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StarTopic Famicritic |ST| Our own review aggregator! (Third batch up, GOTY edition!))
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Ozeiyo
Paratroopa
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I haven't reviewed any games but I second this.
5/10 OK but nothing special. Only if you're into the genre
6/10 fun but flawed. Maybe some ideas don't pan out, maybe it isn't very polished, but at least interesting. and worth investing your time into it
7/10 worth playing and enjoying, in spite of some minor issues
8/10 great game.
9/10 incredible game, play regardless of whether you like the genre
10/10 Celeste
Horror Kid
Bob-omb
Only one I played this time around. Forgot about the first round, so if rotating those games in at a later date, I'd be for it - if it makes sense.
Kirby and the forgotten land
I really liked it, which doesn't happen with many Kirby games.
It is charming, with fun abilities, great graphics and controlling Kirby feels really good most of the time.
I still have a lot of challenges left to do, something for a second playthrough.
Next to Canvas Curse my favorite Kirby game.
Kirby and the forgotten land
I really liked it, which doesn't happen with many Kirby games.
It is charming, with fun abilities, great graphics and controlling Kirby feels really good most of the time.
I still have a lot of challenges left to do, something for a second playthrough.
Next to Canvas Curse my favorite Kirby game.
Nmanic
Bob-omb
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Great selection of games again! I've played all but MH Rise. Like last time, I'm not planning to write overly long reviews bc I'm so long winded in other aspects of my life 
. I'm also using my own gaming journal entries as baselines for these little write ups.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land--
Kirby's always been great, but Forgotten Land is exceptional-- an insanely polished renovation to the franchise that exceeded all of my expectations. It's the cutest game I've ever played (all the waddle dees! Elflin! There's a band of waddle dees called the deedley dees!! YOU CAN TAKE NAPS WITH YOUR BUDDIES), and the first Kirby game to make me cry. I love how fun it is to explore every level, especially in co-op with a friend. Also, mouthful mode is so silly and stupid, in the best way. To me, Forgotten land is a new classic!
(I almost took a star off bc you can't kiss your homies in this one, but it's so good otherwise that I kept it 5 stars)
Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet
This game REALLY struggles to run properly... But once I got past that, I had a truly fun time in Paldea. I explored the entire world, 100% the dex and did all quests! Pokémon is so much fun in open world... But dang so many things hold this back. Even once you get past the really brutal performance issues, which are noticable from moment 1, the next biggest issue came up for me-- they took out set battling. I know, pokemon is for kids or whatever, but there's really no good reason to remove options that were always there before. I miss turning off exp share, I miss being able to do set battling and I miss when opponents didn't stop to comment on every super effective move I made.
That said, ScVi also happens to have my favorite story in Pokémon since gen 5. I connected very much with the three main characters, especially Nemona (she imposes restrictions on herself bc she wants to have fun playing Pokémon. I literally do that all the time) I respected her so much as a character that I took off all restrictions and gave her an all out battle in our last match. It was thrilling as a personal roleplay experience. Also, there are so many good DOGGOS!! I also enjoyed the teal mask dlc and am looking forward to indigo disk, but teal mask didn't necessarily improve on anything. It's just more of what I liked without fixing any of my gripes, personally.
Anyway, bc of the aggressive scaling down of difficulty and performance issues, ScVi are held back imo from the greatness that could be, and I don't feel I can give it anything higher than
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
I am a HUGE FAN of Fire Emblem. I've played every stinking game in the franchise (literally all of them). Three Houses is tough for me specifically bc of what a slog it feels like if you do everything. If I, say, only played Golden Deer route and called it a day, I might think it was about as good as fire emblem can be. The characters have so many dimensions you can see by trying all the different supports, the world building is as rich as the best in the series, there's tons of intrigue and lore and fun stuff to dive into... But man, so much of the runtime gets bogged down by repetitive stuff IF you play every single route. I don't know if that's fair to hold against the game, but it's a very real part of my experience.
Shout outs to the two things that really elevate the game for me--
1) the music. Oh my God the music. Paths That Will Never Cross, Between Heaven and Earth, God Shattering Star. So much variety, specific motifs that get sprinkled throughout and experimentation with stuff like electronic music, classical singing in a made up language, and even dubstep. The fe sound team has been absolutely electric over the last decade.
2) cindered shadows. I don't love the total open endeddess of modern FE class building, so I really enjoyed having a campaign tightly designed around a predetermined set of units. Great tunes in this one too, and the ashen wolves are so fun.
Anyway, for me I see the game as exceptionally good but with so much bloat if you choose to do it all. Bc of that, I'm going
Super Smash Bros. Melee
I gotta give respect where it's due to the king. This is one of the most important games of my childhood and I know it's still so important to tons of people. Even without factoring in how mind blowing high level play is, I love this game for shining a lot on tons of franchises that would eventually become my favorites, I love its music (fountain of dreams arrangement remains one of the coolest pieces I've ever heard in a game), I love the adventure mode, I love collecting all the trophies, and I love the vibes. It's a game that still deserves to be played today whether or not you care about competitive. It's fun to play as a party game with friends, it's fun to collect stuff and do missions in single player, and it CAN be fun to mess around with competitive skills if you have the right mindset. They really knocked this one out of the park.
. I'm also using my own gaming journal entries as baselines for these little write ups.Kirby and the Forgotten Land--
Kirby's always been great, but Forgotten Land is exceptional-- an insanely polished renovation to the franchise that exceeded all of my expectations. It's the cutest game I've ever played (all the waddle dees! Elflin! There's a band of waddle dees called the deedley dees!! YOU CAN TAKE NAPS WITH YOUR BUDDIES), and the first Kirby game to make me cry. I love how fun it is to explore every level, especially in co-op with a friend. Also, mouthful mode is so silly and stupid, in the best way. To me, Forgotten land is a new classic!
(I almost took a star off bc you can't kiss your homies in this one, but it's so good otherwise that I kept it 5 stars)
Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet
This game REALLY struggles to run properly... But once I got past that, I had a truly fun time in Paldea. I explored the entire world, 100% the dex and did all quests! Pokémon is so much fun in open world... But dang so many things hold this back. Even once you get past the really brutal performance issues, which are noticable from moment 1, the next biggest issue came up for me-- they took out set battling. I know, pokemon is for kids or whatever, but there's really no good reason to remove options that were always there before. I miss turning off exp share, I miss being able to do set battling and I miss when opponents didn't stop to comment on every super effective move I made.
That said, ScVi also happens to have my favorite story in Pokémon since gen 5. I connected very much with the three main characters, especially Nemona (she imposes restrictions on herself bc she wants to have fun playing Pokémon. I literally do that all the time
) I respected her so much as a character that I took off all restrictions and gave her an all out battle in our last match. It was thrilling as a personal roleplay experience. Also, there are so many good DOGGOS!! I also enjoyed the teal mask dlc and am looking forward to indigo disk, but teal mask didn't necessarily improve on anything. It's just more of what I liked without fixing any of my gripes, personally.Anyway, bc of the aggressive scaling down of difficulty and performance issues, ScVi are held back imo from the greatness that could be, and I don't feel I can give it anything higher than
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
I am a HUGE FAN of Fire Emblem. I've played every stinking game in the franchise (literally all of them). Three Houses is tough for me specifically bc of what a slog it feels like if you do everything. If I, say, only played Golden Deer route and called it a day, I might think it was about as good as fire emblem can be. The characters have so many dimensions you can see by trying all the different supports, the world building is as rich as the best in the series, there's tons of intrigue and lore and fun stuff to dive into... But man, so much of the runtime gets bogged down by repetitive stuff IF you play every single route. I don't know if that's fair to hold against the game, but it's a very real part of my experience.
Shout outs to the two things that really elevate the game for me--
1) the music. Oh my God the music. Paths That Will Never Cross, Between Heaven and Earth, God Shattering Star. So much variety, specific motifs that get sprinkled throughout and experimentation with stuff like electronic music, classical singing in a made up language, and even dubstep. The fe sound team has been absolutely electric over the last decade.
2) cindered shadows. I don't love the total open endeddess of modern FE class building, so I really enjoyed having a campaign tightly designed around a predetermined set of units. Great tunes in this one too, and the ashen wolves are so fun.
Anyway, for me I see the game as exceptionally good but with so much bloat if you choose to do it all. Bc of that, I'm going
Super Smash Bros. Melee
I gotta give respect where it's due to the king. This is one of the most important games of my childhood and I know it's still so important to tons of people. Even without factoring in how mind blowing high level play is, I love this game for shining a lot on tons of franchises that would eventually become my favorites, I love its music (fountain of dreams arrangement remains one of the coolest pieces I've ever heard in a game), I love the adventure mode, I love collecting all the trophies, and I love the vibes. It's a game that still deserves to be played today whether or not you care about competitive. It's fun to play as a party game with friends, it's fun to collect stuff and do missions in single player, and it CAN be fun to mess around with competitive skills if you have the right mindset. They really knocked this one out of the park.
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Review: Super Smash Bros. Melee
The original Super Smash Bros. was a stand out on a system known for its multiplayer party games. Not only did it capture the crossover appeal of kids playing with all of their different toys, it also brought a novel percentage based ring out system, effectively codifying a fighting game subgenre. Even so, it was a rather small game, featuring a handful of characters, stages, and single player modes. There was plenty of room to grow in a follow-up, and fans didn't need to wait for long - a sequel, Super Smash Bros. Melee, would release very early into the Nintendo GameCube life. What most of those fans might not have expected is just how far this game would rise above its predecessor.
It is hard to understate just how much of a jump Melee was over Smash 64. The character roster? More than doubled, even if it took a few clones to get there. Stage count in multiplayer? More than tripled, with a solid balance of traditional battlegrounds and dynamic arenas. Single player "arcade" modes? The single 1P game gives way for three unique modes: a Classic Mode structured liked the original 1P game with some more variance in progression, an Adventure Mode with a mix of platforming in Nintendo stages and a linear sequence of fights, and an All-Star Mode pitting you against every fighter in the roster. Mini games? Board the Platforms may be gone, but Target Test is joined by way more options. You have a Multi-Man Melee Mode pitting you against hordes of wire framed foes, a Home-Run Contest that asks you to send a Sandbag as far as you can, and 51 event matches with specific conditions. Multiplayer? Time and Stock matches are joined by coin and bonus point matches, and there are way more match modifiers with Special Melee.
All of this would be for naught if the game wasn't enjoyable to play, which is far from a concern here. On a base level, Melee gives each fighter more options than before. An extra special move, charging Smash attacks for more KO power, extra throws, aerial dodging, all substantial additions that provide more layers to a fight. This is not even getting into advanced techniques, both intentional and unintentional, that have elevated the game's competitive scene to an indestructible juggernaut. But casual or hardcore, Melee offers a fun and frenetic experience, even if nowadays I prefer Ultimate as a medium skill player.
Melee's advances extend to all the facets surrounding the game as well. Smash 64 was a fine game aesthetically, prioritizing performance and featuring sound font remixes of classic tunes. Melee, meanwhile, aims to impress with its semi realistic art style and orchestral style score. To this day, Melee has some of my favorite tracks in franchise history, carrying the epic scale and majesty of the crossover. And speaking of history, Melee amps up the crossover by including collectible trophies of many Nintendo characters, many of which were rendered in 3D for the first time just for the trophy. I spent hours of my life trying to get as many of the trophies as I could, and I can trace much of my initial Nintendo knowledge primarily to this game.
Super Smash Bros. Melee felt like an event. From the numerous characters and stages to the pulse pounding action and the sheer increase in scope from Smash 64, every element makes for a title that impresses to this day. It is no wonder that the rest of the Smash series uses this title as its template in some shape or form.
~~~
I was planning to review Pokémon first, but Melee is definitely a classic worthy of praise, even if I'd rather personally play Ultimate.
The original Super Smash Bros. was a stand out on a system known for its multiplayer party games. Not only did it capture the crossover appeal of kids playing with all of their different toys, it also brought a novel percentage based ring out system, effectively codifying a fighting game subgenre. Even so, it was a rather small game, featuring a handful of characters, stages, and single player modes. There was plenty of room to grow in a follow-up, and fans didn't need to wait for long - a sequel, Super Smash Bros. Melee, would release very early into the Nintendo GameCube life. What most of those fans might not have expected is just how far this game would rise above its predecessor.
