La5t Game You Fini5hed And Your Thought5

I just finished Eastward and I'm very confused, and it's not just the train full of monkeys.  Where to begin?

Okay...  Eastward is an action-adventure in the Zelda mould, only the amount of dialogue and writing feels more like an RPG.  Specifically, it feels like a Mother series game.  A combination of the sprite art style, and the juxtaposition of humour and darkness, with big ideas in the background, all the way down to the clay art used in promotional material (that site is lovely by the way), the game wears its Mother influences writ large.  As such I had high hopes for Eastward, that it doesn't quite deliver.  

It's the characters, I think.  The sprites are rather small so it feels like you're literally keeping them at a distance, and you don't spend a lot of time around most of them, and the writing for everyone apart from Sam isn't bad but it's not memorable either. None of the more light-hearted moments seem to land.  As such none of them apart from Sam stay with you - and when there's this much writing, you need memorable characters.  That absolute silence of John doesn't really help either.  Sam does her best to lift things, and manages to be a kid main character that I don't hate.  Good going, Sam!

The plot is pretty good despite that.  Like I say, it gets Mother levels of dark in places, and has Mother levels of otherness going on just out of reach.  The world design is noticeably strong: it really does feel like you're travelling through a dying cobbled-together world with broken desperate underground villages.  If you like everything tied up then Eastward's vagueness and symbolism will rub you up the wrong way a bit (it did me), but that's certainly intentional: combined with the music in some places, I almost got Blade Runner vibes.  So yep, plot's strong despite most of the NPCs and several questions going unanswered - apart from one utterly pointless chapter with a train full of monkeys, that kills the pacing the game's built up and that I'm still boggling at the inclusion of in its pointlessness.  This must have been the work of some would-be auteur ignoring the editing staff, surely?

Oh dear, I'm 3/4 paragraphs in and I've only talked about the writing-related stuff, which I guess shows where Eastward's intent lies.  Well, the gameplay is pretty good too.  It's Zelda-lite I guess, with a hint of Mario & Luigi thrown in: you solve puzzles with your two characters, whack enemies with a frying pan, and occasionally get a new item or ability to help you progress.  It's decent, and varied, and still feels like it lacks a special something - and then you get to a boss.  The bosses are the best bits, spectacular combinations of puzzle and action and the really good animation.  Oh yeah, the animation!  The pixel art in this is luuuuuuurvely, even if the colour scheme feels a bit washed out - but that's an ongoing apocalypse for you I suppose.  Anyway the animation is really nice, and I don't know why it didn't bring the characters to life more than it did...

...and I'm off on the writing-related stuff again so I'd better stop there.  Eastward belongs in the same class as Iconoclasts, interesting games with great ideas that are just a bit too confusing for their own good in places - but if you like the sound of Mother's writing and worldbuilding combined with Zelda-ish gameplay and some top pixel art, then you should definitely give Eastward a shot.  Just remember that, as the game feels like it's ramping up to the finale, the pacing's about to come screeching to a halt amidst a train full of monkeys.


(Also there's an entire Game Boy RPG crammed in there that I never bothered with so if you like that sort of thing then good for you I guess.)

Sounds interesting enough and do have on my Switch Wishlist, just when will I get to it is the question with other titles like Chicory on wishlists, PS5 backlog of what I've missed over last 10 months and the busy season to come with likes of Metroidread.

I'm still in the early stages of Eastward myself but it feels a lot like what you've described so I can see myself sticking with it as it's perfectly playable and very easy to keep on playing, probably need to get it done before Metroid arrives though.

Yakuza Kiwami

I recently finished the 2017 remake of the 2006 PS2 game, Yakuza. Turns out Jay reviewed this at the start of the last thread, and I have similar (positive) feelings towards this one.

I shan't bother explaining what Yakuza is, as they are all cut from the same cloth. Kiwami borrows the fighting system from Yakuza 0 and it's graphically on par (both were released in Japan on PS3). The main difference between the prequel and this game is the sheer scale and length of time you’ll spend in each title. There are 20 chapters in 0, 14 in this. 0 also has much longer side stories and the two huge modes that bolt-on another 30+ hours to your playtime (Hostess Club Management, and Real Estate Management). So 0 is the beefier package. As great as that game is, it’s also nice to play a Yakuza game that’s a sensible length. Kiwami is a shorter game, with brief substories and a bit of bloat (more on that later). The story is less about Kiryu and more about finding a young lass her mother, with you fending off yakuza goons along the way. It’s decent, but I don’t think the characters were as strong as they are in 0. Speaking of which, Majima’s popularity appears to have been shoved down the player’s throat in Kiwami with frequent fights often interfering with the flow of the game. There are moments that are genuinely laugh out loud involving Majima (no spoilers), but I did find myself rolling my eyes when he’d pop out of a manhole for the umpteenth time for a fight. Thankfully, the fighting system is straightforward and fairly easy. The only bits I struggled with were the final boss battle, but even then I didn’t die. In fact, I didn’t die once throughout the entire game. Except in a driving/shooting section - a ridiculous difficulty spike that threatens to undo some of the immersion.

