JRPGs are in quite a rut these days, but this harkens back to the classics. It's not good because it apes the 16-bit era of JRPGs, though; it could've been released back then with little altered and fit in just fine as an instant classic. You'll hear plenty of comparisons to Chrono Trigger, and the art and animation are similar, but that's where it ends. The battle system is wholly unique, allowing you 8 different moves at a time, which are used up, but can be refreshed, though it costs a turn. Combined with a gauge that tells you when everyone's next attacks are going to be, this becomes surprisingly strategic. Couple this with weapons and accessories that all have different perks, shields that basically act as equippable warrior classes, and a pretty large cast of characters, and the possibilities are endless. The game can be a bit challenging, too, if you put it on the higher difficulties. It's been a very long time since I've played a JRPG that's been this engaging, and even longer since I've had any kind of a challenge from one; aside from SaGa Frontier, probably since the NES days. The visuals are neat, ranging from alien jungle planets to a dystopian cyberpunk city with a splash of film noir, and the character designs are creative. I especially like characters' facial expressions; I wish I had an emoticon of the protagonist's smirk to use anywhere. The enemies are pretty weird, too; very creative, and bosses have an appropriately large scale. Characters are generally very likeable, too. Except Dave; Dave's the requisite dork. There are gratuitous cutscenes throughout the game, just like back when the technology was new, but it all plays into the overall silly tone, so it's forgivable. The story's nothing special, but it's not actively bad, either; plenty of fun to be had here, so long as you turn your brain off. The soundtrack is excellent; I will be pursuing a copy of my own.
A lot of people say that this plays like a Zelda, but it's a lot closer to a map-based Devil May Cry with lead boots. You can carry 2 weapons with you out of a total 11, and you and select any 2 you like. Most of them were a total blast to use, and there was a lot of variety; no swords! Better yet: you can upgrade them; each has 5 sets of upgrades, and with each set, you have 2 from which to choose. Make a choice you regret? No problem; you can choose something else whenever you want. There's a lot of potential for customization and fine-tuning your equipment, both for your own preferences, and for new situations. Combat is fun and engaging, and even though the challenges can really try your patience, doing poorly at them will at least bring you the possibility for a weapon upgrade, which makes them much easier; you should be able to blow through most of them with enough upgrades. I didn't love them, but they really did teach you how to master most of the weapons, so they weren't something stupid, like herding goats. There are in-game achievements that give your more money, but they're all extremely reasonable to complete. I found the game to be pretty easy overall. If I have a main gripe, it's that you can't return to any area you've completed, but there is a New Game +. As for everything else, the visuals are interesting; it's cool how the stages build themselves as you progress, and the world has a fairly unique visual style to it. You won't just trudge through the same grass world, forest world, desert world, you know the rest. The music ranges from decent to pretty great, though most of the vocal tracks are lacking. The whole game has a vaguely Wild Western style to it, further propounded by the narrator, who seems like he's going to be annoying at first, but really grew on me; it's all very stylish. The story isn't anything mind-blowing, but it's not bad, either, and with the gameplay as fun as it is, it's much greater than the sum of its parts.
If you're looking for action or challenge, you won't really find it here, but if you just want to explore a beautiful, diverse underwater landscape, you simply can't go wrong here. When the PlayStation 4 was first announced, this is one of the few games that I had my eye on from the very beginning, and it's every bit as wonderful as I'd ever dreamt. As I've suggested, the game is little more than exploring an underwater world, and it's quite an experience. There are creatures to bring to life, statues for meditation to watch the marine life, and seashells to collect, but even without that, I found myself exploring every corner in abject wonder. The world of ABZU is so colorful and diverse, with areas in nearly every color of the rainbow, and some neat ruins and high-tech areas sprinkled in. I don't generally like orchestral soundtracks, but this one really did it for me; it's not just the usual bland, generic noise that fades into the background, but something that truly enhances the experience. There seems to be a bit of a story going on, but nothing is expressed in words, so you're free to interpret the events and lore as you see fit, and I think that works well with the immersion. I'll be the first to admit, though, that your mileage may vary; an underwater exploration game has been a dream of mine for ages. The gameplay can vary. There's nothing to really hurt you, but there may be a few moments in which the controls are frustrating. I started out with the keyboard and mouse, which takes a lot of time to get used to and... I kinda did. Playing with a controller (I have a Logitech F-310), though, makes a world of difference. It can still be a little awkward, depending what position you're in, but since there's no real danger, frustration was minimal. To say that this was inspired by the Ecco the Dolphin series would be an understatement, but this is a bit less dark and mysterious, for the most part.
