Last Game You Finished And Your Four-ghts

Why do I always seem to finish games in twos?  One of life's great mysteries.  That said, 'finish' in this case needs a big disclaimer.




I love numbers, me.  Even I, though, think it would be unfair to give Just Shapes & Beats a score here.

For one, it's not at all my sort of game.  I'm terrible at bullet hell, absolutely rubbish.  For some reason I missed that JS&B was a bullet hell, despite that being exactly what it is and its reviews and fans not being shy about that fact.  I whacked the difficulty down to 'Casual' fairly early on and it never came off.  So, I might say that the boss levels being so long and having to repeat them after each death was annoying, but is that just because I'm bad at them?  It might be you know.  For another, it doesn't feel like I've finished the game much at all.  I believe that the meat of JS&B is contained in its Challenge mode, which I think (Smurf can correct me if I'm wrong) contains lots of other tracks.  So, while one of my criticisms of the game would be that it feels small and throwaway now it's done, that might be like criticising Mario Kart 8 because the Battle Mode was bobbins if I'd only played the Battle Mode.

Even despite all the caveats, I did just about like JS&B.  The story mode is a big pile of daft fun, with a surprisingly enjoyable 'story'.  The bullet hell gameplay is made less frustrating by use of the dash.  The visuals are instantly appealing, and the music...  I thought it was a mixed bag, but again, that might just be me.  So the 6/10-ish score I might slap on it might actually mean it's an 8/10 kind of game that's managed to reach across to someone it was never meant to appeal to, and still be a decent time.

Bottom line: ask Treesmurf if this is actually good, because I have no idea.  I did have fun with it though. Ask me about Sakuna instead (please I'm begging you).

Right...

Firstly, Yakuza 0 is one of the best games I've ever played. It's a proper gjones game that is definitively SEGA. The presentation is top tier and the gameplay is rewarding, and tight. There's one aspect of the game that I didn't like which was that the combat is slightly flawed. It's built on the Spikeout engine, itself a pretty meh 3D Streets of Rage-alike, and when surrounded by goons I found myself getting stuck in a loop of "being beaten down, then unable to get up without immediately being beaten down again". I think it's an AI thing though, as the combat is also unbalanced - as Kiryu it is challenging but as Majima it's really easy (with the baseball bat at least - enemies aren't too sure how to block).

Other than that? Incredible. It's full of characters and more importantly, full of character. Whether it's the straightfaced drama and politics of the storyline or the wacky, frequently hilarious humour pumping through each of the side stories, it all somehow meshes together effortlessly. It's a stupidly violent game yet you're never killing anyone. It's a game built on the idea of opposites and the "yin and yang". All the scary yakuza bosses have aged, tired faces but incredible ripped bodies. The theme of money is constant, as you turn up to rectify conflicts instilling your wisdom on how there's more to life than money. Meanwhile, you're running a real estate empire raking in billions of yen. Which in itself, is a 20 hour game. As is the Cabaret Club management "minigame". I've rolled credits at 95 hours and there's still tons of minigames and sidestories to go through - I had no idea the Yakuza titles were so vast!

Without spoiling anything, it focuses on two protagonists: the handsome Kiryu Kazama who is essentially a beefed up version of Ryo Hazuki from Shenmue; the other being the goofy charmer that is Goro Majima. They play similar roles as outcasts fighting for redemption, yet the biggest character in Yakuza 0 is the city itself. Of which there are two (Kamurocho and Sotenbori) - based on Tokyo and Osaka. They are relatively small areas but packed with things to do, again, a lot like Shenmue. It's easy to see where the Shenmue comparison comes from, but Yakuza is so much better with its pacing, its writing and particularly how self-aware it is. Videogames are stupid, especially when they try to replicate real life, and while Yakuza is a very Japanese series, the humour translates really well. The guy innocently selling mushrooms on the street and constantly being set upon by disappointed customers expecting magic mushrooms, is the kind of thing that would only happen in this world. A guy wandering the street in his underpants, wanking his days away. A bloke who can't cross a bridge because he's wearing a cool jacket and gets beaten up for wearing it. It's batshit crazy. And yet it works.

