- Ys 1 & 2 feature some concepts that go against modern standards. Though, because it's split in 2 games Ys 1 serves as the sandbox to stumble and learn, then you'll enter Ys 2 with all the lessons learned from Ys 1, and will be able to enjoy a level of riddles that modern games wouldn't dare trying (I only had to check online once in my first playthrough of Ys 2, yet stumbled every way possible in Ys 1). - Thanks to their scope, Ys 1&2 can afford to make the world feel exceptionally alive : Each human in the land is a character with their own lore, a journal entry, and there's been a charming attention to link everyone to plot-relevant stuff in a way or another. -Most impressively, each NPC has dialogues for many different cases. Even if you choose to not engage to it, this makes the world feel that much more alive and coherent. Ys 2 pushes this to the extreme by featuring a huge amount of situational dialogues, implementing an individual affection level for each NPC that grows as you offer them gifts (or decreases if you hit them, up to negative levels) where everyone has their own dialogue for each of their affection level. Every normal enemy also has dialogue as well because why being the king at something when you can be the emperor instead. -Ys 2 improves on Ys 1 in many striking ways, which kept getting me amazed in my Ys 2 playthrough, despite still looking like an RPG maker project.
All in all, made by people who clearly knew what they were doing, and put a lot of thoughts into it. Cool postgame elements, but you will miss no lore if you don't want to go for it.
If you want an accessible racing game that's easy to pick up even on keyboard, with a difficulty around "medium-hard but not unfair", a huge pool of circuits and a well-furnished career, WR2 will get you covered. Though, if you're more into simulators, accurate physics and real-life brands, this might not be your cup of tea. Pros : - Beautiful low-poly map - Good graphics and performance for low specs - Plenty of tracks and vehicles with different physics, and sometimes nitro - Challenging enough to make each victory feel gratifying. Bots take every turn just right, but avoid shortcuts, so decent handling and map knowledge will get you through, even with a keyboard. - Non-racing cars appear on the minimap, and are a serious threat Cons : - Basic physics : No suspensions, barebones car damage, and standing in front of faster opponents is very safe, as if they bump you, you always get boosted straight forward. - No real-life brands - I think the music falls flat. Disabled from start. - Overall, doesn't stand a chance against the giants of the racing genre if you either want something casual or simulator. WR2 is more of a simulator that's lackluster enough to be casual. - In the campaign, some events have you go through up to 5 races in a row. You want to stop after clearing the 3rd? Nuh-huh, you can't save until you cleared the last race of the event.
I don't like RTS. So much unclear crap to figure out I don't like RTS. I'd only find out I messed up 30 minutes later, and likely not know where it went wrong. I don't like RTS. I don't like RTS. Wait this game's cool === BEGINNER FRIENDLY ﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉ <- Attempt to underline As a RTS hater, I find the beginner experience of TA surprisingly welcoming, as it had me hooked enough to stomach the mechanics that the campaign mode gradually unlocks. There's no "do this, do that" tutorial, yet the game is cleverly designed so it's unlikely for newcomers to *not* find out about a mechanic, and I find figuring things by myself more efficient than verbose tutorials. Once familiarized with the basics, the shortcuts list is easy to find (labelled "help" rather than "shortcuts", I mean what else would I need help for?) The interface is very light, and everything is described briefly yet efficiently. DATED BUT CHARMING LOOKS ﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉ At first, seeing the screenshots made me assume of a pseudo-3d environment where everything behaves in 2d with a few sprites, in a rather unimmersive setting. Turns out everything is 3d. The maps themselves have 3d terrain, which makes them feel much more real than a flat png. The animations are smooth, and units tilt accordingly to the slope they're on. GAMEPLAY ﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉﹉ I'm only a novice at RTS, but TA seems to keep the resource system very simple so the player can focus on the building and combat. The QoL is decent. You can assign units to up to 9 different squads (assigning a bot factory will automatically assign the bots that it produces), setup 4 waypoints on the map to instantly center the viewport at them, and a bunch of inessential keybinds that you can learn when seeking for input optimisation. Overall a good find.
Quite a solid content, having a good time, but there're multiple mechanics that just don't feel right : - By losing hp or stamina, the max value they can reach diminishes a bit, which can be reversed mainly through sleeping. While I loved the idea, sleep had to be tweaked accordingly : You can sleep anywhere at any time to full heal, at the cost of a meal and possibly a few enemies spawning nearby as an ambush (easy farming). This makes sleep feel closer to typing a cheatcode than resting from tiredness. - Beginner combat might seem like a cool challenge, but the game adds powerful means to cheese anything from afar. Mainly bow and magic, but also trapping enemies behind walls and "wallbanging" them using a spear. - Due to autosave, dying teleports the player in a place coherent with their death. Thing is, dying in some dungeons teleports you right into the dungeon cell, with your backpack right next to you, and (rarely) your armor confiscated in a nearby chest. - You can drop filled backpacks as stashes, which MIGHT never disappear (I think dropping in inns is the safest). A single backpack has in fact infinite storage, and only slows you down if too heavy. I think it's good to give strong options to be able to choose either an easy or hard path. Thing is, you can ignore them, but as soon as you're struggling, it's just so tempting to use them and save time, making the victory feel undeserved. Also, In hardcore mode, dying has a 20% chance of deleting the save file, which I can't understand. Loosing the save feels unlucky, and keeping it feels cheated. This might be a measure to give a chance in case of unavoidable deaths. Overall, I like that game, and the only fact that it can reach 60fps on integrated graphics made me add a star. There's just all these details that really made me enjoy it less. I'm going back on S.T.A.L.K.E.R anomaly.
COMMON ISSUE : many user experienced bright light saturating the screen. Just turn off "glow" in settings. Just a normal sim game, probably not huge, but not overwhelming neither, and a funny experience nonetheless for non-hardcore sim enthusiasts. People's haircuts make me feel like I'm in Death Note. I even had female Light Yagami at my front desk on my first game. The dated interface only adds to its charm. Well documented in-game. Hovering buttons give good descriptions and the tutorial campaign is pretty exhaustive. There are good tools to help manage rooms quickly. Playing mostly action games, the first steps were hilarious, because I could make mistakes that would be unacceptable in real life (which is probably the essence of sim games). Clients complaining about no door to their bathroom, no switch to turn lights off while they're in bed at 10pm, walking right in front of me while I take pictures, me hopelessly spamming ctrl+z after deleting a whole room, closing the entire hotel just to get rid of luggage that prevents moving furniture, etc.
Beautiful game, but ultimately about driving and taking on quests to destroy stuff. Although I got burnt out before getting bored. The game still takes you in a variety of environment, but you're actually always seeking for something. "I must go there", "take the next mission", "not forget to look for treasures while driving". What if you want to take a break on objectives? You can... pointlessly drive in the wild and fight enemies that won't reward you anything. In other words, it's really good chips, but you'll need to get sauce elsewhere (touch grass nub) or you'll end up having enough quickly.
