Kingdom Hearts 3 (PS4): Too Little Too Late

Anticipation is a dangerous concept. In a small or short dose, it can lead to excitement. Say for example the new Avengers: EndGame coming out. I only started noticing trailers for it when it was about a month from release. It's not a long wait and it's leaving me excited for what is to come.  But when you anticipate something too long, you start to have expectations. Expectations can be difficult to meet. Sometimes it grows to the point where you expect too much, see for example the ill fated Duke Nukem Forever. Almost a decade went by without its release, and by the time we got it was so utterly pedestrian it was doomed to flop.

So that's kind of where we find ourselves here. Sure, this franchise has had a number of spin off installments with canon storyline throughout the years, but the second numbered installment of this game came out in 2005, which makes it OVER 10 years since we finally got our next numbered edition of this game. It's a long time to wait, and naturally people are expecting a lot. It's a whole lot of weight and pressure to deliver now. Is it even possible? I speak of course, of......

KINGDOM HEARTS III (PS4)

Look, I am not equipped with the necessary 4 doctorates to give you the full rundown the of the Kingdom Hearts lore because it's so impossibly convoluted. If you want a good rundown, watch Barry Kramer's 30 minute "Good Enough Summary of Kingdom Hearts." It's hilarious and pretty much covers what you need to know going into this one. 

We start off picking up from the events of Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance. A battle with Organization XIII is on the horizon and the forces of light need to gather their 7 warriors. Sora is depowered so he is on Olympus with Donald and Goofy to gain his strength back and visit more Disney worlds to regain "the power of waking" which is key to becoming a true keyblade master.

Riku and Micky are off searching the realm of darkness to try to find Aqua, the keyblade master trapped and lost there after the events of Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. Kairi and Lea are off training to learn how to use their new keyblades so they can help in the coming battles. All of these stories look to converge in one final battle between light and darkness for the control of the χ-blade and Kingdom Hearts.

That is about as succinct as I can possibly make of the Kingdom Hearts storyline going into this game. Like I said, its story is incredibly convoluted and complex for no reason. Half of the reason is because literally all of the villains in this game talk in riddles instead of just providing answers. I am probably going to be pretty spoiler heavy in this review so I apologize in advance, but I am getting ahead of myself here. 

So Kingdom Hearts III is a curiously mixed hack-n-slash action adventure with RPG elements and flight sim rail shooting. There are a mutlitude of different game features that appear in the game, but I'm going to try to stick to the core ones. It uses the same action oriented menu system you might remember from the older titles, specifically Kingdom Hearts I & II (or maybe you don't remember, it's been a decade). You have a core set of abilities to use, mainly Attack, Magic, Item, and Link with the occasionally prompting for situational abilities. 

The menu requires a bit of practice to do fluidly, but they do provide the ability to quickly turn the face buttons into a hotkeys for specific abilities, so I couldn't add my heal to that X button fast enough. The rest selected were core elements that specific enemies would be weak to. The Link system is more or less your ability to summon various helpers to remove Donald and Goofy from the fray to bring in more merchandising opportunities (characters).

To the game's credit: when the combat starts to click for you it's a dream to fly around and lay waste to enemies

The core thing to remember about this combat system is three things: One, know where the attack and jump buttons are. Two, you are able to lock on to enemies. And three, Press triangle when it tells you to. There is a bit more nuance to the games system than this, but if you are able to do these three things then ultimately the game should be a breeze to play.

It's actually somewhat hard to really describe all the mechanics that take place in this game, because it uses a lot of elements from the various game engines that are used throughout this franchises history. Almost to a pretty clever design really, because it actually plays into the lore. These certain characters trained to fight a certain way, so they have their specific mechanics to use when you use those characters. I do appreciate that blending of mechanics and lore. That being said, to a new player? This will probably feel very overwhelming.

I will say that the various number of keyblades you get do offer a bit of freedom of combat style.

Now, up until about a half a year before its release I had only played Kingdom Hearts I & II and maybe a few hours of Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 days. I knew if I just tried to dive into 3 was going to feel left behind, so I powered through the entirety of both PS4 collections prior to the release. Honestly I think this impaired my review because by the time I was ready to play 3 I was pretty KH'd out. I had a play a few other games to wash the palette.

It sticks to the pretty core Kingdom Hearts formula: Soda, Dobald, and Goomby drop into a new Disney world where they meet the primary character of that franchise, the Heartless/ Unversed/Hollows show up and you fight them off, wander the world, listen to a bad guy speak in riddles to an idiot who barely understands what is happening, fight a boss, and unlock/restore that world, move to next world to repeat. This is pretty much exactly how every world in this game plays out.

I honestly didn't even know Ariel was in the game. You have so many attacks to use.

In the original Kingdom Hearts this was interesting because with each world you went to, you met various Disney and Final Fantasy characters, but they were dressing to the world Kingdom Hearts was creating. They were part of the story, and reacted accordingly to the events happening around them. This is how good crossover is done (See: Dragon Quest: Heroes). In Kingdom Hearts II however, despite having more lore to work with the borrowed characters became less integral to the story and basically recanted what famous scenes were popular in the movie they came from. This I didn't like so much because I've already seen these movies. I wanted them to be involved in Kingdom Hearts story, not watch the movie I already watched again with them occasionally mentioning something KH related.. 

Well, Kingdom Hearts III continues that tradition to an even worse degree. Now don't get me wrong, none of the actual Disney properties have any actual bearing on the core plot and haven't even in the first one, but at least they tried to make it feel like everyone was included. III is probably the worst example of literally just watching some scenes from the respective movies, and occasionally mention the heartless or kingdom hearts. However, I feel that this is noticeable to the degree you've seen the source material.

There was a chance for interesting story here. It was almost immediately forgotten.

I'll give you an example: I have never seen Tangled. I know loosely what it's based on, but know virtually nothing outside of that. These characters were new to me, and I really didn't know how the story shook out, so as I went through the respective scenes with no frame of reference I found it to be enjoyable, engaging and interesting. It might have been my favorite chapter in the game.

But then we have the Pirates of the Caribbean chapter. Literally the entirety of this story is just fragments of Pirates: At Worlds End. It basically jumps around major scenes of the film with them reacting that they met Sora before in the second game, and you recreate the big whirlpool scene for the last boss segment. It was fun as hell to play, but probably the 2nd weakest chapter of the game. 

The worst chapter of the game goes to Frozen which quite literally is scenes from the movie with the Kingdom Hearts cast literally standing off to the side not engaging with the cast. There is an exposition dump over one scene from the movie, and they go through the entirety of "Let it Go" with the occasional reaction shot from the cast. It was completely pointless. MatPat has a theory that the original idea for this chapter was severely cut down, which would explain a lot. 

In researching this, I found that yes, Tangled was essentially a recreation as well.
 But it felt like it had more freedom than Frozen did to play around with the story. 

That being said, when the game actually focuses on its own story and characters, that's when Kingdom Hearts III is at its most interesting. There were a lot of loose threads in this series that this game needed to tie up after a near decade of spinoffs, but I have to say that does an admirable job of doing so in a reasonably satisfying manner. This is probably something I wouldn't have been able to appreciate if I haven't powered through the whole series to have context for everything that is happening.

Credit to where it's due on this front, but its soundtrack is exceptional from its original tracks to arrangements to the assorted Disney sources. Yoko Shimomura has composed all of the major installments and contributed to many of the spin-offs and rightfully so. Her work and the vocal tracks from singer-songwriter Hikaru Utada are a major reason these games feel so magical as you play through them. I have always appreciated a solid classical score to my games, and Utada's vocal tracks always give me chills. "Sanctuary" is one of my favorites. The music of this game carries a lot of emotional weight in my opinion.

I appreciate that the character design has been slightly modernized for the current console generation and this works for the storytelling of the games as well. It's been almost a decade since we played Kingdom Hearts II so it seems only right that our cast has aged somewhat accordingly. But I will say that is sort of loses a little bit of its cartoonish charm in doing so. With everyone having a cartoony and anime appearance, having a realistic model included doesn't make people blend in together as well as previous games I thought.