I like that the game is fairly easy, as you’re a fighting god and portrayed as such throughout the game. Men run away after you defeat them, women fawn for you, it’s a very macho game but knowingly silly. I love that you jump off a boat after it explodes and after you emerge from the sea, you’re bone-dry in a suit looking as sharp as ever. You can go to a hostess club and buy a drink, but say "actually no you can't have any". Even one of the minigames sees you giving a hammered drunkard more alcohol. It doesn’t give a fuck.  

10 yen reeking of alcohol:

But that self-awareness and humour run throughout Kiwami. It may not be as beautiful as other games (or even other Yakuzas) and the game still feels like a PS2-era title to play, but it’s still a whole lot of fun. I’ll definitely be checking out Kiwami 2 in the future.

8/10

masofdas wrote:

Sounds interesting enough and do have on my Switch Wishlist, just when will I get to it is the question with other titles like Chicory on wishlists, PS5 backlog of what I've missed over last 10 months and the busy season to come with likes of Metroidread.

If there's anybody I really struggle to know what to recommend on this forum, Mas, it's you: every time I think I've got a handle on your tastes I end up slipping wide of the mark.  Take this with a pinch of salt, then.  I reckon Eastward is more your sort of game than it might be for many here.  I'd reckon you should try both it and Iconoclasts: they're both interesting in a way that you might appreciate where others wouldn't as much.

Treesmurf wrote:

I'm still in the early stages of Eastward myself but it feels a lot like what you've described so I can see myself sticking with it as it's perfectly playable and very easy to keep on playing, probably need to get it done before Metroid arrives though.

It is that, although some of the harder-hitting story moments challenge that 'easy to keep on playing' notion a bit, and some of the pacing killers... well, kill that pacing.  If Dread isn't worth stopping playing this for I will be very disappointed.

I finished the first Dangonronpa yesterday. I didn't know it was a visual novel going in but it's actually pretty alright. For those who don't know, the premise is 15 high schoolers are locked in a school and the only way they can get out is to graduate, which they achieve by killing another student and getting away with it at the trial that follows. So in a lot of ways, it's a dark Phoenix Wright game as you'll spend a lot of your time gathering evidence and then taking part in a trial.

At first I was quite worried about the game because all the characters were one dimensional. Things get better as you go through in that regard, but the first trial was really good. It was easy to spot who did it, but the twists and turns taken through the trial were pretty good. This is largely true for all the trials in the game so that's a big plus. At least narratively, there are a bunch of mini-games you have to do during the trial to make your argument and I found those more miss than hit.

A bit like how I feel about the Phoenix games, when you're rolling through it they're cool but you inevitably have those - what was the dev thinking - moments. Most of the time you have to shoot a keyphrase at another phrase that appears on screen. This happens as the students all make their arguments, with subtitles appearing on the screen for you to interact with. As the game goes on, it gets harder as you have a greater number of phrases to choose from and you gain the ability to copy one of the phrases uttered by a student, replacing whatever bullet you had. And this is a problem for me, because what happens is you find phrase A, copy it, and shoot it at phrase B. WRONG. You were supposed to copy B and shoot it at A! This can throw you off when loads of different key phrases are used in a given scene. I'm not really sure why you have to rub B on A but the other way around is wrong, but it is.

There is also a hangman mini-game, which annoyingly uses Americanised slang

First Hangman solution spoiler:

. There is also an inappropriate rhythm game that's pointless, and the end of each trial wants you to recap the events by filling out a comic. Some of the comic panels are missing and you have to fill in the blanks by choosing from tiny circular images. This is also really annoying as you'll often find almost identical circular images, e.g., a character opening or closing a door, but like, you'd never know which one is them opening or closing it.

But honestly, even though the mini games are kind of stupid, the game's biggest issue is how long each trial takes. I didn't keep track of time but they easily take a couple of hours to go through, and with all the twists and turns, it's really irritating when you come up against a mini-game that feels like it's just getting in the way of the story. At least I felt that way playing on normal (or "kind") difficulty. They also aren't sequences you feel like you could just save and walk away from. So by the time I got to those comic book recaps towards the end of each trial, a lot of the time I was just ready to move on and so I really had no patience left for it.

