Sea Of Stars is one of those indie darling RPGs that I figured I'd love. Instead, I just kind of liked it. At least what I played of it. But more on that later. I think it's safe to say that Sea Of Stars draws heavily from 16-bit RPGs. Namely, the SNES era. You know the big hitters - Chrono Trigger and Secret Of Mana and so on? If you like those games, then Sea Of Stars is probably for you.
Personally, I like both games but also think they're slightly overrated. Chrono Trigger has a great story and great time-travel mechanic, but... well, I guess I don't really have a thought to finish that sentence up. Chrono Trigger is pretty great. Yeah. But I still don't love it as much as say Final Fantasy IV - another SNES defining RPG. Secret Of Mana is also pretty great and gorgeous and had a unique multiplayer mechanic. I guess I can't really disparage Secret Of Mana, either. Though I do prefer the simplicity of its predecessor, Adventure Of Mana (or Sword Of Mana, or Final Fantasy Adventure or whatever you want to call it) as far as action RPGs go. But what the heck even is Sea Of Stars? It's somehow a prequel to The Messenger, which I don't really get but I haven't played The Messenger yet so probably it makes more sense if you had. I just thought that The Messenger was kind of a Ninja Gaiden or Shadow Of The Ninja sort of knock-off. Maybe I'm wrong. I'm too tired to google. I guess the neat thing about Sea Of Stars is its multiple characters. Again, drawing from those SNES era RPGs, there's a full cast to play as. You start with two, and eventually get six. The visual aesthetic is solid with its 16-bit throwback and anime cutscenes. Meanwhile, the storytelling is dense. Probably the biggest bit of forward-thinking here is the battle system. It's got kind of a rhythm game component to it. There's also a mechanic of gaining MP via normal attacks, which is a pretty great touch as it adds a risk/reward thing to mashing attacks versus throwing powerful spells and gets you to think and conserve turns thoughtfully. But none of this really matters to me because of happenstance. I really only jumped into Sea Of Stars because it was "free" on Playstation Plus. I played a few hours and thought it was pretty charming and was liking it (not loving it, but liking it) for a while and then some other game caught my eye. I figured I'd get back to Sea Of Stars eventually. So right there I'm like, yeah it's good. But not good enough to suck me in. But good enough that I want to get back to it when something more gripping isn't in front of me. In December, I decided to go back and try to play as many 2023 games as I could to kind of binge for the end of the year. So I fired Sea Of Stars back up and guess what? My save was gone. I have no idea what happened. But I lost hours of gameplay and that just completely bummed me out. Basically, if I want to play the game now I'm going to have to go back and replay all the opening stuff. And I really have a hard time doing that. You know how some demos don't let you carry progression over? I hate those demos and won't play them. Who wants to redo all the slow opening parts of a game over again in quick succession? Not me. So I guess that's where I stand. Sea Of Stars is a good game. It's possibly a great game but I won't know because of a glitch and my aversion to restarting a game over again so quickly. Maybe like five years from now I'll have forgotten the opening hours and it won't be so painful to try again. Maybe.
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Y'know that that thing when you wake up and you're a dog and your job is to guide literally thousands of people into a light so that they can fly away? Well, Humanity is a game about that.
Humanity was something of a critical darling in 2023, and yet I never really heard anyone talking about it all year. Not that I have time to talk to anyone about games. But I do listen to many gaming podcasts and read lots of gaming press. So I think I have at least a decent handle on what's being buzzed about. As I write this in mid-December, 2023, it's odd that Humanity would have such a high Metacritic score and yet I've heard no year-end talk about it. All the podcasts I listen to with their year end wrap ups have left this one out. I don't even think it was nominated at The Game Awards. I could be wrong, as I sat through the whole show and yet don't really remember much. And I'm too tired to look it up right now. If you missed it, Humanity is a 3D game that takes many cues from the 2D classic, Lemmings. At least that's what most reviews will reference. And it's not wrong. But I'd say it probably is closer to a mash-up of Lemmings and Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker, to be more specific. The goal is much like Lemmings (guide something to an end point while avoiding death of those that you're guiding), while the level layout is more akin to Captain Toad's 3D worlds. But yeah, you take the shape of a dog. Thousands of people pour through doors and walk in a straight line. You have the ability to guide them by placing icons. So they can turn in whatever direction you want, or they can jump. Things like that. Actually, y'know what? Scratch all the above. It's actually way closer to Chu Chu Rocket than any other game I can think of. Forget Lemmings. This is totally Chu Chu Rocket for the modern gaming era. Humanity is a super chill game, though. You can let hundreds upon hundreds of nameless, faceless folks die while you figure out a puzzle. It's fine. There's pretty ambient music playing. There's pretty visuals. It's all chill. The puzzles ramp up nicely, by the way. It's got that classic puzzle vibe where levels start to get devious and you don't think you'll figure it out. Then you do and you feel like a genius. It's solid. Here's what holds me back on loving Humanity, though. There's secondary goals. And that's fine. Each level has X amount of "goldies" to save. These are big people who are literally gold. If you get each of them to the exit, you gain extra perks. And that's great. But what happens is after so many levels you hit a wall that says, "obtain X goldies to unlock the next set of stages." And I hate that kind of crap. In my mind, the game should be like two scenarios. You should be able to play through every level with the goal of just figuring out each level. Think of it as casual mode. And you should be able to go back and find the goldies IF YOU WANT. Some of us want more challenge. Some of us enjoy replaying levels and perfecting them. But I personally don't like being forced to replay levels in an attempt to complete them flawlessly. To me, this grind is sort of at odds with the chill nature of the game. Which is a bummer, because I really like the gameplay of the levels themselves, but just not the way that progression is laid out. Humanity is a good game. Almost great, but not quite. I followed the making of Midnight Suns very closely. To say that it was highly anticipated by me would be a vast understatement. In fact, it was one of those rare games that seemed entirely tailored just to my tastes. Let's walk through the boxes it checked off, shall we? First of all, it was made by the developer of XCOM, and featured a similar gameplay. But it also added a collectable card mechanic. It used the Marvel license, but instead of cashing in on the new hotness in the MCU, it focused on a darker lore and featured vampires and witches. Oh, and it takes place mainly in Salem, Massachusetts. I mean.