While I can't say if the game has a lot of replay value, I will say that depending on your level of dedication to completion you will certainly get a significant amount of time out of this one. If you were just to power though the main story missions and keep your side questing to a minimal degree, that alone will still take up roughly 30 hours of time to get through. Not bad for a non-RPG. But if you throw in collectibles, hidden fights, the secret boss, and mini game completion this amount of time doubles at least. Take on trying to play it on a harder difficulty (which I should have) and you could invest a serious amount of time to this one.

I did find it incredibly frustrating that so many bosses could fly. It made for too much waiting during segments.

If the rest of this review wasn't an indication, I obviously have a handful of complaints on this one. First thing I really noticed is that this one felt too easy. I played it on normal but a coworker of mine recommended that I don't. He was correct. Thanks to the inclusion of all the mechanics of the previous games, combat is snap because the game is literally throwing special attacks at you, many of which you are complete invulnerable during.  With the exception of some early bosses that literally just fly out of range and make you wait for them come down, practically every fight in the game is trivial if you are using you specials.

Many of these moves are also one of the biggest detriments to the game's visual and sound design. Outside of the returning special moves, the team also has a series of abilities where you basically summon out famous Disney rides like the Teacups, Splash Mountain, the Carousel, etc. The attraction attacks are covered with blinking lights are constantly splashing particle effects and waves of light out. It has its own theme and each attack has their own sound effects and character reactions. It's almost a total sensory overload. By late game I wasn't even using it because I was having more fun comboing with my keyblade, and only used them when I wanted clear out groups quickly.

Sadly THIS is actually one of the spectacle-lite ones.

All of the Final Fantasy characters have been removed in this one. There was an incredibly strong focus on the Pixar sect of Disney represented in this game, the only animated film represented here was Hercules and that's a rehash from another game. So ONCE AGAIN, Robin Hood gets the snub and doesn't appear in Kingdom Hearts. Come on! He actually fights with a bow, and I don't think any of the the Jungle Book characters are represented in any of the series and they were in three different franchises. No TailSpin chapter? You know who I would have liked to team up with? Darkwing Duck. THAT should have been a chapter in this game. SHIT, WHAT ABOUT THE GARGOYLES??? Oh my god, I have to get off this train of thought.

Out of all my complaints about the story, I would have to say that my biggest one is probably that we have to control Sora. Having gone through the whole series now, practically every character to come out of this franchise (with maybe the exception of Kairi) has more depth and is more interesting to follow. Sora is just kind of a dummy who pretty much just relies on his feelings for motivation, but he rarely understands what is happening around him. Aqua is more interesting, Roxas is more interesting, Axel is more interesting. For making this seem like an ensemble piece, they did very little to let you use all the other characters which is a shame and a missed opportunity.

While I'm at it, there was literally no point to having Axel and Kairi in the game for as little as they contribute to it. You get two cutscenes of the two of them in between training sessions of them talking to each other, to kind of bridge a number of the loose ends. But spoiler, by game end they provide pretty much no assistance in the final battle and one of them gets captured immediately. If the presence of one of them wasn't required to tie up a loose end, they could have not been a part of the game and it probably wouldn't have been impacted in any meaningful way.

Oops. I've just spoiled about 90% of what these two characters do in this game. 

Now, you would think with the psychotic ranting I've gone on in this review that I'd be ready to slap a big old "do not recommend" on this one. But I can't say that's necessarily true. For all that I complained about at its core the game is solidly built and if I had played it on a more challenging difficulty I would have absolutely enjoyed it more. With the two left shoulder buttons providing hotkeys, combat was fast paced, fluid, and fun to do. Which is impressive for a technically menu based game.

Boss characters were large and interesting, once you get your appropriate skills up it's fun to fly around the battle field and take them down, and it does leave a satisfied feeling of completion when you do so. Considering this stigma boss fights have become in modern gaming, I applaud any game that chooses to include them.

I really do recommend upping the difficulty. You get so many super attacks the game gets insanely easy by the end.

I have to appreciate some of the self aware commentary that Kingdom Hearts III provided. They have some in-jokes poking fun of the ridiculous number of spin-offs and stupid naming convention this series uses. There is a stupidly over the top CG battle sequence that turns out to be a fake game trailer that basically pokes fun at SquareEnix's whole marketing strategy for game releases. Honestly it was pretty awesome to watch, really. Axel specifically indirectly breaks the 4th wall a few times about how fucking complicated this story is and that there are too many characters. Makes me wish he had a bigger role.

As I said above, the ending of this game was incredibly satisfying. That's always been Square Enix's bread and butter, making great cinematics that feel good to watch. I hated the majority of Final Fantasy 13 but I'll be damned if I didn't love that ending. Seeing that ending cinematic made it feel like the slog through all the entries of this series was worth it.

And while I was disappointed this isn't going to be the final installment of this series, I will say that the end game teasers absolutely have me excited for 2 reasons. One, it looks like it's going to include a property that was used in Dream Drop Distance and one of my favorite DS games ever, AND it looks like we might be having a hard disconnect from Disney as much of that story finally got closed out. I've always said that if this series could have been fine if didn't have any Disney and Final Fantasy crossover, and it looks like it might actually be going that route if we get a KH4.

It looks like a game I'd rather be playing now, honestly...

It's hard to say if I give this game a recommendation or not. Kingdom Hearts 3 is an offering to the patient fan base who have been waiting a decade for it. People who are fans of this series have already bought and played it long before this review came out. People new to the series are going to feel incredibly lost and put out because they are essentially 13 games behind the curve. It is a game that is not for them.

So I guess my bottom line is this: Is the game functional and playable? Yeah, very well done on that front. Did I enjoy my time with it? Sure, I might be a bit KH'd out at this point but I am glad to finally put a cap on this one. Was it worth the wait? Absolutely not. The prematurely announced the game, and then took an excessive number of years to actually get the product up. People built up too many expectations to the point of them being unable to be met. There was no way it could possibly deliver to peoples hopes at this point.

It's not a world beater, its not innovative, it just does just enough to be a palatable experience, but after 10 years of waiting that just doesn't feel like enough. Kingdom Hearts 3, in my eyes, is average at best. If they are going to follow this one up (and they are), then they gotta get it out within the next 4-5 years at most. Buy with caution.

Seriously, Robin Hood is the best.
I can't believe he's never been in these.

Hitman: Definitive Edition {2016} (PS4): Cold Blooded.

I've always had a mild affinity to the stealth genre as a whole. As I've stated more than once on this very blog, I feel like the Assassin's Creed series started off on the right foot to scratch that itch, but ultimately got bogged down by it's own story and cinematics that I never really got to feel like an Assassin stalking my prey. 

Now, I was familiar with this series from seeing my old boss at Gamestop play it more than once. It looked cool, but tricky as hell. I was never very good at these games so I never really dove all that deep into them. It wasn't until SquareEnix picked up the property and gave it a new glossy sheen, put in a hand holding mechanic, and pretty good story and suddenly I found myself to be a fan. After watching Funhaus play the new installment a bit, the stealth itch was begging for a scratch.

HITMAN: DEFINITIVE EDITION (PS4)

The prologue to Hitman serves as prequel to the introduction to the series as a whole. Shortly after Agent 47 escapes his initial handlers in the start of Hitman: Codename 47 he is brought into the International Contract Association (ICA) to undergo initiation to work for them as a hired assassin. It is here Agent 47 first meets and befriends his long time handler, Diana Burnwood.

47 makes child's play of the tests laid before him, and with a sketchy untraceable background it makes the head of the ICA Erik Soders very uncomfortable. So to force 47's failure, his final mission was meant to be a recreation of an impossibly done bit of historical espionage. 47 again completes his task and begrudgingly brought officially into the ICA with Burnwood as his official handler.  We see a montage of 47's greatest hits (ba dum tss) throughout the Hitman franchise before we catch up with him in 2019 for the first level of this installment. 