It is hard to understate just how much of a jump Melee was over Smash 64. The character roster? More than doubled, even if it took a few clones to get there. Stage count in multiplayer? More than tripled, with a solid balance of traditional battlegrounds and dynamic arenas. Single player "arcade" modes? The single 1P game gives way for three unique modes: a Classic Mode structured liked the original 1P game with some more variance in progression, an Adventure Mode with a mix of platforming in Nintendo stages and a linear sequence of fights, and an All-Star Mode pitting you against every fighter in the roster. Mini games? Board the Platforms may be gone, but Target Test is joined by way more options. You have a Multi-Man Melee Mode pitting you against hordes of wire framed foes, a Home-Run Contest that asks you to send a Sandbag as far as you can, and 51 event matches with specific conditions. Multiplayer? Time and Stock matches are joined by coin and bonus point matches, and there are way more match modifiers with Special Melee.
All of this would be for naught if the game wasn't enjoyable to play, which is far from a concern here. On a base level, Melee gives each fighter more options than before. An extra special move, charging Smash attacks for more KO power, extra throws, aerial dodging, all substantial additions that provide more layers to a fight. This is not even getting into advanced techniques, both intentional and unintentional, that have elevated the game's competitive scene to an indestructible juggernaut. But casual or hardcore, Melee offers a fun and frenetic experience, even if nowadays I prefer Ultimate as a medium skill player.
Melee's advances extend to all the facets surrounding the game as well. Smash 64 was a fine game aesthetically, prioritizing performance and featuring sound font remixes of classic tunes. Melee, meanwhile, aims to impress with its semi realistic art style and orchestral style score. To this day, Melee has some of my favorite tracks in franchise history, carrying the epic scale and majesty of the crossover. And speaking of history, Melee amps up the crossover by including collectible trophies of many Nintendo characters, many of which were rendered in 3D for the first time just for the trophy. I spent hours of my life trying to get as many of the trophies as I could, and I can trace much of my initial Nintendo knowledge primarily to this game.
Super Smash Bros. Melee felt like an event. From the numerous characters and stages to the pulse pounding action and the sheer increase in scope from Smash 64, every element makes for a title that impresses to this day. It is no wonder that the rest of the Smash series uses this title as its template in some shape or form.
~~~
I was planning to review Pokémon first, but Melee is definitely a classic worthy of praise, even if I'd rather personally play Ultimate.
komicer
Producer @ CDS
- Pronouns
- He/they
If Pikmin 4 is the highest rated game of Famiboards, does this mean that I'm obliged to get and play it? Looks at the prices on the 2nd hand market...
Anyway, here's my thoughts for this batch of games.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land
I really didn't have a lot of thoughts about this game back then... I think it was a really joyful game. The gameplay was tight and the music wonderful. Playing it on the long flight and bus rides in Thailand made time go pass so much better. And befitting the 'Family Game of the Year 2022' award, this was the game that convinced my sister to get the Switch for their kids. I introduced my little nephew to Kirby through this game and I think he later pestered his parent to get a Switch for this game.
Just a really really fun game as a whole.
Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet
Some of my initial immediate post-game thoughts back then. Pokemon SV aimed high in ambition and scope. I think we can sort of appreciate that. This was a much more massive game compared to previous generations. Especially the last bit in Area Zero. My little group of friends love this game and still do the raids together. It's Pokemon after all!
I struggled with the score here. I really, really like the game as a whole and I think it deserves better... from Gamefreak. Every joy of capturing a new Pokemon was accompanied by a wince whenever the game stutters. Every triumph in terms of story beats marred by some odd graphical misstep. Four stars is too high but three stars a little low too. If only I can just award 3.5 stars instead but at the end, I'll go with just three.
Maybe it will deserve a higher score if it does a Cyberpunk and get their act together. It is doubtful though. I still enjoyed my experience in Paldea and can't wait for the last DLC. But seriously Gamefreak, for the next generation, just give yourself a bit more time to polish it. The vision is there; work on the execution.
Monster Hunter Rise
Do we include Sunbreak here? But regardless, when MHR was first announced, I was really excited about it. I had tried Monster Hunter World on PC but didn't really jived with it. It's all the damn foliage getting in the way. Or maybe I'm just more used to Monster Hunter as a handheld game. So here we are. A return to handheld and that's how I like it. My memories of Monster Hunter have been hunching around a table in Macdonald's with my friends, hunting monsters late into the night on our 3DS. With the Switch, I can finally recreate that nostalgic memories once again.
Really like the game and the small gang of friends that I managed to build around it (we went on to play Pokemon SV together too!). Very much preferred this high octave action-oriented Monster Hunter with gorgeous Japanese theming. The final battle with All-Mother Narwa was an amazing spectacle, especially with the soaring Proof of a Hero BGM and mid Magmamalo reinforcement. Epic.
The only reason NOT to give MHR a five stars is simply because the Sunbreak DLC inclusion will score even more, breaking the scale.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Three Houses was the first mainline Fire Emblem game I played since.... Sacred Stones. It was one hell of a ride for me. Once in a while, I still think about the Adrestian Empire. Originally, I played it for a while but semi-rage-quit when Felix failed a 80% promotion rate to Swordmaster. But then in 2022, I picked it up again and played the Black Eagle route all the way to the end.
The map is rather repetitive but as a whole, I really like the game a lot. All the characters are very likeable. Despite his emo edgelord behavior, I identify strongly with Hubert. I quite surprised at how everyone gets flirty with him. Yes, everyone including the male characters. I know that many people disagree with Black Eagle's philosophy and actions but something about opposing and killing 'God' sits well with me.
Post-Black Eagle, I wanted to do the Golden Deer route. However... I'm still stuck in the monastery phase. Have not gotten around to continuing where I left off. There's just so many other games to play! And I really should get around to playing Three Hopes.
and
Anyway, here's my thoughts for this batch of games.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land
I really didn't have a lot of thoughts about this game back then... I think it was a really joyful game. The gameplay was tight and the music wonderful. Playing it on the long flight and bus rides in Thailand made time go pass so much better. And befitting the 'Family Game of the Year 2022' award, this was the game that convinced my sister to get the Switch for their kids. I introduced my little nephew to Kirby through this game and I think he later pestered his parent to get a Switch for this game.
Just a really really fun game as a whole.
Some of my initial immediate post-game thoughts back then. Pokemon SV aimed high in ambition and scope. I think we can sort of appreciate that. This was a much more massive game compared to previous generations. Especially the last bit in Area Zero. My little group of friends love this game and still do the raids together. It's Pokemon after all!
I struggled with the score here. I really, really like the game as a whole and I think it deserves better... from Gamefreak. Every joy of capturing a new Pokemon was accompanied by a wince whenever the game stutters. Every triumph in terms of story beats marred by some odd graphical misstep. Four stars is too high but three stars a little low too. If only I can just award 3.5 stars instead but at the end, I'll go with just three.
Maybe it will deserve a higher score if it does a Cyberpunk and get their act together. It is doubtful though. I still enjoyed my experience in Paldea and can't wait for the last DLC. But seriously Gamefreak, for the next generation, just give yourself a bit more time to polish it. The vision is there; work on the execution.
Monster Hunter Rise
Do we include Sunbreak here? But regardless, when MHR was first announced, I was really excited about it. I had tried Monster Hunter World on PC but didn't really jived with it. It's all the damn foliage getting in the way. Or maybe I'm just more used to Monster Hunter as a handheld game. So here we are. A return to handheld and that's how I like it. My memories of Monster Hunter have been hunching around a table in Macdonald's with my friends, hunting monsters late into the night on our 3DS. With the Switch, I can finally recreate that nostalgic memories once again.
Really like the game and the small gang of friends that I managed to build around it (we went on to play Pokemon SV together too!). Very much preferred this high octave action-oriented Monster Hunter with gorgeous Japanese theming. The final battle with All-Mother Narwa was an amazing spectacle, especially with the soaring Proof of a Hero BGM and mid Magmamalo reinforcement. Epic.
The only reason NOT to give MHR a five stars is simply because the Sunbreak DLC inclusion will score even more, breaking the scale.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Three Houses was the first mainline Fire Emblem game I played since.... Sacred Stones. It was one hell of a ride for me. Once in a while, I still think about the Adrestian Empire. Originally, I played it for a while but semi-rage-quit when Felix failed a 80% promotion rate to Swordmaster. But then in 2022, I picked it up again and played the Black Eagle route all the way to the end.
The map is rather repetitive but as a whole, I really like the game a lot. All the characters are very likeable. Despite his emo edgelord behavior, I identify strongly with Hubert. I quite surprised at how everyone gets flirty with him. Yes, everyone including the male characters. I know that many people disagree with Black Eagle's philosophy and actions but something about opposing and killing 'God' sits well with me.
Post-Black Eagle, I wanted to do the Golden Deer route. However... I'm still stuck in the monastery phase. Have not gotten around to continuing where I left off. There's just so many other games to play! And I really should get around to playing Three Hopes.
and
Machine Doogs
...love games?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Kirby and the Forgotten Land -
Easily the most fun I've had with a Kirby game. Everything about this game feels like it ended up exactly how the developers envisioned it. Nothing feels out of place, nothing feels incomplete. Impeccable pacing and style. I'm not personally a huge Kirby fan, but boy do I appreciate what was achieved here. Loved every single second of it.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses -
If you had asked me directly after playing it, I would have happily slapped 5 stars on it. In retrospect, I see more of the flaws. I loved the world building and characters, and really enjoyed both the battles and the downtime in the monastery. Nowadays, I would instead say that the battles aren't as good as Engage and the downtime at the monastery becomes a slog on repeated playthroughs that are already very long and tilt towards tediousness. Still a great experience that I would recommend to anyone for at least that first playthrough.
Super Smash Bros. Melee -
I'm a bit reluctant to review this one, as I was never very into it. I loved the original on N64, and played a crazy amount of it with my friends. Melee never sat right with me. The increase in game speed was difficult for me to wrap my head around, and overall the gameplay just felt way more chaotic. Even before I became a certified video game curmudgeon, I couldn't be bothered to put in the time required to get good at it. Ironic that the thing that catapulted Smash to what it has become today for so many people ruined it for me in some ways. On the other hand, this game did turn the series into an awesome playable videogame museum which I will always love it for. Hard to find a score for this one, as purely gameplay wise, it's probably 3 stars for me. But as I think back on my time with it, I can't help but view it through the lens of everything that came after it and how much I still adore the series (I've got like 500hrs in Ultimate). This is one of those rare times where gameplay is the least important part of a game for me.
Easily the most fun I've had with a Kirby game. Everything about this game feels like it ended up exactly how the developers envisioned it. Nothing feels out of place, nothing feels incomplete. Impeccable pacing and style. I'm not personally a huge Kirby fan, but boy do I appreciate what was achieved here. Loved every single second of it.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses -
If you had asked me directly after playing it, I would have happily slapped 5 stars on it. In retrospect, I see more of the flaws. I loved the world building and characters, and really enjoyed both the battles and the downtime in the monastery. Nowadays, I would instead say that the battles aren't as good as Engage and the downtime at the monastery becomes a slog on repeated playthroughs that are already very long and tilt towards tediousness. Still a great experience that I would recommend to anyone for at least that first playthrough.
Super Smash Bros. Melee -
I'm a bit reluctant to review this one, as I was never very into it. I loved the original on N64, and played a crazy amount of it with my friends. Melee never sat right with me. The increase in game speed was difficult for me to wrap my head around, and overall the gameplay just felt way more chaotic. Even before I became a certified video game curmudgeon, I couldn't be bothered to put in the time required to get good at it. Ironic that the thing that catapulted Smash to what it has become today for so many people ruined it for me in some ways. On the other hand, this game did turn the series into an awesome playable videogame museum which I will always love it for. Hard to find a score for this one, as purely gameplay wise, it's probably 3 stars for me. But as I think back on my time with it, I can't help but view it through the lens of everything that came after it and how much I still adore the series (I've got like 500hrs in Ultimate). This is one of those rare times where gameplay is the least important part of a game for me.
OP
OP
- Pronouns
- He/him
This reads more like a 3-star review to me. You even say it's "good. Good enough, rather" which is kind of textbook 3 stars. 2 star kinda means it's not good enoughKirby and the Forgotten Land
OP
OP
- Pronouns
- He/him
Sorry I missed this! I think this is something I'd leave up to the individual reviewer, as long as you stay consistent. Personally, my approach would be to review the base game, but if you want to mention that there's meaty DLC which is better (or worse) then you could add a paragraph about it?
ohlawd
bruh
Alright I changed it to 3 star lol hope everything else is good and will count towards Famicritic. I think in my mind "good enough" means it struggles to be good on most days but I concede that it's a bastardization of English.
