a lot of time for it, you'll find a truly engrossing experience. I rarely do this when I play games, but when playing The Evil Within, I took the time to truly look around and explore everything. Not just for resources but to also take in the scenery because it can be such a slow-paced game. I've been watching a person on YouTube play this and he drew a comparison to Outlast where you don't really take in the scenery at all in that game because you're constantly running away. So you miss out on a lot of details because that's how the game was designed. While in The Evil Within, you can truly appreciate the attention to detail and I like that.

The interesting thing about save room music is that in the older RE titles, you could never tell if the room you're entering is a save room or not until you're actually in it. While in The Evil Within, you will actually hear the music as you get closer to the room, which really boosts that sign of relief as you're rushing towards it when you hear it. It's small things like this that enhances the overall experience.

@Jimmer-jammer Thanks! I'm really looking forward to playing the DLCs soon. Do you happen to know what the third one is like? I know that you play as Kidman in the first two DLCs and they're supposedly really good, but what makes the third DLC so unappealing? The season pass on PS4 includes all three DLCs and it's the cheapest offer so I'm going to get it anyway, but I'm curious as to why that one stands out among the rest.

Sad to hear that matches are gone in the sequel, but the open world aspect is very intriguing to me. Sounds to me like the game will be similar to Silent Hill with an open world to wander around in and buildings to go in that serve as the levels. Definitely looking forward to playing it eventually!

Finished all three DLC packs for The Evil Within and so I decided to write down my impressions of them. All in all, I think the additional content was absolutely worth it, even for €10. The first two DLCs are basically the main story but from the perspective of another character. It's obviously not the entire game, but it shows the moments that you didn't see with the other character. And honestly, I think you really need to play these two DLC packs in order to fully understand the story of the main game. Because here's the thing, it genuinely feels like this content was cut out from the main game. The reason I say this is because there was so much additional information and lore that wasn't in the base game that probably should've been. For example, the DLC brings up the name of the corporation behind everything. But I don't think their name is even mentioned in the main story. Imagine if the first Resident Evil game came out today and no information was given about Umbrella at all, not even its name. That's what it feels like with the DLC for The Evil Within. Information that should be crucial isn't even in the main game and you have to play the DLC in order to learn it. It's just so bizarre to me.

Other than that, I enjoyed the first two DLCs a lot. Instead of having a lot of different weapons at your disposal like in the main game, you have most of the time no weapons at all and have to rely on pure stealth in order to get through the levels. New mechanics include hiding behind cover and luring enemies to you and then running away so that you can get pass them. This was interesting when you could lure them into a room and then lock the door so that they were stuck in there. Over time, you'll find axes that can be used as one-hit kills when sneaking up behind enemies. You could also lure enemies using bottles and throwing them off buildings. So overall, I highly enjoyed the stronger focus on stealth in these DLCs. Not to mention that there was a larger emphasis on puzzles this time around, which reminded me a lot of Resident Evil. In other words, if you want a fresh experience after playing through the main game, the first two DLCs are definitely the way to go.

The third DLC is very different. It lets you play as one of the bosses from the main game called "The Executioner" and you get to absolutely destroy other enemies. Imagine if you could play as Mr. X in Resident Evil, it's kinda like that. It's basically like a fun extra thing and a good way to wind down after having played through the main game plus its two other DLCs. I had a lot of fun with it even though it was only an hour long. However, it's meant to be played through multiple times so it's kinda like the arcade mode of this game.

The other two DLCs were around three hours long each, so you're looking at a total of roughly 27 hours to get through the base game and its three DLCs, so there's a lot of content to be had here, especially for a horror game. I personally had a blast with The Evil Within plus the DLC and I highly recommend to check them out as long as you have a lot of time to set aside for this title.

@RogerRoger Yeah, I think they were definitely planned. For example, I remember one cutscene in the main game where a character said a line that to me at the time didn't make any sense. Then when I played the DLC, that line made much more sense from that person's perspective. Not to mention that the main game didn't have much story to begin with. Typically with Resident Evil titles, you always learn what's truly going on towards the end of the game when you enter the final area, kinda like the lab in RE2. But in The Evil Within, you were just as clueless at the end as when you started. I mean yeah, you get to find out what's actually happening, but you never get to know why unless you play the DLC and that's what bothers me.

