Recent reviews by Dune Tiger

The Roottrees are Dead (He's right, they are dead)
The Roottrees are dead (Look at that one, it's dead)
It had to be done (I'll just confirm that they're dead)
So that we could have fun (Affirmative - I poked one, it was dead)

I really enjoy this game, but this is a very cautious thumbs-up. There's a lot going against ATC4 and it's only going to please a relatively small group of people.

The first and most obvious hang-up is the cost. Even on sale, it doesn't dip that low, and it's a pretty monstrous tag for a game that is nearing its 10-year anniversary. You do get quite a lot for it, of course, but it may not seem like enough to many people. Without the cost-prohibitive DLC, the base game gives you one airport at Haneda, aka Tokyo International Airport. However, you are provided a set of escalating scenarios that get really challenging, plus the ability to make your own scenarios and relive traffic from 2017, all of which can amount to hours and hours of play.

The second hang-up is that the game really gives no consideration of your time. Each scenario plays out in real-time and takes 20-45 minutes to complete (possibly longer; I haven't even hit the final stretch of scenarios). People chasing S-ranks are in for even more frustration as the only way to get that coveted "S" is to play a perfect game; any single mistake that you cannot correct means starting over. However, that leads into the third and most important hang-up.

Thing is, ATC4 isn't really a sim by any measure. It has a very specific ruleset that doesn't always make a whole lot of sense and while your decisions can obviously affect how a scenario plays out and the real-time ticking means that there are always going to be variations on timing, it is essentially a puzzle game. To really enjoy it, you must agree to its arbitrary systems and learn to work within it. If you do, then the game can feel absolutely rewarding, but if you can't put your assumptions aside, then you will more likely feel frustration at every turn. It's why I've owned this forever and have only recently started putting the time into it.

Probably the most glaring issue with ATC4's (and its console spin-off Airport Hero series, too) ruleset is one of absolute commitment. In other words, once you send certain orders, they can never be rescinded, never changed, never adjusted. For example, when an incoming flight first shows up on the radar, you have a few minutes to decide whether or not to change its runway, but only if you don't give it certain other orders (route changes are okay). Once that's locked in, however, it is really locked in - that plane is going to that strip of asphalt and nothing can deter it from doing so, even if that means it's going to go around indefinitely due to environment changes (thereby affecting your score). There's tons of stuff like this that gives your decisions unpredictable results.

There's a risk and efficiency system in the works, too, and there is mystery surrounding both. Generally, efficiency is ensuring your planes are on time and risk is obviously not putting planes at risk of crashing. You might cut a route to give a plane more time, but then when you tell it to intercept, you suddenly lose time or magically increase your risk. A single wrong order can add minutes to a plane and lose you the scenario because, again, remember that many orders are locked in the moment you give them. Accidentally gave someone takeoff clearance when they were still taxiing, but you've now noticed that incoming Boeing? Too bad. It's going and you can't give it a new order. Clicked the wrong entry point on a runway that cost you 30 seconds even though there's still 4 minutes of taxiing? Unfortunately the TechnoBrain gods have deemed that there is no regresties. Ever. That level of inflexibility can be extremely frustrating, especially with ATC. On the other hand, if you can learn to delay yourself - even at the cost of points - you can find more wiggle room, but only just a little.

So with all of these arbitrary rules to learn and not all of them being obvious, the only real way to get through the game is by having some kind of clairvoyance. You won't know that two planes spawn at specific times to collide in mid-air just outside the airport because there's a good gap between them - unless you saw it happen already and can make the right adjustments way ahead of time. You won't know that this very obvious time-saver won't work and will cost you risk unless you completely understand the ruleset or you've tried it before. What I'm getting at is that the only way to really get through each scenario with perfect play is to play it and fail it, possibly several times, to learn the timing and the twists to get the right results. Only in this way can you learn what happens, what works and what doesn't work, but obviously this is going to cost you a lot of your personal time because the game just doesn't care.

