Review The Last Game You Beat

[FlagshipFighter]

Finished the plat for Saturday Morning RPG yesterday. Its a pretty good game, just really short (and simple). The entire this is one big love letter to 80's/90's cartoons and movies. Its set up like a season of a TV show with 5 episodes. You play as a kid named Marty, who has a dream about the girl he likes being kidnapped by Commander Hood who then takes over the town. The game is a very simple RPG, but introduces some unique elements. In his dream Marty meets a kid named the Wizard who gives him a trapper keeper lol. There are scratch n sniff stickers you can find in the game (128 in total) that gives you different bonuses in battle. Some buff your strength or health while others provides debuffs against your enemies. At anytime you can place 5 of these stickers on the front of your trapper keeper. Before each battle you have to scratch them to activate. Some take longer than others so you can to pick and choose. Your "magic" in the game is different item you can find. Like game carts, baseball cards, laser discs, stuff like that. I played it on the vita, but its cross buy I think and only $10. Music is done by Vince DiCola and Kenny Meriedeth.

[Axm]

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess 96/100

The best game in the series and my favorite game right after Shenmue I and II!
I did a video review for it here:

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[shredingskin]

Shardlight

I found it to be one of the less robust games from wadget eye games.
The art style is pretty good, the story starts pretty interesting, but keeps getting flattened.
Very little puzzles, and not really interesting.
It's not that bad, but the story just starts to flatten middle game, and with little puzzles there's not much to do.

The world is pretty interesting though, but I expected a little more from this game.

[Eisuke7]

Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch.
One of the best JRPGs in years and it comes with some of the PS3's most amazing graphics,...but it does have its flaws.
85/100

See my detailed video review if you're interested, thanks!

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[redline]

far cry primal on ps4.

8/10

over all its a good game, some of the missions and main stories lines are good but the ending is quite flat. unlike far-cry3 you don't feel attachment to any of the characters. they could of simply added a family ("wife" and child) to make it more of an interesting game (you would have at least felt more protective over your tribe).. also the prehistoric language was probably a good concept on paper but for me, i would of enjoyed it a bit more if they were speaking english.

[Monkei]

LittleBigPlanet 3

Beautiful art, but other than that tedious. Lame. Weak as hell. Had to force myself through it. Can't recommend.

[AnimeGamer183]

Gravity Rush Remastered

Gravity Rush has been an absolute masterpiece in my book from start to finish. It brings its own flavor and design to the open world/city style of game play and the gravity mechanics and flying ability make this game feel like something you have never experienced before. Lets face it, Kat is basically a super hero with super powers and none like we have ever seen before in a game comic or other wise. Kat is a very original hero at that, and I just adore her innocent character and shes not over developed or falls into the usual hero tropes you always see in comics, she just has the powers and the game sports some fun, addictive game play with lots of freedom and many ways to explore, it was always fun just running around up side down looking for gems under the city for example.

When I pick up this game I feel like I have been thrown into a highly developed anime world that you would see from the likes of Ghibli Studios Production IG or Studio Bones, the character designs are great and this game just captures something and gives you freedom to explore in a way that I have not experienced in a game. I love the combat and the way you destroy the orbs on the enemies and with all the high flying gravity/mid air combat it truly does give you a rush, dont be surprised if you find yourself tilting your head to the side trying to keep up with all the angles and madness going on on the screen while you are zipping around the skies. This game is one of the most unique I have played in quite some time and its aesthetics and world and game play are just a beautiful mix that creates a great experience for the player. I highly highly recommend this game for the anime fan, super hero fan, open world fan, or anyone that wants to see a nice little story along the way, this game delivers it all and has gained a special place in my favorite games of all time, go play it.

[Henry Spencer]

^Gravity Rush is indeed a masterpiece.

