A roguelike capturing the essence of the best era of Mega Man in widescreen on PC. What’s not to love?
Handily one of Atelier’s best combat experiences. I can’t verbalise why, but the combat mechanics in this entry were killer and it seems the rest of the fandom agrees this is one of the strongest battle systems. Has my most memorable selection of battle tracks too, such as Close to the Edge Part 2, Worship Me the Demon God and Don’t Panic. Its main set of vocal themes, particularly Sky of Twilight, Plurie and Infinity Chronicle, have stayed on my mind too. Story-wise, it was interesting that after the melancholy of Ayesha and Nio they drop an Arland-esque ditzy airhead girl right back into the lead role. Escha and Logy growing closer over the years was very sweet.
A phenomenal sendoff to one of the greatest gaming subseries of all time. Ryza 3 has the usual fantastic Atelier gameplay loop, and I loved exploring the huge open world. More of those in the coming games would be welcome. The instrumentation is always super high quality + this entry has Atelier attempting a One-Winged Angel and its snazziest final boss theme yet. As a complete package, how could I not call this GOTY? Particularly, this is also my category pick for Best Gameplay on Backloggd’s GOTY page. Ryza 3 has the usual fantastic Atelier gameplay loop + a huge open world that I personally really loved exploring. There are strong, strong contenders such as Turbo Overkill’s fast-paced boomer shooter action, Tears of the Kingdom being Tears of the Kingdom, Sega finally publishing a 2D Sonic that feels like it’s supposed to in Sonic Superstars, and Nintendo innovating Mario Wonder in a way that rivals – and perhaps even exceeds – their SNES golden days, but ultimately Ryza 3 leaves the biggest impact on me for its addictive gameplay and the length at which you get to engage with it due to being a JRPG.
Had me hooked right from its somber opening movie. The Shallies were both very compelling leads and it was great to finally see Ayesha, Keithgriff and Odelia return. Fantastic finale which at last brings the Dusk saga’s post-apocalyptic melancholia into full view. I didn’t expect to hear a track as somber and twisted as Narcolepsist in a Gust game other than Blue Reflection, but it makes sense that if it were to be anywhere in Atelier it would be Shallie’s final dungeon. Great game. I love Atelier.
Interesting that despite being the game immediately following Shallie, its narrative content being orders of magnitude lighter make it feel like a return to an earlier point in the series. Probably the most unremarkable entry I’ve played through in the series, but the baseline quality is solid enough for that to not really be a mark against it. The game’s still quite good. As is standard the music had some real standouts (my favourites from the soundtrack being Con Liela Xea & Juno) and the gather-craft gameplay loop was enjoyable. Its crafting method of placing material shapes on a tetris grid was really fresh too. Sophie & Plachta were nice deuteragonists, and the hometown of Kirchen Bell having such a strong non-cynical church presence makes it pretty unique within the JRPG genre.
Managed to scrape out victory against the last boss first try. Then got immediately demolished by the Wise Dragon. But it’s only like half an hour of following a short guide to get the right traits to become overpowered so eh.
Fun game, though decidedly less so than any of its peers due to the simplistic nature of alchemy and exploration in the original, and as you get toward the end the grinding required to unlock Schea’s ending + friend events is pretty ridiculous given how arduous EXP and FRD are to generate. It’s a fresh coat of paint laid over what is nonetheless still a 26 year old concept. What else can you really expect? At its core this still feels like that 26 year old game. As a fan of the franchise I suppose I feel validated in getting to experience an accessible rendition of the game which started it all, but damn if I don’t feel like a sucker from Gust still charging their premium for an eight hour game… Doubly so given the recent news that A26 is gonna be a live-service gacha which, while unrelated, does make me look more sourly on the high price tag than I already did.
Too short to really have an opinion on it.
Pretty and fun.
I had a longer comment about this game’s aesthetic and the gameplay inspirations pulled from Sonic and DKC but cannot find where I left that txt across four computers and seven external SSDs. Regardless, it went something along the line of calling this game a triumph for 3D platformers. Especially in the contemporary age where solid new games in the genre are hard to come by.
