A Short Hike just goes to show how much more you can do with less. It’s a simplistic premise about taking a hike up a mountain that reveals surprising layers of depth the more time you spend there. More importantly it’s the best kind of distraction: A game that takes you somewhere else for at least a little while.
The game’s top down perspective and artstyle immediately brings to mind Animal Crossing, but the game gently subverts your expectations by adding more options to your movement. You can run, jump, glide and climb virtually any wall, which will render ground that seems like window dressing completely interactive. What seems to be a gentle immersive sim peels back the curtain to reveal a surprisingly tight 3D platformer with a host of toyetic mechanics to mess around with.
It’s less the size of an open world and more like a park or a jungle gym where you’re encouraged to run wild for a few until you’re all tuckered out. The overarching goal is to get Claire to the top in faint hope that her cell phone will get a signal so she can receive an important call, but she can’t make the climb without Golden Feathers, the game’s principle collectible that will increase her mobility. Thankfully the denizens of Hack Peak Providence Park are willing to part with them if you humor their quirky games, responsibilities or desires for a bit. This open ended progression calls to mind a lot of early 3D collectathons without much of the padding of those games. Exploring, playing minigames and completing side missions is usually fun in their own right with these concepts exhibiting a lot of polish. The direct impact just completing them has on Claire’s movement is the best kind of motivator to keep trying things, enforcing a satisfying experience in every way. The camera perspective and tone along with the tight 3D platforming will bring to mind a host of titles from the gamecube era, but since these elements are blended into the same world in a smooth way, the nostalgia factor mostly works in the game’s favor. This game’s target audience likely played Animal Crossing, Super Mario Sunshine, Wind Waker etc. at Claire’s age so the send-ups will bring a player back to a time where they might have resonated the most with her.
We don’t really know what’s got Claire so worked up until the end, and initially I felt like this was a mistake but thinking back on it it might not have been hidden as a way to have a twist toward the end. Perhaps it was done so players of any kind would insert herself into her shoes.in her shoes. Any worries or anxieties pulling at the back of your mind are sure to disappear for at least a little while as you spend a day running and playing on an island paradise with your friends. The game’s length will definitely be a point of criticism going forward, but I think it largely works to it’s benefit. No concerns about total playtime means only the most polished of gimmicks, mechanics and minigames made it into the final game. It also kind of fits the game’s premise as a short, fleeting day spent away from normalcy. It’s like a day spent at a birthday party, the beach, or even inside playing a cool new game that only lasted a couple of hours as a child but left an impression on you for a long time.
You wake up as a young child who wakes up in a dense labyrinth and stumbles a towering, intimidating beast who's back is littered with spears. What may be treated as a powerful beast to conquer in most other games, even Ueda's own, is turned on his head as the player is encouraged to lean into the child's first instinct: to care for it.
This is the natural extreme of one of the themes that define every game in the ICO trilogy: relationships that define barriers of language, clan or species. Trico is originally on edge around the boy: perhaps rightfully so with it's injuries clearly at the hands of man-made weapons, but they learn to trust each-other as they work through the maze together.
It's premise and focus on puzzle solving brings to to mind Ico over Shadow of the Colossus. Unlike Ico the power balance has largely shifted. The boy can run, jump, climb, manipulate smaller mechanisms like switches and fit through smaller passages in caverns. Even in his wounded state Trico more than pulls his weight, jumping over large caverns and manipulating bigger machines and structures. His large body acts as an excellent tool for platforming, too. The player can put Trico in the proper position with a little direction and scale him like they would a Colossi from the last game.
Directing Trico was where The Last Guardian had the most potential to fall short with so much of it resting on the game's AI. The characters are unable to communicate, so the player is tasked with miming what they want him to do. The boy's frantic exaggerated animations made this really charming on it's own, but I'm surprised by how responsive Trico is while keeping a realistic amount of delay as he comprehend what you want him to do, considers it, and executes. If you actually understand what you want Trico to do and convey it to him properly then you'll never be kept waiting too long. It might have just been my imagination, but it felt like he grew sharper and more responsive as the game went on and his bond with the boy grew. On the whole they did a good job of making him reasonably responsive without making him feel like a vehicle the way so many animal companions do in games.
Breaking things up are sections where the player is tasked with nursing Trico by finding food for him or sections where the two are separated for plot reasons. These sections try their best to avoid tedium through interesting level layouts ans scenarios. Navigating your way through more simplistic puzzles with the boy’s limited move-set shakes things up and paints a picture of how much more difficult things can be without your companion.
Ueda has always approached games with a trademark “design by subtraction” approach. The valley has a lot of spacious environments that keep the world from feeling like it was built just for the player’s convenience. There’s not much extra to find or alternate pathways to take, but it keeps the world from feeling artificial and accommodates the enormous Trico very well.
I feel like this can come with some drawbacks though. You play with what is largely the same set of mechanics for the entire game with the tools the player gets to play with evolving only marginally. There are some unique puzzles and mechanics but you’ll be ferrying barrels around and running away from guards a lot more than anything else. It’s possible to keep the variety going with a simple set of mechanics as Ueda proved himself on the last game, but TLG can’t help but start to feel repetitive, especially around the middle portion, without something like Shadow of the Colossus’s unique encounters to carry it through.
The combat encounters with the guards feel like the game’s weakest portion. Trico disposes of them easily when he’s actually around, but the game frequently pits you up against them by yourself and challenges you to solve a puzzle or move an object while you’re surrounded by them. There’s not much challenge to these sections, just tedium as you circle around a room trying to stay clear of them and mashing out of situations when they grab you.
A game with this ambitious of a concept can’t escape some clunk here and there. The camera struggles in-doors and the way Trico, the boy and the environment collide with each-other can be pretty clunky. This is more forgivable in the context of a fairly laid back puzzle solver where these things are unlikely to be punishing, but I can think of a few occasions where the boy was killed by poor collision detection during the platforming with some checkpoints that made things a little obnoxious.
But these are problems that I’m ultimately willing to forgive. I consider Ico and Shadow of the Colossus to be fairly flawed experiences that end up paying off in big ways in the end and The Last Guardian is no exception. The way Trico goes from a skittish, traumatized creature to one that isn’t afraid to fly again isn’t exactly a groundbreaking narrative, but it’s reflected so well in the game’s animations and mechanics that it’s hard to to get sucked into it. It doesn’t always stick the landing, but it’s really hard for me to rag on a game with such a bold concept and such a tendency to nail it when it really does need to nail it.
The ending especially tied every loose end and plot thread up in a neat way. It’s easy to read Ueda’s games as vague to inspire further thought about the world and lore, but I read them more as a closed, complete experience that only uses what’s absolutely necessary to convey their point. If Ico was a game about bonding through dangerous situations and Shadow of the Colossus was about conflict, violence and how it saps away at the soul, The Last Guardian’s ending reinforces a game about compassion and its power to heal us from conflict and trauma. The boy and the beast manage to break the boundary between species and divert from their predestined path to be enemies, and all it took was for one to reach out a helping hand to the other. It’s a powerful tale that’s told mechanically as well as it is visually. This rare combination makes it a very special game.
The Last of Us 2 is, mechanically, more of a refinement then a reinvention, but the story is running the opposite goal of turning the themes of the first game on it’s head. Despite the grim visuals, setting and tone the first game is ultimately a story about love and redemption. The second game twists this on it’s head with the core relationship this time being a hateful one. Redemption is still core but with the heightened violence and cynical, sinister impulses driving the main characters it becomes a much harder conceit. Can the irredeemable still find peace? It’s a disturbing premise without as many stories to use as a blueprint. Threading this needle to a satisfying conclusion would require a steady hand. Naughty Dog took on a much more difficult concept when writing this story and while I feel they mostly stuck the landing, some of that challenge shows in the final game.
But before we get started on the execution of the story I just want to acknowledge how disagreeable of a premise this would be to anyone that loved that first game. I didn’t understand the enraged reaction but I really should have. The Last of Us is often grim and heartbreaking but it’s ultimately a crowdpleaser that leans hard on genre conventions with a few clever twists. The thing about tropes and conventions is that they become that because they stay satisfying to watch in a way that’s timeless.
This game is much more eager to make more of it’s own moves. Some of the more violent impulses of the human mind that we only saw flashes of in the first to their logical conclusion. Characters are built up and fleshed out only to die at inopportune and unsatisfying times. If The Last of Us was a story about how the bonds we form with others can carry us through the dark, tragic world, The Last of Us 2 explores what would happen if that light disappeared and how we stop ourselves from being consumed by the void twe’re left with.
What I’m saying is that they didn’t write a safe follow up to The Last of Us despite how easy that would really be. They wrote a story about the consequences of that game. The exact type of consequences that Joel and Ellie agreed to look the other way on in the first game’s acclaimed final scene.
But you can’t run away forever. I tend to cringe when games like The Last of Us are praised with terms like “adult” and “mature” strictly because of it’s aesthetic but I really don’t know another way to describe this shift in tone and messaging. Strictly talking from the evolution of the first game to the second, it’s like being hit with same doses of reality that come with adulthood. It’s a nice “next step” for Ellie’s journey as she turns 19 and a lot of the rocks that made up her life are taken away from her.
There will be spoilers from here on out, as a heads up.
In the opening hours of the game, Joel is killed and he doesn’t get the blaze of glory one might expect of characters from his type. It is unceremonious, random, and ugly. He is made to look weak and pitiful. The player is forced to watch it unfold from Ellie’s perspective. The game starts by offing one of the franchises’s pillars in a surprising way that leaves everyone uncertain of what happens next, and I couldn’t have thought of a better way to be put in Ellie’s shoes for this adventure. Joel’s death got a genuine reaction from me that none of the games in the first game did, and it synced my feelings with Ellie’s as she charged blindly and impatiently into Seattle to chase a group she knows nothing about and a individual she knows nothing about the whereabouts of.
