La5t Game You Fini5hed And Your Thought5

Did you do all the KH games, can't remember.

More importantly though what's happening with CHAOS!

Yes, I did indeed.

And that's a co-op game, so that's purely dependant on when we can get three of us together, so won't be finished for a while yet.

Just Buska to catch up then can have the Kingdom Hearts podcast.

Yeah I can see that being a bit of a pain, especially if one of you gets into it.

I'm going to do a bit of a 2023 thing later, and can see that being a issue for Redfall it be ohh I'm working or EofGiz being our Andy and being away etc.

Save Room

This is a neat little puzzle game based on the RE4 attache case inventory. The difficulty of the puzzles ramp up at a nice pace and there are clever ideas in how you need to combine or use items to create the space you need, the only downside is there isn't more than 40 levels as you'll probably be done with it in about an hour to an hour & a half.

It is only a fiver though & worth it if you have that or any spare eShop gold coins burning a hole in your pocket.

Couple of highlights from Moyles' monster-o-post:

- Thank goodness, somebody else who didn't like Steamworld Dig!
- You're right about the visuals of Bloodstained, they're just... off somehow. It didn't feel like there was a stylistic consistency. While it was amusing seeing a literal cat attacking you, the style of it didn't gel with the environment or the character or anything else.
- I don't understand why anybody would play a Cat Quest game solo. Two of them!? Moyles you fiend. The second one is a grand time in co-op though.
- Omori at 9.5/10 is peak Moyles. I do like it but there's no way anybody who's not a Mother series obsessive with an interest in creepypasta and mental health stuff would get as good an experience! Then again I didn't think Transistor was anywhere near that either. Maybe it's me. (Not with Omori it's not.)
- Picross S belongs in a bin.

In retrospect, they're maybe a little too highly scored, but I'd still give OMORI and Transistor at least a 9. I think a well told story will always add a fair bit onto any score I gave a game.

And now for a completely different type of JRPG:



This isn't a review as such, or a summary of my thoughts on a game.  It's instead an indictment of capitalism, because we don't have enough of those around here.  It's also an indictment of certain idiots on the Internet who complain that Pokémon should be better because it's got a super-rich company behind it, when money isn't what's wrong.  Pokémon Scarlet/Violet do throw money at the problem!  Or at least I assume they do, that Ed Sheeran song over the credits presumably didn't come cheap.  But money can't buy time.  It can buy man-hours, but after a certain point, you have to imagine that Too Many Cooks Syndrome sets in.

All the big problems about SV come down to its timescale, or lack thereof; and its need to keep chasing bigger bucks in said timescale.  On the 'obviously rushed' front, I'm not a big performance person but the frame rate did make my eyes go funny at times.  The towns were hollow husks, lists of menus with barely any NPCs worth talking to.  Obvious features, like set battle style or the ability to speed up/get rid of battle animations, were left on the chopping room floor for no obvious reason.  And it's still not clear why voice acting isn't present in cut-scenes which obviously have space for it.  (Or why there's no option to skip them...)  As for chasing bigger bucks, I'm still not convinced that an open world and three storylines add anything that tighter game design wouldn't.  My favourite bit of the whole game, the ending, had the storylines converging and a much more restricted space.

The biggest problem with the timescale, though, is that comparisons with the other open-world Pokémon game that released the same year are unavoidable, and SV ain't as good as Arceus.  It's not just the scaling back of aspects like stealth catching: the more interesting setting, more linear route in an equally open world, and more fun navigation options all show up the later game(s).  The battle system's better in SV, sure, it's the best it's ever been; and we get a proper full set of new monsters, albeit I preferred SM's and SwSh's.  Oh, and the soundtrack isn't interrupted every three seconds.  Otherwise, Arceus is better.  

This is a bloody negative bit of spiel for the score, but Pokémon is, fundamentally, good.  The core loop is still fun: the battling might the best traditional turn-based battling there is, training the monsters is the ultimate in RPG customisation, the soundtracks are some of the best in the industry and becoming the very best still hits the dopamine like nobody's business.  No new Pokémon game is going to be bad.  (Also the new textures are shiny, 2/3 main characters are good, Let's Go is fun, and the ending's a belter.) But here, more than ever, they feel like they're rushing to keep up with the market they've made.  Relaxing the schedule a bit would allow for better games and still a whole lot of money, but that's no good.  They have a capitalist behemoth to shepherd.  They must have all the money.

There's a point about Gimmighoul coins to be made here, but I'll let smarter people than me do that.  Screw capitalism though.

I saw credits on this before I left for the gym this morning, with something like 60 or 70 hours on the clock. I still have more to play, plus of course I'm working through Violet on stream but for the moment at least, I'll take a step back and get some other stuff played.