Dark Souls 3

I think this was a great last hurrah for the series before From move on to other things. This game contained references and homages to the previous works (Demon's Souls and Dark Souls 1 especially) but felt like a "conclusion" in reality rather than just a retread. Since you're basically visiting transformed/devolved versions of previous locations in Dark Souls 1 it's essentially the real sequel that Dark Souls 2 wasn't (no offence to that game, it's highly underrated and really good in its own right). Loved the last couple of bosses, think they're the best last stretch of the (the last six bosses I mean, roughly) bosses in the series (Nameless King and the final boss were both especially great and tragic). The music is the best in the series too, I think. The atmosphere was great too in most areas, I can see why people say some of the areas are "samey" but most of the areas were amazing, imo. Was really a magical moment when I reentered

Anor Londo and Ash Lake

again. Such a tinge of nostalgia that just won me over. i honestly felt like it's got the best NPCs in the series since Dark Souls 1 (maybe even Demon's Souls tier). The hub world was definitely the best since Demon's Souls.


Overall, I feel like it sits high up on the series ranking for the reasons I listed and certainly feels like it will be the last one for a long time now (at least from Miyazaki anyway). I do look forward to the DLC as well though.

The Walking Dead Season 2

Great game. It's not as good as Season 1 but still really good. The characters aren't as well developed but the scenarios they created are more tense and unpredictable than before. I really enjoyed it a lot, not much else to say.

[OL]

Uncharted 4.
More of the same, but with a different kind of emotional edge to it, since it's meant as the last in the series (or at the very least, the final game starring Nathan Drake). Truly an amazing piece of videogame storytelling. It isn't that the techniques have changed, or that it's necessarily innovative at all; it simply uses the tools that Naughty Dog have proven themselves so capable with over the years in such a way that it closes out the series in the most poignant way possible. The ending is, without exaggeration, among the most beautiful I've ever seen for an interactive piece of entertainment, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
That being said, I have to say this might be the least replay-worthy of any of the games in the series though. Sure, on the first way through, it's gripping and addictive like little else is. But I'm not sure that further replays will fare quite as well. It easily has the highest quantity of walking around, listening to conversations, and climbing in the entire series. There's more passivity in this one than usual. It does, obviously, have its fair share of amazing setpiece action scenes (the stuff that really made you want to tackle the earlier games over and over again), but it's a pretty small percentage of the overall package. Don't get me wrong, the game is still replayable (with a cast this likable and gameplay this smooth, that's a given). I'm just saying it isn't quite as much as in the rest of the series, where the action seemed a little more non-stop.
I also have to say that one slight deviation from the series' formula left me a little disappointed (and this spoiler is very non-specific, so it won't necessarily ruin anything in particular):

There's absolutely no "supernatural" element near the end.
U1 had the El Dorado "curse" (more like a virus) that turned people almost zombie-like, U2 had the denizens of Shambhala who had eaten tree sap from the Tree of Life and mutated from it, and U3 had the fire-head "demons" (which were actually hallucinations). I always quite liked that they delved into almost Indiana Jones-like elements like that, but always had a way of keeping them semi-grounded, so that they weren't the result of "magic" or anything like that; just ancient, forgotten secrets.
In Uncharted 4, there's nothing like that. The treasure and story that Nate is following for the entire game ends in a simple, realistic way, which just left me a little... confused. In the other games, those elements always served as a way of shaking up the gameplay, giving you new enemies to tackle after dealing with normal humans for the rest of the game. In this case, there's no shake-up at all. As a longtime Uncharted fan, it seemed like a given that something of this nature would happen, so when it didn't... it was a slight disappointment.

Nothing to ruin the game, of course, it's just something I think longtime fans might like to know before playing, just to keep expectations in check.
Regardless of anything, it's a phenomenally well-constructed game. And regardless of the replayability, I might have to go so far as to say it really is one of the most expertly-developed games ever made. Great care is take to ensure that, even in its slowest moments, the storytelling remains interactive. And that's one of the most important bullet points I could point out for anything like this.

[Henry Spencer]

Armored Core: for answer (PS3)

Beat this over the weekend. There's now like 3 different routes you can take, with each organisation. Which is really cool for replayability. Music was nice. Combat was fluid and fast (and crazy in the last boss). It stayed challenging throughout and felt like a good conclusion to the events in AC4. Even certain characters showing up again and the maps were varied and fun to blow up.

