Messages

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: July 15, 2025, 05:08:27 pm »

Game 14 - Silent Hill 3 (PS2) - 9 Hours

I wouldn't say that I have the most experience with survival horror games. I've played a few Silent Hills; I've played a few Resident Evils; the random Fatal Frame and Amnesia game here or there… But for my money the scariest game that I've ever played is Silent Hill 3. To me (no surprise) it comes down to the atmosphere. In my opinion, the graphics in this game were some of the best PlayStation 2 had to offer, which were used to make some of the most visceral, disturbing, and stomach-churning environments, enemies and set pieces. The developers make extremely smart use of textures, lighting, sound design, and uses that to artistically craft a truly unsettling and terrifying horror experience. The game rides this fine line between gross out creepiness but also vaguely enticing imagery so that you want to look away, but you really aren't able to. The monster design is excellent, and the difficulty is perfect with the improved controls and a wider variety of weapons and tricks to use against the monsters.. And of course, the game is tied together with this excellent soundtrack that brings the trademark mixture of ambience, industrial, instrumentation and rhythm that sets the mood perfectly of both the game and the story.

With all my praise up until this point, it's unfortunate to me that I didn't really find the story all that great. I enjoyed Silent Hill one’s story a lot more on a replay. But Silent Hill 3, in many ways, just feels like a repeat of a lot of the basic structure of the first game. Perhaps it was meant to be a huge twist that Heather in fact was carrying the God all along, but this is never really explained to the player how this happened, and it ends up feeling like a rehash of Cheryl’s story. Most of the game afterward is filling this back story of Alessa and Heather’s shared past that as a player you already saw it in SH1 so it isn’t really interesting. There wasn't enough of Heather really grappling with this new discovery of herself that previously had been repressed for so long it doesn't come across as very well executed. I imagine that Silent Hill one was not intended to have a sequel originally because none of these new cult members, like Leonard, Vincent and Claudia were ever present or mentioned in the first game. So to me that's a little odd when they seem to be such important figures of the cult membership.

Lastly while I think this game dives a bit more into the actual cult as a religion, including it’s key figures, traditions, and worldview (which appears to be an interesting combination of several different religions) the overall motive behind Claudia’s desire to rebuild the is about cliche as you can get. It felt more like something a typical role-playing game villain would pursue than something a religious leader would get behind. And the fact (again like in Silent Hill 1) that this God can die after you can pump a few shotgun shells into doesn't make it all that convincing. The ending was also really unsatisfying, with just a few quips between Heather and Douglas and then a cut to the credits.

So overall, Silent Hill 3 absolutely brings it with unparalleled horror gameplay but with a mostly underwhelming story that just felt like a retread of the original.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: July 06, 2025, 07:41:09 am »

Game 13 - Silent Hill (PS1) - 5 Hours

Ah yes, Silent Hill. My plan for this year is to play through the first four games saving Silent Hill 2 for last and then jump into the remake sometime in October.

There's a lot about the first Silent Hill game that still feels very fresh and interesting. For the time, it was definitely a different take on survival horror than what had been previously established by Resident Evil. Certainly it in my opinion blows the horror element of previous games out of the water and establishes a very creepy atmosphere that's perfectly encapsulated by the music and the graphics particularly the heavy use of fog and darkness. The gameplay itself is a huge improvement over Resident Evil and yet strikes a balance between being functional without the player feeling too overpowered. I happen to really love the tank control scheme that was very prevalent during games of this era even though a lot of people tend to not like them. For me the easiest way to control these games is just to use the directional pad buttons rather than an analog stick, and it works incredibly well. The monster design is really quite impressive however I felt like the boss designs in this game are definitely some of the worst in the series most of them are just giant insects without really any interesting features.

