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Topic: User Impressions/Reviews Thread

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JohnnyShoulder

@jdv95 Cool, thanks!

Life is more fun when you help people succeed, instead of wishing them to fail.

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.

PSN: JohnnyShoulder

Ralizah

Shantae and the Seven Sirens

Platform: Nintendo Switch (also on: PS4, Xbox One, Windows PC, iOS)

Playtime: 10 hours


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Shantae and the Seven Sirens is the fifth Shantae game to release in the series since the Game Boy Color original in 2002. As in other games in the series, you play as the titular half-genie Shantae, who, this time, is invited out to the tropical Paradise Island as a guest of honor for a Half-Genie Festival. When her fellow half-genies are kidnapped before festivities can kick off, however, Shantae takes it upon herself to find the missing girls and inadvertently stumbles upon a larger mystery involving the history and nature of the island itself, encountering old rivals and new enemies along the way.

As a brief bit of background: the first three Shantae games connected narratively and formed a trilogy of sorts. The fourth game, Shantae: Half Genie Hero, functioned as both a soft reboot of the narrative as well as a pretty dramatic shift in game design, abandoning the free exploration of previous entries for a mostly linear adventure. This shift in design didn't sit well with a number of fans (including yours truly), so I was happy to see Seven Sirens not only return to a more exploratory form of gameplay, but actually draw primarily from the very first Shantae game as its primary source of inspiration. While the first three games all focus on exploring environments and using transformations or tools to access new areas (heck, even Half-Genie Hero features this, to a limited extent), the series drifted away from the connected world of the GBC original, which featured multiple towns and themed dungeons, over time. The second game, Risky's Revenge, was a smaller-in-scale DSiWare title that didn't feature multiple towns or elaborate dungeons, and the third game, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse, featured a more contained hub world design, where the player would venture out from one town to multiple, elaborate themed islands. Seven Sirens marks a reversal of this trend toward increased linearity, and features a fully inter-connected world map in the style of the original Shantae, along with the return of multiple towns and more elaborate, themed dungeons.

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The most immediate change from previous Shantae titles is in the setting. This is the first title in the series to not take place at least partially in Sequin Land, and the iconic Scuttle Town is abandoned as well in favor of fully focusing on Paradise Island. This gives the game a chance to focus on crafting an entirely unique new environment, which it mostly does. It was interesting to see an entire Shantae game with a tropical/aquatic theme to it.

In addition, this entry has seen a complete revamp of the animal transformation system that has featured in almost every Shantae game (except for Pirate's Curse, where she temporarily loses her half-genie powers and is forced to rely on pirate gear from her long-time pirate arch-rival, Risky Boots) to date. In previous games, Shantae would have to stop and perform transformation dances to assume different animal forms in order to progress through environments. While fans often tend to love this aspect of the series, many felt like it slowed down the pace of exploration overall and were spoiled by the comparatively lightning fast gameplay of Pirate's Curse, where pirate gear can be instantly used without needing to interrupt the flow of gameplay. WayForward clearly took this feedback to heart and crafted a clever have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too solution to the problem of transformations in this game. Via the use of "fusion coins" that you gain for rescuing and completing a task for each of the other kidnapped half-genies you rescue, you can now initiate animal transformations at will, temporarily, based on the use of context-sensitive button presses. For example, the newt transformation can be instantly achieved by air dashing toward a wall, when you hit the wall, you'll be in your animal form, but when you feet touch the floor, you turn back into half-genie form. While this sacrifices the ability to wander around in your transformed state (which there is usually no real reason to do), it allows this new game to preserve the iconic animal transformations that are part of the series' core identity while also allowing for the more fluid and dynamic gameplay introduced in Pirate's Curse. Shantae still has her dances, but they're reserved for separate magical ability now, such as revealing hidden platforms or filling the screen with electricity.

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I'd briefly like to mention that I love how, in another aspect that's similar to the original, WF brought back a sort of dancing minigame to earn money.

(this video completely destroys the aspect ratio of the GBC original, but it serves its purpose)

The distinguishing gimmick introduced in Seven Sirens. though, comes in the form of monster cards. When you kill an enemy, there's a random chance that it will drop a collectible card. Depending on the requirements (some cards are usable when you collect only one; others require the player to find several duplicates before they can be used), you'll be able to equip these cards to Shantae and boost one of her stats or abilities. These can vary from increasing climbing speed when transformed, to boosting the power of certain types of magic, to allowing Shantae to auto-smash pots she runs across on her journey. A handful of monster cards are more powerful and are only obtainable by trading items to obtain them. While I liked this extra wrinkle that was added to the gameplay, the game is easy enough that it never mattered too much, and the monster cards don't really drastically change things up enough to make different card load-outs feel like they deeply impacted the gameplay.

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And, to segue quickly into my biggest complaint about the game, Seven Sirens is too easy. Partially because of the way the game throws food at you constantly when you're killing enemies. In previous games, if you ran out of potions, you'd have to tediously farm enemies for heart drops. In this game, though, you're always stacked with various sort of food that heal a TON of the player's health, which means there's never really reason for the player to die. New Game Plus mode (no idea why it's called this, considering nothing seems to carry over; really, it's just magic mode from previous games) tries to balance this by making Shantae take more damage from enemies, which definitely leads to more deaths early on, but it doesn't really address the underlying balance issue with food drops.

Additionally, the boss encounters in this game, while not mind-numbingly easy, don't really feel particularly threatening, either. Partially because you'll always be stacked with healing items, and partially because there's nothing particularly brutal about them in terms of their patterns and attacks. I will say, though, and this is leading into a broader discussion, I LOVE how bosses are introduced in this game. Seven Sirens, in a series first, makes use of fully-animated video clips throughout the game (akin to ones seen in JRPGs like Persona 4 or Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete), and it does a lot to make the game feel more... premium? A lot of care has gone into the presentation of this game, and that extends to this element as well. Before encountering a boss, you'll be treated, each time, to a short video clip showing off Shantae's first interaction with her enemy. They're both fun to watch and do a great job of building a sense of anticipation for the coming fight.