If you like Phoenix Wright games and don't mind the theme then I think you'll enjoy this. It doesn't really have a sense of humour, at least not a very imaginative or mature one, and it drags at times. However, there is a joy in solving the mysteries and unravelling the plot. Although the trials last too long, they are genuinely fun if you're making good headway through them. If you aren't into visual novels or haven't tried any before then there are better places to start.

7//10

As someone who, cheekily, followed the story of the original DanganRonpa without having to play it (back when we all thought there was no chance it'd ever be translated into English), the overwhelming feeling I've got reading any sort of review is that it'd be a lot better without the minigames.  Your piece only cements that Muss.  Should've just bit the bullet (the word bullet, ha) and made it similar in operation to Ace Attorney.

I had to look up that word you mentioned.  I'm still not sure I understand it.




Nothing to do with the film, Castle-favourite The Room should more accurately be called 'The Box'.  You're given a puzzle box and a special eyepiece and told to prod away at the box, opening it up a bit at a time as you solve the puzzles.  Inside the box?  Another box!  Probably more complex.  There's no way all that machinery fits in the smaller boxes, but meh, that's not the point.  Neither is the faintly creepy story, which sits in the background for the most part.  

The Room is a fun little game that felt like it needed HD Rumble or something to make it a bit more tactile and elevate it above the mobile port it is.  As things are, it's archetypal 6/10 fodder: an entertaining diversion worth buying between bigger games at the 90% discount I got it for, that will be swiftly forgotten.  6/10 (funnily enough)

Balladeer wrote:

masofdas wrote:

Sounds interesting enough and do have on my Switch Wishlist, just when will I get to it is the question with other titles like Chicory on wishlists, PS5 backlog of what I've missed over last 10 months and the busy season to come with likes of Metroidread.

If there's anybody I really struggle to know what to recommend on this forum, Mas, it's you: every time I think I've got a handle on your tastes I end up slipping wide of the mark.  Take this with a pinch of salt, then.  I reckon Eastward is more your sort of game than it might be for many here.  I'd reckon you should try both it and Iconoclasts: they're both interesting in a way that you might appreciate where others wouldn't as much.

It's likely because I play almost everything and like most genres, then I will have a crazy thought about not liking something or like something more than anyone else.

Balladeer wrote:

Treesmurf wrote:

I'm still in the early stages of Eastward myself but it feels a lot like what you've described so I can see myself sticking with it as it's perfectly playable and very easy to keep on playing, probably need to get it done before Metroid arrives though.

It is that, although some of the harder-hitting story moments challenge that 'easy to keep on playing' notion a bit, and some of the pacing killers... well, kill that pacing.  If Dread isn't worth stopping playing this for I will be very disappointed.

I may not have reached a point like that yet but all (2) of my sessions playing it so far seem to have been 2 to 3 hours at a time. It absolutely reeks of a game I'll drop and never return to when the much more shiny Metroid Dread comes along though.

Balladeer wrote:

As someone who, cheekily, followed the story of the original DanganRonpa without having to play it (back when we all thought there was no chance it'd ever be translated into English), the overwhelming feeling I've got reading any sort of review is that it'd be a lot better without the minigames.  Your piece only cements that Muss.  Should've just bit the bullet (the word bullet, ha) and made it similar in operation to Ace Attorney.

I had to look up that word you mentioned.  I'm still not sure I understand it.

Ah yeah, I messed up that quote. I changed it now, still bloody awful. There is a difficulty mode called gentle that you can play which basically omits most of the game's mini-game mechanics, or at least, it omits a lot of the difficulty. However I don't think you can change difficulties once you have started, at least on the first one. I bought the bundle pack that has both games and you definitely can in the second but the option didn't seem to be there on the first. I do agree with you though. The game would be a lot better if it just scaled back the minigames. If you've read the plot already then there's no reason at all for you to give it a go imo.

Ooft yep, not a good look.

I'll be buying the triple-pack to assuage my guilt and then only playing 3 (which I don't know at all). Hopefully you can change the difficulty midway in the others!

Treesmurf wrote:

I may not have reached a point like that yet but all (2) of my sessions playing it so far seem to have been 2 to 3 hours at a time. It absolutely reeks of a game I'll drop and never return to when the much more shiny Metroid Dread comes along though.

Ah, I think I'm with you now. Yep it's a game that's constantly got something else just around the corner, so it's easy to get sucked in for a while.