I was a tech-kid since I can remember. I had a Commodore 64 at the age of six. I'm pretty sure we got America Online in our house around 1993. The following year, I bought a 286 computer off of a friend just so I could have my own computer in my room. I tried to get it to run Doom and Wolfenstein 3D to no avail. I finally got my own Pentium II PC around 1996, and it came bundled with a bunch of random games. One of them was X-COM: Terror From The Deep and I was hooked. I've been intrigued by turn based strategy games ever since. When XCOM: Enemy Unknown was released years later it was an instant buy for me. And I became deeply enamored. I played through that game so many times that when XCOM 2 was released, my wife said half-jokingly, "see you in a few months." Digital card games are also a pretty big deal to me. Admittedly, I didn't get into them until Hearthstone turned me on to the genre. But over the years, I've gotten pretty deep into so many ranging from classics like Pokemon TCG and SNK Vs Capcom: Card Fighters Clash to modern oddities like Lightseekers and Marvel Snap. That said, I'll say with total conviction that Slay The Spire is one of the greatest games of the current generation and at this point I can't even fathom how many hundreds of hours I've put into that game. Marvel is a longer story. I was a comic book geek as a kid. It pretty much started with the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles run, but as I branched out it was Marvel that grabbed me. DC stuff was okay. But Marvel was next level. I was a total X-Men fanboy back then. Then of course, I denounced comic books in high school because I wanted girls to think I was cool. But when the pre-MCU Marvel began cranking out movies in the early 2000s (namely, the X-Men movies and the Spider-Man trilogy), I was down. Then there was another lull when the MCU first launched because it was really popular and I was kind of a hipster. But eventually my wife and I fell into the trap and followed the MCU all the way until our daughter was born. That pretty much coincided with the release of Avengers Endgame, which seemed like a fitting time to dip out of such a vast story when our time was so limited. And of course I have an affinity for any games that take place in New England. Not that the whole game does. The main base is in Salem, but much of the battles takes place elsewhere. But still, by going down the path of witchery and vampires, Salem is a perfect little hub for the mansion. And I like that. Not to mention that I like horror stuff, so focusing on the more horror side of Marvel comics lore is a win in my book. Speaking of the hub, that's where you'll spend a lot of time upgrading cards and making friends. That latter point is like the sort of relationship bonding conversations you'd see in a game like Fire Emblem or whatever. It's fine enough, but can be a little tedious when you're itching to get back to a mission. Really, the same could be said for the mansion itself. I'm sure some gamers like running around between missions and going room to room to do all of this stuff. Maybe it builds a certain immersion. I don't know. Personally, I wish it was all just menu based like in the XCOM games. But you can't win them all. My other complaint is about the insanely long cut scenes. Between all the running around the mansion you'll do and all the talking to other characters, the cut scenes just feel like they go on forever. Don't get me wrong, they're well done. They feel like a comic book. There's even some fun little jokes like Captain Marvel's "XCOM" computer system, or the little club with a long name that's an acronym for "emo kids." But honestly, it feels like there is so much downtime between each mission and that can really slow down the momentum of the game loop. The battle system is pretty great, though. All attacks and skills are played via cards. You can play three cards per turn. And obviously, everything is turn based. But this is also added to the usual XCOM style game maps. The big difference is that there's no grid movement. Instead, things feel more open and real. Positioning does throw me off when I'm so used to the classic grid based movement of such games. But Firaxis pulls off this system really nicely. And honestly, combining a turn based tactics game with a deck building card game is really the exact sort of niche game that is right up my alley. One of the more interesting things here is that the main character is not a Marvel superhero at all. Instead, it's a random user made character called The Hunter. There's a small character creator, but ultimately this is along the lines of Shepard in Mass Effect. Which is to say, mostly generic male or female. The crazy thing is that among a huge cast of Marvel favorites, I've stuck with The Hunter even in non-required missions. My Hunter has been of great use as I've leveled up her cards. She's pretty badass, really. Leveling up is indeed the main draw here. Drafting duplicate cards allows you to level them up into stronger versions of those cards. In that sense, it's not unlike Marvel Snap, the free to play card game that came out the same year. As a side note, I feel like Marvel Snap could really work on consoles, but alas it's been mobile and PC only thus far. Ugh. At any rate, the one thing that this game really has going for it is that it's weird. I personally love when Marvel games get weird. I mean, there's been recent hits with Spider-Man and The Avengers and all, and that's great. But I've always been a fan of oddball stuff like Telltale's take on The Guardians Of The Galaxy. This one's weird like that. It doesn't follow any MCU storyline. Instead, it's a big pastiche of comic book lore. I like seeing characters like Magik and Wolverine and Blade all rubbing elbows. I like them talking about witchcraft and stuff. It's strangely dark and also silly with its use of social media and young folk slang. But sometimes I can't help but think that the story and base stuff is all just a lot of padding. There's way too much talking. Way too many waypoints pointing me to plan a birthday party or to bond with another hero over a movie. Ultimately, this game is solid as far as its bones go, but my god, it's just so long and dragged out. I can't help but think there's a solid 30 hour game here that's just stretched way beyond that because of a whole lot of fat. I commend what Firaxis attempted here. It's a lofty license to take a crack at. But part of me thinks it would have been more successful had they just crammed Marvel into the XCOM engine and called it a day after reskinning. Instead, they attempted a whole lot more and the end result is somewhat bloated. Don't get me wrong, Midnight Suns is a very good game. It's an addictive game. But as I play it I can't help but think that it's just not XCOM 3. And for everything I like about Midnight Suns, I'd much rather have XCOM 3. Given that Shin Megami Tensei is a gigantic series with many sub-series in the mix, along with many entries that never even made it to North America, it's easy to be confused here. But Soul Hackers 2 is actually the fifth game in the Devil Summoner sub-series, and a sequel to Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers which was originally released way back in 1997. Of course things get even more confusing because even though Soul Hackers was first released in 1997, it didn't even make its way to the States until it was ported to the 3DS in 2013. So knowing all the history, the interesting thing is this: here we are getting a sequel to a game that was originally released 25 years ago. Wow.
