#mingu plays

[mingu-baristagamer]

3AM Dead Time Let’s Play

[mingu-baristagamer]

GAME DEV TYCOON - VIDEO

[mingu-baristagamer]

BulletStorm review

Well, I’ve been raving about a lot of games, as well as pushing a few to the side, but I think I should come to this game because it is one of the more frustrating experiences I have had playing a video game. Not because it’s hard, but because technical issues have literally marooned the game for me.

To start off, Bulletstorm is this incredibly fun take on the first person shooter with an emphasis on finding as many ways to kill your enemies as possible. You can slide, jump, kick,punch, lasso and freeze your enemies any way you want, and the way this works is you are tiered as many points as possible to build them up, and purchase upgrades with said points.

This is a truly fun mechanic to play around with, and it makes what would have been an otherwise boring short FPS game some longevity. And apparently there’s multiplayer too? I admittedly never got into this because I didn’t have a code, but yeah. The story is fun and hilarious to make your way through, but at the same time, you can actually feel for the characters and connect with them.

Now, I’m basing what I say on a shitty two dollar copy I got from Portugal, but partways into the game, and I imagine right before the ending, the game I had literally bugged out and the frames per second dropped dramatically. This was also during a large fight in a confined area with multiple enemies, so I can imagine the stress here, but this section was so slow and unplayable that I had decided that I could not proceed any further.

I know it’s almost a bad move to end a review on such a our note, but as it stands, I cannot say much more about Bulletstorm. The story was fun up to that point, and the gameplay was as well, but once I hit that wall of framerate plunges and overwhelmingly large amounts of enemies, the game became more of a chore to play through.

[mingu-baristagamer]

EarthBound Review

The last review I did was on UNdertale and there I made sure to compare that game to one of my favourite RPGs of all time, which was Eartbound, and that was released in 1005 for the SNES. Even though I only got to play it recently on the Wii U VC, it has quickly become my favourite. And I think it is fitting that I review Earthbound now.

Let’s start off with the story which is a honestly really whimsical one where the hero sets off on a journey to save the world. Baseball lover Ness wakes up one night to find an alien has crash landed on his planet, and warns him of impending doom bought on by the otherworldly being Giygas, so he sets out to explore the land and find the sanctuaries to learn melodies, so he can become stronger. Along the way, he meets friends like Jeff, Paula and Poo (who I aptly renamed Shit, hehe). Each character is so interesting and varied to play with - Ness has all his powers dripfed to him over time, Paula has her unique Pray ability that helps out in a big way, Jeff has no powers, but he relies on science. And Poo... well, he’s already quite strong.

The overworld doesn’t exist, it’s all pretty seamless and explorable on an isometric 2.5D view, which was huge for the time that Earthbound was released, and even here the uniqueness was not lost. The music is quite amazing with distinctive tunes, and I found myself staying in one location to finish the track even despite my deafness. But a big part of this game’s charm is how funny it is, and how it appears to parody the RPG genre as well as create hilarious situations like helping a band out of debt, and using an eraser to inexplicably delete an obstacle. The humour and parody is something that Earthbound did better than Undertale did, in my opinion.

Now we move on to the combat, which in itself was pretty unique and interesting, even from the moment you see the enemies walking around. Time the encounter just right, and you could get an extra hit in, Time it wrong, and the enemy got the first hit. Which is already rather interesting in its own right, but wit until we go into the actual encounter. Instead of having each hit and loss of HP be finite, the game uses a odometer HP mechanic which ticks their HP down as the battle rages on, giving players a chance to heal them before they are knocked unconscious. This was a fun mechanic to play with, and certainly one of the strongest reasons Earthbound was so revolutionary, along with the tactical advantage of getting the first strike. In an useful design decision, when the player is strong enough, battles against weak enemies are won immediately.

Another intriguing fact about this game is how big a part emotions play in the game. I’ll get to the biggest part in a bit, but I want to quickly mention that if Ness is missing his home too much, this will affect his motivation to battle. Not only will he fight with a lacklustre attitude (his damages will do the same regardless) but he will stop and think about home, missing his mom, or thinking about pasta. This could be alleviated by calling home, which I think is a clever way to sneakily introduce a mechanic while making the phone cal useful - even if it already acts as a way to call his father and keep track of his finances.

Finally we come to the best moment, and arguably the most cathartic as well - the final battle against Giygas. By then, Ness will have undergone trials and tribulations and gotten stronger and ready to face the destroyer. The fight against Giygas is iconic for the reason that it is a cathartic mess, and ultimately disturbing if you can remember the backstory, about the developer being traumatized by a rape scene from a young age. The entire time the battle was just really unsettling and you get the sense of dread that you cannot win. This also brings about one of the most unique ways I’ve ever defeated a boss - through praying and exposing him to emotions. From there, the fight just gets more distorted and disturbing, until finally it is won. This fight... honestly, it stands as one of the most disturbing experiences in video games for me, but it’s also one of the best boss battles.

So there you go, a short review on Earthbound. Why does this game stand as one of the best RPGs for me? Honestly, it’s mainly because this game was so unique and revolutionary for its time. The characters were interesting and likeable - Ness had tons of personality despite being mute, and the humour and parody of the genre was so spot on, I found myself laughing a lot. Really, if you’re looking for one of the most unique RPGs to play, it might be worth finding this on the eShop or Virtual Console.