In some sense a replay, in some sense my first time. I’ve already marked it completed before since I watched the Gilgamesh route online and have played the prequel which has completely identical gameplay, but it’s awesome being able to actually play myself now and unlock the right to chuck it into a top 5 spot without that cheeky caveat of not having personally played it. Dare I say, peak. Absolute, actual peak. The writing in this game – snarky dialogue, excellent themes and fascinating character subtleties – are all top notch. Great game, and one of the slim few of this type that actually succeeds in its attempt to link its raw, overwhelming horniness into a compelling study on love and humanity. There are two reviews on Backloggd I like that highlight the duality: One comes from a user who says it’s so terminally pornsick that she couldn’t stand to go near it. Another is gushing about how the huge tonal difference in Extra vs CCC expertly embodies their themes, that Extra is about Hakunon rediscovering human identity, whereas CCC balances its constant perversions with the deep dives into the characters to tell a story about Hakunon rediscovering the forms and boundaries of human love. Both comments are equally true. But ultimately I find it amazing to see Nasu’s writing evolve this far from back when he used to cheaply throw porn elements into F/SN. It’s so cool the way in which dialogue effortlessly moves between abstract, hard to define characterisation, densely packed metaphorical speech and complex thematic insights, often resolving in unusual or unexpected directions, is all worked in such a way that it balance the precarious line between unparalleled brilliance and complete word vomit nonsense.
I like the story. It was good enough to prompt reflection upon how one of Fate’s big strengths in the Master and Servant mechanic is that you get a narrative predominantly focused on two core characters getting to know each other. And although Hakunon probing into the mind and motivations of Gilgamesh in Fate/Extra CCC is still the gold standard in a way I doubt can be topped, Iori and this Saber are plenty enjoyable as well. But compared to the other Fate branches this one feels way too much like an unapologetic retelling of Fate/Stay Night in a visually distinct setting, rather than some genuinely unique showing for the mechanics or lore; Iori admires his deceased master/father figure and after accidentally contracting Saber frequently holds her back from her combat potential for fear of collateral, making the pair feel too close to Emiya and F/SN Saber. Thinking about it, this might be the only time I’ve ever seen such an unambitious Fate. Which is a real testament to the franchise, but kinda ehhh for SR. The roster is posted with already popular servants like Jeanne Alter, Arjuna and Musashi, selected in a way that struggles to be taken as anything other than FGO fanservice. The musou combat is inadequate when the franchise has already shown off a much snappier and varied system in the Extella games, and the shell system makes enemies feel like HP sponges. Usually I’m a big fan of stagger mechanics (FFXIII and the general flow of combat in Blue Reflection come to mind), but the implementation here irked me. Additionally the long, hand-holdy leyline grids that get instigated before every story mission are genuinely annoying enough that they make me want to end my session there every time. Those are my criticisms. They get lessened as the game progresses, particularly as you unlock Fire and Void stance, but ultimately it’s just decent. Samurai Remnant is a good enough game, but the franchise usually carries a prestige well above merely good.
Truly too early to justify a review given its live service will probably run for years to come, but after spending so long anticipating its release I’d appreciate a moment to reflect in this year’s post. I like it. A great recreation of original FFVII’s aesthetic journey, ATB combat system and soundtrack. The asset flip on using Remake environments + character models for the battle scene looks so good in motion. Obviously I wish it wasn’t a gacha which awkwardly cuts to menu at the end of each minor scene or locked to smartphone, but it is what it is – a chance to see the original game given an in-style upgrade. And those first complaints are kinda moot anyway because my phone couldn’t run it all that well so I switched to watching the chapters on Youtube instead.
Initially I looked quite scathingly upon the direction the game took, as “what if we made X but rated M with blood and sex and swearing” is usually just a bad meme take, not something to be taken seriously. Heck, the earliest paragraphs I began writing in review liken it to parody. But despite that opposition it faced from me at the start, I think XVI made the case for its tone. It took its time getting there, but by the end I am yet again made to say that Final Fantasy does not miss. This is my pick for both Best Narrative and Best Soundtrack in Backloggd’s GOTY event. My remarks were as follows:
Narrative: Final Fantasy XVI took a long time to really get going, but once it hits its stride das just good FF. Tears of the Kingdom had an interesting story vibe going on, though undercooked due to the open world pacing and ultimately less interesting than BotW. As well, I greatly enjoyed the character resolutions in Ryza’s final game. But both clearly come up short. For me the only real contender to FF in game plot design is Xeno. Xenoblade 3 Future Redeemed was this year and was good, but it was just too damn short and so wasn’t able to really get up to usual Xenoblade standards despite dropping some real big lore bits.