You can definitely change difficulties in the second game, so I would assume that made its way into the third as well.

Not much to say about Eastward other than I like the way it looks. I'm playing through Smurf's other recommendation from a while back, Chicory, at the moment though. Enjoying that so another recommendation could tempt me but there's a lot of other games on the horizon.

gjones: How long did you spend between playing 0 and Kiwami? I think I played them reasonably close together which resulted in a bit of burnout with my Kiwami experience.

As for the Danganronpa chat, the first game definitely has the most problems in regards to its characters in my eyes. I think the cast of the second and third games are largely much better written, as are the cases themselves, but there's still outliers of a couple of characters that make you roll your eyes. And of course, there's some woeful minigames stinking up the joint too. I had no problems with the third game actually as I think they fixed the minigame issues for that one, but they somehow made Hangman's Gambit worse in DR2. So, er, enjoy that.

JayMoyles wrote:

gjones: How long did you spend between playing 0 and Kiwami? I think I played them reasonably close together which resulted in a bit of burnout with my Kiwami experience.

A few months - I had a bunch of palate cleansers in between (Streets of Rage 4, Neo Turf Masters, Metal Slug) but I'll definitely be taking a break before the next one. Sleeping Dogs is next up on my pile, but I understand that's basically Yakuza in Hong Kong, so I'm pushing that back too! Soul Calibur 6 or Titanfall 2? Yeah one of those - you're right about Yakuza - does feel like a series you could overdose on if consumed too quickly. Videogame smack.

JayMoyles wrote:

As for the Danganronpa chat, the first game definitely has the most problems in regards to its characters in my eyes. I think the cast of the second and third games are largely much better written, as are the cases themselves, but there's still outliers of a couple of characters that make you roll your eyes.

Mineta chef!

gjones wrote:

JayMoyles wrote:

gjones: How long did you spend between playing 0 and Kiwami? I think I played them reasonably close together which resulted in a bit of burnout with my Kiwami experience.

A few months - I had a bunch of palate cleansers in between (Streets of Rage 4, Neo Turf Masters, Metal Slug) but I'll definitely be taking a break before the next one. Sleeping Dogs is next up on my pile, but I understand that's basically Yakuza in Hong Kong, so I'm pushing that back too! Soul Calibur 6 or Titanfall 2? Yeah one of those - you're right about Yakuza - does feel like a series you could overdose on if consumed too quickly. Videogame smack.

I really like Sleeping Dogs, so I'll be keen to read your thoughts on that! It's much closer in tone and structure to a GTA game than Yakuza and is missing the humour that fuels Yakuza as well, so you'd probably be alright to jump into that sooner than later. SCVI is a banger though and has a whopper of a single player offering as you'd expect from the series.

Balladeer wrote:

JayMoyles wrote:

As for the Danganronpa chat, the first game definitely has the most problems in regards to its characters in my eyes. I think the cast of the second and third games are largely much better written, as are the cases themselves, but there's still outliers of a couple of characters that make you roll your eyes.

Mineta chef!

Yup, he was the one that came to mind when I wrote that post.

Although...

only read if you've finished Dangaronpa 2:

I've got nothing to add on anything discussed so far, but...

gjones wrote:

I had a bunch of palate cleansers in between (Streets of Rage 4, Neo Turf Masters, Metal Slug)

Can these really be described as palate cleansers when they’re the gaming equivalent of Iberico ham, white truffle and caviar?

I did play Alan Wake on 360 back in 2010 then the DLC on One X when it became backwards compatible, I thought it held up rather well then and now playing again all the way through on PS5 in 2021 have to say it does sort of.

What I mean by that, even though it's in 4K etc now it feels like I'm playing a late PS360 (Last of Us for example) or early PS4ONE game, which isn't a bad thing to say about an 11-year-old game, just things have moved on from a gameplay prescriptive in that time.

However, being from Remedy, Alan Wake is still an excellent narrative adventure which I'm hoping this remaster is a success that Alan Wake does return in more than DLC for Control. On Control, I know not all big fans of it (looks at Andy), if you didn't like that then I would pass on Alan Wake as it is similar in gameplay and narrative to Control made 9 years earlier, if you did like Control then you'll like Alan Wake.

I feel like I'm the only person who didn't realise Alan Wake already existed before the remaster



So I finished this the other day and I actually think it's worse than the first game. Some of that is probably to do with having played them back to back although the real issue is that this game is just far too long.