This blind rage drives the story for the first half of the campaign and instead of things lining up for Ellie it’s full of false starts, dead ends and violence that rarely turns out to be necessary. If Joel’s death doesn’t lose players then this part serves to drive more of them away. I personally don’t mind a character transforming into something they’re not as long as it’s handled believably though and as far gone as Ellie is by the end of this first half it’s hard not to see how she got there. Her mind deteriorates as the violence she feels compelled to commit takes more and more of a toll on her with Ashley Johnson’s delivery becoming more withdrawn and stoic as the game goes on. The game has a unique sense of dread running through it as Ellie’s quest continues to go more and more off the rails and more bodies pile up. In a penultimate level Ellie starts to prioritize violence over the safety of her friends with a rationale that brings to mind addiction, and things almost never end well for those kinds of characters.
The tone is prevented from getting too bleak through flashbacks to her relationship with Joel, showing how much of a positive he continued to be in her life despite everything. It feels a little cheap for the game to have it’s cake and eat it too in regards to Joel but it ends up paying off so well it’s hard to be angry.
The game falls back into the scavenge - fight - scavenge cycle from the first game but with some refinements to both. The game is a little bit more open ended and systemic in most ways, with the exploration sequences having more optional content and the combat arenas being built with a lot more depth, angles to attack from and ways to sneak away and lose your enemies. Even more valuable than any collectible is the optional conversations you can find by taking a look around.
AI is more aggressive and new enemy types like dogs and s+Seraphites keep Ellie on her toes by constantly tracking her position. Movement is more important than ever and these jungle gyms the designers built facilitate it perfectly. Being forced to engage with the level design more needed more complex and memorable arenas to compensate and thankfully Naughty Dog rose to this challenge. The arenas in this game stick out in my memory a lot more than the corridors of the first.
It can’t escape some old habits though. The AI is still a little too robotic and easy to trick, something that ends up undercutting this game’s ambition to make every enemy a more believable person. Sometimes the game will go long stretches without anything interesting to do only to turn around and lay the combat encounters on too heavily. It’s a balancing act that this game can’t figure out. Some more variety in terms of content would have helped with this a lot. The game tries with a new set of puzzles based around rope physics. A few of these are pretty clever which makes them better than the ladder and wood puzzles from the previous game but they didn’t dig into it enough.
Just as the other shoe drops Ellie the game switches perspectives and has us play as Abby, the daughter of the surgeon Joel slaughtered in the first game. This is immediately a solid way to reinforce the games themes by forcing us to understand the game’s bad guy and how she had similar motivations to Ellie. With Abby’s revenge completed though we’re forced to confront how hollow she feels after the fact and that Ellie doesn’t have any catharsis waiting for her at the end of this tunnel. Abby’s half boils down to realizing the cycle is a hollow exercise and pushing herself to escape it. It’s not clearly directly connected to Ellie’s quest aside from the beginning and the end but thematically they’re very much two sides of the same coin.
It’s a quest that’s a bit lighter and a little more noble and the tone shifts in turn. Naughty Dog’s famous set-pieces were largely absent from the more grounded first half and make a return here. More fantastic settings than even the first game are employed and visually they’re more spectacular than ever. Abby and Lev’s trip over the sky bridge is bound to stick with me just for it’s imaginative setting and jaw dropping view. The combat encounters get a lot more vertical and complex. Abby trades out Ellie’s stealth oriented play-style to one more reminiscent of Joel in the first game with abilities geared toward putting her on the offensive more often. It’s a little strange at first but being able to take more risks in this system ends up being a lot of fun.
Unfortunately the laser focused writing of the first half takes a hit. Abby’s more invested in her extended cast then Ellie is and not all of these characters are given the time needed to really shine. This is where the cracks of condensing the game into 3 days really start to show. The most believable relationships in the series are forged over a year or more with great detail and implications of what happens on and off the camera. Abby and Lev’s comradely is charming but it feels undercooked on the whole compared to the much richer relationships from the first game, the DLC or even other parts of this one.
Lev as a whole is a positive addition to the universe but his story leaves a lot to be desired. In both story and gameplay he flanks Abby from the shadows, so quiet that you forget he’s there until he makes a precision shot with his bow to turn the tide of tense encounters. He is awkward and withdrawn displays a lot of courage in trying to escape his faction. Courage that inspires Abby to do the same and forges a bond. But that’s part of the problem. Lev is only really there as an accessory to Abby’s story. His story tries to continue Naughty Dog’s more progressive slant by delving into some of the difficult circumstances that come with being transgender but this narrative is ultimately very one note and conveyed through exposition and developments off-screen over any of the craft that went into selling us on Ellie in the original games. In many ways it feels like cheap tokenism and I hate to say that about a character written and portrayed with such earnestness.
Abby’s story ends up coming up a little short compared to Ellie’s on the whole. Contrivance puts the overall larger cast in positions to be killed off. Spectacular set-pieces start to happen with very loose justification that doesn’t suit this game’s world. It’s definitely the more fun half of the game but I would rather have had a little more consistency over some of these elements. There’s a lot to like here but nothing that got under my skin as thoroughly as watching Ellie’s mental state deteriorate in the first half.
So it’s a bit of a relief when we switch back to her in the last stretch, long after Abby lets her go and gives her a chance to live her life. Ellie is living in a dream scenario, on a quiet farm with her girlfriend Dinah and her kid. It’s a jarring, frustrating sequence that turns satisfying when quickly calls out for the farce it is. Abby was hollow after completing her mission but Ellie is about as well off after she gives up and lets go, illustrating that there was no easy answer for getting over her hatred and trauma.
Seeking out Abby and finding her beaten so thoroughly by the world was one of my favorite moments in the game. One of the game’s biggest symbols of strength was reduced to a frail, fragile figure without Ellie’s input. There’s no honor in killing her now but Ellie doesn’t know what else to do with herself and tries anyway.
The fight stretches a little too long and gets a little too graphic, but the ending works. Joel flashes into her mind and she lets Abby go, realizing all at once what he truly wanted for her and how he was able to do what he did to protect her. She had to alienate or inadvertently cause the deaths of most of the people in her life to get here, though and the ending leaves her on that tragic note.
The game is about love in the same way the first game was, and how easy it is to justify hate in it’s name. It’s an interesting premise but probably not the best fit for an action game where the core loop is combat driven.Crafting a story about the destructive consequences indulging in violence leaves feels a little bit out of lockstep with itself when indulging in violence is so satisfying as a gameplay loop. The story is a precautionary tale about the temptation of violence but in the gameplay violence is directly trying to be cathartic. I think that the developers were riding on some kind of dramatic irony with that choice, but it’s so heavy handed it comes off as patronizing at times.
Storytelling or thematic ambitions don’t work in this medium without mechanical ambitions to go alongside them but Naughty Dog remains hesitant to push themselves here. Even the wheels start to fall off of the story just because of how many moving parts it’s trying to juggle. The first game was a little less mature and a little less ambitious than this one, but it was a little more consistent for it. I think I prefer this game though, warts and all.
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is a premium piece of survival horror that lives up to it's name. It's paper thin premise may cause some confusion if one stops to think about it for a few seconds, but the game won't give you any time to with how quick it is to get to the meat of things. It's elegant blend of atmosphere and mechanics will hook you from the start and keep you on edge for the majority of it's run.
Resident Evil 7: Biohazard trades out some franchise conventions for a more traditional horror setup. The trained shot in the form of a beat cop or secret agent is swapped out with an every-man with a shaky hand. The first person perspective that became popular in the genre was embraced too, letting you experience the series in a new way. The subdued tone throws out the action movie cliches that the series is known for.The cynical reading is that these concessions were made to widen appeal, but the end result makes it hard to see it as a mistake.
The essence of the series has been kept in the game's mechanics. A small inventory, limited weaponry and a dangerous labyrinth filled with life-saving items to scavenge and terrifying creatures are all hallmarks of the series that make you feel your back against the wall more than any other series in the genre. Decisions about what to carry with you when you leave the relief of a save room are critical as you improvise in the field to survive. You’re always given the option to fight, but resources are kept low enough that you’ll be considering if it’s even worth taking every shot and cursing yourself when a bullet misses it’s target.
A simple crafting system has you weighing every ingredient’s use. Chem fluid can be combined with other pickups to make offensive or defensive tools which let you lean into different play-styles depending on the situation. Making these decisions on the fly and having to live with them as you carve out safe routes through the game’s various decrypt mansions, warehouses and underground passages creates it’s own tension that the game’s aesthetic only highlights.
The first person perspective can seem clunky at first compared to more convenient ways to get a read on the action from previous games, but all it does is trade some of that convenience for a stronger immersive factor. Other creative decisions like going with an everyman and the first half’s grounded, intimate tone enhance the urgency of the situation. It’ll be up to the player whether these changes can make up for some of the added frustration a first person perspective brings. It becomes more difficult to judge the space of the player in relation to the environment enemy which causes problems with the combat. A cautious, evasive playstyle becomes preferable, which suit the circumstances of this game well, but the last third or so dials up the focus on combat which undercuts this angle a little.
The true stars of the game are the Bakers, the mysterious family at the center of Mia’s disappearance. They’ve been gifted with horrific enhancements and an over-the-top lust for mischief by the game’s true antagonist and a lot of the game’s tension comes from what they add to the gameplay. You spend the majority of the game lurking their respective lairs, trying to look for the path forward and solve puzzles while being stalked by these monstrosities. Their personalities are all unique as are their methods for tormenting Ethan, giving each section it’s own memorable set-pieces and boss fights.