So with all that to consider, ATC4 is very much a game of either simply surviving the scenario or pursuing perfect play. In the latter case, the game can shine, but it requires a commitment to repetition as well as your free time. Approaching it as a puzzle game made it much more enjoyable for me, trying to find the solution that gives me the highest rank possible, but it also meant learning to accept that the game is not dynamic or flexible. You learn to be on top of things in its own weird little bubble, but it does stay true to itself and never falters so in that sense, it remains fair if somewhat unpredictable at first. You get more out of ATC4 if you don't spend all of your time asking why you can't do something and focus more on what you can accomplish and how to do it and yes, sometimes it will take hours just to get past one scenario because you've been running it all week.

On the plus side, even though you may be dumping hours into it, you are almost always engaged. It's a massive juggling act as you get into the later scenarios and it definitely keeps you on your toes, even if you already know what's supposed to happen. You maybe get a minute or so here and there where absolutely nothing happens, but it's rare; things ramp up quickly and you're playing all roles - delivery, approach, ground, tower, departure. It is a lot to handle. But if you can get your mindset correct, you'll find why this game has survived and is receiving expansions even to this day, ten years after its debut.

Is it for everyone? Certainly not. Is it for ATC enthusiasts? Not really, although there is obvious love there. But if you're looking for a tough puzzle game themed around one of the busiest airports in Japan, then you may enjoy yourself. ATC4 will speak to a very specific type of personality while it will completely irritate another. If none of what I've said has detracted you from putting the game in your cart, I'm sure you'll be fine.

This is a weak red thumb for those who like to filter negative reviews to get the other side of the otherwise completely-glowing response from the community. The game is well-made, specific in its design goals, and accomplishes them very well. In that respect, it's worth looking into.

That said, MiSide often feels like a waste of your time. Its pace is plodding, it has constant moments where it is very specifically wasting your time "for effect", and while it is a solidly put-together game, it is mostly mimicking superior works and comes off as highly derivative. The sum of its parts does make something mostly unique, but it's all very familiar territory. If you've played DDLC, Needy Streamer, and other tsundere/yandere "horror" games, you already mostly know how this works. You'll also recognize tropes from PT, Bloober-style games, etc. While none of these elements would in and of themselves be an issue, this kind of game hangs its hat entirely on its narrative and I'm afraid that the writing just isn't strong enough to be all that compelling. It's very clear what kind of game it wants to be, but it's mostly just throwing its hat into the circle rather than bringing anything new to the table.

And while the narrative eventually does find its footing, it takes a good handful of hours before it does. Another reviewer even commented the specific point where I found myself entirely unentertained (meeting Cappie) and I couldn't help but feel like this was more common than it should be. In fact, the only thing compelling me to push forward at that point was how much money I'd spent on the game and nothing more. There wasn't much of a hook and that meant 2 or 3 hours of just moving forward with little drawing me in other than that the game is on rails so you can't really get stuck.

"But, bro," you say, because you say words like bro, "you got 9 hours out of the game! You clearly liked it!" True, I got my money's worth by hunting achievements and playing around with the collectibles and I did say that the narrative does find its footing, but I shouldn't have had to push myself to find it, and this is coming from a guy who likes slow-burn cinema from overseas. In other words, I wish I liked it a whole lot more than I do.

On the technical side, Aihasto has accomplished some neat things and the game ran buttery smooth end-to-end with no bug in sight (at least in my experience). There's clear talent in the actual design department; the levels are neat, the minigames and arcade games are fully realized, the puzzles are clear and not overly obtuse, and the game obviously looks really good. They even did this neat thing with the text where it occupies real space instead of a floating text box, but its novelty wears off and it really becomes more of a hinderance than anything else; you can't skip forward and if you happen to be standing in the wrong spot, you'll miss some dialogue because it's literally printing out at your knees. The horror elements, while present, are low key and thankfully don't depend entirely on mindgames and "lol what reality" style stuff you find in a typical Bloober game.... well, that's disingenuous; the premise of MiSide is entirely one mindgame, but it fits organically rather than being used to escape corners that the writing team has painted themselves into.

Ultimately, while MiSide is very capable, it doesn't really have anything new to say that the games that inspired it haven't said already. If anything, it feels like a typical heartbreaker - a valiant effort that doesn't really do anything different other than present a variation on a theme. It is, at the end of the day, a fine game and that's okay, but if you're looking for a compelling experience, there's better options out there because it is very much aware of those options and spends a lot of its time following their footsteps almost right down to the formula.

