Ulasan terkini oleh Ekstasis

I can finally point to this if someone asks me, "Which Fate should I start with?"

There's now three solid starting points available to the international (mostly the US) crowd for legal consumption in 2024, those being Fate/Zero (an anime), Fate/Samurai Remnant (a musou game), and this (a visual novel).

This was supposed to be a joke, so I'll just put the UBW chant in here.

I'm not the invincible swordsman, Jūbei,
I'm not the one praised as a master of espionage, Hanzō
I'm not the renowned caster Abe-no-Seimei.
Why, out of all people, I, a swordsmith, was summoned.
For being unable to foresee that, this is your defeat.
Once seeking for the ultimate blade.
A blade of steel cutting no flesh, nor bones and neither life.
What I seek for is the clearance of resentment.
The cutting of bonds, fate and destiny.
That is, to free oneself from Karma.
Upon one's arrival are countless tools.
Carved over a thousand blades, forming a pile of swords.
This is the place where all paths cross.
This is the place where all desires flow.
This is the place where all deaths await
My whole life was for this single swing.
The heart of the blade is right here!
Take this, This is my Tsumukari Muramasa!!!


Ah that's not right.


I am the bone of my sword
Steel is my body and fire is my blood
I have created over a thousand blades
Unknown to Death,
Nor known to Life.
Have withstood pain to create many weapons
But yet, those hands will never hold anything
So as I pray, Unlimited Blade Works.


There we go!

I feel like I should probably talk about the original before I talk about REm4ke.
The original RE4 is a masterpiece.. It's a hard game to beat in terms of design. A goofy survival horror with an annoying character to escort? Wait a minute, that doesn't sounds appealing at all. Except the game play is fantastic. and the levels are super well paced and put together. Leon is amazing character to follow through the game, and the gameplay usually matches up to what Leon can do in cutscenes. Kicks, flips, poses, firing guns like a maniac, and epic knife skills. There are high points and low points, and all of the game is memorable. The original is the reason why we have so many over the shoulder survival horror games today. However, the game is not without its faults. Resident Evil 4's biggest fault is Ashley. She's really annoying, and a lot of people would or already do dislike her character. Plus, escorting her is a hassle, and sometimes maneuvering through crows of enemies causes more problems because of her following you.
This is what REm4ke does so well in comparison. Ashley is a fantastic and lovely character. She is darling, and I love how her new character is written in a way that made me feel concern for her. The rest of the game is fantastic too. The game play is modernized so you don't need to aim while standing still. The Red9 is reworked in such a great way that actually made me want to use Leon's starter pistol all the way through the game (I didn't, the Red9 is still a broken pos), You have interesting mechanics with the new knife, which open up opportunities in all kinds of scenarios. There's reworked Ashley AI which makes Ashley potentially easier to manage, AND she doesn't have a health bar that you need to manage and/or increase with your herbs. Parts of the original that made the game feel bloated have been redone in this one, and side characters who are barely present in the original actually have real characters. I never took Salazar seriously in the original, but in this game he feels like an actual menace.
The REm4ke went above and beyond my expectations, and it's still my favorite game to come out this year. I should probably finish my Professional Run.

Anyway, play both Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 4 if you are able to. They're both great games and no matter which you play, the president's daughter was installed with ballistics.
I really shouldn't write these when I'm tired.

Is this what couples therapy feels like?

horse souls (there's two horses that i like in this one)

It's about family.


For real though, I'm tired, so I'll just make it short.
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy is a well paced, story based, linear character driven action game.
It's pretty good.

Alright I'm going to review this game for real on on its merits.

First things first, this is potentially the best RPG I've ever played. Full disclosure, there's the factor of my own personal bias around the idea of an adventurer party. Any RPG out there with a party mechanic with interactive members I will probably end up loving.

Before I picked this game up, I had randomly decided to play Dragon Quest V: Hand of the Heavenly Bride. I fell in love with the game. I loved how every time you encountered a new location or talked to NPCs, you could talk with your party members to both get to know them as well as get their own insight. Because of this mechanic specifically, I'm planning to check out more games in this series. It's very interesting and it gives your party members personality rather than being solid brick walls for anything that's not a scripted event. Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age also has this party talk mechanic, but it's not as totally in depth as DQV, but that is totally made up for by the extensive story and character building done by the scripted events of the game.
For example, I went from completely hating two party members at the start, to completely adoring them and enjoying their dialogue and presence in my team. This was over the span of about ten or twelve hours. I felt that these relationships and building on these characters felt actually rather organic. Few, if any, of the characters immediately trust you at the start and, honestly, nor should you trust them immediately. This party writing and mechanics really set the game apart for me, to the point where it kind of knocked Chrono Trigger out of my top RPG. I fell in love with this game after starting to love the characters in it.

Now moving on to the gameplay. If you haven't played a Dragon Quest before, this would be a good start. It's very simple. You defeat enemies and level up to better your stats. That's the core loop, but there's stuff added on to enhance the loop. This game has skills and skill points. Your characters gain skill points every level up to spend on new abilities or powerful passives. And that's about it for the gameplay. Very simple stuff. Anyone can learn it, and anyone can play it.

Let me talk a bit about the pacing. The game is rather slow. It's dependent on story as well as your leveling. There are a few times where I had to go and grind a out a level to properly survive a fight or gain some cash to proper gear. Asides from the leveling, the story takes its time, and in my opinion, it's a good thing for it to do. Although the pacing is a bit slow, the game takes the time to develop characters during the time it takes to get from the start to finish of a story beat. It is the main reason why I was able to have a 31 and 4 minute long play session, with only about 4 of those hours be food and hygiene breaks. Its pacing is rather enrapturing, and it made me want to keep on going even though I knew I should probably take a break and continue after getting some sleep.

