Recent reviews by Kawayol

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First and foremost, before the review itself, here's a little bit of background/backstory in regards to my personal experience with Melty Blood in particular, and Nasuverse in overall (you can skip this and go to "pros/cons" part of the review, if you wish):

I've found out about Tsukihime for the first time ever sometime in 2002, played the game to 100% completion, after which a year later I've watched the first TV series. However, before I've started watching the animated adaptation, I've obtained the very first version of Melty Blood, which I installed on my PC roughly 2~3 months after it's initial release date. I've been playing that version quite a bit and even organized and hosted a couple tournaments at different anime fan parties, at the time. A couple years after, I've "upgraded" the game to "Re-ACT" version and kept on playing it through the early 2000s, right until the moment when "Act Cadenza" was released on the PS 2, in 2006. During that time I was very active in the FGC and by that particular point Melty Blood already became one of my main disciplines of expertise (back then I was primarily maining Satsuki, L/Ren and Miyako).

I was continuing on regularly playing Melty Blood competitively (mostly the Act Cadenza) during that period in my life, and I kept on doing so at least until late 2008. Nevertheless, sometime after the year 2008 ended, I've started getting some real-life problems (mainly pertaining to my health, my relatives/family members, and my joblessness/unemployment status) on my shoulders and mind, so I kind of "dropped" playing Melty back then, and I actually in all seriousness "skipped" (or, rather, "ignored", more like) both the "Actress Again" and then also "Current Code" as well, during the period when they were released and ongoing.

So, basically...given the fact that I've started playing Lumina literally just several days ago for the first time...it means that I didn't touch any Melty for what is literally 13 years-long period of being in personal "hiatus" of mine in relation to it. More than so - aside from Tsukihime and Melty I really never became a "fan" of any of the other works or settings from the Nasuverse. I never cared about anything that related or pertained to "Fate" franchise and I don't even care about Undernight (though I don't necessarily "hate" it either. I'm just not into it, don't care about it. I always felt that Undernight was "merely a temporary plug" that filled the "gap" before/in-between new Melty releases). I also never played Kagetsu Tohya even once up to this day, so when I saw all of those "newcomer" characters that were added to Re-ACT and Act Cadenza, I didn't know their Kagetsu origins at the time. I guess you could've deemed me as "ignorant" in this lieu, or something. I won't mind if so, since it's true.

Given this info, I'm asking of you to not judge me very hard in regards to what I'm going to say next about this game. Especially not after I've already obtained all 40 achievements in roughly just ~4 days from when I've started playing this for the first time, without any cheating whatsoever, purely only by utilizing my FGC knowledge and sheer playing skill. I've EARNED the "right to speak" on it.

Now, after I've explained myself a bit, I think it's about the time for me to review this thing, so...here we go.

Pros:
1. Very solid pixel and 2D art, beautiful 3D modeling and lighting for the stages/backgrounds.
The game is eye-candy regardless of where you look at, be that extremely cleanly and outright "slickly" designed menus, the character models themselves, the character art in scenes, or incredibly crispy and very nicely colored/lit stages that look fantastic and solid in pretty much all iterations (be that daytime, nighttime, or in-between). Native 4K support, too.

2. Simply GREAT music.
Melty never let me down with it's music, for all these years, and it still didn't this time around.
A couple tracks might sound a little bit "too short and repetitive" in their cues, but there's nothing outright "annoying" or "ear-bleeding", there's currently not a single track that could've forced me to either turn the music's volume down a lot or outright turn it off altogether. Sure, there are currently less tracks (since there are less characters and stages than before) than what I've "gotten used to" when playing Melty, but I have no doubt there will be more updates in the future where all of this gets improved/expanded. My personal favorites right now: "S&T&B" (Training), "Very Suitable" (Customization menu), "Resurrection Beat" (Shiki), "Perfect Place" (Kouma), "Blooming" (Miyako), "Luminous Moon Requiem" (Roa), both Endings. This is already more good-sounding tracks than Strive Fighter had in 6 months (eat your heart out, you dissonant POS with GARBAGE pseudo-"lyrics").