So despite the Hitman franchise having a continued narrative, this is probably one of the few games that I honestly couldn't care less about a the story when I pick up to play it. It's not to say that the story is bad, or poorly told. But if you come to play Hitman then you really aren't here for the narrative. You are here to find your target and figure out how you can kill them without being noticed or without leaving a shred of evidence behind you.

I will say that compared to the game before this one, Hitman: Absolution the story feels less important for progress. The characters in Absolution were definitely a major focal point, where in Hitman we get some framing cutscene between quests but the story tends to be brief before dumping you right into the next mission. Perhaps because of the new episodic release schedule for this version of the game the story is told it shorter polished chunks.

Now, I distinctly remember the older Hitman titles having some pretty wonky and frustrating controls. I had distinctly remembered having difficulty specifically in Hitman: Blood Money and Hitman: Contracts. Not so much that the controls were difficult, they just never felt very tight. It wasn't till Squenix came in and polished up the series in Hitman: Absolution where I really started to find my groove with the game.

While proficient in hand to hand, you will be heard doing it.
Best avoid getting into dust ups if you can help it.

This particular installment feels like the controls of the older Hitman titles with only a few splashes of some of the new mechanics. This is going to be one of those games where every button as a purpose, so you are going to need to get real familiar with the controller. They brought back 47's "heightened senses" mechanic, which is essentially the same kind of sonar hearing they used in the The Last of Us where you can see silhouettes of everyone around to find your target, or intractable pieces of the environment. It's handy to give you an idea of where you should be headed without spoiling the nuance of the surroundings. Just seeing the target 100 yards away doesn't tell you what surrounds them.

What they did take away though, was "point shooting" system from the Absolution. Essentially this was a bullet time sequence (think John Marston's dead eye aim in Red Dead Redemption), which if used at the right moment and with quick enough reflex you could use to quickly dispatch an entire room when things got hairy, or if there were enough spaces completely remove the bodies prior to being noticed. It certainly made Absolution easier and I'd be lying if I said I didn't use it for all its worth to finish that one. But I'm not unhappy to see it gone.

Thats.... Not exactly subtle, 47.....

But at its core, Hitman returns to its the roots of its gameplay. From the campaign you select your location and you are treated to a small cinematic of Diana explaining your target(s) from who they are, what they do, and why the contract is out on them. She explains some of the situation you will drop into and what you can try, and then "leaves you to prepare."

And from that point, you are on your own (kind of). As you move around the map to case the area, you will stumble across hints and opportunities that Diana can expound upon to give you a path to try. Many of these help you build level mastery and are used to completely level specific challenges. But really, it's 100% optional. The real fun of Hitman is your first blind run: Just trying to get to your target without being caught, killing them, and bailing without dying.

That's some pretty pro level blending in.

You start missions with a pretty limited inventory, but you can always pick up items around the locations to provide more options. Some missions have multiple objectives but the majority of them just require taking down your mark. Once you get a feel for a stage it's worth your while to go back to the level and try to complete the specific challenges and opportunities you are presented with. Doing so completes the aforementioned level mastery, and what this does is this allows you to start the missions in different areas with different disguises, and allows you to bring or stash additional weaponry and tools to being with.

Most of the controls are pretty 3rd person shooter standard so there isn't a lot to go on for that front, but like I mentioned before it feels very much like the old ones specifically in regards to the face buttons. These are usually used for the item interaction and the big thing to remember is that they are not just presses, but holds. So say you take down a bystander, if you stand over their body you will be prompted with a few commands, X to change disguise, O to drag body, Triangle to pick up or interact. You need to remember to accommodate for those extra few seconds. It could make or break you getting caught.

Sometimes you don't even need to be near the target

Levels are pretty much completely open from the word go. Depending on what you bring with you (based on your level mastery) you might have means to get around locked doors from the start or have the necessary keys to get past locks, or even invited in as a guest. Regardless, it's always a great idea to just spend some time wandering around the level. Get used to what path the target follows, find out who he talks to, learn what situational things might be happening to get you close or provide distraction. Perhaps you might find an errant soldier that looks exactly like the guard that get into the building the mark frequents.

But you need to be careful about how you play dress up, sometimes specific people know who is on their staff, so if you wander into their eye-shot and you don't blend in immediately or get out of sight they will become suspicious and follow you, or alert the guards. If you don't move quickly and quietly, situations can escalate in a hurry. You can always run and gun your way through levels, but it really does you a disservice for what makes this game satisfying. It's funny to create a pile of bodies in a doorway, but not long after you will just restart your save and try again.

Upon completion of the level you are rated by how well you did and given a total mission score. This is essentially just for bragging rights and do nothing towards beating the game or unlocking more mastery items, but it does give you a quantifiable number for how you are doing as an assassin. If you run and gun your way through the level, sure you will probably be able to move on but you'll get slapped with a "dunce cap, zero star, thanks for trying ribbon for idiots" at the end of the level.

Looks like it's.... Lights out for you... (YEAAAAHHHHH)

But to get an idea of how satisfying being an assassin could be, allow me to go through a scenario I played through that just made the game for me: I'm in Sapienza, and I've currently snuck into the compound of Silva Caruso. He's been working on a viral weapon with Francesca De Santis. I need to kill both of them. After sneaking onto the compound as a gardener, I'm eavesdropping on Caruso during his golf lesson. I learn that his golf instructor has been having an affair with De Santis, but the instructor denies it.

After the lesson I follow the instructor and catch him making a call to De Santis about a date. So I size the opportunity knock him out, steal his clothes, and stash his body. With his phone, I call Francesca back to meet up for our date. I set some mood music and lighting, add some rat poison to the champagne set that was waiting for us, and take a seat in the lounge chair in the shadows. Franscesca comes in, worried about these trists and explains that she's actually been spying on Caruso, and that I risk my life by continuing this with her. She's clearly nervous but wanted to be straight with me about the risks.

I started a empathize a little as she took a nervous drink of her champagne, it didn't take long for her body to start reacting to it. She quickly rushed to the restroom as I slowly rose from my chair to sauntered after her. I opened the door to see her vomiting over the shitter and felt a little bad because this was a horrible way to go, but I have a job to do. I slipped behind her and forcefully held her face in the bowl until kicking and bubbles stopped, dropped her body in the clothes bin, hopped out the window, and was off to find Caruso for his turn.

"Farewell, my love...."

None of this pontificating of Assassins and Templars, No wiping a feather on their neck bullshit, no 20 minute monologue of a death rattle about how I don't understand shit. Just cold, emotionless execution. It probably says all sorts of fucked up things about me as a person that having things go that smoothly felt so incredibly satisfying to do. But this, THIS is how Hitman is intended to be played. When you can go in and get the job done with nobody being the wiser, it makes all the effort and time spent tracking your mark worth it.

I purchased the definitive edition of the game prior to season 1 going free to PS+ members, and I'm glad that I did because it allotted me two extra campaigns to play. They all use the same maps but the targets are different. There are also a large number of increasingly difficult challenges that you can use to improve your mastery and also just generally get more play out of a level. Which in turn gives you more memorization that you can use to play the main campaigns to get better masteries. I honestly don't think you can get the Silent Assassin rank without a couple higher rank mastery tools.

On top of these missions, there is a whole online contract mechanic that I never even delved into which is basically user made custom levels, so if you for some reason you completely dive into this one 100%, you can still find use created kills to continue to stretch your dollar out on this one.

I guess stealth doesn't always mean quiet....

If I have complaints, they are pretty minimal. First and foremost is the same problem I generally with every installment of this series, and that is that Agent 47 is basically a non-character. Like Master Chief, Agent 47 is basically a blank slate that has no tonal range, no emotional expression, no physical personality to his movements. In some cases he's even worse because he doesn't even string one liners during gameplay. Now, you can argue that this contextually fits in the story since he was essentially a test tube grown clone, so his human interaction was nil.

Two, the story itself to this game kinda sucks. Like I said at the top we get a brief greatest hits prologue explaining how we got to now, but as we play through this game we end up following the actions of a character I don't actually think is ever named. He seems to know who Agent 47 is and seems to be a hand behind a behind-the-curtain war between the ICA and a shadow group called Providence. The ending, without spoiling, basically is a teaser for the upcoming Hitman 2 which is kind of frustrating.