The game starts to lose some momentum once the Bakers are dealt with and the backstory behind their Residence unfolds. The game’s tension starts to fizzle out as the protagonist's armory expands. The labyrinths fade into more linear hallways with deliberate encounters. The game’s combat problems go from negligible to hard to ignore. The game can’t help but end on a bombastic setpiece. It doesn’t suit the strengths of the game and unfortunately it isn’t mechanically engaging enough to justify.
The bizarre last quarter is a shame but the game is chock full of moments I’ll look back on fondly in every sense, from it’s clever puzzles to it’s strong atmosphere. Memorable characters and thrilling boss encounters. It won’t win any awards for uniqueness but in terms of refinement on established tropes and mechanics there are few better examples.
Persona 5 asks the powerful question of what if you had the power to make a difference? It’s not new territory for the nearly 15 year old series, but for it’s first outing in a while it asks the question with a renewed sense of vigor. We’re far removed from the sleepy small town of Inaba and are asked to navigate Tokyo and track down villains with far bigger ambitions than a murder mystery.
Persona 5 starts you off on the downturn. Your protagonist is framed for a crime he didn’t commit and has his life uprooted when he’s expelled and has to find a different school. You’re dropped into a high school where you don’t know anyone but everyone seems to know you. Your supposed criminal record is common knowledge and you’re met with stares and whispers as you walk the halls.
But everything changes when, in typical Persona fashion, you discover an alternate reality that manipulates the real one. The rules are completely different here; when you’re held down by the powerful and pushed to your limit you rise as a Phantom Thief swashbuckling antihero with a myriad of monsters from the Shin Megami Tensei series at your command. You’re a phantom thief now. You may not be able to budge the higher powers in the real world, but here you’re on an even ground with them. Success in the “Metaverse” will affect the real world in positive ways: criminals and the corrupt lose their ambitious edge and will feel the full weight of their actions and how they affect others. Their minds will be broken, and they will turn themselves in.
Combining this setup with a tale of a few key students being tortured by an abusive teacher in a situation that’s happening under the school’s radar and you have a spellbinding first chapter. It introduces the mysterious Anne and the rebellious Ryuji to your party as you help them fight back against their abusive gym teacher both in the school and in the metaverse.
The game takes a while to get going during this layered introductory chapter, but once it does you can feel the time Atlus spent during these 10 years improving the mechanics. The dungeons have moved away from the dull corridors and randomly generated mazes of previous games, opting for deliberate design and navigation puzzles instead. The “heist” aesthetic contextualizes a stealth attack mechanic which cleans up the imprecise act of attacking enemies in the overworld in previous games.
The UI in combat treads the knife’s edge between gorgeous and efficient. Streamlined button commands and an expanded “baton pass” system that allows you to chain attacks of different party members together combine with insanely satisfying feedback in terms of sight and sound to make turn based combat feel better than it ever has before. Stunning all the enemies with their weaknesses to execute the series trademark All Out Attack has never been more satisfying. Finishing the fight with this mechanic even rewards the player with a stylish victory pose featuring the party member that lead the charge as a cherry on top. The aesthetics work together with the systems to make for a satisfying gameplay loop even as the enemy mobs you tear through start to repeat.
But the game doesn’t stop when you’re not in the Metaverse. Persona 5 continues the series’s themes of duality and asks you to live the most convincing day to day life you can inbetween heists. The game asks you to keep up on your studies and continue to maintain a growing list of relationships. In the same way the Metaverse can interact with your day to day, the reverse is also true. Doing well to maintain your relationships rewards you with bonuses to take with you into the fight, whether that be a growth in power from your party members, discounts in shops, or new side missions to tackle within the metaverse. Who you’ve chosen to spend time with factors into a variety of things up until the game’s finale, encouraging the player to interact with those systems. It makes for a good supplement to the dungeon gameplay that suits the game’s themes of duality.
There’s one final pillar of Persona 5’s systems: Momentos. A randomly generated dungeon in line with the previous games. Side quests, items, and enemies that wouldn’t fit into the game’s main dungeons end up here. Side conversations exclusive to this mode make navigating it more interesting than it ought to be, but it comes up short compared to the game’s main dungeons. It’s nowhere near optional either, despite my initial impression, so it’s in the player’s best interest to put time into it.
It’d be unrealistic to expect the game to maintain a perfect momentum over it’s runtime of more than 100 hours, but unfortunately key parts of the game start to decay as time goes on. The fires of rebellion that the first chapter spark lead to an emotionally satisfying conclusion, but cutting so deep in the first chapter means that the game can never measure up to pack the same punch in the future scenarios. Some come close: The fourth arc deliberately flies in the face of the structure of the first 3 and asks you to use the Metaverse to accomplish a completely different type of goal. It combines a unique setup with some of the most interesting dungeon design in the game and a strong central character to create one of the series’s standout sections.
But some arcs falter, especially later on in the game.The basic premise of taking out a corrupt public figure largely remains the same from chapter to chapter, but the game racks up a roster of increasingly lacklustre villains as it progresses. As the scales become less personal and grandiose, the impact of their actions lesson. The game alleviates this around this by throwing out a couple of chapters where the situation is really close to the protagonists: The Casino arc and the above mentioned Pyramid, but others can’t help but feel like a slog. The space station is a notoriously poor example of the gameplay loop falling apart. An unconvincing premise combine with some of the most dragged out dungeon design and some really poor character writing to create a legitimate low point, but the game dips into all of these pitfalls in other places.
Characters seem to pick up and drop traits entirely depending on certain contexts. I was a little relieved that Ryuji seemed to be dodging most of the traits that defined the typical Persona “best friend” character before he goes full tilt into those traits later on and becomes more and more used for comic relief. A similar thing happens to Yusuke, a character that gets a surprisingly touching arc in his debut chapter early on but is practically considered disposable by the game after that. The game doesn’t seem to have an idea of what to do with these characters after their(usually) strong initial debut, so it ends up treating them as a loose end aside from exaggerating their worst traits for comic relief or to manufacture drama in the game’s lowest points. It may not seem like a big deal at first, but the sheer amount of time you spend reading listening to these characters means these issues stick out in an RPG more than they would in a traditional action game. I did get attatched to some of these characters, so I know the writers aren’t completely clueless, but it makes it all the more frustrating when they get shortened or recieve unsatisfactory development.
The biggest example of this lies in one of the plot’s key players. The game’s recurring antagonist from early onward is aGoro Akechi. He’s a young detective with a strong moral code: That justice should always be put in the hands of the professionals that lead society’s judicial systems. This puts him at odds with our protagonists in a simple but intriguing way as slowly works his way into the group and even gets close to stopping their activities. He’s a great foil that puts a lot of pressure on the heroes. The game decides to throw this all out for the sake of a twist that reduces Akechi’s character to a series of poorly fleshed out tropes that moves him closer to the game’s other antagonists but further from it’s themes. It’s one of many disappointments that make up the game’s plot in it’s latter half.
The dungeon and combat design also takes a hit in the latter half of the game. It leans less and less on interesting visuals and design and more on the corridors that made up the older games. The combat encounters get more grindy and repetitive up to and including some overly long boss fights. It feels as if the game was prioritizing reaching a certain playtime average over actually making a product that stays tight and engaging. It would explain the contrivances in the plot later on too. This filler is unfortunately really frustrating in a game that gets so much right.
The game manages to wrap itself up well enough. The lengthy encounters continue up until the final boss, but the story ends on a surprisingly heartfelt note that makes you reflect on the high points of your adventure. The game has a powerful message of how we should try our best to make a difference and not succumb to apathy, and despite the shortcomings in the latter half I think it gets this idea across well. The characters have “awakenings” before they get their powers: Moments where they snap, exhausted of being pushed around by higher powers and give into a newfound rebellious rage. The fantasy of becoming a powerful phantom thief and tearing apart society’s most powerful with sheer willpower is endlessly appealing, and the game is careful to make sure the player understands that making a difference in the outside world matters just as much, even if it’s a little more difficult.
On the whole it’s a game that’s more than the sum of it’s parts. Despite it’s shortcomings, Persona 5’s heart is so firmly in the right place that it’s likely to steal yours.
Spider-Man PS4 is a great game. The webswinging and combat were as fluid, frantic and polished as I would expect from the developers of Ratchet and Clank and Sunset Overdrive. I didn’t know what to expect going into the game’s story, though. Since story was never Insomniac Games’s strong suit and the IP they were adapting couldn’t be more..hit or miss in that regard. I came away pleasantly surprised, though.
The story begins with Peter Parker in a different point in his life than most recent Spider-Man media, and it’s a little more interesting for it. Peter is fresh out of college with many of his iconic stories behind him. He’s entering the adult world now and struggling the way through with that typical Parker Luck biting at his heels. This place in the timeline isn't just a novelty and turns out to be key to the story’s. For Peter and his peers the last few training wheels are coming off and with that transition brings ugly truths. Solid ground and stability becomes harder to find and idols are taken off of their pedestals as people with all of their vulnerabilities and vices exposed. Spider-Man has always preached themes of responsibility and this game embodies that better than any book, show, and comic I've seen in a long time. Peter Parker’s personal life is constantly strained by the vigilantism, but he can’t resist the pull of helping others. His ideology of sacrificing himself for others is instilled in him, and it’s this core ideology that defines his entire character. It also undoes him, as the various mentors in his life he thought embodied that reveal their selfish natures.