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The character models and backdrops in this game all look quite sharp, and, especially in handheld mode, Seven Sirens is a stunning little indie. The game also seems to run at a perfect 60fps all the time. Musically, the game is a bit less impressive, thanks to the departure of the series composer Jake Kaufman for this entry. His work is iconic, and it's really noticeable when that particular brand of Shantae music fans have been used to hearing from game to game is missing. The compositions in Seven Sirens are not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but I can't help but notice the lack of his peppy, middle-eastern inspired tracks, which fit well with a series that had a half-genie as its main character. There were also a number of tracks that were nearly identical from game to game, which helped to give the series its sense of identity. What we get here is... different, although definitely still trying to sound like Shantae music. It's pretty good, actually, but I do hope Kaufman returns for the next entry.

What particularly took getting used to was the new boss theme, which had been the same or extremely similar from the GBC original on.

Compare:

vs.
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Certain pieces also seem to call back to older, more iconic Shantae series themes, such as Armor Town
which rather reminds me of the Burning Town themes from previous games
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The new aural diversity does lead to some interesting new tracks, though. Like this atmospheric piece
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Overall, I'm fairly happy with this game, and I think it's a big return to form for the series. Honestly, this is what I wanted out of Half-Genie Hero to begin with. With that said, putting aside the difficulty complaints, it's still lacking some of the humor and character interactions from the original trilogy. An unusually large number of new characters are introduced in Seven Sirens, but I felt like the game didn't really do enough with them. A lot of great new designs, but they're almost all fairly incidental when it comes to character interactions or the bigger picture of the plot. The dialogue here is as snarky as ever, of course, but there are definitely fewer laugh out loud moments, and I miss that sense of development plot-wise, however rudimentary it might have been, from game to game. Still, it's absolutely one of the better titles in the series (top three, for sure), and most of my hang-ups come from the perspective of someone who is a long-time fan and is possibly looking at previous games with nostalgia goggles on. This is the best new game WayForward has developed since Pirate's Curse in 2013, and one of the better Metroidvania-style platformers on the Switch overall.

7.5/10 (outdated score; see edit)

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edit:

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I don't usually adjust years-old reviews, but I wanted to adjust my review and score of Shantae and the Seven Sirens in light of the "Spectacular Superstar" update that released for it, which prompted me to actually replay the game and judge the effect of the improvements first-hand.

The meat of this update, arguably, and what I'll primarily be discussing, is the way this updated version of the game (now dubbed the "Definitive" version, although the older, unbalanced version of the game is still preserved in a Legacy Mode) rebalances certain aspects of the game. The biggest improvement address my biggest complaint about the game: the food drops. Food drops WAY less often now, and heals significantly less damage than it did previously. This seems like it should be a small thing, but it really is transformative to the experience, as the player can no longer casually tank endless amounts of damage because they have piles of food in their inventory to rely on. Additionally, the player seems to take more damage from small enemies, and bosses have been made more aggressive in their attack patterns. All this adds up to a more satisfyingly challenging dungeon-crawler, as the player will actually need to deliberately stock up on restoration items if they want to make it through a dungeon without seeing a Game Over. And the player will see this a lot more, frankly.

Now, the game can still easily be trivialized, as the player seems to be able to still buy endless amounts of health and mana restoration potions, auto-potions, upgrades that reduce damage taken and dealt, etc. I'm not a huge fan of being able to easily buy enough materials to tank damage endlessly. But, see, here's the thing: before this update, I never even bothered buying health portions, because I always had tons of food drops to lean on. The vastly more balanced food item drops now make it where I actually had to stock up on materials from time to time, and could even talk about this aspect of the game as a result.

If the player is swimming through this game by tanking damage now, they're making the deliberate choice to stock up on tons of items to do so. It's extremely accessible, but also easily makes it where more skilled players can still experience a challenge without feeling like they're gimping themselves or not engaging with the game's mechanics (like, the game would be difficult in any mode if you never increased your health, for example, but at that point it just feels like you're handcuffing yourself in order to be able to enjoy the experience).

And, frankly, that's not always even a guarantee. I stocked up materials as needed (not a crazy amount, but far more than I did in the rest of the game) before the final boss, but the increased difficulty meant I'd burned through the majority of my resources and was actually at risk of dying by the time I made it through the final dungeon and confronted the last boss. That's... nice. Shantae games aren't the Dark Souls of Platformers or whatever, but they have traditionally demanded a modicum of skill from the player. This update brings Shantae that much more in line with the best games in the series.

It's probably worth mentioning that bosses have a bit of dialogue and actual character portraits now. These don't add a lot to the game (you get, maybe, 10 lines of new dialogue overall per boss encounter), but it does add that tiny little extra bit of polish to the experience. It's appreciated.

On top of this, three new modes have been added, although they... don't do much for me. Full Deck mode allows the player to start the game with a full deck of monster cards. As I mentioned in my review, those don't tend to dramatically alter the balance of the game, so I'm not fussed about this. Rule Breaker mode allows the player to equip as many monster cards as possible at once (up to 50). This seems like it might be fun to experiment with if you're into experimenting with different set-ups, but it primarily just makes the player character vastly unbalanced again, which isn't really appealing to me. Finally, an easy mode was added, which seems... unnecessary to me, but I guess it might be good for small children. Legacy Mode is already easy enough, though.

I'm bumping the score for this game up to an 8.5/10. There are certain design issues that mean it'll never be my favorite game in the series, but developer WayForward has done a good job of fixing the core issues I had with this game. It was already a very decent Metroidvania, and now it's an extremely decent one. Really enjoyed my time with this update.

