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TheDarkPhantom
Gold Member
Sonic Racing Crossworlds
My latest PHYSICAL purchase on PS5. Surprised at just how good a kart racer this is, can stand toe-to-toe with any Mario Kart. Still doesn't beat CTR (my favourite) but damn good racing that looks absolutely jaw-dropping on my OLED running at 4K60fps in Quality Mode on Pro, good stuff, all the FREE SEGA character DLC gave me the feels.
Monster Train 2
A few weeks ago I started Monster Train (free on PS+), got completely sucked in and after 50+ hours decided you know what, let me see what they did with the sequel because this is something special. Conclusion: MT2 is the best Deck Builder ever made, period. It's better than Slay the Spire, Hand of Fate 2 (how many of you played that series? lol), better than Balatro, better than any other game in the genre I've played. It's also the perfect sequel with 5 all NEW factions to play with (I'll buy Slay the Spire 2 whenever it comes to PS5 but 2 of the 4 characters are repeats, really?). If you have any interest in the genre this is a must buy.
A Plague Tale: Requiem
Long story short, all those TGA nominations from a few years back were well deserved. Another perfect sequel, fantastic narrative, amongst the best voice acting in all of Gamedom, some new mechanics and a truly *stunning* world. The game will take you to unexpected places, I'm about 70% through it, can't wait to see how it ends!
Arriving tomorrow: my PHYSICAL copy of Assassin's Creed Black Flag on PS5
My latest PHYSICAL purchase on PS5. Surprised at just how good a kart racer this is, can stand toe-to-toe with any Mario Kart. Still doesn't beat CTR (my favourite) but damn good racing that looks absolutely jaw-dropping on my OLED running at 4K60fps in Quality Mode on Pro, good stuff, all the FREE SEGA character DLC gave me the feels.
Monster Train 2
A few weeks ago I started Monster Train (free on PS+), got completely sucked in and after 50+ hours decided you know what, let me see what they did with the sequel because this is something special. Conclusion: MT2 is the best Deck Builder ever made, period. It's better than Slay the Spire, Hand of Fate 2 (how many of you played that series? lol), better than Balatro, better than any other game in the genre I've played. It's also the perfect sequel with 5 all NEW factions to play with (I'll buy Slay the Spire 2 whenever it comes to PS5 but 2 of the 4 characters are repeats, really?). If you have any interest in the genre this is a must buy.
A Plague Tale: Requiem
Long story short, all those TGA nominations from a few years back were well deserved. Another perfect sequel, fantastic narrative, amongst the best voice acting in all of Gamedom, some new mechanics and a truly *stunning* world. The game will take you to unexpected places, I'm about 70% through it, can't wait to see how it ends!
Arriving tomorrow: my PHYSICAL copy of Assassin's Creed Black Flag on PS5
RAIDEN1
Member
Just goes to show how far ahead of its time Outrun was in 1986, it would take the Sega Saturn until 1996 to bring a near arcade perfect version home, all other previous ports left a lot to be desired...
AndrewRyan
Member
The spear is fantastic new weapon in the Doom Dark Ages Revelations DLC. Still learning all the mechanics but already it's hard to imagine going back to the base game. Knowing it's the last we're likely to get makes it bittersweet.
Werewolf Jones
Member
Seiken Densetsu 2.
Then Seiken Densetsu 3.
Then Vagrant Story replay.
Then Grandia replay.
Then SMT V/III or Raidou or Baten Kaitos: Origins and then Xenoblade 2/3+expansions.
Then Seiken Densetsu 3.
Then Vagrant Story replay.
Then Grandia replay.
Then SMT V/III or Raidou or Baten Kaitos: Origins and then Xenoblade 2/3+expansions.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Asha's balls in my throat?
Regardless of "CoD or not", it's such a fucking good campaign. The space battles are basically Battlestar Galactica / Earth: Above and Beyond, and the 'ground' action is so different from the usual CoD fare.
Too bad they over-corrected way to the left into 'modern' warfare after this. They should have kept one sub-franchise of CoD into exploring more experimental games like this.
Parazels
Member
I have been a huge PES fan since the 90s. But now that PES is gone I decided to give the latest soccer from EA a chance, and - what an unbelievable piece of crap it is!
I have spent a week trying to get into a carrier mode in FC 26 but... The gameplay is just bad at its core. It's ping-pong, not soccer.
I have spent a week trying to get into a carrier mode in FC 26 but... The gameplay is just bad at its core. It's ping-pong, not soccer.
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Dr. Suchong
Member
Man I need to play all those (Apart from Seiken Densetsu 2)
I don't know how you find the time to play all those jrpgs.
I need to play Bof3/4 too but I know I'll probably never get around to it
MidgarBlowedUp
Member
Sons of the Forest and Wu Chang: Fallen Framerates.
uncreativename
Gold Member
Been playing some Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory. It's a lot of fun. Reminds me of playing Theatrhythm Curtain Call on my 3ds :].
Which reminds me, I should get Theatrhythm Final Bar Line when I'm done with this. With Rhythm Heaven as well I'm gonna be playing so many awesome rhythm games
Which reminds me, I should get Theatrhythm Final Bar Line when I'm done with this. With Rhythm Heaven as well I'm gonna be playing so many awesome rhythm games
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Northeastmonk
Gold Member
Finished Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster. Last time I played it was the 3d NDS version and before that it was back when Final Fantasy Chronicles launched. So I was already invested in Cecil and Kain, it was good to see that story all the way through. A little bonkers at the end, but not bad. Also playing Veritas Tales: Witch of the Dark Castle that just came out and Re-Pac-Man World. Not doing much modern stuff until Onimusha.
best part about this game is turning into the big version of Pac-Man and eating everything. The main bad guy is very generic. It makes me wonder how hard it is to sell this brand. I could understand t-shirts and misc merchandise, but the show, the lore, and everything else? Pac-Man has as much of a personality as the red 7up dot.
best part about this game is turning into the big version of Pac-Man and eating everything. The main bad guy is very generic. It makes me wonder how hard it is to sell this brand. I could understand t-shirts and misc merchandise, but the show, the lore, and everything else? Pac-Man has as much of a personality as the red 7up dot.
shenmue mugen
Member
Wo Long and Wuchang were the best games I've played this year.
I'm almost finishing Wuchang.
I'm almost finishing Wuchang.
Naked Lunch
Member
Absolutely. OutRun is pure magic. Still looks and plays amazing to this day. Timeless.
Cue Last Wave track.
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falconhoof
Gold Member
Finished Snatcher
The memes are real.
Kojima presents a Kojima game by Kojima starring Kojima directed by Kojima and special thanks goes to Kojima
The memes are real.
Kojima presents a Kojima game by Kojima starring Kojima directed by Kojima and special thanks goes to Kojima
RAIDEN1
Member
Finished Snatcher
The memes are real.