This is a Rhythm-Based Platformer, which didn't make sense to me at first, but once I saw it in motion, I began to grasp what that meant. While your motion doesn't have anything inherently to do with the rhythm of the music, how the stage moves and operates entirely does. What's interesting is how this is used; in the first stage, you're trained to move completely with the rhythm, but in the second, you're taught to step back from it and use it to your advantage. There are only 4 stages, but each has its own gimmicks; rarely, if ever, are any repeated from one stage to the next. There are also boss fights, most of which function completely differently from each other. In fact, one of them was less a matter of reflex, and more a matter of math and logistics. I've heard many say that this game is very hard, but I disagree; if anything, it's what I call modern hard: brutal in short bursts, but carpet-bombed with checkpoints, and you have unlimited lives. Even still, I wouldn't say that it's all that hard. That is, of course, unless you're playing Mirror Mode, which has no checkpoints at all. The real draw, to me, is the visual style, which is like a psychedelic rainbow explosion right out of the 1970s, an artstyle that I absolutely adore! Your mileage may vary, but if you've seen anything of this game, and like the visuals, then you're likely to enjoy them. Color combinations are occasionally a little unorthodox, but the game always makes it work. The music is pleasant, and heavily electronic, and smartly makes you aware of it, since you have to pay attention to understand how the stage works and how to proceed. In all, everything works very well together, and with the creator's apparent vision for the game.
This RPG is certainly not without its flaws and frustrations, but it's absolutely worth experiencing. The design of the world, itself, is fascinating, and lends itself to having a lot of ecological diversity, of which it takes great advantage. There are several different societies, each with their own culture, and they're given more depth than is typical; towns aren't just places to restock! Your own party has a great deal of variety, as well; it reminds me of SaGa Frontier at least a little. Said characters are developed pretty well, and even the ones that don't speak human language are pretty entertaining. My favorite is the protagonist, Maya, who doesn't have a very distinct personality, but she's so lifelike - as though they took an actual person, sat her down, and had her speak and react to the story elements - and that's incredible in its own right. Despite having only 2 or 3 sets of facial expressions, she comes even more to life in conversation; the way she furrows her brow when she's about to break someone's jaw, or the way her eyes just light up when talking to her mentor about the world's equally impressive mythology is sheer brilliance. As mentioned, though, the game does have its flaws. There is almost no music, aside from on the world maps, and in battles, and the battle music not only selected randomly, but also usually slow and torturous. This makes the battles seem to drag on, and they don't need any help in that regard; animations are long, and your ATB bar comes to a screeching halt for their entire duration. Now, the battle system is interesting - layers of attacks and ATB bars almost reminiscent of Chrono Cross - and so is the magic system of combining spells to make new ones, but battles get to be frustrating at times (especially with those assassins!) and the only spells that aren't completely useless are buffs and debuffs. Fights can be strategic, but you'll go through long periods where you just want to skip them.
This is one of those Adventures made in RPG Maker, and for as much as I love Yume Nikki, I was excited to give this a try. I found the mouse controls to be very strange, and a bit clunky; they don't really work with the RPG Maker engine. This is a non-issue, however, since the keyboard controls work just fine. The visuals are about what you'd expect, and the music is okay. It goes without saying that the focus here is on the story, and what an experience! It gets off to a bad start with a character I found unlikeable and another who doesn't give enough of herself for you to really get to know her. It's not terribly interesting, and collecting the memories doesn't always make a lot of sense; it's not always clear what is an important memory and what is nothing. I was ready to write this one off before long. But then, the story just gripped me, and it never let go. I'm not an emotional person, and as such, I'm not usually into very emotional stories. There are the notable exceptions of mother-daughter stories or those of a young woman coming of age, but this is neither. It's s story with a sad ending that gets magically transformed into a happy one, which I typically find insulting. Despite this, the game had me as close to tears as I am emotionally capable by the end, and for a decent stretch, too. By the end, I did grow to like Eva, but Neil is just too insecure and dorky; maybe he'd grow on me, given enough time, but the game is on the shorter side. I'd definitely recommend this one, and say for sure to see it through.
This game is a bit hard to assess in a number of ways, but overall, I'd call it a very enjoyable experience. First of all, it's refreshing to see an indie game that doesn't use dumbed-down pixel art with stick legs and no facial features for all of its characters; this is 3D, and while the graphics aren't exactly top of the line, they still look very good; above PS2 quality, I'd say. More importantly is what they do with them, and Toren has a lot of colorful, surreal scenes that are a joy to explore as far as your leash will let you, and enchanting to imagine what lies beyond their virtual borders. Some of these areas are hidden, and while finding them doesn't really do anything, their discovery is really its own reward. The music is decent and atmospheric; it works well with the game, but probably isn't something you'd care to listen to out of context. The actual gameplay is pretty decent; it has its bugs (I fell through the floor a few times) and its quirks (combat is awkward, but never really necessary), but it works well enough for what it needs to do. It's like a 3D Zelda, but with more focus on solving puzzles than combat or exploration. It can be frustrating at times to figure out what to do, but it mostly works well. The story is where I feel a bit ambivalent. Without getting into spoilers, I wanted this to be a coming of age story for a young woman; I'm a total sucker for such a theme. It falls flat on its face in that regard, because you can't really get to know a character very well in a 3-hour (and that's being quite generous) game. The thing is, though, that the game wasn't ever trying to be that; its short length is actually very conducive to the story that it does tell, and is perhaps even a bit symbolic. Where it does have problems is that it comes off as a bit bombastic and pretentious, because it's trying to be a lot bigger than it really is. It's good, but I'd love a longer, more fleshed out tale set in this same game world someday.