It's most egregious problem is that this load times in this game are just unforgivably long. Especially for a title that will cause you to reload the level or reload your saves regularly, any load time that takes longer than like 15 seconds is pushing itself to be too much of a noticeable wait if you have to constantly do it. It's not as bad as Bloodborne's original 30-60 second load times, but at this point Dev's really should find ways to have the game constantly loading or able to quickload to get you right back into the action.

"Ahem, Don't mind me..."

I'll be the first to admit that the game can be a little samey after a while. Especially when doing challenge missions because it is very easy to get into a rhythm of using the same tools to secure kills in different missions. I can't think of how many times I've used rat poison in a drink to take down a target in this one.

And while the controls are polished to be as responsive as this game needs to them to be, there still feels like a degrees of innate awkwardness to them when trying to change outfits, drag, or pick something up. It doesn't feel as broken as many of the old Hitman games seemed to be, but in the early going there is going to be a curve to pick up the nuance of them before they start to feel natural.

Ultimately though, I like Hitman and I like it a lot. I've said hundreds of times that this is how the Assassin's Creed series should have played. I play it off and on quite a bit still and it scratches the stealth itch for me in all the right ways. Or I can just melt down and try to see how many people I can kill before getting taken out.

Hitman is one of those games I like to play when I want to zone out and focus simultaneously. It's generally low stress to play and I can spend well over an hour just wandering around a locale, taking in the surroundings before plotting my attack. There is just something immensely satisfying about playing this game to me. The adage of "If you liked, then you will like" applies here. If you liked the other Hitman installments then Hitman 2016 is going to satisfy in all the right ways. If you are looking for a fast paced run and gunner, then this is not the game for you.

I had to walk the catwalk in Paris for a mission.

That alone made this game worth it.

Resident Evil 2 (2019) {PS4}: What's Old is New.

This one was one of those E3 megaton's that developers drop to bait older gamers like myself.  And while the fourth installment of this game is the one that is a lot of peoples favorites and probably (rightfully) the most important one of the series, the original version of this one is probably my favorite because my introduction to the series. 

Remakes like these are always a roll of the dice because its difficult to please everyone. Do you produce a new experience and risk having fanboys complain that everything is different? Or do you keep it faithful to the original and risk having people complain that its the same game they've already played. It's a fine line to walk, so let's see how Capcom did with.....

RESIDENT EVIL 2 (2019){PS4}

Resident Evil 2 takes place two months after the events of the original in 1998, where Raccoon City police S.T.A.R.S unit members Jill Valentine, Chris Redfield, Rebecca Chambers, and Barry Burton escaped the mansion outside of the city limits where Umbrella Pharmaceuticals had a secret facility to create the zombie producing bio-weapon, the G-virus. The mansion was destroyed but the it did not halt the outbreak of the virus.

It's Leon Kennedy's first day on the police force, and he's driving into Raccoon City to meet his new team and department. But on at a fuel fill-up just outside the city he notices the station to be surprisingly desolate. Investigating the gas station, he sees an attendant nursing a nasty wound and the man weakly points into the back. Another police officer is restraining a zombie, but as the officer tells Leon to stay back, the zombie lurches forward and kills him. Leon begins to work his way out of the station, but just before getting out the door, he covers the back of a young woman with a zombie encroaching behind her.

Her name is Claire Redfield, she is driving into Raccoon City in search of her older brother Chris. They decide to escape together and that heading to the police station would be a lot safer than staying out side. But they quickly learn that city is just overrun with these things as their car is quickly surrounded. They try to back out, but an injured truck driver tailing them is about to ram their car, forcing them to bail out. The resulting wreck and explosion separate the two, but they agree to meet up at the police station and get out of this mess.

Alright, I tend to find myself when it comes to remakes like this wanting to see the core tenets of what made the original good stay the same, but not delivering them in the exact same way, thus allowing us to have a new experience with the game, even if I know how the story might play out. The introduction of this version of the game provides a pretty excellent example of this. 

Right out of the gate the story managed to hit all the major points of the original one in a pretty faithful 1-to-1 recreation. There is some minor differences to how the events play out, but all the of the major beats are there, and they call back to the original animatics first meeting where Leon shoots over Claire's shoulder to cover her back. The dialog and delivery is different, but it doesn't feel alien. The objective is the same, but the starting map is not. Good start so far.

Credit where its due, Capcom has really been upping their game on the graphical front. After the the stellar looking Resident Evil 7: Biohazard the graphics are just pushed even further to where video games are literally just motion captured movie roles. Using mo-cap for both body motion and facial reactions, the characters are so lifelike its getting pretty difficult to distinguish if they are actual a real person or not. It's crazy, but we are getting closer and closer to producing CGI live action.

This burger looks so gross, but also delicious?

The character design is appropriately modernized as well. While the game is still set in 1998 (around when the original version came out) the clothing worn by the characters actually looks realistic and reasonable for the time. Hilariously, Leon and Claire's original outfits are unlockable and if you didn't think their old looks weren't stupid just wait till you seem them in realistic textures.

Resident Evil 2 does feel like this one borrows a number of elements from various different games in the series. The inventory system in this game is a blending of 2 and 7. It uses the familiar over the shoulder camera angle that made Resident Evil 4 famous, but I would say that it controls more like a traditional 3rd person shooter does like you would see in the less popular Resident Evil 6.  Fans just need to come to terms already: The tank controls are a thing of the past, and probably should have been since the advent of the analog control. I tried using them again in Resident Evil: Revelations and they were awful. It's a relic of a time when controls were D-pad directional.

They did a pretty good job with the map layout as well. It's core layout is almost exactly how I remember the original Resident Evil 2 but when you start to actually navigate around the map, you will find doors or stairs in different places. Major rooms right where they should be, but new or different rooms scattered around on the way there. For example if I said to go to the dark room, you would know to go right where the safe room at the bottom of the stairs is. But along the way, you would find a new weapons locker room that you will need to make several trips back to get all the contents of.

via Gfycat

More importantly, despite taking inspiration from the blueprint of the previous iteration, the game still manages to keeps it focuses tight and scary. Even though I have a general idea of where I want to move in the map, the surroundings are still unfamiliar and it does an excellent job of building tension from relentless enemies and jump scares. And boy is there tension, because zombies in this one don't feel like as harmless a threat as they used to be. They have much more sporadic movements, they can move much quicker on you, and worst of all they seem almost impossible to put down. I don't feel like I was every lacking in ammo, but trying to kill everything will certainly make it feel like it.

Cutscenes play out similar but differently as well. Most notably when Leon meets officer Marvin. Again like the main introduction it hits a lot of the same points but is completely different and new dialog. He mentions the party, at one point pulls his gun to get Leon to leave him. But this doesn't happen in the first and only scene he was in like in the original. A lot of these characters actually get a couple more scenes than I remember from the original. It's nice to see because any longtime fan of  this franchise knows that the lore of this one can get confusing.

via Gfycat

Additionally they also kept the "side" system you might remember from the old PS1 version. How it worked before was there was really no disc 1 or disc 2. If you started the game from the Leon or Claire disc you would start a new game with them as the primary lead. It affected how the game played a bit and how some of the items dropped. This more or less returns as you can choose who will lead off in the main story first, and who will follow in the supplemental chapter. So essentially each selection has 2 parts each.

Speaking of things that they kept, completing the game will also unlock the "4th Survivor" mode.  You may remember this as where you play as faceless umbrella operative Hunk with a set amount of equipment, and essentially need to run a gauntlet of all the baddies you encountered during the game to try to set the best possible time you can. Complete this, and you unlock the ridiculous Tofu mode, which is more or less the same thing, but the equipment changes. There are multiple versions of Tofu to unlock as well.

via Gfycat

And I can't believe I am saying this, but kudos to Capcom for the free DLC update. This is the store of thing I fully expected them to charge and additional 5 bucks a pop for but they released 3 additional mini chapters called the "Ghost Survivors" that give smaller but similar tight experiences with some of the smaller nobody characters from the game. They are a welcome edition and stretch my dollar with this game out a little more, which is nice because by credit roll I already had felt like I had gotten my money's worth already.