Basically, it's another great game from Hidetaka Miyazaki and From Software. Not much else to say really except that it's like Armored Core 4, but better and with more content.

Also played through my newly acquired SNK Arcade Collection for Wii - played Shock Troopers for the first time, which was one rad game. Not played a run 'n gun game for a long while so this was a really nice, fresh game to play. The bosses, graphics and level design were all great. Music was surprisingly great too. Definitely one of the best arcade games I've played in a long time. I'd generally recommend the SNK Arcade Collection in general, played a little bit of the original Sengoku and Rushing Beat as well, two solid side scrolling brawlers, plus it has the usual plethora of SNK classics like Metal Slug and King of Fighters in there too. Only cost a little over a tenner. Well worth it.

[Ash]

Hometown Story.

This is a Harvest Moon spin off by Natsume - rather than running a farm, you're running a shop instead.

One of the main draws of this game is that it's supposed to be "your story"; no two playthroughs will be exactly the same. Unfortunately, this mindset seems to have been taken a little too far; upon starting the game, you're told how to put out a shelf in the shop, and place an item up for sale, change the price of an item and that's about the complete tutorial in the game.

Aside from running the shop, you're also tasked with trying to complete a blue feather; while in the Harvest Moon games, the blue feather was used to propose, in this game, although the blue feather can be used to propose to one of the three bachelors/bachelorettes, it can also be used to grant a wish. You're not told how to earn additional fragments of the blue feather, and given that the whole reason you're in town is to run the shop, you could reasonably think that doing well in the shop will unlock more fragments, when in fact the feather fragments (at least for the first feather) are unlocked by seeing events.

You're given a limited amount of stock to sell at the start of the game - you can get more items to sell by gathering herbs and truffles, fishing (if you have an EU version of the game) buying from a store in the town, or from a merchant that comes to the shop every day at 2pm (whose inventory changes every day). The shop is open everyday, you can't leave your house without opening the shop, but you are able to leave the shop at any time - although you can't actually close the shop, if you do leave the shop for a noticeable period of time, any customers will simply leave the item they were trying to buy, and the item automatically goes back into your inventory.

Stores start out with quite a limited inventory, but if you sell them a tool they use in their store (for example, selling a frying pan to the restaurant), the store will upgrade it's inventory, and start selling more items. Yet again, though, this is not explained in-game, and in order to beat the game, you will need to upgrade the blacksmith store at least, as they are only way you can upgrade your own store. Somewhat bizarrely, the tool required to upgrade the blacksmith store is a hammer...which is sold by the blacksmith - unless you manage to get a hammer from the 2pm merchant, you literally have to buy a hammer from the blacksmith, and then sell it back to them if you want to upgrade your store. It can also be a bit of a pain waiting for a person from the store you want to upgrade to come into the shop; characters in this game do not seem to stick to a strict schedule, and if you put tools up for sale, they will generally quickly be bought by faceless NPC's.

Items that you sell are automatically priced at 10% more than the price you would pay for the item, this is definitely a benefit, as although you can change the cost of items, as your shop expands, it becomes more and more time-consuming and tedious to change the price of the items you have for sale.

As mentioned earlier, blue feather fragments are unlocked by seeing events, which are usually triggered by stocking an item previously requested by a character. These items are called "Key Items", which are generally bought from the 2pm merchant. Unfortunately, the merchants selection is randomised each day, and only a few Key Items seem to be gated; you can buy Key Items for events that will happen towards the end of the game early on, and it can take days to get a Key Item you'll need near the start of the game. There are also a couple of Key Items where you can buy more than you'll actually need - your inventory is unlimited in the amount of different items you can carry, but there is no storage, so you'll always see those extra items in your inventory when you're in the shop.