This is a surprisingly deep Point-and-Click Adventure. From the very beginning, it becomes clear that it's aimed at a younger audience, but the story is the kind that makes more sense on a second playthrough, because there are so many elements that are not what they initially seem. The ending is also very good, even though it didn't end quite how I wanted it to. Tonally, it wobbled a bit more than it should have now and then, but it wasn't wildly inconsistent. The characters were great, too; Anna is a lovely, innocent, very demure girl. For some reason, though, my motherly instincts didn't quite resonate with her, like they usually would with this sort of character. The voice acting was mostly very good, but - a minor gripe - there were a few mythological references that were pronounced incorrectly, but only by some of the characters; others nailed it completely. This is hardly exclusive to this game, either, so it remains a minor gripe from a mythology buff. The visual style is enjoyable, and works well with the style of narrative, but occasionally fell right on its face when something that was supposed to be majestic looked overly cartoony. The game's biggest flaw is its puzzles. I've seen quite a lot worse in the genre, for sure, but there was the occasional moment where I exclaimed, "How was I supposed to come to that conclusion!?" Often, there seemed like many logical solutions to a puzzle, but there was only one, and it was often the least logical. Their biggest problem, though, was the heavy narrative focus; even if you already knew the solution to a puzzle, the game would throw up a wall between you and its resolution until it wanted to you solve the puzzle. As I said, though, they weren't terrible by any means, and a walkthrough is a simple enough solution; you at least couldn't screw yourself over because of something you forgot to do 3 chapters ago, forcing you to start over.
This is a Roguelike... Fall-and-Gun? You have the simple premise of trying to get to the bottom of a well, with many quirks and complications along the way. You can stomp most enemies, except those who are a special color; the palette only has 3 colors (4, if you count the water), and each one is used very purposefully. You can shoot straight down, and along the way, you can find different guns, each of which have their own strengths and drawbacks. After each section, you are also given a choice of perks that last for the rest of the run. The game is really tough - my first few runs, I didn't even make it past the first stage, much less the first area! - but as you play more and more, you get further and further, goading you onward, just to see what's next. You start out in your standard cave setting, but the deeper you get, the more surreal and wonderful it gets. When you finally reach the bottom, shaking like you just stuck a fork in an electrical socket, you're absolutely pumped, and it's not long after that before it becomes easy to do. I usually don't play Hard Mode in a game, but I found myself enjoying it a lot in this one, because each area has a new twist, but a fair one. Again, you'll die a lot, constantly wondering how you'll ever survive, but in time, you'll finally beat that, too! The difficulty curve is just about perfect; it pushes back enough that you still want to go on, but it feels like you've really accomplished something once you do! You unlock different styles the longer you play, which change up the rules a bit, as well. There are also quite a lot of different palettes to unlock, most of which are quite beautiful. By the time you've mastered the game, there probably won't be much left to unlock, so this is curved well, also. Best of all, it's only 3 bucks! Definitely worth picking up.
You can read most any other review here for talk about how artistic and deep this game is, but I'd rather discuss mechanics: the very thing you can't get from just watching a Longplay. This is an excellent Puzzle Platformer not entirely different from Limbo, but better in almost every way. Though Limbo is more on the Horror side, it kinda... forgets about 1/3 of the way through, and just becomes a monochromatic Puzzle Platformer, which isn't bad, but it shifted gears in the wrong direction. INSIDE has color, but much of the game is dull and gray, and it strikes the PERFECT balance to create an eerie, dismal atmosphere that reminds me of the World War 2 era; it's something I've been interested in exploring, but most of what you find is First-Person Shooters focused on racking up the largest Nazi body count. Though it seems a bit obtuse in the beginning, it does a good job throughout most of the game in terms of making the puzzles obvious enough that you don't need a walkthrough, but cryptic enough that they're still puzzles, and they're satisfying to complete. There are hidden goodies to find, but the game has nice subtle hints as to where they are, so that you don't accidentally make the wrong choice and miss them due to unintentional progress. Of course, as in Limbo, even if you do, you can go back to any one of 67 different checkpoints at any time. I do, however, recommend playing this completely through blind in one sitting before going back to see what you've missed, because it flows extremely well. Despite the rough start, this is a world that I wanted to explore to its fullest extent from the very beginning. Highly recommended to most anyone.