Another aspect of Silent Hill that was unique at the time was the puzzles and in this game the puzzles range from pretty simple to pretty complicated. My favorite puzzle is definitely the piano key puzzle with the birds. I remember having a lot of trouble with it first time I tried the puzzle but this time it was actually pretty easy. The worst puzzle is that damn Zodiac appendage puzzle because it's not well designed at all and is based on faulty logic and information. (FYI, tails and fins are also considered appendages in real biology, and I don't know why a scale would be considered to have two appendages either. It's just a mess of a puzzle). The puzzles aren't the only aspect of the game that's a little hit or miss for me. I found that I enjoyed the story a little bit more than my first playthrough but in general the heavy occult like nature of these games is something that I just have never really been able to get into. I just don't find them particularly interesting and given that the cult is essentially just made of 1 member at this time it just doesn't feel too substantial. Plot is also pretty confusing and once you kind of get what characters are saying to you it fits together pretty well but it's easy to get confused on our first time playthrough. I do like the multiple ending feature which encourages you to replay the game and try to explore new areas in order to uncover all the game secrets.

So overall even though Silent Hill has aged poorly in some aspects it still holds up in a lot of areas and I did enjoy my time playing it

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: July 02, 2025, 03:35:57 pm »

So I've been doing this challenge now for 10 years. I've decided to take all of my reviews and compile them into a Google doc that I will eventually print out and keep on a shelf so I can still look back at them over the years. It's been fun to read all of my reviews (terrible as some of them are)

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: June 28, 2025, 04:20:13 pm »

Game 12 - Bloodborne (PS4) - 26 Hours

In my opinion you can break down three types of difficulty in games. Classic difficulty, where the challenge is based on gameplay, combat, bosses, and so on; progression-based difficulty, where the challenge is figuring out where to go and how to move forward in a game's story, and story-based difficulty, where the challenge is understanding what's the story the game is trying to tell you.
 
Bloodborne, along with the entire Souls series, is famously difficult in all three of these areas. While I don't mind games that are challenging gameplay-wise, when games are obtuse with the story and direction I tend to not enjoy them as much. I did enjoy Dark Souls and Demon's Souls particularly with the fluid, responsive yet difficult gameplay and the beautiful and exquisite worldbuilding... but really, really don't like the storytelling. Even though this game is different in name, Bloodborne in the broad strokes is essentially the exact same as these previous games, including pretty much all of the gameplay, leveling and boss structure, weapon and character upgrades, stats, storytelling philosophy, you name it. Just with a different name and look.

The one change I liked the most was the inclusion of the gun - I used it to counter enemy attacks way more than I did parrying and riposting in previous games. I also tried out some of the randomly generated areas too and found them to be pretty enjoyable. I think the game has been way more optimized since it came out, I experienced a very smooth game with minimal downtime from loading. I actually didn't have that much trouble with the difficulty. Other than a few hiccups here and there I found my progression in the game to be relatively smooth, which was good because honestly I was kind of anxious to finish it and move on.

Alas, most of differences in this game actually made me enjoy it less. I really didn't like the world of Bloodborne. It was too grey and messy for my taste, with the level design feeling more slapdash and random than usual. I got really tired of coffins, weird status and gravestones literally everywhere no matter how little they made sense. I much liked the variety offered previous games. That said, I didn't explore every nook and cranny but I found that this game felt very same-y and after a while it just got boring. The change to finite-use health potions led to a lot of backtracking to replenish my supply which got old very quick.

I'll perfectly admit that I'm just not hardcore to get into the story. I also think it hurt my experience that I didn't play online this time around. I just get so frustrated at the lack of any really explanation and I just couldn't be bothered to investigate further beyond the very basic "the worlds messed up, you gotta save it" because there's no way of telling whether my conclusions are correct or not. I tried looking up story explanations online and when the best-referenced explanation was only about 1/3rd evidence-based and 2/3rds speculation and interpretation, I knew this story just wasn't something I was going to enjoy. To me stories that are designed like a puzzle to solve are fine if the pieces are hidden in the game, but when there are so many pieces missing I just can't see how anyone can come to a reasonable conclusion. It severely limited my experience of this game and combined with an art style that just didn't do it for me this game just really wasn't my cup of tea. If you really love this game's story and world, I can totally see why it would click for some. Just doesn't do it for me, though I do feel pretty alone in this regard. Maybe I'll restart the story and try for one of the other endings someday, or the old hunters DLC and I might think better of the game by then.