Kojima presents a Kojima game by Kojima starring Kojima directed by Kojima and special thanks goes to Kojima
I still need to figure out a way to play Saturn emulation on PC so I can go back to Policenauts! More so as Konami let alone Kojima have no plans for a re-release
Flyingpanther
Member
Just started rise fo the ronin. Seems like a good game so far. Last samurai game I played was like a dragon ishin
Celcius
°Temp. member
Earlier this week I beat Megaman X2 for the first time. Now I'm playing through Megaman X3 for the first time. Great games.
Almost makes me want to track down physical SNES copies but the prices on ebay are like $200 and $350+ and I got these during the steam sale for $8 together.
Almost makes me want to track down physical SNES copies but the prices on ebay are like $200 and $350+ and I got these during the steam sale for $8 together.
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Paltheos
Member
Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade
100% done - 80 hours flat. Longpost. No spoiler markings, but this is long and big enough for you to be safe just scrolling past it I think.
A lot of mixed feelings on this one.
---
Maybe the most positive thing I can say about it is that the game looks fantastic. Matching the visual flair of a game presented on matte paintings is a tall order, but Remake realizes the look most of the time. Slums abandoned and filled with random junk, Wall Market is bustling, the Shinra Building in particular looks even more sleek and imposing than I imagined as a kid (and little touches like highlighting all the Shinra heads in a propaganda piece except for Palmer who just gets a stock background because the space division is that unimportant is just a great touch). Just stellar work. The pre-rendered action sequences are just as exciting - The escape bike sequence at the end of the game is blow your socks off bombastic. Occasionally little things are lost, like the uniqueness of the robo hand from the sector 5-6 passage in the original in exchange becoming... a set of robot hands scattered about for... some reason, but that's more the exception.
Combat is smooth as butter and like the rest of the game just a fucking spectacle, man. I favored controlling Cloud for having what felt like the most complete moveset and Barret for situations where long-range, more reserved play was called for. There are some issues I have with the combat system. The game being so stingy as to charge you MP on starting a cast instead of when you've finished is irking in a game where poise is not particularly clear. Not the entire cast felt as rewarding to play - I admit to never giving Aerith's whole moveset a real try and while Tifa still felt fun to play for her speed I was bothered by her lack of an ATB dump move and Divekick's frustrating range limitations. Aerial attacks, btw, felt kinda ass in the game, and if I had the option I usually switched to Barret (or Aerith) rather than hoping my character would jump to slice/punch.
Materia on the whole felt a little worse than in the original. FF7R is very conservative about handing out support (blue) materia - in general the game makes you work your butt off for them. Magnify works better than All imo, reducing the penalty for multi-targeting on level up instead of controlling just a raw number of casts, but there are so few to find in the game, although even if you did find more, you'd be in a tough spot because the game is chocked to the gills with independent (purple) and command (yellow) materia that are competing with your precious few materia slots. 'tho that said, some seem way better than others - there's the [Stat] up stuff which always good ofc but among the mountain of 'ATB [some effect]' materia, some stand out. ATB Stagger for instance is so damn good as to feel mandatory. First Strike is fun for getting fight off to a quick start, although my teammates not being proactive in spending their bar in trivial encounters is a little bothersome (was there an AI-control option, ala Tales-style I missed?). Warding materia is just Added Effect from the OG FF7 but worse for some reason
- You can only use it defensively whereas Added Effect could be used offensively to inflict status - I don't know why Square-Enix went that direction with it.
I did enjoy the weapon changes. Giving weapons different strengths as you level them incentivizes switching around, which I did. Unfortunately, I didn't see a convenient summary of all the weapons' current unlocks and I didn't memorize all their abilities so I tended to rely on just the information provided on the equipment screen which is woefully inadequate, I know. Crit rate/damage boosts, stat increases at high/low HP, base grounded/aerial attack enhancements, elemental offensive/defensive enhancements, MP restore on taking critical damage, HP restore on hitting staggered enemies or on killing them are all stuff that's not captured on the equipment summary. I'll add that I found navigating the menu a little more cumbersome here than in the original. I'm also surprised there's no character materia swap option like in the OG for when people leave/enter the party, instead forcing you to handle manually.
---
As for the writing, I think the character writing is pretty on-point. Cloud is still an awkward, taciturn loner, Barret's a little crazy and overzealous while still ultimately being a big, black teddy bear, Aerith's playful, teasing, and ever-busy. Tifa's maybe a little more tender and less tough than I imagined, but the rest of the supporting cast is as goofy and/or serious as I would expect from Final Fantasy VII. Same deal for the voice work: Ayumi Ito's soft voice isn't helping my Tifa impression (she has a few harsher lines though, which do sound good!), and everyone else is fine. Mayaa Sakamoto was my initial stand-out for how expressive she was - She's an industry GOAT after all. I cooled on her a little over time. Not sure why. --- My favorite, new scene is probably in the elevator when climbing the Shinra building where Tifa remarks how she's realizing that the people in the place they're attacking are just ordinary folks trying to survive. Barret's response misses the mark, talking about how they're still at Shinra so still liable blahblahblah, which Tifa affirms with a tone implying that's not the response she was looking for. Cloud puts her back on track reminding her they're here for Aerith, which actually snaps Tifa back into the right mindset and as a bit of character work sets up Cloud over Barret as the to-be party leader. --- Also, just an aside, one of the things I like in Remake is how plausible the character designs are. JRPGs, especially big budget ones, have a tendency to overdesign its cast relative to the common man. I think there were moments of this in Remake, but ordinary people just doing their jobs felt very correct esp. when wandering the Shinra building.
The broader strokes of the expansions and changes are the bigger mixed bag. The suspense and thrill of Jenova's escape in chapter 17 is ruined when you wander through a labyrinth that Hojo has built into the Shinra building for... some reason. On the other hand, turning the sector 7 plate climb in chapter 15 into a whole-ass level while 'Fires of Resistance' blares in the background and you cut down Shinra soldiers is exciting as shit, even if it kinda undercuts the surprise of the attack (plus that stupid scene at the start of chapter 16 where the party ""hides"" on top of a truck going into the basement of Shinra HQ and none of the dumbass troops bother looking up wtf guys; well at least the fights after that were fun).