[mingu-baristagamer]

Undertale review

Earlier this year, I had planned on a Let’s Play series centred around Undertale, and I would record myself as I was playing through one of the most critically acclaimed games I had seen, not just from critics but also from fans around the world. Going into this, I though since Earthbound was also one of my all time favourite games, I would try Undertale since some similarities were made. And really, Undertale should have been something I would love.

And I was wrong. At first, I thought I was wrong, because I had severely disliked the opening part of Undertale.

If you watched the video playthrough I made, I was trying desperately to like the game, even finding the initial battle interesting since the opponent had been very hesitant in battling the main character. However, the sense of disappointment became so overwhelming that I just ended up cancelling the Let’s Play series and finishing on my own. Now, before I discuss why I am so disappointed, let’s take a look at why I ended up liking the game in the end.

Plain and simple, the biggest reason this game gets a pass from me is the characters. Each character is so varied and interesting that I found myself enjoying each interaction, and the boss battles between each character was wildly fun and interesting in their own way.

I also enjoyed how seemingly often the game seemed to change genres, from a quiz show to a dating sim, and then back. Special mention goes to how the game turns around and takes your option to show mercy in the fight against Asgore so you have no choice but to fight the character, only for him to be murdered as you show him mercy.

There are many little moments that makes up for how disappointing I found the game initially, and I have to say I liked it. But, as much as I enjoyed it, Undertale just never seemed to hit the heights that many had clamoured that it soared past. All these 10/10 Masterpiece reviews from credible sites. All these fans saying it was the best game ever made. Hell, it was even ranked above Ocarina of Time to be the best game ever.

Frankly, I think this is a load of bullshit.

As much as Undertale was a good game, I just found that while it challenged the notions of each gaming trope and parodied many genres, it just never did anything that was overly interesting or made me go wow. I was waiting for that moment, and it never came. Even the final final fight against Flowey was lacking something, as psychedelic as it was. I mentioned that Earthbound was my favourite game ever, and a large reason is the final boss. It was so cathartic and disturbing, and really what was so interesting about that fight was that you couldn’t fight back, all you could do was pray. For me, Undertale lacked that one special thing that made you go WOW.

All in all, amazing characters could not make up for how lacking the game felt, and generally how overrated Undertale truly is, when you compare it to a game like Earthbound, which is where I drew my similarities from, and that was a 20 odd year old game! Undertale is just grossly overrated for what it was meant to be.

Hmm...

I feel like this review and opinion is going to net me some haters.

Let’s Play: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5r1XqAbDO9pmrcZRdYYkEw9iRNBKGVLM

[mingu-baristagamer]

Reviewing/ranking the Uncharted games

My post about the Metroid Prime 4 reveal announcement will come as soon as it is ready, plus I am planning on a video accompaniment so that’s that. I kind of wanted to reach a wider audience so let’s go. In the meantime, have my ranking of the Uncharted games. Keep in mind I have not played Golden Abyss so it won’t be included.

Let’s start off with a overall review of the franchise, its controls and the characters. Uncharted is touted as a third person shooter slash action adventure, and the action feels slick, as well as the setting. It might be the standard fare platforming and climbing, but it is done in a way that makes the games feel exhilarating, even when you know a lot of it is scripted. From the very first game, the transitions from cutscene to gameplay has been smooth, thanks to the expert programming of the folks at Naughty Dog. The characters are also incredible and believable, even if they are a bit one note in the original.

The Uncharted series is touted as one of Sony’s best on Playstation, so let’s go through the game ranking, see which one truly comes out on top. Keep in mind, this is only my personal opinion, but I would like to hear yours as well.

First off, I might just start with the obvious and say the original Uncharted Drake’s Fortune, the game that kicked off the juggernaut series. Sure, it is the one game that introduced everyone to a lovable set of characters, as well as the kind of action the series would provide. The first game is, however, on the bottom for a simple reason - it is very dated compared to the other games. The gunplay is hard to come back to especially after the spectacular follow up perfected it. And even as the animation and visuals were pretty good, they also feel dated. Still, the first Uncharted was already a great game, so the complaints were rather minor.

In third place comes the universally praised Drake’s Deception, the third game in the lineup, and it was actually supposed to close out the trilogy, but it didn’t feel like the perfect ending to the trilogy. Even as this game is the best looking out of the original PS3 trilogy, and the set pieces are absolutely amazing (that plane sequence and the subsequent desert roam was beautiful), and the relationship between Sully and Nate was explored - something I loved about the game, there was something missing. The problem was that this game merely took what it used in the second game, but did not improve on it. While it still is incredible, it also feels uninspired compared to the second game.

First place is actually a tie, to be rather honest, because it was hard to make the decision between Among Thieves and a Thief’s End. but I would place the second game on top merely for being an improvement on the first game in almost every way. The gunplay was sublime, the visuals and animations increased gave a new sense of immersion. And that train sequence stands as one of the best in the series, perhaps the best ever. However, the fourth game brings about some of the best and most emotional characterisation and story, as it dealt with Nathan struggling with his addiction to adventure, as well as finding out about his brother. The past games just painted him as this brash action hero, but the attic sequence brings about Nate’s most human moments in the series. And not just that, but the play area is so open ended and grants more exploration, making the game bigger than before. In many ways, Uncharted 4 was the perfect end to Drake’s story.

There’s my ranking. Now, I hope you enjoyed this read, and agreed with me. I’ll be looking forward to The Lost Legacy once it drops, playing as Chloe alongside Nadine should make for an ineresting dynamic, and a fun game.