Basically, I absolutely adored this game. I felt like I was stepping into a beautifully realised and alive Pokémon world, full of life and colour. Exploring the areas was so incredibly compulsive that I was slow to make any progress. In much earlier games, progress between towns was slowed by caves full of frustrating random encounters. Later games streamlined this process but felt slight as a result. I think this game has a perfect solution, in that I spent just as much time battling wild Pokémon but felt no frustration because I was making the choice myself.

This is the game's major triumph. The semi-open world means the game can hit most of the same beats from a standard Pokémon campaign - eight gyms, a series of encounters with an enemy team, and a story with a Legendary Pokémon - but without the pacing feeling like a chore. Rather than Team Galactic sticking their nose in right when I was feeling good about making gym progress, the three threads here were enjoyed at my own pace.

The final section saw the three stories come together and put together a really likeable cast. It felt far more natural than, say, the cast of "friends" I felt nothing for in X and Y, and concluded some genuinely good stories with a grand and epic finale.

Story:

The much-discussed performance issues really aren't worth mentioning. It has some technical deficiencies, but they really didn't hinder my experience. When the sun's light was interacting with BOTW-style blades of grass and a couple of wild Pokémon, this game had moments of looking really nice.



10/10

I do get why people harped on about the performance issues. My first impressions of the game were not too bad because once I got my starter, I went out of my way to explore everywhere before going to the school. That was really fun and queued me in on what the game had to offer. But if I hadn't done that, my first impression would be very different because my game really did run like shit in the town that preceded the school and the capital. I also genuinely fell asleep twice during the school section.

But once you're past that, I then I think it's just another belting pokemon game. There was only really one other area where my ran like piss (the fairy team star leader), so for me most of the issues were just unfortunately front loaded into that key first impressions period of the game.

I really enjoyed the new monsters, and I had a good time interacting with the overworld. I would have liked for there to have been a few more quests, that end game area is just so good you know, but I was happy with what I got.

I quite liked the open world, which defo had room for improvement, but I liked it. I do think some scaling wouldn't go amiss, if not with wild pokemon then at least with the gyms. I enjoyed the way that pokemon behaved in the overworld, and I thought that there were plenty of moments within the game that had a good sense of humour, especially that legend Clive.

I think I enjoyed Sword and Shield more, in large part because the mons there were amazing, the setting was fun, and I really liked the sports vibes in that game as well as the gigantamax gimmick. But I'm more excited about what's in store in the future because of the foundation in this game.

Muss wrote:

My first impressions of the game were not too bad because once I got my starter, I went out of my way to explore everywhere before going to the school.

I had the same experience and I agree that it drastically impacted my impression going forwards. I'd had a couple of hours of fun, before a very brief stop at the school. I've been back since for the history lessons and one or two others, which are fine enough when, like with so many things, they are chosen by the player.

Quote :

There was only really one other area where my ran like piss (the fairy team star leader)

Oh really? Weird.

Quote :

I do think some scaling wouldn't go amiss, if not with wild pokemon then at least with the gyms.

Yeh, there was a run in the latter part of the game where I was way overlevelled. If not scaling, at least some hint that I ought to be making excursions both east and west.

Quote :

I think I enjoyed Sword and Shield more, in large part because the mons there were amazing, the setting was fun, and I really liked the sports vibes in that game as well as the gigantamax gimmick.

Hmm . . . I'm not quite ready to make this call yet, nor which I prefer out of Scarlet and Arceus. I will say the sports gimmick was infinitely cooler than the school one. I think beating Leon felt huge, whereas beating the Champ here felt like a formality. On the other hand, Team Star and the Titan stuff was way more interesting than the Dog stuff in SwSh. I also find exploring between story beats much more fun here.

I definitely lean towards Buskalilly's score for Pokemon SV, and agree with Muss that "it's just another belting Pokemon game" and that'll be exciting to see what's next. Agreed that scaling would have improved the game and that the open world required further development too. The Terestal gimmick was pretty weak and non-consequential though. I'd meet youse in the middle and say 8/10.

Muss wrote:

But I'm more excited about what's in store in the future because of the foundation in this game.

See, this is something I'd probably agree with... if we hadn't already had Arceus this year. When I 8/10ed Arceus in January or whenever I said exactly that, and I don't think SV have built on top of that recipe in any meaningful way. If anything they've detracted from it, by removing catching in the wild. What SV has made me think is the opposite, that for the main series a more tightly scripted adventure is what I want to see, including both the Gym structure and the evil team and pacing it better that way. (Oh, and the evil team were really quite meh this time around. Not bad, because they were going for a slightly different thing, but it wasn't one I appreciated as much.)

I guess I was just unlucky in both my experience of the performance, and the way I experienced the opening. Still, I don't think there was any clue that I was doing the latter wrong; and I don't think there's any saving the fact that the school town, which is meant to kick-start the adventure, is bobbins.