OP
OP
- Pronouns
- He/him
Oh don't worry, they definitely count! I'm just doing two things here:
- Trying to encourage people to engage with the reviews a bit. I'd love if people also used this threads to discuss each other reviews' constructively (kind of like the comments section of a review, but y'know, not shitty lol)
- Encouraging people to write reviews that match their scores and vice versa. It's entirely fair if you think KatFL is a 2-star game, but perhaps you could use a different choice of words or otherwise elaborate on your issues with it.
OP
OP
- Pronouns
- He/him
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Post-Black Eagle, I wanted to do the Golden Deer route. However... I'm still stuck in the monastery phase. Have not gotten around to continuing where I left off.
I haven't written my review for Three Houses yet, but the short version is this: it's one of the my favorite games on the Switch, but the complaints about the monastery segments and how much of a chore it can be to do all routes are absolutely spot-on.
What I find interesting about this, though, is that I don't think simplifying the game would have made it better. If they had mostly removed the monastery segments and made one canonical route only, I would have found it much more boring; part of the reason I loved the game so much is that the choice of routes means you are seeing similar events from multiple perspectives, which gives the characters, hero and villain alike, very intriguing moral ambiguity. I also think the monastery segments, as tedious as they could be, did a lot to make me care more about the characters and functioned as a "stat number goes up" section with a little bit more flavor. The problem is, this is a long ass game and the routes are truthfully not that different from one another, especially in the first half. So, somewhat paradoxically, it's the very thing that makes the game interesting to me that ends up ruining the experience when you're trying to see everything the game has to offer
EDIT: I spoiler tagged all the quotes so this post doesn't take up so much room on the page
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- Pronouns
- He
I also did not finish Three Houses because of the monastery. Honestly, I think they could have found a way to mostly drop as a mechanic in the second half, or at least add more stuff in the second half. From what I remember, it gets significantly less useful in the second half. I don't think it helped that the Golden Deer was the route I picked which apparently has the least interesting part in the main story.
- Pronouns
- he/him
Well yeah I don't think the solution would've been simplifying things at all. The issue is more that the monastery doesn't really change all that much after a certain point and between playthroughs, so it feels like you exhaust it fairly quickly. Really I think what it could've used is just a lot more complexity, or at least variety
Warlord
Chain Chomp
Biggest cause of why it feels slow is that the first half of every route is the exact same, with just a few differences. So for 15-20h you are playing the same game four times. And you can't skip this, because the choice of house is so early in the game and you need to grow affinity to recruit students from other houses.
PixelKnight
Observing the process
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- He/Him
Yeah. The first half of the game is always similar as you do the same 12 introductory missions, the main difference is in which characters you’re recruiting and talking to. Then the second half of the game has different missions but you’re still running around a half-empty monastery between them.
It really needed the choice of house to be a bit later, and with a few different missions scattered earlier on, and being happy to abandon the monastery at the halfway point rather than needing it as a hub for the whole game. As the main things that stop me replaying it, despite loving the setting and characters, is not really wanting to replay the 20 hours in the first half to get to the actual missions I haven’t played yet, and then skipping through all the monastery stuff in the second half when your final team is locked in.
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Nmanic
Bob-omb
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- He/Him
Something interesting too is that Engage actually does a great job of streamlining the hub (takes very little time to get anywhere you need to go on the Somniel, and there's less activity point things to worry about optimizing) but there's also not multiple routes in Engage. So while they fixed part of what made the Monastery such a drag, it was in a game that didn't quite need the help as much
.Three Houses is a wonderful game, despite this complaint. My recommendation to most people is to just play one route they find interesting (I usually recommend Golden Deer bc Claude is a very interesting lord and he actually wants to know the source of the world's mysteries). That said, most people I know who get into 3H naturally play all routes over the course of a year or two.
One solution that kinda happened in Three Hopes was having the route split happen waaaaay sooner. So most of the story changes kicked off right away. I dunno though! It'll be interesting to see what they do if/when they make another mainline FE with route splits.
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The thing that's really weird with it too is that, even those those games have other problems, they'd... already done a better job with the way routes were set up in Fates? In terms of when the game branches, at least. The split happens pretty early on, and once you've reached the split at all, you can choose to start a game from there instead of from the start. The main compromise was that it just copied over the stats/exp/etc from your first save instead of giving a fixed amount (or resetting). That, and the whole nonsense with it being split into separate games, which was an easy fix.Something interesting too is that Engage actually does a great job of streamlining the hub (takes very little time to get anywhere you need to go on the Somniel, and there's less activity point things to worry about optimizing) but there's also not multiple routes in Engage. So while they fixed part of what made the Monastery such a drag, it was in a game that didn't quite need the help as much
Three Houses is a wonderful game, despite this complaint. My recommendation to most people is to just play one route they find interesting (I usually recommend Golden Deer bc Claude is a very interesting lord and he actually wants to know the source of the world's mysteries). That said, most people I know who get into 3H naturally play all routes over the course of a year or two.
One solution that kinda happened in Three Hopes was having the route split happen waaaaay sooner. So most of the story changes kicked off right away. I dunno though! It'll be interesting to see what they do if/when they make another mainline FE with route splits.
So they'd already found a way that mostly worked, and then instead of refining it, they... went for an overall worse solution that put off a lot of people from finishing the game? It's so bizarre to me.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Kirby and the Forgotten Land
A great translation of a 2D series into 3D - I think the decision to follow the Mario 3D World formula with fixed camera, rather than something more open world was smart. While there aren't a huge number of abilities available, the ones that are work well in a 3D space and the upgrade paths for each add a bit more depth, and that's not even discussing Mouthful Mode. Every Kirby game as some kind of gimmick and this is on of the best - simple in execution, wondrous (and sometimes hilarious) in execution, and almost horrifying in retrospect - transforming into a car, giant cone and a vending machine is fun the first time and still fun the hundredth.
Like a classic Kirby title, the main event isn't exactly what you'd call difficult (that's what the post-game is for) but that's never really been the selling point of the franchise - charm is an overused descriptor when describing pleasant video games but it's hard to think of a better way to talk about the appeal. And a smile never left my face as I played through and I just had fun every time I picked up the controller.
Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet
Real talk - the Gen 9 Pokemon games feel like they're held together with dry spaghetti and scotch tape, and graphically they're sub-optimal (to put it very kindly). At the same time, with Scarlet I had one of the best mainline experiences in a Pokemon title outside of Arceus Legends since the end of the DS era. The open world may have woeful textures and cause everything outside a few metres radius of your character to look like a slideshow, but it also makes the game a hell of a lot more interesting to play - especially when couple with multiple main tasks to follow in whatever order you want to. The next step would be make the open world a bit more curated but it's great to see the series finally receive enough experience to start evolving.
Does it always work? Not quite - it feels like gyms/treasure hunts should probably have been scaled to how many badges/events you've passed but the underlying loop of getting new monsters and taking them to new places to earn new rewards is still great 25 years on. Helping this the new batch of Pokemon which as always has highs (Clodsire) and lows (the incredibly disappointing Pawmi line), and a gimmick mechanic that adds a really interesting tactical shift to battles.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Before Three Houses I'd only played one third of a Fire Emblem game (Awakening), but I've always been fond of tactical RPGs so I had high hopes. And I did really quite like that element of the game - unfortunately there's more to Three Houses that just didn't work for me. To begin with, the idea of building up your class through lesson planning and events at the school seemed interesting, but it quickly ran out of steam as it just became a case of repeating the same few menus. I also don't think any of the students you recruit or build relationships with are that interesting - sure, it does increase output and efficiency on the battlefield, but it quite aptly felt like a bunch of boring homework I had to do to get to the good bits.
The main problem though is it just takes too long to do anything. I've already spoken about some of the parts in the academy but even the battles which I liked always last a turn or four too long towards the end of a battle when you know you're going to win/lose. This is also a problem when you try a second playthrough to see what would happen with a different faction (or different route for one of them) - having to play through half the game almost identically put me off ever finding out what happened with the Golden Deer or Blue Lions, let alone the second Black Eagles story.
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Collecting trophies in this game felt like the best part to me, like a little Nintendo museum with a whole heap of stuff I'd heard of and even more that I had no idea about. The other best part were the events and breaking the targets - these felt like properly curated, well designed and most importantly fun challenges where you really had to learn each character to a high level to make it through.
In most other aspects, Melee is still a great game but while they can be fun first time round and as one offs, playing through arcade and adventure mode felt repetitive after the first couple of rounds. I also can't really talk much about the multiplayer side of the game which a lot of people really like - most of my experience with the game is through the single player only, which is all I can really judge the game on here.
A great translation of a 2D series into 3D - I think the decision to follow the Mario 3D World formula with fixed camera, rather than something more open world was smart. While there aren't a huge number of abilities available, the ones that are work well in a 3D space and the upgrade paths for each add a bit more depth, and that's not even discussing Mouthful Mode. Every Kirby game as some kind of gimmick and this is on of the best - simple in execution, wondrous (and sometimes hilarious) in execution, and almost horrifying in retrospect - transforming into a car, giant cone and a vending machine is fun the first time and still fun the hundredth.
Like a classic Kirby title, the main event isn't exactly what you'd call difficult (that's what the post-game is for) but that's never really been the selling point of the franchise - charm is an overused descriptor when describing pleasant video games but it's hard to think of a better way to talk about the appeal. And a smile never left my face as I played through and I just had fun every time I picked up the controller.
Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet
Real talk - the Gen 9 Pokemon games feel like they're held together with dry spaghetti and scotch tape, and graphically they're sub-optimal (to put it very kindly). At the same time, with Scarlet I had one of the best mainline experiences in a Pokemon title outside of Arceus Legends since the end of the DS era. The open world may have woeful textures and cause everything outside a few metres radius of your character to look like a slideshow, but it also makes the game a hell of a lot more interesting to play - especially when couple with multiple main tasks to follow in whatever order you want to. The next step would be make the open world a bit more curated but it's great to see the series finally receive enough experience to start evolving.
Does it always work? Not quite - it feels like gyms/treasure hunts should probably have been scaled to how many badges/events you've passed but the underlying loop of getting new monsters and taking them to new places to earn new rewards is still great 25 years on. Helping this the new batch of Pokemon which as always has highs (Clodsire) and lows (the incredibly disappointing Pawmi line), and a gimmick mechanic that adds a really interesting tactical shift to battles.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Before Three Houses I'd only played one third of a Fire Emblem game (Awakening), but I've always been fond of tactical RPGs so I had high hopes. And I did really quite like that element of the game - unfortunately there's more to Three Houses that just didn't work for me. To begin with, the idea of building up your class through lesson planning and events at the school seemed interesting, but it quickly ran out of steam as it just became a case of repeating the same few menus. I also don't think any of the students you recruit or build relationships with are that interesting - sure, it does increase output and efficiency on the battlefield, but it quite aptly felt like a bunch of boring homework I had to do to get to the good bits.
The main problem though is it just takes too long to do anything. I've already spoken about some of the parts in the academy but even the battles which I liked always last a turn or four too long towards the end of a battle when you know you're going to win/lose. This is also a problem when you try a second playthrough to see what would happen with a different faction (or different route for one of them) - having to play through half the game almost identically put me off ever finding out what happened with the Golden Deer or Blue Lions, let alone the second Black Eagles story.
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Collecting trophies in this game felt like the best part to me, like a little Nintendo museum with a whole heap of stuff I'd heard of and even more that I had no idea about. The other best part were the events and breaking the targets - these felt like properly curated, well designed and most importantly fun challenges where you really had to learn each character to a high level to make it through.
In most other aspects, Melee is still a great game but while they can be fun first time round and as one offs, playing through arcade and adventure mode felt repetitive after the first couple of rounds. I also can't really talk much about the multiplayer side of the game which a lot of people really like - most of my experience with the game is through the single player only, which is all I can really judge the game on here.
OP
OP
- Pronouns
- He/him
Folks, we're just under one week until the deadline for the second batch of games!
We got quite a few last minute submissions last time - which is not inherently bad, but I get the impression some people scrambled a bit when they wanted to spend a little more time - so may I gently suggest getting started if you haven't already
remember you can always write one or two, then edit your post later!