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Modern Video Games / Re: Nintendo Switch 2

« on: June 17, 2025, 09:02:37 am »

I got to play the new Mario Kart on the Switch 2 with some friends and it was fun! Nothing too crazy, really just feels like an incremental upgrade like others had said and not this huge leap. I tend to buy new consoles like 4-5 years out after release date so I might get one, but I have *plenty* of games on the original Switch that I still need to beat so I'll just use the original Switch for those. 

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: June 17, 2025, 08:55:39 am »

Game 11 - Mega Man Battle Network 6: Cybeast Gregar (Switch) - 16 Hours

I've now finished everything that I wanted to on the the Battle Network Legacy Collection, and it's quite a feat that I've managed to play every game in the series at some point in my life, including both versions of the double-version releases. The only one that I have not played is BN4: Red Sun. I also didn't play 2 on this collection because I beat it on the Wii U a couple years ago.

Of all the games in the series, BN6 holds a special place in my heart because it was the first BN game I ever played, after being turned on to it as a cooler, more kinetic alternative to Pokémon. I had Falzar, and I fondly remember doing link battles and trading chips with my friend, who had Gregar. I have not played it since way back then so I was looking forward to taking a nostalgic trip while also having all the previous games now under my belt to compare it to.

I am such a huge fan of these games, and BN 6 felt like a perfect way to cap off the series. In many ways, this one might be my favorite and is right up there with 3. The gameplay, graphics, and animations have been polished to a sheen over the previous 5 games and I can definitely say this game is such a treat to experience. I really enjoyed that the story starts off with you moving away from ACDC town which gives the game a fresh new beginning with some new faces. There are a lot of returning characters from previous games which as a kid I didn't really get but after playing all the other games that was a nice touch. I really liked the lore behind the Cybeasts and they were an interesting aspect of the story, even though 3 is still better in this regard. The virus capturing side content is really enjoyable and I liked that you get to spend extended periods of time as other navis, kind of like BN5.

I really don't have anything bad to say about this game besides what I've said in previous entries. It's a solid experience and some of the best the Battle Network series has to offer. I put over 100 hours into Cybeast Falzar as a kid and am excited to maybe go after some of the post-game content in Gregar! My final ranking is 3, 6, 5 (these three are very close together), then 2, 4, and 1.

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Modern Video Games / Re: Playstation: State of Play 6-4-2025

« on: June 05, 2025, 07:16:17 am »

I'm excited for Silent Hill f but will probably wait to see what the reviews look like before purchasing it. I agree that it's shaping up to be one of the best new Silent Hill games in a long time! I still have the SH2 remake on my to-play list for this year.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: May 28, 2025, 03:43:54 pm »

Game 10 - Pokémon Legends: Arceus (Switch) - 22 Hours

As far as Pokémon games go on the Switch, I think this one is easily hands down the best version available. And to be honest, there are many reasons why this might be one of the best Pokémon games ever. I haven’t had this much fun with Pokémon for a long time. Even in the wake of Scarlet and Violet I feel like legends does the open world design better because the visuals are more stylized and interesting, and the gameplay better suits the open world design not only with exploration but also using the environment to help you catch Pokémon through crafting and hunting. I really liked Jubilife village as a hub world just a nice main area with tons of atmosphere and things to do - really liked that part.

I was also shocked to see that this game probably has one of the best stories in the series (even though it still isn't anything special). You at least have some really interesting political relationships between three different groups of people who are trying to survive on a new island and because it's a brand new world the main goal is to complete the first Pokédex which really makes you motivated to actually catch Pokémon. Not only that each Pokémon have unique challenges that encourage you to play in different ways to fill in their respective slots in the Pokédex. The game isn't as focused on trainer battles but it's because Pokémon as a concept hasn't really been taken on by the general public so it fits the theme of the story which I really liked. Throw in other activities like mini games side quests and a nice soundtrack make this game just overall a solid experience.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: May 26, 2025, 08:37:30 am »

Game 9 - Clock Tower Rewind (PS4)

Nice! So does that mean you played the game in its original version without the Rewind features? Do you think you'll ever play through the later entries?