The first thing I want to give this game credit for is how it handles Peter’s origin. Uncle Ben’s death isn't drawn out and replayed for players because of the reasonable assumption that we’ve all at least seen a Spider-Man movie. His presence, impact, and the hole he leaves in his absence are all tangible and felt throughout the game. From wistful conversations with Aunt May to Peter’s musings when you come across certain collectables that paint a picture of this take on the character’s history, the absence of Uncle Ben’s guidance is felt. Peter is entering a new stage of his life just a bit aimless, and it becomes key in his eagerness to embrace a new mentor figure in the form of Dr Octavius. Their relationship forms the backbone of the game’s story.
Despite the shakey payment, Peter ultimately takes a job with Octavius because he looks up to him. Otto has dedicated himself to fully functional prosthetics for people who've lost their limbs. It's a perfect marriage of Peter’s love of science and devotion to helping others. A dream job. Of course, the job itself turns out to be pretty thankless as Otto struggles to maintain funding for his work and Peter struggles to keep the landlord off his back. The classic relatable struggle to stay afloat that rung more true to me now than ever. Peter continues to reaffirm that it's all worth it, though. The two’s devotion to eachother is rife with tension to anyone who knows these characters though. It was hard to say whether this partnership was just one of many changes made to the universe that would stick or if the game was just waiting to drop the other shoe.
Otto eventually embraces his role in the Spider-Man universe, though. The catalyst wasn’t as simple as “he’s crazy” either. Peter learns partway through that his mentor is affected with a sickness that will destroy his motor functions. His obsession with mechanical limbs has gained a tragic edge: he’s ultimately doing it all to save himself, despite how justified his feelings are. This one little detail makes his spiral just a little more interesting: How long did he know about his disease? How much was his research into his field driven by survivor instinct versus selflessness? Dr. Octavius ends up being one of the most complex characters in the game. He is driven by a mix of a desire to prove his ambitions that have gotten him to nowhere but dead ends are worthwhile before he dies and getting revenge on the man who ruined him: Norman Osborne.
Martin Li has a similar arc. A recent character in comparison to the others in this game, there’s a lot more freedom when there’s less of a legacy to uphold. The team ends up positioning him as another higher authority figure Peter respects with his work running a homeless shelter that Aunt May works for with Peter frequently volunteering. He is essentially a selfless, hardworking man, but he carries a deep darkness inside of him that manifests itself as literal destructive energy that has the power to corrupt others around him. It’s a bit on the nose, but it works as far as the theme of upholding your responsibilities to others. Martin Li genuinely loves the work he does for the city, but the temptation of revenge over tragedy of his parents death consumes him. Martin Li and Otto Octavius are very different characters, but the thing they have in common is that they let the people who look up to them down hard when they give into their hubris and rage.
This is all for revenge against Norman Osborn, and while it may seem like with the trail of blood and rage he’s left in his wake seeking “Devil’s Breath” that he might be a bit of a bastard, one of the game’s most satisfying reveals turns out to paint him in a different light. The “trip” to europe that has kept frequent Spider-Man mainstay Harry Osborn out of the game outside of a series of voice messages seems a bit suspicious from the jump, but most might write it off as a sequel hook and keep playing with it burned far in back of their mind. Harry turns out to be lethally ill, and his “Europe” trip turns out to be a lengthy and so far unsuccessful series of treatments Norman is conducting to save his son’s life. “Devil’s Breath” is so saught after by Norman because it is a failed attempt at a cure he has yet to perfect. For his many, many faults Norman Osborn may ironically be one of the only mentor like figures in this story who is doing his best for his charge. This doesn’t even get into how much of a predominant force Oscorp’s technology is in the city. Ultimate monetary goal or not, Oscorp’s technology redefined several key aspect of New York’s systematic structure in this city. It’s essential, so Norman and Li’s attempts to undercut his influence only really end up harming civilians in the long run. What could be considered Spider-Man’s greatest nemesis comes out of this game pretty clean.
Some of this game’s emotional highs come from the heartbreak Peter experiences when he finds out Osborn and Li’s true natures. One of the hardest hitting moments in the game comes from the rage Peter feels when Octavius knew he was Spider-Man all along. The lethal battles that defined the entire game’s second half all get recontextualized as Peter realizes that even he was disposable if it meant Octavius could achieve his goals. Octavius’s mind is supposedly being manipulated by the tentacles at this point but his plan has been so far reaching and so well thought out that it’d had to have been at least formulating before that point. To put it simply: Otto was always a bit of a bastard. The arms just exaggerated what was ultimately already there.
This is why Aunt May’s place in the game is so important, and her death even more significant to the game’s themes. She remains Peter’s rock: a remarkable, near flawless influence of a good, hardworking person who helps others no matter the cost. When Peter loses his apartment, Aunt May immediately gives him space in her office, and her generosity doesn’t just end at family. She takes full control of the homeless shelter and continues to help others even as things become grim in New York. FEAST becomes a safe haven for not just Peter, but many of the lost and injured in the wake of the destructive egoes of the game’s antagonists. That’s why it’s all the more impactful and important that she ultimately dies as a result of her actions. She gets infected with Devil’s Breath while helping to treat those inflicted. In the most painful moments of the game’s surprisingly dark story, Peter must choose the rest of New York over her. It’s what Aunt May would want, and what she was doing all along, but Peter having to make that sacrifice in such a brutal way outlines one of the classic Spider-Man morals perfectly. To take some choice words from Peter himself here: “Doing the right thing, even when it hurts like hell.”
With Aunt May gone and his other mentors fallen Peter has completed his transition to adulthood. There’s simply no one left for him to look up to for guidance. He can only move forward with what they’ve given him and try to be the best person he can be. The whole point of the subplot with Miles is to set up Peter with his own charge: someone lost that looks up to him for guidance. Even Peter notices how similar their situations are and offers to take him under his wing himself. The credits sequence where the two find kindred spirits in eachother over their Spider-Powers is heartwarming, and I’m guessing the sequel will explore this game’s themes further through this dynamics. Peter Parker isn’t above falling short or making the wrong choices, so it’ll be interesting to see how those decisions influence Miles in later parts of the story. Time will tell if Peter can help Miles turn his pain into empathy. The future looks bright for now, but things never go quite so smoothly in the world of the wall-crawler
It goes without saying at this point, but Spider-Man PS4’s story is about being good not just for it’s own sake, but for the sake of others that need that guidance or even just a shoulder to lean on. It’s about sharing your strengths with others. It’s about resisting the temptation to lash your pain out on the world. It’s the time old “With great power, comes great responsibility” personified. Most importantly though, it’s about how instilling this lesson into the next generation is important. Superheroes, at their core, were about entertaining young, impressionable audiences. It also doesn’t hurt to have some words of wisdom for them. Be greater.
“Oh Ellie. I think they should be terrified of you.”
I think my favorite thing about The Last of Us is the way it dances a fine line between quiet, tender displays of humanity’s best through hope and humor and the violent, horrifying clashes that come from them at their worst. It’s often derided as another derivative entry in the ever growing genre of zombie fiction, but like any good horror piece the fantastic parts are a catalyst to drive push the humanity of it’s characters to the forefront.
This is best shown with The Last of Us 2’s previews which showcase the series trademark “infected” minimally at best, if at all. They have an enormous influence on these people’s lives but they aren’t the most important thing. They’ve shaped the world, but to many of the characters they’ve become predictable and routine. The real danger comes from humans, always clever and chaotic. The core of The Last of Us has always been that we have the capability to heal or hurt each-other enormous, unexpected and sometimes horrifying ways depending on circumstance.
The demo begins with Ellie at a party, presumably at the town her and Joel make their way towards at the end of the game. Ellie is quiet, off to the side and standoffish. It’s clear to me that she hasn’t really assimilated to the quiet life, despite how long it’s been since we’ve seen her. Joel is mentioned in passing along with the infected after a friend approaches her, but Naughty Dog continues the trend of avoiding a tangible appearance by him. The team has committed to a spotlight on Ellie, and as much as I can’t help but wonder what the series’s other main protagonist is up to, it’s hard to find an issue with the most well rounded character from the last game getting the spotlight.
The cutscene is a well acted and executed piece of teen drama shlock. A little jarring and out of place for the series, but it ends up highlighting just how much more peaceful Ellie’s life is that she could experience the “normal” things she once lamented about missing out on in the first game. A normal, teen love triangle is appropriately jarring and out of place, but it’s hard not to get into the mood of it all quickly with how well acted it all is. The voice work and animation continue to be the studio’s strength. The scene is topped off with Ellie kissing her friend in an emotionally charged moment similar to her moment with Riley in the previous game’s Left Behind expansion. The LBGT elements being at the forefront of the game’s advertising instead of in the background is a notable step up and seems to be a bold proclamation by Naughty Dog that this game isn’t afraid to go into shakey territory.
A jarring cut to Ellie slitting a man’s throat continues this promise. It’s not just the relationships that will be bolder and more fully realized, but the violence and the brutality too. The trailer cuts seamlessly into the gameplay we’ve been waiting for. Ellie crouch walks through the forest, slipping through foileage to avoid the line of sight of her enemies. The mechanic has been taken straight from Uncharted 4 in just one of many examples of the two distinct series’s symbiotic relationship. The game’s visuals and lighting are stunning. A mind blowing step up from the original game and even a noticable leap from Uncharted 4.
The setting is a dense forest with the apparent cult members from the PSX trailer tracking Ellie through the forest in earnest. The way they disembowl a man until he bleeds out and fits in with the rest of the forest’s assortment of dangling corpses shows they haven’t lost their brutal edge. Female enemies are the first of many new additions to the game’s opposing survivors. Their communication has also seemingly improved, calling eachother out to search certain areas and using whistles and codenames to not tip the player off to their intentions.