Some parts of the game feel stretched for no particularly good reason. The journey to sector 6 at the start of chapter 9 with the robo-hand puzzles isn't bad but it doesn't add much to the fabric of the experience. Same deal with the trip to the #5 reactor in chapters 5 and 6 which probably could have been cut in half without losing much (especially those subway jogs, maaan). At least it added the Crab Warden boss fight which was baller as hell. The long stretch in chapter 7 for selecting parts to weaken the Airbuster seemed a bit much but I can see people enjoying it. Wandering the slums as Aerith to find Marlene in chapter 12 felt a stretch just to evenly add content through the game - Like a lot of things, the OG already paced this well. It's just something we didn't need to see. Chapter 13 felt largely unnecessary - prompted by some dumb remark from Tifa about "maybe Shinra will just let her go" and Elmyra asking the team to not make a fuss by going in guns blazing (the OG didn't handle this well either iirc; if Shinra were willing to abduct Aerith, were they really just incapable of doing it for so long; and where was Elmyra going to hide with Marlene if shit went bad). Kinda just a clumsy attempt to shoehorn in what I'm told is Dirge of Cerberus content into the game for no good reason (who cares about a secret facility under the sector 7 slums that has no relation to the plot?). Chapter 4 was alright as an extension of the Avalanche crew's characters - It's really just the stupid 3rd class SOLDIER character (Roche?) that I think could have been excised entirely and nothing would have been lost.
The plate drop was a misfire in Remake. Aside from the padding I mentioned from above, it feels like the devs missed what made the original work. In the OG, the plate drop is a largely quick affair. As far as we knew, there was no time or opportunity for people to evacuate. The plate dropped as citizens audibly screamed and the camera pulled back and up to the Shinra Building where the president can be seen watching the scene unfold as he's listening to classical music and... sipping wine iirc? Great scene. Immediately makes you hate Shinra's fucking guts, if you didn't already. The bits humanizing the Turks here are also mistimed imo. I think the OG's approach as presenting them purely as ruthless executors and only later, once the situation's cooled, revealing that they're actually kinda goofy, is the better play. I think the OG used Elena's intro as a counterpoint, showing her as overly serious compared to the veterans on the team who don't want to do anything past the orders given and otherwise just want to relax. It was a good transition to making them funnier and more human at the right time.
The existence of other Avalanche cels feels... kinda stupid and unnecessary. The existence of other resistance makes sense, I guess, from a world-building perspective, but I feel like they're generally used to solve problems that didn't need a solution or that Remake created. Why was a resistance cell just around to save Cloud and co. in chapter 4's bomb material extraction? They could have just left after a showdown before reinforcements arrived or something. Why did the mayor need to be a collaborator? I guess the devs couldn't think of any other way to fit in keycard upgrading from the OG? And then that spurred on the plot point about Avalanche having a fucking helicopter that they'd share with the group to help them escape Shinra Building. Where the fuck did they get and hide a helicopter? What was wrong with the original solution of the gang improvising the truck/bike escape like they still kinda do? --- Imo, Avalanche always worked better as the brainchild of an angry man (Barret) desperate at the end of his rope, resorting to eco-terrorism to resist an ever-encroaching coprorate overlord. We didn't need other cels.
Edit: I didn't talk about the ghosts. Uh, mostly annoying, I think. Like with Sephiroth appearing in chapter 2, killing the momentum with a dumb, forced walking section, and then giving a seemingly generic evil villain speech before disappearing, I want to believe in the series for, outside of these scenes, getting the individual character writing mostly right, but from some misfires in expanding the game otherwise, I'm not sure how much of the bad stuff is just a consequence bloat killing the pacing and how much is the writers actually not being that smart. I'll see if they can deliver in a 'freerer' FF7R2. I've not heard positive things about Rebirth in that regard though lol
---
Worst part of the game, I think, are the forced walking sections are the worst. There's a lot of that AAA garbo stuff in this game - ducking under obstacles, sidewalking through a thin passage, following another character across the terrain at speeds that can range from a light jog to the slowest possible speed in the engine, and ofc good old fashioned 'fuck you - just walk here because we think it makes sense for the character to not run here'. I HATE this shit. The worst one in the game is stamped on my brain thanks to playing the game twice - When you first arrive in the sector 5 slums, Aerith and Cloud stop to watch a long TV broadcast and then take the path to Elmyra's house, stopping no fewer than four times: Once to talk to a shopkeep, then to talk to a kid on the roof, then to talk to a group of children, and finally to talk to an orphanage manager. Each time you have to manually follow Aerith and stop for the conversation. That you cannot skip these sequences offends me and as a general rule I think a cutscene is preferable.
Unless you know exactly what you're doing, these kinds of slowdowns always fail for me. In the entire game, exactly two work: 1) At the start of chapter 8 after leaving the church with Aerith, you travel along the rooftops to evade Shinra's pursuit. This sequence is a good opportunity to introduce the Aerith character properly to the player and is good nostalgia-bait for being in the original game (and playable), but the biggest reason why this doesn't get tedious fast is because you're doing a lot during this scene - hopping across gaps, climbing/descending ladders, looking where the next place to advance could be. It gives me something to do. 2) In chapter 15 during the climb of the sector 7 plate with Barret and Tifa, you have a brief (10 second?) stint crossing a thin, iron beam. At this point, you have nothing to do except turn the camera and look at the absolute devastation below you. Visual (horrifying) marvel. Incidentally, it only works once lol, because I just wanted to go fast next time, but it worked!
---
Last thing I want to talk about is the OST. I'm generally apprehensive about wholesale orchestral arranagements of video game music. I think these can work - See FF12 Zodiac Age's arrangement of Sakimoto's soundtrack - But the OST needs to stylistically align in order for this approach to work. In FF12's case, Sakimoto's instrumentation largely aligned with what you'd find in traditional orchestras so the transition is easy, even good as I think Zodiac Age's sound is a straight upgrade for, like, everything. In something like FF7 where the OST relies a lot on synthesizers and unusual instrumentation for its melodies (FF7 used an accordion prominently in its main theme!), this is a tougher challenge.
Remake makes it work, often anyway. The OST's enormous, for one, so that there are more tracks customized for each scene. Some old compositions like Bombing Mission are reimagined wrt instruments. Some stuff like the Main Theme is reimagined in tone (I thought the game was blowing its load in chapter 3 using it as theme for the slums and I still kinda do think that or at least that it's not a great fit). Jenova's theme compromises by still using synthesizers to replicate the alien feel and it tries its best at matching the original's inhuman pace for percussion. One Winged Angel's remixes are still marginalizing the bells that reference Those Chosen By the Planet, for some reason, but the composition's still compelling on its own, if a little weaker for also sounding a bit repetitive. The theme of Shinra is a little worse too for losing the menacing choruses. Transforming Yuffie's theme from the music of some kid playing a game to a sweeping, youthful adventure theme seems like the most obvious move in retrospect and it totally works. Most of the battle music works in general, especially the arrangements of the main battle theme for mini-bosses and the main boss theme of the OG - the arrangements just kinda up the ante for phase shifts in the battles and that's all you need to do.
