Nylige anmeldelser av blue

i do not play castlevania for the story in the first place, especially since the story is very sparse, so i mostly play for the castle crawling and gameplay. any criticism of the story aside, this being a castlevania reboot - it's not a very good game!

terribly dull combat, uninspired bosses, camera that feels like it's handled by a geriatric man the instant you stop for half a second, very boring levels, uninspired collectibles, non-stop QTEs... this game is not worth your time or money. in any capacity.

oh yeah and this is me just glancing over all the numerous times the game just does not function. interaction that doesn't work because you're at the wrong angle, jump that doesn't want to happen, random knick knacks that are just terribly frustrating to deal with.

if this didn't have "castlevania" attached to it, it would be forgotten to the tides of time. it plays like a boring ps2 action game that no one wants to play anymore, and for good reason. it is the embodiment of mediocre tediousness.

I will grant it credit where credit due : the visuals and set pieces hold well 15 years later. About the only nice thing I can say about this game.

on a more personal note : i would question the taste in games of anyone that finds this offering enjoyable. truly makes me wonder if you have played more than 3 video games in your life.

a mostly decent time. they gave Copen his own game, the weapons feel good, the stage designs are GV2 ish but are mostly okay. overall, a decent time, though i did have a couple of gripes

-visual effects. photo sensitivity is not a hazard for me but my eyes hurt by the end of the game and unless i missed an option, having every boss do big flashy things is a bit grating. probably could've been toned down a bit and kept its impact, but definitely a personal issue

-final boss. far from the worst boss i've ever fought, but demands to do "pattern farming". by pattern farming i mean dying a lot until you figure out what its moves are so you can actually win. not a bad way to do bosses, but by far the most annoying part of megaman inspired games (especially bosses in the Megaman X series). truly a type of design i loath personally, but i do feel it's worth mentioning because the rest of the game will allow you to beat it, and "pattern farming" for other bosses provides with better scoring as a reward. particularly annoying when it is multiphase with long invuln periods, which the rest of the game does not have.

good score-attack action platforming game!!! c'mon boss you can do a bigger combo!!!!

I couldn't get past the tutorial. incredible game. thank you Todd. looking forward to redguard

a really really really fun action platformer. i wasn't too sold before playing it because it looked really different than GV1 and 2, but damn this game is tight. really frantic stages, fun comboing and great movement - whole game is a pleasure. music is great too, and presentation has been greatly improved (UI and assets don't look "crunched" anymore)

the only downside for most would be the story i guess, because it introduces a lot of things and doesn't really answer questions laid down in past games, but i don't personally really play these games for the story, so i'm biased to not care. doesn't bring down the tight gameplay in any capacity.

a much sturdier game than gunvolt 1. features actual level design, and a whole second campaign. Gunvolt's gameplay doesn't change but honestly the actual level design more than makes up for it, it feels free from Gunvolt 1's weird idea of kind of being a Megaman Zero game but not really.

also a better PC port, including a better resolution and asset scaling, even though the game crashed once for me on the final boss and I had to redo that whole segment. infuriating but not worth dumpstering the game for.

someone at inti create wondered how to follow up their work on megaman zero and decided to quadruple down on the idea of a 2d platformer with insane scoring and more robust boss fights

and you know what. it works. it's a good time.

not the greatest PC port, however!

(relatively) bite-sized yakuza. had a ton of fun with this one, easily top 3 yakuza game for me personally.

story beats won't hit as hard if you haven't played the previous entry, but a great conclusion to kiryu's story. loved every second of it.

a very easy recommend if you like RPGs

out of all the games that tried to riff off paper mario (64 and TTYD) this is the one that gets it the most. in general, i do not like to compare games for the sake of reviewing them, but i feel like it's impossible to avoid in this instance.

the writing, the cast, the music, the combat, and the world are all pretty great, and form a very pleasing and cohesive experience that is simply fun to play. i really don't think there's a better way to describe the game than "fun". it respects your time plenty, offers you a decent amount of things to do (a respectable amount of collectibles and side quests) while feeling great to play all the way through.

GRIME is an excruciating game to play for so many reasons. i do not think it's a bad game, and it's a cautious recommendation, but god is this game exhausting to play for its entire runtime.

The combat : Parry, counter, absorb, dodge. Very simple, but made difficult by the slower regeneration which makes just doing nothing (even when you have one of the rare windows of opportunity available to you) the best option, which is absolutely infuriating to deal with on so many levels. Were it only on the bosses too, it would be a bit less exhausting but no, that's something you have to deal with the entire game, which, in turns, makes traversal also incredibly exhausting. which leads me to...

The map : I have played a lot of 2d games. A decent amount. And boy is traversal in this game tiring. Not only that, you're just allowed to wander into areas you absolutely do not belong in yet purely by accident. Which is infuriating because traversal isn't the greatest until much much much later, which means a lot of walking and dealing with very exhausting combat. I think, on paper, it's cool that you can just wander. In reality? Kind of infuriating to get your teeth kicked in because you have no idea of where you need to go, past a handful of markers the game will hand to you, eventually.

It's also very easy to just, get lost? You can get past bosses and checkpoints if you don't pay attention, which would be fine for a handful, but this is true for a decent bunch of them.

The bosses : They just do not settle down. They absolutely have a pattern you can learn. It does reward you by letting you eventually win, but it is incredibly exhausting because they. do not. ever stop. You do get windows (especially with more abilities later on) but it's very easy to overcommit and get terribly punished for it.

Overall is GRIME worth it? Like I said, I don't think it's a bad game. I don't super regret beating it. But boy do I find it a hard recommend because of how demanding the game can be throughout its entire runtime. If you like harder and more punishing games this will be up your alley, but if you want a more casual time, this is absolutely not for you.

extremely uncertain why this game gets lumped in with "metroidvanias" because it's a megaman game. a fun one, too. there's a certain sense of flow to the powerups and movements, and it feels pretty good to zip around stages.

in terms of design, i don't think it will rock your socks off, but the stages are fine, with opportunities to revisit them with power ups for a bit of exploration, as well as unlockable ex stages for an additional challenge

i don't think it beats my beloved Gravity Circuit in terms of being a better improved take on megaman (x), but i still think what's on offer is serviceable and a fine enough time. well, until you want to reach the true final boss. best not to do that.

yeah so remember when i said it was fun? the game at the end expects you to just go npc hunting for the true ending. my opinion? just play the game, beat the final boss, leave it at that. pretend the rest of the game doesn't exist.

still leaving as a positive review because the game is (mostly) fine but with just the strangest of additions it didnt need at the final hour.