The first engagement starts and we see more of the same. The weapons menu looks as smooth as before and the bow has the same silently lethal effect that made it so viable in the original game. The first big new mechanic happens when Ellie gets spotted and thrown into a melee cult members. She darts backward with a well timed dodge that clears her out of the attacker’s range. This should smooth over the clunky, mashy melee encounters that harmed the first game’s combat. There’s nothing super groundbreaking about this change, but it’s a simple addition that will go a long way and the little touches like Ellie stopping short and having a unique animation when she slams into the car show a unique amount of polish that Naughty Dog consistently delivers on.
Ellie finishes the enemies off with her trademark deadly shiv and snakes off into the greenery after she gets spotted by another, armed enemy. More enemies appear, singnalling eachother with whistles as they spread out to find her. Ellie crawls under a truck and hides: Another new mechanic. It’s unknown if this is a context sensitive action or if you’ll have the freedom to crawl at any time, but since Naughty dog likes to keep things on the simpler side it’s safe to assume the former as cool as the latter would be.
The enemies start to check under the cars naturally in a surprising spot of intelligence. Ellie gets the jump on one, but another pulls her out from underneath in one of many moments that seem a bit too smart and clean to happen during the game. Ellie wrestles free and shoots him down from her proned position on the ground. An actual proper gunfight starts and the shakey, grounded feel of the original is kept. Ellie can’t make the shot until she stops for a second to reload and steady her aim.
The enemies keep their heightened aggression from when you’re out of ammo. An enemy hears Ellie’s gun click and takes a bold step forward, shooting her with an arrow that shockingly gets lodged in her chest. Ellie runs with the arrow sticking out of her, grabbing a nearby bottle to stun a cultist trying to head her off and grabbing her. The “hostage” trick from the original game returns here as Ellie turns to face her pursuers, but the enemies quickly shoot the hostage dead. There may be a higher sense of ruthlessness in the game depending on the enemy type.
Ellie is chased into a building and ducks behind a countertop. Now that she’s hidden, she stops to draw the arrow out of her. The game seems to have status effects that the player has to address in breaks between the action. It’s notable that the arrow didn’t seem to hamper Ellie’s movement at all, though.
Ellie’s movement away from enemies is restricted in the smaller space and she has to face her enemies head on. She creeps around the store, hiding behind shelves and taking arrows from what seemed to be the cult’s victims. Cornering their prey in the dead end of the shop seemed to be a strategy. The last major returning mechanic is crafting, though clearly with some new tricks as Ellie ties an explosive she picked up in the demo to her last arrow and fires.
THe arrow blows the enemy to pieces in another shockingly violent display, but the explosion also catches the other two enemies off guard and stuns them, allowing Ellie to easily finish one off. There’s still 3 more left, and we get a taste of more close range mechanics as an enemy parries blows from Ellie’s machete and pushes her away, over a countertop. Ellie dodges more and flanks, slipping between tight countertops in what might be yet another addition to movement and traversal. Ellie gets in range of a bow wielder and finishes him easily. The biggest enemy of the bunch goes down last with 3 shots from the bow. The unique animations the big guy gets along with the cutscene that plays as Ellie finishes him off might be indicating that he’s a kind of seamless “boss battle” that can happen in the game..or it might just be an indicator that a good chunk of the demo was scripted.
The game jumps back to the party and the brutality Ellie just went through was capped off with a smile. The girl’s the happiest we’ve seen her in years. The demo leaves us with that image along with the foreboding thought that it won’t be long before all of this is gone and she’s fighting her way through hell on earth all over again.
A Way Out is one of a long list of games that make me wonder if slapping a number rating on something is kind of pointless. On a technical level, it never really reaches above middling in every aspect. It’s a story based game writing floats on that tightrope between intentional and unintentional trashiness: that sweet spot that makes for comedy gold. The game doesn’t look great for the at least justifiable reason that it’s running dual screen, two player gameplay at all times. It’s a co op game with the courtesy of fully online support, but it intends to be experienced fully no matter what level of communication you’re capable of. It means that the puzzles are practically brain-dead and can be completed at a glance. The game’s idea of combat is QTEs and the most bare-bones third person shooter system I’ve ever witnessed. If I were to be objective, I’d give the game a 5 or 2 stars or something, but being objective is boring.
Instead I’ll say the writing had me practically in tears at times in both intentional and unintentional moments of comedy. The QTEs and Puzzles are worth failing just to see the amount of ways one of the main characters can screw up and send the whole sequence crashing down in flames. THe action sequences, while automated, are insanely fun to watch have an insane amount of work put into them in terms of staging and spectacle to the point where the game feels like a miniature Uncharted at times. I played the entire game in one sitting, always eager to see what they would pull out next.
The story focuses on Leo and Vincent, a generic wise guy and straight man duo that pretty much represents the two flavors of protagonists in western games. Leo an experienced, hardened criminal with an attitude and Vincent an everyman with a lust for vengeance. THe two conspire to break out of prison and , once that’s done, get vengeance on the man who put them there. Vincent and Leo were essentially locked up by the same man in wildly different situations: a coincidence that initially can be chalked down to bad writing. This tendency for the game to generally be pretty derivative and poorly written is what makes those moments of brilliance pop, and the parts that don’t work so well are carried by the fact that you’re probably playing this wih a friend and riffing it to hell and back. As an experience, it works well enough to keep you going.
The “brilliance” I keep talking about mostly comes in the form of surprisingly nuanced character moments that come from playing around with all the game’s outcomes. Vincent and Leo have a fun dynamic, and the game lets you explore it with a huge amount of optional interactions and minigames that are hidden all over the game, from smaller things like Leo vandilizing a photo and the Vincent player getting the chance to clean it if he sees it, to a game of connect 4 nestled in the corner of a waiting room. There are also weirdly hilarious moments of contrast that come from two independant players. Vincent arguing with his estranged, pregnant wife over a payphone while Leo plays with a bicycle bell at the other end of the square comes to mind.
I don’t really want to spoil too much or go too far into it, because I think A Way Out is worth experiencing as blind as possible. It’s got all the trappings of a generic experience, but a few simple twists make it genuinely shocking and hilarious i you give it a chance and ride it out. It’s genius “friend pass” system also means you only have to pay for it once. Grab a good friend and spend a weekend afternoon in a wonderfully schlocky mess with a surprising amount of wit.
“A man that has not prepared his children for his death has failed them. Have I ever failed you?” This question sits at the heart 0f Ryan Coolger’s Black Panther. It extends beyond the relationship between the hero T’Challa, played by Chadwick Boseman and his father T’Chaka. The movie is seeped in themes of royalty, responsibility, and failure. It’s shockingly critical of the fantasy concept far away haven for Africans untouched by the clutches of colonization. As beautiful and mystifying as Wakanda is portrayed, and as wonderful as it would be to be able to live there, Black Panther, in a meta sense, is about the cost of keeping Wakanda a secret both in and out of universe. How long were black children denied a true exceptional hero while the franchise stayed unknown to most beyond comic book fans? How different will things be now that they’re here and willing to inspire and spread their influence?
“A man that has not prepared his children for his death has failed them. Have I ever failed you?” This question sits at the heart 0f Ryan Coolger’s Black Panther. It extends beyond the relationship between the hero T’Challa, played by Chadwick Boseman and his father T’Chaka. The movie is seeped in themes of royalty, responsibility, and failure. It’s shockingly critical of the fantasy concept far away haven for Africans untouched by the clutches of colonization. As beautiful and mystifying as Wakanda is portrayed, and as wonderful as it would be to be able to live there, Black Panther, in a meta sense, is about the cost of keeping Wakanda a secret both in and out of universe. How long were black children denied a true exceptional hero while the franchise stayed unknown to most beyond comic book fans? How different will things be now that they’re here and willing to inspire and spread their influence?
The movie confronts this question and finds some pretty shocking answers at the heart of it all through the show stealing villain Erik Killmonger portrayed by Cooler’s partner in crime Michael B Jordan. He delivers a show stealing performance as a vengeful killing machine with a bit of an urban flair and an honest motivation that connects the movie to contemporary African American culture. Killmonger is, for a lack of a better term, from the block. He was displaced from his roots, born and raised in American ghettos where poverty and violence consumed lives, including that of his father. This, along with his ultimate wish being for Wakanda to help oppressed peoples with african ancestry around the world makes him one of the more relatable characters in the movie, especially to an African American audience. That along with his tragic edge creates a villain empathetic and fascinating in a way most Superhero movies couldn’t dream of. He’s not without his flaws: His descent into Marvel Villain flavored madness is a little rushed, seemingly out of fear the audience with identify with himover the hero that they want to build a franchise around.
T’challa is positioned more as a power fantasy to Killmonger’s reflection of grim reality, and unfortunately it makes him a weaker character. Chadwick Boseman turns in a great performance as always. He’s cool, collected, charming, and emotional when he needs to be, but he simply cannot stand up to both the the emotional pull of Killmonger and the fact that the pillars holding him up are just way cooler than him. His body guard and leader of a fierce all female fighting force Okoye, played by Danai Gurira, his little sister and scientific genius Shuri, played by Letita Wight in what’s probably going to be the highlight of the movie for many, and Lupita Nyongo as Nakia, wakandan spy with a heart of gold, kind of steal the show both in action and in charm.
Okoye steals every fight scene she’s by channeling a uniquely tribal and efficient fighting style with a staff made of vibranium. Shuri ends up being the movie’ comic relief and since the comedy is actually really good it leaves her with a lot of the better moments and lines. Nakia doesn’t hit as hard as either of these but plays an important role in the story and even flat out takes over the driver’s seat at a certain point. These are all characters built from the ground up to be characters first unlike a lot of female “characters” you see in these action. They aren’t plot devices or trophies, but people with unique backgrounds, ambitions, and charm that are united under the banner of keeping Wakanda safe. The King kind of ends up bowing to the Queens, here. The Panther himself ends up feeling kind of plain in the face of both a villain and an ensemble so interesting to watch.