I am glad that it has found success and that people enjoy it. I don't mean to paint it as a terrible game because it isn't one. If a whole list of titles that I don't care to present didn't exist, I'd be a lot more impressed with MiSide. That said, I've been around the block a few times and it's just a little too familiar to be impactful. I honestly feel like the response is more an indication that the general audience really wants to find something profound and will hitch their horse to anything that attempts it that isn't an outright disaster. But MiSide is not profound. It barely stands out, to be blunt, and perhaps its greatest accomplishment is demonstrating how hairstyles are very powerful ways of changing perception. So if you're hungry for this kind of thing and have played the rest, by all means, go ahead and go through the motions. To me, it exists, and despite being initially a chore to go through, it does eventually bloom into something.... and that's better than nothing.

This game is really cool and I'm starting to feel down about nearing the finish line. Most other players would probably have crossed it hours ago, but I've been taking my sweet time as it keeps my oldened brain on its toes (oldened adj: ripened, but not to a state requiring repurposing into banana bread).

At its base level, this is a puzzle game masquerading as a tactics game (not an admonishment), but the twist of it is that the enemies act in a deterministic fashion. This means they do the same thing every time, all of the time. In fact, the game is even kind enough to clearly display each mob's next move. And if you still can't figure it out, the game allows you to rewind your turn step-by-step until you're satisfied with the results. They only change what they do based on the tactical plays you make; who moves where, when, and what do they do when they get there, etc. Played straight, the game is pretty easy and even the lowliest of tactical minds will be able to navigate it, at least until Act 4 begins, but even then, struggling just to get through it would be considered a stretch.

The real gem of the game is its challenge goals which are entirely optional and provide no benefit whatsoever. In fact, doing them only nets you "confidence" points for each character so you can buy alternate outfits for them. That's it. But no self-respecting puzzler is going to let some designer get the best of them and believe you me, some of these goals take meticulous planning to pull off and I love it for that. For example, if the scenario were about delivering an 80-series RTX card to a kingly sweatlord, but there were an army of ebay scalpers trying to take it off you, you might be asked to maybe also throw some them out of a window while you were doing it for bragging rights. Each level has 2 or 3 of these extra challenges and they make the game far more interesting. Granted, some players out there will ignore these challenges, but I can't imagine just letting them sit there go unclaimed.

Making this even more appealing is that each character under your control is, in some form or another, a magic user and therefore have unique abilities and traits to make the tactical decisions even more delicious. The game's narrative provides ample explanation for why each of your characters are not clones of each other and the diversity of their movesets and how they might play off each other is a lot of fun to explore and the challenge goals most definitely help you explore those options, too. Although I characterized this as a puzzle game, you do make several tactical choices that change the way each scenario plays out; unless you are robotically following a guide, chances are you're making very different decisions than other players and the enemy reacts accordingly while remaining predictable. Throw in the rewind feature and you have a lot of flexibility in figuring out how best to go about accomplishing your objectives and if you're anything like me, you can easily find yourself tinkering with variations only to wipe it all and restart, but I swear it's fun to do it!

So what's the catch? You can only rewind your current turn (in steps), which may comprise of several steps, but it's still nevertheless your one turn which, without considering abilities, consists of one move and one action for each of your fielded characters. Once you move forward and let the enemy take their turn, there's no going back (except restarting, of course) which means this big thing you're taking 3 turns to set up might not play out because you made a mistake on turn 2 and now you've got to improvise. Stuff like that keeps you engaged and never once did I feel like I had to memorize a solution in order to move forward. As a game with tactical offerings, adpatability is a big component of how you play it.

Finally the story itself brilliantly serves the game instead of the other way around, with both humor and heart. It's part of the reason why I'm getting down about reaching the end. It's pretty witty and surprisingly-engaging as it unfurls itself; each of the characters has complexity and develops well (except for Steve Clark) and by the yarn's end, you'll have gotten to know this ecclectic cast of friends and enemies. Moreover, each story beat organically progresses the game and opens up the player experience and never feels forced. The writing skill here is on full display and it's a lot of fun, especially with the humor that would feel tired in a weaker writer's hands.