Edited on by Ralizah

Currently Playing: Advance Wars 1 + 2: Re- Boot Camp (NS)

PSN: Ralizah

HallowMoonshadow

Thrillho wrote:

Right, time for a bit of catching up here..

Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy I liked the brief write up of Iconoclasts but still had plenty of thought in it. I like the look of it and I'm sure this is one I've hovered over purchasing without knowing much about it. What is the "tweaks made" part from the ending results there?

So there's a upgrade system of sorts called "Tweaks" @Thrillho that are made with the 3 types of materials you find along the journey.

Spin your wrench for a longer time, nullify a point of damage, hold your breath longer are just a few of the upgrades you can get.

You can only have 3 tweaks equipped at a time and tweaks are represented via symbols underneath your health bar.

Getting damaged however will temporarily remove a tweak, getting hit again will remove a second and obviously getting hit three times means they're all gone.

You can however get ivory from killing enemies, destroying an object etc which will build up the tweak's bar and eventually replenish one of your tweaks should you have lost one (Or two or three)

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You can see it how it's represented clearly in this picture

You can make Tweaks at various benches, find new schematics along the way for more tweaks and you change your equipped tweaks at any save point.

That's kinda it really.

Hope that explained it clearly!

Thrillho wrote:

Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Imagine throwing Nier and TLOU under the bus like that and still be able to show your face on this forum!

Last of Us gets a seven or so were I to score it. It was a good experience.

The game that shall not be named is kinda thrown under a bus though!

Thrillho wrote:

I have literally no idea I just read with regards to SR4 though Each sentence sounded completely detached from the one before and the game sounds bonkers. I hope it makes more sense than it sounds! I liked your backstory to the series as well.

... I'd like to say it does but I can see where you're coming from after that

Thrillho wrote:

SRR sounds interesting and the screenshots look nice, even if you weren't overly taken with the game as a whole.

It's a very inoffensive game and the biggest fault it has overall is probably a lack of ambition (A small budget probably didn't help the smallish scope)


Ralizah wrote:

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Making up for lost time, I see.

That's a whole lot of "meh" and "eh" reactions in one compilation, though.

... Yeah can't argue with that @Ralizah! 😂

Ralizah wrote:

I actually really like writing scathing reviews, but I rarely get the chance because, typically, if I dislike a game that much I stop playing it, so my critical energy gets expended on games that probably don't deserve to be picked apart, like The Witcher 3.

My Let It Die review last year was rather fun to write I'll admit!

In fact that's the only game I haven't technically finished that I did review... I was not going to grind for hours just to beat that last boss though!

And I don't think you picked apart the Witcher III that badly (And it does have a few fairly useless systems as you pointed out)

Ralizah wrote:

RE - NieR: Automata
Kudos on playing, replaying, and then replaying again a game you clearly couldn't stand. I wouldn't have it in me to do that with a game I disliked as much as you clearly dislike this one.

Had it finished at the end of the first route/Ending A I'd have given it a 7 or so. But then Route B came along and quite simply it never recovered from that. Well there was plenty of other things too as you're already aware that I didn't like...

... But that's the last word about NieR Automata!

Ralizah wrote:

RE - Resident Evil Revelations 2
I think it's easy to grow tolerant to the faults of series we otherwise have a soft spot for. Have you ever played Revelations 1? While I think it's an amazing technical showpiece for the 3DS and probably the best RE game released after 4 up until that point (2013? something like that), I didn't think the chapter-based format did much for that game either (I won't say episodic, since that game released as a complete package from day one)

I haven't played Revelations 1 but from the sounds of things I think the chapter based system might work a little more in it's favour then the 4 episodes of Revelations 2 with the structure not really adding anything at all. (The dual narrative does but the episodic nature was more because Capcom were being rather weird back then)

.... Especially when I just have the disc version with everything on and the "next time/previously" sections were completely redundant seeing as it played it within the space of a week.

Oh and to bring back the slight running gag we had. There's a few invisible monsters through the campaign (with instakill too) that I did freak out at quite a bit. I am so not playing the invisible zombie mode it has either, especially in a more actionised resi game! 😂

Ralizah wrote:

RE - Saints Row IV: Re-Elected
Interesting review. I'll confess I'm a fan of Saints Row 2. It was defo a GTA clone, but it filled an important function at that time: it was a GTA-style game that remembered these games are supposed to be fun. GTA games have long had a goofy, tongue-in-cheek aspect to them, but that side of the series was almost completely abandoned with the dour GTA IV, which features a depressing story and irritating social sim elements. But SR2 kept itself reigned in enough that the goofiness didn't overwhelm the experience.

I'll admit it's been forever since I played the second (& the third) so it's quite hazy in my mind and I should probably retry them.

I also admittedly like the goofier nature of the later 2 titles in the series myself (I find the 3rd rather juvenile in tone though (Like the certain baseball bat you get in that or the blow up doll collectables) which was my main problem with it. Killbane was not a good villain either)

Ralizah wrote:

SR3 "drank the goofy juice," as you so aptly put it, and turned into a parody of itself, so I COMPLETELY lost interest in the series from there (it reminded me of 'bad movies' that deliberately try to be stupid and just end up being obnoxious, like Sharknado; a genuinely fun bad game, like a bad movie, must be made with love and passion). It sounds like SR4 dials it down a bit, so I might actually try playing the series again (although, based on how you describe it, it sounds more like an InFamous clone than a GTA one at this point?).

... I haven't played inFAMOUS so uhhh... I can't quite compare that. Sorry Ral. 😅

I can't in good faith say you'd like the 4th anymore then the 3rd as the 4th is honestly still fairly wacky with a lot of pop culture references or parodies of other games.

But as I said the writing does get more mature.

