Hobby Wizards' game ramblings

31/10/2021

03/03/2021

Quick thoughts on Persona 4 Golden.

The reason people buy the Vita (and still the reason why I turn my Vita on). Widely regarded as the best game on the system and I wholeheartedly agree. On release, this game was either loved or hated amongst the persona fans. There was kinda no in between, but time has been so kind and the game is still making Atlus money. With the recent Steam release, I am excited for the Persona 4 fans to finally be able to play it 😂.

I played Persona 5 before getting to this masterpiece and I am very thankful to The Phantom Thieves for making me want more. They were a clever bunch and I liked them a lot but the P4G crew - The Investigation Team - are so damn endearing and fun. They're not the smartest bunch but the chemistry of this team is undeniable. The Social Links are far better than P3 or P5 and the combat has aged quite nicely. The dungeons were kinda nice specially Heaven and the videogame dungeon. I liked the shuffle time a lot, helped me keep my party alive and obtain personas fast.

Thank you once again to Yos**tsune (and Trumpeter) for carrying me against some of the toughest late game boss fights in the game. Took me 160+ hours to platinum.

Final word: MASTERPIECE.

05/02/2021

Playing Shadow of War in 2021

I've played Shadow of Mordor back when it was released. And I enjoyed it quite a bit. The Nemesis system has always been the selling point of the game but I could not care less about it. I'm a LOTR easy boy so they really have to try to suck to make me not play the game. I've played almost all LOTR games I could find from the Liquid LOTR "Battle Realms clone" game, those PS2 era EA movie tie-ins, the Battle for Middle-Earth games and War in the North. Enjoyed them all. It's been quite a while since a consumed something LOTR. I think I watched Two Towers and Desolation of Smaug when the lockdowns was still in full swing. I've always had Shadow of War on my steam wishlist and waited until it could go low enough to justify buying what I was sure more of the same from the previous game. Lo and behold, PSPlus gave it for free. So here we go Sauron, time for another dodge roll, tower climb to reveal map, counter combo based action-adventure game.

Shadow of War to be blunt, is a bad action game. Story sucks ass and the characters are so forgettable. I don't want to get into more detail about it because even though it sucked, I still value avoiding spoilers for anyone who wants to experience it. Missions are repetitive and boring and lack spectacle.

For the less sucky part of the game, the gameplay, at least makes the arduous journey more palatable. The Nemesis system is vastly improved. Difficulty is definitely better and the various tribes and types of the orcs make you value different kind of gear to equip. Sure the core counter based combat is very mid but it serves its purpose. The animation is very very PS3 era though. climbing is so sticky, sprinting is stiff and overall movement is just bad.

Back to the Nemesis system, I like the new changes but there's a few things that I really hate about it. In every encounter, you're always greeted with the orc you're after and the dialogue is unskippable. It's okay if they just say a phrase or something but they're so much longer than the first game. That s**t sucks when you're trying to breeze through the game because of the second thing I hate about it, ambushes! So random orcs will ambush you like every 10-20 minutes or something and it was great the first time but it is so frequent it makes it frustrating! Even when you already conquered an area! Not to mention the orcs are wearing clothes now. Pirate orcs. WTF is that!?

Here's one thing I REALLY like about the game though. Sieges. And to a lesser extent the Pit Fights. As a massive RTS fan, I really like organizing troops and preparing for war. I think I spent half of my time in the game managing my fortress. As soon as it was available, all I was doing was searching for potential orcs to recruit and watching orcs battle in pit fights. I even tried multiple times starting siege missions with me just watching from the fort as the orcs kill each other. It was a great time! After the story, the endgame is just siege wars after siege wars. For a time it made me forget how bad the majority of the game is. If the game is only the siege missions I would've been really fine with it. I'd love it even.

As a whole, this game is not good. I'd only recommend it (very slightly) if you're a RTS fan. And this game is supposed to be a third person action-adventure! It is what it is. I spent 30 hours trying to get the platinum.

16/01/2021

My Final Fantasy XV experience

I never really gave this game a chance after I saw my friend play this game. He was on the Regalia riding back to Insomnia and I saw all the empire ships hovering on top of the city. I loved the Kingsglaive movie and knowing what has happened in Insomnia, I couldn't help but immediately felt like the heroes of this game are just leisurely driving around while Nyx gave up his life to save the future. And then I saw him battling the empire and I immediately thought the battle system was crap. No character swapping, limited move-set, magic is a non-factor. Yeah, I'm not playing that game!

Fast forward to 2020 and the introduction of the PSplus collection! 20 something games for free and most of them I already beat. XV is one of the few ones I never played. I already have Cyberpunk 2077 in my shelf but the game ran like crap so I said what the hell, I'll give Cloud Uchiha a shot.

First impression, the game still looks absolutely great. It runs great even on my PS4 slim. But the combat is still whack and the first chapters are horribly paced. What kept my playing though was the fishing minigame and the food graphics. Seriously, the food in this game is freaking unbelievable. Best food graphics I've seen in any non live action media. I bet any Food Wars judge would absolutely tremble and come if they saw some of Ignis' specialties!

Back to the other meat of the game. Midway through the story, you'll be pulled back out of the open world and go through a more linear path like XIII and 7R and that's when I started to think this game is actually more than okay. The story from here on out is focused and I get to feel more about the characters. Then we get to a time skip and then I thought this game is actually good! I can't say more because of spoilers but the game really did have a great last chapter. Dare I say, it was... the best.

I beat the game and proceeded to get the platinum because I think it deserves to be 'platinumed'. I still think the combat is bad, especially during story boss fights. It looks good but not good to play. I'm glad it is part of the PSplus collection because I never would've given this game a chance if it didn't.

FFXV is a 'bad game' but a great 'experience'. It's not easy to explain but it is what it is. What FFXV is certainly good at is making you go to youtube and watch other players go through that last chapter. It's a good game for casual gamers, an okay game for FF fans, and a bad game for hardcore gamers who enjoy combat.

Do I recommend it? It's hard to say, but if you have a spare weekend or two without any game to go, FFXV is a worthwhile choice.