Yes I played the original version I don't really know the differences between the two. xD I would love to try out the other games if they weren't so expensive

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: May 23, 2025, 07:28:03 am »

Two games finished this week! And I'm almost done with Legends Arceus as well!

Game 8 - Beyond Good and Evil HD (PS4) - 11 Hours

There's a lot of things that I really like about this game but there were also a few things that didn't quite hold up in the way I was expecting this game is a fantastic pseudo-open world action-adventure game with a great combat system. It's primarily A stealth action game and while the action can be a little frustrating at times I still found it to be enjoyable. What really struck me was how immersive the world and characters were.  Those were super memorable to me and the voice acting was also great. I liked the fact that you're playing as a photojournalist who isn’t only relying on combat but uses other skills to solve problems. Taking pictures was a really fun way to explore the world and contributes to the story nicely.  I really enjoyed exploring the games overworld taking in the sights and sounds, not to mention that the music was great.

I have heard a lot of comments about the game being kind of obscure and annoying to progress plot wise, but I really didn't have that much problems. I had very few hiccups in gameplay and story progression. I only had to look up 1 puzzle that I got bacon and everything else just flowed very naturally. This might be because I'm playing a remade version that might have picked some issues from previous releases.

I think where this game really fell flat unfortunately was the story. The setup felt so intriguing at first, with this broad conspiracy underscoring a massive alien attack and your job is to solve the mystery and bring justice to the planet and your community. But the main revelations about the plot are revealed to the player within the first hour and most of the story is just you trying to break that news to the public (which you as the player already know) and it becomes way less interesting as a result. The parts of the story that connect Jade to the final villain were also flimsy and didn't feel like they were fleshed out as much as I would have liked

Game 9 - Clock Tower Rewind (PS4)

I’m glad that I had the opportunity to play this game as an official release because it's such an interesting and pioneering game for the survival horror genre. Even though it's only a 16-bit game that's 30 years old at this point, it still succeeds in bringing a unique powerful sense of tension and fear that really hadn't been accomplished up until that point. The sprite work and pixel art is fantastic. The music is unsettling and creepy. The gameplay is tense and foreboding. It's interesting that the story has multiple endings and branching paths that remind you of an old choose your own adventure novel. Overall just a really solid experience that still holds up.

I do think where this game unfortunately falls a little short are some flaws of early game design. Sometimes certain puzzles will not be solved unless you do it in a very specific way, which can be very frustrating. I remember one example where there was a hole in the floor, and a large plank of wood next to the hole. If you click on the wood plank your character won't put the plank over the hole. You have to click on the hole itself first THEN she’ll move the wood plank. Just silly sequencing things like that that. I found the presentation of the HD collection to overall be pretty good. The one thing that was terrible was the notifications for certain bonus content being unlocked in the game which would get slapped over your gameplay and it was very distracting.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: April 26, 2025, 04:19:16 pm »

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (PS4) - 40 Hours

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is a game that I enjoyed quite a bit even though it definitely has flaws. First, the game has this impressive and beautiful art style that captured me the entire time I was playing that's set perfectly by an incredible score and an immense overworld with lots of secrets and enemies to fight and treasures to uncover. The animations done by Studio Ghibli also created a really nice experience that fit the graphics really well.

I also really enjoyed the gameplay. I actually liked the mixture of turn based in real time combat it reminded me a lot of Kingdom Hearts and I found it to be very exciting and fun with the right mixture of strategy and action. I didn't know that it was going to be based on Pokémon, but once I learned all of the mechanics it was really enjoyable to create a team for all of my party members equip them and boost their stats and picking the right familiar to bring to any given situation it was really fun to experiment with all of those different features including the alchemy mechanic, and all of the different side quests and bounty hunts that you can do to pass the time in between the story missions.