I think what would've been nice is if they had released a complete edition of the game and integrated the DLC with the main story, kinda like in the definitive edition of Shadow of the Tomb Raider. After you've cleared a specific chapter in the main game, you then get to play as the other character, and then when you're done there you switch back to the main story and so on. That would've made the story a lot more seamless and easier to understand.

@LtSarge Kinda weird they never made a GOTY version of this with all the DLC, especially if was the pre-planned sort that tacks on additional information about the main story and was probably originally planned for integration into the game proper.

Anyway, thanks for reviewing the DLC! I usually ignore it for most games, so I'll make sure not to make that mistake here if I can get a good price on it.

@Ralizah Yeah, I think this game would've benefited a lot from a complete edition besides the DLC as it apparently launched in a poor state, especially when it came to the frame rate. I never experienced any issues playing it on my base PS4 thanks to the patches, so it would've been nice to have them on a physical copy. But alas..

Good call, I definitely think you should play the DLC if you're interested in learning more about the things that happened behind the scenes during the first game. On top of that, I read that it's very important to play the DLC before going into the second The Evil Within game, so there's also that.

Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Time to Completion: 40+ hours

Atlus' JRPG catalog on the Playstation 2 was legendary. While an early and influential force in the Japanese RPG scene since 1987, their presence worldwide was largely muted until the 2004 release in the Americas of Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne on the PS2 (and its 2005 PAL release as Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer's Call). More specifically, this was actually a localization of the Maniax edition of Nocturne, an updated re-release of the original game that launched in Japan back in 2003. Despite being the first title in the mainline SMT series to make its way overseas, it was enough of a hit outside of Japan to ensure that Atlus' subsequent games all made the jump to the West, which, aside from a freak title or two, has remained true to this day, with Atlus being one of the most consistently reliable localizers in the industry. While not the first game in the series to transition to 3D graphics presented in a third-person perspective (that honor belongs to the dubious and still unlocalized Xbox-exclusive game Shin Megami Tensei NINE), Nocturne was the first title developed by them that popularized the (then) modern embrace of home console technology, and, as such, it stands out as being unique from the Nintendo handheld-bound mainline games that released decades later on the Nintendo DS and 3DS. Interestingly, this dual-lineage will be fully married together by the upcoming Shin Megami Tensei V, which is releasing on a handheld Nintendo device but is also the most technically ambitious title Atlus will have released in multiple console generations. But that's a discussion for later in the year. For now, I wish to discuss the 2021 release of Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster on the Nintendo Switch (also available on PC and PS4).

Shin Megami Tensei has never been a series known for its cheery storylines, but, even by series standards, this one is a little on the dark side. You begin as an unnamed Japanese teenager who is off to meet his friends Chiaki and Isamu at the hospital so they can visit their hospitalized homeroom teacher together. It's not long before it becomes apparent that things are very off, however, with reports of cult violence and eerie portents of apocalyptic events to come being prophesied in an occult magazine that was stuffed into your hands by a strange man named Hijiri. The apocalypse happens surprisingly quickly in this one: you're barely 40 minutes into the game before you discover that a rogue member of the Ring of Gaea (a cult first introduced in the first game in the series) has somehow managed to trigger an apocalyptic event known as the Conception, which almost immediately annihilates all life on Earth and causes the city of Tokyo to twist itself into a sphere around a bizarre, sentient star-like entity known as Kagutsuchi. In order to help him to survive and fulfill his destiny, an eerie, ghost-like boy infects the protagonist with a parasite (a "magatama") that transforms him into a half-demon entity known as the Demi-Fiend.

The game's setup is... hard to explain, and little of it is presented in a way that would make sense to the player. This will go on to become a hallmark of Nocturne's storytelling, as it very much situates you in the shoes of someone who has absolutely no idea what is going on in the world around them. Other characters do, however, and have obvious agendas throughout the game. Moreso than almost any other RPG I've played to date, Nocturne eschews ordinary narrative development and requires the player to piece together what is happening throughout the game themselves, forcing them to interrogate their environments for clues and grapple with the bizarre language of the apocalyptic world they now find themselves in. This almost plotless, art-house take on the SMT formula has proven to be frustrating for some, but it also gives the game a mystique that is, quite frankly, nearly unrivaled in the medium.