We got quite a few last minute submissions last time - which is not inherently bad, but I get the impression some people scrambled a bit when they wanted to spend a little more time - so may I gently suggest getting started if you haven't already
remember you can always write one or two, then edit your post later!
Vookatos
Like Like
- Pronouns
- He/They
Damn, only played two of those games and never feel qualified to talk about fighters.
Kirby and The Forgotten Land it is!
Kirby as a series is hard to judge for me. What separates a good entry from a mediocre one is so not obvious that I still can't explain why I like certain games and dislike others. I think it's because Kirby is mostly about vibes. Thankfully, Forgotten Land has the best vibes out of all of them.
It's a really cute game that's only held back by it being the first of its kind. It does feel like it's light on content (powers you can use in particular), but it's also one of the few Kirby games that really tries to differentiate its levels to make up for it. Almost no level feels like filler or a copy of another one, which can't be said for some 2D Kirbert titles, where they all frequently kinda blend together.
The use of ruined civilization in particular is a really nice touch. As a big fan of indoor levels and civilization in general as opposed to your usual fire-ice-forest themes, this game felt way more fun to be in than many platformers.
Video game sequels are in a unique position where a sequel can often be better than its predeccessor due to devs gaining more knowledge, listening to criticism, reusing assets, etc. Because of that a hypothetical Forgotten Land 2 is one of my most anticipated titles. The original doesn't really give a hundred percent, making some shortcuts (reused content for post-game, for example), but considering it was the first of its kind, it did really well! The levels are good and cute, the bosses are great, and the music is as Kirby as it gets, which is to say as great as ever. Still, there's something in me that wishes it had a bit more.
Kirby and The Forgotten Land it is!
Kirby as a series is hard to judge for me. What separates a good entry from a mediocre one is so not obvious that I still can't explain why I like certain games and dislike others. I think it's because Kirby is mostly about vibes. Thankfully, Forgotten Land has the best vibes out of all of them.
It's a really cute game that's only held back by it being the first of its kind. It does feel like it's light on content (powers you can use in particular), but it's also one of the few Kirby games that really tries to differentiate its levels to make up for it. Almost no level feels like filler or a copy of another one, which can't be said for some 2D Kirbert titles, where they all frequently kinda blend together.
The use of ruined civilization in particular is a really nice touch. As a big fan of indoor levels and civilization in general as opposed to your usual fire-ice-forest themes, this game felt way more fun to be in than many platformers.
Video game sequels are in a unique position where a sequel can often be better than its predeccessor due to devs gaining more knowledge, listening to criticism, reusing assets, etc. Because of that a hypothetical Forgotten Land 2 is one of my most anticipated titles. The original doesn't really give a hundred percent, making some shortcuts (reused content for post-game, for example), but considering it was the first of its kind, it did really well! The levels are good and cute, the bosses are great, and the music is as Kirby as it gets, which is to say as great as ever. Still, there's something in me that wishes it had a bit more.
Metroid
Enemy of the Process Believe in Progress #BiP
- Pronouns
- He/him
Trying not to post so last minute again! Maybe even less last minute in the next set.
Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet
Quite simply, it's the most fun I've had with a mainline Pokemon game I've had since gen 6 after skipping gen 5. The basic mechanics of the series get rebalanced every gen due to whatever gimmick is added or, more rarely, when they actually tweak the game. This time around, it's solely due to the gimmick, Tera types. Tera typing is the first gimmick I've liked since Mega evolution! It's simple and impactful, and actually fun to build and use. All it does is change your Pokemon's type to a single type. Doing this does a ton! Changes your resistances out of nowhere and gives you STAB that, with creativity, your opponent may not have prepped at all for. There's more to ScaVio than just that though. As a huge fan of Legends Arceus, translating the open world to mainline Pokemon but shuffling it into its own identity worked for me. I've always loved imaging the Pokemon world as, well, an actual world and as simple and kid-friendly as the world is, ScaVio (and Arceus...) deliver quite well! Most of my time was spent exploring and catching Pokemon by my own volition. There are reasons to explore in story, but this always felt secondary to my own desire to see things for myself. The story on its own isn't anything incredible, or even all that good really, but being able to decide for yourself how and when to do it is nice, even though you'll vaguely have a very similar order to everyone else. That said, just hitting the core points isn't the point. I had a blast talking to my friends about how and why we hit those points, even if the which was the same. The game isn't perfect, of course. Famously far from it. It's hideous. It looks and runs like nothing else on the Switch or even in the series. If you're someone who can't get past that, by preference or not, I don't blame you for washing your hands of the game. While I was able to deal with it, it's genuinely shocking and more than a little inexusable.
What's truly inexcusable however is that I was burned yet again by a fantastic design in Gimmighoul evolving into the horrendous Gholdengo. This is Crabrawler to Crabominable again. Game Freak will know my vengeance.
Monster Hunter Rise
Following up World must have been beyond daunting for the team behind Rise. They did a good job though, they changed the flavor severely and made the game quicker and easier (at least in the earlygame) to double down on making it friendly to newcomers. Loved that World did that, so I'm glad Rise continued. That said, overall I thought this was a slightly lesser package. The intrigue around the flagship and general plot was less interesting to me and the new monsters, while great as a group of traditional Japanese mythological inspirations, feel weak to me compared to the more general monsters. That said, the gameplay is as strong as always and the Sunbreak expansion added a sequel's worth of content to the game. If you have any interest in trying Monster Hunter, I would definitely say try Rise if World isn't in reach, or if the distinct aesthetic and flavor are more your speed.
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Hard to review at this point in time. Back then, in my childhood though? This was more than simply a game. This was entire parties, late sleepovers, genuine competition, cooperative storytelling, and a puzzlebox. Talking about this game with friends, learning secrets, tricks, techniques was beyond anything else I played at the time. Also in its favor for me, is being the first Fire Emblem in the west! Unlocking Marth and later Roy unlocked quite a strange passion in me that I didn't realize to still be burning strongly two decades later. It's still great fun in this day and age... although it's hard to find time to play this in any where near the same fervor. It may be unfair to compare it, but the truth is, unless you're just trying all the games or want to play Melee competitively, I can't fathom not just gravitating to Ultimate. Make no mistake though, Melee was a powerhouse and giving it a score feels difficult.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
After not being a huge fan of the 3DS era of Fire Emblem, the initial reveal trailer of Three Houses felt like a kick in the pants in the best way. I don't even know where to begin with this review. The main conceit of the game is the branching path. For me, they nailed it nearly perfectly for what they were going for. 3 full paths, with an extra, shorter "evil (but not really)" path. Being able to see a full on war play out from multiple sides, with each side caring about completely different things makes it almost a requirement to play the full game. And they add a ton of depth to writing, both in the main story and the supports. Playing multiple routes shines whole new lights on the other routes and on the characters. You learn what the web of secrets truly unravel into, moreso than just on a single run. The main hub of the game can get a little long in the tooth, but NG+ does help a little bit, letting you rush through it. I do wish you could rush through it even more, maybe even skip it, but alas. The core gameplay it is pretty easy (as an SRPG veteran) due to having to balance around reclassing but for the kind of game this is, it works. While I was never a fan of being able to reclass units at will, building the whole game around that is definitely the way to sell me on reclassing. Letting you plan your team as methodically or as stupidly as you desire and having it still work makes this a really good sandbox-y FE to just play around with. The art direction is one of my favorites of the entire series. I love the way the characters look and the way the world comes together. Musically, I still listen to various songs from the game in my daily life. The graphics are the one out and out flaw of the game. While designed to been seen from a distance as a strategy game, the fact that the camera must zoom in to the textures for the monastery or for the zoomed in gameplay (does anyone play like that for more than a few minutes) does it no favors. That said, Three Houses overall is one of the contenders for the best game in the series. I can't recommend it enough. It's easy enough for new SRPG players, has a Persona-like quality to the daily life of the monastery, and on the highest difficulty has something for someone who really wants to strategize.
Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet
Quite simply, it's the most fun I've had with a mainline Pokemon game I've had since gen 6 after skipping gen 5. The basic mechanics of the series get rebalanced every gen due to whatever gimmick is added or, more rarely, when they actually tweak the game. This time around, it's solely due to the gimmick, Tera types. Tera typing is the first gimmick I've liked since Mega evolution! It's simple and impactful, and actually fun to build and use. All it does is change your Pokemon's type to a single type. Doing this does a ton! Changes your resistances out of nowhere and gives you STAB that, with creativity, your opponent may not have prepped at all for. There's more to ScaVio than just that though. As a huge fan of Legends Arceus, translating the open world to mainline Pokemon but shuffling it into its own identity worked for me. I've always loved imaging the Pokemon world as, well, an actual world and as simple and kid-friendly as the world is, ScaVio (and Arceus...) deliver quite well! Most of my time was spent exploring and catching Pokemon by my own volition. There are reasons to explore in story, but this always felt secondary to my own desire to see things for myself. The story on its own isn't anything incredible, or even all that good really, but being able to decide for yourself how and when to do it is nice, even though you'll vaguely have a very similar order to everyone else. That said, just hitting the core points isn't the point. I had a blast talking to my friends about how and why we hit those points, even if the which was the same. The game isn't perfect, of course. Famously far from it. It's hideous. It looks and runs like nothing else on the Switch or even in the series. If you're someone who can't get past that, by preference or not, I don't blame you for washing your hands of the game. While I was able to deal with it, it's genuinely shocking and more than a little inexusable.
What's truly inexcusable however is that I was burned yet again by a fantastic design in Gimmighoul evolving into the horrendous Gholdengo. This is Crabrawler to Crabominable again. Game Freak will know my vengeance.
Monster Hunter Rise
Following up World must have been beyond daunting for the team behind Rise. They did a good job though, they changed the flavor severely and made the game quicker and easier (at least in the earlygame) to double down on making it friendly to newcomers. Loved that World did that, so I'm glad Rise continued. That said, overall I thought this was a slightly lesser package. The intrigue around the flagship and general plot was less interesting to me and the new monsters, while great as a group of traditional Japanese mythological inspirations, feel weak to me compared to the more general monsters. That said, the gameplay is as strong as always and the Sunbreak expansion added a sequel's worth of content to the game. If you have any interest in trying Monster Hunter, I would definitely say try Rise if World isn't in reach, or if the distinct aesthetic and flavor are more your speed.
Super Smash Bros. Melee
Hard to review at this point in time. Back then, in my childhood though? This was more than simply a game. This was entire parties, late sleepovers, genuine competition, cooperative storytelling, and a puzzlebox. Talking about this game with friends, learning secrets, tricks, techniques was beyond anything else I played at the time. Also in its favor for me, is being the first Fire Emblem in the west! Unlocking Marth and later Roy unlocked quite a strange passion in me that I didn't realize to still be burning strongly two decades later. It's still great fun in this day and age... although it's hard to find time to play this in any where near the same fervor. It may be unfair to compare it, but the truth is, unless you're just trying all the games or want to play Melee competitively, I can't fathom not just gravitating to Ultimate. Make no mistake though, Melee was a powerhouse and giving it a score feels difficult.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses
After not being a huge fan of the 3DS era of Fire Emblem, the initial reveal trailer of Three Houses felt like a kick in the pants in the best way. I don't even know where to begin with this review. The main conceit of the game is the branching path. For me, they nailed it nearly perfectly for what they were going for. 3 full paths, with an extra, shorter "evil (but not really)" path. Being able to see a full on war play out from multiple sides, with each side caring about completely different things makes it almost a requirement to play the full game. And they add a ton of depth to writing, both in the main story and the supports. Playing multiple routes shines whole new lights on the other routes and on the characters. You learn what the web of secrets truly unravel into, moreso than just on a single run. The main hub of the game can get a little long in the tooth, but NG+ does help a little bit, letting you rush through it. I do wish you could rush through it even more, maybe even skip it, but alas. The core gameplay it is pretty easy (as an SRPG veteran) due to having to balance around reclassing but for the kind of game this is, it works. While I was never a fan of being able to reclass units at will, building the whole game around that is definitely the way to sell me on reclassing. Letting you plan your team as methodically or as stupidly as you desire and having it still work makes this a really good sandbox-y FE to just play around with. The art direction is one of my favorites of the entire series. I love the way the characters look and the way the world comes together. Musically, I still listen to various songs from the game in my daily life. The graphics are the one out and out flaw of the game. While designed to been seen from a distance as a strategy game, the fact that the camera must zoom in to the textures for the monastery or for the zoomed in gameplay (does anyone play like that for more than a few minutes) does it no favors. That said, Three Houses overall is one of the contenders for the best game in the series. I can't recommend it enough. It's easy enough for new SRPG players, has a Persona-like quality to the daily life of the monastery, and on the highest difficulty has something for someone who really wants to strategize.