A lot of 'W's to chalk for original compositions. I like Hamauzu's work from FFX and hearing his brand of backing and suspense-building music for the battle atop the sector 7 pillar is both nostalgic and satisfying. Shima's bomastic action piece as you're climbing the plate, as I mentioned earlier, is exciting as hell and would leave the entire chapter much a-lacking without it. The track that plays in the lobby of the Shinra Building, by Imamura, I could only describe as SMT-like in how smooth and gray it sounds (although impressions seem to vary wildly on this one, from reading comments on it). Biggest whiff imo is the Wall Market music. The new track fits the more bustling nightlife compard to the more rundown (if still active) version of the city from the OG, but I didn't like it much. Incidentally, I felt the weird techno remix of the original Wall Market music used in the sector 6 express passageway is kinda whack and the actual new track for that zone, shown at the start before sharing it with the Wall Market remix for some reason, is way better - At least as an exciting piece of music. It didn't strike me as fitting well lol but I liked the piece a lot.
---
Alright, I think I could say more but that's enough for now. Wanted to get all this down while it's fresh.
100% done - 80 hours flat. Longpost. No spoiler markings, but this is long and big enough for you to be safe just scrolling past it I think.
A lot of mixed feelings on this one.
---
Maybe the most positive thing I can say about it is that the game looks fantastic. Matching the visual flair of a game presented on matte paintings is a tall order, but Remake realizes the look most of the time. Slums abandoned and filled with random junk, Wall Market is bustling, the Shinra Building in particular looks even more sleek and imposing than I imagined as a kid (and little touches like highlighting all the Shinra heads in a propaganda piece except for Palmer who just gets a stock background because the space division is that unimportant is just a great touch). Just stellar work. The pre-rendered action sequences are just as exciting - The escape bike sequence at the end of the game is blow your socks off bombastic. Occasionally little things are lost, like the uniqueness of the robo hand from the sector 5-6 passage in the original in exchange becoming... a set of robot hands scattered about for... some reason, but that's more the exception.
Combat is smooth as butter and like the rest of the game just a fucking spectacle, man. I favored controlling Cloud for having what felt like the most complete moveset and Barret for situations where long-range, more reserved play was called for. There are some issues I have with the combat system. The game being so stingy as to charge you MP on starting a cast instead of when you've finished is irking in a game where poise is not particularly clear. Not the entire cast felt as rewarding to play - I admit to never giving Aerith's whole moveset a real try and while Tifa still felt fun to play for her speed I was bothered by her lack of an ATB dump move and Divekick's frustrating range limitations. Aerial attacks, btw, felt kinda ass in the game, and if I had the option I usually switched to Barret (or Aerith) rather than hoping my character would jump to slice/punch.
Materia on the whole felt a little worse than in the original. FF7R is very conservative about handing out support (blue) materia - in general the game makes you work your butt off for them. Magnify works better than All imo, reducing the penalty for multi-targeting on level up instead of controlling just a raw number of casts, but there are so few to find in the game, although even if you did find more, you'd be in a tough spot because the game is chocked to the gills with independent (purple) and command (yellow) materia that are competing with your precious few materia slots. 'tho that said, some seem way better than others - there's the [Stat] up stuff which always good ofc but among the mountain of 'ATB [some effect]' materia, some stand out. ATB Stagger for instance is so damn good as to feel mandatory. First Strike is fun for getting fight off to a quick start, although my teammates not being proactive in spending their bar in trivial encounters is a little bothersome (was there an AI-control option, ala Tales-style I missed?). Warding materia is just Added Effect from the OG FF7 but worse for some reason
- You can only use it defensively whereas Added Effect could be used offensively to inflict status - I don't know why Square-Enix went that direction with it.I did enjoy the weapon changes. Giving weapons different strengths as you level them incentivizes switching around, which I did. Unfortunately, I didn't see a convenient summary of all the weapons' current unlocks and I didn't memorize all their abilities so I tended to rely on just the information provided on the equipment screen which is woefully inadequate, I know. Crit rate/damage boosts, stat increases at high/low HP, base grounded/aerial attack enhancements, elemental offensive/defensive enhancements, MP restore on taking critical damage, HP restore on hitting staggered enemies or on killing them are all stuff that's not captured on the equipment summary. I'll add that I found navigating the menu a little more cumbersome here than in the original. I'm also surprised there's no character materia swap option like in the OG for when people leave/enter the party, instead forcing you to handle manually.
---
As for the writing, I think the character writing is pretty on-point. Cloud is still an awkward, taciturn loner, Barret's a little crazy and overzealous while still ultimately being a big, black teddy bear, Aerith's playful, teasing, and ever-busy. Tifa's maybe a little more tender and less tough than I imagined, but the rest of the supporting cast is as goofy and/or serious as I would expect from Final Fantasy VII. Same deal for the voice work: Ayumi Ito's soft voice isn't helping my Tifa impression (she has a few harsher lines though, which do sound good!), and everyone else is fine. Mayaa Sakamoto was my initial stand-out for how expressive she was - She's an industry GOAT after all. I cooled on her a little over time. Not sure why. --- My favorite, new scene is probably in the elevator when climbing the Shinra building where Tifa remarks how she's realizing that the people in the place they're attacking are just ordinary folks trying to survive. Barret's response misses the mark, talking about how they're still at Shinra so still liable blahblahblah, which Tifa affirms with a tone implying that's not the response she was looking for. Cloud puts her back on track reminding her they're here for Aerith, which actually snaps Tifa back into the right mindset and as a bit of character work sets up Cloud over Barret as the to-be party leader. --- Also, just an aside, one of the things I like in Remake is how plausible the character designs are. JRPGs, especially big budget ones, have a tendency to overdesign its cast relative to the common man. I think there were moments of this in Remake, but ordinary people just doing their jobs felt very correct esp. when wandering the Shinra building.
The broader strokes of the expansions and changes are the bigger mixed bag. The suspense and thrill of Jenova's escape in chapter 17 is ruined when you wander through a labyrinth that Hojo has built into the Shinra building for... some reason. On the other hand, turning the sector 7 plate climb in chapter 15 into a whole-ass level while 'Fires of Resistance' blares in the background and you cut down Shinra soldiers is exciting as shit, even if it kinda undercuts the surprise of the attack (plus that stupid scene at the start of chapter 16 where the party ""hides"" on top of a truck going into the basement of Shinra HQ and none of the dumbass troops bother looking up wtf guys; well at least the fights after that were fun).