If I have any complaints about this one, there are very few of them or there are nitpicks at best. Like I said prior, the most baffling part of how the story is delivered is the fact that after Claire and Leon part ways for the first time, they basically don't talk to each other again from that point forward. There is one short scene in the early game, one scene in the late game, and then not again till the ending of the game. It's strange because I remember there being more interaction between the two of them in the PS1 version.

There is also a bit of inconsistency if you play both quests, both ways. Both G Berkin and the Tyrant appeared in the previous version of the game, but they were separated by who's quest you played. That way each character is resolved by another. But in this one, they are both in both quests. So while in one path one of them might be a difficult ending boss, in other they might be dispatched early and not relevant to the true ending. It's a weird way to deliver it. Not a huge issue, but it is noticeable.

via Gfycat

No bowgun in this installment of the game. Which is simultaneously disappointing and a relief, because if you played the old game its about as effectively damaging as trying to spit snot at a baddie through a drinking straw. Sure, it's become somewhat iconic to the game and the concept of zombie killing at this point in zombie culture, but ultimately I really don't mind that its gone.

Going through Hunk, Tofu, and trying to S+ rank is incredibly frustrating for me because I can't get the knack of properly side stepping zombies not matter how many speedruns I watch, but that's more of a "git gud" problem than it is a complaint about the actual game, but I will say the frustration in trying to do so was enough for me to put the game down and move on to something else.

via Gfycat

A number of people complained about how the character models looked for both Leon and Claire in this one but honestly, if they were to shoot a new (actual) Resident Evil 2 movie in the coming year, this is exactly the type of look Hollywood directors would cast for said role, it really feels like a complete modernization of the concept in every aspect.

I fizzled out pretty quickly on this one too after I played it. Which is strange because I was very excited to dive into this one. I powered through both variants of both campaigns, beat 4th survivor once, and after a few attempts at Tofu mode, that was it. I was kinda done with it. These modes don't seem to scratch my itch like the Mercenaries mode does, so I did find this one very easy to put down.

via Gfycat

But like I said, half of these barely register a complaint. The short and skinny of it is that if you are going to do a remake of an timeless old game that everyone loves? This is exactly how you to do it. There ARE ways to stay true to the original without changing the core of what it is. The graphics are new but familiar, the maps are the same but different, the monsters are acting the same but behave differently. It completely felt like I was playing Resident Evil 2 while still completely feeling like a brand new experience to me.

In the very early stages of my playing, I had said that the was the some possible game of the year potential out of this one. And I suppose technically this is still true, but I do have the tendency to get really excited with some early of the year games (see Tales of Berseria). It's entirely possible that it can be game of the year, but there is a LOT of games to look forward to this year. But even if its not, I can say with certainty that I felt Resident Evil 2 absolutely delivered on what it needed to be. It was a solid pick up, worth every bit of time I spent on it, and is a must have for 2019. Highly recommended.

Hey SquareEnix! Pay Attention!
This is how you need Final Fantasy 7 to go!

GRIS (PC): Short but sweet

It's always a risky when a creator you know changes up things. Sometimes is great, and you get the jump from Evil Within to Evil Within 2. Sometimes it's not great, when you jump from The Black Album to Load. Creators are ultimately artists and it is certainly their prerogative to do things differently if they so chose. But in the realm of video games this can sometimes be a gamble.

So you can imagine my surprise when I started seeing screens and gifs from Devolver Digital for an upcoming artsy platformer. This is a company that produces silly and quirky games like BroForce and Enter the Gungeon. But a pretty looking indie platformer? That's not their normal wheelhouse. That being said I was hearing some very positive things about it, so with a free gap in my stream schedule to use, I took the plunge into.....

GRIS (PC)

As is with most indie games, there is no vocalized story. It's a journey you have to go on to interpret your own meanings. The game begins with young woman eponymously named Gris curled up in a cracked stone hand. She beings to sing but as she does, the hand beneath her beings to crack further and fall apart. Suddenly the girl loses her voice and cannot sing. She rushes to the edge to evade the cracking fingers, but the hand breaks apart and Gris falls down to a white and grey colorless void. From here, we take control.

This is going to be a tricky review for a number of reasons. Mainly because I don't want to provide any spoilers if you are looking to try this one for yourself, but also because there are not a lot of mechanics to this one, and there is a reasonably short playtime. This might actually be one of the shortest reviews I write come the end of this.

So when you assume control of the game all you can really do move left and right. When Gris (as I believe she is actually called) gets some speed to her step, you will be able to jump. Another button will show her lift her arms and tilt her head back, but it does not do anything.

As you walk through the stages you will come across roadblocks and gaps that you will need to find ways across. When you come across a gap you typically will be noted by a some chimes of sound and what appears to be a hollow constellation. As you continue, you will be herded to find what appears to be stars in the environment. These will connect on the gaps where you found the constellations, and will sometimes provide you a light bridge to cross, or a new ability to use, or fly up into the sky to a constellation that you will continue to build on as you play through the game.

There are only a small handful of mechanics to this game, but the game does use them in interesting way to create a slew of puzzles as you progress through the game. Some of them using more than one if not all of them, on top of some other mechanics that are introduced specifically for that section of the level. Some examples are some red butterflies that allow Gris to essentially launch into the sky, or a line that when you break through it flips and inverses the gravity. The game also uses some water mechanics as well.

For lack of a better explanation, the games elements are somewhat founded by the use of their colors. As Gris progresses through the game and you hit checkpoints, the game will explode with a splash of a specific color, and that will introduce a new environment mechanic. Such as when I hit blue, all of the water based mechanics and puzzles came into effect. Now that I am reflecting on it, the puzzle elements do have a symmetry to the color used for that specific portion and is very cleverly done so.

There is also a degree of inspirations to similar games of this type. There is a segment very early on that is basically a stylized variant of something that happens in PlayStation's indie game Journey, right down to it occurring in the colored level that would closest match Journey's setting. There are a couple of little nods like this, so I see them more as homages to inspirations rather than lifting an idea.

The visuals in Gris are simply stunning. The entirety of the game is drawn in a stylized hand painted water color. It has almost a comic line coloring to it, but as I streamed it was told it reminded one viewer of a movie called Fantastic Planet for its uses of silent and flowy animations. As I played through it, I couldn't help but feel a drawn comparison to the Cloud segment of the old anime Robot Carnival, another film drawn in that 70s animation style.

Its score is just absolutely gorgeous. Somber piano notes, strings, wind and occasionally some accompanying vocalization.  It blends with Gris' visual design seamlessly, and fits with the indie narrative that it is trying to tell. It's an incredibly chill and beautiful soundtrack, and kudos to the Berlinist for their work on it.

I could almost make the complaint that the its soundtrack is too chill. I had this same problem when I played Nier:Automata that when I was playing the early stages of the game, the slow pace of the progress combined with this chill (but beautiful) OST was quite literally putting me sleep. I'm trying to host an interesting stream and I am yawning and struggling to keep my eyes open. It is not a good look and not doing the game any favors.

The puzzles are well thought out and use a number of the mechanics in interesting ways. Although outside of a few of them, I wouldn't say that the game is very difficult. There were only a handful of moments where I got slightly hung up as I was trying to solve the game or gather a collectibles. The collectibles in the game are called "memories" and when you finish the game you can go back to previous levels to try to find the rest of them. If you do, you can unlock one more final scene to the story.

Doing this can add some length to the game because like I said earlier, it's not very long. I played the game on a stream and start to finish I had the main playthrough done in just about 3 hours or so. I am not sure if going back to find memories allows you to use the abilities you gained in the playthrough, but I feel at best this would only add maybe an hour or two of extra gameplay tops.

So this begs the question, is 16.99 worth three hours of entertainment to you? I managed to nab the game for 15.29 so I suppose I can say I got the same amount of experience that I would have if I spent that money at the movies. If that's the comparison I am using, that's probably fair because that means that Gris is not overstaying its welcome, and it wrapped up its story before its actual gameplay mechanics started to feel samey and derivative of its own experience.