3. Gameplay mechanics and movement/fighting control quality are insanely solid.
The game controls extremely well, be that moving the character around overall or actually fighting. Every single last press of a button/key is very responsive, snappy, and exactly correct. Timing is also not bad or very strict at all, so you really don't have to be a professional fighting game tourney player with an arcade stick, to master this game's fighting mechanics all the way through and through. More than so, even - it's actually easier to whiff or ruin combo by pressing something too early, than it is to "not pace up soon enough" with the animation frames. And this game definitely rewards anyone who has experience of dealing with fighting games in general, since fighting in this game feels very natural and smooth, for me personally it was almost right at home.

Regardless, you can play this game well even if you don't play fighting games at all, as game's well-constructed timings totally allow that. This game is a feast for both the seasoned hardcore gamers such as myself and for complete newbies alike, no one gets left behind. Besides, this game is much deeper than some people might lead you into falsely believing. Yes, there are auto-combos present in this game to some extent, but they're NOT the only thing you can do and they're NOT end-all-be-all of this game, because the game is balanced in such a way that finding and doing non-automatic/manual combos (which there are aplenty opportunities for) nets MUCH greater damage/better results, prompting you to actually learn and train. Huge kudos to the devs for doing gameplay so well.

4. A lot of content and challenge for reasonable enough price.
Extensive tutorials that teach you BNB for all characters, at all skill levels. Story, Score Attack, Time Attack, and Survival modes, all of which are available in three separate difficulty flavors (and boy-oh-boy, Survival at "Hard" and levels past 15+ WILL make you crap yourself thoroughly enough, especially if you're aiming at getting "S" rank for the achievement AND if you happen to be unfortunately enough to be matched up against Roa, Red Arc, Arthuria, Noel, or Vlov, at the higher levels. They WILL try to do EVERYTHING in their AI-scripted powers to utterly RUIN your day. "Touch of death combos from nearly every poke" IS a thing with THESE a-holes, alright), tons of unlockable bonus content. This game has it all. Strive Fighter is an absolute friggin' joke in comparison to this, which is extremely sad given that TYPE-MOON and FrenPan are small teams of doujin circle members which STILL operate on very strict and small budget even nowadays, while ArcSys have all the money in the world due to cross-licensing, external financing, and whatnot. Things such as these just make you appreciate the "small guy/underdog" so much more, especially when it comes down to this specific genre of video games in particular. Unlike with the horrendously overpriced disbalanced abomination that is Strive Fighter, Lumina is trying everything in it's powers to make every cent spent on it worth it.

Cons:
1. No cards/badges on Steam, currently.

It so happened that, due to different reasons (mainly real life issues hitting like a train), I've completely skipped/missed on this game back in the days when it came out on consoles and PC, and didn't had a chance/time to get my hands on it ever since. I haven't been around Steam for more than a decade either, making a new account only just recently, and...I was pleasantly surprised to see this particular version of this game, which is essentially a definitive release (if not counting console-exclusive DLC and achievements), was given out completely for free, just a couple days ago from when I'm writing down this review.

So, please, when you read this review, do take a note that: a) I've never ever played Guacamelee before until just very recently, and I essentially didn't know anything at all about this game until I've started playing it, b) I got this particular release/version completely for free when it was given out for a short time, so my perception is obviously going to be skewed a bit because, hey, a completely free thing is free no matter what, even if some bad games can be given away freely too (gladly, this one is not such of a case).

Now for "pros"/"cons".

Pros:
1. Colorful world that's brimming with energy.
There's constantly something going on and it's always pretty to look at. Despite this game's deliberately stylized cubic 2D presentation, almost everything in the game is lighted up and shadowed properly, making things "pop" beautifully and don't look any "flat" at all. This is a living, breathing world that you're getting instantly immersed in.

2. Meticulous design that definitely stands out.
The game has it's own unique "face" that can't be mistaken for anything else. Considering that this was initially an indie title by newcomer devs, it's actually a very well done work and definitely a hit in the bullseye right from the get-go. A massive success from the first try, is what I'm saying. I've played a lot of indies of differing quality levels during my life, and Guacamelee definitely stands out as it's essentially a "no less than AA" tier of an indie product, it's way above majority of indies that are available on Steam, sheer "attention to details"-wise.