It's been a long-standing tradition for me that I take my winter vacation the week after Thanksgiving. It's always been when my wife and I decorate the house and start our Christmas shopping. It's a good week to recharge my batteries before returning to work to finish out the year. And with a toddler in the house, the past few years have also been when we go see Santa and do all the fun stuff like make gingerbread houses. But the other tradition I have is playing a JRPG that week. Maybe it just feels like having downtime with no work in the morning just fits really well for delving into a JRPG. Maybe the slow nature of the games jives well with vacation, or listening to Christmas movies in the background. Whatever it is, it's a tradition now. Last year it was Tales Of Vesperia, the year before was Dragon Quest XI, and so on. This year I had been intending to play Persona 5. It's a game that has been raved about since it hit these shores in 2017. And yet, I couldn't help but feel completely lured in by the prospect of an actual NEW game in the Shin Megami Tensei series releasing this year. Sure, Soul Hackers has less name recognition than Persona. But dudes, there's a new SMT game released in 2022. Nobody's really talking about it. It doesn't have the same kind of review scores (or budget) as Persona 5. But I love an underdog, and I love a super niche game like this. Heck, as much as I started this year enamored with Elden Ring like many others, I also spent the time earlier this year praising Stranger Of Paradise. Upon booting up Soul Hackers 2 for the first time, I was instantly greeted with several positives. First off, the anime art style is fantastic. While it's evident that Soul Hackers 2 doesn't have the same budget as Persona 5 did, this certainly doesn't look or feel like a low budget title. The visuals are excellent, and as a dude who loves to see some anime in his JRPG's, this is hitting big time. Likewise, the voice acting is also top-notch. I can't speak of the original Japanese voice work, but the performance by the English cast is great. I have to especially praise the work of Megan Harvey who provides the voice for Ringo. Her delivery is so good, and that's definitely a plus given that she's the main character. One reason that I've always been drawn to the SMT games is their modern setting – at least in the majority of the entries, not counting Last Bible. Most of the SMT games take place in a near future, and this is no exception. The truth is, while I can enjoy a Dungeons & Dragons inspired RPG, I'm always going to appreciate the neon bliss of a cyberpunk-tinged game more. Shin Megami Tensei games have long incorporated electronics into the mix, which makes sense given the original novel they were based on. Soul Hackers 2 combines digital demons with some religious mythologies – namely the souls that our group will be hacking in order to prevent the end of the world. While it might sound convoluted, it's pretty typica fare for an SMT game, and the execution is fantastic. The opening hours aren't exactly slow, but there is a fair of a lot of dialogue and cut scenes and tutorials to get through before things really start to open up. Luckily, the story is so cool that it really doesn't detract from the experience. Personally, I got sucked in really quickly. While the reviews for Soul Hackers 2 have been just sort of luke-warm, I've got to say that it has pretty much all of the qualities that I look for in an SMT game. During my winter vacation, I spent a solid ten hours or so with it, and got really invested with each boot-up. The battle system here is a bit different from the mainline SMT games. Instead of exploiting weaknesses to get extra turns, you instead add one "stack" for each weakness you exploit. At the end of your turn, the number of stacks rolls out an extra super-attack from your demons. This system feels admittedly simplified in comparison, but it's certainly still fun. And there are exploits to the exploits. For instance, you can use a special skill that slowly refills over turns to double those stacks. So if you're able to do so and then have each of your party members hit a weakness, you're going be dropping a stack of eight attacks at the end of your turn, which results in a super flashy summon animation and a whole heck of a lot of damage. It's fun stuff. Outside of the main story beats, there's also the Soul Matrix, which is basically a really big dungeon crawl that you go into to gain all kinds of extra beneficial loot. Going into the Soul Matrix is a good way to unlock new skills and perks, and frankly it's also just super addictive if you enjoy dungeon crawls. Which I do. That said, I've spent most of the last two weeks just main-lining the story quests. And in doing so, I've had a blast. The story is cool, the performances are solid, and the battle system is excellent. I also enjoy any RPG that doesn't require 100+ hours. It's why I've put off Persona 5, and instead opted to play this one to begin with. But I've done a lot of cool stuff here. I mean demon-fusion is always interesting. But I've probably rushed things a little too much. Focusing on the main quest (and ignoring the Soul Matrix in the meantime) means that I've overlooked a whole bunch of extra perks and skills. Which means that when I made my way to the final boss in about sixteen hours, I was way under-leveled. To put it context, I believe the max is Level 100 and I'm sitting around 50 for each of my party members. This isn't promising. So I spent about an hour bashing my head against a wall on the final boss. I really don't have enough demons/skill diversity to keep stacking up Weakness against the final boss' quad of helpers. And this is a problem. And so, I could walk away. I could go spend more hours in the Soul Matrix leveling everything up, or I could admit defeat and enjoy the sixteen hours I've spent with the game and call it a day. And unfortunately, I'm probably leaning toward the latter. But that's where I am in my life. I have limited gaming time. In average week, I probably put in twelve hours of gaming at most. I just don't have the same basically unlimited time I used to. So nowadays, I tend to just dive into a game and let it hold my attention for as long as it feels satisfactory. And really, to say that I even made it to the end boss of a SMT game is really cool, at least for me right now. I don't have it in me to go grind for who-knows-how-long right now. But I have loved and appreciated every moment of Soul Hackers 2 that I've played. It's crazy to me that "nobody" is really talking about this game this year. The Persona games get so much buzz. And Soul Hackers 2 is admittedly, way simpler, but still super awesome. I mean, Elden Ring will remain my GOTY for 2022, but Soul Hackers 2 is definitely in my Top 5. Having not played a Madden game in apparently like four years now, two things are certain. First, that I'm very rusty. And second, Mac Jones is no Tom Brady. I mean, let's be honest here. As a Patriots fan, the Madden games were probably made slightly easier to me over the past like... twenty years.
