Video Games

[joe_alouder]

I did it, I got Like A Dragon: Ishin! Digital Deluxe Edition, Yakuza 0 and the Yakuza Remastered Collection, only paid £31.27 as thanks to the PlayStation Stars points programme I got 500 points for preordering AC: Mirage which took me over 5,000 points, meaning I was able to get a £20 voucher and I got £20 off my Like A Dragon/Yakuza games, I’m definitely getting Like A Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name and Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth, plus Kiwami 1 and Kiwani 2 when I can afford them, also I was playing more of Yakuza 6 and I did the live chat mini-game, never felt more uncomfortable watching a woman strip in all my life, but at least I had Daddy Kiryu to make up for it.

Me stumbling into the live chat mini game and then persevering just for the trophy was...certainly a thing I have done

 

[blaze_dave]

For a free download on Nintendo Switch, F Zero 99 is fun to play and great for short bursts.

 

[Tiziano's Boy]

Me stumbling into the live chat mini game and then persevering just for the trophy was...certainly a thing I have done

Wait, there’s a trophy?

 

[joe_alouder]

Wait, there’s a trophy?

From memory dd

 

[He]

SCARLET NEXUS REVIEW

Scarlet Nexus, a new IP from Bandai Namco, creator of the Tales Of series, fills a few niches. For one, it’s a heavily sci-fi action RPG, albeit one with a distinctly anime flavor. For two, it features psychokinesis, an underexplored combat mechanic. And finally, it has two distinct campaigns (one for the everyman goodie-two shoes Yuito and the other for the mysterious and taciturn Kasane) and they play out considerably differently, unlike many other games that promise two distinct campaigns but instead give you the same campaign twice with minor alterations. To be sure, these three things alone make Scarlet Nexus an attractive prospect and the game does deliver on many of its promises. The world and its aesthetic are a lot more interesting than most games in the genre, the differences between the two campaigns make the game worth playing twice, and the psychokinesis is well done. In fact, between the psychokinetic abilities, the diversity of powers that you can augment the melee combat with, and the fast and thrilling game feel, the battle system can be downright electrifying and is the game’s best argument for itself. Unfortunately, the game’s convoluted and overstuffed story, rife with on the nose anime cliches, doesn’t quite hold up its side of the bargain, resulting in a game that is incredibly good at being a game but stumbles a bit as a full multi-faceted RPG experience.

The story has a simple set up but quickly weaves an entangled tapestry that could have been more had it been less. Yuito and Kasane, the two heroes you can play as, are OSF officers in training. OSF officers protect the city of New Himuka from the Others, very cool and avant-garde looking monsters that descended to earth from a mysterious breeding ground called The Extinction Belt. OSF officers are kind of like X-Men in that they have special powers like pyrokinesis or teleportation or invisibility. Kasane and Yuito wield psychokinesis, the ability to control objects with their minds to pulverize enemies. What starts as kind of a superhero boarding school narrative soon turns into a dizzyingly complex struggle to close the Kunad Gate, a black hole that threatens to swallow the world, and stop the government from rehabilitating people’s personalities and transforming them into Others. Along the way, the story takes on such topics as time travel, surveillance, and memory. Which all sounds awesome, and it is in theory. But the execution is questionable for a few reasons. The first is the presentation. There are a few fully rendered cutscenes but most of the story is delivered through comic panels that recall the skits of the Tales Of series. The preponderance of these type of story sequences makes the otherwise epic story feel smaller and cheaper than it needed to. And for a storytelling device that constantly rears its head, the comic panels don’t look particularly nice. They are packaged in ugly red borders and the panels never seem to show you the action from the most interesting angles. Furthermore, I didn’t find the voice acting compelling to listen to. Some characters sound fine, but others have grating dialed up anime voices that make their tropes even more obvious. None of the voices rise above being blandly serviceable.

