-
Posts
2919 -
Joined
-
Days Won
150
Eliwood8 last won the day on March 13
Eliwood8 had the most liked content!
Personal Information
-
Member Title
Grandmaster Tactician
Contact Information
-
Nintendo Switch
SW-2605-6540-4133
-
Nintendo Network
Eliwood8
-
PlayStation Network
Eliwood8
-
Discord
Eliwood8
-
Twitter
@alexkhurley
Recent Profile Visitors
6822 profile views
-
Eliwood8 reacted to a post in a topic: Route 113 - N4A Chat Thread - March 2024
-
- Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown (Switch) To be honest, I was kind of surprised to see this game get so much praise online. I liked it, sure, but a good chunk just made me feel like I was playing any other Metroidvania that's come out in the past five years. - Cyberpunk 2077 - Phantom Liberty (PS5) Once I remembered how to play the game I really enjoyed this DLC. Lots of good storylines/choices, even in the side quests; the kind of stuff that actually makes me want to roleplay a specific personality. Loved the emphasis on espionage in the main missions too. Makes me wish the whole game was at this level of quality. - Trine (Switch) Been a long time since I played the original. Elements of it do feel very rudimentary now but the bones are still solid. - Vernal Edge (Switch) The whole breaking enemies' stamina system just made combat way too repetitive. Platforming is okay but nothing all that special. - Sable (PS5) Loved the game's vibes, but even by the end of the game I just didn't dig the animation style. Still a neat game for being a purely exploration-focused adventure game though.
-
Considering the cult classic status of the Jet Set Radio games, it was about time another developer made a spiritual sequel in the stylish skating/graffiti-tagging subgenre. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk takes clear inspiration from JSR, down to the colorful and futuristic setting, but while it obviously relies upon what those games did before it, it still offers a fresh, funky experience, marred by some inconsistent performance on the Switch. The game opens with our nameless protagonist already being held in a police station, presumably for graffiting. One jailbreak later though you're escaping the station with a new ally, and from there the story takes a wild turn. Narrative really isn't Bomb Rush Cyberfunk's strong suit though. The plot manages to be too complicated while the writing is too flat, which leaves you with some confusing yet bland cutscenes. The setting, however, is a blast to live in. The neon-drenched streets of New Amsterdam is quite a playground to explore, and concepts like "cyberhead b-boys" just add a fun layer of sci-fi depth to the whole environment. Ultimately, your goal in Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is to take control of the city's underground graffiti scene by spreading your tags and challenging other graffiti crews. With skates, skateboards, and bikes, you're able to explore, tag hard to reach walls, and build your score and reputation by pulling off stylish tricks. This core gameplay loop is lifted from Jet Set Radio, but it proves just as fun and compelling today as it did on the Dreamcast. Just like games like the Tony Hawk Pro Skater titles, it's a blast to nail a slick chain of tricks and prove your skills to the city's crews. The tagging system is nicely streamlined as well. You can gradually unlock new art pieces by progressing through the game or exploring, and rather than equipping a limited number or meticulously selecting each one to use you can spray different tags by moving your control stick in a different direction. It's fast, fluid, and offers a ton of variety, which is nice since there's a lot of great art in Bomb Rush Cyberfunk. The tricks and movement system feels similarly streamlined, though the effect is a little less engaging. You don't have to learn complex moves here, you just press A, Y, or X to execute a trick, so on the one hand it's super easy to just pick up and dive right in, but on the other hand it does make the concept of doing tricks repetitive. The environment design also has its ups and downs. Overall there's a solid variety to the scenery which helps ensure the simple act of movement is always fun—as long as you're doing something stylish, at least. Skating across the ground is pretty slow, so you usually want to be grinding on rails or wall-riding, which also tends to lead to fresh tagging spots. The downside is that a couple of the levels have some wide open areas, which make for bland movement, and navigating the world as a whole is pretty tedious, i.e. the in-game map and moving from one area to the next is a little confusing and takes some long loading screens. Finally there's a combat system in Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, which feels completely unnecessary. As you tag more of an area your wanted level will rise, causing the cops to chase you with ever more elaborate tools. There are also some boss fights to tackle. Fighting is way too loose and slippery though, as if the controls and camera movements are 100% not made for it. In fact, the camera is pretty messy even while you're just skating around, but it feels even worse during combat. The game also does a poor job of explaining that using your spray paint is the most important part of fighting. All that said, combat isn't actually hard since you'll regenerate health pretty quickly, so it's just this tedious annoyance that pops up occasionally. It's the same with the wanted system—the cops can't actually stop you very effectively, so they're just an obnoxious presence that buzzes around you. The game would have been better served eliminating this combat system entirely or at least making it matter more. I'll also note that, across the relatively short length of the game's story, I ran into semi-frequent crashes, especially during loading screens. Thankfully it never resulted in much loss of progress, but the game's shaky performance—and long load times—definitely put a damper on the experience. Without a doubt, the main appeal of Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is the presentation. The soundtrack is positively packed with jam after jam, all perfectly capturing the futuristic, techno vibe and flow of the setting and gameplay. It doesn't get much better than just grooving along to the music while you leap from grind rail to grind rail, tagging walls along the way. The visual style is another obvious lift from Jet Set Radio, but the colorful vibes work so well for the game that it's hard to complain. That said, the animation can leave something to be desired at times, notably during cutscenes when everyone stares at each other with blank expressions. The graffiti art itself though looks awesome and it's always fun to unlock a new one to use. Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is skating on the shoulders of giants, but if it brings back the stylish groove of this extremely specific and niche subgenre, maybe that's not so bad. That said, this game also has its fair share of rough, unpolished edges that, although they don't spoil the vibes, definitely could have been refined to make the camera flow better, make combat either more engaging or removed entirely, and make the game run smoother. Rating: 7 out of 10 Tags