Some parts of the game feel stretched for no particularly good reason. The journey to sector 6 at the start of chapter 9 with the robo-hand puzzles isn't bad but it doesn't add much to the fabric of the experience. Same deal with the trip to the #5 reactor in chapters 5 and 6 which probably could have been cut in half without losing much (especially those subway jogs, maaan). At least it added the Crab Warden boss fight which was baller as hell. The long stretch in chapter 7 for selecting parts to weaken the Airbuster seemed a bit much but I can see people enjoying it. Wandering the slums as Aerith to find Marlene in chapter 12 felt a stretch just to evenly add content through the game - Like a lot of things, the OG already paced this well. It's just something we didn't need to see. Chapter 13 felt largely unnecessary - prompted by some dumb remark from Tifa about "maybe Shinra will just let her go" and Elmyra asking the team to not make a fuss by going in guns blazing (the OG didn't handle this well either iirc; if Shinra were willing to abduct Aerith, were they really just incapable of doing it for so long; and where was Elmyra going to hide with Marlene if shit went bad). Kinda just a clumsy attempt to shoehorn in what I'm told is Dirge of Cerberus content into the game for no good reason (who cares about a secret facility under the sector 7 slums that has no relation to the plot?). Chapter 4 was alright as an extension of the Avalanche crew's characters - It's really just the stupid 3rd class SOLDIER character (Roche?) that I think could have been excised entirely and nothing would have been lost.
The plate drop was a misfire in Remake. Aside from the padding I mentioned from above, it feels like the devs missed what made the original work. In the OG, the plate drop is a largely quick affair. As far as we knew, there was no time or opportunity for people to evacuate. The plate dropped as citizens audibly screamed and the camera pulled back and up to the Shinra Building where the president can be seen watching the scene unfold as he's listening to classical music and... sipping wine iirc? Great scene. Immediately makes you hate Shinra's fucking guts, if you didn't already. The bits humanizing the Turks here are also mistimed imo. I think the OG's approach as presenting them purely as ruthless executors and only later, once the situation's cooled, revealing that they're actually kinda goofy, is the better play. I think the OG used Elena's intro as a counterpoint, showing her as overly serious compared to the veterans on the team who don't want to do anything past the orders given and otherwise just want to relax. It was a good transition to making them funnier and more human at the right time.
The existence of other Avalanche cels feels... kinda stupid and unnecessary. The existence of other resistance makes sense, I guess, from a world-building perspective, but I feel like they're generally used to solve problems that didn't need a solution or that Remake created. Why was a resistance cell just around to save Cloud and co. in chapter 4's bomb material extraction? They could have just left after a showdown before reinforcements arrived or something. Why did the mayor need to be a collaborator? I guess the devs couldn't think of any other way to fit in keycard upgrading from the OG? And then that spurred on the plot point about Avalanche having a fucking helicopter that they'd share with the group to help them escape Shinra Building. Where the fuck did they get and hide a helicopter? What was wrong with the original solution of the gang improvising the truck/bike escape like they still kinda do? --- Imo, Avalanche always worked better as the brainchild of an angry man (Barret) desperate at the end of his rope, resorting to eco-terrorism to resist an ever-encroaching coprorate overlord. We didn't need other cels.
Edit: I didn't talk about the ghosts. Uh, mostly annoying, I think. Like with Sephiroth appearing in chapter 2, killing the momentum with a dumb, forced walking section, and then giving a seemingly generic evil villain speech before disappearing, I want to believe in the series for, outside of these scenes, getting the individual character writing mostly right, but from some misfires in expanding the game otherwise, I'm not sure how much of the bad stuff is just a consequence bloat killing the pacing and how much is the writers actually not being that smart. I'll see if they can deliver in a 'freerer' FF7R2. I've not heard positive things about Rebirth in that regard though lol
---
Worst part of the game, I think, are the forced walking sections are the worst. There's a lot of that AAA garbo stuff in this game - ducking under obstacles, sidewalking through a thin passage, following another character across the terrain at speeds that can range from a light jog to the slowest possible speed in the engine, and ofc good old fashioned 'fuck you - just walk here because we think it makes sense for the character to not run here'. I HATE this shit. The worst one in the game is stamped on my brain thanks to playing the game twice - When you first arrive in the sector 5 slums, Aerith and Cloud stop to watch a long TV broadcast and then take the path to Elmyra's house, stopping no fewer than four times: Once to talk to a shopkeep, then to talk to a kid on the roof, then to talk to a group of children, and finally to talk to an orphanage manager. Each time you have to manually follow Aerith and stop for the conversation. That you cannot skip these sequences offends me and as a general rule I think a cutscene is preferable.
Unless you know exactly what you're doing, these kinds of slowdowns always fail for me. In the entire game, exactly two work: 1) At the start of chapter 8 after leaving the church with Aerith, you travel along the rooftops to evade Shinra's pursuit. This sequence is a good opportunity to introduce the Aerith character properly to the player and is good nostalgia-bait for being in the original game (and playable), but the biggest reason why this doesn't get tedious fast is because you're doing a lot during this scene - hopping across gaps, climbing/descending ladders, looking where the next place to advance could be. It gives me something to do. 2) In chapter 15 during the climb of the sector 7 plate with Barret and Tifa, you have a brief (10 second?) stint crossing a thin, iron beam. At this point, you have nothing to do except turn the camera and look at the absolute devastation below you. Visual (horrifying) marvel. Incidentally, it only works once lol, because I just wanted to go fast next time, but it worked!
---
Last thing I want to talk about is the OST. I'm generally apprehensive about wholesale orchestral arranagements of video game music. I think these can work - See FF12 Zodiac Age's arrangement of Sakimoto's soundtrack - But the OST needs to stylistically align in order for this approach to work. In FF12's case, Sakimoto's instrumentation largely aligned with what you'd find in traditional orchestras so the transition is easy, even good as I think Zodiac Age's sound is a straight upgrade for, like, everything. In something like FF7 where the OST relies a lot on synthesizers and unusual instrumentation for its melodies (FF7 used an accordion prominently in its main theme!), this is a tougher challenge.
Remake makes it work, often anyway. The OST's enormous, for one, so that there are more tracks customized for each scene. Some old compositions like Bombing Mission are reimagined wrt instruments. Some stuff like the Main Theme is reimagined in tone (I thought the game was blowing its load in chapter 3 using it as theme for the slums and I still kinda do think that or at least that it's not a great fit). Jenova's theme compromises by still using synthesizers to replicate the alien feel and it tries its best at matching the original's inhuman pace for percussion. One Winged Angel's remixes are still marginalizing the bells that reference Those Chosen By the Planet, for some reason, but the composition's still compelling on its own, if a little weaker for also sounding a bit repetitive. The theme of Shinra is a little worse too for losing the menacing choruses. Transforming Yuffie's theme from the music of some kid playing a game to a sweeping, youthful adventure theme seems like the most obvious move in retrospect and it totally works. Most of the battle music works in general, especially the arrangements of the main battle theme for mini-bosses and the main boss theme of the OG - the arrangements just kinda up the ante for phase shifts in the battles and that's all you need to do.