The work put into making the movie look unique and beautiful pays off in spades sometimes. The costumes and scenery embrace African culture wholesale making for some truly unique looks for the cast and some beautiful shots. The blend of African culture and sci fi makes every gadget, vehicle and weapon feel like something you never seen before. The soundtrack is constantly blending it all together with African Drums backing contemporary beats. Unfortunately the special effects can be really rough around the edges, and how beautiful the movie is sometimes makes the blemishes stand out even more than typical Marvel fare. THe emotional weight fo the final battle is sucked out by how much the two brawling Panthers resemble cartoon characters. The film deserved a better finale.
It feels like time or money was pulling against the crew’s ambitions sometimes, but I’d the see them dream big and go for the 3 pointer than take the easy layup.
Black Panther is as entertaining a thrill ride as some of the better Marvel movies, but it also took the time to ask some interesting questions in it’s own right. I still think about where some of these characters went and where they could be going next weeks after the fact, along with the themes the movie touched on of isolation, betrayal, and rectifying the mistakes of our ancestors. Even fi you’re not here for those things, and just want to have a fun time with an action thriller Okoye chucking a spear through a car will probably hit the spot for you. It did for me.
Anxiety is the name of the game in Celeste. The game’s story elements center pretty much entirely around this fact. Madeline wants to climb the Celeste Mountain seemingly as a bid to conquer the anxiety that’s been stopping her progress through life. The mountain turns out to be full of mystique and secrets as manifestations of her fears become tangible and try to stop her. Madeline has to learn to deal with her anxiety to make it to the top and the story, while on the nose, managed to click with me in ways I wasn’t expecting. Anxiety is a bit of a big topic to explore in a 5 hour campaign, but I’ll always applaud games who try to think bigger.
Anxiety is the name of the game in Celeste. The game’s story elements center pretty much entirely around this fact. Madeline wants to climb the Celeste Mountain seemingly as a bid to conquer the anxiety that’s been stopping her progress through life. The mountain turns out to be full of mystique and secrets as manifestations of her fears become tangible and try to stop her. Madeline has to learn to deal with her anxiety to make it to the top and the story, while on the nose, managed to click with me in ways I wasn’t expecting. Anxiety is a bit of a big topic to explore in a 5 hour campaign, but I’ll always applaud games who try to think bigger.
I don’t think the game’s obsession with anxiety stops there though. Celeste is a game where it’s themes are baked into it’s mechanics. It’s a heavy, tough as nails platformer that demands the best you have to offer in terms of reflexes and timing, and at its core it’s a game about taking a deep breath and executing. Hesitation gets you killed. Second guessing gets you killed. Running in head first gets you killed. Time, observation, knowing your own limitations, and above all, execution, helps you succeed. In this sense, you’re kind of put in Madeline’s shoes. You are given increasingly intimidating challenges, the game almost always giving you a good look at what lies ahead, before it just asks you to execute. Do or die, and don't die for nothing. Learn from it.
The game is brutal, but it’s soft, ambient atmosphere and lenient checkpoints sort of create this feeling of laid indifference from the game, whether you want to stop now or try again later. The beautiful hand crafted backgrounds combined with how little of the screen Madeline’s tiny sprite takes up give the impression that there’s far more to this mountain beyond you and your journey. It makes Madeline’s quest seem a bit insignificant in the face of everything, and I think that’s both intentional and important. Madeline’s quest is obviously important to her, and you’ll be driven to see it through, but there’s no world ending stakes here. You get the impression that the mountain will still be here to conquer no matter how long it takes you.The game is more than content to let the mountain’s natural beauty and mystery along with Madeline’s personal quest drive them forward.
The atmosphere is a bit of a contrast to the treacherous, tough as nails gameplay. I kept being reminded of the calm, serene nature of what had to be the hardest game I’ve ever played: Dustforce, which is coincidentally another platformer I hold in high regard. I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with a game wanting to crush a player’s spirit, but I know where my preferences lie after this adventure.
It’s easy for difficult games and their fans to play up the challenge and mock newcomers for their errors. Mockery is a motivator for some, but it just discourages others. Celeste is sometimes soul crushing but it never really wants you to think you can’t just try again when you’re ready. “Each death is a learning experience” is even one of the game’s pieces of advice. It’s not an actively encouraging game, but it makes sure not to be discouraging either. It wants you to take these challenges at your own pace. It wants you to take each failure as a step forward at chipping away at it’s level design.
One of the many surprises in Celeste for me was the amount of content. THe game seems to be on the short side at first, but you shouldn’t be fooled by the initial talk of 7 chapters. Each will take you about as much time as a “world” would in a Mario game iff not more. It’s more like a series of levels strung together into one long, uninterrupted sequence. You shouldn’t be afraid of being overwhelmed either since you can pull out and come back later at basically any time. If the campaign isn’t tough enough for you and you want more Celeste to sink your teeth into, the game more than matches the 5 hour campaign in extra content, usually expanding on mechanics from the main game in such insanely creative ways that I was blown away. These really are the hardest sections of an already fairly difficult game, though. The frustration will sometimes be overwhelming, but the rush I got from beating these levels was more than worth the struggle. The game is always demanding your best but it rarely ever feels cheap unlike a lot of it’s peers. Most of the story content gets wrapped up in the initial first wave of levels, so don't worry about missing anything if this doesn't sound like your cup of tea.
The soundtrack is one of the game’s strongest assets. It’s a soft, ambient collection of tracts that reflect each level’s place in the story and mood perfectly, from the earnest, spunky, and a little bit ominous track that plays when Madeline encounters her first challenges on the mountain in Forsaken City, to the ponderous, tragic “Quiet and Falling” that plays when she explores the forgotten ruins of the MIrror Temple, its all gold. Lena Raine really hit it out of the park here, and the guest artists that take over during the game’s bonus levels are no slouch either. A lot of them make up for the lack of faster paced, energetic tracks that you’d normally hear in a platformer, but some dig even deeper into atmosphere like in love with a ghost’s amazing take on Golden Ridge.
One more thing I want to touch on is Assist Mode, which is there for players who see appeal in Celeste’s story and aesthetic but don’t want to deal with the higher execution barrier required to see it through. Its ultimately just another option, so I don’t really mind it being there but I think Celeste works best as a full package with the difficulty being a part of the experience. It’s message and emotional beats came off a lot stronger to me with the struggle I had to deal with to get to them. If you play the game this way,I really do recommend going back and giving it a spin with the harder difficulty when you’re ready.
Matt Makes Games managed to create one of the most satisfying platformers I’ve played in years. Celeste is rock solid, ever earnest and absolutely worth your time. It’s sometimes crushingly difficult, but don’t be intimidated. Just take a deep breath an execute. You’ll get there, and every second you spent struggling will have been worth it.
This is a game that is constantly pushing you to look around and rewarding you for it. A game that’s seamlessly offering you platforming challenge after platforming challenge without succumbing to the “gamey” trappings of linear progression or the woes of clunky, sluggish, open world travel that could have easily brought it down. It constantly introduces new mechanic after new mechanic without slowing down for a breath, throwing the last one away as soon as you might be getting weary.
The game starts with the deceptively simple premise of another Peach kidnapping, but the game fully embraces that as an excuse plot and even gives it some added flair by Bowser planning an arranged marriage on the moon and literally broadcasting it all over the world in a way that plays into the character’s natural, cocky flair. It also doesn’t really decide to waste much time on this before throwing the player the controls, with us only the tail end of Mario and Bowser’s newest battle where he throws his hat at Mario to defeat He’s racing around the world stealing treasured artifacts from different cultures, each tying into the ceremony he has planned for the end of the game. The player is hot on his heels with a weaponized hat of their own. The setup is a far cry from the grandiose, ambivalent Galaxy intro that captured so many hearts, but it’s not even trying to compare itself to that. Instead it wants the player to get moving and for the game to speak for itself, and I respect it, because the game is a joy to control from step 1.
You realize Mario’s new and improved moveset is the heart of Mario Odyssey immediately as soon as you start running around Bonneton. The fan favorite 64 moveset is back in full glory after the past few games stripped it in an attempt to simplify the gameplay for novices. It felt like Nintendo wasn’t afraid to give it’s older players something more to chew on inbetween this and the shockingly nuanced Breath of the Wild.
There are a few new additions, such as a roll that allows you to gain speed down hills easily at the cost of far less precise controls. The biggest deal is the cap mentioned above. What was interesting to me from when was first revealed was how he wasn’t a tool built to make traversal in a 3D space easier unlike the FLUDD or the Luma that gave you the star spin. He makes attacking enemies a bit easier, but there’s not much he can do to save you from a poorly planned jump. The cap throw animation gives mario a little more airtime but not nearly as lenient as the star spin and it doesn’t give you the wide hitbox that easily protected you in previous games. It’s more of a tool than a solution to any problems. Nintendo has enough confidence in their own controls and the player’s own skill to let you take the fall for a bad jump.
This doesn’t mean that Cappy doesn’t help movement at all. One of the big new abilities in this game is Cappy’s ability to be used as a platform. Hold the button down and Cappy will stay in place, giving Mario enough time to hop onto him and springboard off. It’s a fun and useful maneuver that’s surprisingly tricky to pull off and is rarely asked for by the game itself. It can be combined with other Mario moves to increase his movement potential for the more advanced players, letting them skip entire sections of level if they know what they’re doing. It’s not really something that helps you if you miss a jump, and if you screw it up, you’re likely to get punished for it. The reward for mastering it is great though as you can make far more dangerous jumps and travel through kingdoms quickly and with ease.