-
- Review
- Bomb Rush Cyberfunk
-
(and 1 more)
Tagged with:
-
alienboyva reacted to a post in a topic: Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Review
-
After a long dormant period, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown brings the franchise back with a return to its side-scrolling roots with plenty of modern upgrades. This new action-platformer blends precise combat with the sweeping acrobatics that the series is known for, all in a sprawling Metroidvania package. The result is perhaps overly ambitious but still an engaging time. If you've never played a Prince of Persia game, good news, you don't need any backstory to jump into The Lost Crown, which tells an entirely new story. You play as Sargon, one of the seven Immortals, a group of legendary warriors who fight on behalf of the Persian royal family. When Prince Ghassan is kidnapped though, you set out to rescue him by journeying to the mountain of Qaf where an ancient city is beset by a strange magical curse. The Lost Crown does a great job with worldbuilding, and although the optional lore is a bit daunting in length it's still nice to have as an option. However, the game struggles to keep the main narrative and characters interesting. Even with only a handful of primary characters it feels like almost none of them get enough screen time to establish depth, and some of the plot points and twists are plain confusing. Sargon himself is a decent protagonist but lacks the charm or nuance to make his character journey fully engaging. Tightening up the story a bit and establishing characters/motives more clearly would have given the dramatic cutscenes a lot more impact. Acrobatic platforming and parry-focused combat are the two pillars of The Lost Crown. Like most Metroidvanias though, you start off pretty weak, and the first couple of hours can be a bit of a slog. It's not necessarily bad, but jumping on ledges and swinging on poles doesn't feel like anything that hasn't been done before in side-scrolling platformers. However, once you've got a few traversal abilities under your belt, the game's acrobatics really start to shine. The controls are nice and smooth so you really get the feeling of deftly maneuvering through obstacles. You'll also encounter plenty of unique challenges that test your platforming skills, many of which are optional but are still worth attempting just for the fun of perfectly navigating the game's movement mechanics. Flying through the environment with double jumps, dashes and the other unique abilities that you unlock is a blast, it just takes a bit of time to get there. In fact, pacing as a whole might be The Lost Crown's biggest weakness. Aside from the long buildup, the game overstays its welcome with a long and rather repetitive second half. It doesn't help that the map is sprawling. On one hand, it's nice to have so much to see in the game, but on the other hand it means backtracking can be time-consuming and many rooms end up feeling big just for the sake of being big, i.e. there's nothing special about them, it just takes time to move through them. There are a lot of fun ideas in The Lost Crown but too much extraneous content weighs down the experience. The combat, meanwhile, takes a page from recent action games by emphasizing parrying (and dodging unparryable attacks). For a game with such fluid movement, I actually didn't love that the combat felt more slow and measured. Sure you can dive at enemies with all-out attacks, but they can so easily punish you for being over-eager that it feels like the game wants you to pull back at least a little and time your parries intelligently. Stopping to fight enemies when you've just been flying through the air arrests the momentum of the game. Additionally, fighting more than one enemy can be obnoxiously tedious since they can juggle you so easily. All that said, the combat is still pretty solid and gets a chance to shine during boss fights since those are generally a single large foe, and trading parries and strikes against one powerful enemy feels a lot more natural here. Additionally, the combat system is actually the best opportunity for replay value in The Lost Crown. The fundamental attacks don't change too much, but you can equip different amulets to boost your skills or grant slightly different abilities. You can also equip up to two Athra Surges, which are super-powered attacks that charge up as you attack and parry. None of these fundamentally change the way you fight but they add some nice variety to the combat system. As for graphics and audio, The Lost Crown clearly has some decent polish, yet for some reason holds back in areas. The visuals are solid and run smoothly, but like a lot of multiplatform games on the Switch there are some muddy details that probably don't pop up on other systems, and some of the cutscenes still feel stiff. Overall it's a solid visual design though, with a couple of standout moments such as the stylish shipwreck you'll explore late in the game. The music sounds good as well though the soundtrack has a hard time standing out—this isn't the kind of game where any tune is going to get stuck in your head after playing. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a smart blend of old and new for the series and a fun revival of the franchise. It doesn't have quite the fresh feeling that the original game presumably had in the 80s or the Sands of Time games had in the 00s, but it does have some sharp platforming sequences and engaging boss fights, once you get through a somewhat slow beginning of the game. Rating: 8 out of 10 Time Crystals
-
- Review
- Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
-
(and 1 more)
Tagged with:
-
April reacted to a post in a topic: Mario vs. Donkey Kong Review
-
It's definitely weird to see a game that's 10 years older do so much more. I should really replay DK '94 some time, I remember having a blast with it.