Once you do have a Key Item, it can sometimes be a little tricky to find out what you need to do with it (some Key Items trigger an event without being previously requested); sometimes as soon as you put a Key Item on a shelf in the shop, someone may come in and buy it, sometimes a character may buy the Key Item when they come into the shop as a normal customer, and sometimes you need to deliver the item to them - when this happens, you generally need to deliver the item to the character in a certain location, fortunately, there is a map that tells you where each character is. A lot of people that played Hometown Story ended up alternating between leaving their Key Items for sale in the shop, and picking them up, and running around town with them. This can be quite frustrating; a quest log really would have improved the game.

On the events; most of the characters have a story arc - some of these feel complete, some don't - there was one arc in particular that I was sure I hadn't seen all the events for, and kept trying to catch the person involved to try trigger more scenes, but it turned out that the arc was complete. The main downside of the events though, is that despite them being the key to completing the game; the characters don't act any differently outside of the event, repeating the same few phrases they do if you talk to them any other time. One example: at one point, there's an event chain which starts with an epidemic, you see most of the townspeople falling ill, but once the event is over, everyone is apparently fine again, until the next event in the chain when they're all ill again. This is jarring, and detracts from the gravity of some of the events in this game.

Harvest Moon games are generally quite lighthearted; Hometown Story, with the bright colours and generally cheerful music also gives that impression initially, but Hometown Story is somewhat darker than most Harvest Moon games. The first sign of this comes fairly early in the game

when you find out the reason one of the characters is in a wheelchair is because she was attacked by monsters after she went on an adventure after her boyfriend was late for a meeting.

This isn't a game you want to play when you're after a light, fluffy, happy game, especially when you're near the end.

If you can look past the flaws, you'll be looking at around 35-50 hours to complete the game.

[Henry Spencer]

From Software's Echo Night Beyond (PS2)



Finished this just now. Obtained all four endings as well (there's no NG+, it's pretty much a variety of choices at the end of the game, so it's not like you have to play through the whole thing again, thank god, since it's long for a survival horror game - length for me was like just over 10 hours). All 4 endings are really good but the "True Ending" which is the fourth one is really quite sad and well put together.

The game take space on the Moon in an abandoned (now desolate) Lunar site. Noticed how every Echo Night game you play as a guy called "Richard Osmond" which is strange since they are all separate with no story connections, it seems. This game was directed by Naotoshi Zin, creator of the King's Field and Shadow Tower series and the founder of From Software. Gameplay is your usual first person horror - hide and evade the enemies since ther eis no combat to speak of. In fact, this game is straight up adventure gaming. Pick up items, find items, use items on environments or ghosts to unlock the next area or scene. Found it pretty absorbing but you definitely have to be in the mood for a good horror adventure game (played it initially like a year ago but wasn't feeling it then since I was not in that mood which I was now). The sound design is fantastic, as per usual with a From game, as are the visuals. Was surised by how good the game looked on the PS2 quite honestly.

Every ghost is unique, much like the case with Fatal Frame, except here you cannot fight back, all you can do is clear the fog via ventilation systems to stop them attacking you and sometimes it is hard to find them scattered around long hallways whilst they are pursuing you, which makes for some tense situations. I wouldn't describe it as a "scary" horror game, rather, it is quite organic and melancholic in its style. Its tone throughout is pretty much one of being morose but being hopeful with its way it tells the stories of how each and every ghost (who all have their own names/backstories that you learn about along the way). Honestly felt quite sad in some circumstances with what happened to some of the ghosts and their stories like how one ghost just wanted to see his sick sister again back on Earth. Or the old lady being reuinted with her pet cat.

Images:

Ghost attacking you:

This guy is a prick (most consistent threat throughout the game):


Overall I'd say this was a very good game and really enjoyed my time with it. Highly recommended, one of those lost gems on the PS2 which there are so many of.

[OL]

Mirror's Edge Catalyst.
Ugh.
I'm... honestly, from the very bottom of my heart, I have to say I don't think I've ever in all my life been so deeply frustrated with a game. And it has nothing to do with the game's difficulty level.
It's simply that it should have been something amazing, something really, truly special... and it really, truly is not.
Whether you're a veteran of the original game from way back in 2008 (as I am) or if you're completely new to it all, it's just an incredibly weak little experience.
I'll try to mainly just bulletpoint everything.