But alas, I felt the need to play Madden NFL 23. I'm not one of those guys who picks up every Madden each year. But rather, I grab ones that feel special. Usually ones that have Patriots players on the cover, or sort of anniversary ones. And this year is a big one, celebrating Madden's history as a sort of eulogy. It definitely felt special. But the tribute is also kind of bittersweet. Sure, they put Madden on the cover this year. Sure, there's some nice video clips, and a Legacy Game mode. But that's it. Y'know what would have been cool? A documentary about the entire series! Y'know what would have been even cooler? The inclusion of Madden '93, or maybe a retro-Madden updated with the current roster. I'm thinking of something along the lines that EA did with NHL 94's retro re-release. I don't know, just something that makes this package feel like an actual tribute to the man, and the series outside of some basic additions. Having said all that, I think the Madden series as a whole is all about small incremental upgrades. Each year since it began has been slightly better than the year before. Which is probably why I don't play every year. Instead, I skip years and get really impressed at the progress. I was really into Madden 08, then Madden 12. Then I double-dipped on 17 and 18, but hadn't played one since. Maybe hardcore Madden fans could find some faults in Madden 23, but not me. I haven't played one of these games in four years, and to be honest, this is really something. Like I said, I started off slow. I was sloppy. I was on a losing streak. And then something clicked, and before I knew it the season was halfway over and I was 4-4. The controls here are buttery smooth. The presentation is phenomenal. As a dude who's into the little things, I was blown away when an announcer said "on their last six attempts – I'm sorry, their last seven attempts." It's these little details that just nail the realism. I know EA has always said that "if it's in the game, it's in the game." But these were the realistic details that John Madden himself strived for when he signed on to work with EA on football games to begin with. As the season went on, my team continued to be middling. I got a few wins and a few more losses. Eventually, ending on 7-9 if I recall correctly. I can't even remember the last time I played a Madden game without making it to the playoffs. Though, I also can't remember the last time I played a Madden game without Brady as my quarterback. Call that an excuse if you must. But I really had to re-adjust my playstyle. I definitely did way more running plays with Jones, for instance. That said, I still had a whole lot of fun. Say what you will about Madden as a series. You can certainly say that the revisions are slight from year to year. But there's no denying that the games are constantly fun and well made. Each game of the season plays out like its own little chapter with its own bits of drama. There's an absolute glory to the victories, and a total agony to the defeats. Even though my record was fairly horrible, the harder thing to come to grips with was all the almost-wins. I mean, The Packers and The Raiders totally blew me out. But I'm not sure I was even expecting to win. Other games were so much closer. I beat Miami in overtime. But other games had me thinking I was going to eek out a win until the final moments. That's pure drama, and I love it. I'm sure it's beyond cliché to be a football fan who's also a gamer and raves about Madden. But it was it is. Madden NFL 23 is a fantastic game. I love it just like I loved my time with 08, 12, 17 and 18. So what else can I really say? It's an incredible take on the sport, and yet the series has a bit of disposability to it. I had a blast, but the chances are so much better that I'll play 24 next rather than replay this one. But I'm glad I played it and enjoyed every second. Not to mention that thanks to Game Pass, I blasted through my season using EA's ten free hours trial. Pokemon is a series that everyone is aware of. Like, even if you're not a gamer. My dad hasn't played a video game since Superman on the Atari 2600, but he knows what Pokemon is. Digimon is a whole other thing, though. The Digimon series started back in 1999 – three years after Pokemon launched - on PlayStation and WonderSwan, as Bandai's take on Pokemon. Which is to say that Digimon was a total ripoff. But over the years, it's retained its own cult following. A following nowhere near the levels of Pokemon fandom, mind. But still.