I mean it doesn't become Shakespeare or anything but it does come up with decent character development for why Shaundi changed so drastically (I'm terrible with names and I didn't actually realise she was in the second with how drastically she chamged in the third), what the various members of The Third Street saints fears are etc.

Despite it looking/sounding the most disconnected to the previous games (And playing fairly differently too) ... It does actually require knowledge from all the previous titles in the series as a number of characters are brought back even in one time roles (It's a shame Michael Clark Duncan sadly couldn't come back to voice Benjamin King that would've been amazing)

Ralizah wrote:

RE - The Last of Us
So, at the time, I had a really poor reaction to this game. I still don't really like it. Looking back, though, I can sort of see its strengths. But I think people talked me up on it too much. It was this amazing, cinematic, emotional post-apocalyptic father/daughter epic, and I end up with... well, what I thought was a decent but somewhat tropey zombie movie. Well, it would have been decent if it didn't feel like half the game was moving ladders/boxes/planks and sneaking around tediously dispatching post-apocalyptic raiders/mooks. And, like almost all of ND's pre-Uncharted 4 games, the entire game feels like you're being funneled through a tunnel of sorts.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who wasn't really wowed by it.

Your reaction to TLoU sounds an awful lot like my experience with FF7 more or less! But I do see where you're coming from even if I enjoyed TLoU more then yourself.

Ralizah wrote:

RE - Shining Resonance Refrain
Yeah, I've not heard great things about this game all-around. I guess I can sort of see why it wasn't originally localized. Granted, in the JRPG desert that was last gen (on home consoles, at least; the NDS was still getting great JRPG support), it would have been welcome. But in the modern landscape with Persona 5, Dragon Quest XI, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Octopath Traveler, Ys VIII, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, etc.? Nothing special.

I think it could be fun, though, once I've played all of the hype JRPGs I'm actually excited for. The demo was reasonably fun, if nothing else.

It was a fun and good time overall. Comparing it to say Tales Of Xilla which I did play last gen (Or FF XIII / FFXIII-2) I did enjoy SRR more most definitely.

The lack of ambition/budget (and the typical anime character clichés if aren't charmed by the characters) is probably the biggest knock against the game which does sort've result in a just above average game as it fairly safe but enjoyable.

I'll read your Shantae review later Ral!!

Edited on by HallowMoonshadow

Previously known as Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy
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"You don't have to save the world to find meaning in life. Sometimes all you need is something simple, like someone to take care of"

PSVR_lover

“Have you ever played Revelations 1? While I think it's an amazing technical showpiece for the 3DS and probably the best RE game released after 4 up until that point (2013? something like that), I didn't think the chapter-based format did much for that game either (I won't say episodic, since that game released as a complete package from day one).”

RE1 was my favorite game on the 3DS. Great game. Too bad it didn’t sell. Loved the 3D effect on that game. Because of a lack of more quality titles like this one I bought a PSVITA.

The PSVR is the best VR system on the market today.

HallowMoonshadow

Finally read your Shantae and the Seven Sirens review @Ralizah

Lovely stuff there with some very nice music throughout the series and some good looking screenshots to boot.

I quite like the little rocking back and forth Shantae seems to do whilst talking, giving her a nice little bit of personality and charm.

I'm looking forward to trying the series myself at some point

One thing I will ask is this was on the Apple Arcade first before it went to consoles/PC If I'm remembering correctly?

Now I'm probably underestimating the power of the most recent smartphones but do you think that decision of going mobile first hampered any of the design decisions of the game at all?

Is that maybe why food could be so abundant for example? Or as a made up example maybe backgrounds aren't as varied as they could be?

Edited on by HallowMoonshadow

Previously known as Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy
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"You don't have to save the world to find meaning in life. Sometimes all you need is something simple, like someone to take care of"

Ralizah

@PSVR_lover Honestly, I can't think of a handheld with a stronger library than the 3DS. If the PS1/PS2 weren't around, I'd say it was my favorite gaming device overall.

Solid props to Vita for being able to function as a portable PS1, though. That functionality, in and of itself, earned it a permanent place in my home.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy These games have always featured fantastic and lively animations for the characters. This was particularly impressive in the original, given the limitations of the GBC technology.

And yeah, the first half of this game was available in a sort of early access state via Apple Arcade for almost a year. iOS also got the full game a few weeks before the other platforms did, I believe.

With that said, regarding your question about the platform and the design of the game, I'll refer to a recent (within the week) NL interview with the game's director:
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2020/06/feature_shantae_and...

In particular, this section -

Nintendo Life: "The first part of Seven Sirens initially launched on iOS last year alongside Apple’s subscription service, with the second part launching in March this year. From the developer’s perspective, how does it feel releasing a game in ‘parts’, as opposed to putting out the finished product all-at-once? What are the pros and cons of working that way? Do you see yourself doing it again in the future?"

Bozon: "It worked out fine in this case, but think I prefer keeping the whole game hidden behind a curtain for as long as possible. Not saying we wouldn’t design an episodic game again someday, but this one was always intended to be one whole adventure. So it’s nice to have it complete and available everywhere."

This bit, along with the fact that, unlike the previous game, it's a full-on Metroidvania with interconnected areas, some element of non-linearity to the progression, and a larger scale overall tells me that this game was never designed with mobile in mind, but that Apple probably made WayForward an offer they couldn't refuse when it comes to the distribution of their newest Shantae. It's also worth mentioning that another WayForward game, Spidersaurs, which seems like a spiritual successor to Contra 4 (I believe the same development team even worked on both games), is exclusive to Apple Arcade, which I'm unbelievably annoyed about (I LOVE Contra 4; IMO, it's the best game in that series). Apple was definitely throwing money around when it came to securing games for Apple Arcade.