- Pronouns
- he/him*
Going to try to be a little less longwinded this time because I can see myself easily getting burnt out and I want to keep participating!
Kirby and the Forgotten Land - Kirby's first real 3D outing and wow was it great. I played this game in co-op the whole way and had an absolute blast. Kirby feels so good to play and it was fun to experience him and his abilities in a new way. Loved going back and trying for all the secret collectables and felt like they were well hidden but fair. It feels like they dialed up the cute here even more than usual - especially some of the unique animations they have in the hub world. The variations on Kirby sleeping are super cute and in co-op he can even snuggle with Waddle Dee!
Boss design is a lot of fun even if some of them feel a little off-brand for Kirby. And the level design is great, too! Honestly, no complaints, I had a ton of fun with this one and was glad to be able to play through with my husband the whole way! Hopefully they keep doing more games in this style as they feel like the refresh Kirby has needed after the mid Star Allies, which had particularly weak level design.
Pokémon Scarlet - I have some conflicting feelings on this one. First, I'll say that the core gameplay is some of the most fun Pokémon has ever been. Running around on the overworked and seeing wild Pokémon is a ton of fun and helps with my anxiety around random battles. I particularly love the three main storylines that you go through, so you could self-direct and keep things fresh. If you were tired of gym battles you could take a detour and take on a base or deal with a giant Pokémon. Something I want to call particular attention to is the Pokédex and the animation that happens when you catch a Pokémon - it felt so alluring and made me want to spend a lot of time catching everything I could so I could keep filling it out.
That being said, I have some pretty glaring issues with the game. Performance is one - I normally don't really care about performance, I'm cool playing a 720p game at 30 fps and I don't need super high end graphics. This game really challenged me - performance is really bad with framerate drops being really common, textures are bland and uninteresting, and the most frustrating thing is the pop-in where Pokémon can appear and disappear seemingly at random, even right in front of your eyes sometimes. Not only is the performance bad, but that's coupled with some really bland and uninteresting world design. You can't go in most buildings and the ones you can go in are usually only one sparse room. Towns seem populated because of folks being out and about but it doesn't really feel alive when you can't see what folks' houses look like on the inside (outside of very few exceptions). The Elite Four area in particular is just kind of actively nothing, which feels weird when the last few Elite Four areas have really been stepping up their aesthetic. That being said, Area Zero was reaaaally cool with a great aesthetic and fun music. It gave me a sense of wonder I haven't felt in a Pokémon game in a while.
I need to talk about two pieces that may seem insignificant but are really important to me. One, the human character designs just feel off, they kind of have a Bandai Namco feel and do -not- have a distinctly Pokémon aesthetic. That alone wouldn't be quite enough to put me off, but the really egregious bit is that you're stuck in your ugly school uniform for the entire game. The last several Pokémon games have gone pretty far in letting you customize your trainer's aesthetic and it feels incredibly limiting to be stuck to four pre-set outfit options. I'm also particularly bothered that there's no femme clothing options like dresses or skirts - assumedly it's part of the move to dance around player gender without ever having to directly acknowledge it, which I feel like Nintendo in general is doing in their games and feels like an unnecessarily limiting half-step when it comes to gender expression.
Oh just a quick note but I hate raids - I think the setup is weird and confusing and especially doesn't work well in online multiplayer. Why is battling realtime based when there's so much potential for latency?
All in all I'm pretty mid on Scarlet, there are some high highs but I don't think they outweigh the low lows. I much preferred Legends Arceus and felt the formula worked better there. Scarlet had fun but ultimately I left the game with no desire to ever return to it and I'll most likely be skipping the DLCs (which I hear somehow perform worse than the main game). This is one I wish I could give 2.5 stars to, but alas...
Monster Hunter Rise - An excellent game and a great first go around for me trying out the Monster Hunter series! I love the wide variety of weapons that all have different play styles so you can find one that works right for you. Character customization is pretty good and wow the fashion hunter elements in particular were such a motivating factor for me to keep going. I loved being able to create new gear from the monsters I hunted and being able to mix and match parts from different sets to get the look I was going for. Special shout out to layered armor so that you're able to maximize stats and abilities while also being able to retain the exact aesthetic you're trying to go for.
I love the maps and using wirebugs to fly around and find new places was a ton of fun. There's so much movement tech in this game in general and being able to quickly zip around the map was awesome.
Multiplayer in particular is such a highlight for this game. Special shout out to Capcom and their netcode because never once have I had a bad experience playing online in Rise. Being able to mess around in lobbies as well harkened a bit back to my MMO days - I literally have spent hours just doing silly emotes and poses with my friends, liberally using the Switch screenshot function.
Honestly, I really have no negatives to this game, other than I want more! And now this makes me want to jump back in to Sunbreak.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses - My first time playing a Fire Emblem game and I was hooked from the start. The setup immediately draws you in - there are three houses and you need to pick one of them, setting you of on different adventures depending on what choice you made. Luckily they let you recruit members from other houses (with a couple of exceptions) so you can customize your favorite team of anime pals. Naturally I went with Golden Deer because Claude is the GOAT.
The story is good for what it is. There's an interesting premise that builds upon itself, culminating in a battle that separates classmates from each other and jumps forward 5 years, where the story starts to take a very different turn based on which house you sided with. I don't want to get too much into spoilers here, but basically I'll just say - I love the setup but the execution could've used some work. Each of the separate stories don't fully work alone but asking players to go through all 4 of the story options for a complete picture seems like a bit much.
I know people kind of hate the monastery but I loved it. Teaching your students so you could have an active role in what they ended up being good at and what jobs they could take was a TON of fun. Making sure to maximize use of your activity points to have specific students hang out together to increase their bonds was a bunch of fun for me and made me feel like I had control over characters building relationships with each other. On subsequent playthroughs I mostly warped around the monastery and skipped a lot of the scenes, but since the ability to do it was there I didn't mind it so much.
This game made me a Fire Emblem fan and made me understand the hype for the series. It was one of those gameplay loops that made me keep saying "just one more day!" over and over until I was up way past when I was supposed to be to. I loved this game!
god I said I was gonna be less long winded but I still ended up saying a lot, just maybe a bit less organized than my first batch.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land - Kirby's first real 3D outing and wow was it great. I played this game in co-op the whole way and had an absolute blast. Kirby feels so good to play and it was fun to experience him and his abilities in a new way. Loved going back and trying for all the secret collectables and felt like they were well hidden but fair. It feels like they dialed up the cute here even more than usual - especially some of the unique animations they have in the hub world. The variations on Kirby sleeping are super cute and in co-op he can even snuggle with Waddle Dee!
Boss design is a lot of fun even if some of them feel a little off-brand for Kirby. And the level design is great, too! Honestly, no complaints, I had a ton of fun with this one and was glad to be able to play through with my husband the whole way! Hopefully they keep doing more games in this style as they feel like the refresh Kirby has needed after the mid Star Allies, which had particularly weak level design.
Pokémon Scarlet - I have some conflicting feelings on this one. First, I'll say that the core gameplay is some of the most fun Pokémon has ever been. Running around on the overworked and seeing wild Pokémon is a ton of fun and helps with my anxiety around random battles. I particularly love the three main storylines that you go through, so you could self-direct and keep things fresh. If you were tired of gym battles you could take a detour and take on a base or deal with a giant Pokémon. Something I want to call particular attention to is the Pokédex and the animation that happens when you catch a Pokémon - it felt so alluring and made me want to spend a lot of time catching everything I could so I could keep filling it out.
That being said, I have some pretty glaring issues with the game. Performance is one - I normally don't really care about performance, I'm cool playing a 720p game at 30 fps and I don't need super high end graphics. This game really challenged me - performance is really bad with framerate drops being really common, textures are bland and uninteresting, and the most frustrating thing is the pop-in where Pokémon can appear and disappear seemingly at random, even right in front of your eyes sometimes. Not only is the performance bad, but that's coupled with some really bland and uninteresting world design. You can't go in most buildings and the ones you can go in are usually only one sparse room. Towns seem populated because of folks being out and about but it doesn't really feel alive when you can't see what folks' houses look like on the inside (outside of very few exceptions). The Elite Four area in particular is just kind of actively nothing, which feels weird when the last few Elite Four areas have really been stepping up their aesthetic. That being said, Area Zero was reaaaally cool with a great aesthetic and fun music. It gave me a sense of wonder I haven't felt in a Pokémon game in a while.
I need to talk about two pieces that may seem insignificant but are really important to me. One, the human character designs just feel off, they kind of have a Bandai Namco feel and do -not- have a distinctly Pokémon aesthetic. That alone wouldn't be quite enough to put me off, but the really egregious bit is that you're stuck in your ugly school uniform for the entire game. The last several Pokémon games have gone pretty far in letting you customize your trainer's aesthetic and it feels incredibly limiting to be stuck to four pre-set outfit options. I'm also particularly bothered that there's no femme clothing options like dresses or skirts - assumedly it's part of the move to dance around player gender without ever having to directly acknowledge it, which I feel like Nintendo in general is doing in their games and feels like an unnecessarily limiting half-step when it comes to gender expression.
Oh just a quick note but I hate raids - I think the setup is weird and confusing and especially doesn't work well in online multiplayer. Why is battling realtime based when there's so much potential for latency?
All in all I'm pretty mid on Scarlet, there are some high highs but I don't think they outweigh the low lows. I much preferred Legends Arceus and felt the formula worked better there. Scarlet had fun but ultimately I left the game with no desire to ever return to it and I'll most likely be skipping the DLCs (which I hear somehow perform worse than the main game). This is one I wish I could give 2.5 stars to, but alas...
Monster Hunter Rise - An excellent game and a great first go around for me trying out the Monster Hunter series! I love the wide variety of weapons that all have different play styles so you can find one that works right for you. Character customization is pretty good and wow the fashion hunter elements in particular were such a motivating factor for me to keep going. I loved being able to create new gear from the monsters I hunted and being able to mix and match parts from different sets to get the look I was going for. Special shout out to layered armor so that you're able to maximize stats and abilities while also being able to retain the exact aesthetic you're trying to go for.
I love the maps and using wirebugs to fly around and find new places was a ton of fun. There's so much movement tech in this game in general and being able to quickly zip around the map was awesome.
Multiplayer in particular is such a highlight for this game. Special shout out to Capcom and their netcode because never once have I had a bad experience playing online in Rise. Being able to mess around in lobbies as well harkened a bit back to my MMO days - I literally have spent hours just doing silly emotes and poses with my friends, liberally using the Switch screenshot function.
Honestly, I really have no negatives to this game, other than I want more! And now this makes me want to jump back in to Sunbreak.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses - My first time playing a Fire Emblem game and I was hooked from the start. The setup immediately draws you in - there are three houses and you need to pick one of them, setting you of on different adventures depending on what choice you made. Luckily they let you recruit members from other houses (with a couple of exceptions) so you can customize your favorite team of anime pals. Naturally I went with Golden Deer because Claude is the GOAT.
The story is good for what it is. There's an interesting premise that builds upon itself, culminating in a battle that separates classmates from each other and jumps forward 5 years, where the story starts to take a very different turn based on which house you sided with. I don't want to get too much into spoilers here, but basically I'll just say - I love the setup but the execution could've used some work. Each of the separate stories don't fully work alone but asking players to go through all 4 of the story options for a complete picture seems like a bit much.
I know people kind of hate the monastery but I loved it. Teaching your students so you could have an active role in what they ended up being good at and what jobs they could take was a TON of fun. Making sure to maximize use of your activity points to have specific students hang out together to increase their bonds was a bunch of fun for me and made me feel like I had control over characters building relationships with each other. On subsequent playthroughs I mostly warped around the monastery and skipped a lot of the scenes, but since the ability to do it was there I didn't mind it so much.
