~updated ratings for some titles~
Finished:
Link's Awakening (NS) [Finished February 28th, 2020] - Rating: N/A
Final Fantasy VII (NS) [Finished March 16th, 2020] - Rating: N/A
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen (PC) [Finished April 14th, 2020] - Rating: 8.2 - Great
Parasite Eve (ePSXe) [Finished April 23rd, 2020] - Rating: 7.8 - Really Good
Metroid: Zero Mission (VisualBoyAdvance) [Finished May 5th, 2020] - Rating: 8.8 - Great
Bioshock Remastered (PS4) [Finished May 11th, 2020] - Rating: 6.2/10 - Good
Star Wars: Republic Commando (PC) [Finished May 14th, 2020] - Rating: 7.5 - Really Good:
Halo: Combated Evolved Anniversary (Replay) (PC) [Finished May 17th, 2020] - Rating: 9.2 - Amazing:
I enjoyed this even more than I was expecting. Love the original Halo games, but always remembered the original feeling a bit outdated compared to the rest of the series. In some aspects it's still true, but it just clicked even more on what is now my third playthrough of the full game (including the original Xbox version). Most of the levels I remember being apathetic towards were now big positives, and I now appreciated more than ever the directing of the game. How many wow moments there are just going into a new environment, staring at the art design and the vistas. The more colorful nature of this still makes it a more visually appealing game most of the time then, say, the original version of Halo 2, ironically enough. The gameplay is chaos on Heroic and I love it. The backtracking mission is still pretty bad, and another level is just mediocre. But overall it has a lot of the highest highs in the franchise.
Okami HD (NS) - Rating: 6.5 - Good:
Great story and a lot of interesting mechanics held back by execution and some very average elements. The art design is nice, music is good though I don't think I'd go out of my way to listen to most songs, and the controls are generally spot-on, if not anything amazing. What is so frustrating is the controls of the brush. Interacting with objects that are in a 3d space with a canvas which can only convey 2D lines is annoying, at times even infuriating. Having to constantly readjust the camera to fix mistranslations of intentions just sucks. Like why. Why. The dungeon design in this game is so bland for every dungeon except the final ones at the end of each part - and even then the closing dungeon of Part 1 (the Orochi one) is not too special apart from the boss fight. The camera is odd ... it isn't really intrusive and normally doesn't get in the way ... but it still feels ... off. Even in normal gameplay you are always having to readjust to get a better view. The combat has a decent amount of depth ... after you get past the first 15 hours. And honestly the introduction of depth mostly just makes enemies a nuisance rather than a trial. The sub weapon system is neat, it has more depth than something like Nier Automata, but it needed more variety. Unlocking rewards with XP, or rewards with demon fangs was ultimately pointless because ... the game is fucking easy. Biggest problem of all was that this game actually made me question at times if I like the traditional 3D Zelda formula at all. Not only were the dungeons generally weak as previously described, but the items are almost entirely useless. You get so many items and you don't need them because the game is easy. You get upgrades, but a lot of the upgrades are extensions of things you already have. Which is common in 3D Zelda games too, but here it's worse because it lacks the physicality of power ups that variants have in Zelda games. Everything is a self fulfilling prophecy of monotonous repetition. You do things to further things and instead of feeling natural it just feels like padding. It honestly feels like a parody of the kind of criticisms people were having of Zelda before Breath of the Wild. Talk for minutes on end just to do a basic bitch puzzle. Talk for minutes on end to, get this, get another joke about how much Issun loves pussy. Thanks Issun, it was actually surprisingly funny for a long enough time, but even that enjoyment had to come to an end when 20 hours in it was still the main characteristic of every humanoid female character. Have Issun tell the player anytime they do something even remotely wrong as if the player are dumb babies. SHUT UP ABOUT THE CRACK MINI GAME ISSUN. JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP. You're still cool and I like you a lot. Waka doesn't even get justice in the last two parts of the game. He's just shoehorned in as important in the end. And that final boss is such a disappointment. There is probably some sort of metaphor or symbolism about false notions of power against a true god, but I don't care. Fuck that fish bruh. I didn't die once in this game, and i'm trash at games, that's when you know something is wrong with your game. I could probably think of more things to rant about, but that's it for now. Good game, I do like it. But I'd never touch it again.
Overall, too long for what it's trying to accomplish.
Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition (NS) [Finished June 17th, 2020] - Rating 9.1 - Amazing:
This is skybox porn at it's near finest. This is environmental porn for people who like to remember that video games can actually take you to places that don't look like your backyard. And perhaps most fascinating at all this is a JRPG that has it's most amazing moments happen at the beginning, middle, and end - which makes for fantastic story beats and overall pacing. If playing dress up with your characters, good voice acting, fantastic soundtracks (albeit with some questionable remixing), and an enthralling if messy storyline weren't convincing enough - then there's a pretty fun combat system here too. Even if ... the leveling system is just, ass, and too self-important.
Hollow Knight (NS) [Finished July 5th, 2020] - Rating 8.8 - Great:
Fantastic art direction, good boss design, and an engaging map system make Hollow Knight a great treat. This is a game where I found myself actually exploring every inch of the map whenever I was stuck instead of resorting to a guide like some coward normie, and guess what, it actually solved the problem 99% of the time. Things can get a bit messier when you are given three objectives on the map at once, but still. The badge system and map system really do a lot to help the game shine. Badges can change how you play quite a lot, and they're a great reward for saving caterpillars. If I had a complaint or two, it would probably be that despite the excellent production of the OST, it isn't very memorable save for a few tracks, which isn't really good for a game where you'll constantly be backtracking. I also think the enemy design felt a little basic, like there wasn't actually much variants in common enemies. Even a lot of the bosses sort of resort to the same concepts. However, given the length of the game, this was bound to happen to some extent, but I'd love if this stuff was addressed in Silksong.