I'm not sure if this is the best Yakuza (I hear great things about 5) but if you ever fancy playing something silly yet equally badass, and are willing to invest time in its world, I can't recommend this enough.

10/10

I have started Yakuza Kiwami but never really felt the need to stick with it, I do wonder if it's worth playing Zero though as it's supposedly much better and that review seems to back it up.

Balladeer wrote:

So, I might say that the boss levels being so long and having to repeat them after each death was annoying, but is that just because I'm bad at them?  It might be you know.  For another, it doesn't feel like I've finished the game much at all.  I believe that the meat of JS&B is contained in its Challenge mode, which I think (Smurf can correct me if I'm wrong) contains lots of other tracks.  So, while one of my criticisms of the game would be that it feels small and throwaway now it's done, that might be like criticising Mario Kart 8 because the Battle Mode was bobbins if I'd only played the Battle Mode.

Even despite all the caveats, I did just about like JS&B.  The story mode is a big pile of daft fun, with a surprisingly enjoyable 'story'.  The bullet hell gameplay is made less frustrating by use of the dash.  The visuals are instantly appealing, and the music...  I thought it was a mixed bag, but again, that might just be me.  So the 6/10-ish score I might slap on it might actually mean it's an 8/10 kind of game that's managed to reach across to someone it was never meant to appeal to, and still be a decent time.

I think this is a fair review, I don't think I'm a bullet hell kinda guy myself but I suppose I have a high threshold for games that kill you constantly for me to keep coming back (which reminds me I should get back on Bloodborne). As you mentioned though the story mode and visuals are nice and that's what won me over ultimately, the music by association then became more enjoyable for me too.

I do think for those that would be really in to it that challenge mode is where it's at, I've dabbled with it but I've only occasionally returned to it as I know I don't have the skill level to do the majority of them. So yeah my summary would be story mode really enjoyable, challenge mode and multiplayer a nice addition if you've got the skills.

I would also say if you ever feel the urge or have a spare 15 minutes then check out the Shovel Knight stages as someone who enjoyed that game.

Interesting you bring up the combat gJones as that was my issue with Yakuza 0 when in tried it and well I wasn't keen. I do have LAD which from what I have played I've liked, just need to get to it at some point also this week Yakuza Collection comes to Xbox Game Pass that I can now play them all (maybe not 6) if I wish at some point.


Anyway I stuck my nose in here because

I feel need to say first I played on Series X and version 1.06/1.1 as I had no issues what so ever with the game and looks great.

My issues to begin with for my first 10hrs or so was the missions and the story was just okay but now 31hrs later the late game missions & character ones are pretty good that it ended up being a great game.

If I played back in November would I have voted for in Nontendo no, as even though ended a great, the start and having to get the great parts still weigh it down, but I will recommend it if you got the right hardware to play it.

Yes Tree, always start with 0, Kiwami is designed as a sequel to 0, even though it's a remake of 1.

The correct order for Yakuza videogames is probably 6,3,0,5,Kiwami 2, Kiwami, 4, LaD - I may change my mind depending on the day (apart from the bottom 2, they're pretty solid).

Order of goodness, right? That sounds like an insane order to play . . .

Yeah, the order to play is 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7 obv

I might be wrong but SEGA dropped the 7 on LAD in the west because it's meant not put off new players and if you saw a 7 you might be.

Guess for a Andy callbacks to the other games in the series.

I've also finished Donut County which is still great.

It's not callbacks, it is literally a sequel - I was actually somewhat disappointed that it did, I was hoping it was going to be a fresh start from the series.

I'm not far into LAD and not playing the others, I don't know what makes it sequel at the moment.

But I did fall for SEGA marketing especially as a Xbox player which was the marketed platform as well.

Treesmurf wrote:

I think this is a fair review, I don't think I'm a bullet hell kinda guy myself but I suppose I have a high threshold for games that kill you constantly for me to keep coming back (which reminds me I should get back on Bloodborne). As you mentioned though the story mode and visuals are nice and that's what won me over ultimately, the music by association then became more enjoyable for me too.