For the purpose of this review, however, it's worth exploring the narrative elements of this game in a bit more depth. Waking up in the hospital post-infection, you find yourself in a dead world full of demons and wandering ghosts. The game doesn't exactly offer you a tutorial, but it does attempt to ease you into things: the ghosts in the hospital offer friendly advice about the basic mechanics of the game, and the first demon you'll recruit is a friendly Pixie who asks you to accompany her to a late game location, where the rest of the Pixie race currently resides. Making your way out into Tokyo, the once bustling city has been transformed into something resembling a desert. You discover that this spherical realm is called a Vortex World, a sort of embryonic land whose shape will be determined by the will of one of the few humans who still live in that world (you, your friends, your teacher, and a few other characters who had all gathered in the hospital prior to the end of the world). In the Vortex World, a human with a sufficiently coherent ideology (called a "Reason" in this game) can gain power through the accumulation of spiritual energy (called "Magatsuhi") and summon a Demonic Sponsor who will work with them to bring their ideal into being.

Reasons are this game's equivalent of the traditional alignment system, and they really stand out from the somewhat rote law/neutral/chaos alignments found in other SMT games. The game features six routes, three of which align with the ideologies trumpeted by the game's Reason Holders. The first Reason is that of Yosuga, which is the most traditional of the three and aligns closely with chaos alignments from previous games in its pitiless strength worship and disdain for compassion, authority, and any form of weakness. Standing as the counterpoint to this is the Reason of Shijima, which seeks to promote a form of universal consciousness where all striving, will, and sense of identity is eliminated from sentient life in the universe. Finally, the Reason of Musubi envisions a world founded on a basis of profound metaphysical solipsism, where all individuals are the gods of their own universe and never come into contact with anyone or anything that isn't an extension of themselves, rendering genuine human contact impossible alongside compromise and social alienation.

All of the Reasons have flaws, and all of them are, interestingly, reflections of deficiencies in the people who conceived of them (there's an inherent irony in the anti-individualistic Reason of Shijima's actualization only being made possible because a single man decided to defy the universe around him and trigger the conception in the first place; the person who promotes the Reason of Yosuga, meanwhile, is someone who was always weak herself), but they manage to be compelling philosophies in their own right, and the Reason Holders go out of their way to sway your character toward their way of thinking throughout. Which leads me into something gameplay-related I'd like to praise the game for: it's much easier to go for specific routes in this game than in previous entries, because instead of adding on or taking off invisible alignment points, the routes instead are broadly determined by clear dialogue choices made in obviously important conversations throughout the game with Reason Holders.

So, Nocturne immediately distinguishes itself thematically from every other game in the series, but its mechanical evolutions are, in my opinion, the reason the game is a classic of the genre, and arguably the most important entry in the series. The most influential change Nocturne ushered in, by far, was its introduction of the press-turn battle system, variants of which have been integrated into almost every MegaTen game released since then, including the "one more" battle system in Persona 3 - 5. Previously, SMT games featured somewhat mindless, Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest-esque battle systems where team composition didn't matter too much as long as you had high level demons with access to powerful skills. That all changed with Nocturne's battle system, which famously made it where you gain or lose turns during a round depending on how well you play. Hitting enemy weaknesses, nulling/absorbing their attacks, or getting critical hits will increase the number of times you can act, while you'll lose turns if an enemy nulls/absorbs your attacks or your character misses. Here's the brilliant thing: enemies play by the same rules, broadly speaking, and can easily sweep your team if you play poorly or don't keep a diverse assortment of demons in your party.

Manipulating the number of press turns available to you in a round is an entire metagame in itself that dramatically changes how you approach team composition, skill loadouts, etc. because they all feed in directly to how capable you are in battle. This is why, for example, having good buffs and debuffs isn't just a convenience like in most JRPGs, but is actually a matter of life or death, because it'll be difficult to nigh on impossible to defeat certain bosses in this game without being able to weaken their stats and increase your own. This change to a deeply tactical combat system dramatically affects the way the rest of the game is played, and makes the monster collecting elements more important than ever.

Not coincidentally, Atlus really doubled down on the Pokemon-ish qualities in this game. Two elements in particular stand out in this regard. The first is the introduction of the Demonic Compendium, which was missing in previous games but has since become a series mainstay. The easiest way to describe it is as an upgraded, demonic Pokedex: all of the demons that have been 'collected' in the past will be entered into the compendium and, for a price, players will be able to re-summon them, which helps dramatically when it comes to experimenting with demonic fusion and creating new types of demons. Like a pokedex, you can also read about the lore behind each of the demons when they gain an entry in your compendium. The other huge change is that certain demons in the game are now capable of evolving into stronger forms when they've hit a certain level threshold. Evolving weak demons into stronger forms is actually the only way players will be able to obtain certain demons in the game, which can't be obtained through fusions.