Myself, I've never played a Digimon game before. I've never paid the series any attention. Outside of knowing that it existed, I can't even say I had absorbed any details via social osmosis. I mean, I don't think there's any Digimon character as well-known as Pikachu for instance. But over the years I have played my fair share of Pokemon games. I enjoyed Yellow, Sapphire, and Sword just fine. But I also couldn't shake the feeling that were made for a younger audience. I mean, I had fun, but I never felt all that connected. But when Digimon Survive was announced, something about it really made me take notice. I can't exactly put my finger on it. But for one thing, I like an underdog. Here's a series that's gone on for years trying to compete in the shadow of Pokemon. And here was a new entry coming to modern consoles, and really embracing its Japanese roots. This wasn't going to be a cute story about a kid collecting little monsters in balls. No, this was going to be a rather dark and bleak visual novel – not a genre that mainstream Americans tend to go for. Oh, and the battles would be stripped down turn based tactics a la Fire Emblem. I don't know, it just felt so interesting and bizarre. One (fair) criticism that will undoubtedly get thrown at this game is that it has a slow start. That's definitely true. The opening act took me a little over an hour to get through, but it felt like two hours easily. I think the feeling of slowness comes from the fact that in that opening hour, you'll see now Digimon. It's basically a by-the-numbers visual novel for the first hour or so. You've got a group of teens (?) investigating a strange wilderness and finding a shrine. They'll talk amongst themselves, search for their missing friends, meet a professor... it's very slow. But as things pick up toward the end of the opening chapter, everything gets pretty weird and creepy. It's a slow burn, but it's solid when it comes to establishing a vibe. And then it gets slow again for a while. Y'know those games that people will say "get good after X hours"? This is one of those games. And the first few hours can be difficult to slog through. Mind you, the story itself is interesting and unique. But the dialogue can feel very sluggish. Like when you've got these teens, and their friends are missing, and they're meeting demons, and it's snowing out of season, and statues with glowing eyes are confronting them – just all this crazy stuff – and they're just chit-chatting and basically figuring out the longest way to say something, it just feels really tonally off. On top of that you've got bits of tutorial thrown in, and little mechanics like using your phone to scan for Digimon or demons or whatever you want to call them. It feels like there's a lot of time-killing going on early in the game. Maybe the intention is to ease you in. But frankly, this could scare many would-be players away. Truthfully, it started to push me away as well. Somewhere between four to five hours in, I started to feel extremely conflicted on this game. There's certainly a lot to admire about it. If we're comparing Digimon to Pokemon, I'm really enthusiastic that Digimon Survive went the visual novel route. It's a more niche direction, and frankly more interesting direction than the repetitive nature of the mainline Pokemon games. And using a turn based tactical format for battles appeals to me more than y'know, "catching" Pokemon. The problem is that even though I like the direction that the game goes in, I don't feel like it's executed all that successfully. As a visual novel, it's gorgeous to look at and the sound design is top notch. And I enjoy the dark tone where it feels like stakes are actually fairly high. While it might be a problem for some, I actually like that they kept the original Japanese voice overs. But my gosh, is the story slow. Even at the fastest text speed setting, scenes go on and on for way too long. There's so much fat in the dialogue that feels like it should have been cut to streamline the experience. Instead, it feels like they left in as much extraneous talking as they could to pad things out. Which is not a good sign when estimates put this game at forty-plus hours to beat. The actual battles also drop the ball. Again, I love tactical strategy games. But these battles are so over-simplified that it's a bit baffling. Given that the battles are already such a small part of the game, it would have been nice to actually give them some real depth and make them feel like a rewarding break from the story. Instead, they chug along like the sort of shallow take on the formula you might see in a Fire Emblem mobile game, rather than a "real" tactics game. Sure, there's lots of menus to dig into with special skills, items, evolutions, and even talking to other monsters. But at the end of the day, battles come down to positioning your team around one enemy and just pig-piling. It's honestly pretty boring. It's unfortunate because I had really high hopes for this game. And there's some really good ideas at play. But when these elements come together, none of them are quite good enough to prop up the others. I'd be happy if Bandai Namco uses Digimon Survive as a learning experience, and goes on to craft a sequel that improves things enough to let this blueprint see its full potential. But, my fear is that the review scores will probably lay this one to rest instead. My fandom for TMNT has never been a secret. Heck, to this day I still have two thirty-something year old posters from my childhood hanging up in the basement. The original cartoon mini-series from 1987 rocked my young world. The Turtles quickly replaced GI Joe as my toy of choice. And in the years following, I remained faithful to that cartoon series. I amassed a gigantic collection of action figures. I saw the original live action trilogy in the theater. I learned to love comic books thanks to a compendium of the first run of issues. And I played a lot of Ninja Turtle video games.