- 2 replies
-
- Review
- Mario vs. Donkey Kong
-
(and 1 more)
Tagged with:
-
Eliwood8 reacted to a post in a topic: Route 113 - N4A Chat Thread - March 2024
-
Remakes and re-releases are common on any video game system, but the Switch in particular has become the home of a surprising number and a surprising variety. The latest is Mario vs. Donkey Kong, originally a 2004 GBA title that was a spiritual successor to the 1994 GB title Donkey Kong. With bite-sized puzzle platforming and shiny new visuals, Mario vs. Donkey Kong is a fun blast from the past but may not wow modern players. The story begins with Donkey Kong lounging at home when he sees an ad for new Mini Mario toys. Suddenly obsessed, DK invades the toy factory to steal as many minis as he can, so Mario sets out to stop him and knock some sense into the ape. That's all you need to know—outside of a few short cutscenes this isn't exactly a story-driven game. Short platforming puzzles is the name of the game here. Each of the main levels is divided into two halves: first you grab a key to unlock a door, then you rescue the Mini Mario that DK stole. Mario has the sort of heavy, stilted movement reminiscent of the original Donkey Kong game, so you need to be precise with how you move. Mario's standard jump is pretty modest here, though you can also do a handstand double/triple jump for more distance. Operating colored switches is a huge part of the game as well—sometimes you need to plan ahead to make sure everything lines up perfectly to give you a path forward. Each world ends with a level where Mario guides the Mini Marios to the exit, kind of like Lemmings, and then there's a boss fight with DK to finish the world. The core puzzle design does a decent job of keeping things varied despite relatively few mechanics. In contrast to something like the recent Super Mario Wonder, which introduces so many different ideas, Mario vs. Donkey Kong keeps things pretty simple and relies upon just a handful of concepts rearranged in engaging ways. That said, this game isn't exactly the most challenging puzzle experience around. The puzzles in the main levels are rarely challenging, or the solution is simple enough that there's no punishment for failing and retrying a few times. Even collecting the optional present boxes in each level is a pretty easy task. At almost every turn, Mario vs. Donkey Kong plays things safe and doesn't try to push the boundaries of the system, genre, or player. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but any experienced players might be left wanting more from the puzzle design. The good news is that you do eventually unlock more challenging levels. What seems like the end of the game is really only half of the story, and an entire new set of worlds gets unlocked. You can also replay levels in time attack mode and, depending on how many gold medals you've collected, you can unlock extra challenging levels. These final extra stages actually do turn up the difficulty quite a bit and will be much more satisfying for an experienced Mario player, it's just a shame that there are only 16 of them. Funnily enough, there are some extra features in Mario vs. Donkey Kong that actually make things easier. Casual mode is even more forgiving than the standard classic mode and adds checkpoints and hit points. Co-op mode lets another player join the fun as a Toad, which does allow you to approach levels in a different way, which is a nice touch. These bonus modes and bonus challenges add up to make Mario vs. Donkey Kong a decent length, if you're willing to explore everything the game has to offer. The graphics and audio have also received an obvious overhaul from the game's pixely GBA roots. The new look looks great—sure there's still a nearly 20 year old sense of art direction lying underneath it all, meaning backgrounds and some stage elements look quite simple and straightforward, but that shiny Super Mario polish gives everything an appropriate toy-like vibe. The overhauled music is in the same boat: it's great to hear the jazzy soundtrack fully orchestrated, but many of the tunes remain a bit simple and not particularly memorable. Mario vs. Donkey Kong is an unexpected but charming revival that faithfully recreates the GBA original for modern audiences. Even with some bonus challenges though, it's hard to shake the feeling that this is a straightforward puzzle-platformer that avoids risky, complex challenges and instead satisfies itself with simple bite-sized levels. If that's what you're looking for though, or if you want to introduce a novice player to an easygoing puzzle-platformer, it's easy to pick up Mario vs. Donkey Kong for a short time. Rating: 7 out of 10 Mini Marios
- 2 replies
-
- Review
- Mario vs. Donkey Kong
-
(and 1 more)
Tagged with:
-
Hah, yeah, did you also buy it because it was on sale for super cheap recently? It's old enough now that it's probably on sale all the time, actually. I've just been craving more Resident Evil since I promised to play the RE4 Remake with my brother, but we still didn't finish it over the Christmas break and won't see each other again until the summer. Now that the Gold Edition is out though I might just buy the game for myself…
-
DLurkster reacted to a post in a topic: Smash Saturdays: 10p
-