Some aspects of the gameplay that I didn't like was the fact that your companions aren't very smart, and there aren’t a lot of ways to set their actions in battle unless you take control of them directly. They usually make really stupid decisions and die way too frequently. I also found the game to be pretty frustratingly difficult when it came to normal encounters and I died quite a few times just from fighting your typical set of enemies. In contrast, I was able to finish every boss fight on the first time because it's a lot easier to fight one enemy than a group of three, and Drippy your companion fairy often tells you exactly what you need to do to beat the boss which kind of took a lot of the challenge out of it.

By far my least favorite aspect of Ni No Kuni was the story. It's overall a very simple story that airs more on the childish side than mature, even though there are some themes in the game that are very serious. I was hoping that the setup of the game, where in the young main character tragically loses their mom, would be a great foundation for some interesting storytelling. Oliver barely shows any grief or sorrow at the loss of his mom and just continues like nothing happened.

The villains are also super cliché, and this is one of those RPGs where the whole premise of the villains’ motives are based on destroying a corrupt world but their reasons for doing so are flimsy at best. There’s barely any conflict, greed, corruption, or… like… anything evil going on at all in the world, beyond what’s being directly injected into the people by the villains themselves. It just wasn't very compelling or well executed in my opinion. There are also tons of plot holes and inconsistencies due to the mishandling of multiple messy and complicated story elements like time travel, dual souls for each character, and multiple worlds. On that later point, I didn't really like the shifting between both the real world and the fantasy world because Motorville just wasn’t very interesting. Certain storylines also had a lot of artificial padding which felt very frustrating.

In summary even though I didn't enjoy the story very much at all, the game is beautiful and fun to play, and those numerous hours of just exploring the world and fighting monsters and leveling up and doing side quests was enough to keep me enjoyed for quite a long time.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: April 01, 2025, 11:06:06 am »

Game 6 - Super Empire Strikes Back (SNES) - 13 Hours

I haven't played an old school game like this in a long time, but I had (mostly) a really fun time with it. There's a lot to like about the Super Star Wars games. The controls are for the most part really smooth, the music and sound effects are top-notch, as are the graphics. The game feels like a scaled down version of the movies with a lot of love put into the cutscenes and voice acting. There's a nice variety of different flying and platforming stages packed with secrets alongside multiple characters to play as well. I really enjoyed most of the boss fights as well, particularly the final fight with Vader.

The game's low points for me were level-to-level with some really poor environmental design and insane difficulty - you're oftentimes swarmed with enemies that constantly respawn as soon as you kill one. The hit detection is really suspect as well and you have almost no post-hit invincibility which can add to the frustration. The game in general is very difficult, but thankfully there's a pretty generous password system to keep you going if you just persevere long enough. All in all, Super Empire Strikes back is probably 70% fun, 30% frustration but I enjoyed my time with it.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: March 17, 2025, 08:44:57 am »

Game 5 - Read Only Memories: Neurodiver (Switch) - 5 Hours

When I first realized that 2064: Read Only Memories was receiving a sequel, I was extremely excited for the game. I really enjoy 2064, with it still being my favorite adventure game. Well, years and years passed and the game was delayed again and again. New trailers that were dropping didn't seem to be as good as that first trailer in 2019, but I was still holding that it would be worth the wait. Well, after finally playing it, I can say that it's a pretty disappointing experience.

Not all of the game is disappointing however. The visuals are some of the best 2D sprite work I've ever seen, and the environments are absolutely exquisite. The music, while not being by the same composer, is also top notch and fits the mood brilliantly. So the game still brings it when it comes to atmosphere. Where this game falls flat is the story, voice work, and characters, which is really some of the most important parts of an adventure game because there is so little "game" to speak of.

First, I think one of the problems is the game's short length (half as long as 2064) does not give enough breathing room to flesh out the more than 10+ characters that have been added to this game, plus recurring characters from the first game, AND tell a compelling story to boot. The first characters you meet, the Old Birds, I thought were going to be a major part of the story but they're only in the first mission then dropped like a rock and you never see them again. The rest of the game consists of revisiting the main characters from the first game, which was fine, but didn't really feel all that exciting.