The biggest deal with Cappy is that Mario can throw him onto enemies or objects to “capture” them. This kind of twists the idea of Powerups on it’s head as now anything that Mario can throw his hat onto becomes a powerup, from long time mario enemies to static objects like manholes. The enemy abilities are used to solve puzzles or progress forward through sections Mario can’t make it through on his own. Taking control of so many characters could have easily been a mess of a game, but Mario Odyssey always keeps it simple, quick, and polished. Across the game’s 50+ captures, none of them stick out as particularly poor and a lot of them are for obstacles you can bypass with Mario’s standard moveset if you really want. The game is all about not just giving you the standard Mario challenges, but giving you many different ways to explore and conquer them. It’s also just fun to be given the opportunity to play as enemies that have been causing you grief for so long.
The biggest change to Odyssey is the level design and structure of the game, and that’s probably my favorite thing about it. The game returns to the sandbox style from the now 2 decades old 64 and expands on it. The worlds are big, seamless, stuffed with content, and rarely broken up by a loading screen. Challenges are in every direction, with the simple tweak of them being laid out non-linearly and up to the player’s discretion. Villages housing NPCs blend into levels which blend into boss battles instead of it all being broken up.
There are a few story based missions you have to complete which involve chasing Bowser’s minions out of the various kingdoms and fixing things up, but there’s always more to see and the player is rewarded for spending more time in these places with two things: Power Moons, and Coins. Power moons unlock new kingdoms and coins unlock new outfits for Mario to wear. The simplification of the collectables may sound bothersome for some, but it means that everything you get is rewarding. Lives or bonus collectables from previous games are replaced purely with things you actually, consistently see use from. The game’s power moons, which are the key to progression as they power Mario’s flying ship, are hidden in every nook and cranny of these stages. The way forward can now come from anywhere, since the game rewards you in the same way from a variety of different styles of play.
These playgrounds all take on the world travel theme and house different types of villages and enemies. From levels themed after a small Mexican village in the middle of a desert housing ancient evils to a sprawling forest in a botanic dome being managed by robots, to a European flavored town of utensil themed chefs that lives in a literal melting pot. this is probably the most unique and fleshed out set of Mario levels ever. The fact that they’re largely populated with new sets of lovable characters with few returning faces at all hammers it home even harder that this is a game about the joys of travelling and seeing a different side of the world. The only major returning face aside from the big 3 is Pauline, and much use is made of the time gap. It feels more like a visit to a rapidly transformed hometown and seeing a person you’ve spent too long ignoring than a nostalgia trip.
This game is Mario’s everything. It’s the scale and ambition of galaxy without the floaty physics or slow pacing. The grounded locales and personality of Sunshine without any of the lows that defined that game’s second half.. The nuanced movement and near pitch perfect controls that defined 64 without any of the clunk that unfortunately comes with age and retrospect.The understanding of what makes a great pure platforming challenge with a variety of new mechanics like 3D World. This is why I’m more than comfortable to say it’s the best game in the series.
It’s not without it’s flaws: the amount of Moons can sometimes feel like getting some is shallow and tedious if there’s not much difficulty to the challenge or the task at hand is more of a drag than it is fun. I’m guessing this, combined with the low moon count required to finish the campaign, makes sure that everyone who picks up Super Mario Odyssey makes it to the game’s amazing conclusion. The game’s story isn’t really treated very seriously and Peach’s role in it all evolved in a way I really liked, but I would still rather a new premise for the next Mario game.
This might sound like a cop out, but I don’t think you’re supposed to get all of the moons You unlock the traditional Mario final level that’s locked behind 100% when you have a little over half the moons. I recommend approaching this game without a completion mindset. Treat it like a vacation. Take in all the things you want, but don’t force yourself to do things that aren’t fun to you. No matter what you do, there will be a green star around the corner whether you want to challenge every tall structure, make the riskiest jumps, or just help the poor Toastarenan find the sheep that are, like, ten feet away from him.
But, yeah. Nintendo really hit it out of the park with this one. I’m unbelievably excited for their next projects in between this and Breath of the Wild. Lots of great strides made with lots of room for improvement.
Breath of the Wild has been out for a little over two months now, and I still occasionally pop the game in for hour or two of trekking across Hyrule to find shrines, enemies, gear and NPCs. The game is certainly an immersive and satisfying experience, which means it’s more than accomplished it’s goal and deserving of praise, but I think it’s important to be critical of the game’s features. It won’t be long before the next Zelda game is out, and it’s already basically been confirmed it’s going to be similar to this one. I don’t want Nintendo to grow complacent due to glowing reviews again like they do on many of their franchises, so I think it’s important to be firm and hold them to an even higher standard next time.
Today, I want to talk about combat, and how it..kind of doesn’t work?
Okay, “doesn’t work” is a bit of an exaggeration. By all definitions it more than “works” and is pretty satisfying, especially in the beginning hours of the game. The game’s combat is focused on the dynamic ways Link can interact with his foes, and this shines the best in the game’s early stages where you’re constantly running short on gear and have to improvise. The game’s equipment system is good in that in the beginning stages it constantly puts you on your toes and forces you to consider a variety of much less traditional options that the game has built in.
One of the moments that stuck out to me the most on my first play-through was when I was surrounded by a mix of wolves and Bokoblins with low health. I quickly switched to my fire sword and swung at the first wolf that came at me, riding the resulting updraft fire from the corpse created up above the enemies and onto a nearby cliff-side. This was exhilarating and satisfying in so many ways. In a completely dynamic series of events, I was presented with a problem and solved it in true Zelda fashion.
You can use Link’s runes to pick up objects and swing them around like an impromptu sword, stop enemies in place giving you time to position yourself or grab some nearby gear, create ice blocks out of water to put yourself on some cover. You can start a fire and burn the battlefield to bits while you use the updraft to escape. You can run away and hide until the enemies forget you were there, scurrying off into the dark thinking only of revenge.
I think the problems with the system become clear when the “revenge” comes though. Because of the way Breath of the Wild is structured, you can beef your Link up at an alarmingly fast rate. Better weapons, shrines that contain spirit orbs, and gear are EVERYWHERE in this game, with weapons being the only thing that have some kind of finite use. I was about halfway through the main quest and had barely scratched the surface of the side content before my Link was beefed up in such a way that the only thing that combat became a bit of a non issue. I could tank hits from a lot of weaker enemies thanks to a combination of good armor and the magic spells the game gives you for completing the four main dungeons being pretty much geared toward making the game EASIER instead of more versatile. Mipha’s Grace and Daruk’s protection are both pretty much passives dedicated to making getting hit matter less and covering my mistakes in a game where enemies telegraphed their attacks far too obviously and struck too slowly for it to be necessary. I realized I didn’t particularly enjoy this once I had them on for a while.
Thankfully, the game gives you the option to disable these abilities but I didn’t realize this until I was a good ways into the game, but it doesn’t mitigate all of the issues. Ultimately, the game kind of tilts from one extreme to the other regarding how much of an upper hand Link has over his foes. It’s just that the lower end of the extreme is that much more engage than the higher end. Scrapping to use whatever you can find and gain whatever advantages you can to help you survive fits the game’s systems more than letting the player run amuck and mash buttons. The game tries to mitigate this a bit with a scaling system where some types of enemies get stronger as Link does, but this doesn’t really change their behaviors and the damage soaking abilities just turns these tougher variants into bigger damage sponges. It ultimately feels good to have this sort of progression in the game, but I wish it was harder to become as strong as I did.
If I were to change this, I’d just slow down the game’s rate of handing the player weapons a fair bit and make them last a bit longer to compensate. This would also go for gear. I’d also remove the game’s spells entirely and try to replace them with more runes for the player to mess around with. Instead of giving players more ways to mash buttons, give them more ways to approach combat and let them find the solutions to troubling situations with their tools.
The second thing I want to talk about is the actual, direct sword combat you partake in in the game. There are a lot of improvements here that I’ve talked about before: Link can’t instantly finish foes he’s downed anymore, only really being able to get some extra damage in. Enemies attack you all at once instead of relenting and taking turns, making each situation much more dangerous and require more thought before you engage. There are more weapons than ever before with 3 “classes” that have their own simple movesets with variants in each instead of the superfluous directional strikes and sword arts from previous games. The parry from Skyward Sword was kept with the timing tightened a bit to make it riskier to use. These are all excellent changes that I want to see become the standard for Zelda combat in the future.
There’s a few things that hold it back a bit though. Only one type of weapon out of the three lets you use Shields and in a game where you largely don’t have a choice of what weapons you can use this proves a bit annoying. The shields feel like a bit of a waste and I would be holding onto some for a dozen hours at a time in contrast to the weapons which I would burn through very easily. No shields meant I didn’t have access to parries though which is a major offensive mechanic in the game. This critique wouldn’t be THAT big of a deal on it’s own considering each weapon types have advantages and drawbacks so it’s only natural that they make balance changes like this, but it goes hand in hand with the game’s other big offensive mechanic being a bit of a problem.
Basically, I think Flurry rush is a bad mechanic. Probably the only outright bad mechanic in the combat in it’s entirety, but it sticks out a ton to me due to this. Link has no invincibility frames on any of his dodges, so he has to either clear the way entirely of an enemy’s massive swings or parry the blow to get inside and do some damage. Because of the above problem with shields and Link’s generally slow movement though getting “in” and “out” feels a bit clunky. It seriously feels like the roll from previous games of it’s type is missing here. Nintendo seems to have come up with the flurry rush to mitigate this a bit: Link dodges an attack “at the last moment” as the game says to enter a slow motion sequence where the player mashes the attack button to Link lets loose a series of rapid blows on his foe. Outside of the button mashing this sequence is pretty much scripted and lets Link gain a bunch of damage for free. The problem here is that it’s incredibly scripted and boring next to most of the combat. It doesn’t help that the timing is hilariously lenient to the point where you will trigger it all the time while trying to execute a simple dodge. This leads to an offensive mechanic that’s a bit boring and unsatisfying to use. The simple thing that they can and probably will do is fix the timings so it will feel more rewarding to execute, and there’s nothing wrong with that approach.