- Horizon: Forbidden West - Burning Shores (PS5) I was pretty rusty jumping back into this game but I still really enjoyed this expansion. Mostly I just like having more of Horizon to play. - Hogwarts Legacy (Switch) Running around in the wizarding world is fun, and the varied tasks you can complete are engaging, even if many ultimately feel like typical sandbox game tasks just with a witchcraft theme. Combat is a bit bland though, especially with level scaling. - Resident Evil 3 (PS5) Although it's my least favorite of the recent RE games/remakes, it's still a solid little game, and Nemesis does what he's meant to do: makes you exhausted by his constant pursuit of you. - SteamWorld Build (Switch) Good but lacks the charm of the other SteamWorld games, and the city-building mechanics are a bit simple. Also way too many tutorial pop ups in the first playthrough. - Mario vs. Donkey Kong (Switch) I did play this back in the day, but it's been so long. Even though the game as a whole feels pretty quick & breezy, there are still some good puzzles to dig into.
-
I'm gonna have to skip this Smashdown as well.
-
The SteamWorld series continues to explore new genres with the latest title, SteamWorld Build. Part city-builder management sim and part mining game, Build takes a page from the franchise's roots while still providing a unique new experience. Ultimately though, this wide reaching gameplay system might spread itself too thin. You play as a settler and his daughter in search of new territory to lay down roots. You're accompanied by a strange spherical core computer that urges you on, who encourages you to unearth the remains of a lost empire and collect the parts necessary to build a massive rocketship. Fans of the SteamWorld franchise will recognize some familiar elements here and can identify where this game falls in the overall timeline. As a standalone game though, the story is pretty lackluster. There's nothing wrong with it so much as it feels like filler that only serves to pull you away from monitoring your town and mine. It doesn't help that the very few characters you meet are completely one note and lack the usual SteamWorld charm. Build's gameplay revolves around two halves, the surface and the mine. On the surface, you'll build homes for workers, plants for processing materials, and service buildings to fulfill your workers' needs. In the mine, you'll gather resources that allow you to build up your town further, which unlocks more facilities which allow you to delve further into the mine. It's a simple, tidy little gameplay loop that proves to be quite addictive. There's always something that needs your attention in the mine and always something new to unlock/build, so it can be hard to pull yourself away from the game. And of course, it's extremely satisfying when all of your little robot workers and miners are operating efficiently and you get to sit back and watch your money/resources increase. Although building the city is an integral part of the game, the mine is where the real depth is in terms of real-time strategy gameplay. You'll need to construct living quarters for your miners and gradually expand them as you dig further and further into the game. This process requires a bit more focus from you since mining out an area can make it unstable, requiring you to build support beams. You may need to build bridges to reach across gaps, and later build guard robots to battle dangerous creatures. You can also construct defensive weapons like a tower defense game. All of these details snowball until you're managing a ton of little details, which is again quite satisfying when it all runs smoothly. The actual game, of course, throws plenty of complications at you, since you're always trying to expand your town but expanding requires more resources, leading to Build's central gameplay loop. Nothing ever feels too complicated though, you just need some time to understand how the mechanics of the game work. Unfortunately, as extensive as the game's tutorial system is, it mostly just gets overwhelming when there are so many tutorial pop-ups. The funny thing is that the mechanics aren't terribly complicated, they're just not always explained super well (in short, when you unlock a new building, build it). That might be Build's biggest issue: the UI and the controls make everything a bit more complex than it needs to be, which makes the experience not quite as smooth as you'd want it. Granted, these kinds of sim games can be tricky with a controller since they don't offer quite the same level of precise movement as a mouse, but the controls and interface still feel clunky and cluttered. Surprisingly, Build is a relatively short game, at least if you're only doing a single playthrough. Finishing the story should only take around ten hours or less, but you can also keep replaying the game on different maps. Each one has a slightly different appearance and completing one grants you a special bonus that you can carry over into other maps/playthrough. However, though the mine layouts can be randomly generated, fundamentally it's the same gameplay over and over, which does get pretty repetitive. It's not like there are significantly different strategies to employ in Build, it more or less proceeds in the same way each time. It's surprising that each map doesn't have a more distinctive twist or feature to set them apart, like unique hazards or events. Still, if you play through the game on each map you can add a lot more time to the game, even if each playthrough doesn't feel significantly different. Build also has a little bit of trouble running on the Switch. I ran into some repeated glitches and crashes, none of which cost much in-game time since there's an autosave system, but it was still disappointing to see. The presentation aims for some of that familiar SteamWorld charm, but the nature of the game means it all feels a bit basic. When you're just looking at the whole city or a zoomed out view of the mines, you don't get that much of the fun, playful details you'd expect from a SteamWorld game. Some of it's still there though, if you zoom in to really look, but overall the visual design won't wow you much. It also feels like the different buildings should have had even more distinct designs to make it easy to see what each one is at a glance, but oh well. The soundtrack is pretty light with no memorable or catchy tunes, and the voice acting, though a surprising treat for a game like this, sounds a bit basic as well. SteamWorld Build is another bold step for a franchise that has always explored new territory. Managing a growing town and a mine makes for a satisfying gameplay loop without overwhelming the player too much. With a new developer at the helm though the charm and polish aren't quite at the level you'd expect. Smoother UI/controls and a bit more depth to make new playthroughs feel unique would have gone a long way to building up a more engaging experience. Rating: 7 out of 10 Buildings