A lot of 'W's to chalk for original compositions. I like Hamauzu's work from FFX and hearing his brand of backing and suspense-building music for the battle atop the sector 7 pillar is both nostalgic and satisfying. Shima's bomastic action piece as you're climbing the plate, as I mentioned earlier, is exciting as hell and would leave the entire chapter much a-lacking without it. The track that plays in the lobby of the Shinra Building, by Imamura, I could only describe as SMT-like in how smooth and gray it sounds (although impressions seem to vary wildly on this one, from reading comments on it). Biggest whiff imo is the Wall Market music. The new track fits the more bustling nightlife compard to the more rundown (if still active) version of the city from the OG, but I didn't like it much. Incidentally, I felt the weird techno remix of the original Wall Market music used in the sector 6 express passageway is kinda whack and the actual new track for that zone, shown at the start before sharing it with the Wall Market remix for some reason, is way better - At least as an exciting piece of music. It didn't strike me as fitting well lol but I liked the piece a lot.
---
Alright, I think I could say more but that's enough for now. Wanted to get all this down while it's fresh.
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falconhoof
Gold Member
I'm wondering which version of Policenauts to go for. Never emulated the Saturn before so don't know anything about the options.
yogaflame
Member
Done with Pragmata on PS5. Wow a fully upgraded hackinh mine and along with fully upgraded drone against the final boss is a game changer. Thank you Danjin. A very sad ending but beautiful. Pragmata is my 2nd best game of the year behind RE9. Now I can start RE Village on ps5.
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DarkLordOtaku
Member
I've just finished playing Banquet for Fools, a CRPG developed and published by Hannah and Joseph Games. Obtaining all the achievements I could within a single playthrough took me around 57 hours, though a lot of that time was spent exploring and figuring out how to progress. Since I think at least one achievement is tied to specific quest choices, a player would need to complete the game twice to see them all.
The village of Din Varens disappeared on the frontier island of Invioma. Unable to deal with both the mysterious disappearance and invading forces from an opposing household, the leader of Invioma's outpost town recruits four guards to investigate. A thoroughly esoteric adventure, Banquet for Fools omits many of the modern staples of video games, including a quest log, quest markers, repeatable dialogue, or even a thorough explanation of all its gameplay mechanics. To put it simply, it's a game for CRPG sickos. The four guards who depart for Din Varens are accustomed to putting down the occasional lawless bandit, but their quest will have far-reaching implications for all of Invioma.
Narratively, Banquet for Fools is set on the paganistic island of Invioma. Centuries prior to the start of the game, Invioma's pantheon of gods killed each other in a cataclysmic event known as The Silence. In the years following The Silence, the occupants of Invioma became increasingly reliant upon paganistic traditions, relying upon the goodwill of local shrine deities, and the mystical arts of witches and dryads. Invioma is struggling, with much of its future reliant upon the successful harvest of a cash crop like spice. Thus, the disappearance of Din Varens, a farming village, is of major concern to the rest of the island.
The four guards who get recruited at the start of the game are effectively nameless soldiers with no background of note. The player can either customize each one's stats, archetype, and appearance, or choose from a few pre-made options. Unfamiliar with the RPG system of the game, I chose one of the pre-built parties. The island is rampant with people who have turned to banditry during the recent hardships, which creates a fun roleplaying incentive for the party who serve as both investigators, as well as local bounty hunters.
Banquet for Fools will either be a game one deeply appreciates for its lack of handholding around quest design, or immediately bounces off of out of frustration. The developers give the player a free-entry notebook, as well as a way to take notes mid-conversation, and they expect the player to use it. There are no quest markers in Banquet for Fools, nor are there any mechanisms preventing you from just dropping a quest item somewhere in its relatively large open world. When you speak to NPCs, they'll talk about problems they're experiencing, but you never get an indication a quest is being given. The NPCs also won't repeat themselves, so if you speak to someone and they mention that a bandit was seen fleeing east, you had better make a physical or mental note, because they won't provide that clue a second time.
What impressed me was how much lore was packed into this game developed by only two people. The player may notice that none of the islanders eat meat, which is explained in a small side-quest later in the game, or have questions about why there are so many undead roaming the land, which is similarly explained to players who investigate thoroughly. Banquet for Fools presents a satisfyingly grand narrative, which sees the guards travel to the far ends of each side of the map solving the problems of the locals. In each town, the guards discover hints which point to a grand conspiracy at play on the island. The game even deviously offers a false ending to players who fail to piece together the full picture, and deduce how to avoid the worst fate.
The gameplay of Banquet for Fools is a hack-and-slash style CRPG, which emphasizes party-based synergies. Combat is similar to a real-time-with-pause approach to combat, where things are happening rather chaotically all at once, and tends to favor flooding the screen with enemies. The player can actively control any of the guards, while the other three act autonomously. The party AI tends to be pretty competent, meaning it is not necessary to aggressively micromanage the entire party during combat.
The combat system went from feeling punishingly damage-spongey, to difficult, to extremely easy as the party gained experience, and my understanding of its RPG system deepened. While the game does feature a guidebook with some of its mechanics explained, much was learned through trial and error on my part. In particular, I failed to appreciate early on how vital the "passive" skills which influenced combat were, like music, summons, and befriending would end up being. Similarly, the player's ability to equip weapons with magical effects is also contingent on a skill tree, which I did not invest enough into early in the game.
There are several tactical abilities the party has at its disposal to kick, charge, or immobilize enemies in combat, which add some complexity to combat, as these are used to break enemy formations, or lower their defenses. These abilities, plus many others, are unlocked via a party-wide techniques tree. Critically, the player can unlock "rallies" from this tech tree, which let them attack enemies with a QTE that can deal more than 10x damage, and chain together with other guards. The system is one which allows for a nice bit of variety in combat, as the player weaves in and out of enemy attacks, while trying to build up their resource bars for big damage retaliation.
The social skill trees were a bit lackluster. Lockpicking plays an important early game source of resources, but quickly falls off once there are no more locks to pick. Sneaking has virtually no utility at all, and the game provides enough coin to make Bartering a bit optional as well. One aspect I'm a bit mixed on is Banquet for Fools' approach to leveling up. During level up, the player can choose three skills to enhance, with the skills used most frequently getting a bonus. For example, if the guard used a short sword a lot, they'd get a +4 to that skill on level up, rather than a +1. In practice, this made it a bit challenging to level up auxiliary skills, like bartering, as the combat skills were nearly always the ones with the biggest potential level up bonuses.
While Banquet for Fools is not flawless—in fact, there were several UI glitches during my playthrough, and a couple of instances which forced me to reload—it's an incredibly ambitious project achieved by the development of just two people. It repeatedly scratched that puzzle itch for me, where I was re-reading notes to try to figure out how to open a door, or track down an NPC. While combat was a bit confusing at first, it quickly became apparent how one could lean into certain mechanics for an edge. Overall, I would recommend Banquet for Fools, but I know with certainty it won't be for everyone. For many modern gamers, it may leave a bad taste in the mouth; however, for CRPG fools it's more than a meal, it's a banquet.