So no, I don't think the overabundance of healing items is due to the mobile launch. If anything, it's probably designed to limit irritation, considering how often one needed to farm hearts to restore health in the previous games. But some level of tedium is satisfying in video games overall, and it certainly hurt boss fights (you could purposefully restrict yourself from eating food during boss fights, I guess, but that seems like a sort of nuzlocke-y, make-your-own-fun approach that covers for inherent game design flaws; I like to go all out when I play a game instead of tying one arm behind my back).

And I'm fairly certain high-end smartphones have been more powerful than the Switch since the launch of that console in 2017, so you're definitely underestimating the power of mobile devices. Still rubbish as gaming devices, though, since they're designed primarily for multimedia use and require special equipment in order to be able to play games properly.

Thanks for reading! If you do decide to play it, you shouldn't have a hard time accessing the games, considering four of the five Shantae games are available on PS4 (you'll need a 3DS to play the original via its virtual console release, unless you want to sink several hundreds of dollars into a used original Shantae cartridge ).

Edited on by Ralizah

Currently Playing: Advance Wars 1 + 2: Re- Boot Camp (NS)

PSN: Ralizah

nessisonett

@Ralizah It’s nice to hear the latest Shantae’s pretty good then, I’m about halfway through the original and really quite enjoying it. Good to hear more love for Contra 4 as well, what a game! RE: the whole 3DS vs Vita thing, I love both but the 3DS and its combined library with DS makes it the best handheld, if not console, ever made. Backwards compatibility absolutely made that console even better and a major strike against Vita is not having access to FF7 CC and KH BBS without a jailbreak.

Edited on by nessisonett

Plumbing’s just Lego innit. Water Lego.

Trans rights are human rights.

Ralizah

@nessisonett The original is one of my favorite GBC games, although the scale of the environments make it feel like it more of an SNES game crunched onto a tiny handheld display.

Contra 4 was the game I bought my NDS to play, and I have no regrets. It's so well-designed and replayable, and it was REALLY cool at the time that the cartridge included full versions of Contra and Super Contra on it that you could unlock. The challenges were neat, too: those pacifist challenge runs really made you appreciate how well thought out the level design and enemy placement was.

One of my big issue with the Vita is one exclusive to the U.S. For some reason, our PSN restricts access to a bunch of PS1 Classics that are available in other regions unless you transfer the games to it via a PS3. So I can play stuff like Crash Bandicoot, Silent Hill, etc.

With that said, pretty much all of the big JRPGs that were the biggest draw of the PS1 are available here.

I also HATE the back touchpad. It's so easy to accidentally hit it and trigger something.

I really wish the PS Vita 2000 had included an extra set of shoulder buttons, too, like the New 3DS.

Edited on by Ralizah

Currently Playing: Advance Wars 1 + 2: Re- Boot Camp (NS)

PSN: Ralizah

HallowMoonshadow

Oh very interesting read @Ralizah regarding the "in parts" stuff and a good interview in general. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

It's good that they managed to nearly port everything over to the ps4 in the series. My 2DS unfortunately bit the dust so... Looks like I'll have to skip the first game

Have you seen the Zero punctuation review for Seven Sirens? I just found it this morning and he really focuses on one thing about it.

Well two things really

Obviously expect the usual from Yahtzee. NSFW.

Edited on by HallowMoonshadow

Previously known as Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy
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"You don't have to save the world to find meaning in life. Sometimes all you need is something simple, like someone to take care of"

Ralizah

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy I'm... surprised he bothered reviewing the game, actually. It doesn't seem like the sort of game he'd typically play (indie platformer, anime aesthetic, etc.). I guess that's a good sign; the series is attracting attention from outside its niche.

I'm not surprised that he didn't seem to enjoy it, but I'll admit it hurt my soul a little when he briefly lavished praise on Half-Genie Hero.

Anyway, yeah, much has been made in the past about the full-figured female character designs (when Pirate's Curse came out, the talking point was about "3D boobs," because the character portaits popped out from the screen when you had the stereoscopic 3D enabled), although, being an anime fan who has become somewhat desensitized to cartoon boobs over the years, it barely even registers with me.

Currently Playing: Advance Wars 1 + 2: Re- Boot Camp (NS)

PSN: Ralizah

HallowMoonshadow

Ever since he played Persona 5 @Ralizah and somehow loved it he's got a fair bit softer towards the ol' anime asethetic. Though it's naturally still quite ripe for jokes.

I'm not sure about platformers but he does review a fair few indies from what I recall. He's made a few himself and I saw he had/has a series about him making 12 different games in 12 months which sounds interesting.

Ralizah wrote:

Pirate's Curse came out, the talking point was about "3D boobs," because the character portaits popped out from the screen when you had the stereoscopic 3D enabled)

I'm not quite sure what to say about that... Luckily I won't be playing that on 3DS? (At least I assume that's the function is from)

Edited on by HallowMoonshadow

Previously known as Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy
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"You don't have to save the world to find meaning in life. Sometimes all you need is something simple, like someone to take care of"

Ralizah

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy WayForward's games unironically made great use of the 3DS's glasses-free 3D effect. It even aids the gameplay experience in some of them: in Mighty Switch Force. for example, the 3D depth actually allows you to see when blocks jut out more clearly and, when you timed something wrong and got smashed by one, they actually smashed you into the outermost 3D layer. It's an extremely cool effect, and even though the Wii U/Switch versions are more detailed and in HD, those benefits don't really make up for the lack of stereoscopic 3D.

Anyway, Shantae's character design has changed somewhat over the years, although, thankfully, the reaction to her initial skin tone changes when HGH was first shown off scared them out of tampering with it too much (the character's skin tone was initially significantly lighter in that game, which triggered accusations of whitewashing, and I honestly sort of understand the anger; the industry isn't utterly awash with iconic non-white women who get to be the protagonists of their respective series, after all).