-The freerunning is fine, but it feels weightless. It might be smoother than in the original, but, when running properly, it also lacks any semblance of impact, which keeps it from feeling satisfying.
It's also kind of stupid how pathetic Faith feels sometimes; I can't count the amount of times I fell from about five feet up, but because I didn't roll out of it, the game forced me to faceplant, like the strain was too much for my legs. What the fuck? She feels totally weightless otherwise, but in the dumbest situations the game makes her fall down.
Also doesn't help that about a third of the time that you try to do it, the wall-running doesn't activate, which usually sends you falling to your death.
Then a way-too-long load time initiates, making you wait to play again. Gets irritating in such a trial-and-error-based game as this.

-The combat is boring. It's supposed to be "deeper" than in the original game, with two attack buttons rather than just one, but only one of those buttons is ever effective; the other just gets blocked, making it feel utterly useless. So combat boils down to "kick, kick, kick, kick."
Not exciting in the least.
They've also completely removed disarms, and it's not possible at all to use guns. In general, it just doesn't feel deeper... it feels more limited. Meanwhile the "runner's focus" feature (which makes you invincible to attacks as long as you keep freerunning to keep a meter filled) removes almost all sense of danger that the original had. The action in the first game was intense; here, it's a boring little cakewalk.

-The open-world is totally tacked-on. There's absolutely no reason for the whole thing to be based around an expansive hub. It feels boring and fake, is utterly un-immersive, and the side-activities serve no in-game purpose at all. the only reason to engage in the game's plethora of deviations is if you give a shit about showing off in the game's online leaderboards. And even then, it requires you to sign up for some kind of EA membership and whatnot... blech. No thanks.
Pass up that, and there's literally no benefit to completing anything on the side, outside of getting some extra exp (which you'll get enough of from the main missions anyway, so again... pointless).
They really, really should have just focused on a level-by-level basis and made the main missions more interesting, rather than wasting resources on the hub world.

-The story, which was supposed to be the biggest improvement over the original game, is just about the weakest narrative I've experienced in a game in a long, long time. It hits every cliche it can manage, tries to surprise you with poorly-implemented "twists" that only an idiot wouldn't see coming a mile away, and it ends with yet another cliffhanger, as if Dice didn't learn anything from the first game. Hell, I wouldn't even call it a cliffhanger; it's more like a random drop-off point for them to just stop making new story missions.
One thing to get out of the way: Catalyst isn't related to the original game at all. EA and Dice were vague about that point leading up to release (and people still seem to be totally confused about it when I look at the comments sections for anything related to Mirror's Edge), but this is obviously a completely separate reality from the original. While the original felt almost modern but with a cool Santorini-esque vibe to its color scheme, Catalyst is all high-sci-fi and completely loses all the charm of the original because of it.
Also, while the "oppressive government" thing was present to some extent in the original game, it wasn't the main focus; it was just the background of the game's world. The Runners were almost like the punk movement of the 70s, throwing a middle finger at authority and doing their own thing. The actual story of the original game had more to do with a murder and frame job, which worked well against that "false utopia" backdrop.
Catalyst, however, focuses entirely on how oppressed the populace is, and in doing so makes itself feel as cookie-cutter as can be. Oh no, our minds are being controlled! Gasp! Meanwhile there's a resistance movement (who operate underground and wear long coats and shit; straight out of Total Recall and Demolition Man) that Faith, the protagonist, gets mixed up with. And of course, because being original is just so hard, it turns out that Faith's parents played an integral part in stuff leading up to the rise of the oppressive corporations and whatnot... blah blah blah blah blah.
It's boring, is the bottom line. Nothing original, no impact whatsoever, and no reason to care about anything.
I tried, honestly. Tried hard to care. But it's almost impossible to, when everything is this "blah."