I've really enjoyed my time with this one and for someone who has oldened on countless games, that is saying a lot. You might not know it, but I do, and I feel like this is just one of those games that reached deep into my core and said, "I get you." I think that's pretty special so yeah, maybe you should give it a whirl.

This DLC is insane. It was all a casual fun time before I hit these levels. I'd suggest you try the base game first before committing to this because these levels are super tight and have you doing all kinds of nasty things to achieve their objectives. Still fun, but it's a wildly different time than what came before it.

Just like in its predecessor, I have no idea what I'm doing, but the sensory assault is phenomenal.

My only recommendation is to play EX mode. I went from avg score of 12-20M on regular mode to 600M on my very first go at EX mode and I got to see two of the special bonus tables. Way more fun in that mode, but... I'm no smarter than I was when I started.

Against any other game, Wilds is an excellent game and still representative of the genre its predecessors founded. The boss-battler-by-paper-doll game remains best in its class when it allows you to play it as such. Against previous entries, however, Wilds is a bit disappointing and feels not so much a step backwards, but rather an unimpressive and restrained tip-toe ahead. Think of this as a direct follow-up to World rather than something that acknowledges Rise's existence. The "hot new thing" is a reworking of the wounding mechanic introduced in Iceborne. Gone is the claw and forcing mounts - wounds happen naturally now as you wail on a monster and we get a new button combo that specifically targets wounds and leads us to the best version of our chosen weapons (usually). Faster weapons tend to be a bit more fun in that respect because getting the wounds makes the monster go down faster, but you're not really dependent on it, at least in the early game.

If Monster Hunter Rise's core tenet was verticality, then Wilds is about staying grounded. It's a return to World's principles, which is fine, but surprising given how much more mobile we were in Rise. Granted, I didn't expect everything from Rise to make its way here, but thankfully the mounted travel was retained, even if it's a little different than it was before. This means the biomes are much more expansive than in World and feature mount-only shortcuts and gathering can be done while on the move by using your slinger.

Speaking of gathering - everything feels... chunkier and delayed. World was excellent about streamlining the tedium of the original mainline games by having you gather on-the-fly almost instantly, but Wilds often makes you wait for animations to play out, albeit we're still far from your hunter sifting through grass and breakable bug nets, so it's not a big complaint. More to say that things feel just a tad bit slower and less responsive and will take some time getting used to, but otherwise it's not a deal breaker.

Everything else is very familiar for veterans, especially if you cut your teeth on World as this one feels like an extension of that game, but there is one thing that I really don't like about Wilds and it's the incessant railroading. I don't really know who's out there demanding that these games have a sweeping narrative, but if you want it, it's here and it's obtrusive so congratulations, I guess. All I ever really needed was "Guild found monsters. Guild says go kill 'em," but here we get some really awful story about an orphaned sandbag looking to find his way home and I don't really know; it's not really compelling, to say the least. Thing is, the game is constantly pushing you along this track and it just incessantly interrupts what you really came here to do. It's fine and it's inoffensive, but it's so very meh and they spent way too much time and money putting it together, imo. The cutscenes are cool and play out in-engine with higher-detail models, but you're also forced into set-pieces where you're doing "cinematic" hunts to move the story forward. Thankfully they still let you get your carves, but it often feels like you're not in control.

That said, when you're not pursuing the story, the mission board from your new handler allows you to farm as per usual and everything you expect to be there is there. I have yet to figure out how to change equipment on the fly as there's no more chest in the camp; instead it seems like you always have to enter your tent. Again, not a dealbreaker, but it's kind of annoying and of course, slows things down. On the plus side, you can now cook your own meals anywhere in the field with the BBQ spit so if you forget to eat, you don't have to rush back to camp. On the down side, grilling raw meat no longer has a fun jingle. Bring back the "looks tasty" ladies!