This game made me a Fire Emblem fan and made me understand the hype for the series. It was one of those gameplay loops that made me keep saying "just one more day!" over and over until I was up way past when I was supposed to be to. I loved this game!
god I said I was gonna be less long winded but I still ended up saying a lot, just maybe a bit less organized than my first batch.
jnWake
i have 50 characters and i'll use them, all of 'em
I won't miss the deadline this time! My reviews:
Monster Hunter Rise -
There wasn't a hotter topic than Monster Hunter during the final days of the 3DS/initial days of the Switch. Initial rumors about the franchise moving to Playstation absolutely dominated sales discussion in a way that was ridiculous. Back in those days, this franchise was a mystery for me. Despite owning a 3DS I had never tried it for some reason (I think the look of the 3DS games never appealed to me).
Anyway, a couple years later Rise was announced and I decided it was finally time to give the franchise a try! Trailers looked excellent, with big levels and dynamic movement, so I had to jump in!
I got the game at launch and ended up playing it for around 120 hours before dropping it. My veredict? I loved it! Movement, in my opinion, is a key aspect of action focused games and Rise completely nails it, mostly thanks to wirebugs. The ability to quickly jump, "double jump", "dash" and other actions is just a lot of fun and made the battles very dynamic. I also had a lot of fun trying different weapons (although I didn't try them all since the learning curve's hard) and repeatedly battling different monsters. In general, I thought boss design was great, with most monsters being super fun to fight. I particularly liked the story's final boss, which was tough as hell.
Overall, Rise is an excellent game. If I could I'd give it more of a 4.5/5 but on the scale we're using here it's gets a 4/5, mostly since I think it's just lacking a bit in the story/character department to truly become a timeless classic.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses -
Oh boy, there's so much that's been discussed about this game online that I feel I can't add much new...
Anyway, I absolutely love this game. The character writing and world building are simply top notch, easily the best in any Fire Emblem game I've played. Every playable character has a well developed backstory that links them to the world and, in many cases, to the other characters. Simple things like Ignatz and Raphael being childhood friends, Leonie being like the star of her small town, the entire Blue Lions cast being linked by the Tragedy of Duscur and other details make the cast and world feel extremely alive, especially compared to most other FE games.
In terms of gameplay Three Houses is also great. Sure, it doesn't reach the heights of a game like, say, Engage, but it's still a lot of fun. I love the customization allowed through the class system, that gives you a lot of opportunities in how you build your characters. There's also some smaller things, like the Batallion system, that add depth to the gameplay in fun ways.
This year I've been playing through FE Engage (great game btw) and it made me appreciate one thing of 3H I don't often read about. In Engage, like most other FE games, you start with very few playable characters and continuously get new ones as you play through the story. This means that you're often questioning who your "main" roster is, which I suppose is fun in some way. In Three Houses things are pretty different as you get a pretty decently sized roster as soon as you pick a class and don't really get new characters in your team unless you make the effort of recruiting them. Because of this, you grow more attached to your team since you get most of them extremely early in the game.
Overall, can't recommend it enough.
Super Smash Bros. Melee -
How much you enjoy certain games is almost inevitably linked to when in your life you played them. When Melee came out, I was around 13 years old, a perfect age for a game focused on multiplayer. I have extremely fond memories of all the fun I had playing this game back then. However, I think my rating of this game isn't just based on nostalgia for those times, as I feel Melee really did nail a lot of aspects in ways that the game before it and the games after it didn't do.
A lot has been said about the gameplay of Melee, mostly thanks to the debates inspired by its competitive aspect, so I'll just say that playing it simply feels good. Movement is fluid, controls are responsive and the animations/SFX make every hit feel great. In terms of stages, I feel Melee was the last game that truly nailed Smash stage design. Although it has a few gimmicky levels, I'd say there's no single stage that's completely overtaken by its gimmick, which happens a lot in games that come after it. I feel similarly with items, Melee had a perfect balance of items that were powerful but didn't completely destroy the balance of the game. I think the addition of stuff like Assist Trophies and other items in Brawl made things too chaotic.
Another big win for Melee was content. The original Smash for N64 was a really fun game but it was quite low on content. Melee, however, added a lot of new modes like All Star, Event Mode, Adventure Mode and Home Run Contest. One thing that I really like in Melee and that, sadly, was never repeated in future games (due to roster size) are the unique "Break the Targets" stages for each character. It's just a sidemode but it was a lot of fun clearing each one and I also have fond memories of watching WRs and trying my best to imitate them. I always failed.
Overall, I think Melee is simply excellent. It's completely worth trying even with its smaller roster of playable characters.
Monster Hunter Rise -
There wasn't a hotter topic than Monster Hunter during the final days of the 3DS/initial days of the Switch. Initial rumors about the franchise moving to Playstation absolutely dominated sales discussion in a way that was ridiculous. Back in those days, this franchise was a mystery for me. Despite owning a 3DS I had never tried it for some reason (I think the look of the 3DS games never appealed to me).
Anyway, a couple years later Rise was announced and I decided it was finally time to give the franchise a try! Trailers looked excellent, with big levels and dynamic movement, so I had to jump in!
I got the game at launch and ended up playing it for around 120 hours before dropping it. My veredict? I loved it! Movement, in my opinion, is a key aspect of action focused games and Rise completely nails it, mostly thanks to wirebugs. The ability to quickly jump, "double jump", "dash" and other actions is just a lot of fun and made the battles very dynamic. I also had a lot of fun trying different weapons (although I didn't try them all since the learning curve's hard) and repeatedly battling different monsters. In general, I thought boss design was great, with most monsters being super fun to fight. I particularly liked the story's final boss, which was tough as hell.
Overall, Rise is an excellent game. If I could I'd give it more of a 4.5/5 but on the scale we're using here it's gets a 4/5, mostly since I think it's just lacking a bit in the story/character department to truly become a timeless classic.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses -
Oh boy, there's so much that's been discussed about this game online that I feel I can't add much new...
Anyway, I absolutely love this game. The character writing and world building are simply top notch, easily the best in any Fire Emblem game I've played. Every playable character has a well developed backstory that links them to the world and, in many cases, to the other characters. Simple things like Ignatz and Raphael being childhood friends, Leonie being like the star of her small town, the entire Blue Lions cast being linked by the Tragedy of Duscur and other details make the cast and world feel extremely alive, especially compared to most other FE games.
In terms of gameplay Three Houses is also great. Sure, it doesn't reach the heights of a game like, say, Engage, but it's still a lot of fun. I love the customization allowed through the class system, that gives you a lot of opportunities in how you build your characters. There's also some smaller things, like the Batallion system, that add depth to the gameplay in fun ways.
This year I've been playing through FE Engage (great game btw) and it made me appreciate one thing of 3H I don't often read about. In Engage, like most other FE games, you start with very few playable characters and continuously get new ones as you play through the story. This means that you're often questioning who your "main" roster is, which I suppose is fun in some way. In Three Houses things are pretty different as you get a pretty decently sized roster as soon as you pick a class and don't really get new characters in your team unless you make the effort of recruiting them. Because of this, you grow more attached to your team since you get most of them extremely early in the game.
Overall, can't recommend it enough.
Super Smash Bros. Melee -
How much you enjoy certain games is almost inevitably linked to when in your life you played them. When Melee came out, I was around 13 years old, a perfect age for a game focused on multiplayer. I have extremely fond memories of all the fun I had playing this game back then. However, I think my rating of this game isn't just based on nostalgia for those times, as I feel Melee really did nail a lot of aspects in ways that the game before it and the games after it didn't do.
A lot has been said about the gameplay of Melee, mostly thanks to the debates inspired by its competitive aspect, so I'll just say that playing it simply feels good. Movement is fluid, controls are responsive and the animations/SFX make every hit feel great. In terms of stages, I feel Melee was the last game that truly nailed Smash stage design. Although it has a few gimmicky levels, I'd say there's no single stage that's completely overtaken by its gimmick, which happens a lot in games that come after it. I feel similarly with items, Melee had a perfect balance of items that were powerful but didn't completely destroy the balance of the game. I think the addition of stuff like Assist Trophies and other items in Brawl made things too chaotic.
Another big win for Melee was content. The original Smash for N64 was a really fun game but it was quite low on content. Melee, however, added a lot of new modes like All Star, Event Mode, Adventure Mode and Home Run Contest. One thing that I really like in Melee and that, sadly, was never repeated in future games (due to roster size) are the unique "Break the Targets" stages for each character. It's just a sidemode but it was a lot of fun clearing each one and I also have fond memories of watching WRs and trying my best to imitate them. I always failed.
Overall, I think Melee is simply excellent. It's completely worth trying even with its smaller roster of playable characters.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Review: Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet
The Pokemon franchise is a train that refuses to stop. From the cartoons to the card game to the boatloads of merchandise, there seems to be a new Pokemon related release happening all of the time. Chief among these is the flagship core series, which has managed annual releases nearly every year with only a few exceptions. This has lead to astonishing success in terms of sales, especially after the release of Pokemon GO reinvigorated the franchise, but it's also lead to games that feel under-cooked. Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet are the latest example of this trend, both some of the most exciting games the series has seen in a long time and some of the messiest.
You are the new kid in the Paldea region, based on the Iberian Peninsula, and you've recently enrolled in the region's largest academy. After an admittedly very long intro sequence, you are given three main goals during your school's treasure hunt. Your new friend Nemona asks you to challenge the eight Gym Leaders and Elite Four to become a champion, following the classic beats of your typical Pokemon journet. The loner Arven needs help gathering Herba Mystica, rare cooking ingredients guarded by powerful Titan Pokemon, calling back to Alola's Totem Pokemon. The enigmatic Cassiopeia entrusts you with taking down the five squads of Team Star, school delinquents serving as the villanous organization of the region. Progressing through each story has its own benefits. Beating gyms lets you catch stronger Pokemon without them disobeying you, feeding the Herba Mystica to your legendary companion (Koraidon for Scarlet, Miraidon for Violet) unlocks more movement mechanics, and taking down Team Star grants more TM recipes to tweak your team's movesets. That being said, the order in which you take on these milestones is up to you.
Pokemon games have experiemented with levels of openness in the past, from the multiple route through Kanto to the Wild Area in Galar and the Monster Hunter-like sandboxes of the Hisui region. This take particularly feels like an expansion on Sword and Shield's DLC: traditional Pokemon gameplay in open areas. The new structure adds a lot to the loop. Maybe you'll explore and find a rare Pokemon spawn that becomes part of your team. Maybe you'll focus on catching every new Pokemon you can find in an area to more easily finish your Pokedex. Maybe you'll scour the region to find the items you need to counter the challenges the game will throw your way. All of this helps the journey to feel like your's. It helps that the new batch of Pokemon is a strong one, with lots of memorable designs and powerful tools. One of these tools is the region's battle gimmick: Terastalization, which lets one Pokemon on your team change their type or supercharge one of their existing types. This leads to a lot of strategy in multiplayer, as changing type affects both your offenses and defenses. It's a more interesting mechanic than Dynamax, even if it is arguably too strong in some circumstances. In the single player, it often helps you sweep entire teams, which is pretty par for the course. Pokemon games are approachable for all ages and these titles are no different.
All of this scale comes at a cost, however - Scarlet and Violet have a boatload of technical issues. In some regards, this is still the same issues we've seen for many years. Environments aren't particularly pretty with their weak lighting and textures, and they can sometimes feel a bit empty. Cutscenes still feel stilted, with a lot of "standing still and talking" scenes with repetitive talking idle animations, though it is generally a step up from Generation VIII. But new issues have arisen. Performance is weak, with choppy framerates leading to sluggish exploration. Distant animations animate at low framerates and objects fade in and out to help performance, but it feels like these are...too visible, if that makes sense. A litany of glitches large and small permeate the experience, though I did not experience the worst that others have experiences online. Menus can feel laggy, though patches have fixed issues with the PC storage system for Pokemon. Tera Raid Battles, a new feature replacing Sword and Shield's raid battles, can struggle in multiplayer, where the fast order of actions can appear to break the battle (even if the internal processing is seemingly fine).
Unfortunately, the problems are not just technical. The region may be big, but interior locations are at a minimum. Storytelling remains slow paced, with a lot of "tell, don't show" over seeing the action. You can take classes to learn about Pokemon mechanics and to bond with your teachers, but I wish there was more that could be done with these classes beyond reading dialogue. While the game is technically open, all major battles have a fixed level that the game only somewhat hints at, making the adventure not quite as open as you may hope. The build up to most major boss fights is extremely weak, ranging from mini games and some trainer battles for gyms to pitifully easy "battles" against Team Star using the Let's Go! mechanic to light exploration at most before each Titan Pokemon. The bosses are still highlights, offering fun characters and some occasionally interesting strategies with Terastilization or with Team Star's exclusive Starmobile encounters, but the in-between can feel empty, with the sheer number of Pokemon to find and catch carrying the brunt of the work.