-
- Review
- SteamWorld Build
-
(and 1 more)
Tagged with:
-
Nintendo Direct - Partner Showcase (2.21.24- 6am PT/9am ET)
Eliwood8 replied to DLurkster's topic in General Nintendo
No new announcements that totally wowed me, but still a solid Direct. Arranger looks right up my alley, I'll definitely keep an eye on that one. Penny's Big Breakaway could be fun. It's also just cool to see a 3D platformer like that; nice throwback to the late 90s/early 00s. Epic Mickey: Rebrushed is a surprise. If they improved the camera that could be a fun game to revisit. World of Goo 2—glad to see it has a release date. Still looks like a goo-d time. Fantasy Life i—I'd forgotten this was already announced, glad we've finally got more info and a release date. October feels so long away but I'm sure it'll be here in no time. Snufkin's art style looks great, though admittedly I don't know much about Moomins. Endless Ocean Luminous—kind of funny that the first Endless Ocean got some flak for being such a casual, "non-game", yet now these cozy-type games are a whole market unto themselves. -
alienboyva reacted to a post in a topic: Hogwarts Legacy Review
-
If there's one thing the Harry Potter universe has going for it, it's charm. The hidden world of magic in these stories is awash with colorful, eccentric and enchanting details, some of which don't make a lot of sense upon closer inspection, sure, but the feeling of being part of the community of witches, wizards and magical creatures easily excites one's imagination. So can Hogwarts Legacy, an open-world action-RPG, capture that same magic for video game fans? The story takes place in the late 1800s. You play as a customizable character who is starting their academic career at Hogwarts as a fifth-year student. You're capable of seeing a strange, unknown type of ancient magic and, as you follow its trail to Hogwarts, you uncover a powerful secret that is now under threat by dangerous forces. Along the way, you'll also need to attend classes and learn more about the world of magic. Like a lot of open-world games, there's an awkward balancing act between the main plot and the side content, and the writing here isn't doing a lot to alleviate things. Too many NPCs, whether they're teachers, students or antagonists, are simply flat and unremarkable, which leads a lot of side quests and even main quests to feel like nothing more than objectives to check off on your task list. Your player character is also pretty bland, and you're typically only given a couple of options as far as how you talk or respond to conversations, very few of which matter at all. There's too much of a disconnect between the villains' actions and your own to make the stakes feel weighty. Strangely enough, there are also some pretty dark moments in the story, but they tend to pop up unexpectedly and don't really blend with the tone of the rest of the game. A bit more role playing and more choices that matter in this action-RPG could have helped liven things up a bit. Hogwarts Legacy isn't trying to reinvent the wheel of open-world adventure games. Despite the magical setting appearance, this is very much a typical action-RPG experience with tons of collectibles, side tasks, and little symbols on your map to clear out. Somewhat surprisingly, the schooling/learning magic side of the game is extremely simplified, with just a few classes to attend (which is not to say I wanted to deal with wizarding homework, but a bit more than a few cutscenes would've been nice). Regardless, there's a good variety of things to do, from actual side quests to things like simple puzzle challenges which reward you with upgrades to your abilities. The game also smartly drip feeds these features to you, making it easy to gradually immerse yourself in the wizarding world. And in the end, that's really the highlight of Hogwarts Legacy. Growing ingredients to use in potions, clearing out monster dens, collecting magical creatures—oddly enough, rescuing them from poachers only so that you'll keep them in your enclosure instead—these are all decent if typical ways to spend time in an open-world action-RPG, but putting that Harry Potter twist on things does liven it up. Indeed, the best part of the game might just be wandering around Hogwarts Castle, taking in the talking portraits, moving suits of armor, and little details like Peeves the Poltergeist sliding down a banister. All of the mechanics of the gameplay are somewhat simple—understandable if the target audience is relatively young—but when you throw in wands and spells and hippogriffs, checking off tasks on a to-do list has a bit more charm than normal. That said, there are also some gameplay tropes that get awfully tiresome here. The entire loot system feels like merely an excuse to populate the world with bland treasure chests. Sure, increasing your offense and defense with equipment is useful, but like a lot of loot-heavy games you're picking up a ton of junk along the