The more immediate problem with the story is the characters. They’re just not very interesting. If you’ve watched even a little bit of anime or played a decent amount of JRPGs, the tropes the developers use to stand in for actual characters are eyerollingly familiar. Granted, the characters do show some amount of depth during the bonding scenes, which are activated in the Hideout, a small hub that you are sent to after each of the main story phases. During these resting phases, you can take a break from the story to bond with your teammates (or give them gifts). These bonding scenes easily have the best writing in the game and show you the character’s more relatable moments, the moments when they’re being a person rather than an anime archetype. But because the real character development is relegated to the resting phases, the main story is bereft of interesting character development to the point that it often feels like it’s mostly plot. Sometimes huge traumatic events happen to the characters, and they easily and quickly move past them because the plot does. There are no lasting effects or emotional consequences, which is partially a result of the story moving too damn fast. The developers seem to constantly be throwing crazy shit at the player in an effort to land on something profound. But these moments can’t very well be profound if the emotional resonance isn’t there. And it’s not. The events are interesting and sometimes shocking and wild, but I didn’t find myself caring and at times I was annoyed by all the twists and turns. If the developers had thrown in less of these and simplified the story, there would be more room for what really matters. Honesty, I also started to resent the character interactions because I had to experience them consecutively with no breathing room. I soon came to dread resting periods because it was all talking and no combat. And while some of that conversation was good, it wasn’t so good that I wanted to endure bonding scenes one after the other after the other after the other.

With a story that’s already on shaky ground, the aggressive blandness of Yuito (the hero that I played as because I prefer close range melee combat rather than far range melee combat) doesn’t help matters. He’s ridiculously kind and he displays too perfect behavior without the grit to make his saint-like tendencies seem even remotely believable. Such a bland goodie two-shoes protagonist made some of the already sappy interactions unbearable at times. Kasane, for her part, seemed much more interesting, with an air of intriguing mystery, and I sometimes found myself wondering if my experience would have been better had I played with her. To the game’s credit, I could tell that the two campaigns are entirely different just from the way the story played out. Which is impressive given the number of games that advertise two campaigns when there’s just one with slight differences. I actually wanted to watch Kasane’s campaign via a Let’s Play since there were many things about the story that I found intriguing. Yet, for all that, it doesn’t come together as a whole and feels more like a plot outline than a multi-faceted narrative experience.

The combat fortunately fares much better. For anybody who has played a fair amount of action RPGs, the basics are familiar. You string heavy and light attacks together to create combos, regardless of who you choose to control (you cannot control party members, though you can lightly customize them and their AI). Yuito is a melee sword fighter that gets up close while Kasane attacks with flying knives at range. You have a nice dodge, though no parry as far as I know. These fundamental moves feel smooth and responsive, but the battle system’s kinetic energy comes from your psychokinesis powers and the enhancements that you essentially borrow from your OSF teammates on cooldown. For instance, Luka can allow you to teleport to attack fast enemies, Hanabi can power up your sword with flames, Gemma can give you a short period of rock-solid defense, Arashi allows you to slow down time, so on and so forth. These power ups also help you progress through the environments, though none of these moments rise to the level of actual puzzles. In any case, your own psychokinetic powers enhance your combat suite quite a bit by allowing you to pick up objects in the battle arenas and hurl them at enemies (you can also follow this up with melee attacks). It seems simple but it really does add a new dimension to the combat, especially because there’s a lot of variation in the type and amount of damage the objects inflict. Throwing a bicycle at an enemy might only yield a bit of additional damage while throwing a subway train can pulverize several enemies at once. Some objects require the player to pull off a series of unobtrusive button prompts to maximize the hurt. It’s a whole lot of fun and the way various systems work together makes the battle system feel fresh and unique. Like the final areas of many other games, the final dungeon is probably too long, but no stretch of gameplay ever feels tedious or painful because the combat always feels so cool. It’s stylish and has a lot going on while still feeling intuitive.

The level design is never that imaginative, but it also doesn’t get in your way, allowing the game to do what it does best. Most combat encounters take place in temporarily walled off areas ala Devil May Cry. Much of the time, you must beat the enemies to progress. The piles of random throwable trash just laying around feels a bit unnatural but the environments at least all have a cool vibe to them and don’t wear out their welcome. That being said, the environments feel a bit disconnected, especially since they are accessed through fairly bloodless menus. The developers could have put more effort into making the world feel cohesive, but as merely locations in which to engage in thrilling combat scenarios, the levels do the job. And I think the combat scenarios themselves bring out the best in the battle system. While there’s not a whole lot of variety in the enemy visual designs (a lot of reskins), there’s more than enough variety in terms of enemy mechanics. However, some enemies are easily taken care of by activating a certain OSF power, which unfortunately trivializes those encounters for the whole rest of the game. Luckily, this only applies to a handful of enemies and most of the fights keep the player on their toes, even if the game’s not difficult save for one very cheap early boss. In general, the boss fights are quite good, forcing the player to make use of the mechanics on offer. Psychokinesis in general is a must.