On the much-discussed performance issues, I haven't encountered any and my setup is farily ancient by today's standards. I run a 2070 Super at 1080p with DLSS and DLAA on and the game looks and plays fantastic. I think it really sucks that people are having trouble with it and nobody wants to pick up a game with a technical gamble like what's being reported, but on that front I can only suggest patience as Capcom will eventually iron stuff out if their prior entries are any indication. But as a lifelong PC gamer, this is nothing new - compatibility issues will always be something hanging over the platform, but Capcom are not a garage dev and I have faith that they'll continue to work on it. The improvement over the beta, at least for me, is orders of magnitude better. Keep sending in that data and let them figure it out. Or don't because Capcom is going to kidnap your kids, whatever. Just hold off is all I'm saying.

Overall, I really like Wilds but I am also preordained to like MonHun because it's MonHun. That said, I feel it's a slightly underwhelming entry into the series; I admit I was hoping for Rise on World's budget, but that isn't what gets me about it. It just feels like you're stuck on rails for far too long before the game starts letting you loose and the story is so not fun for me. I prefer when the monsters act as forces of nature and the problem is survival rather than the idea of an evil mystery monster doing mystery evil things. That's just me, I know.

So I'll leave it at this - if you've never played Monster Hunter World, I'd strongly recommend that over Wilds. It's more affordable and it's a complete experience and most of the kinks have been ironed out for a silky-smooth experience and so far, this one doesn't feel all that different. Veterans, on the other hand, will find something fun here even if it is a little lackluster in the grand scope of the series, but Wilds is still MonHun and that should be enough for any fan. I loved the mobility of Rise and hope to see some of that return in an expansion, but that's a long ways away. For now, I look at this as World 2.

Shout out to the unforgivably-missing Sisterly Fourth.

Whether you are a series fan, an enthusiast of the novel, or just wandering on by as a curious gamer looking for something new to play, Dynasty Warriors Origins is a good game. There are tons of things to go over and tear down, but at the end of the day, if you're looking for a fun, tactical hack'n'slash-style game that doesn't feel intent on making you too sweaty, then this should please you. The challenge is just right at the start, and by the end of your first go at it, you'll be a roaming killing machine that flits about the battlefield to support your allies so the classic Dynasty Warriors power fantasy is still in tact. If that sounds like a good time to you, then just go ahead and get it. It may not be a super tenouttaten, but you likely won't be disappointed by what's here.

The crux of the gameplay is its combat, which has been mostly reworked from previous entries to be arguably far removed from what it once was; everything else is fluff. When you are unleashed onto any battlefield - whether it's a quick skirmish, a rarer medium-sized event, or one of the huge map-encompassing story battles - you go in armed with one of (eventually) ten weapons, each with a unique playstyle and customizable "battle arts" (special attacks) and usually an objective of "kill that one dude that's in the corner." You can generally switch them mid-combat via the menus if you want to, but it's not a game mechanic (no RPS switching like in DW8). Instead, where the general formula was once "weak, weak... strong" style combos, the strong attacks now all behave differently depending on the weapon you're using, greatly lending a uniqueness and style to each one that is available to you. It feels more like "normal attack" and "weapon attack" instead of a weak/strong division, even though yes, one is weak and one is strong. For example, your starting sword feels most traditional with strong combo finishers, but the rings/chakras fly out like boomerangs and require you to time your strong attacks to the moment you catch them or pick them up in order to unleash a more powerful attack. Likewise, the staff asks you to hold down the strong button to squeeze juice out of it, but the twin pikes (double axe) has you spamming the button to achieve similar results. It's very new to this franchise and a very engaging way to interact with your character where previous entries simply swapped the animations and timing, but relatively had you spamming X, X, X, Y regardless of what you were holding.

What this means, then, is that while each weapon feels unique and most definitely changes the way you approach a melee, Koei's decision to build the weapons this way means that they're starting from the ground up. The trade-off is that while ten weapons that play uniquely is absolutely fantastic, series veterans may lament that the remaining seventy weapons (or whatever the number is) that they've come up with over the years are no longer represented. I personally miss not having hook swords, but understandably, they were a very late addition to the franchise. Personally, it doesn't bother me much because there's an implied promise that, given the series' history for iteration, those weapons will eventually return with expansions or sequels. However, of the weapons you do get to play with, you'll need to grind them up in order to unlock their full potential as you'll find new ways of engaging that weapon button, which opens up even more tactical options as you play.