way, and even with shopkeepers scattered about the world map there needs to be a faster way to deal with unwanted items. Level scaling is also a bit annoying since it means combat rarely feels different, and that leads into the surprisingly bland nature of the battle system. At first, it seems great that the game gives you a reason to use a variety of spells. For one thing, there's a color-coding system to enemy shields, so for example you need to use a red spell to break red shields. For another, hitting an enemy with a spell makes them more susceptible to your basic attacks, and eventually you'll upgrade your spells to make them slightly more powerful. However, combat gets repetitive extremely quickly in Hogwarts Legacy. Despite having a decent variety of spells to learn, too many of them are functionally similar, and oftentimes it feels like you're doing the same thing in every battle. Dodging and blocking are fairly simple on their own as well, though it's easy to get overwhelmed since there aren't a lot of options for dealing with big groups of enemies (and the lock-on aiming system can be a pain by jumping between targets). For a combat system as open-ended as a magic/Harry Potter based one, fighting enemies is far too rote. Additionally, for some reason the controls also trip over themselves a bit since attacking, blocking, and dodging are all sort of tied to the same buttons (depending on whether or not you hold R2 down to cast spells). I can understand why it's set the way it is, to allow for relatively fast and fluid controls mid-battle, but swapping spells is awkward in the heat of the moment. Not surprisingly, Hogwarts Legacy's performance takes a hit on the Switch. The graphics are just obviously less than what they should be. Grainy textures, slow loading scenery, pop-in—it's all quite unavoidable on the Switch, unfortunately. The load times are the most consistent issue, since even opening the map takes a few seconds, but these are the trade offs for playing on the Switch. If it's any consolation, as mentioned the spirit of the Harry Potter universe does come through nicely anyway even if the graphics aren't the nicest around. Wandering through the halls of Hogwarts is a fun experience no matter what. The sound design also isn't half bad. The score does a good job of evoking the mischievous magic of the setting, and hearing even small snippets or references to the iconic John Williams score is enough to make me feel like a kid again. The voice acting is less consistent in quality, but it gets the job done. Hogwarts Legacy is a decent adventure in the wizarding world, though it's not quite at the top of its class. The core gameplay features aren't terribly inspired, but adding the Harry Potter coat of paint to everything does make the experience feel more magical. If anything, it's a shame that the game doesn't lean harder into the Harry Potter details to make the game world feel more alive and changeable, like having a running House Cup score or a Quidditch tournament. As it is, Hogwarts Legacy is a fun but relatively safe adventure for Harry Potter fans. Rating: 7 out of 10 Spells
-
- Review
- Hogwarts Legacy
-
(and 1 more)
Tagged with:
-
Not being able to speak the local language can be quite the puzzle, especially when you've only just awoken from a mysterious stone sarcophagus. Chants of Sennaar is a beautifully stylized adventure that reimagines the Tower of Babel as a puzzle game, one where you need to gradually learn languages one glyph at a time in order to ascend. This seemingly simple premise leads to a completely addictive and engaging experience. The game begins by throwing you straight into the confusion with zero context, but it soon becomes clear that there are various groups of people divided by their language barriers. Since the entire premise of the game is learning each group's unique language, Chants of Sennaar relies upon atmospheric storytelling, pantomime, and symbols to explain the plot. This also means you'll be left scratching your head for much of the adventure as you'll only slowly understand what's going on around you, but if you embrace that state of confusion it's a blast to live in this bizarrely sterile, ominous world. Even the end of the game has its share of questions, but it's clear that something caused all of the division in the tower, and learning more about the tower bit by bit makes for a satisfying mystery. The core puzzle structure is beautifully simple. Every time you encounter a new glyph, whether it's written down or spoken by an NPC, it gets added to your journal. Gradually, you'll get the chance to match each glyph with a definition, granting you a better understanding of the world you're in. You'll rely on context clues and environmental clues to translate each glyph. Seeing a glyph once usually isn't enough to understand what it means, but see it a couple more times and you should be able to grasp its definition, or at least have a couple of guesses. Matching glyphs with their definitions also happens in small groups and the game confirms when you have all definitions in the group correct, which gives you the wiggle room to occasionally make guesses while still requiring you to learn the majority of the glyphs. It's a shockingly satisfying puzzle system that is also weirdly addictive. Incremental progress is always engaging in any video game context, but when it's directly tied to learning more about the game's world and better understanding its setting there's something magical about the experience. It's like struggling with a math problem then finally getting it all to click in your mind; there's a genuine sense of accomplishment here. Chants of Sennaar is also relatively short at around seven or eight