I want to briefly acknowledge a really helpful change made in the remastered version of this game. In the PS2 original, demon skill inheritance through fusions randomized the skills drawn from the progenitor demons, so that it was often difficult to re-roll demon fusions in such a way that you wound up with exactly the spread of skills you wanted on them. It was a needless feature that made the game more artificially difficult than it needed to be. Nocturne HD addresses this by allowing players to simply choose which skills their demons inherit. It's a small change, but the impact on player satisfaction is, IMO, immense, and it was really the one huge change I hoped to see included in this remaster.

Previous Shin Megami Tensei games were fundamentally dungeon crawlers with semi-open world maps, and Nocturne is no different, although the heavy science-fiction/technological element has been replaced, since there's nothing resembling modern civilization in the Vortex World. While I praised SMT I's accessible dungeon design, the same can't be said here. The labyrinths you'll explore in Nocturne are truly an obnoxious mess of traps, teleporter puzzles, dead ends, etc. that made them consistently aggravating to engage with. Granted, there's more design diversity on display here than in previous games, so you get some interesting locations like Kabukicho Prison, where you have to engage in a form of gravity manipulation to progress, or the Diet Building (far and away the best dungeon in the game), where you'll have to navigate visual illusions through a labyrinthine series of hallways and rooms. But, in general, the game finds itself on the wrong side of fun vs unfun gimmicks. Although it can still safely boast better dungeon design than the truly terrible examples provided in Persona 3, Persona 4, and Digital Devil Saga 2 on the same system.

This tedium extends to the gigantic Kalpas in the Labyrinth of Amala as well, although that requires an elaborate explanation on its own. The Amala Labyrinth is a multi-floored dungeon that can be accessed throughout the game and was added in the Maniax re-release of the game. The player will be tasked with seeking out (mostly) optional boss fights with Fiends who hold magical menorahs that must be used to unlock various floors of this dungeon. Each successive floor, or Kalpa, in the Amala Labyrinth is progressively more abusive and designed to push the player to their limit with needlessly gigantic layouts, dead-ends, teleporters, poison floors, cursed rooms, and, eventually, excessively powerful random encounters. Now, you could just ignore most of this optional dungeon entirely, but at least one of the endings (the famous True Demon Ending) is locked behind it.

To digress for a moment, what's more alarming about the True Demon Ending to me is that a massive amount of in-game content is locked behind pursuing it. Moreover, the game sort of betrays its own cryptic approach to storytelling by including infodumps throughout the Labyrinth to help the player understand what is happening in the story (frankly, if Atlus cared about the storytelling in this game, they should have done a better job of integrating it into the narrative proper instead of dumping heaps of exposition onto the player in an optional dungeon). Either way, what you end up with is, from a gameplay and story comprehension perspective, is an almost objectively superior route to the game, which is a terrible approach in a game that emphasizes multiple endings and player choice. With that said, the first ending I obtained in the game, the Freedom ending, is the one that most personally resonated with me, and I don't appreciate having to replay a massive chunk of the game in order to see the additional content locked behind the True Demon Ending.

The flow of the game itself is one largely driven by the broadly linear layout of the overworld, given the way explicit narrative elements are de-emphasized. It definitely works, but, moreso than in the first game, there were definitely moments where I found myself wondering how to progress the storyline and found myself wandering between different locations. As with other games in the series, going back to the SNES original, there's a form of fast travel across the world map: in this case, the Amala Network, a sort of abstract passageway that directs the flow of Magatsuhi across the Vortex World, takes the place of terminals, so backtracking isn't usually too painful.

Given the somewhat plotless and abstract feel of the experience and the lack of sympathetic primary characters (all of your friends seem to grow progressively more insane and inhuman as the games wears on), things would feel distinctly lonely without any characters to actually care about. And, to be honest, there aren't a lot, but I thought I'd take the opportunity to mention a race of creatures in this game that rank among my favorite in the series. These are the Manikins, a race of involantarily creepy, yet almost universally good-natured golems/mud dolls you'll encounter throughout the game. These poor things are weak and, resultantly, are subject to awful abuses and enslavement by more powerful demons, yet, with only a few exceptions, they still seem to largely maintain their humanity and strive to create a place of their own in the world. In a place as harsh as the Vortex World, it's nice to meet creatures with a bit of humanity to them. What also helps is the game's subdued and dark but definitely present sense of humor. As in the original, these most frequently crop up in often absurd interactions you have with demons during negotiations. But there's also a self-aware stupidity to certain elements and bits of NPC dialogue in the game that really help to lighten the frequently grim mood over time.