Because the game is so short, the story is far more simple, and it left me feeling unsatisfied. It has nowhere near the stakes and scope of the first game. Given the state of things after the first game ended, I was excited to see where the sequel would go next, but the game presents a boring, simple exorcism story with a confusing villain with no backstory whatsoever that is anchored by very superficial chapters for each of the individual characters.

The last thing that really felt off to me was the voice acting. Don't get me wrong, it's competently done, but there were several little things that got under my skin over time. First, I really hate when voice actors go "off script" and say things that are different than the subtitles on the screen. Just a pet peeve of mine. The mixing was really poor, and characters love dipping into that lower softer register that is difficult to hear over the music without fiddling in the sound settings. Also, the lip-sync liked to come and go as it pleased and characters mouths would stop moving even while the character was still saying something. The really dealbreaker for me was the new voice actor for TOMCAT, who was one of my favorite characters from the first game. This new actor sounds nothing like the original, not even remotely close, and there's no explanation given for why in the game. I would have accepted a voice change surgery after a freak accident, anything. But it seems the original actor couldn't be acquired so they just stuck whoever in as a replacement. All of these things really add up when the majority of the game is just listening to people speak.

Lastly, the gameplay changes weren't exactly my cup of tea. You have to discover these pieces of evidence that you use to fix rifts in people's memories. Temporally it didn't make sense that you were given dialogue options for a character inside a memory that has already happened. Also, the fixing of memories was all just trial and error. The evidence you find has no interconnection or relevance with the broken memories so most of the time I just plugged in random solutions until one worked. It didn't make me feel like I was solving a complex mystery.

So yes, this game overall was not really that great. It's thankfully short and it looks and sounds incredible, but you can really see where things just don't hold up to the original.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: March 12, 2025, 08:28:29 am »

Game 4 - 2064: Read Only Memories (Switch) - 10 Hours

This is still my favorite adventure game. I absolutely love the games visuals, characters, soundtrack, voice acting and story. Something about it just really clicks with me. I really don't have much to say beyond my initial review a few years ago. I'm excited to start exploring the sequel which just came out!

Original Review

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

« on: February 20, 2025, 11:57:36 am »

Game 3 Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (PS5) - 24 Hours

I enjoyed my time with this game very much like the previous 2 entries. It bothers me that this is called "2" when MM serves as an important lead up story that in my opinion has to be completed first, but oh well. Much like before, what I really love about these games is the free-roaming exploration around the city, swinging at will, taking in the sites, and helping the citizens of New York as I saw fit. The game is essentially unchanged combat or exploration wise, though there are some additions that I liked including the web wings that allow you to cover distances more easily, and the web line that gives you a tightrope to make stealth takedowns from. The game gets a little unwieldly with the 2 Spider-Men that each have different skill trees and moves to unlock and customize. I kind of wish it was just one Spider-Man, but it does give you a lot more variety with your controls.

Where I don't like this game is really in the story and game-design DURING the story in particular. While the game is very open-ended in general, when doing the story missions you're either crawling through linear environments that are orchestrated to feel intense and scary but are pretty scripted and predictable while you listen to just the characters talk to one another, or your being dropped into linear rooms with copy-pasted enemies to take out with the occasional large boss fight. That's if you're even fighting, because a decent chunk of the missions are just glorified cutscenes with mindless activities like a theme park or cleaning your apartment, or Mary Jane stealth sections that are admittedly better than the first game but not a huge improvement. None of the story missions feel particularly exciting to finish, and on top of that, I just really didn't like the whole "angsty" Spider-Man approach taken this time around. Kraven as a villain was so lame and uninspired and it was strange to me that he could just take over the entire city and none of the police or military try to stop him, which was a big part of the first game with Li.

I might come back to this game to try and snag the platinum. This game is really fun still once you get past all the stuff I didn't really care for with the story.