Regardless, the goal of each battle generally remains the same - mow down a bunch of mooks as you make your way to take out named officers and ruin the enemy's good time. What's different here is that this is no longer the cakewalk that, after nine entries in the mainline, officer battles are known to be. Rather than simply wailing away until the officer disappears, each one now has their own endurance bar that needs to be whittled away in order to do real damage. Gone are the days where simply breaking or circumventing their guard meant taking huge chunks of their health; these guys can take a hit, no matter how low on the pole they are and in the opening hours, officer fights can be challenging affairs. Timing becomes more of an essential skill than it previously has, introducing perfect dodges, parries, and timed special attack counters on top of all the new weapon timings being brought into the game. Eventually, it all becomes second nature, but getting to that point is so much fun and it's a big reason why people feel so positive about DWO.

The fluff, on the other hand, is give-or-take, but it's understandable why Koei made some decisions given that this is essentially a reworking of the Dynasty Warriors system without throwing out its essence, which is a very delicate balancing act to start with. While there is an obvious graphical upgrade in place, replacing flat plains with rolling hills and map verticality that for other franchises would be no surprise, several characters also received cosmetic redesigns (Gan Ning looks piratey instead of rockstar-y now, Sun Shangxiang got a haircut, etc.) and an overworld map replaces the typical scenario tree we're used to in lieu of the open world they tried with DW9. Exploring it slows down the game somewhat as there is a greater focus on spawning skirmishes and doling out narrative cutscenes in between the big story battles, but it allows you to take the game at your own pace and spend time searching for resources to boost your abilities or your inventory.

Besides pointedly covering only the first third of the novel (the game ends at Chi Bi - or Red Cliffs, if you will), the most glaring and obvious thing here is that you play as a fantasy insert that has very little customization and absolutely drives the narrative to a completely different place than it normally goes. You do not get to play as your favorite famous officer and take them through history except for brief periods where you can swap to your partner; instead you are a fantasy tourist and apparently a force of nature that cannot be stopped - a god amongst men whose very presence is a gift to those you ally with and there are no shortages of scenes of everyone telling you so. While you do get to partake in some famous historical battles from the novel, you are the One True Hero that affects how it plays out. It's kind of sucky if you look at it that way and at first it bothered me. What I did enjoy, however, is that the limited focus on the beginning of the story allowed Koei to explore characterization that they never could before; characters are less their cartoonish end-states and now have more nuance to them. Yes, Liu Bei is still the goody goody hug buddy he's always been, but most notably Cao Cao is presented as more intelligent, idealistic, and expresses wisdom and reasoning instead of being a cackling villain. It's a cool take to see these guys actually grow into who we know them to be (as far as DW is concerned) rather than them just being that right from the start. That part remains fascinating even if they do spend all their time showering your PC with adulation.

For someone like me who has been playing these since the very start, it's the implied promise of DWO that makes it truly exciting. DW9 had great ideas, but the execution was lacking. DWO's new combat system and the revisited way of focusing on officers makes the idea of the next mainline entry something I greatly look forward to, especially if they can juice the positives out of DW9. There's no explicit mention by the devs that this is the way forward, but if I may say so - this is the way forward. The narrative should go back to what it was, and it's going to take time to get all the weapons covered, but the grittier and more tactical combat is a welcome change. The potential this franchise now has is immense and I can't wait to see what they do with this.

PS: Mandarin dub is awesome! Courtesy names!

As a lifelong Ys fan, I admit I slept on this entry. For whatever reason, I was pulled away from it and didn't have a hankerin' to go back and so I've largely ignored it over the years. It may have been a combination of not liking some of the decisions they made in regards to the setting and something else evoking "ooh, shiny" 13 years ago, but it definitely wasn't because it was a bad game. It's not anything remotely of the sort, but alas, it didn't draw me in. However, it showed up for dirt cheap on the Switch and I figured why not have a portable version and I have been absolutely enthralled from start to finish. So despite my posted hours on Steam, I'm coming back here to give a good ol' thumbs-up, especially since there may be new eyes on it due to the Memoire release of the Oath in Felghana.