On the other hand, I am also a gamer and it's hard for me to not feel short changed sometimes when I buy a new game and inside of a sitting or two I have done all that I can with it. Like I've said in other reviews, replayability is a big factor for me when it comes to buying a game, and it's hard to say that Gris really has any if I can do all the game has to offer in only 2 or 3 sittings.

With a game like this it's not easy for me to give a a proper recommendation because you sometimes have to look at these kinda indie games as the art pieces they are.  If you are the type of person who is okay parting with 20 bucks for 3 hours of an experience then I would absolutely say to try Gris. If on the other hand you are one who really needs a game to have some meat on it then you could probably get by watching a stream or let's play of it.

But that really is the best way to describe Gris at its whole: it is an experience.  A beautifully scored, very pretty experience. I'd think part of the fun of it is to play through and talk to others about what you think the game meant, and what you took from its visual cues. While I didn't have the same emotional connection I did in a game like Journey, I still enjoyed Gris very much. Whether you opt to buy or view it, it's absolutely worth your time.

The stick legs and arms were an odd choice, though. 

Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age (PS4) - Respecting One's Roots

The last game in this series that I reviewed actually wasn't a proper installment of the series. I reminisced a bit about my favorite one of the franchise which was the last proper one I really played. Sure, I played its remake on the DS, but I never really got around to playing a newer installment of these. Blue Dragon maybe, but it's not exactly a game in this series. 

But for those who know this game's history, you know that when a new one comes out it is pretty much a holiday. So much so that the game actually releases on a Friday in Japan so people don't skip work to play it. This game hasn't had an actual non-handheld console release since the PS2 era, so the fact that it got a shiny new PS4 edition meant this might not be one I want to miss. I speak, of course, of....

DRAGON QUEST XI:
ECHOES OF AN ELUSIVE AGE(PS4)

The tale begins in the Kingdom of Dundrasil. The King and Queen have had a child, and all the kings from the around the world of Erdrea have to come give their blessings and see the prince. But more so, the kings meet for a summit to discuss the mark that appears on the child's hand. This child is the Luminary, destined to fight the coming darkness that will threaten the world.

But this does not ease everyone who is present, the king of Heliodor has some concerns that the birth of the child will bring back the darkness that will destroy the world. During a heated discussion about the child, a horde of monsters descends on kingdom and begins to lay waste to it. The queen and the Princess of Heliodor escape with the child, fearing for his life. Monsters give pursuit, but the Queen literally sends the child downriver in a basket in the hopes that he will be spared.

He is found by a kindly old man from a simple village of Cobblestone. When we next see the child his has grown to maturity and is about to complete his ritual to adulthood by climbing a mountain oversee with his childhood friend Gemma. After defending her along the way up and reaching the summit, the sign on his hand glows with light. His adoptive mother tells him it's time to learn who he really is.  So with one final home cooked meal and the blessing of the village, the child leaves to see the King of Helidor, who might have some answers about who he is.

via Gfycat

I could really complain about the story a little bit here, but if I am going to be totally honest this is completely in step with Dragon Quest's usual wheelhouse. I don't think I can actually think of an example that I played in this franchise that didn't have some variant of the Hero of Light vs the Lord of Darkness. They did it in Dragon Quest 1-4, and in DQ Warriors. It's kinda samey and cliche, but that's what they do so it didn't bother me as much as it would if it came from another franchise.

And this is a long ass game, let me tell you. So even if I thought I knew how the story was going to unfold (and was sometimes right) there is no way I could possibly get all of the points right because there is just too much content to cover for it to be totally 100% cliche. You are in for quite the tale, so saddle up because we are going to be here for a minute.

So one of the first things that I noticed when I really started to sink my teeth into this game is the developers as Square Enix really did go to great lengths to show appreciation to the source material of its lineage. Right from the moment you start the game, as the cinematic starts to run you hear the first few notes of a boisterous trumpeted theme and you know EXACTLY what song is about to hit, and I can't lie from that moment I had started smirking.

As the beginning unfolded everything fit into the classic fantasy setting that I knew, none of this Final Fantasy bullshit where "oooh, we're a fantasy game, but were also totally cyber punk and we swords that are guns, and computers, but people still ride giant birds".  Nope. We are straight up fantasy classic JRPG and I love it.

Everything down the menus goes to recreate everything you remember about the series in an updated style. Same quest select song, same arbitrary save mechanic. Simple text box system with simple white font. Character design, familiar monster design, pretty much every little nuance the game should have that can reference the old entries of the series, it does.

via Gfycat

Likewise, when I say classic JRPG that too is a hard truth. Traditional turn based combat. Fight, Magic, Item, Defend. They do spice it up in a couple of different ways though. First is what I have been calling a "diorama mode" where you can move characters around the field on their turn and spin the camera around to change the perspective of the battle. Outside of looks, this does literally nothing to outcome of the combat. It is 100% completely vestigial.

The other, more practical way, is with a "pep-up" system. As you take turns, do actions, and take damage your character essentially charges pep. When they Pep-Up they glow with blue energy (thankfully without going super saiyan). While pepped you get an increase to all of your stats, as well as being able to expend your pep to do a powerful attack or skill. If multiple characters are also pepped you can do combo attacks in pairs, trios, or the whole party.

A good deal of inspiration from Dragon Quest IV is in this one too, because when your party wipes, they are immediately swapped out with your reserve party, and you can switch between them on the fly if necessary. It also borrows from the strategic auto-fight system so for going through the regular rank and file baddies you will tear through in the bulk of your journey so you can limit MP use, have someone stick to heal, or just mow through people without much input required.

via Gfycat

Although, compared to the old ones (and I don't know if this was the case in newer ones) Dragon Quest XI has a pretty vast and forgiving skill tree. Some characters have a couple of different branches they can follow, and you can replace sections of your skill slots for a nominal charge so you have some freedom to play around with it. A lot of them are somewhat based on what weapon focus you want, some trees will let you complete multiple while others will focus you down one. Like it said, it's not expensive to clear a block of it and re-allocate. So talk to people, research, and play around with it.

There is also a modest crafting mechanic which will allow you to get some rare equipment, and a lot of the character costumes if you get the right things. But more importantly than that you can use the crafting to improve on your equipment to boost them to +1, +2 , or +3. But you have to be careful you have the available points and skill to do it. Any reasonably finished equipment can be redone, but if you botch the job you keep the item, but don't get attempt any more improvements on it. If you do this on something you would only get one of, and that's it. You've blown your chance to fix it. The auto save is smart enough to not let you get away with closing to the game before you totally cock it up.

via Gfycat

Like I said at the top of the review and will probably continue to reference throughout it is Dragon Quest XI's appreciate to its source material. This is most primarily noted in its visual design. One of the first things you will notice is that despite the 3D world and rendered models the game uses, when a fight starts in the monsters introduction animations, their resting stands are crafted and positioned to be identical to how they looked back on the original NES.

Similarly, there are lots of little nuances to character designs of the NPCs and characters that you will be able to pick out through the Dragon Quest lineage that will ring familiar. Little wings on soldiers helmets, iconic tiara's on some characters, priests having similar color schemes and hats from the save points of old. Even the text and menus are designed in such a way that they resemble the old NES versions of the game. They did this in Dragon Quest Heroes as well.  The game is literally tripping over itself with self reference. And for the most part, this is a great thing. It's giving what people who play Dragon Quest want without just retreading old.

via Gfycat

Similarly, its sound design is also cultured to hearken back to the old ones. While the game's vast score features a multitude of new songs, there is a significant amount of old music that comes back as well, remastered in such a way that they sound new, without escaping the feeling of how they did before. For example, the opening save slot song when you first fire up the game is done with short string plucks, which modernize but emulate the chiptune sound it used to have. Playing through the game, in some iconic moments some of the famous battle and overworld themes from Dragon Quest III and IV would kick in, and hit me with nostalgia waves. It's expertly done.