3. Gameplay mechanics and movement/fighting control quality are insanely solid.
The game controls extremely well, be that moving the character around, doing platforming and puzzles, or fighting. Every single last press of a button/key is very responsive, fast, and exactly correct. Timing is also not bad or very strict at all and allows for big delays between presses, so you really don't have to be a professional fighting game tourney player with an arcade stick, to master this game's fighting mechanics all the way through and through. And this game definitely rewards anyone who has experience of dealing with fighting games in general, since fighting in this game feels very natural and smooth, for me personally it was almost right at home. Regardless, you can play this game well even if you don't play fighting games at all, as game's well-constructed timings totally allow that. This game is a feast for both the seasoned hardcore gamers such as myself and for complete newbies alike, no one gets left behind. Huge kudos to the developer team for doing gameplay so well, and at the very first try no less.

4. Very good sound/music.
The musical tracks are unique, there's a plenty of them (though it gets just a little bit repetitive at the end), and their arrangements differ depending on the state of "plane" you're currently in, which is always a welcome addition. It almost never gets boring. Sound clips in general are very well done too, though I personally would've liked even more variety in sound cues for characters, chicken, and etc. But for the first attempt this is a definite success nonetheless.

5. Saving feature is very well done.
"Checkpoints" are aplenty, automatic saving is done constantly, it's absolutely not intrusive and insanely fast on both save itself and loading later. Quite honestly, the saving/loading mechanic of this game is so barely even noticeable, yet absolutely solid in it's implementation, that I don't even treat "save points" as being ones, but rather just as mere "checkpoints". It's just THAT fast and easy. I should note, however, that my game is installed onto a fast SSD, so maybe it'll be a bit less smooth and seamless for people who still use HDDs even nowadays.

6. Plenty of content and challenge.
This game is a Metroidvania all way through and through, alright. There's a ton of nooks and crannies, hidden rooms and secret locations to which you can get only by getting and using particular skills, and even full combinations of several different skills altogether in unison is required to accomplish especially challenging tasks at some points. Yet, despite that, this game is balanced just SO WELL that it doesn't as much present a "challenge" necessarily, rather than attempts to sincerely TEACH you how to play WELL games of such genre/type. Guacamelee's platforming and puzzle "challenges" are definitely of that kind where you have to use both your hands and your head well, and by doing it correctly you're always guaranteed to obtain a good/worthwhile prize, so sense of accomplishment is ALWAYS present and NEVER lets go right until the very end of the last "stage". Especially when you see that "golden medal" and a "100%" marked under the location on the "world map". To say that Guacamelee's developers knew what they're doing and where exactly to hit to poke at all of the classical "gamer satisfaction" spots, is to greatly underestimate things. Guacamelee isn't just a very good game in on by itself. It's a VERY high quality "Metroidvania". I'm not going to exaggerate it even one slightest bit by saying that it's right up there next to ones of the best Castlevania games ever released out there. Yes, it's no Hollow Knight or etc., but, hey, Hollow Knight was after. It's also no Super Metroid, but it sure as hell got pretty close to that point. I sincerely cannot friggin' wait now to try Guacamelee 2 soon and see if this already-perfected formula was greatly expanded/improved upon even further by these devs.

7. Unique characters and story.
Every single character, as well as almost every NPC and enemy type, all of them have their distinct unmistakable looks, designs, and behaviors. The story is short, but it's well written and it even deconstructs some of the cliches such a scenario tends to present. In the end it's, of course, a pretty simple and straightforward tale, but there's some NPCs that are right out-of-this-world to specifically mess up with your perception of this game, which is quite funny, and there's also more than one ending, which makes character development even more solid in the end. And TON of constant Easter eggs/allusions/references/nodes to other games and movies, their characters, and etc., some of which are SO bizarre that only a truly seasoned and very knowledgeable hardcore gamer such as myself could instantly recognize/remember them. Huge kudos, devs. You know your stuff, alright.

Almost (almost, but not ALL of them..read below for the cons) every last thing in this game was polished to the state of absolute perfection, essentially.

Cons:
1. There's currently (as I'm writing this down) a bug/glitch present in the game, which can completely lock you out of obtaining a particular achievement during very first play-through, thus essentially forcing you to start the entire game over from scratch/via Hard mode.
This is a bad thing and I sincerely hope that this wasn't actually intended by the devs, so I eagerly await for them to do a fix/patch, so that it won't ever happen again to anyone else after me. I've learned about this from my own bad experience, so I believe that developers must act. Here: https://gtm.you1.cn/app/275390/discussions/0/1644290458825505662/.

2. Analog (DualShock 4) is finicky while in the air/jumping.