-Related to the story, the characters are either a total snore, or annoying enough that you'll hope they get killed (but they won't, because this game is trying its hardest to be unsatisfying).
Plastic is just about the most irritating character I've seen in a while. Likely supposed to be the quirky, likable eccentric character, but she just comes off like an irritating bitch with no sense of reality.
The leader of the resistance movement is also an annoying, unlikable bitch, angry because... I dunno, the world is too nice? Actually, I couldn't even figure out why there was a resistance at all. Sure, they pop up with some shoehorned-in evil project that the corporations are working on late in the game (because y'know, fuck rich people. They're bad, because they're rich, so they're bad), but before that... why is anyone complaining?
The only character that could have been interesting is Dogan, who the game spends its opening act trying to build up as this ruthless crime boss... but then he just kind of comes off as level-headed and reasonable when he's finally revealed.
So yeah, bottom line on all that: the characters suck.

-Smaller point, but the music is worthless. The original game had some good pumping tunes for its action, and beyond that had an excellent theme song in the form of Still Alive, the melody for which popped up multiple times throughout the game's duration, honestly giving me chills at its best moments.
Catalyst has nothing of the sort, though. It tries to capture some of the original's magic by using similar synth, but there isn't a single melody from the game that I can remember. It all just faded into the background and failed to add anything to the action taking place. More blah.

I'm not a guy who likes to dwell on games I don't like, but this game was supposed to be something great. It was a long time coming, was in development for what felt like ages, but the end result feels utterly passionless and slapped-together. A complete 180 from the original game, which felt like a total passion project, something that Dice genuinely gave a shit about doing right. I even went back and played a good portion of the original immediately after Catalyst just to make sure I wasn't just in the wrong mood or something... and no, I still fucking love the original. Catalyst is just a mess of a game with very few redeeming qualities. I don't want to be to harsh about it, it just genuinely isn't very good.
Really tempted to trade it in, and I almost never do that anymore.
Skip it, I say.

[Axm]

Beat a few games recently, thought I'd share my thoughts on them here:

The Wolf Among Us (Xbox One) - TellTale

Game was surprisingly the best TellTale game that I've played yet. The plot tapers off a bit at the end but the visual style, music, storyline and general vibe the game gives off is really excellent. Like a film noir esque adventure supplanted with fairy tale & urban legends characters. My favourite characters were Biggsby, Grendel and Toad ("Biggsby!"). The journey is definitely better than the actual conclusion which leaves quite a few dangling plot threads unresolved and with no sequel in sight left a bit to be desired but the actual investigation and trigue side of the game is fun as are the QTEs (what's what? Well implemented QTE sections in a game?) Plus the whole synth soundtrack, good voice acting and lovely cel shaded visual style really raises the game. Fans of TellTale or not should check this game out, the game is much more linear than the other games I've played by them and there's no real difference to the conclusion but there's several routes one can take to that same conclusion.

Kuon (PS2) - From Software



Finished this last night. It's only been in my backlog for like two years, or something. The game is split into three chapters, each chapter comprising of different characters. All three of them are very good and make you go over the same maps but in different orders with different enemies and storylines. The way these stories tie up at the end is really good. I found the ending satisfying.

It's also atypical when put against From Software's other games as well.

It's also rather refreshing to see all three of the main characters you play as are women in a survival horror game, the latter two of which are bad asses. I liked the entire cast overall and the cutscenes though brief were well done.

The story follows a young woman called Utsuki who has lived at the same Manor her whole life with her father and sister. Her sister being really sick and her father being a demented man who is obsessed with bringing his dead wife back to life. Eventually some demon entities arrive at the Manor and all hell breaks loose and the residents all start becoming demons or beasts. The game starts out very typically survival horror with Utsuki having magic powers to fend off these demons and beasts but the game soon takes some twists and turns into Siren territory and becomes really convoluted (in a good way, since it all makes sense in the end and becomes easier to decipher...kinda).

This is another game directed/lead by Naotoshi Zin and is another great game. The credits list was very short, so it was a surprise to see such a great game have such a short staff list, makes the feat even more impressive. The game crafts some of the best horror imagery I've seen in a survival horror game yet towards the end and the storyline is really disturbing (the bosses are creepy). The game favours driving up tension as you reach the second half of the game as well and gets much harder (enemies that can two shot you).