Currently Playing: Advance Wars 1 + 2: Re- Boot Camp (NS)

PSN: Ralizah

Ralizah

@crimsontadpoles Either way, I'd always opt for the 3DS version. It might be lacking the HD character portraits, but the smaller screen makes the game look quite a bit cleaner than it does when blown up on an HDTV.

Do you own it physically or digitally? I believe the physical release of the game included a bonus minigame.

Currently Playing: Advance Wars 1 + 2: Re- Boot Camp (NS)

PSN: Ralizah

RogerRoger

@Ralizah Just wanted to say, I really enjoyed reading your latest review the other day, as a random retrospective on the Shantae series had popped up for me on YouTube a couple weeks back, one made around the time The Seven Sirens was coming out. Not sure the older games would ever be my thing, but I found their history interesting nonetheless. So that's a "thanks for the enjoyable read" as always, alongside an additional "thanks for the perfect timing" as well. Glad you mostly enjoyed it!

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

Ralizah

@RogerRoger Thanks! It seems like this newest entry is drawing new eyes to the series for some reason, so I'm encouraged to hear that more people are becoming aware of it.

Really, WF's next project should be making the GBC original playable on multiple systems. Right now, only 3DS owners are able to enjoy the first and one of the best games in the series, which is a shame.

Currently Playing: Advance Wars 1 + 2: Re- Boot Camp (NS)

PSN: Ralizah

RogerRoger

@Ralizah Yeah, I don't mind admitting that I'd never heard of the games before watching that video. Might be something to do with generational enthusiasm for what is now retro; the kids who played on GameBoy Colours have become today's journalists and content creators.

Which might mean a remake / remaster / re-release of the original is at hand!

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

Ralizah

I briefly reference events that take place within the game's first hour that set up the adventure. To be safe, I spoiler tagged them. I don't discuss plot twists deep in the game or anything, though.
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Yakuza Kiwami
The Goro Majima Show!

Platform: PS4 (also on: PC, Xbox One)

Playtime: 42:40

68/78 substories completed
SSS rank for Majima Everywhere

So, while this is my first proper, complete experience with the Yakuza franchise, it's probably worth noting that I also spent 15-ish hours with Yakuza Zero when that came first released. I thought about returning to Zero, but Kiwami was accessible via PS+ anyway, and I've heard that, as a follow-up to Zero, Kiwami is a bit disappointing, so I thought it'd be better to begin my proper trek through the series with this entry.

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And really, what better entry to start with? Yakuza Kiwami (YK henceforth) is a PS4 remake of the original PS2 "Yakuza" in a new engine that was also used in Yakuza Zero, and features new cutscenes and additional mechanics in addition to changes to the presentation and mechanics to bring this old game back to life for a new generation. Players take on the role of Kiryu Kazuma, an ascendant 20-something yakuza who is on the cusp of running his own family. Tragedy strikes, however, when his pal Akira Nishikiyama kills their family's patriarch in order to save Yumi, a mutual childhood friend that the patriarch was attempting to rape. Kiryu convinces his friend to allow him to take responsibility for the crime. He's expelled from his family and spends ten hard years in prison. The bulk of the game is played when Kiryu is fresh out of the clink, now in his mid-30s, as he gets wrapped up in a mystery involving his old friends, an internal conspiracy within the ranks of the yakuza, stolen money, and a young girl who is looking for her mother that Kiryu takes under his wing.

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YK is, at heart, a dumb 80's action movie cosplaying as a crime drama. For all of the talk about organized crime, it's impressive how little the player actually learns about the organization of it, or even engages with it at all. One might look at a game like YK and mistake it for a sort of Japanese GTA, where you play as a young thug who makes his way up the ladder of Japan's organized crime world, but nothing could be further from the truth. YK's plot, as gripping as the added backstory segments can be, is at bottom designed to facilitate fun action setpieces for our morally unambiguous criminal hero. And, yes, like any good action movie, the game ends with two men dramatically shedding themselves of clothing as they prepare to beat the tar out of one-another. This approach works for it, though: what YK's plot lacks in subtlety or originality it makes up for in passion. The game unironically wears its heart on its sleeve. The evolving father/daughter dynamic between Kiryu and Haruka, the young girl he cares for, is cliched but still pretty touching, in particular.

Really, it's amazing that Kazuma Kiryu was ever a member of the Japanese mafia at all, considering how upstanding he is. The man is far closer to a superhero than to any sort of fictionalized gangster I can think of: he's a morally righteous and unyielding force who dispenses pure justice with his fists in a largely lawless land. He's even willing to sacrifice his freedom and place in the world for a friend at the drop of a hat. It's difficult to imagine Kiryu engaging in the sort of thuggish activities that yakuza are known for. But, considering YK isn't really a crime drama, it fits that Kiryu isn't really a gangster.

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But where would any decent hero be without a villain or rival to keep him on his toes? In this case, that role is filled by Goro Majima, an insane yakuza boss who sits in some uncomfortable middle-space between shounen anime rival, obsessed stalker, and thirsty ex-boyfriend who just won't take a hint. This dude wants to be the Joker to Kiryu's Batman, and has apparently made it his life's goal to help Kiryu attain his full potential as a warrior by keeping him on his guard 24/7. There's a major gameplay system in Yakuza Kiwami called "Majima Everywhere," and they mean 'everywhere.' You can hardly run around for more than ten minutes at a time without this psycho ambushing you: he'll pop out of trash cans, crawl out of the sewer, follow you into fast food joints, pretend to be a cop and stop you on the street, invade street fights you're having with someone else, etc. etc. It never ends. Goro Majima is the God of this little world, and he'll continually think up new ways to surprise you and force you to fight with him.