There's definitely some classic Turtles games. There's no denying that the first arcade game, and it's sequel (Turtles In Time) are excellent and still hold up today. Then there's some middling or mildly interesting games. Like, Hyperstone Heist is a kind of neat remix of Turtles In Time for the Genesis. And Fall Of The Foot Clan is a solid Game Boy title, even if it's a total cakewalk. And I thought that the game simply titled "TMNT" was an interesting Prince Of Persia: Sands Of Time rip-off. I even think that the original NES game was better than it's remembered. But there's also a lot of really bad Ninja Turtle games. I suffered through the whole Gamecube trilogy for instance, and barely remember a thing. There were attempts to rip-off Smash Bros. There was an awesome looking cell-shaded Xbox One game by Platinum that just... ugh. And when you start getting into portable games, the library is a real mess. All of the above is why I'm pleased to announce that in 2022 there's a bonafide great new Ninja Turtles game. That's right, folks. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge is actually worthy of the hype that it's garnered. Thank goodness. When it comes to writing about games, there's a really overused cliche. You just say that something is a "love letter to" (some other game or series). While I might feel tempted to call Shredder's Revenge a love letter to those Konami TMNT beat-em-ups, the truth is it's so much more than that. What it is, is a proper sequel. Basically, Tribute Games has taken everything good about those old games - everything that you remember fondly - and carried it over while smoothing out the edges with quality of life improvements that would make the genre appeal to modern gamers. They've also done their homework. Shredder's Revenge is based heavily on the old 1987 cartoon series with obscure character cameos and throwbacks. They've also peppered in random bits and pieces from TMNT lore over the years. Did you ever wish there was a game that featured both Bebop & Rocksteady and Tokka and Rahzar? Well, here you go. Shredder's Revenge also hearkens back to a time when arcades reigned supreme. As such, this is a console game with six-player co-op. On top of the four turtles you can also choose from April O'Neil, Splinter and (after unlocking him) Casey Jones! Each has their own abilities and drawbacks. Yes, this is a beat-em-up that encourages replays without making you feel like it's a tedious chore to see it all. There's also two modes of play - Arcade (preferred) and Story. The latter throws in optional challenges which push you to replay levels to unlock perks. I don't know, this mode feels kind of unnecessary to me, as this is an arcade game through and through. Except it just wasn't released to arcades. But you know what I mean. That said, there's nothing wrong with an extra mode obviously. Beating the game took me about three hours on my first playthrough and sore hands aside, it was a great time. As a lifelong TMNT fan, I'm thrilled that this game exists. It feels like there's hope for an actual renaissance of good Turtles games. It's amazing to me that in a year that started out with Elden Ring, I'm still able to say that a new Ninja Turtles game will go down as one of my other favorites of 2022. Although I don't watch horror movies as much as I used to, I still consider myself a lifelong fan of the slasher sub-genre. Truth be told, we just don't watch as many movies as we used to, period. I mean, we have a three year old in the house. We're tired people. But the first time I ever even talked to my wife, we bonded over slashers. I guess you could say they're in our blood. Or whatever ever stupid pun you can think of.
When I was a kid I was pretty scared of horror movies. And everything else really. But I had friends that were into them, so I was kind of forced to watch them. And they ended up growing on me early on. But it was slashers that really grabbed me. Something about the formulaic setup and the cool teen vibe of it all. My earliest exposures to the genre were A Nightmare On Elm Street 5 and 6; Halloween III and that one with Paul Rudd; and Jason Goes To Hell. In hindsight, none of these were high water marks for their respective series, but they grabbed me for sure. In Junior High I was all about USA Up All Night and other cable runs of horror movies on the weekend. I watched everything I could, both good and bad. Some notable entries that standout from this period are The People Under The Stairs, The Serpent And The Rainbow, Troll, Pumpkinhead, Army Of Darkness, and many others. When I got to high school, I started branching out and investigating the classics. I got my own Blockbuster card and the sky was the limit. The original Nightmare On Elm Street became a serious classic, and I started to recognize Wes Craven as a favorite director. Around this time he put out Scream, and suddenly slashers were cool again. Once I got to college I started working in a store that sold movies, so my education went into the entire Friday The 13th series and the original Evil Dead, which would ultimately become my favorite slasher series, and favorite horror movie, respectively. Another thing I've always been a pretty big fan of is adventure games. Maniac Mansion was my introduction to the genre, and to this day holds an especially important place in my gaming heart. A few years later I got The Secret Of Monkey Island, so I think it's fair to say that Lucas Arts shaped a lot of my adventure gaming love in my formative gaming years. And while it was easy to say that adventure games were dead for a long time - well, that's was mostly just the classic point and clicks that died off. Over the past decade or so we've seen an impressive renaissance with games and series like The Walking Dead or Life Is Strange. And frankly, I think Telltale holds just as much importance to me as a gamer adult as Lucas Arts did for me as a gamer kid. This is a lot of personal backstory, I know. But I think it's an important context that's needed to write about The Quarry - a game that I knew I HAD to play as soon as it was announced. The irony being that it launched at the same time as an Evil Dead game (by the same folks who made the Friday The 13th game that I enjoyed) and yet I just had to play The Quarry first. And so when my summer vacation rolled around, I downloaded The Quarry to my Series X and dug in every night. Oh, all that background up above? It was important because The Quarry is an adventure game that is very obviously inspired by 80's slashers. Just look at the cover or some screen shots and all screams of Friday The 13th, The Burning, The Evil Dead, and so on. And the influences are worn proudly on sleeves. Heck, The Evil Dead is mentioned in-game within the first chapter. Also there's some pretty horror royalty within the voice cast. Let's run it down quickly... David Arquette - Scream Ted Raimi - The Evil Dead Lance Henrikson - Pumpkinhead Grace Zabriskie - Twin Peaks ...I mean, my wow. The Quarry's setup is fairly generic, but that's to be expected when you're paying homage to a genre that has some pretty predefined tropes. You've got a group of camp counselors on the last day of summer who are stranded at the abandoned camp and have to fend themselves from unknown evil within the woods. The form certainly owes much to "And Then There Were None." But what the game does well within its early hours is introduce you to the characters. While many slasher movies were known for their stereotypical characters (at least until Scream came along with its meta commentary), The Quarry likes to scramble up some of these stereotypes. So as our teens scramble to get things ready for a big bonfire party, we get to see (and control) how they act and react. This leaves us with some pretty interesting antagonists, such as Josh - the jock dude who also goes off and cries over the girl who broke up with him. Or Dylan - the jokester... who's also secretly a science nerd but doesn't want his camp co-workers to know so puts on an aloof act as a coping mechanism. It's at least outside-the-box character development. It also helps that the voice act is top