Another audio thing that they did that I really liked, and again something they did in Dragon Quest Heroes is that when you travel around the world map to other countries, when you visits that area's towns, the people inside of them will have their text written in a slang or dialect for that region. There is a town that is very Japanese culture, and another that is frozen Nordic. When these characters have actual speaking lines, they speak in the accent indicative to that area. It makes the world feel more realistic, as opposed to the entire planet speaking common English. It's a little attention to detail that I really loved.

via Gfycat

There are a handful of things that I didn't like though. Some of them are backhands to things I gushed about. First and foremost is the character design. Yes, I know. I literally just gushed about it. But Akira Toriyama? I get it, you made Dragon Ball, I fucking get it. But Jesus Christ not everything you do has to callback to that, you friggen hack. The character models are beautifully designed and animated but every time I catch a whiff of DBZ I cringe.

There is one specific point late game where you meet a new race of people, and son of a bitch these things are literally Buu character meshed with Mr. Popo from Dragon Ball. It took me so out of things I almost stopped playing I was so mad. Thankfully, someone must have reeled him in a bit with the pep-ups, because thankfully there is no Super Saiyan hair to be seen in the game, although I'm sure he wanted to.

As mentioned before, the free moving battle camera is stupid. It does nothing to contribute to the combat. When I play long RPGs, I want to be able to dispatch baddies as quick as possible. So adding extra vestigial steps that don't really do anything don't help me with that. I couldn't turn that feature off fast enough.

But the other problem, and this is a big one, is with the auto commands. This worked in Dragon Quest IV very well because you had such a large cast and you still controlled your hero. It still works here, but now you can also set auto commands to your hero as well. And admittedly, this is pretty much what I did for the entirety of the game. I only really turned it off for boss fights, and 90% of the time I just let the auto fight run itself. This isn't like Final Fantasy XII where I still have control over the gambits and can make changes, the game is just auto playing. So I a lot of instances between auto walk and auto fight, I didn't even need to actually play long stretches of the game.

And really, the front half of the game feels almost insultingly easy. Using the auto battle I really hadn't hit very many significant snags in my progress, and to a point I didn't even waste my time getting new equipment either because it didn't appear to be slowing down my progress in any way. It wasn't until late into the first act or so where I started to come up on some boss fights that forced me to play a little more strategically.

via Gfycat

It's a pretty long game too. It's a JRPG so that makes sense, but apparently if you have played Dragon Quest VIII then you know that the game is not going to end when you think it does, and there is a significant amount of post game content to do as well as a multitude of side quests for you to do along the adventure as well. You are certainly going to get your money's worth of time out of this one.

Many of these complaints are nitpicks really. I could have easily turned off the auto battle, and length of the game is rarely a complaint as you'll want to stretch your dollar. Complaining about an artists  literally iconic and definitive style is really just of a quirk of mine. I didn't use the diorama camera so it basically was a non-issue. Take all that away and I basically was left with a long and satisfying JRPG that was built with the fans of the series in mind.

I played this during 2018 and while it certainly wasn't going to win my game of the year, it IS certainly an excellent addition of the series. Was it better than my favorite entry Dragon Quest IV? Probably not, but it is up there. It's certainly one of the better JRPGs I've played in recent memory because it knows exactly what it is and who it is catering to. If you come in expecting Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age to change up the genre's formula you might be left underwhelmed. But of the rest of you (and probably more accurately MOST of you) this one is going to scratch all the right itches. Highly recommended.

Ok, yes, fine. I didn't upgrade my armor so I could keep Jade in her bunny suit.
Shut up. Don't judge me.

Rageys 2018: The Rage Quitter Year End Wrap Up

So much like last year I played an awful lot more than I wrote, but for the most part I will be trying to stick to games that I actually gave reviews unless it otherwise made a serious impression on me. So without further ado please enjoy.....

The 2018 Rageys
Sponsored by the Hayward family. Kinda. They keep giving me twitch bits when I tell them not to.
But after 7 years, I can sorta say I have a sponsor!

12: The "Yakuza Ishin is Never Getting Localized" award for "Game I wish I got to play" goes to....

Octopath Traveler

For the second year in a row, A game from the Nintendo Switch appears on my list under "game I wish I got to play". Nintendo is starting to sell me, but its not there just yet. I have a 7 game line before I buy a console and until I hit it, I don't buy one. But when I do, this one is going to be one of the first ports to call.

A JRPG featuring the artist from the Bravely Default series, A spiritual successor the Saga Frontier series with multiple characters, storylines, done in HD pixel art? Sign me the fuck up. This is pretty much everything I ask for in a game. And I am sure the "on the go" feature would be nice if I ever went anywhere. Put this on my list if I ever get a switch.

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11: The "Friends and Family "Ironically" Posting Racist Memes" garbage award for "Biggest Disappointment" goes to.....

Bravely Second: End Layer

I could go easy here and name Nights of Azure 2: Bride of the New Moon here, but I expected that one to be bad. But this was a game that I was legitimately excited to get to. After pretty much buying a console specifically to play the first one, I thought I was going to devour the sequel. But while I will say that this game, its soundtrack, and characters were all still great? I couldn't help but feel underwhelmed.

This game came out in 2016, I started playing it and got a chunk into it. But then I kinda put it down. I had no real desire to go back to it. Something was missing. It despite liking it, it didn't have the same magic as before. I had to actually force myself to finish it when I was between games. Had to force myself to play something I was excited to play. That wins it Biggest Disappointment. 

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10. The "LOVE actually stood for Level of Violence" award for "Biggest Surprise" goes to.....

DeltaRune: Chapter 1

OH MY GOD. MORE UNDERTALE. Toby Fox, you mad genius. For those who don't know what I'm talking about: The Undertale twitter started tweeting in character about the DeltaRune and if you followed the link, you got a "survey" that forces you to essentially make a character, and then it pulls a switcheroo and trashes all of it and then dumps you in to fully fleshed out but more so PLAYABLE chapter of what seems to be something connected to Undertale.

It's a separate world, but all the characters are familiar. The mechanics I knew were in place, but it played differently. Has a whole new soundtrack, but so many callbacks to what I've heard before. This is only chapter one, and I couldn't be more amped for what is to come.  It can't come fast enough. This literally appeared out of nowhere in a matter of days. This is how you sell your upcoming project. This did more for me than any trailer could. Sorry Evil Within 2, this is my biggest surprise of the year.

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9. The "SonicFox vs GO1 Grand Finals" award for "Most hyped game" this year goes to.....

Dragon Ball FighterZ

Again, another year where I can't use this award's original "Overhyped" moniker, because when it's the first year for a brand new fighting game, and you not only make it into the EVO Championship top 9 but get more people in your tournament than STREET FIGHTER by a significant margin? Holy crap can you say you are backing the hype.

I was pretty much amped to get my hands on Dragon Ball FighterZ since the first showing of it at E3 and it fuckin' delivered on all fronts. Produced by Arc Systems Works as probably the only good true 2D Dragon Ball Fighting game, designed similarly to Guilty Gear Xrd but blending mechanics from Marvel Vs Capcom with easy to learn auto combos and fast paces frenetic combat with over the top super moves, its pretty hard to not to feel bad ass when playing this game. I stopped watching Dragon Ball Z almost 20 years ago and I literally couldn't wait to get my hands on this. Apparently. a lot of people couldn't. Easily one of the most hyped games of this year.

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8. The "Fortnite Dancing" award for "Flash in the Pan" game of the year.

The Evil Within 2

This award may be my "flash in the pan", but in reality this year it is more of a "most improved" award. If you remember my review of the first The Evil Within game, you will remember that I was very excited and incredibly let down with the product I was given. I had no intention to play this one. But it went on sale, I had nothing else to play, and heard it was better than the first. Sure. Whatever. I'll bite. 

And inside of a few plays? I was enjoying the combat that was once a massive headache, I was experiencing what felt like my first open world horror game that seemed to work very well, and after a few missions I actually found myself completely riveted by the story. So many of my complaints in the first game were addressed, fixed, or removed outright. Everything about The Evil Within 2 was just better than the first. I outright said its a great game. Not ok, not good, great. Honestly if I get a lull in my releases I might play it again I liked it that much. That deserves at least a little recognition. 

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7. The "Surprised its not EA, Ubisoft or Bioware" award for "Worst Value" goes to....

Persona 3/5 Dancing Star/Moon Night

No question here. I bitched about this when Persona 4: Dancing All Night came out, and apparently the fans caved and paid more, because Atlus has learned fucking nothing. Two new games, 25 tracks of remixes, some of them appear up to 3 times, and FIVE FUCKING season passes totalling over 85 dollars? But on top of this all of it, ALL OF IT was ready day one. Atlus, I love these games and want to see some HD remakes now, but seriously? Go fuck yourselves, you money grubbing pricks.

This is completely fucking unacceptable. Just sell the games for 100 a piece so I can buy the actual full version. But don't give me this fucking horseshit that I can choose to buy it or not. Game devs are, and have been deliberately witholding content to wring out more money. I bitched about this 10 years ago, I bitch about it now. Gamers have given up too much ground ground on this battle so now its just an accepted norm. DLC has to fucking stop.

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6. The "Twitch Prime giving me 100 free games" award for "Best Value" goes to....

Darkest Dungeon: The Crimson Court / Color of Madness DLC.

If you read my review, I was unkind to this game. If you read my Ragey for that year, I was also unkind to this game... But sometime from then? Something clicked. I got in a zone where I understood everything about this game, the complaints I had about it fell away, and suddenly game that was hard and no fun to play became a challenging obsession that I had to continue.

But then I gave the DLCs I had been ignoring a chance. And let me tell you, I have now plunked down a ludicrous 400+ hours to this game thanks to the two DLC updates. It's slowly become one of my favorites to play. I burn whole days starting new quests, trying new comps, trying to beat Stygian mode, and the new Endless Harvest mode. And so help, me now I am fuckin' around with mods which will make me play it all over again from the start.

Considering in total I paid maybe less than 30 bucks for all of it with steam discounts? Without a doubt this game has to win Best Value. I haven't stretched a dollar for a game like I have with Darkest Dungeon in a long, long time. 

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5. The "I don't listen to actual bands anymore" Award for best Original Soundtrack goes to....

A Hat In Time

This game is so fucking cute I can't stand it. It was one I had on my radar for a while so when it went on sale I jumped at the chance for it. This game has some fantastic sound design to it and an OST from Pascal Michael Stiefel. All of the characters are cartoony in their personalities but are well translated in their spoken lines. All of them are unique to each other and hilarious.

The music in the levels starts with a base theme that you get from the first level, but as you keep replaying them to get more collectibles to proceed, the music makes subtle changes to suit the scenario. For example, when you explore "Deadbird Studio" you have a theme, but when you sneak in after hours, the theme gets stealthy and quieter without losing its initial melody.

But then it also throws a curve ball from out of nowhere by having some particularly great boss fight themes ranging from rock, to metal, to techno/electronica, and sometimes all in the same song. There were some games that had very good soundtracks this year, but A Hat in Time's is the one I listened to the most. 

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4. The "Disaronno  Sour" Good Consistency Award goes to....

Atelier Lydie & Suelle:
The Alchemists and the Mysterious Painting

It would be easy to just slap Yakuza 6 or Valkyria Chronicles 4 here and just call it a day, but the rub here is that on pretty much a yearly basis, Gust continue to pump out games in the Atelier series, its newest installment being Atelier Lydie & Suelle. I for the most part stopped writing about them because while I love these games, they do get a bit samey and constantly writing essentially the same review with a few minor changes each time isn't really going to get clicks. I only reneged on Atelier Sophie and the Mysterious Book because it was the first new Atelier game on the PS4.

But the fact is, I really like this franchise (another one I didn't at first). But they have some pretty good folksy soundtracks, they scratch my JRPG itch, they let me sink into that mind numbing catharsis of item creation mini games, but probably most to its credit is that it has consistent storytelling. What I love is they release them in sets of 3 so when a new one comes out the characters from the previous game may not be the main role, but you get to see them a bit older, wiser, and stronger than they were before.

In this one's case, it allowed me to see a conclusion to a story arc that basically started in Atelier Sophie (two whole games ago) as a sidequest to the main story. I appreciate storytelling like that, and it made me happy to see it. Games like this will never be massively successful, but for the niche audience like me? They are doing just fine.

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3. The "7-8-1 Season" Honorable mention goes to....

God of War

I knew this would be the critics game of the year. Anyone who talked to me during the summer knew this was going to be my prediction. Because Legend of Zelda: Link naps on the couch or Super Mario Files His Tax Returns didn't release this year, most critics queue'd the prize to the next linage game in the remake/sequel God of War 2018. Because god forbid some new and original property get some limelight. It always comes back to lineage games.

Now let me say that this by no means a bad game. Kratos actually showed development as a character for once, it had a well executed story, the change in setting was much needed and excellent, and it was pretty damn fun to play. The problem is it went to the trouble to try to re-invent its combat system, then halfway through the game goes right back to the old one. The other issue I had was once I had finished it, that's it. I was done with it. I've not once thought about tossing it back in, and while many game critics have started rating games like movies? This one has not, and replayablity is an important factor to me. God of War was a great game, but it wasn't my favorite this year.

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2. The "Any Cream or Jelly filled Donut" award for "Worst of the Year" goes to.....

Soma

Nights of Azure 2 dodges a bullet here. You know what I'm getting fucking sick of? Walking simulators. Now game devs just have the throw in a jump scare here and there in there tech demo and they can release it as a game. I started this trend recently of saving October to play more horror games on my stream. This was a freebie and I heard good things about it so I gave it a shot.

One? The game is objectively not scary. Two? The games pace couldn't be any slower than it already is. If it was, I wouldn't be playing a game at all. Three? As with most walking simulators, there is no fucking threat. Oh sure, they may be monsters or a big bad. But you get a jump scare or in this case some scrambly screen (The equivalent of a soft but firm slap on the ass), and then dropped back at your last checkpoint. Snore.

But worst of all? Bad, unintuitive fucking level design. For 40 plus minutes I walked around an empty ocean floor. No threats to avoid, no fish to see, no collectibles to pick up, no secrets to find. Just empty, desolate, quiet oceanscape. It made a slow paced and not scary game even more insufferable because it arbitrarily made me put down my key (and forget about it) before I could pick it back up, stalling my progress. I thought Soma was trash and I have no intention of picking it back up. At least Dreadout was scary and fun for a little before the bad design ruined it. Soma didn't even have that.

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1. The "Biagio's Plain Fry-Cake Donut {Because it's the God-Tier}" Award for "Best game of the year" goes to...

A Hat in Time

You are reading that right, for the first time in this blog's history we have a game that is the first Double-winner.  It was really hard to pick a GOTY this time around because I played a lot of games, and a lot of them were very, very good. So I had to simplify things. If I take out any game that was just DLC pack or any game that I've already played before, Then what games really stood out in my mind? More so than that, what game did have the most genuine fun playing?

With no offense to Yakuza 6: Song of Life or God of War which were both great in their own right, there really was one game that really had me grinning ear to ear. A Hat in Time let me know that I'm not as over the classic 3D Mario genre as I thought it was. A love letter to games like Super Mario 64, A Hat in Time featured a cute as hell heroine, fun characters that are hilariously voice acted, A soundtrack that was fitting, charming, exciting, and rock as fuck all at once. Lots of replayablity to it. They just gave away a DLC update for free for the first days of it release. They added a multiplayer option to the game. Even flipped a story trope I hate and made me love it.

 A Hat in Time just basically did everything right. I played this game in its entirety on stream and it was pretty much impossible to jump to a point in the stream and not see me smiling while I played this. It was fantastic. I need to smash a timepiece to go back and play it again from the start. Absolutely my game of the year for 2018.

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Might be starting to fizzle out on the writing, but we'll keep plugging away on this for as long as I have the energy for it. Thanks for reading. -- CannonMan ┌∩┐(◣_◢)┌∩┐