Soundtrack: Overall OST props go to Final Fantasy XVI. In any other year I would love to give it to Atelier Ryza 3 because Ryza instrumentation is always super high quality + this entry has Atelier attempting a One-Winged Angel and its snazziest final boss theme yet. Tears of the Kingdom also makes a great case with more of BotW/TotK’s signature ambient/moody pieces and grand battle tracks, occasionally injected with interesting corruptions to reflect the story focus on rampant ancient technlogies. But I don’t know that it had anything quite as iconic as BotW’s Guardian or siege of Hyrule Castle themes. Xenoblade also reaches for the trophy by being similarly high quality in production + more cinematic than Atelier (and most other non-FF JRPGs) & holy moly Joanne Hogg is back for an emotional franchise-ending song. But mate…you just can’t top Final Fantasy in their bigger-budget symphonies. XVI’s gameplay was lacking when weighed against Stranger of Paradise and VII Remake, but when it comes to production FF is a juggernaut. Consistently. Your misfortune was merely that you competed against it. There is a cinematic range prevalent in FF soundtracks that other JRPGs are rarely brave enough to try and challenge. Ascension could have been the only track in XVI and there is still a very real chance it would have contended for top place.
Returning to review, Final Fantasy is a franchise where I really enjoy seeing how its design precepts evolve from one entry to the next. XVI in particular feels like the realisation of an image that the franchise has been pursuing for years. It borrows elements such as the dialogue and politicking of XII, the war focus and heavy death toll of Type-0 and the architectural design of XV. While I did combat to be fairly lacking, especially when weighed against FF’s recent two releases VII:R and Stranger of Paradise, this was mitigated by the strong boss encounters and fun, active patterns to navigate around. Similarly, while it may be easy to scorn the apparent linearity of its level design, electing to engage with the sidequests and hunts absolutely do alleviate this issue by taking you to all corners of the world map. This sentiment echoes throughout, that while parts of it may have been executed in a way that initially caused me hesitance, new mechanics or elements would be introduced to turn them into strengths. At times it was tough to avoid comparing it to FFXII, often to its detriment, as I would personally feel it coming up short in narrative, hunt system and politicking. Cid is a good character, but is he more charismatic than the leading man Balthier? Not a chance. The olde english dialogue in XII felt more like it had an actual place in the aesthetic, compared to XVI just kinda being written fanciful for no reason. However, the entire ensemble of Clive, Gav, Byron, Cid, Jill, Torgal, Charon? All well-realised characters explored through a number of sidequests, growing this into an absolutely stellar cast. I’m not sure a game has ever wrenched my heart as much as My Star creeping in over the ending watching Clive quietly die on the beach. Crisis Core and Type-0 don’t even hold a candle to the agony.
And the villains were awesome! As a huge fan of the Alien franchise I greatly enjoyed the Space Jockey-esque presentation of Ultima, and the amount of incredulous feats performed by Barnabas will surely see him held as a franchise great in the long run. The floating swordsman draped in black aesthetic felt reminiscent of Sephiroth, and also very much of Xenoblade 2’s Malos at times – perhaps deliberately so, given the shared voice actor. 8/10. Very good game. I’m glad to have played it. To have spent so long playing it, in particular. Comparing it to recent arrivals, it took me 16 days to finish Tears of the Kingdom with a final time of about 54 hours, whereas for FFXVI the credits rolled with a final time of about 46 hours and a journey length of a month and a half. I didn’t necessarily love the game, yet that sense of fighting upward against it at times and slowly coming to appreciate its stylistic decisions made it rewarding to fall so in love with the characters and narrative climax. And while it may ultimately then still come up short compared to a different game which I love and feel is an exciting experience from the get-go, it’s always these instances of fighting against the tide in games such as Breath of Fire 3 or Valkyrie Profile that end up becoming some of the most memorable gaming sessions for me.
Also obligatory Xeno bias points. Tales of Arise was Xenogears. Harvestella was Xenogears. Xenoblade 3 was Xenogears. Final Fantasy XVI is also very muchs Xenogears. JRPGs are just Xenogears nowadays it seems, and this is exact the opposite of a problem.
Movement in this game is very fun and the soundtrack is great. Particular favourites are the themes for Medley and Cable.