hours to finish, but that length actually feels perfect for the game. There's still plenty of variety to how you learn each glyph language and how you need to apply it to environmental puzzles, and the experience of discovering each new language never gets stale. You'll also encounter a few different languages, each with their own quirks, which is a lot of fun to uncover. Maybe it just speaks to my nerdy interest in language and etymology, but seeing how different groups structure similar glyphs in their own ways is fascinating. Most importantly, despite the relative complexity of this puzzle design, Chants of Sennaar never feels tediously difficult. You can temporarily label each glyph as you encounter them, which is a huge help since oftentimes you need to see the glyph in its context to accurately remember what it means. Typing in a guess for future reference is super handy and can lead to some funny revelations once you understand what the glyph actually means. The one area where the game's lack of instruction or direction does get a bit tough is exploration. The environments aren't massive but they're big enough that you can get a bit lost while exploring since there's no map. Even a rudimentary map system would have been nice. The stark colors and simple shapes of Chants of Sennaar paint a vivid picture. The scenery and architecture is simultaneously grand and towering but also quite barren, which poses another enticing mystery as you gradually piece together what is really going on. It's a beautiful visual style that also suits the gameplay nicely by making any glyphs in the environment easy to spot. Each section of the tower also has its own color scheme and variations in architecture, which is another smart touch for making the groups of people feel united yet distinct. The game's soundtrack has some gorgeous tunes that perfectly suit the mysterious, foreign setting, though oftentimes there's too much of a light touch to the music and I would've liked to have the sounds take more of a center stage. Chants of Sennaar is an enchanting puzzle game that masterfully draws you into the confusing yet satisfying challenge of learning strictly via context clues. The result is wonderfully immersive, delightfully unique and highly addictive. The gorgeous art style and soundtrack are the cherries on top of this must-try puzzle experience. Rating: 9 out of 10 Glyphs
-
- Review
- Chants of Sennaar
-
(and 1 more)
Tagged with:
-
alienboyva reacted to a post in a topic: Another Code: Recollection Review
-
Yumil1988 reacted to a post in a topic: Another Code: Recollection Review
-
- Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (PS5) Felt easier than what I remember Fallen Order being like, which is a plus since I don't have a lot of patience for super hard Souls style games. Didn't really love the main hubs in this game though, kinda bland visually. - Bomb Rush Cyberfunk (Switch) Great style and soundtrack but the gameplay and controls feel unpolished. - Another Code: Recollection - Two Memories (Switch) It's been so long since I played Trace Memory, but it seems to me like removing the DS-centric puzzles spoils some of the game's charm. - Another Code: Recollection - A Journey Into Lost Memories (Switch) Having a larger environment and more NPCs is a nice change of pace from the first game, though it weirdly falls into the same story structure pitfalls. - Chants of Sennaar (Switch) I enjoyed the demo but the full game pulled me into the experience even more than I thought it would. Super engaging and unique puzzle game.
-
Among the many surprising remakes/revivals that Nintendo has pulled out across the Switch's lifetime, Another Code: Recollection has to be one of the most unexpected. These two games never reached further than cult classic status—in fact the second game was never localized in the US—and yet here we are with a dual-pack release that gives players the chance to experience the entire point-and-click adventure saga. It's not hard to see why these thoughtful, slow-paced mystery stories are beloved by a small fan base, nor is it hard to see why they never expanded beyond that. Recollection combines both Another Code games into one continuous story. The first part, called Two Memories, comes from the 2005 Nintendo DS title (known as Trace Memory in the US). You play as Ashley Mizuki Robbins, a teenage girl who, just days before her 14th birthday, receives a message from her father who disappeared 11 years ago, shortly after the death of her mother. He entrusts her with a strange device and invites her to the mysterious Blood Edward Island. Ashley arrives with her aunt, but the aunt quickly disappears in the seemingly deserted island mansion, so Ashley sets off to investigate. She then encounters a young ghost by the name of D who can't remember anything about his life, so the pair team up to unravel the island's secrets and better understand both of their murky memories. It's a pretty solid premise for a young adult mystery story. Ashley is an immediately likeable protagonist who easily falls into the investigator role with believable confusion, doubt, and pathos. There's such an air of tragedy surrounding this mystery adventure that it's good to have a fairly grounded and charming main character. That said, the writing in Two Memories also leaves a lot to be desired. It's hard to shake off the feeling that this is a game squarely aimed at a young audience. The few side characters you meet are fairly flat, including D, and while the overarching mystery is engaging, it also unfolds in an oddly bland manner. Some elements are predictable, sure, but the bigger issue is the strange way Ashley's and D's storylines fail to intertwine in a satisfying way. You'll