Recent reviews by iza

Your dungeon is full of yogurt.

I NEED MORE YAKUZA

It took me a while to get warm with the game but essentially it is exactly what this ARPG should: you loot, you level and you progress in just the right amount of speed.

Compared to Diablo IV the loot doesn't suck 99% of the time and you can also target farm specific items you might need for your builds. You can combine 2 classes, making way for new combinations as well. Plenty of content, also endgame content as well and the game is still getting patched, with an upcoming expansion early in 2024.

The music is nothing groundbreaking but fits the Dark Fantasy theme. Graphics are okay but outdated by now, if you fancy graphics, there is PoE 2 coming at some point, Diablo IV is a thing and who knows about Titan Quest 2, which might be the closest you would have to Grim Dawn.

Game is decent, but can't recommend it for now. Barebones.

Despite being technically a little messy at the end, which is patchable, this review should just remind developers, especially publishers to release less live-service garbage and develop video games again. It felt like a video game and most certainly played like one.

Nope, same dog game.

- ranked is a disease, even at high elo
- community is unwilling to adjust
- ActiBlizz peak performance greed that there is nothing to go for anymore, even the BP is trash

Don't bother, I'm doing my part to keep the game low.

- SBMM in ranked mode, like WTF is the rank for anyway at this point? I had a break for more than enough seasons to return and I get Diamond 1 - Master and I was ranked Bronze. I queue as Bronze and I get Diamond 1 - Master. What the ♥♥♥♥ is this Respawn? I can't play casual as I get CONSTANT Predators in my match, I can't even have fun with my friends at this point.

- ranking: I get punished for playing active, people were capable of being master rank by ratting. I can't. Holy ♥♥♥♥.

- hit reg issues: My bullets literally fly through people, shots don't reg, servers haven't been fixed since I don't know, forever? Last season I played seriously was season 7/8 and there are still the SAME issues.

- weapon/character balance: who thought the Nemesis is a balanced weapon? How does Respawn think it is balanced after introducing a new season? Why do they think Horizon is in a good state?

- maps: I can't. