Category: Game reviews

This review is odd for me to write. First I have to say, I have NOT finished the game yet. I am on chapter 14 and have put about 33 hours into it. I have been taking my time, doing all the side quest and just taking it all in. I have been for years for this game, I am not rushing it. I will follow this up with another review after I finish it and attempt to scoop up the platinum.

The second reason this is odd for me to write is I have to say I have been wrong about many things in the past about this game ( for example see Why A 2019 Final Fantasy 7 Remake Would Be Too Little Too Late For Me ) and right at the same time. I will have a lot of unpopular opinions here, some that will probably get me some hate mail, and some that I am sure will be almost universally agreed with.

Third, while this game isn’t perfect, it is great. Right off the bat, any RPG fan should pick this one up. It is a strong buy with a great story and despite a few issues I will soon get into, the gameplay is damn near as flawless as it comes at release these days.

First the good. Graphically the game is beautiful. The slums of Midgar have never looked better, and yes I am including the movies. You can see and feel the desperation from the citizens, the children playing as if they don’t truly understand how they live in poverty but knowing the adults aren’t quite sure of what they will do next. The Seventh Heaven bar looks like a place you could truly visit and spend some time, but maybe only if you don’t mind the possibility of a bar fight.

The music in the game is beautiful, much of the original soundtrack has been remastered and remixed but it hasn’t been changed to the point it has lost what made it special in the first place. The fight against Airbuster for example still holds the same iconic music and will have you wanting to rock along to it all the same. There is musical disk to collect that you can toss into any jukebox, and you will probably have a few songs like to unwind and listen to.

The combat system is also pretty nice, the real-time ATB system works nicely and makes you think, should you use all those ATB bars or save one in case you need to heal? I find the best strategy is to switch often since the bars fill slower for characters you are not controlling. 30 plus hours in tho and I am still having fun fighting and I don’t see that changing any time soon. Each enemy has different strengths and weaknesses to exploit or avoid, and some change throughout the battle as you would expect.

The story itself has become more of a reboot than a remake. There are entire sections that have been reworked are rebuilt from the ground up, or just tweaked. Others play out quite similar to the original, for example the legendary scene in Don Corneo’s bedroom when they threaten his favorite region does still exist pretty much as it always did but the entire relationship between Cloud and the minor members of Avalanche as changed.

With all that said I do have some complaints. For example, after being announced in 2015 we got a game that ends in Midgar and can be beaten probably in less than 30 hours if you rushed it. I make this assumption based on numerous people’s claims to have beaten everything in about 35-40. To me, that is insanely short for an RPG with a 5 year development time that they decided to make episodic instead of giving us the entire game they released years ago. It now feels like the game was locked in development hell and was released as a cash grab.

Another issue I have is double-sided. The materia-system from FF7 is technically still there, but I would rather it wasn’t. It is extremely limited and has been completely destroyed compared to what it was. There are far less types and combinations and many people are simply chalking it up to “Well you can’t leave Midgar” Don’t get me wrong, I have already praised the battle system and I stand by that, but if you are going to compare this materia-system to the original it is vastly inferior.

Another issue I have had is with lighting and characters occasionally just suddenly popping in and out. I don’t really mind as it will probably be patched out, but to not mention it would be wrong and there seems to be this weird idea that to say anything negative about this game is somehow just hating it. The game does a lot of things right. I love that Barret occasionally sings the victory music from the original or that Cloud actually moves his sword when he sits down. The world feels alive and beautiful.

The game is also about half filler. There are missions that will have you finding cats or rounding up kids. That is it, you will simply go find a little girl’s cats then later in the game go find some kids for a teacher. Another mission will see Tifa doing pull-ups. There isn’t any real reason for it, a guy from the story just challenges her to a pull-up contest. A large chunk of the side quest serves no real purpose at all, and the rewards many times are things you can just walk over to the Item or weapons shop and buy. This isn’t limited to the side quest either, there are entire sections of the main story that are basically added than simply disappear like they knew someday they would use it, so they added it now and hope people remember it down the road.

Don’t get me wrong, I love this game. But we deserved better for a game that spent this long being made and is being separated into multiple games we will have to wait years to see the ending to. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

First, as always, a big shout out to the guys and gals over at Sometimes You for hooking me up with a review copy to this horror game. It isn’t fancy and didn’t have a huge budget but you can tell it was a labor of love.

The games concept is pretty cool, you play as an old man that is remembering his childhood that was tormented, just like the rest of his family, by a mysterious being. There are a few puzzles to sort out but nothing all that major.