I do think for those that would be really in to it that challenge mode is where it's at, I've dabbled with it but I've only occasionally returned to it as I know I don't have the skill level to do the majority of them. So yeah my summary would be story mode really enjoyable, challenge mode and multiplayer a nice addition if you've got the skills.

I would also say if you ever feel the urge or have a spare 15 minutes then check out the Shovel Knight stages as someone who enjoyed that game.

Ah okay, good to know I'm not just being a grumpy bullet-hell-hating bastard.  (I... did not enjoy that game. Hey, I didn't say I wasn't being a grumpy platformer-hating bastard.)

So I finished Sypro the Dragon via the Spyro: Reignited trilogy for the Switch. This was one of the core games that got me into gaming back in the day and there are elements here that are about as good as I remember them.

There is a rich vein of different enemies that proliferate this game: some that run away from you; some that shoot at you; some that charge you down; and aesthetically they're all nicely differentiated too in a form that fits the worlds they inhabit. But if there's one unifying theme that ties them all together then it's a fittingly childish sense of humour. Whether it's jeering, wiggling, or pulling their pants down, there's a deliberate immaturity at play here that's fun.

As are a good deal of the levels themselves. For those of you who haven't played a Spyro game before, each World has its own hub area, which is really a level for you to explore unto itself, scattered within which is a healthy amount of treasure to find and a further 5 or so sub-levels. As you would expect, the early worlds are quite laid back in terms of difficulty but finding all of the treasure still takes a bit of effort. Unfortunately a lot of the later worlds are just too hard.

Ok, so it's not so much that the levels are hard, but rather that the game was possibly just too loyal of a remaster. The camera is manned by the ghost of Barry Chuckle which is compounded by Spyro handling about as convincingly as a Lib Dem claiming they won't lick a Tory's boots when you're not looking. There are moments where you want to believe in the game, after all jumping and gliding - stuff you'll be doing a lot of - is pretty much fine. But you'll often have to deal with confined spaces or try to get to grips with Spyro's charge attack, where he lowers his head and sprints forward until you release the charge button. When you use this move, Spyro loses any real semblance of a turning circle.

For many sections of the game this is fine, but there are an awful lot of jammy chests placed perilously close to cliff edges which require a charge to open, or indoor sections with twists and turns that ask you to sprint through the whole thing, all of which is unfortunately confounded by a nauseating amount of motion blur and a choppy frame rate. (I genuinely felt a bit rough playing it with motion blur on, on the large TV).

There's one level that I remember quite strongly from the original version. It's in a magic themed world and has a lot of turbo strips which you need to charge and jump with. Normally I'd not be into that, but this one level had a bunch of "rescue faries" which would reset you if you fell. This really helped the flow of the game because it let you take risks without the repudiation of a loading screen. I really wish they'd made those little guys an option for every level, because falling off an edge because of those naughty chests or the game's ChuckleVision just isn't much fun. I get that 90s platformers had a life system, but it feels arbitrary today. If you run out of lives, the game just gives you 5 more and resets you in the hub world anyway. I don't think it would have done the memory of the originals any injustice had they simply removed the life system all together, or, at the very least, made it optional.

The game also feels a bit like a tech demo at times because although there's a good number of levels, many of the later ones feel almost unfinished because they start to rely more and more upon charge assisted jumps and huge open gaps between platforms. So when it boils down to it, Spyro the Dragon is perhaps just a little too faithful to its original to really recommend and, unlike its sequels, there are no metroidvania aspects to it that will have you coming back to prior worlds.

I've since moved onto Spyro 2 and it's night and day how much better that game is!

6/10

A 6/10 for the first Spyro game feels a bit low. I didn't quite finish it on the Reignited Trilogy a couple of years ago, but when I think of the other 6/10 cutesy mascot platformers I've played since then (like Ty HD, Toy Story 2 and even Jet Set Radio Future) I'd say that Spyro 1 is better than the lot of them. 

Spyro 2 is better for sure though

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

A 6/10 for the first Spyro game feels a bit low. I didn't quite finish it on the Reignited Trilogy a couple of years ago, but when I think of the other 6/10 cutesy mascot platformers I've played since then (like Ty HD, Toy Story 2 and even Jet Set Radio Future) I'd say that Spyro 1 is better than the lot of them. 