notch. Everyone really nailed their roles. Obviously names like Ted Raimi and David Arquette have been around the block. But even the younger actors crush it here. Justice Smith was perfectly fine in Detective Pikachu, but in this game he has some tremendously impressive range. I also found the deflecting sarcasm of Miles Robbins fantastic. And I've never heard of Siobhan Williams before, but she really stole the show for me. But honestly, the whole cast was perfectly selected. While there are some quick time events, the action and interactivity is fairly low in this game. There's maybe some light exploring or puzzle solving, but the bulk of the gameplay is about the decisions you make. These are heavy decisions, but you wouldn't know it from the choices. The best way I can describe it is that in The Walking Dead you have a very clear choice to make: which of these two people do you save? That kind of thing. But in The Quarry, your options are far less explicit. In conversations you might have a choice of being aggressive or understanding. Or you might have an option to check a door or search through some bags. You really don't have context to tell you which option will lead to which outcome. Instead, you're doing a lot of thinking with your gut, which I suppose is truly putting yourself in a horrible b-movie situation. Sadly, I lost Emma very early in the game. It was in one of those decisions, and I agonized over it, and felt like I had made the wrong decision as soon as I hit the button. On the flip, I lost Max late in the game and really, I had no idea which was the right thing to do. Though in hindsight, I can see why I made the wrong choice. But again, if I were actually stuck out there in the woods acting on my feet - would I have the calmness to make those rational choices? I don't know. OKAY NOW FOR THE PART WHERE SPOILERS HAPPEN, SO IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ SPOILERS THEN STOP READING NOW... Digging deeper into the plot, that unknown evil in the woods? It's werewolves. Something I wasn't expecting. I wasn't expecting supernatural at all. I just figured it would be a stand-in for Jason or Cropsey. But nope, it turns out it's werewolves. And not the run of the mill Howling type - but rather grotesque humanoids. It's actually pretty cool, and mildly refreshing that they didn't go in such an obvious direction. I actually found the werewolf thing to be pretty cool, and maybe it was in part because I was surprised by the direction given that it wasn't mentioned in any of the promo materials ahead of launch. A bit later in the game there's a full flashback chapter that focuses on Laura and Max - the two counselors who didn't make it to camp on the first day. They're being locked up by the town's sheriff and it's a pretty riveting chapter. As it turns out the sheriff is related to the guy who runs the summer camp. And later we get to enter the backwoods family's shack-mansion hybrid. It's pretty huge and creepy and reminds me of a cross between Resident Evil and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Oh, and the was more bloodshed. As I approached the later chapters of the game, I started to see more bodies hit the floor. I did my best, you guys. Also, some of these deaths are absolutely brutal. Your game will differ from mine based on your decisions, but I saw an old lady get her head blown off in shocking detail. I also watched a werewolf throw one of my counselors around a room like a chew toy. Yikes. That mansion also held a pretty brilliant moment. I'm given a shotgun with a silver bullet. I'm in the middle of chaos in a room with two werewolves - one is definitely a bad guy and the other is my friend who has turned. I have seconds to pull the trigger, but in the scuffle I lose track of which werewolf is which. So I play eenie-meenie and get lucky. I let out a huge sigh of relief. It's moments like these that make The Quarry great. The ending of the story goes maybe slightly off the rails. I mean, I won't get into the whole thing but there's a gypsy and at least a nod to the movie Freaks. But the game and story are fun until the closing moments. There's even a supernatural podcast that plays while the credits roll that recap their theories on the events that happened in the game, which is a pretty brilliant touch. Add to that that there's over a hundred possible endings based on what you do in the game, and you're left with a lot of replayability. I'm sure folks will complain about the length clocking in at under ten hours. For me it was just a great summer vacation game, and one I'd happily revisit in the future. Rogue Legacy 2 feels like the exact sort of game that I should be really into. And yet, something about it just doesn't grab me. Oddly, I had the same experience with the first game. And I'm not even sure I can put my finger on it. I mean, it has bits and pieces of lots of other games that I love - Spelunky, Dead Cells, Symphony Of The Night...
If you're not aware, Rogue Legacy 2 is exactly like its predecessor. It's a roguelike Metroidvania game. You go into a randomly generated dungeon, and do your best to explore, find loot and kill stuff. When you die, you can spend collected currency on unlocking all kinds of stuff. There's new classes, new perks, new weapons, new skills. In many ways, it is a lot like Dead Cells (which I loved), but again, something just not clicking for me. The "legacy" part of the title is the main hook of the game. Every time you die, it's your child who goes off to fight. The idea being that in most rogue games, you're just restarting a new run. In this one, it's generation after generation making attempts at this castle, and someday one of your lineage will finally conquer it. It's a good hook. I'll give the game that. Things look good, graphically. It has the sort of cutesy Spelunky charm going on. Each new run offers up three choices of children to continue your legacy. Each of them has different weapons and skills based on what you've unlocked. I dare say that unlocking the stronghold and new skills and options and passive abilities is actually more interesting to me than the game itself. I don't exactly know what it is I don't like about this game (or the first game) really. Maybe it's just the combat itself. Nothing feels especially great to me in these games. Dead Cells felt like a Castlevania game in everything but name. Rogue Legacy 2 just feels kind of clunky. I find a lot of the enemies uninteresting. I find exploring the castle somewhat tedious. I tend to forget about my secondary skills once the cooldown sets in. Also, some of the stuff is just silly and stupid. I had one generation who viewed everything in a sepia tone. It doesn't really do anything to enhance or degrade the game. It's just there. I guess it's "fun" in a sense, but also pointless. In some ways, it's just further proof that I don't really get this game. It's not really for me. I'm sure someone else playing it would be like, "yeah, this is the kind of randomness that I love about this game." Not me, though. And again, I can't really place it. All this stuff felt perfect in Dead Cells. I loved experimenting with new weapons and loadouts in Dead Cells. In this game, experimenting feels like a chore to me. I thought I'd love playing with a ranged archer. I didn't. Why? I loved using ranged weapons in Dead Cells. Maybe that's my problem, though. There's plenty of games like this. So once you find one you like and jive with it, maybe you're all set? Maybe I just don't need another game that's kind of like Dead Cells because I could just play Dead Cells if I wanted to. I'm grasping here. Maybe. Final Fantasy VII is a classic JRPG. There's no doubt about that. And for years, fans clamored for a proper modernized remake. And in 2020, that wish finally came true. It looks cool, but I don't know if I'll ever play since I don't have any Sony consoles and I haven't heard any rumblings of it coming to Xbox. But that's not really the end of the world to me, as I've had a love/hate relationship with Final Fantasy VII since it was originally released. So whatever. If it comes to Xbox, I'll play it. If it doesn't, I'll lose no sleep.