Now, to be honest, the only reason to buy this game is an easy platinum trophy. The game is short and none of them are hard to get. The game itself while having a great concept just wasn’t very fun to me or even good. The writing was cringe at times (come on guys nobody calls their stepmother “stepmother Jane” or “Stepmother Cindy” every time they speak to them. the sounds left much to be desired as well. I won’t mention the graphics because honestly, that is subjective. For example, I rather enjoy the RPG Maker graphics.

This game, however, isn’t one I can recommend outside of for trophy hunters. This is the lowest score I have given a game, but 3/10 and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

As always, I would like to thank the ladies over at Clever Communications and the fine folks of Two Point Productions, Bullfrog Productions and Sega and Electronic Arts for this review copy. This one is special to me for a lot of reasons, and I will tell you why before we get started. As a kid, there was a thing called Sega Channel. One of the games I played was a game called Theme Park, and this introduced me to a whole new genre of game. I fell in love with it and played it for days. Eventually, I played a game called Theme Hospital for the original Playstation. I loved that game, and my mother would watch me play for hours. So all these years later for them to make Two Point Hospital, and be chosen to review it, is amazing to me and something if you told me back in 1997 would happen, I would never have believed you.

Let’s start with the bad. As of right now, there is no sandbox mode. This for me was really bad because they did include both the Bigfoot and Pebberly Island DLC. They also did not include the Superbug Initiative. These weren’t oversights however but choices made and they will be added as free updates around the end of March 2020 across all platforms. I just wish they were there from the start. View the video below to see more about the Superbug Initiative.

Another couple of bad things I noticed were at times placing items is a bit weird, you should have the space to fit them but because of how the curser works you just don’t really have the ability to get into the tight spot to place it. This is, of course, normal on a console. Killing the bugs in your hospital is also rather a pain for much the same reason.

That isn’t to say the controls are bad, they aren’t. That is a general flaw with all the games of the genre. The controls for  Two Point Hospital are actually quite well done. They are smooth and function well and the graphics are downright beautiful. I love watching the people with the Mock Star illness just dance around the hospital or seeing people with lightheadedness walk around with their lightbulb heads. Seeing them get screwed off and fixed is always fun.

Building rooms is always easy, it is a simple matter of holding a button, spreading out where you want it then picking where items go. It is also super easy to simply copy a room if you need a 2nd room. This is important to me because it shouldn’t be a hassle to build multiple GP offices for example.

The sound is also great, my favorite part is listening to random announcements from reception. For example, if the hospital is dirty she will apologize about the litter the patients dropped on our floor, and if the hospital is haunted she will tell people not to feed the ghost since they are already dead.

Everything about this game is designed to be humorous and it succeeds easily. The best part about this is while it is clearly a spiritual successor to Theme Hospital there are many things different and improved on. I am hoping this is the first of many Theme games in this universe, and this one is a must buy. I don’t believe in perfect scores and will probably never give one out, but if a game ever came close that I’ve reviewed this is it. easily a 9/10. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

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As always, first and foremost, thank you, everyone, over at NIS America for hooking me up with a review copy of these games. I say games because while you buy them together they are two games in the same series.

First I will get the stories out of the way. In Langrisser 1 you play as Prince Ledin. After your home country is attacked you set out to retrieve the sword that was stolen and you are bound to protect as it can be used to unseal the forces of darkness.

In Langrisser 2, you play as Elwin, a man trapped between two warring factions and it will be your job to figure out the best way to bring peace to the world.

The games themselves play basically the same way. They are strategy RPG’s from the bygone era when the likes of Shining Force and such were just getting started. You move your characters across the map and different characters are better against other unit types. Enemy charging you with horses? Defend yourself with spearmen. Counter spearmen with regular infantry or take down those pesky flying enemies with bowmen. Is it better to take down individual soldiers one at a time or to aim for enemy commanders so the whole squad retreats? These are all choices you will have to make in each battle and those choices I never got tired of making.

This game has seen many upgrades from the original version from sound to visuals and even new characters. This helps when you are trying to see the over 20 endings both games offer and well over 500 outcomes for each character. The games have great replay value and as a fan of old fashioned RPG’s like this, and someone that missed the original release I truly appreciate the ability to bounce between the remastered and original art styles. This is one of those series I didn’t know I missed or wanted until now, and I am happy I found out. The game is beautiful, the sound is great and any fan of the genre should pick it up. 9/10 from me, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.