New Year, New thread, New Me, New Games, New Lease on Life I hope!
Shinobi Art of Vengeance
This is an absolutely stunning looking game with fun combat but if I'm honest, I really started to dislike how damn long some levels were. If they were more compact, you'd still have the fun platforming and combat but they'd be closer together and not spaced by a bit of wondering about like a semi-metroidvania, something I'm not sure enhanced this game for me at all.
And as fun as combat is, it's pretty damn easy to the point of being pretty unengaging after a while, and why engage when the game design has you revisiting old maps with new powers and thus you can basically not fight them anyway? And the bosses were fun in the moment but they all blended into each other because of the low difficulty.
In short, the demo had me thinking this was a 10 but it's more like a 7 or 8, maybe Ragebound is the superior 2D Ninja sidescroller eh? AoV isn't bad, but I beat the PS2 Shinobi a few months ago and it was never boring the way this could be. I still have more stuff to do, it is a (sort of) Metroidvania after all but I'm not sure if I can bring myself to do it, the Goro Majima and Eggman DLC? Now that has me intrigued.
Starting off strong with, erm, Arkham Asylum (which I already played years ago on… PS3?). There was a ridiculous sale on this and the Arkham City remasters at the end of last year, which seemed rude to refuse. It was much shorter than I remembered, and the character designs have aged like milk, but getting that combo flow in combat is still chef's kiss.
Stupid amounts of stuff still left in it—the challenge maps, a little under half of the Riddler stuff—but I think I'll probably leave it there and give City a go next.
Shinobi: Art of Vengeance
Azure Striker Gunvolt
I wish I liked this more than I do, it's from the people who made the Mega Man Zero games and I really like the designs for this game so I bought the Trilogy pack on a sale a while ago and…not really sure I like it, the gameplay mechanic of tagging enemies so you can zap them boild down to you shooting things then holding a button to watch them die, I'm not sure how this is more fun than just shooting them like Mega Man or slicing them like Zero.
If the sequel isn't looking any better, I'm out.
A little too much bible/religion in it for me (just a few overtones, but I think it would've been better without it) but a small completion of "…and Roger" a 90 minute game that I'd recommend playing totally blind if you can.
Without giving too much away it has stuff that resonated a lot with me and there were bits I was genuinely quite teary. YMMV, of course, as it depends on whether you've faced issues like those in the game. I has a few similarities with other emotive games in whatever we're calling this genre now (point and click and FEEL THINGS?) but it's very much its own thing. Is it as good as Florence? (the game, not Rab) - I'd say not, but it's not far off.