Next topic up is the music. It's Dragon Quest music. So that means if you played or plan on playing other games in the series, you'll probably hear similar or the same melodies. That doesn't mean the soundtrack is bad, since I believe the entire thing was performed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphonic Orchestra. There is the obvious production value that you can hear in the performances, but that doesn't remove the actual typical problem with any long form RPG. You will hear a lot of the track over and over again. This one is at least decent, though.

Lastly is the story. The story is very simple. Good versus evil. You are the Luminary, and it is your destiny to defeat the evil force that rules over all of that which shadows the land. What isn't simple is getting to that destination. While the general plot is actually super straight forward, the twists and turns that take shape in the story make the game unique. This includes the party members you recruit over the duration of the story. Each character has their own little arc with their own sequence for self-realization. It's rather heart warming and fun to go through.
I will admit, the Third Act is a bit messy, but considering the topics involved and the need to wrap up the game, of course it's going a bit messy.

And to close this review. I love this game. Genuinely, I think it's an amazing experience, and it's gotten me convinced to explore other games in this series. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone halfway interested in the premise, gameplay loop, and/or the study of characters and their development.

tl;dr good experience, good characters, suitable music with typical rpg issue, fun story twists, good game

Original post below:
I'll be honest, I have not finished this game yet, but I do have something that is incredibly important to say about it. With all the games I've played, not one of those has ever captivated me for over 28 hours of straight playtime. I had a play session of 31 hours and 4 minutes, and I only stopped because I felt really tired and needed to actually sleep.

As a game, if you haven't played a Dragon Quest before ( I played DQV before I picked this up and it has a similar gameloop also Bianca best girl ) then you need to expect one thing: they can get grindy when you're underleveled, and feel grindy when you're just progressing the story.

Speaking of story, Dragon Quest stories are typically the Hero vs. the Villain story, like a standard good vs. evil story. What's special about some of the games is how there are twists and turns while you do your hero schtick. This can get to the point where the hero is bested or just straight up fails to win, only to get back up, continue the adventure and save the world. Depending on the handling, it can be really fulfilling.

These two things can and will make or break the games for people, so that is a disclaimer. Aside from that, the game is absolutely excellent. I love it.

Anyway, I was up all night playing this game, and I'm incredibly tired right now, so this is where I'll end the review.

I think I've spent a decent amount of time on this game to understand that as a game, it is absolutely fantastic.
As a piece of storytelling, it misses most, if not all, the marks.

From a standpoint that is not focused on the story, the game is actually a really good experience. Some of the side quests are cleverly written, the gunplay and speed at which fights take place are great. Most guns from whites to legendaries handle really well and are fun to use. Each character has a varied play style, and with each character having their fair share of active abilities and augments for abilities, there is no single right way to play. From the characters I have played so far, as well as from seeing friends enjoy themselves, each one is super fun to play. I would say yes, the game is really fun to play.
The presentation of most things is fantastic. The music is fantastic. The art direction is marvelous, as each character design feels pretty unique, and each planet the player goes to has a constant aesthetic presented, only ever disrupted by a general descent or climb to alien ruins all the while still respecting the planet's given aesthetic.

On the other hand, the story feels kind of absolutely horrible. It brings down the gameplay, and makes much of the game unbearable to go through. It is sloppy. You can feel the spite for some characters, and the absolute love for other characters in the story. The main villains are charismatic and deliver their lines well, but the lines they often deliver are in a sense trying to hard to be relatable. Certain story build ups are dropped at their climax, and other trope-y buildups are given a pass which would not be a problem if they were delivered well.

This game has a lot of missed potential. I honestly feel like the game could be something short of a masterpiece, if not one, if the story was either better formatted and delivered or better written.

I do have some small unorganized gripes. Certain skills are broken when you're not the host, such as Amara's skill Find Your Center (this bug has been existing since the Epic Games Store release). You cannot look at another player's build or inventory (I think that might be bad implementation of the inspect button). Barrels are still absolute nightmares to be around. A lot of the guns for a lot of the manufacturers feel same-y, and I do not know how I missed a weapon type, but I missed a couple on my first playthrough. There are way too many jokes centered around farts and feces. I miss old Rhys and the Tales From the Borderlands gang (not the VA for Rhys, just his character). Ava is badly handled, and feels like she was supposed to be the character that goes through arc to accept guilt of a loved one's death but does not go through such an emotional change. The writing to me has a feeling like it was not finished or it was rushed to completion before being delivered.

EDIT: I have another gripe. Rhys. Where is my man Rhys from Tales From The Borderlands? This is not him. Rest in peace Rhys' character growth.

EDIT 4/15/2020: Why the hell did they drop Troy's betrayal?

EDIT 4/28/2020: Mayhem modes are actually pretty fun. It's like the OP system in Borderlands 2 with less steps to it.

A lot of the problems most people will have with this game is the storyline, but I would wager that the gameplay is enough to recommend at least one or two playthroughs of the game. I simultaneously hate this game and love it at the same time.
Solid 3/5.

I came for Ashleigh's thighs.

I've had 33 runs failed in a row, gotten to the Hollow about ten times, and die on the boss each time while starting it with half a heart left.

I love this game.

Just Monika.