Saturday, September 19, 2015

Bastion



I played it after Transistor, so the way of telling the story didn't surprise me and I cared little about it. Thankfully the pace is very good and the story sections aren't very intrusive.

The game plays like an old school action rpg, where the character levels up and can improve it's equipment, actually for me the fun was about increasing the difficulty and trying different equipment setups to overcome the challenge.



Bastion isn't very long and it includes a few interesting challenges and extra modes. I did 100% in two days which I guess it's okay for the price. The music is very nice and visually is very well detailed, though in some ocassions is too bright for my eyes.



Did I like it? Yes.
I think you will like it if you:
- Want a light oldschool arpg

I rate my experience with a 5.5 out of 10.

Saturday, September 5, 2015

The Wolf Among Us



I started this game after falling in love with Life Is Strange, so I was looking for more of this kind:

It's dialog heavy game with interesting characters and stories in a very extravagant world. I really loved the setup.


The main story is very interesting though there are some usual cheap-telltale moments just for the drama. And I'm not happy with the ending at all.

There also is some exploration to do very similar to the "point & click" adventures but there are no part of puzzles, it's only for the immersion.



And then there are the QTE events, no thanks, Life is Strange demonstrated that this is not needed.

Did I like it? Yes.
I think you will like it if you:
- Want to hear a story

I rate my experience with a 6.5 out of 10.

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Mega Man I, II & X


This was my first mega man game, I was 7 years old when I got it and it wasn't until 3 years later that I got my first boss down after understanding how to play it.

I understood that this wasn't Sonic or Super Mario World, here I had to advance very slowly, thinking where and how to move on each screen to avoid getting killed by random enemies.



Then when I reached a boss I had to watch and learn his movement and attack patterns plus try different weapons to find a weak point or a shot behavior that kept me out of danger.

After understanding all of this I found an amazingly fun game, challenging and that could be played in many different ways.

Did I like it? It took me my time... but in the end yes I did.
I think you will like it if you:
- Desire a challenge
- Don't mind the 8 bit looks

I rate my experience with a 7.0 out of 10.



I started this one 15 years later after beating MM2, I enjoyed both equaly but I think the ending stages are a little too hard.



Did I like it? Yes but I had problems with the last stages.
I think you will like it if you:
- Desire a challenge
- Don't mind the 8 bit looks

I rate my experience with a 6.5 out of 10.




I started this one right after MM1, I appreciate the new looks and gameplay like the charged shot. I noticed that I advanced through the stages way fast, I'm not sure if it's because X is faster paced or I'm just more experienced.



I found that the bosses were way harder than the original Mega Man, It didn't help that I managed to start the stages in the worst possible order. On the other hand I found the last stages and final boss more balanced (or less hard).

Did I like it? Yes.
I think you will like it if you:
- Desire a challenge

I rate my experience with a 6.5 out of 10.

Saturday, August 8, 2015

Demon Gaze



This is a 1st person dungeon crawler, the way it works really reminds to Etrian Odissey: 5 character party with front/back lines and similar classes.

The combat is turn based, where enemies and allies attack in the same turn with the order defined by their speed. The random encounters frequency starts very low and it increases with every dungeon, it never got overwhelming.



The game also introduces some kind of "demon companions", which offers some passive and active skills and also help through the battles, those are very important in boss battles which are very challenging and usually requires to try different demon setups. There's also an original loot system, the monsters usually drop items that are used in circles that you find in the dungeson which lets you choose the type, quality and quantity of the items you want to receive after defeating the monsters in the circle.

I enjoyed the Dungeons because they are not very hardcore, the puzzles are easy and the exploration is usually fun, it reminds me a little to SMT: Strange Journey or even Persona 1.



Visually the 2D drawing looks beautiful thanks to the Vita screen, the 3D enviroments not so much but it doesn't hurt. The music is very nice, I liked the battle theme (keep in mind that I also like the Persona 1 PSP battle themes).

About the story... it seemed interesting for the first 5 minutes but I started to skip all the text once boobs and underwear little girls showed up. No regrets.

This is one of the few games that I've bothered to get the Platinum trophy. I had more fun than in any Etrian game I've played, probably because it's more forgiving and the difficulty curve increases on a pace that fits me perfectly all the way through the end and post-game.

Did I like it? Yep, I had a lot of fun.
I think you will like it if you:
- Don't hate light dungeon crawlers
- Enjoy modern japanese plots or don't mind skipping the story.

I rate my experience with a 7.5 out of 10.

Saturday, July 25, 2015

Citizens of Earth



A jrpg-like that tries to be inovative with very nice ideas:

- A crazy story: We're the President of Earth and have to deal with the daily citizen problems in form of quests.

- Turn-based combat with a "combo point" system with abilities that generate points and other abilities that spend them.


- Lots of recruitable characters with unique skills in combat and also out of combat perks like the "breadman" that will sell you... bread of course.

But everything falls appart because of how the game is designed, it is not fun to progress through the game and I think it is because it has a bad pace and poor level design. In the end it becomes the typical game plenty of delivery quests in a plain scenario like many modern rpgs.

Graphics are 2D and I have no complains here, same with music and sound.



Did I like it? Got bored after 2 hours, and after 6 hours I hated it.
I think you will like it if you:
- Haven't played many rpgs

I rate my experience with a 3 out of 10.

Saturday, July 11, 2015

Grand Theft Auto 5


I definitelly don't like the Grand Theft Auto saga anymore.

I started with IV and I'm feeling the same way with V, the world is awesome and Rockstar puts a lot of attention on all the details, I even have a cinema to watch original (short) movies!



The characters are very unique and well developed too, but the big bad thing for me is the progression through the story because I found most of the missions very boring, I was driving for most of the mission length where nothing exciting happened, this kills the pace for me. The only missions I really loved where the heists and there are very few of them and I still hated the preparation missions (more driving...)



So no more GTA for me, I have more fun playing Sleeping Dogs and Saints Row games.

For the trolls: I did finish the game and all the optional events/missions (took me 10 hours per character).

Did I like it? I liked some characters and exploring the world, but not the "main game".
I think you will like it if you:
- Aren't tired of the GTA formula.

I rate my experience with a 4.5 out of 10.

Saturday, June 27, 2015

Atelier Shallie


And another cute Atelier game!

As Escha&Logy, this game has 2 protagonists to choose from with very different personality. I choose Shallotte and I had a lot of fun, the other Shallie seems more of the "innocent" kind, I didn't try it for enough time.

It has been a long time since the last time I played an Atelier game and I noticed that alchemy has really evolved a lot, there are a lot of variables to play with that makes the item creation very entertaining.



I started playing this game because they removed the time limit factor, now I can choose when to advance into the next chapter giving infinite time to explore everything I want to. Of course some players may prefer the time limit setting and I think it should have stayed that way because we already have lots of games without time limit ;)

The combat system is turn-based with an use of turns similar to FFX and Lost Oddyssey where the order depends on the skill used and can also be pushed/canceled with the right skills. Also the game has an original way to use the party members on the reserve that makes the battles very dynamic and fun. A game with this battle system, the right budget and thematic, would be a masterpiece (I mean, an Atelier game is not very commercial).



Graphically looks okay and has a few technical issues but nothing unplayable. The music is very good, a few songs have entered into my favorites list ;), the voices are okay too.

The story is good enough though the chapters pacing is a bit weird, some chapters are very long and others extremelly short or irrelevant.

Did I like it? Yes.
I think you will like it if you:
- Don't hate "light" jrpgs

I rate my experience with a 7 out of 10.