And I guess this is where we inevitably transition to the criticisms that are to be had of this particular version of the game. Because, in truth, while I enjoy it, this release is deeply flawed. Nocturne HD is billed as a "remaster" of the game for modern consoles, and that might technically be true, but only in the most strictly literal sense of the word. While the resolution has clearly been boosted to work with HDTVs and the image quality has very slightly been touched up in spots (I'm noticing reflections on surfaces that weren't present in the original PS2 version of the game), this is still very clearly a PS2 game that has been ported over almost wholesale. The game is replete with the same low-resolution textures and chunky character models from the original release of the game, which, frankly, don't look all that great on modern systems. This profoundly lazy approach hits the game's once attractive pre-rendered cutscenes even worse, as they've been left untouched and thus play in all their 480i glory at a 4:3 aspect ratio, which means they don't fill the screen. Atlus' solution to this is to apply this horrid blurring effect to the sides of the screen when cutscenes play out, which looks far worse than if they'd just opted for black stripes or something.

The area where the presentation succeeds and fails the most in this remaster is in the sound department, however. Atlus didn't opt to use high-quality samples or re-orchestrate the battle themes in this game, so they sound horribly compressed, like they did in the original PS2 version of the game. It's truly jarring when some of the best tracks in this game sound like they're being heard on the other side of a particularly thick wall. This lack of basic concern for a major component of the audio experience is weird when you consider the fact that Atlus went to the trouble to adding a TON of voice acting to this game in both English and Japanese. And it's... pretty good voice acting. The lack of voice acting in Nocturne always stood out as a notable deficiency when compared to Atlus' other releases on the system, so Nocturne HD finally puts the game on par with other classic releases in this regard, but I truly don't understand why they'd invest in hiring multiple actors to record a ton of lines in multiple languages, but wouldn't spend a little bit of money to make sure the battle music sounds decent.

Nocturne's soundtrack isn't up to the standards of IV and IV: Apocalypse, but it is very good, full of atmospheric rock music and mood-setting tunes, along with a true banger of an opening theme. I'll go ahead and link some of my favorite pieces in this game:

While little more than a disappointing remaster released at premium price on the PS4 for Playstation owners, this version of the game actually holds a lot more significance for Nintendo fans of Atlus. Nocturne is still readily available on the PS2 and (digitally) on PS3, but, despite the series seemingly being married to Nintendo hardware for the foreseeable future, this was the only mainline title in the series that had never released on Nintendo hardware in some form. It was also the only game that had never released at some point on a handheld gaming device. Nocturne HD represents both the portable debut and Nintendo debut of this classic game, then.

With that said, returning to my reluctant indictment of the laziness of this release, the game weirdly has some performance issues in the Nintendo Switch version. When the game first launched in Japan, this version was plagued with long load times and severe framerate dips in dungeons, which took months to iron out until we got the fairly stable build we enjoyed at launch in the West. But even at launch in the Americas, Nocturne HD still stutters in certain situations, especially when docked. It's bizarre to think that a barely touched up PS2 game doesn't run smoothly on vastly more powerful hardware. It also bears mentioning that at launch in Japan, this version of the game was even missing the improvement to demon skill inheritance I mentioned earlier. It was only included in a patch many months later after significant player pushback on the state of the release.

The ultimate slap in the face for fans has been pricing and DLC practices. On top of everything else, Atlus had the nerve to both charge nearly full price for this release AND include a ton of day one DLC for it that should have been included by default, including content that was originally in the PS2 version of the game! Even worse is the way they tied early access to the game to the purchase of an expensive $70 "digital deluxe edition" of the game like they had previous with Persona 5 Strikers.

It's a shame, really. This game deserves better. The art design is amazing, the battle system was revolutionary, and it represented a fresh new take on the already innovative SMT formula. Despite the nasty tone this piece adopted near the end, I can't even say I regret buying it at launch, because, however repulsive Atlus' approach to this remaster was, the game is a stone-cold classic that was begging to be re-released on modern devices. With voice acting, native portability on the Switch, and with minor quality-of-life improvements, this is still the best way to experience a classic of the medium, although, unfortunately, it's one I could only recommend with certain reservations.

6.5/10