I actually liked Terestal. Dynamax is better from a spectacle point of view, but they couldn't do that twice. Shame there were no fun new 'Terestal forms' though, like the Gigantamaxes.

Today I finished my 52nd game of the year, and 4 games since my last post of what I finished. I may still finish some more games before the year ends, as I've got a few days off for Xmas and no football now (Well it's on, but I'm not going away to Weymouth by myself), meaning I may add to this list of let's give every game a number as some of ya loves numbers (Balla mostly).


9.5/10
Xenoblade 3, My GOTY

9/10
13 Sentinels, Excellent port to Switch
Bayonetta 3, Love me some Witch time
God of War Ragnarök, One of the new games I've finished which ended up being superb
Triangle Strategy

8.5/10
Behind the Frame
Kirby and the Forgotten Land
Neon White
Pokémon Legends
Pokémon Violet, Top Pokémon action
Strangers of Paradise Final Fantasy Origins
Xenoblade 2 Torna, Got me into XC

8/10
Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes
The Gardens Between, Finished for the 4th time now on PS5
God of War III
Horizon Forbidden West
LEGO Star Wars Skywalker Saga
Life is Strange Before the Storm Remastered
MGS Peace Walker, If I had played on PSP back in day maybe would be higher
The Quarry
Splatoon 3, Just finished off the single player and do want to try to play some more MP at some point
TMNT Shredder's Revenge
Voice of Cards Forsaken Maiden

7.5/10
Demon Slayer
DioField Chronicles
My Name is Mayo 3, What it does it does very well
Shin chan: Me and the Professor on Summer Vacation

7/10
Aperture Desk Job
Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory
Live A Live
Save Room, recently finished and is fun little puzzle game
Shin Megami Tensi V
Somerville
Stray
Toem

6.5/10
Dark Pictures Devil in Me
Bright Memory Infinite
Milk outside a bag of milk outside a bag of milk
OPUS Echo of Starsong

6/10
Land of Screens
A Little to the Left
Memoir Blue
Milk inside a bag of milk inside a bag of milk
Road 96
Solitaire Conspiracy
Suicide of Rachael Foster

5.5/10
As Dusk Falls, Feel I'm missing something as has got a bit of love

5/10
House of the Dead Remake
No Longer Home
VA-11 Hall-A KIDS

3/10
Boreal Tenebrae
Chocobo GP

2/10
Pupperazzi, Utter pants

I have played some other games like FM23, that haven't really got an end, though it's easily a 9/10 game.

masofdas wrote:

2/10
Pupperazzi, Utter pants

I don't want to be mean to them, I know they were just on that Xmas Indie thing on Nintendo's YouTube and all that, but that game looks half-finished.

I was upset when I saw Toem so low, but geez, As Dusk Falls was great. Absolutely savage.

How is a 7/10 low though, when As Dusk Falls is a little above avg at 5.5/10.

Because Toem is a stone cold 10/10 good hang

masofdas wrote:

How is a 7/10 low though

BECAUSE YOU PUT MY NAME IS MAYO 3 AT 7.5!!!

Mas got the GotY right though.

I ended up doing something similar in GRcade, but I'm planning a third Every Game I Played Reviewed post for early in the new year so I'll save it for then.

Hi all, I feel I must tell you about
HEAVENLY BODIES

This one was free last month on the PS+ Essential list.

At first glance you'd say "ah, this is QWOP in space, brief hilarity ensues" as your 2 sticks represent the direction your arms are pointing in, with shoulder buttons to grip on to things. However, the breed of "frustrating man-control" game makes a lot more sense than the afore-mentioned QWOP, as you are an astronaut on a space station, and therefore what you do with your arms is essentially the way you move about, grabbing on to rails and pulling yourself along. However, the 7 missions that make up the game involve you having to fix problems on said space-station, aligning satellite dishes, collecting mineral samples etc.
It works really well. Movement is deliberately frustrating; more so when you need to hold onto a tool of some kind in one hand and have to try and change the angle of your body with just your elbows. But unlike other games with this control method, there is a real sense of accomplishment when you get to the end of the mission, having not flown out into space, and grown an arboretum's worth of new plants. A very pleasant surprise this one.

Er, 5/6

Bayonetta 3



I love Bayonetta 1 and 2. They are really fun, and the stories make no sense, and they're camp as Christmas. It's all boobs and explosions and chaos and plot holes. I really like Bayonetta 3. It's mostly boobs and explosions and chaos and plot holes, but it's also not as camp, and they try to make the story make sense, and something is lost in the process.