The village of Din Varens disappeared on the frontier island of Invioma. Unable to deal with both the mysterious disappearance and invading forces from an opposing household, the leader of Invioma's outpost town recruits four guards to investigate. A thoroughly esoteric adventure, Banquet for Fools omits many of the modern staples of video games, including a quest log, quest markers, repeatable dialogue, or even a thorough explanation of all its gameplay mechanics. To put it simply, it's a game for CRPG sickos. The four guards who depart for Din Varens are accustomed to putting down the occasional lawless bandit, but their quest will have far-reaching implications for all of Invioma.
Narratively, Banquet for Fools is set on the paganistic island of Invioma. Centuries prior to the start of the game, Invioma's pantheon of gods killed each other in a cataclysmic event known as The Silence. In the years following The Silence, the occupants of Invioma became increasingly reliant upon paganistic traditions, relying upon the goodwill of local shrine deities, and the mystical arts of witches and dryads. Invioma is struggling, with much of its future reliant upon the successful harvest of a cash crop like spice. Thus, the disappearance of Din Varens, a farming village, is of major concern to the rest of the island.
The four guards who get recruited at the start of the game are effectively nameless soldiers with no background of note. The player can either customize each one's stats, archetype, and appearance, or choose from a few pre-made options. Unfamiliar with the RPG system of the game, I chose one of the pre-built parties. The island is rampant with people who have turned to banditry during the recent hardships, which creates a fun roleplaying incentive for the party who serve as both investigators, as well as local bounty hunters.
Banquet for Fools will either be a game one deeply appreciates for its lack of handholding around quest design, or immediately bounces off of out of frustration. The developers give the player a free-entry notebook, as well as a way to take notes mid-conversation, and they expect the player to use it. There are no quest markers in Banquet for Fools, nor are there any mechanisms preventing you from just dropping a quest item somewhere in its relatively large open world. When you speak to NPCs, they'll talk about problems they're experiencing, but you never get an indication a quest is being given. The NPCs also won't repeat themselves, so if you speak to someone and they mention that a bandit was seen fleeing east, you had better make a physical or mental note, because they won't provide that clue a second time.
What impressed me was how much lore was packed into this game developed by only two people. The player may notice that none of the islanders eat meat, which is explained in a small side-quest later in the game, or have questions about why there are so many undead roaming the land, which is similarly explained to players who investigate thoroughly. Banquet for Fools presents a satisfyingly grand narrative, which sees the guards travel to the far ends of each side of the map solving the problems of the locals. In each town, the guards discover hints which point to a grand conspiracy at play on the island. The game even deviously offers a false ending to players who fail to piece together the full picture, and deduce how to avoid the worst fate.
The gameplay of Banquet for Fools is a hack-and-slash style CRPG, which emphasizes party-based synergies. Combat is similar to a real-time-with-pause approach to combat, where things are happening rather chaotically all at once, and tends to favor flooding the screen with enemies. The player can actively control any of the guards, while the other three act autonomously. The party AI tends to be pretty competent, meaning it is not necessary to aggressively micromanage the entire party during combat.
The combat system went from feeling punishingly damage-spongey, to difficult, to extremely easy as the party gained experience, and my understanding of its RPG system deepened. While the game does feature a guidebook with some of its mechanics explained, much was learned through trial and error on my part. In particular, I failed to appreciate early on how vital the "passive" skills which influenced combat were, like music, summons, and befriending would end up being. Similarly, the player's ability to equip weapons with magical effects is also contingent on a skill tree, which I did not invest enough into early in the game.
There are several tactical abilities the party has at its disposal to kick, charge, or immobilize enemies in combat, which add some complexity to combat, as these are used to break enemy formations, or lower their defenses. These abilities, plus many others, are unlocked via a party-wide techniques tree. Critically, the player can unlock "rallies" from this tech tree, which let them attack enemies with a QTE that can deal more than 10x damage, and chain together with other guards. The system is one which allows for a nice bit of variety in combat, as the player weaves in and out of enemy attacks, while trying to build up their resource bars for big damage retaliation.
The social skill trees were a bit lackluster. Lockpicking plays an important early game source of resources, but quickly falls off once there are no more locks to pick. Sneaking has virtually no utility at all, and the game provides enough coin to make Bartering a bit optional as well. One aspect I'm a bit mixed on is Banquet for Fools' approach to leveling up. During level up, the player can choose three skills to enhance, with the skills used most frequently getting a bonus. For example, if the guard used a short sword a lot, they'd get a +4 to that skill on level up, rather than a +1. In practice, this made it a bit challenging to level up auxiliary skills, like bartering, as the combat skills were nearly always the ones with the biggest potential level up bonuses.
While Banquet for Fools is not flawless—in fact, there were several UI glitches during my playthrough, and a couple of instances which forced me to reload—it's an incredibly ambitious project achieved by the development of just two people. It repeatedly scratched that puzzle itch for me, where I was re-reading notes to try to figure out how to open a door, or track down an NPC. While combat was a bit confusing at first, it quickly became apparent how one could lean into certain mechanics for an edge. Overall, I would recommend Banquet for Fools, but I know with certainty it won't be for everyone. For many modern gamers, it may leave a bad taste in the mouth; however, for CRPG fools it's more than a meal, it's a banquet.
Mr Hyde
Member
Approximately 40 hours in Mario and Luigi: Brothership. I think I am at the end, which is nice because it's does feel like it's overstaying it's welcome by this point. It's a damn fun game with lots of twists and turns and charming gameplay but it could've been 10 hours shorter at least.
digimaster7
Member
I suspended my DQ11 playthrough for GTA online because of the whole independence day event still ongoing and there's a new heist coming out
sorry DQ11, I'll return to you soon
sorry DQ11, I'll return to you soon
Laptop1991
Gold Member
Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced.
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TheCrowsReaper
Member
Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced and Coral Island, both on PC.
DarkLordOtaku
Member
I've just finished playing Keeper, a cinematic adventure game developed by Double Fine Productions and published by Xbox Game Studios. Completing the game with all the achievements is very easy within 3–4 hours, and features a convenient chapter select for any missed achievements.
The Wither, a force of corruption, is spreading across the mountain. As darkness begins to take root, Twig is separated from their flock during a migratory flight. Twig is almost captured by The Wither, but lands upon a small lighthouse. The lighthouse awakens as a purifying light, Keeper, and together the two set out to reach the peak of the mountain.
Keeper is a game which is hard to ascribe much of a narrative to beyond the most surface level analysis. There is no narration, nor dialogue to provide any explicit context, leaving much of the game up to interpretation. Twig and Keeper become friends pretty quickly after the opening of the game; however, their motivations for staying together are predicated on trying to reach the summit. While they often come to the other's aid, Keeper features several time skips during which their continued alliance feels increasingly less plausible.