You can switch between Japanese and English VA at will and I must say the game is fine in either, I kept switching between the two since they were both well done.

There's really no other survival horror games out there like this, set in this time period with magic as the form of defense, so it's definitely a unique game. Overall I'd say this is a great gem of a survival horror that I liked even more than Echo Night: Beyond, also by From Software. Highly recommended if you like survival horror games and still have a PS2.

Glass Rose (PS2) - Developers: Capcom/Cing/Cavia (Yup, this was co-developed by the three of them)



I don't even want to say how long this one has been in my backlog. Anywho, I finally beat it the other night and its mediocre gameplay hindered the experience somewhat but the plotline was much more intriguing as the game progressed. What surprised me was who developed this game. Three companies I would check any of their games out. Cing handled the concept phase & storyline, Capcom designed the (quite frankly, beautiful) pre-rendered backgrounds (as well as the character designs/art and motion capture of the lead character who was modeled on a Japanese actor/model, just like the technique in Onimusha series), sound & CG cutscenes were done by Cavia and the game design/planning was shared out between the three studios, going by the credits. Overall I'd say this was a game with promise behind it but unfortunately it's pretty much just another point and click adventure game. That, and the music becomes so repetitive and the game is definitely overlong (it took me over 20 hours to beat this game! One of the longer adventure games I've played in some time).



It's weird this was only released in Europe and not in the US since it was definitely Capcom US that handled the localization (noticed Ben Judd's name in there, who handled the Ace Attorney series localization). On this front, it was a mixed bag, felt like the game could have gone through another pass on the script which felt very dry at times and like a straight translation. The voice acting was done by a whole bunch of Shenmue voice actors, including the main character's voiced by the guy who voiced Fuku-san/Ren/Guizhang (Eric Kelso) as well as other Shenmue VA whose voices I recognised but couldn't quite place them off the top of my head and I recognised Barry Burton's terrible VA from Resident Evil 1 as well among the cast. Adds a certain "charm" to the game, for sure.

Unfortunately the game is bogged down by really linear design and super obtuse "go here/click here to advance the plot with telling you anything or any real clues on what to do next at all" and the music gets so damn repetitive. The "choose the right word from the dialogue to advance the conversation" is just bad game design all around as well, sometimes you will be getting frustrated with this as it's so hard to tell what word or combination of words the game wants from you. I just got tired of this in the end up and used GameFAQs...



The scenario is definitely really intriguing, it starts out as some murder mystery as somebody in this large family that has been gathered to this mansion (which is a character in itself, I got lost so many times playing this game and the game leaves you no clues where to go next many times, you basically have to have a GameFAQs open the whole time to figure out where to go next and what to click on to advance the plot) and somebody in the family is murdering others in the family and attempting to kill the main character but becomes rather creepy and interesting in its second half as it explores the psychology of the master of the mansion (who is mad) and family (who are also mad) and the secrets of the main characters start to reveal hidden layers to the plot. It's also a time travel plot where (the main character was zapped into the past along with his girlfriend and try to find their way back to the present) he is effectively put into the past to figure out an unsolved mystery surrounding a missing detective as well as the main mysteries. The game has multiple endings and I ended up with the two more downbeat ones but still felt satisfied enough with it overall. I'd class this as an above average adventure game with beautiful CG sequences by Cavia, unique atmosphere and a good scenario/plot by Cing and amazing pre-rendered backgrounds crafted by Capcom are the main strengths of this game.

[Axm]

<3 Yes I also agree The Wolf Among Us is the best telltale game. The character development is so thick. When you play through it a second time with different choices, I really cant make up my mind which choice I prefer sometimes because they are all so interesting to make, revealing more personality.
And the music, yes that music is superb. Hope they can do something like this again sometime. Dark vibe really appealed to me unlike some of the lighter nonsensical affairs in TT Borderlands.