I mentioned in the game's thread in the Switch forum, but I can really feel the shared DNA with Astral Chain here. Not in an offputting (to Cappa) way - I can see why AC is offputtingly niche and complicated to a lot of people - but there are a few things that reek of it. Demon Slaves play similarly to Legions; there are shared sound effects going into new areas; and it's, sadly, quite po-faced. Howeverrr, the thing I loved about Astral Chain is also present here, and that's really fun combat. To be honest, B3 is a lot more fun - there are tons of weapons and demons that all play totally differently, and whether you're button-mashing or trying to pull off specific combos, the fireworks and madness of the battles just clicks and it is better than ever. It's really fun.

It just feels a bit less distinct than its predecessors. There's more of a sci-fi bent than the first two games in the series, which is fun, but I liked twatting hideous angels in the chops, and you don't get to do that as much here. Newcomer Viola was damned if she did and damned if she didn't by the fans, but to give my opinion, she's just a bit half-baked - the equivalent of a goofy 'edgy' pop punk princess. She feels like an Avril Lavigne while Bayonetta feels like... I dunno, someone cool?

And the ENDING.

Spoilers:

Overall, I really loved the game, but it feels less Bayonetta-y than the other two. It packs loads more random shit in, which makes its core gameplay better than ever - but it bloats to a point where it feels like it's a more generic action game, which is a shame.

At least Loki isn't anywhere to be seen though. Genuinely the worst voice acting I've ever had the misfortune to hear in a video game. "C'mon love! Try to keep up!"

Reading that and listening to the Back Page lads, it feels like the trilogy has ended on a little bit of a damp note, prizing spectacle over the things that made the first two games so popular.  Bit sad if so.  Still, at least you can thump demons with a train.




Any point-and-click fans with children here?  Smurf!  Smurf might really love Lost in Play!  It's a point-and-click game told in the imagination world of two children that might properly have warped them into a dreamworld, I'm not sure.  It looks lovely and cartoon-like, it moves like the clappers for the genre, there's nothing stupid or obtuse, there's a ridiculous amount of variety in the little minigames you come across, it ends on a blinder of a note, and in general it's charming and wholesome.  Except, point-and-clicks are a genre I tolerate rather than love, and combined with it not really going for jokes (it's told entirely without words, which makes humour hard) it didn't land as much as it felt it should have.  And I don't have kids, so the wholesome whimsy also didn't land as much as it felt it should have, and the children's wordless warbling annoyed me a bit.  I'm still recommending it, and it feels like a game I should like more; but Nintendo Life gave it a 9/10, and I reckon you need to have kids or love the genre for it to reach those heights.  7/10

I was very interested when I seen you playing this, I only first heard of it a few weeks ago and nearly downloaded it there and then, I wishlisted it instead but it's very high up the list so it's good to see it holds up.

Hope you enjoy it my man!



If you every looked at creepypasta-game Yume Nikki and thought, 'wow that looks like a thing I'm interested in, wish there was more actual game to it', you may end up giving Omori such absurd scores as 9.5/10.  For those who aren't into psychological horror or mental health or just worlds of imagination, it may be a harder sell.  Still though, this is a properly good RPG.

Omori nails most of the traditional RPG areas.  It's well-written, with appealing characters.  The battle system is standard turn-based stuff, but the emotions dynamic gives it enough of its own spin to stand out.  The overworld visuals may not be that special, but the hand-drawn battle visuals are striking and quite lovely.  The soundtrack is, as expected from an indie RPG, top-notch.  It's only 20h for a single playthrough, which in a genre of mutli-hour epics is something of a relief.  And it is properly creepy.

The biggest flaws in the game are inherent to its structure.  Very minor spoiler: the game takes place between a real world and a world of imagination.  The world of imagination is the one where most of the actual 'game' takes place, but due to it never quite being clear whether or not that world exists entirely in somebody's head, it can feel a little inconsequential at times, a bit 'and it was all a dream'; and it sometimes feels a bit too out there and strange.  Meanwhile the real world is... well, dull!  That's why we play videogames!  It's a bunch of tripe sidequests with dull people and what combat there is is quite bad.  The game's also broken down into days, and it's very possible to miss a day-determined event and lock yourself out of certain things - not all of them clear.  I missed the 'real world''s only dungeon this way.

These flaws are so fundamental to the game that it almost seems churlish to point them out as such, and even with them, Omori is a good game and an experience that will stay with you.  It's right on the cusp of the scores for me, so for now I'm going with my feelings from after I finished it and being a little kind.  Whichever number I give it, though, Omori is a game fans of strange RPGs should go out of their way to try.

Very fair write-up there and not much I can disagree with. The real world parts are a slog to engage with from a gameplay perspective in that the battles are rough, but because it's almost purposefully done it's hard to really look down on it. The rest of the game shines so brightly that it makes up for it and of course, I loved it a lot for being exactly the sort of game I enjoy.

Balladeer wrote:

I missed the 'real world''s only dungeon this way.

You missed nothing of worth - beyond getting to see the real world versions of the snapshots that appear when you change your party lead, there was nothing in there beyond some real world battles which we both know is nothing to pine for.