If I wanted to add a bit more depth to the combat however I’d just give Link a dodge roll with some invincibility frames that you see in other action games. You can now “stay in” with a one handed weapon by timing your dodges, but it would be more difficult than a shield. It also requires a much more active player to know when to attack and when to roll compared to how easy the flurry rush is. A more careful player can stick to a more reserved play style, and aggressive players now have a difficult but satisfying way to express themselves no matter what weapon type they’re using.
The last thing I want to address is the seeming focus on quality over quantity when it comes to the enemies.
Breath of the Wild’s Bokoblin enemies are shown to be very fleshed out. You fight them, trick them, scare them, set them on fire, freeze them, throw them off cliffs, or do any kind of thing to them and they’ll respond like creatures with a survival instinct a lot of the time. The other enemies show a similar level of work put into how they’ll respond to Link’s actions, making each encounter varied.
This approach has a pretty big drawback when it comes to just how much variety there is in what you’re fighting. I’m almost 100% certain the FIRST thing you got tired of in Breath of the Wild aside from fiddling with equipment screens was seeing a bokoblin camp. The game hides it’s lack of enemy variety well enough that I think you’d go a while before you notice it, but it’s definitely a thing that wears down a game focused on exploring new horizons. Fighting the same enemies with the same movesets is bound to get old and might cause one to avoid combat altogether.
Thankfully this is the easiest fix of the bunch. Build on what you have next game. Bring back classic enemies like Darknuts and Like Likes(A Zelda game based on finite equipment doesn’t have Like Likes, guys.) and bring plenty of new ones to add to the set.
Overall though, the combat is the most solid it’s been in some time and has a lot of room to go up. The next Zelda game should have great combat if they focus on fine tuning this.
A silent young child sets out on a journey for the first time into the unknown wilds. There are various fascinating and dangerous creatures awaiting him. He must visit various elemental themed challenges and conqure them before he can face his ultimate goal.
Am I talking about Pokemon or The Legend of Zelda?
Breath of the Wild has set the world on fire due to it’s freeform nature and player agency. Many have tried to draw comparisons to other series in the open world genre or other games in Nintendo’s lineup but it’s clear to me which series I want to look the closest at this game: Pokemon. Another series that was near and dear to my heart at one point but fell off due to similar reasons that Zelda fell off for many. Too easy, too linear and overall not having enough surprises.
I still have a fondness for the concept behind Pokemon and many of it’s creatures and characters, but both the games and the anime stopped grabbing me a while ago. Thankfully, both of these things are shaking off a lot of stagnation with the recent entries, but I think they could go further. I think it’s time to consider a big budget console Pokemon game for the masses that tries to match your imagination playing the games and watching the anime for the first time.
I point to Breath of the Wild for this not because I want Pokemon to pick up things like weapon durability and Witch Time, but because I think the general game feel and struture would suit the game a lot and shake a lot of things up. Let the player take off in any direction from the start and see the world how they wish. Let them clear gyms and objectives out of order. Let them come across plenty of side objectives that are akin to the more improvisional episodes of the anime, where Ash would be helping someone out in a unique situation. You can make a pretty clear recommended throughline through the game by letting the player take advice from towns and NPCs on where to go next.
This, along with a fresh new region to explore, would bring back a lot of the “wonder” of pokemon to me. Players could find the fastroute through the game on, explore at their own pace and do side missions, taking in the stories of various characters in the world as they flesh out their Pokemon army to take on the bigger late game threats, and find places where rare pokemon or even legendaries appear without being railroaded into it. You could even have a multiplayer aspect and have some players travel segments of the game together with their friends.
Of course, I wouldn’t take everything from Breath of the Wild. Just the game’s structure and tendency to surprise the player and reward their creativity. There’s no real reason to change out the turn based battle system, for instance. There’s no feasible way to build an action game and keep the variety that makes pokemon famous.
But Breath of the Wild’s insane emphasis on player agency and discovery? The sense of wonder and danger that defined Pokemon for me as a child? I’d desperately want a game like that.
As of this writing, I’ve had the game for over a week and have explored under half of the game’s shrines and sidequests. I feel like I shouldn’t take this on until I get a proper view of the whole thing, and thus, the review isn’t coming out as early as I would like. If it wasn’t obvious by now though, it lives up to the hype.
I CAN talk about the story though, so expect that in a couple of days.
In the lead up to Breath of the Wild, I booted up Twilight Princess HD again and decided to play through it. Twilight Princess is probably the most popular Zelda title of them all, and it’s not hard to see just...why that is, right? It was released at the launch of Nintendo’s most popular console, boasted a darker, edgier angle the fanbase had been craving, and had the grand goal of surpassing Ocarina of of Time. How? By doing what it did, but bigger and better.
For me, that’s not the key to passing Ocarina of Time, but let’s be honest. If you like Ocarina of Time, you’ll probably like this game, and if you don’t, you might like this one instead.None of the jank that keeps Ocarina from being enjoyed by newer fans is here. The game’s tropes and structure stray pretty close to that title, but it’s constantly offering new takes at every turn. Eventually it breaks off and starts throwing whole new ideas at you...eventually. THe story, like Ocarina...also isn’t much to write home about, but hey, every Zelda has some subplots and characters that stick with you. Link turns into a wolf, and that’s cool. I’ve seen people go for this game first and have no desire to play Ocarina of Time afterward, and that makes sense.
Unfortunately, though, Twilight Princess kind of falls apart for me in some ways on repeat playthroughs. To start, closely emulating one of the most popular games of the past 30 years means you..kind of know what to expect going into it. This is more of a superficial thing, but there’s less surprises than Majora’s Mask and Wind Waker right off the bat. Being a close follower also means some of the flaws of the structure are going to carry over. TP’s intro is somehow more than 3 times as long as OOT’s while establishing about half as much about the world and characters. The down time between dungeons is drawn out longer than before, mostly to the game’s detriment. The world is bigger in terms of sheer size but they didn’t take the opportunity to fill all that empty space everyone hated with anything substantial. It’s basically there to try and achieve a sense of scope, like the original, and it honestly feels good to ride across the first few times. Expect to break down and start warping from place to place in due time, though. Then it becomes meaningless, just like that. But it feels great, right?
Speaking of what feels great, let’s talk specifically about the combat for a second. It feels great, on a surface level. Link is pretty responsive and has an arsenal of flashy moves you can use to take out enemies. The sounds are satisfying and Link can finish grounded opponents quickly instead of waiting for them to get back up. The swordplay is pretty satisfying..on a surface level. It quickly unravels though when mashing never really stops working. Using your arsenal during combat never really makes sense when most of it pretty much doesn’t work on a lot of enemies. You know what does work all the time though? Pressing the B button a bunch, and then hitting that finisher button while they’re down. Even those flashy combat moves you can get? A lot of them are situational and require you to go out of your way to get them. They look cool, but are about as efficient as getting the first two or so and spamming those throughout the entire game. The above mentioned finishing move is satisfying, but it’s completely invincible so you can throw it out even when surrounded. It’s also so effective at quickly silencing enemies that it shifts combat momentum REALLY far into Link’s favor really quickly. I almost prefer the games that didn’t have it, but like I said, it feels pretty good to use. The combat feels good, but once you see through it’s flash it’s kind of shallow. Like, even more shallow than other games in the series and that says a ton. At least Wind Waker let me take people’s necklasses.
That slight I have toward the combat really applies to the entire game. The game is advertised and carries itself as a darker, more serious adventure than the other games, and yet I can’t think of many events during this game that wouldn’t have worked fine with Wind Waker’s artstyle. Hell, maybe it would have improved some things. The comical or more whimsical moments in this game(and there are way more than you’d expect) probably would have worked better if the characters and creatures were more immediately endearing and expressive and weren’t all trying to look creepy. Maybe the clashing of Light and Dark that the game expresses repeatedly as something that’s terrible and should be avoided would hit harder if the game was that much more colorful and alive during the light sections to contrast the dark ones, instead of it feeling like you didn’t change much when you purge darkness from the provinces. Maybe I’d feel more for characters besides Midna if they were all as expressive as her. The game ultimately looks like this because people wanted it to. There’s not a sense of the art style serving the story they’re trying to tell or the type of game they’re making like Wind Waker. It’s there because people would find it appealing on a superficial level. That’s not to say the game doesn’t look nice. The HD touch up in particular works wonders sometimes, but it feels like a big step down from Wind Waker in this department specifically
I don’t want to give the impression that this game is all bad. Like I said, it takes a lot from Ocarina, which works. It presents plenty of new gameplay and puzzle ideas to be worth a playthrough even if you did enjoy that game. There’s a meatier main quest than most Zeldas. The dungeons are generally well designed and fun to traverse with a few exceptions It feels good to play, generally. It’s absolutely worth a playthrough and worth a lot of the praise it gets. It did an important job of getting a lot of people intrigued in the franchise at a time when it was considered to be slumping a bit, and that’s a pretty big deal. Hell, if I had to recommend a first Zelda game to someone, it would probably be this one. It does a lot of the fundamentals of Zelda well even with the issues, and it will make you want more.
Just...don’t look at it too closely. Seriously. Don’t be like me. Enjoy the ride.