Character customization is not too complex, but the Brain Map, the game’s version of the obligatory skill tree, is one of the better customization systems on the market. I like how it doesn’t waste your time with negligible upgrades. Rather, each node on the skill tree gives you something substantial and useful. It’s also well organized, allowing you to easily identify what group of skills to enhance without having to search for what you want. I was always excited to pore more points into the skill tree. Furthermore, I like how simple the equipment system is. There are only a few slots for each character and not that many things to put in them, which I appreciated. Too many games have a lot of what I refer to as “JRPG clutter” and Scarlet Nexus keeps that to a minimum. In the same spirit, items are basically hot keyed to the d-pad and there’s not many of them, eliminating the need to scroll through menus to find an item in the heat of battle. This simplicity and elegance should be the norm for action RPGs.

The audio/visual package is the strongest aspect of the game after the combat. The game has a hip and fresh cyberpunk look that is brought to life with a tasteful quasi cell-shaded style. Colors are vibrant and saturated while also being muted enough to convey a dystopian atmosphere. While very anime-inspired, the character models are well designed and deserved more interesting characters to go along with them. As should be the case for any action RPG, the framerate and performance are rock solid and pop up only occurred sparingly in some of the later levels. Even stronger is the sound design, particularly the music. I thought the game served banger after banger, somehow making what is largely an electronic “synthetic” type of soundtrack diverse and interesting. For every high-octane electronic piece, there was something ambient and organic, which recalled the mechanical/organic duality of the Others themselves. Then sometimes the soundtrack would throw the player some lowkey j-pop sounding stuff. Between the visuals and the music, the game has a very cool style, which helps to offset some of narrative sappiness.

Scarlet Nexus is not going to be remembered as a great RPG story no matter how hard it tries to develop intrigue, but that’s okay. Sometimes a game only needs to be fun to play and Scarlet Nexus does that and then some. On top of that, the game is an audio-visual treat that gives the player a glimpse at an interesting sci-fi world, the kind that is too rare in the genre. While the lack of a full-bodied narrative makes the game feel less consequential than it obviously wants to be, an action RPG that leans this hard into the action offers its own kind of catharsis. Hopefully there will be a sequel in the future that will treat the narrative with the care that the premise and world deserve.

STORYTELLING: 3.5/5
GAMEPLAY: 5/5
DESIGN: 3.5/5
VISUALS/SOUND: 4.5/5
OVERALL: 8/10

It’s a game that with some better direction and resources could’ve felt bigger. You can tell where the shortcomings are and it’s glaring. Luckily the main gameplay loop is very well developed.

The narrative is a mess, and they definitely bit more than they could chew. The way the go about a big reveal of a character being a spy and it all being solved within minutes with the power of friendship was such a disservice. It felt like content was cut.

I still need to run through the final two chapters though.

 

[WhenTheSunGoesDown]

Time to share this banger:

also

 

[ohaimanabu]

this is not relevant at all but i'm glad whatever update RE4 on PC had allows me to play the DLC on a shared copy because when Mercenaries dropped I was locked out of it unless I bought my own copy but I can play Separate Ways!!!! (Promise capcom i'll buy another copy for myself I just don't feel justified at the moment since I did buy the copy in question as a gift for my sister, the resident resident evil 4 head in the family)

 

[Raichu]

It’s a game that with some better direction and resources could’ve felt bigger. You can tell where the shortcomings are and it’s glaring. Luckily the main gameplay loop is very well developed.

The narrative is a mess, and they definitely bit more than they could chew. The way the go about a big reveal of a character being a spy and it all being solved within minutes with the power of friendship was such a disservice. It felt like content was cut.

I still need to run through the final two chapters though.

The last two chapters go by pretty fast. Agree about the spy stuff being solved with the power of friendship is incredibly lame.

 

[Raichu]

I have watched a few reviews and while everyone says it does feel like Bloodborne, it has its own unique thing, I haven't seen anyone criticize it because of that. My brother bought the game for my birthday, he wanted to give me Hogwarts Legacy but I told him I want Lies Of P. I still need to finish AC: Origins though so who knows when I will start to play but I am excited.