And yet, with all of these caveats, with all of the jank and with lots of design nitpicks I could make, these are still my favorite core Pokemon games on Nintendo Switch. A lot of it comes down to the world and characters. All three of your friend characters steal the show in their own ways - Arven surprised me with how much I ended up liking him after his deliberately abrasive intro, Penny and the storyline surrounding her give the Team Star storyline a lot of depth, and Nemona's infectious energy makes her one of my favorite rivals in the entire series. The teachers in the academy all have entertaining personalities as shown through their classes, the important trainers feel involved in the world, and Koraidon/Miraidon are extremely well-intergrated into your journey, making them a memorable pair of mascots and fun characters in their own rights. This all cultimates in a final story sequence unlocked after finishing the three main goals which brings together the mysteries surrounding the region in a shocking and thrilling way.
There is so much more I wish this game could be, and I sincerely hope that Generation X is given the development time it needs to flourish. But for all of its issues, I had a great time in Paldea (and I enjoyed my time with the Teal Mask DLC, though not enough to change my review score). Let's hope the Indigo Disk DLC gives us a great wrap up!
The Pokemon franchise is a train that refuses to stop. From the cartoons to the card game to the boatloads of merchandise, there seems to be a new Pokemon related release happening all of the time. Chief among these is the flagship core series, which has managed annual releases nearly every year with only a few exceptions. This has lead to astonishing success in terms of sales, especially after the release of Pokemon GO reinvigorated the franchise, but it's also lead to games that feel under-cooked. Pokemon Scarlet and Pokemon Violet are the latest example of this trend, both some of the most exciting games the series has seen in a long time and some of the messiest.
You are the new kid in the Paldea region, based on the Iberian Peninsula, and you've recently enrolled in the region's largest academy. After an admittedly very long intro sequence, you are given three main goals during your school's treasure hunt. Your new friend Nemona asks you to challenge the eight Gym Leaders and Elite Four to become a champion, following the classic beats of your typical Pokemon journet. The loner Arven needs help gathering Herba Mystica, rare cooking ingredients guarded by powerful Titan Pokemon, calling back to Alola's Totem Pokemon. The enigmatic Cassiopeia entrusts you with taking down the five squads of Team Star, school delinquents serving as the villanous organization of the region. Progressing through each story has its own benefits. Beating gyms lets you catch stronger Pokemon without them disobeying you, feeding the Herba Mystica to your legendary companion (Koraidon for Scarlet, Miraidon for Violet) unlocks more movement mechanics, and taking down Team Star grants more TM recipes to tweak your team's movesets. That being said, the order in which you take on these milestones is up to you.
Pokemon games have experiemented with levels of openness in the past, from the multiple route through Kanto to the Wild Area in Galar and the Monster Hunter-like sandboxes of the Hisui region. This take particularly feels like an expansion on Sword and Shield's DLC: traditional Pokemon gameplay in open areas. The new structure adds a lot to the loop. Maybe you'll explore and find a rare Pokemon spawn that becomes part of your team. Maybe you'll focus on catching every new Pokemon you can find in an area to more easily finish your Pokedex. Maybe you'll scour the region to find the items you need to counter the challenges the game will throw your way. All of this helps the journey to feel like your's. It helps that the new batch of Pokemon is a strong one, with lots of memorable designs and powerful tools. One of these tools is the region's battle gimmick: Terastalization, which lets one Pokemon on your team change their type or supercharge one of their existing types. This leads to a lot of strategy in multiplayer, as changing type affects both your offenses and defenses. It's a more interesting mechanic than Dynamax, even if it is arguably too strong in some circumstances. In the single player, it often helps you sweep entire teams, which is pretty par for the course. Pokemon games are approachable for all ages and these titles are no different.
All of this scale comes at a cost, however - Scarlet and Violet have a boatload of technical issues. In some regards, this is still the same issues we've seen for many years. Environments aren't particularly pretty with their weak lighting and textures, and they can sometimes feel a bit empty. Cutscenes still feel stilted, with a lot of "standing still and talking" scenes with repetitive talking idle animations, though it is generally a step up from Generation VIII. But new issues have arisen. Performance is weak, with choppy framerates leading to sluggish exploration. Distant animations animate at low framerates and objects fade in and out to help performance, but it feels like these are...too visible, if that makes sense. A litany of glitches large and small permeate the experience, though I did not experience the worst that others have experiences online. Menus can feel laggy, though patches have fixed issues with the PC storage system for Pokemon. Tera Raid Battles, a new feature replacing Sword and Shield's raid battles, can struggle in multiplayer, where the fast order of actions can appear to break the battle (even if the internal processing is seemingly fine).
Unfortunately, the problems are not just technical. The region may be big, but interior locations are at a minimum. Storytelling remains slow paced, with a lot of "tell, don't show" over seeing the action. You can take classes to learn about Pokemon mechanics and to bond with your teachers, but I wish there was more that could be done with these classes beyond reading dialogue. While the game is technically open, all major battles have a fixed level that the game only somewhat hints at, making the adventure not quite as open as you may hope. The build up to most major boss fights is extremely weak, ranging from mini games and some trainer battles for gyms to pitifully easy "battles" against Team Star using the Let's Go! mechanic to light exploration at most before each Titan Pokemon. The bosses are still highlights, offering fun characters and some occasionally interesting strategies with Terastilization or with Team Star's exclusive Starmobile encounters, but the in-between can feel empty, with the sheer number of Pokemon to find and catch carrying the brunt of the work.
And yet, with all of these caveats, with all of the jank and with lots of design nitpicks I could make, these are still my favorite core Pokemon games on Nintendo Switch. A lot of it comes down to the world and characters. All three of your friend characters steal the show in their own ways - Arven surprised me with how much I ended up liking him after his deliberately abrasive intro, Penny and the storyline surrounding her give the Team Star storyline a lot of depth, and Nemona's infectious energy makes her one of my favorite rivals in the entire series. The teachers in the academy all have entertaining personalities as shown through their classes, the important trainers feel involved in the world, and Koraidon/Miraidon are extremely well-intergrated into your journey, making them a memorable pair of mascots and fun characters in their own rights. This all cultimates in a final story sequence unlocked after finishing the three main goals which brings together the mysteries surrounding the region in a shocking and thrilling way.
There is so much more I wish this game could be, and I sincerely hope that Generation X is given the development time it needs to flourish. But for all of its issues, I had a great time in Paldea (and I enjoyed my time with the Teal Mask DLC, though not enough to change my review score). Let's hope the Indigo Disk DLC gives us a great wrap up!
POKEMON SCARLET & VIOLET
Pokemon titles have, for a while, felt like a middling software company lucked into the license to a genius fictional universe. Except, of course, here the franchise and the video games spring from one creative sourse. And it is the same people building a new fascinating world every couple of years to set their their increasingly pedestrian gameplay ideas in.
Isn't it ironic how for a game based on evolution, Pokemon evolves so little? That's how the thinking goes. In truth, evolution is a slow process, and what people want is a revolution. Mutations are more likely to go wrong than right, once a form has achieved a sound expression, which Pokemon had with Red & Blue already. Given there is no financial pressure on it to change, Pokemon's refusal to stagnate from gen to gen appears quite radical and not in keeping with the theme. Pokemon titles don't evolve like real examples from nature, but rather like it's titular characters, where there might be sudden leaps from one stage to the next or inexplicable loss of previously prominent features in another. Pokemon Scarlet & Violet then is closer to being the Togekiss to Arceus Legend's Togetic and Sword & Shield's Togepi than it is to its own Pawmi line.
Endearing characters, memorable music, rock-paper-scissor combat and collecting party members function as an enduring design. This formula proves capable of a successful adaption to contemporary circumstances, unrestrained by having to preserve the vestiges of what was once considered vital for survival. The surprise of what will be revealed from behind the rustling grass has been replace by the desire to find out what lies beyond the next hill. No open world could hope for better exploration rewards. Sure, there could be more of points of interest such as ruined towers, haunted mansions or peculiar rock formations that draw the eye, but only as much as there are Gimmighouls at the top of them, spooky ghosts to be found inside, and undiscovered types hiding underneath to make the trip worth it.
But while the world opened up, Scarlet & Violet erect new hurdles that weren't there before. TMs are back to one-time use and now have to be crafted with materials from different mobs rather than be bought with a singular currency. Tera forms put a wall between competitive online battles and any newcomer hoping to build a team. Even for veteran trainers, experimenting with new concepts in-game becomes prohibitively expensive. Worse still, the way to grind shards for adjusting a pokemon's tera type is possibly the most ill-thought out, jankiest feature in series history. Tera Raids are tera terrible. The move from a party-wide turn-based system to pseudo real time elasticity creates a confusing mess that makes coordinating with teammates or reacting to enemy actions frequently impossible and constantly frustrating. Add the fast beating these raids requires investing considerable ressources into their own specialized set of pokemon first and it's all a bit much too ask of players who've just gotten used to the taste of freedom.
And as a final sad restriction, the legendary you bonded to throughout the story is untransferable to Pokemon HOME and thus future games, so the friend you spend hours exploring, riding, soaring, swimming with will forever stay confined to the fully mapped out, well-trodden, familiar ground of Paldea and never feel the thrill of discovery ever again.
Good
MONSTER HUNTER RISE
Monster Hunter Rise removes the hunt to get you right to the monster.
Gone are the days of extensive prep work before venturing out into the field. The action moves fast, the hunters move faster. New silk- and mount-based mobility shifts the power balance between hunter and monster from a relationship where the role of prey and predator may reverse without a moment's notice into the territory of power fantasies where respect is not extended to every deadly creature by default but earned only by a very few at the top of the food chain.
Defining traits of the series' classic identity are lost in these developments. And there is room to be wistful for the days when getting cornered by a monster and not finding the opportunity to heal was a realistic threat. None of the changes make the game worse, only less unique.
Elsewhere Rise maintains the spirit of the series. The "So tasty!" jingle exists, even if there is little reason to cook steak. The cantina animation is more delightful than ever. And Umbrella Merchant Hinami is BAE, gtfo Arena Bambini. Not to mention, Rampages continue the long tradition of failed siege gimmicks. The best of them dazzle with spectacle at first only to grow tedious later once they have to be repeated for materials. The worst of them are confusing from the get-go and never start to be fun even after a grasp of their mechanics has devoped. Rampages belong in the latter category - as do the majority, yet Capcom won't stop trying - and take up a larger chunk of the campaign than most, yet measured against 200 hours of monster hunting the time spent setting up traps and manning ballistas in what was billed as a tower control mode and turned out to be a dumber than normal slugfest with instant respawn and no limits on carts is soon nothing but a flimsy memory.
Great
Pokemon titles have, for a while, felt like a middling software company lucked into the license to a genius fictional universe. Except, of course, here the franchise and the video games spring from one creative sourse. And it is the same people building a new fascinating world every couple of years to set their their increasingly pedestrian gameplay ideas in.
Isn't it ironic how for a game based on evolution, Pokemon evolves so little? That's how the thinking goes. In truth, evolution is a slow process, and what people want is a revolution. Mutations are more likely to go wrong than right, once a form has achieved a sound expression, which Pokemon had with Red & Blue already. Given there is no financial pressure on it to change, Pokemon's refusal to stagnate from gen to gen appears quite radical and not in keeping with the theme. Pokemon titles don't evolve like real examples from nature, but rather like it's titular characters, where there might be sudden leaps from one stage to the next or inexplicable loss of previously prominent features in another. Pokemon Scarlet & Violet then is closer to being the Togekiss to Arceus Legend's Togetic and Sword & Shield's Togepi than it is to its own Pawmi line.
Endearing characters, memorable music, rock-paper-scissor combat and collecting party members function as an enduring design. This formula proves capable of a successful adaption to contemporary circumstances, unrestrained by having to preserve the vestiges of what was once considered vital for survival. The surprise of what will be revealed from behind the rustling grass has been replace by the desire to find out what lies beyond the next hill. No open world could hope for better exploration rewards. Sure, there could be more of points of interest such as ruined towers, haunted mansions or peculiar rock formations that draw the eye, but only as much as there are Gimmighouls at the top of them, spooky ghosts to be found inside, and undiscovered types hiding underneath to make the trip worth it.
