129 deaths. That's the last screen I saw after the end credits on this one. 75% of the map revealed. Just over half the orbs collected. Yeah, I will not be going back into this one, though. It's just a little too hardcore for me. I pushed through so I could move on with my backlog for something a little lighter. AA has tough platforming, and at times it can be a bit unfair thanks to one hit deaths and a rather floaty jump (though you can control it mid air which is a must for some sections). Make sure you do yourself a favor and turn on the Assist Mode features in the options menu - I went through half the game not knowing the exist and they will help this game respect your time abilities just a bit more. There is an audience for this one, for sure. The 8-bit crowd that wants a retro-style controller thrower like the NES days.
I've had the original trilogy for years and every so often fire it up to give it another try, only to end in failure due to the controls and UI being so obtuse. So imagine my surprise when I logged into GOG and saw that they had upgraded my original version to this one. What a difference a little aim assist and some UI cleanup makes. I have way surpassed my original usual stopping point of the Garbage defense just a couple of hours in to actually making it through the story. I'll finally (hopefully) see the end this time.
Cute game, short, nice palate cleanser between other games. Just chill, help folks out, platform, smirk at the humor (hit or miss), and enjoy. Easy.
Short, funny references, some decent writing and I liked a few of the characters. Side content was a lot harder than it should have been, and fights on the worldmap could range from absurdly easy to not winnable without cheating a bit. Overall would have benefitted from some rebalancing and minor tweaks to systems.
This was originally released for the SEGA Genesis/Megadrive. If you played the first Breath of Fire title on SNES it's clear the devs channeled the battle system pretty directly, down to the viewpoint, menu, and even some enemy designs. Battles have a much quicker pace than BoF, and that's where the Genesis/Megadrive sensibilities seem to come in. Prepare to grind for sure, but battles are pretty quick AND enemies are visible onscreen so you can avoid some of them. Spells can be bought and assigned to any character, so that's kind of helpful if you want to customize builds a bit. Otherwise, each character seems to fit a niche with their load out and equipment available (balanced, tank, ranged, etc.). The story really isn't much to write home about (kind of generic). Also a few minor plot faults here and there, but that could be down to translation. You cold really do a lot worse. And Genesis/Megadrive RPGs were rare, so this one surfacing is a pretty neat artifact.
Take revenge on Zeus and his pantheon of sycophants. Great game, voice acted and done pretty well, some nice metroidvania, open world, and rpg elements. Also some areas for additional exploration. Seriously an easy recommend.
As a AAA open world large scale affair, with all the trappings you have come to expect from the genre (crafting, multiple activities, huge world map with tons of icons, collectibles, outfits, upgrades, etc.) it's a totally fine game. It will feel familiar and easy to play for anyone who's played something like this in the last 10 years. Fun and a bit endearing, even if written/voice acted a bit poorly at times. I want to dive into this game more, but I keep having technical issues with it despite having the specs to run it. Seems nigh impossible to maintain 60 fps so I'm constantly getting stutters and drops. So I would say make sure you have the recommended specs to have an enjoyable experience, it at LEAST a 6gb GPU with a decent wattage. My 3050 (95W) laptop isn't cutting it. My 1660 super desktop fares much better, which is disappointing as it's an older card. In short, a fun experience that requires higher than entry level hardware to fully enjoy.
The first couple of areas are fun, gloomy, atmospheric and lore focused. Really was having a good time and then something flipped and it just became a frustration cycle. There are so many cheap ways to lose health, from pods of enemies that will attach to you and take up stamina to inflict status effects to random fists that drop down and stun you. Rooms you should be able to manage but pile on the status effects (watch out for ice, you're pretty much done if you get frozen by a mob). Landmines. And some hallways will be so tight it's completely unavoidable. So you die. Over and over. It's like the game's entire goal is to infurirate. I gave this one too much of my time, moving on .