So to get it out of the way, there's just a handful of things that I initially didn't like that I have now come to terms with. The most major one is some of the platforming elements in this game. It's by no means terrible and not anywhere close to Napishtim (Ys VI) levels of frustration, but the otherwise-charming perspective can sometimes work against you when you need to make precision jumps, especially with some of the bosses that absolutely require you to bunny hop like a lunatic. However, bosses-aside, it's never much of a problem to go back to where you were and try again; the game is super quick, features absolutely no drawn-out load times and you'll be grinding some xp on the way back, so it's no big deal. The other things are pretty minor and I've long gotten over them; first, given that this takes place 700 years prior to Ys I & II, there's no Adol (series MC) or Dogi (series sidekick) to be found and second, the fact that it takes place entirely in a demonic tower means the environments are drab and bland compared to more typical Ys vistas. I've grown up a lot since this game dropped and have delved into many a dungeon so suffice to say my mind is a lot more open than it used to be as a young, angry gamer lol

What really matters is that Ys Origin is designed specifically to keep you out of menus. You'll go in from time to time, of course, but the focus here is on responsive, thrilling, button-mashing action. You can't defend yourself, so you can't just run in like a goon and breeze through it, but part of the fun is simply navigating hordes and figuring out how to dispatch them without getting hit a lot since there's no portable healing available. There are drops, of course, but you can't be dependent on them, especially since they don't happen during exquisite boss fights that I'll get to in a bit. You'll have various tools and abilities available to you as you navigate the game with the three available characters in three separate, but connected yarns, and there are indeed some puzzles to solve, but at all times you are in the thick of it until you hit exposition points where the story unfolds. It proves to be a fun time that has a bit more depth than it seems, but ultimately you are a killing machine and it's fun to watch every enemy explode like pinatas dropping a smattering of pick-ups.

Puzzles mostly take the form of some platforming, finding and pushing buttons or killing enough monsters to get through gates so you can find and push buttons, but the bosses themselves are also puzzles. Not that you're expected to kick blocks or solve equations, mind you - the boss fights are about learning the patterns and figuring out how to get their defenses down so you can wail on 'em. It's a lot of old school ideas that work together to figure out the loop of navigating a level and finding its treasures - which often grant new abilities or more powerful variations thereof, like a Metroidlike without all of the backtracking - opening the boss gate and kicking its ass, and then a short conversation with NPCs.

It can be repetitive, yes, but JRPG and J-ARPG fans here will be used to it and the constant real-time action means you're almost always engaged directly when not in a dialog roll. And the game just feels good to play so it doesn't really get boring. It's responsive, full of dazzling effects, and the music is probably in the top 3 of the entire franchise in a franchise known for its incredible music. That is saying a lot.

There are some existing bugs that probably won't get fixed, but none of them are game-breaking; they'll annoy the completionist, but otherwise the game is solid and plays silky smooth. It upscales very nicely and while it's 13 years old at this point, it still feels fresh and fun if you can get over the visuals (which I quite enjoy anyway).

Ys Origin is a fantastic entry into the series even if thematically it's a bit of a black sheep. If you're looking to jump into the franchise (and to be frank, you can jump in anywhere), this wouldn't be a bad choice. I love the Ys VI engine trilogy (Napishtim, Felghana, and Origin) because of its solid gameplay-first goals and Origin definitely learned lessons from its predecessors. The new ones might tickle your fancy more especially if you haven't been following along, but you can trust Falcom to deliver a great experience every time.

Don't buy this, I guess.

Falcom pulling an Atlus and announcing a better version coming out isn't as big a deal as announcing it just months after release; that's just scummy. Of the very few companies I still respected, this is a pretty heartbreaking turn of events because now they join the bucket of just wait a few years for the better reissue. It doesn't matter if the translation took forever - there's no way a re-release launching in 2025 was a surprise for either Falcom or NISA. You could have just held off and not tried to fleece the West. The end result is that I will wait years before picking up Proud Nordics because there's no way I'm dropping anything remotely close to MSRP on it.