still be engaged while playing but may finish and look back questioning where the narrative cohesion was. It doesn't help that the gameplay is a little uninspired as well. There are some decent puzzles along the way but the majority of them are solvable with clues from within a single room, so you're very rarely challenged to think critically. And in comparison to the DS original, this Switch version lacks some of the DS-centric puzzles that added unique ideas and flourishes (instead Recollection adds a couple of motion-controlled puzzles which are a bit more clunky than engaging). It's an understandable change but the result is a puzzle-adventure that isn't terribly puzzling. To be fair though, looking at the game through the lens of a "young adult mystery adventure" title, Two Memories may be at just the right level of difficulty and complexity. If you do get stuck, there's a convenient built-in hint/navigation system that can easily keep you on the right track, which is a nice addition for Recollection. Two Memories is otherwise a fairly short game, around five or six hours, so getting stuck for too long would certainly be a drag. The visuals have obviously received a big upgrade from the DS original, and the game does look nice. It's not the most elaborate visual design and in fact many background textures are distractingly flat, but the simplicity has a charm of its own and the bright, almost washed-out color palette adds to the ethereal vibe of the adventure which makes for an oddly cozy feeling despite the mystery storyline. The soundtrack is suitably moody and atmospheric, and the game now features extensive voice acting for all major cutscenes. The quality of the voice work is disappointingly inconsistent, but it's a nice feature regardless. Completing Two Memories takes you directly into A Journey into Lost Memories, the 2009 Wii sequel that is set two years after the events of the first game. Ashley returns as our protagonist, a bit older, wiser, and angstier as a teen, but just as charming as she was before. This time, Ashley is exploring the campgrounds of Lake Juliet, where a nearby memory research lab has ties to Ashley's late mother. In sharp contrast to the first game, you get to meet a whole variety of side characters in this adventure which really helps the world and storyline feel more alive and rich, especially when Ashley's investigations lead her to helping others. Funnily enough, one of the people she helps is once again a younger boy named Matthew (not a ghost this time), who tags along as a sidekick for much of the adventure. A Journey into Lost Memories is a nice continuation of the themes and ideas started in Two Memories. It's a smart broadening of the world, giving a bigger and more impactful storyline with more serious consequences. That said, the plot here weirdly runs into the exact same oddities as the first game. Matthew's story is a bit more tied to Ashley's, but in many ways it still feels like a completely separate thread and almost unnecessary to the plot. The same could be said of many of the side characters in fact, though their presence does add some nice worldbuilding. The game's third act and climax in particular is weirdly rushed and under-developed—the core mystery really needed more time to build organically. Still, as a slightly older but still squarely young adult mystery adventure, A Journey into Lost Memories has its charms. The gameplay, however, does feel like it has taken a step back from the previous game. As mentioned, I thought the puzzles in Two Memories were okay but overall somewhat lackluster, and in A Journey into Lost Memories the puzzles have gotten even more simple. There's really not much challenge to sink your puzzle-solving teeth into, which makes the experience feel a lot more like a visual novel. There's also a slightly annoying amount of meandering in the adventure, i.e. moments where you go to one location after another just talking to people instead of gathering clues, items, or engaging with the gameplay really at all. This game has serious cozy vibes, but perhaps too cozy when it makes the gameplay a bit dull. The art style is obviously the same, but the wider variety of environments is a nice change of pace. The voice acting is overall better in this half of Recollection as well for some reason, maybe just due to the story this time offering a better range of emotion for the characters. Regardless, the presentation stays cohesive while still feeling a bit more mature. A mystery story isn't normally what you'd think of as "cozy," but that's exactly what Another Code: Recollection is. These are slow, easygoing puzzle-adventure games that do a good job of balancing some heavy topics with a light, comfy atmosphere. Because of that, they're kind of perfect for a young adult crowd. Playing them as an adult, however, may leave you pining for a more elaborate, engaging narrative and more challenging puzzle designs, but if you're looking for a cozy story-heavy experience, Another Code: Recollection uniquely fits the bill. Rating: 7 out of 10 Memories
-
- Review
- Another Code: Recollection
-
(and 1 more)
Tagged with:
-
The main characters just never clicked for me, felt like they were sleepwalking through their own story. The plot has some okay developments by the second half of the game but needed some polishing to make the revelations/payoffs actually have impact rather than feeling like it's running through a bullet point list of plot twists. It's been a while since I played though so I don't have much more detailed critiques than that. And based on reactions online, there's a bit of a divide between people that like Garl and people that do not, and I have to admit I'm emphatically in the latter group.