This aspect of the game ends up consuming a sizable chunk of the player's engagement time with the game. As you fight Majima out in the wild, you'll gradually level up a meter. Whenever you go up a rank, after a certain number of fights, you'll have a more elaborate, scripted encounter with Majima. Additionally, there appear to be scripted events that trigger at unexpected times, as well as scripted encounters that only happen when you engage with certain side activities. Chances are that, if you spend any amount of time doing something in the game, Majima will eventually invade that space. I'm still halfway surprised that Majima never showed up in the karaoke bar I went to, considering how often he pops up everywhere else.

The character possesses an almost Bugs Bunny-esque quality in this game in terms of how varied your encounters can be. Majima dressing up in gaudy disco garb and breakdancing as he attacks you? Check. Majima pretending to be a police officer and, ahem, patting you down so that he can find weapons and find an excuse to attack you? Check. There are at least four or five different forms Majima will show up in, and these changes aren't just aesthetic. His fighting style, movement patterns, and weapon use changed drastically as well. The level of variety is actually pretty cool. One of his forms is so weird and unexpected that it actually shocked me. Lengthy scripted sequences also accompany the initial appearance of new forms, which is also quite entertaining.

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Of course, you're not fighting this dude for the hell of it. YK actually has multiple fighting styles that Kiryu can swap between on the fly as he battles, but one of his styles, the Dragon Style, isn't like the others. The "Rush" (lightning fast, but each of your attacks does very weak damage), "Beast" (super slow, but your attacks are staggeringly powerful when they connected), and "Brawler" (a balance of speed and power) styles are all upgradable with xp generated by completing side-quests, eating at restaurants, fighting punks, completing story missions, etc., but the Dragon style's upgrades are connected primarily to your fights with Majima, and you'll need to complete various scripted encounters, finish a number of fights with each Majima form, etc. in order to build up the power of the style.

There's also a sort of martial arts expert who can help you unlock a certain number of special techniques in the Dragon Style. Most of these end up being fairly impractical during normal battles, but you'll want to at least learn techniques up to the Tiger Drop, a powerful late-game technique that, with some patience and timing, largely trivializes most of the game's harder one-on-one fights.

I mentioned that there are multiple fighting styles in the game, but I have to confess that I wasn't really a huge fan of this approach. In general, with the exception of boss fights, I found that Brawler style featured the perfect balance of power and speed I needed to take out enemies quickly. I find myself wishing that the game had opted for a more cohesive battle system, instead of one splintered multiple ways. There are so many techniques and moves that seem like they could be cool but that I just flat out ignored because it was almost never worth switching to another style to bother with them.

The most notable (and entertaining) gimmick of the battle system in YK (and probably Yakuza games in general) is found in heat actions. Heat actions are special attack animations you can trigger when you've built up a special meter (which increases by attacking enemies and decreases when you're hit, which incentivizes damage avoidance) that usually involve exploiting an object or the environment in some way. As a simple action, if you're fighting the street and grab a baseball bat, if your heat gauge is high enough, you can trigger a heat action that involves viciously blundgeoning your opponent with said baseball bat. There are a variety of ultraviolent and honestly hilarious special attacks you can pull off in this way (the game isn't afraid to go full anime and have Kiryu destroy an enemy with a volley of supersonic punches akin to what you might see in a fighting game; I can certainly see why the Yakuza devs were granted access to the Fist of the North Star license). This obscene brutality doesn't even demand guilt on the part of the player: it might look like Kiryu just shattered every bone in some guy's body by slamming a 1000 lb motorcycle on his prone form, but, come the end of the battle, he'll apologize tearfully for jumping Kiryu and limp away like everyone else does (people only die in this game when the plot demands it, which is probably a good thing, as your environment would be filled with hundreds of corpses otherwise).

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And you'll be fighting... a lot. Kamurocho, the lightly fictionalized setting of the Yakuza games, is one hell of a dangerous place. Kiryu can't run for more than a block at a time without attracting unprovoked assaults from groups of thugs or running across shakedowns, muggings, potential rapes, etc. practically every time he rounds a street corner. The crime stats of this city must give even cartel-controlled territories in Mexico a run for their money. What this means, functionally, is that, on average, you'll be getting into fights every minute or two as you play the game. You'll be getting into fights so often that even the game's hilarious ultra-violence will eventually seem mundane, and battering someone nearly to death with bicycles after curb stomping their friends will seem like a normal aspect of life, hardly more noteworthy than picking up a fast food order from the local Smile Burger.

Of course, this all makes sense when you realize that Yakuza Kiwami is like a very streamlined, miniaturized version of an open-world RPG. All the elements are there: the ability to explore an open environment where you'll stumble across a variety of side-quests (or substories, as they're called here), random-ish encounters designed to help Kiryu accrue skill points, random events that are designed to break up the monotony of getting from Point A to Point B, the ability to goof off to your heart's content between story quests, inns (restaurants are functionally similar to inns in this game, except you also gain some XP for using them), merchants who sell weapons and healing items, checklists and a variety of side activity to engage in, points of interest (if you're wearing the item that allows you to sense where substory trigger spaces are located), etc. Yakuza Kiwami is essentially The Witcher if you dramatically shrunk the scope of the environment and plot overall.

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The meat of the side-content in YK is found in its frequent substories, which are small, optional quests that are automatically triggered when the player enters specific locations in the game (at first, you'll have to poke around to find these, but at some point in the game I found a very helpful item that allowed me to see the activation locations on the map, which made it tremendously easier to hunt them down). The substories in YK aren't as gripping, elaborate, or funny as what I saw of the substories in my brief time with Yakuza Zero (I game I played maybe 20% of three years ago or so), but the scripting still isn't bad for what is a fairly faithful remake of a PS2 game, and several of the missions here help to flesh out Kamurocho as well as aspects of the main plot that the game doesn't really touch on. Of course, even more are sort of throwaway events, like this series of substories involving thugs who keep bumping into Kiryu and feigning injury in order to scam money out of him. On the whole, though, I think they add to the experience.