But while the world opened up, Scarlet & Violet erect new hurdles that weren't there before. TMs are back to one-time use and now have to be crafted with materials from different mobs rather than be bought with a singular currency. Tera forms put a wall between competitive online battles and any newcomer hoping to build a team. Even for veteran trainers, experimenting with new concepts in-game becomes prohibitively expensive. Worse still, the way to grind shards for adjusting a pokemon's tera type is possibly the most ill-thought out, jankiest feature in series history. Tera Raids are tera terrible. The move from a party-wide turn-based system to pseudo real time elasticity creates a confusing mess that makes coordinating with teammates or reacting to enemy actions frequently impossible and constantly frustrating. Add the fast beating these raids requires investing considerable ressources into their own specialized set of pokemon first and it's all a bit much too ask of players who've just gotten used to the taste of freedom.
And as a final sad restriction, the legendary you bonded to throughout the story is untransferable to Pokemon HOME and thus future games, so the friend you spend hours exploring, riding, soaring, swimming with will forever stay confined to the fully mapped out, well-trodden, familiar ground of Paldea and never feel the thrill of discovery ever again.
GoodMONSTER HUNTER RISE
Monster Hunter Rise removes the hunt to get you right to the monster.
Gone are the days of extensive prep work before venturing out into the field. The action moves fast, the hunters move faster. New silk- and mount-based mobility shifts the power balance between hunter and monster from a relationship where the role of prey and predator may reverse without a moment's notice into the territory of power fantasies where respect is not extended to every deadly creature by default but earned only by a very few at the top of the food chain.
Defining traits of the series' classic identity are lost in these developments. And there is room to be wistful for the days when getting cornered by a monster and not finding the opportunity to heal was a realistic threat. None of the changes make the game worse, only less unique.
Elsewhere Rise maintains the spirit of the series. The "So tasty!" jingle exists, even if there is little reason to cook steak. The cantina animation is more delightful than ever. And Umbrella Merchant Hinami is BAE, gtfo Arena Bambini. Not to mention, Rampages continue the long tradition of failed siege gimmicks. The best of them dazzle with spectacle at first only to grow tedious later once they have to be repeated for materials. The worst of them are confusing from the get-go and never start to be fun even after a grasp of their mechanics has devoped. Rampages belong in the latter category - as do the majority, yet Capcom won't stop trying - and take up a larger chunk of the campaign than most, yet measured against 200 hours of monster hunting the time spent setting up traps and manning ballistas in what was billed as a tower control mode and turned out to be a dumber than normal slugfest with instant respawn and no limits on carts is soon nothing but a flimsy memory.
Great
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PixelKnight
Observing the process
- Pronouns
- He/Him
How about-
Mario Kart 8D
Dragon Quest XI
Mass Effect 2
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Mario Kart 8D
Dragon Quest XI
Mass Effect 2
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
PixelKnight
Observing the process
- Pronouns
- He/Him
‘Some raccoons just want to see the world burn’
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Some suggestions for reviews next time round, also in categories. Tried to go for a mix of genres as well.
Recent Nintendo game: Splatoon (could be any of them really, but probably one of the Switch ones)
Classic Nintendo game: Ocarina of Time (25th Anniversary is coming up mighty soon)
Indie game (also on Switch): Stardew Valley
3rd party game (also on Switch): Dragon Quest XI
Recent Nintendo game: Splatoon (could be any of them really, but probably one of the Switch ones)
Classic Nintendo game: Ocarina of Time (25th Anniversary is coming up mighty soon)
Indie game (also on Switch): Stardew Valley
3rd party game (also on Switch): Dragon Quest XI
rêverie
Bob-omb
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- he/him
not sure if people have already said this but, could you update the OP to add in the next batch? would be easier to find.
love the thread idea, btw!
Nmanic
Bob-omb
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- He/Him
One idea I had is to include a game that has an upcoming remake/remaster, like Thousand Year Door or Super Mario RPG. For some it'd be a fun way to think about those games in the lead up to re-release, and for others who haven't played it'll give them an idea of what folks who played it think.
- Pronouns
- they/them
All the batches are threadmarked, so you can always access them from there (including past ones)
OP
OP
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- He/him
The second batch of review Famiscores are in!
Kirby and the Forgotten Land: 88 (10 reviews)
Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet: 64 (9 reviews)
Monster Hunter Rise: 89 (9 reviews)
Fire Emblem: Three Houses: 83 (12 reviews)
Super Smash Bros. Melee: 88 (8 reviews)
Full details can be found in the review index.
Kirby and the Forgotten Land: 88 (10 reviews)
Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet: 64 (9 reviews)
Monster Hunter Rise: 89 (9 reviews)
Fire Emblem: Three Houses: 83 (12 reviews)
Super Smash Bros. Melee: 88 (8 reviews)
Full details can be found in the review index.
- Pronouns
- he/him
I wonder if we're ever going to get a game breaking 90
The problem I guess is with so few reviews outliers are going to stand out a lot more
The problem I guess is with so few reviews outliers are going to stand out a lot more
rêverie
Bob-omb
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- he/him
turned on notifications for this thread and got so excited a new batch was up but anyway… seconded!
PixelKnight
Observing the process
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I’ve been really impressed with this thread so far as the write ups are by people who’ve spent hours playing these games and with the benefit of hindsight, detached from the news cycle
Third batch of games - GOTY edition
OP
OP
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- He/him
Apologies for the delay everyone. I think this thread probably works better as a less frequent thread, so people feel like it's more of an event and we get more participation. That said, part of it was me having other stuff going on and not having time to do this, so I apologize for not at least communicating.
Here is the third batch of games to review, and this time it's Game of the Year edition! That's right, this time we will be reviewing all of the TGA nominations for GOTY (except TOTK, which we already did).
I'm going to allow more time this round. Some of the games are relatively new, so I want people to have as much time to play them as possible. So with that in mind, reviews must be in by December 7th, 2023, at 7pm Eastern (US) time. That's just in time for TGA!
Alan Wake 2
Baldur's Gate 3
Marvel's Spider-Man 2
Resident Evil 4
Super Mario Bros. Wonder
Here is the third batch of games to review, and this time it's Game of the Year edition! That's right, this time we will be reviewing all of the TGA nominations for GOTY (except TOTK, which we already did).
I'm going to allow more time this round. Some of the games are relatively new, so I want people to have as much time to play them as possible. So with that in mind, reviews must be in by December 7th, 2023, at 7pm Eastern (US) time. That's just in time for TGA!
Alan Wake 2
Baldur's Gate 3
Marvel's Spider-Man 2
Resident Evil 4
Super Mario Bros. Wonder
Warlord
Chain Chomp
Hell yeah it's back!
But once again, I only have one game to review
Super Mario Bros Wonder:
The best way I can describe it is that it's a very good 2D Mario game, but still feels like a classic 2D mario game. Which is ok, there's not much you can do to change the base 2D formula of the games. Thankfully Nintendo found a way to not make it completely feel like just another 2D mario game via the Wonder Flower, which shakes up the levels greatly. there was alot of creativity here and I was plesantly suprised each time. There are sometimes when the Wonder Flower effects kind of repeat themselves, but are still different enough from each other.
Aside from that, it looks great thanks to the new artstyle, plays great and the levels themselves are great.
Of course, not everything works. sometimes I found it a bit too slippery, especially during tight platform jumps.
The Bubble flower is a terrible powerup that works against you most of the time, including preventing you from getting either a Wonderflower or a purple coin by deleting the enemy/object you need.
And the boss fights being just Bowser Jr, but with a different effect in the arena was dissapointing.
Other than that, yeah it's pretty good
But once again, I only have one game to review
Super Mario Bros Wonder:
The best way I can describe it is that it's a very good 2D Mario game, but still feels like a classic 2D mario game. Which is ok, there's not much you can do to change the base 2D formula of the games. Thankfully Nintendo found a way to not make it completely feel like just another 2D mario game via the Wonder Flower, which shakes up the levels greatly. there was alot of creativity here and I was plesantly suprised each time. There are sometimes when the Wonder Flower effects kind of repeat themselves, but are still different enough from each other.
Aside from that, it looks great thanks to the new artstyle, plays great and the levels themselves are great.
Of course, not everything works. sometimes I found it a bit too slippery, especially during tight platform jumps.
The Bubble flower is a terrible powerup that works against you most of the time, including preventing you from getting either a Wonderflower or a purple coin by deleting the enemy/object you need.
And the boss fights being just Bowser Jr, but with a different effect in the arena was dissapointing.
Other than that, yeah it's pretty good
Thunder84
Gerudo
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- He/Him
Only have 3/5 here (4/6 when counting TotK) which is pretty good, all things considered. Usually I'll have only played 1-2 of the nominees.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2: (A-)
This was one of two games I had as a shoo-in to be one of my favorites of the year going into it, and ended up pretty disappointed, all things considered. Really thought this was gonna be the next step for Spider-Man games, and instead it's, well, just another Spider-Man game. The tech is impressive, combat and movement are improved a bit, and the set pieces are fantastic, but as a whole it's a much messier experience than the previous two games. The story pacing is a mess, Miles is thrown to the side more often than he should be, both in terms of story and gameplay (Camo is an afterthought after being such an integral part of MM), the villains are a step down from previous entries, and the side content isn't particularly impressive either. Not to mention it being a lot buggier than the previous two entries. It's still a great game because of course it is, but it was an unfortunate step down from the standard Insomniac had already set for themselves.
Resident Evil 4: (A+)
The other shoo-in I mentioned before, except Resident Evil 4 actually delivered on my expectations. I'm definitely more of an RE2 guy, but RE4 kicks all sorts of ass. Such a simple yet fun gameplay loop that just doesn't get old no matter how long the game goes for. I guess the boss fights were a bit of a low point (never been a fan of RE bosses in general) but everything else was awesome. As someone who never played the original, I totally get why it's so revered now. I just prefer the puzzle/exploration side of things over combat. Would love to see an RE2 style game with this type of scope and ambition someday.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder: (S-)
If you had told me that, in a year with a new Spider-Man, Resident Evil remake, and Zelda game, my game of the year would be a 2D Mario, I'd call you crazy. Wonder is everything I've wanted the franchise to be. There's so many fun ideas here, with only a select few getting reused a bit too much for my liking. The art direction is sublime; this is one of if not the best looking Mario game out there. Controls, powerups, enemy design, it's all perfect. Just give me a Wonder 2 with more ideas, more powerups, and some actual boss fights, and I'm gonna be one hell of a happy camper.
Marvel's Spider-Man 2:
(A-)This was one of two games I had as a shoo-in to be one of my favorites of the year going into it, and ended up pretty disappointed, all things considered. Really thought this was gonna be the next step for Spider-Man games, and instead it's, well, just another Spider-Man game. The tech is impressive, combat and movement are improved a bit, and the set pieces are fantastic, but as a whole it's a much messier experience than the previous two games. The story pacing is a mess, Miles is thrown to the side more often than he should be, both in terms of story and gameplay (Camo is an afterthought after being such an integral part of MM), the villains are a step down from previous entries, and the side content isn't particularly impressive either. Not to mention it being a lot buggier than the previous two entries. It's still a great game because of course it is, but it was an unfortunate step down from the standard Insomniac had already set for themselves.
Resident Evil 4:
(A+)The other shoo-in I mentioned before, except Resident Evil 4 actually delivered on my expectations. I'm definitely more of an RE2 guy, but RE4 kicks all sorts of ass. Such a simple yet fun gameplay loop that just doesn't get old no matter how long the game goes for. I guess the boss fights were a bit of a low point (never been a fan of RE bosses in general) but everything else was awesome. As someone who never played the original, I totally get why it's so revered now. I just prefer the puzzle/exploration side of things over combat. Would love to see an RE2 style game with this type of scope and ambition someday.
Super Mario Bros. Wonder:
(S-)If you had told me that, in a year with a new Spider-Man, Resident Evil remake, and Zelda game, my game of the year would be a 2D Mario, I'd call you crazy. Wonder is everything I've wanted the franchise to be. There's so many fun ideas here, with only a select few getting reused a bit too much for my liking. The art direction is sublime; this is one of if not the best looking Mario game out there. Controls, powerups, enemy design, it's all perfect. Just give me a Wonder 2 with more ideas, more powerups, and some actual boss fights, and I'm gonna be one hell of a happy camper.
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