Each chapter can take up to six hours and I don't think there's a good reason for that. Although many of the trials and cases are more intriguing than the original, the amount of writing you have to sift through to get to the trials is absurd. In part this is because a lot of the characters aren't very interesting, but you've strongly encouraged to spend your free time with them anyway to boost your skills. That's optional to be fair, but within each chapter the protagonist spends a lot of time elaborating on their feelings, which oftentimes could easily be surmised as: "I am nervous, someone died!" Some good editing could have easily wiped a lot of time off of each chapter without the narrative losing any of its punch. Addition by subtraction and all that.

There are a few really well developed characters, in particular Nagito who is a bit like the protagonist from the first game, only insane. But his insanity comes from a perversely warped sense of hope and justice which is untangled really satisfyingly through the densely tangled plot. He plays a starring role in most of the trials and you can tell the writer went to great lengths to explore everything this character has to offer. As good as he is though, there are so many throw away turd characters in this game. It won't take you long to find a girl in a short skirt falling over so you can have a panty shot, or for the several thirsty guys in the game to let you know just how thirsty they are. When you max out a friendship with a character, you're even given a pair of their pants. Stuff like this makes it difficult to take the game seriously because all too often it'll pander to that type of a male gaze.

That notwithstanding, some of the cases are really well put together, in particular the 1st, 4th and 5th trials. The 1st does an exceptional job of establishing some of the stronger characters, plants some seeds of mystery for people who have played the first game, and the pacing of it is pretty good. The 4th trial and 5th trials are just forensically well thought out. Trial 3 is an absolute stinker though, the second trial ends in a really stupid way, and the final trial is rubbish too as none of its fourth-wall gags land for me and it's got some gaping plot holes, at least as far as I can tell.

The mini-games are on the whole worse than the first game too. Logic Dive is about as fun as spending time inside a festival toilet, Hangman's gambit is not only worse than a regular game of Hangman, it's also worse than the version in the first game, and you still have those situations where you rub the two correct phrases together but not in the order the game wanted you to. On the plus side, there's a new rebuttal game that's not bad and the comic book summary, whilst still a total waste of time, is at least a little bit better executed time around.

In the end, I should have preferred this to the original. But the game drags on ad nauseum, has a crap sense of humour, is littered with fan-service and bloated writing, all of which makes the stupid mini-games even more annoying. I'm more willing to overlook the first game's flaws because although the mini games sucked, I felt like the game was quicker and didn't constantly dump on its own characters. Having said that, I still detective themed visual novel fans will find things here to enjoy that might make it worthwhile, but Ace Attorney this is not.

6/10

My main complaints about DR2 as compared to the first were the living fanservice moment, the grim chef, and the final 'twist' that makes the rest of the game have no consequence at all.

I totally disagree about Control/Alan Wake, I was especially disappointed with Control because I love Alan Wake.

As for DR1/2, I definitely remember enjoying the first a lot more, I really do need to get back to V3

Interesting but still Alan is a 11 year old game which you'll have memories of playing guess you could be disappointed with stuff after it.

I don't know if Jay has played Alan, I do know he's played Control and if he wasn't a fan of the gameplay style & narrative in Control then don't think he'd like something similar that's 9 year's older in my opinion but Alan Wake Remastered is only £24.99rrp that it's not much of a risk like other remasters at £50-70.

Mas: I did play a bit of Alan Wake, yeah. Didn't really get on with the combat and I can't say the story left much of an impression on me. I preferred Control, despite its flaws.

Muss wrote:

When you max out a friendship with a character, you're even given a pair of their pants.

All three games do this as far as I know, regardless of whether it's a male or female character you max out. I took it as a really dumb gag, but aye, the other fan-servicey moments are too much I'd say.

The third game cuts back on this considerably as there's only one character who I'd say is a bit too much in that regard. The cases are pretty unique and fun to suss out in V3 as well. I wonder if you'd get on better with the Zero Escape series. I think the fourth case drew from that series quite heavily with the whole escape room segment during the investigation, but I've not played that series to 100% confirm that.

I would just argue Alan Wake is a much better package, I remember the shooting being better, the story being more interesting and better told (probably better acted as well, I thought Jesse was trash and she was still leagues ahead of any side character). Yes I've not played it super recently so I'm sure there's a chance it has aged poorly, but I preferred Quantum Break to Control and I haven't got long or significant enough nostalgia for that to override it, also that was far closer to when I played Alan Wake (which obviously I prefer, I'm not THAT crazy).

To be fair as well, it's also been bloody ages since I've played it so I could end up enjoying it much more on a replay. I've got a passing interest in the remaster due to that, but I'm not in a rush or anything.