This Destructoid review comes at it pretty hard about how derivative it is.

It does look like it has a few unique things about it, but looking at the footage, it really doesn't look like it's own thing. The structure, the combat, the gameplay loop, etc. look just like Bloodborne/Souls. Even the menus look strikingly similar. The use of the Pinnochio story is interesting, but then they go and make it look like Bloodborne anyway. I don't know. I'm having a hard time seeing the originality.

I think originality should be more of a factor in reviews. The Desctructoid review says this:

"So, if you’re the type of person who thinks that “fun” is the only relevant criteria for what makes a good game, then have at it. I sincerely think you’ll find a lot to like, and that’s rad. However, if you’re someone who yearns to see growth and advancement within the medium, then this is going to just befuddle you. I think Neowiz shows off a great deal of talent with Lies of P. I just hope what they come up with next is something actually original."

I agree with this line of thinking. I have the same point of view when a poster here praises a derivative song from a celebrated artist because it sounds good or bops. I'm like, "You don't expect more than that?"

That being said, I haven't played the game, but the extreme derivativeness just irks me. It's so cynical.

 

[ZsDbk88]

This Destructoid review comes at it pretty hard about how derivative it is.

It does look like it has a few unique things about it, but looking at the footage, it really doesn't look like it's own thing. The structure, the combat, the gameplay loop, etc. look just like Bloodborne/Souls. Even the menus look strikingly similar. The use of the Pinnochio story is interesting, but then they go and make it look like Bloodborne anyway. I don't know. I'm having a hard time seeing the originality.

I think originality should be more of a factor in reviews. The Desctructoid review says this:

"So, if you’re the type of person who thinks that “fun” is the only relevant criteria for what makes a good game, then have at it. I sincerely think you’ll find a lot to like, and that’s rad. However, if you’re someone who yearns to see growth and advancement within the medium, then this is going to just befuddle you. I think Neowiz shows off a great deal of talent with Lies of P. I just hope what they come up with next is something actually original."

I agree with this line of thinking. I have the same point of view when a poster here praises a derivative song from a celebrated artist because it sounds good or bops. I'm like, "You don't expect more than that?"

That being said, I haven't played the game, but the extreme derivativeness just irks me. It's so cynical.

Ok I get your point. I will play it and see how I feel about it, I never get influenced by the reviews and I always want to form my own opinion.

The reason why I was interested in the game from the start isn't the Bloodborne feel but the Pinocchio angle.

I think this is the first big thing this South Korean company has done so it will be interesting to see what they will do next.

 

[Raichu]

Ok I get your point. I will play it and see how I feel about it, I never get influenced by the reviews and I always want to form my own opinion.

The reason why I was interested in the game from the start isn't the Bloodborne feel but the Pinocchio angle.

I think this is the first big thing this South Korean company has done so it will be interesting to see what they will do next.

If this is their first big game, it's pretty impressive they managed to execute on their vision so well even if that vision is way way too borrowed. I'll give them that.

 

[Raichu]

I've been playing more Sea of Stars. I love love love the combat, though I did turn on the relic that makes it more obvious when you land extra attacks or block, the latter of which still feels a bit too finicky. And the visuals are just so entrancing to look at. I've never watched The Game Awards, but if there is a category for art design, this game should absolutely win it. Still not feeling the story though. The dialogue is so flavorless and it's taking so long to get interesting.

The fucking music though. This game's OST could end up landing in the Top 5 OSTs of all time. It's that amazing.

 

[ZsDbk88]

If this is their first big game, it's pretty impressive they managed to execute on their vision so well even if that vision is way way too borrowed. I'll give them that.

Yes, as far as I can tell, they mostly did indie games and none of them became popular.

 

[Raichu]

Dragon's Dogma 2 looks so good. The steak in this preview might be setting a new standard for realism in video games haha.

 

[Raichu]

Sea of Stars might end up being the first game that I give a 9 to even with a meh story. Everything else about it is stunning. The visuals/music combo is hitting me on a level that no RPGs since Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy X have and it has some of the best dungeons I've ever had the pleasure of playing through. The developers manage to hit that perfect sweet spot between being layered and having a lot of branching paths while still being easy to get through. And somehow they've manage to create puzzles that don't suck and are not frustrating, something JRPG developers are notoriously bad at.