Deceptively good game I reckon. Visual direction of the characters and landscapes were gorgeous, and I appreciated how large all the dungeons were. Music was great. Sidequests made me come to quite like the cast. The combat wasn’t fantastic, but the effect animations were all quite flashy and I enjoyed having to navigate around the AOE attacks of bosses and larger enemies. Harvestella’s heavy sidequest focus, boss design and its story revolving around the four Seaslight (crystals) are places where you can really feel that this was one major inspiration feeding into FFXVI. In that sense I suppose it was even a good thing I accidentally took a 7 month break on the game, since approaching it this side of FFXVI offers that new insight. Its compatibility with the UE4 Unlocker was a welcome bonus too. I had a great deal of fun taking freecam screenshots.
Additionally: Obligatory Xeno-posting. Thought I was signing up for an Atelier-lite, but actually received Square Enix’s spiritual successor to Xenogears. I clued into it being as such pretty early after a vague inkling that Geist reminded me of Grahf, and then began noticing more similarities in the narrative since its setting was so obviously a fantasy planet with undercurrent of sci-fi conspiracy. But near the end it really went all in on that with the plot recurrences and specific homage/parallels, such as “mother Sophia” of the church, the colours on the final boss resembling Deus, Lost Gaia = the Zeboim ruins, another consciousness buried within Ein, and most excitingly the Gaia Defense System being visually modelled on Kadomony. The Gaia Computer is linked with “animus” terminology, and its powers as an existence-altering perpetual motion machine directly mirror the Zohar. Among a number of other things, and even some recurring Xenoblade iconography such as Asyl & Tiella’s character designs and an orbital elevator.
Cool seeing Zero’s schematics in the 20XX era, and I suppose the higher quality spritework is nice. Otherwise wholly forgettable considering how short it is, though that probably made more sense in the arcade setting where it was originally released.
Super Sonic 2 cool. It was ultimately only a short segment but I thought it was sick how DBZ-esque the power up and aura boosts were. Finally getting to play as Tails, Knuckles and Amy again in a 3D game was awesome as well. And while yes their gamefeel ultimately just kinda comes up short against their incarnations in SRB2, it’s still vindicating to look at the screen and see them playable in a real, official modern-quality Sonic game. The game progression was otherwise a mixed bag though. Frontiers traversal is still quite awesome as you navigate between boost, spindash launches + bouncing. The new trial towers really showed that off and might be my favourite overworld sections in the game now. But the boss rush trial was a chore and the new bout against The End was a glitchy mess.
Good game good game. It’s no Mania 2 and idk if it shows up Sonic & the Fallen Star, but on the scale of actual-factual Sonic (2, 3, Mania, Advance 1 & 2) to rough-approximation-of-Sonic-sorta (4, Advance 3, Rush, Generations/Forces 2D stages), Superstars finds itself firmly in league with the former. This is a series which lives – and very easily dies – by its physics and handling. Especially in the 2D outings where that pinball-platformer gamefeel hangs in such delicate balance. You can’t even begin to appreciate any good level design or gimmicks until the exact right physics are in place. Since here they more or less pulled the movement values out of Mania’s engine they skip SEGA’s displayed incompetence at recreating Classic Sonic physics and finally have a HD game where Sonic moves and controls like Sonic should! It’s great. And because that’s in place, I was able to really jive with the creative bosses and longer level design. Obviously the franchise philosophy means I won’t truly be equipped to discuss Superstars until I’ve replayed it 10+ times over a few years, but nonetheless my impression is good game. It feels like a genuine, worthy addition to the revered classics. When Sonic is good, Sonic is good.
What a shocker. Not just good for Star Ocean’s unfortunate standards, but a genuinely solid JRPG at large. The game excels in its huge environments. The delivery of the dialogue somehow lacks impact and the animation + idle poses haven’t really improved since SO4 nearly a decade and a half prior, but all of that kinda doesn’t matter to the experience that much.