YK also plays host to a variety of mini-games, from the mundane (you can play darts, hit balls in a batting cage, play pool, sing karaoke, etc.), to the irritating (Pocket Circuit, a minigame that involves customizing and racing tiny miniaturized cars, is perhaps the most irritating activity I've ever hassled with in a video game) to the outright bizarre (there's an extensive series of substories that can only be completed by engaging with Mesoking, a bizarre digital card game that plays like rock-paper-scissors and involves scantily-clad women dressed as insects wrestling with one-another; even more strangely, this game seems to have attracted an audience composed almost entirely of small children). These distractions can be briefly entertaining at times, but I quickly grew to resent the fact that achievements, substories, and the like were gated behind these largely unfun activities. There's also some sort of hostess dating feature in this game, but, to be honest, I didn't mess with it at all. Kiryu doesn't have enough room in his life for a woman AND Majima, after all.

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Another downside in this game are the boss encounters, which are... pretty terrible, if I'm being honest. The combat system in Yakuza Kiwami kind of breaks down when you face a powerful boss enemy. They almost universally don't seem to stagger and, even worse, pretty much continuously break any kind of combo you use against them, often with attacks that take off a disproportionately large amount of your health. And this is just against single-target boss fights. Later in the game, you'll oftentimes face off against multiple boss enemies in a fight, and these miserable encounters almost always end with Kiryu being knocked unconscious every five seconds because it's nearly impossible to focus on whittling down the health of one target without another coming in to stab or shoot you. Unfortunately, despite all of the techniques, styles, etc. that Kiryu can utilize throughout the game, the one fool-proof strategy I discovered when faced with bosses was to switch to Rush style and begin the insanely tedious process of slowly knocking down the enemy's health bar by punching and dodging back, punching and dodging back, for however many minutes it took to get the fight over with.

Oh, and whoever thought it was a good idea to give these already irritating bosses the ability to restore health unless you use very particular heat moves on them (one of which you'll need to spend a ton of time grinding Majima fights to learn) should resign in shame. It's a horrible, horrible mechanic.

Thankfully, these complaints mostly apply to story bosses. Majima's encounters are often challenging, but in a much fairer way: once you learn the movement patterns he employs across his various incarnations, you'll be able to take him down while suffering only a minimum of damage. Additionally, the coliseum fights are a lot of fun as well, even if they become inordinately difficult near the end.

I want to mention that the final boss fight, which is presented in quite the emotional manner, is also probably the best single encounter in the game.

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I also didn't appreciate the fact that xp accumulation stopped mattering 30 hours or so into my playthrough. Once you fully upgrade the Soul, Tech, and Body skill trees, xp ceases to unlock anything, but you'll likely still have a ton of Dragon-style upgrades to unlock. This would be less of an issue if certain Dragon style upgrades didn't feel borderline necessary in order for the last several hours of the game to not feel overly frustrating (I would NOT want to fight the final few bosses without the Dragon-style boss heat action unlocked, since they recover so much of their health otherwise), but one tends to end up playing for several hours longer than they need to, grinding the same Majima fights over and over in order. In general, I feel like the implementation of the Dragon style into this game was more detrimental than anything, and this would be a moderately improved experienced without an entire skill tree being tied to Majima fights.

This leads into an issue I had with the pacing of the game itself. While the actual plot is quite pleasantly snappy, this implementation of Dragon-style makes it difficult to play the game in a way that doesn't lead to the player halting main plot progression for long periods of time. From what I've heard, the elaborate combat style system was imported over from Yakuza Zero, and that actually makes a lot of sense: being a significantly meatier game with a much longer core campaign, the slow trickle of upgrades probably matches up better with the length and pacing of that game.

There's a decent level of post-game content to engage with here, though. One can start a NG+ file, start up their save file but choose to wander around Kamurocho cleaning up the available side content and tropies, and engage with a extensive combat-focused post-game mode that challenges players to clear out waves of enemies within a time limit. There might be more, but that's all I engaged with before moving on from the game.

Presentation-wise, Yakuza Kiwami is a mostly quite attractive remaster, but, as with all remasters, there are areas where the seams show. Sega has done an amazing job upgrading these faithfully captured old cutscenes to look presentable on a modern-gen console, but it's still pretty clear when the game is actually adding in new cutscenes that weren't there originally, because the character animation quality is noticeably improved. Moreover, while the story content is all presented quite attractively, background characters and details can take a pretty big hit. A lot of the people walking around Kamurocho look like something out of an early PS3 game when you stop to actually look at them, frankly. So, it's a great, but not perfect, remaster of a game originally built for the now ancient technology of the PS2.

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The game holds up reasonably well musically as well, although I hope you enjoy what you hear of the battle themes, because you're going to be hearing the beginning of them a LOT, considering how many fights you run into (particularly this first track). Really, fights take up most of this game, and so battle tracks are the majority of what you'll notice in this game.

While I mentioned that most of the boss fights suck, it helps that the unique tracks you hear during many of those encounters are actually quite catchy as well.

Yakuza Kiwami, despite a significant visual and mechanical overhaul, is still a dated and somewhat clunky experience that's filled with a number of little niggles and issues, but it's one I have a hard time criticizing too strongly. The game is unique, has a fantastic sense of humor, a reasonably strong plot, fun set-pieces, and does a great job of revitalizing a Sega classic for a new generation of gamers. I've heard this fares poorly compared to most other games in the series, which is actually exciting to hear, because if this memorable little game is near the bottom of the list, I can't wait to see how good future entries are.

7.5/10

Edited on by Ralizah

Currently Playing: Advance Wars 1 + 2: Re- Boot Camp (NS)

PSN: Ralizah

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