Story aside, Keeper features some really stunning art direction, with vibrant use of color. While it sometimes creates friction with the gameplay, the game frequently deploys a wide variety of camera angles. The direction makes for an experience which is rarely boring on the eyes, bordering on overwhelming the player with its striking composition. However, the music is fairly muted, leaving only a few sections of the game which felt like they really complemented the visuals.
The gameplay for Keeper is fairly minimalistic, with most of the game rarely using more than a single button for entire chapters. While not quite as restrictive as a walking sim, players can expect to spend a majority of the game holding down the movement stick as they progress through the chapters. Most of the puzzles in the game are built around the light shining mechanic, which entails aiming Keeper's light beam, and pressing a button to focus. A far from original gameplay design, this mechanic is used to open doors by shining light at obvious receptacles, or burning away Wither corruption to progress through an area.
Since Keeper moves relative to the camera perspective, there are times when the artistic changes in camera perspective can make it a bit difficult to fluidly control Keeper's movement. Similarly, on the subject of movement, there was an opportunity to make Keeper a faster paced gameplay experience. Particularly towards the middle section of the game, some puzzles were so painfully obvious, they felt more like intentional progress blockers to lengthen the experience.
I appreciated that Keeper changes up the feeling of movement a few times throughout the game, with some sections offering a jumping option, and others featuring significantly faster movement speeds.
Keeper is a tentative recommend for its art design; however, it is an overall mediocre experience when it comes to gameplay and narrative. For players who struggle with challenging gameplay, or simply want to relax with a colorful game, Keeper feels like a relatively good fit. Although, I found several segments a bit boring, even despite Keeper's short play length. While Keeper's art direction is a powerful guiding light, the overall experience gets a bit diluted as it's absorbed by a mountain of lackluster elements.
The Wither, a force of corruption, is spreading across the mountain. As darkness begins to take root, Twig is separated from their flock during a migratory flight. Twig is almost captured by The Wither, but lands upon a small lighthouse. The lighthouse awakens as a purifying light, Keeper, and together the two set out to reach the peak of the mountain.
Keeper is a game which is hard to ascribe much of a narrative to beyond the most surface level analysis. There is no narration, nor dialogue to provide any explicit context, leaving much of the game up to interpretation. Twig and Keeper become friends pretty quickly after the opening of the game; however, their motivations for staying together are predicated on trying to reach the summit. While they often come to the other's aid, Keeper features several time skips during which their continued alliance feels increasingly less plausible.
Story aside, Keeper features some really stunning art direction, with vibrant use of color. While it sometimes creates friction with the gameplay, the game frequently deploys a wide variety of camera angles. The direction makes for an experience which is rarely boring on the eyes, bordering on overwhelming the player with its striking composition. However, the music is fairly muted, leaving only a few sections of the game which felt like they really complemented the visuals.
The gameplay for Keeper is fairly minimalistic, with most of the game rarely using more than a single button for entire chapters. While not quite as restrictive as a walking sim, players can expect to spend a majority of the game holding down the movement stick as they progress through the chapters. Most of the puzzles in the game are built around the light shining mechanic, which entails aiming Keeper's light beam, and pressing a button to focus. A far from original gameplay design, this mechanic is used to open doors by shining light at obvious receptacles, or burning away Wither corruption to progress through an area.
Since Keeper moves relative to the camera perspective, there are times when the artistic changes in camera perspective can make it a bit difficult to fluidly control Keeper's movement. Similarly, on the subject of movement, there was an opportunity to make Keeper a faster paced gameplay experience. Particularly towards the middle section of the game, some puzzles were so painfully obvious, they felt more like intentional progress blockers to lengthen the experience.
I appreciated that Keeper changes up the feeling of movement a few times throughout the game, with some sections offering a jumping option, and others featuring significantly faster movement speeds.
Keeper is a tentative recommend for its art design; however, it is an overall mediocre experience when it comes to gameplay and narrative. For players who struggle with challenging gameplay, or simply want to relax with a colorful game, Keeper feels like a relatively good fit. Although, I found several segments a bit boring, even despite Keeper's short play length. While Keeper's art direction is a powerful guiding light, the overall experience gets a bit diluted as it's absorbed by a mountain of lackluster elements.
SomeNorseGuy
Gold Member
Playing through Fire Emblem: Three Houses one last time as I never got to experience the DLC content on my first playthroughs. Planning to try to stay away from mounts/fliers, we'll see if I have the stomach to follow through. 
uncreativename
Gold Member
Played a bit more Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory. It's starting to ask me to play songs on Proud mode, which is way harder than Standard 
.
.
swaffles23
Member
Finished Max Payne 3. Still a great game
Finally got FFXIII-2 to run properly on Steam so that's up next
Finally got FFXIII-2 to run properly on Steam so that's up next
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Asha's balls in my throat?
Heimdall_Xtreme
Hermen Hulst Fanclub's #1 Member
After 4 years, I reactivated my Steam account... Simpler and hassle-free.
DownLikeBCPowder
Member
Putting GTA V down for a bit. I play through a good chunk of the campaign and had my phone with it for the time being and now I'm looking toward Black Flag remake. That also like to get on with Fire Emblem Engage that I finally picked up so that I can take care of that before Fortunes Weave comes. We'll see what I end up playing but today it's going to be Black Flag for sure. I also might check out the roguelite Prince of Persia a bit today.
DownLikeBCPowder
Member
I just ordered this, I saw it was on sale for 30 bucks and finally decided to bite. Hopefully I can get to it before the end of the year but glad to hear it's solid.
EerieArcade
Member
Assassin's Cred Black Flag Resynced
Absolutely beautiful game. I've played around six hours and a lot of that has just been me gawping at the environments. Outside of that I've just been destroying lots of those British ships. Going to try some of the harpooning stuff next.
Resident Evil 4 Remake
Just about to ride the minecart with Luis. The double El Gigante fight just before is kinda annoying.
MiSide
What a strange little game. I think I've got one of those 'waifu' things, but she's trying to kill me...I think. No idea. I think I like it though.
Absolutely beautiful game. I've played around six hours and a lot of that has just been me gawping at the environments. Outside of that I've just been destroying lots of those British ships. Going to try some of the harpooning stuff next.
Resident Evil 4 Remake
Just about to ride the minecart with Luis. The double El Gigante fight just before is kinda annoying.
MiSide
What a strange little game. I think I've got one of those 'waifu' things, but she's trying to kill me...I think. No idea. I think I like it though.
Minari
Member
Diablo 4 playing season 14 every day for like 4h,play a sorc 70/200, full ancestral legendary with GA tempers. playing on Torment 8 but i can run pits on Torment 9 easy. have 50% crit chance with waaay over 3000% crit damage multiplier.
Also bought Space Marine 2 for my ps5 pro just for 20.99€ on psn sale. what a steal..cant wait!
Also bought Space Marine 2 for my ps5 pro just for 20.99€ on psn sale. what a steal..cant wait!