I have Mario Wondered. Really good. And so many levels! It’s nice to see an old guard like Nintendo/Mario still manage to put out a game that rivals or even exceeds their retro golden age. I noticed it folding in a lot of ideas from DKC as well, which is like Mario except gooder. So that’s a plus. The game’s main aesthetic identity being music (the instrument noises for movement, musical levels, overall focus on rhythm in gameplay, gimmick and cutscene etc) is probably the most eyecatching and versatile theme Mario’s ever had. However this then leads me to say that Elephant Mario was dumb, because despite being the main powerup pushed in the game it has absolutely no synergy with the music theme and changes Mario’s design silhouette so much that you spend 90% of the game effectively looking at an entirely different character.
A fun little project. As much as I do like the platformers and think they are quite often treated unfairly, its colourful character content is where the Sonic franchise really shines. Would love to see more of this VN spinoff series.
Played Fate/Extella and believed I had acquired a taste for the whole musou genre but I guess not. It’s fine and, to a point, is interesting to watch the calamity prequel unfold. But diverging the timeline as it does erases the main reason this project piqued my interest anyway, and the gameplay isn’t engaging enough to offset that narrative miss.
Too huge of an experience for me to try and encapsulate it in review this many months after finishing it, but a great game as expected.
Timeless as ever.
Very fun. Soundtrack was killer and I enjoyed how much freedom there was in the movement. Though enemy variety could have been better and I’m never a fan of the lategame boomer shooter sections where they just throw swathes of increasingly tanky enemies at you. Art direction was obviously very cool, though the colour intensity was so high I genuinely had to take time for my eyes to readjust after looking away from the screen. Kinda too many redundant weapons as well, it almost felt comical spam-switching guns at the start of each conflict to try and remember which ones I actually wanted. But overall very fun still.
Very very fun. I liked the art direction and colourful magic powers. It was a breath of fresh air among the zombie shooters me and the lads have usually played. However the balance seemed pretty whack. Not sure how this game could be survivable without relentlessly abusing the flamethrower on hordes. Probably P2W tbh.
So I found out that Xenoblade 2 has a freecam mod now and unfortunately for my free time I am exactly the person who would play the entire game over just to take a slightly zoomed out shot of Rex holding the Pneuma Monado in the above scene. I had a blast with it honestly. Blue Reflection 2nd Light really awakened me to the potential of photo modes, so getting access to the camera in a game as gorgeous as XC2 was awesome. This year I probably spent several JRPGs worth of time just mucking around in freecam with the Xenoblade trilogy. Got to see some neat things like Malos and Pneuma’s swords, the Trinity Processor inscriptions and Siren up close.
When you’re feeling smug about hearing them cite the Earthlife Colonisation Project and Project Exodus to hard confirm X is part of the main canon after all, then not 30 seconds later they introduce Dimitri Yuriev from Xenosaga into the discussion. An out of focus radio really just flipped everything we thought we knew about Xenoblade in the span of three sentences huh. Credits roll with Joanne Hogg back to sing one last song that feels somewhere between Small Two of Pieces and Kokoro. I was so convinced that XC3 was going to end with a reprise for Small Two of Pieces and genuinely felt kinda surprised that it didn’t. But I was simply too ahead of the game. The Perfect Works is complete and Takahashi wins again. Holy moly Future Redeemed. And while I’m sure Dimitri is just a cheeky reference, there is so much to unpack from chapter 5. Xenogears had the exposition chair, guess Xenoblade has the exposition radio.
It was great seeing Shulk and Rex just bein’ dads and trying to interact with their children. I also much appreciate how it moved further along the traditional Xeno line. Right after I had made a video talking about this exact thing too. The Kadomony structure of Persona/Animus/Anima was reinforced by gendering the Trinity Processor cores of Ontos/Logos/Pneuma, and splitting Ontos into Alpha and Omega was a nice reference to Xenogears’ intro. Alpha’s four wings splitting into two halves was even borrowing imagery of the Nisan chapel. Since Future Redeemed coincidentally came out relatively close to my previous Xenoblade video I did inevitably have its contents on the mind for much of the storyline. And regarding that, there were some real mic drop moments. Pneuma was hidden in there somewhere, the suspicious amount of purple on N’s sword may perhaps have been Logos after all, and we get two good glimpses at a real Ontos Monado in the hands of Alpha and A.
Very basic, very easy metroidvania and I’ve yet to touch another Inti Creates game that felt like satisfactory subtitute for Mega Man Zero, but this one is fun nonetheless. It’s short enough to be a one-day clear and sometimes that can be refreshing. Enjoyed all the Love Live inside jokes in it. The Coelacanth lives!
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