The original Final Fantasy is a classic JRPG. Yet it's one that nobody ever asked for a modernized remake. And yet, here we are. Stranger Of Paradise is a kinda sorta remake of Final Fantasy, just without the budget of the Final Fantasy VII remake. And most likely it'll be ignored by most gamers. Of course, I should really call it a remake in full-on air quotes because Stranger Of Paradise is completely off the rails. Instead of a world map, it basically plays out in glorified episodes. Instead of the blank slate party the original game had, we now have super emo dudes a la Final Fantasy XV. Instead of those glorious chip tunes, we've got Frank Sinatra and nu metal. I'm dead serious. And instead of turn based combat, we've got a crazy complicated and compelling action RPG on our hands. The story in Stranger Of Paradise is far from faithful. At its best, it's a loose retelling that falls somewhere between fan fiction and prequel. To put it bluntly, this game is a total mess. Yet, for all its misses, I can't help but kind of love it - or at least love that exists. This is the sort of Final Fantasy game that makes me love Square Enix. Not because the game is great, but because they're willing to take such stupid risks on such a beloved franchise all these years later. Look, I've been playing Final Fantasy games for like thirty years now. Good or bad, I'm just happy they're still making Final Fantasy games that are interesting enough to warrant a conversation. Now real quick, let's try to even define what Stranger Of Paradise even is. When it was originally announced, it was shown off as a straight up modern remake of Final Fantasy - not unlike the Final Fantasy VII Remake. (I still can't believe "Remake" is in the actual title of that one). But upon release, Stranger Of Paradise was referred to as a dark alternate retelling of the original game. But y'know what? Call it whatever you want - a remake, retelling, reimagining, reboot, official fan fiction. Ultimately, it's more a prequel than anything making the "Origins" in its title even more fitting. It kind of doesn't matter, though. The truth is, the original game was pretty light on story, and your party of four characters were just nameless classes. Basically, this game just takes the main quest beats and throws original characters and story on top of it, often while trying to tie it into the rest of the series. And about those characters... they're pretty awful. But maybe that's part of the charm here. There was a time when Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest felt like sibling rivalries. But in 2022, it feels like Dragon Quest has doubled down on staying true to its early fantasy roots and poetic D&D storytelling and world building, whereas Final Fantasy is fine with going off the rails and featuring insane inaccurisms. To put it bluntly, if you've been following Final Fantasy for the past thirty something years, I don't think you're drawn to the series because of its great characters or incredible stories. So yeah, you're going to see some memes about Jack's inane "Chaos" monologues. But if you're a series fan, then you're not really surprised either. What Stranger Of Paradise really has going for it is a deeply enthralling job system, and some seriously fun combat courtesy of Team Ninja. Oh yeah, that's the other thing - the Dead Or Alive developer made this Final Fantasy game. Now that's a sentence I never thought I'd type. The systems really started to make sense to me a few hours in, and I've had a blast exploring the job system, unlocking new skills, and mixing and matching them accordingly to make an awesome build for Jack. It's really awesome to tap a button and switch between a heavier melee build and then a red mage who's capable of sending all kinds of elemental magic flying. And Team Ninja obviously knows how to do combat right, so every encounter feels brisk and fun whether I'm parrying oncoming attacks or ending things in a rain of blood via glory kills that finish off weakened foes. While I've always been more drawn to turn-based combat in my JRPG's, I have to admire this flashy take on Dark Souls style combat here. My main hangup with Stranger Of Paradise is the level design. If you thought Final Fantasy XIII was too linear, then you're not gonna like what this looks like. Though each mission takes place in a different area with its own unique visuals, there's some settings that are just plain ugly. Though there's also some sights to be seen. It's a true mixed bag. But the levels themselves do feel a bit uninspired and backtracking can be a pain because there's no map (unless I'm missing it). But none of that really matters because against all odds, Stranger Of Paradise has an awful lot going for it. The decision to make this a side-story/prequel means that the stakes are much lower than with Final Fantasy XVI. It means that there's more room for experimentation and expectations are lower. And the game truly benefits from all this. Stranger Of Paradise has a fantastic battle system, a fun job system, awesome boss battles, and - if you stick with it - a story that actually gets pretty dang compelling. I remember years ago pushing through Final Fantasy Type-0 because it was "so bad, it's good." That's not the case here. Stranger Of Paradise is actually a fun reboot (or whatever). And fun is what gaming is all about at the end of the day. It's also always a breath of fresh air to watch the credits roll on an RPG in under twenty hours. Believe it or not, in 2022 there's a Final Fantasy game on shelves that I'd call an honest to goodness hidden gem. |
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