It's not beating Final Fantasy XVI and Octopath Traveler as the best games I've played this year (since it doesn't have dat story in FFXVI's case and dat gameplay in Octopath's case) but it definitely has more of a special indescribable something about it than those admittedly more impressive games.

 

[nikkysan]

I don't don't know about anyone else but I am well and truly sick of these interactive movies Sony keeps shitting out year after year. Enough.

 

[enjoy]

Lies of P update

I think the game is fun if you enjoy the Souls approach. It is a bit harder than everything i played from FromSoftware, and yeah that includes Sekiro, because the parry mechanic does kinda suck in Lies of P. I can not articulate clearly what the problem is but its timing feels off and it is not as reactable as Sekiro which can yield to frustrations cause this game is hard and it knows that dd.

Other than that, the weapon assembly is just a cool idea that gives enormous replayability and sadly the only original aspect the game brings nn It is very mish mash of Bloodborne and Sekiro without committing to either and the game suffers a bit from that. It does not ruin everything for me though.

I love the drip, the story is interesting and presented much more directly compared to everything else FS done but Sekiro. The bossfights eventhough are hard and rely on battle of attrition, are unique and fun. The atmosphere feels right, eventhough the world may feel empty at times.

If you are a Souls fan and would like to itch the scratch that Elden Ring has left, i think you should play this one. Prepare for the challenge though cause Archbishop is kicking my ass at the moment. Send help.

 

[blaze_dave]

Sea of Stars might end up being the first game that I give a 9 to even with a meh story. Everything else about it is stunning. The visuals/music combo is hitting me on a level that no RPGs since Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy X have and it has some of the best dungeons I've ever had the pleasure of playing through. The developers manage to hit that perfect sweet spot between being layered and having a lot of branching paths while still being easy to get through. And somehow they've manage to create puzzles that don't suck and are not frustrating, something JRPG developers are notoriously bad at.

It's not beating Final Fantasy XVI and Octopath Traveler as the best games I've played this year (since it doesn't have dat story in FFXVI's case and dat gameplay in Octopath's case) but it definitely has more of a special indescribable something about it than those admittedly more impressive games.

Yeah you can tell the effort put into Sea of Stars, the music and graphics are just so beautifully done. The puzzles are not too challenging and are quite fun. The characters and the enemies are interesting, as well as not being too many encounters (a bug bearer for me, as sometimes you just want to go place a to b without having to go through so many fights).

Yeah the plot is a bit bare bones but not horrible or dull to play through. I do hate there isn't an easier fast travel option, so can be annoying getting back to places.

 

[blaze_dave]

Sea of Stars might end up being the first game that I give a 9 to even with a meh story. Everything else about it is stunning. The visuals/music combo is hitting me on a level that no RPGs since Chrono Cross and Final Fantasy X have and it has some of the best dungeons I've ever had the pleasure of playing through. The developers manage to hit that perfect sweet spot between being layered and having a lot of branching paths while still being easy to get through. And somehow they've manage to create puzzles that don't suck and are not frustrating, something JRPG developers are notoriously bad at.

It's not beating Final Fantasy XVI and Octopath Traveler as the best games I've played this year (since it doesn't have dat story in FFXVI's case and dat gameplay in Octopath's case) but it definitely has more of a special indescribable something about it than those admittedly more impressive games.

Yeah you can tell the effort put into Sea of Stars, the music and graphics are just so beautifully done. The puzzles are not too challenging and are quite fun. The characters and the enemies are interesting, as well as not being too many encounters (a bug bearer for me, as sometimes you just want to go place a to b without having to go through so many fights).

Yeah the plot is a bit bare bones but not horrible or dull to play through. I do hate there isn't a fast travel option, so can be annoying getting back to places.

 

[soratami]

I don't don't know about anyone else but I am well and truly sick of these interactive movies Sony keeps shitting out year after year. Enough.

I mean, given their other main focus going forward seems to be live service games, I'm happy they'll continue making these as well. Some more "gamey" games would be nice, but at least there's plenty of other companies making those, including a bunch of the smaller ones Sony bought. All that said I'd take a new LittleBigPlanet or ModNation Racers (underrated legend) or Jak or Sly game over yet another God of War or whatever any day, but sadly the moment has just passed for stuff like that.