Spyro 2 is better for sure though

Haaaang on. Jet Set Radio Future? Cutesy? Mascot? Platformer? 6/10??? I think I just got offended four times in one sentence.

Are the Spyro games actually any good if you have zero nostalgia for them? Everyone I know that likes them, played them when they were just done filling nappies and it holds fond memories for them.

Spyro 2 is a genuinely good game and heading towards a strong score!

Can't speak for the games Cappa mentioned other than Toy Story 2, of which Spyro the Dragon is definitely at least one cut above it. If you weight Spyro against other platformers then I think you can fairly inflate its score, but I was just rating it in terms of how I felt which can be surmised as - has good bits but can't sustain it for a full campaign. If you gave me a crap game like A Bug's Life or some other mediocre mascot platformer, I'd probably end up giving those games a 5 or less.

One of the things I tend wonder when I play games, irrespective of their age, is: could I get something way better on the cheap from a digital store? It's a bit of an unfair question to some extent I guess, there are always quality games on sale. With the first Spyro though, I felt like in that context there wasn't a strong argument for playing it, but it's a totally different feeling with Spyro 2.

gjones wrote:

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

Haaaang on. Jet Set Radio Future? Cutesy? Mascot? Platformer? 6/10??? I think I just got offended four times in one sentence.  

My first two points are utter bollocks - I got lost in the point I was making, cutesy and mascot aren't appropriate words to describe it. Platformer? Yeah, that's a fair comment. 

6/10 though...sorry to offend you, but that might be generous. I got close to finishing it last year, and I thought it was a mess. I remember that fighting off bad guys was infuriating, the map was a confusing pile of shite, and the level design largely didn't flow at all and cut your momentum off all the time. As cool as it looks and sounds, playing it was a nightmare. I've never played a game that I think needs a modern remake more than Jet Set Radio Future. 

~

I still think the Spyro games are good without having nostalgia for them. Admittedly I only played Spyro 1 in the Reignited Trilogy, but I'm familiar enough with 2 and 3 that I can recommend them to anybody - 2 especially.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

gjones wrote:

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

Haaaang on. Jet Set Radio Future? Cutesy? Mascot? Platformer? 6/10??? I think I just got offended four times in one sentence.  

My first two points are utter bollocks - I got lost in the point I was making, cutesy and mascot aren't appropriate words to describe it. Platformer? Yeah, that's a fair comment. 

6/10 though...sorry to offend you, but that might be generous. I got close to finishing it last year, and I thought it was a mess. I remember that fighting off bad guys was infuriating, the map was a confusing pile of shite, and the level design largely didn't flow at all and cut your momentum off all the time. As cool as it looks and sounds, playing it was a nightmare. I've never played a game that I think needs a modern remake more than Jet Set Radio Future. 

~

I still think the Spyro games are good without having nostalgia for them. Admittedly I only played Spyro 1 in the Reignited Trilogy, but I'm familiar enough with 2 and 3 that I can recommend them to anybody - 2 especially.

Interesting, I don't think I can just get Spyro 2 but will keep an eye on the Trilogy in sales.

As far as JSRF, that sounds like fair criticism. I played the original on PC (that remaster they did) and it's bloody frustrating. From an era where you had a timer for no reason other than to enforce level replayability. I always preferred the sequel though as it not only did it do away with the stupid QTE prompts for graffiti-ing, but there was a greater sense of freedom and openness to the levels. It was like Pikmin to Pikmin 2. I'd never really thought of Jet Set Radio as a platformer though but I guess like Sunset Overdrive, it probably is given you're leaping around 3D environments, collecting things.

gjones wrote:

Are the Spyro games actually any good if you have zero nostalgia for them?

Yes, the first time I played them was on Vita and I thought they were great. Compare to Crash which I don't really rate (excepting the excellent CTR)

Muss wrote:

There's one level that I remember quite strongly from the original version. It's in a magic themed world and has a lot of turbo strips which you need to charge and jump with.

Was this one where you have to navigate through a lot of trees and charge up and around them? If so, I hated that level.

I've no nostalgia for Spyro the Dragon as I didn't play it as a kid, but it didn't help that I was just chomping at the bit to get to the game which was not only a much better game, but one that I did have nostalgia for in Spyro 2. The level variety, the little tasks to accomplish in each world, the powerups and the platforming was all vastly improved in the sequel whereas the original felt like the levels were too big at points. I've no real fondness for the original, but it's not a bad game - 6/10 seems fair.

Muss wrote:

As for me, I um... I don't think I like this Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity anywhere near as much as I thought I would when I started it.

...

So anyway, no doubt my thoughts will go down as some of the harsher ones when it comes to this game and I look forward to reading some more positive thoughts on it. There's some really good stuff in here but it just isn't quite what I'm looking for. 6/10

I finished Age of Calamity last week (roundabout the time you posted this I think, Muss) and I totally get why you feel the way you do. I think I enjoyed it a bit more, though possibly because I've never played a Dynasty Warriors game.

I did find that the pacing went a little bit askew, because while the first few chapters were a rip-roaring whale of a time, it got a bit harder to make sure you were at a high enough level to tackle later chapters without either paying to level up your characters and/or replaying levels multiple times to buff them out. That actually didn't especially bother me though - what I DID find quite tedious was the fact that a lot of the time it did feel like it was just "kill the Lynel/Hinox/Talus" and then "kill the new Lynel/Hinox/Talus" and then "kill the Guardian" and then "kill the new Guardian that spawned". That said, I also think there's weight to yours and OrangeRakoon's point that all the characters do play differently and so you can mix it up by taking on the challenges with a new combat style... assuming you have the rupees to level them up to play as them, because you haven't levelled them up enough otherwise. It's a bit of a vicious circle.

I absolutely agree with the point that Zelda spends far too much time going "oh no I can't do it" for it to be a plot point I particularly cared about. I wish they'd made her less of a wet blanket. (The storyline that she struggles to awaken her power is totally fine - I just think they took it too far and made her unsympathetic.) Overall, the story started well and then just kinda... continued. It wasn't notable or especially exciting, it just happened.

When it comes down to it, I had a lot of fun playing Age of Calamity. The playable characters are varied, the combat is generally satisfying (albeit with predictably repetitive strategies sometimes - it's a Warriors game) and I got a little hit of endorphins every time I unlocked new things on the map. The story and Divine Beast sections weren't phenomenal, but I liked them, and I can see myself dipping in and out of it for a little while yet (I know I still have a couple of characters still to unlock).

Not my best review but THAT'S WHAT YOU'RE GETTING

I gave Funky Barn 6/10. Mon tae fuck.

I spent almost no money levelling characters in AOC (maybe 10 levels total, if that), and an awful lot upgrading weapons. I found you could get away fine with being 10-20% lower level than recommended and possibly that was because weapon damage scales more importantly? Doing all the side content as it unlocks also gives a presumably better level progression curve than trying to mainline the story. That is to say, I think how you play the game probably has a significant effect on its balancing, especially when it comes to rupee management.

It was doing all the side content as it unlocked that caused me to turn my head towards the levelling characters. Too many side quests were focused on specific characters that I'd argue there weren't sufficient opportunities to level organically. I was consistently significantly lower, but it depends on the mission, you can't get away with overly low levels if you're fighting a lot of bosses, but if it's just kill 800 enemies, then yes, you're fine.

This is why numbers are the devil, I'm about half way through AoC and I think Muss makes some very good points when it comes to the games mission structure. Now I've never played a mainline warriors games so I have no point of reference but early in chapter 2 of AoC I found myself getting a bit bored repeating those "collect" the champions missions to the point I decided it's a game that you play alongside something else.

I like the game but if it keeps the same pace above average to good is a fair assessment.

If I had taken Jas' approach, dipping in and out of this instead of treating it as my primary game for a while, then I reckon I'd have come out with a conclusion closer to Rum's. I don't think it's a bad game at all and I genuinely think the character pool has some of the finest move sets of any Warriors game. But beyond that and it's aesthetic qualities, I struggle to see what elevates AoC.

You can tell that a lot of effort has gone into creating fun characters to play as, I just wish an equivalent amount of quality could be seen in more areas.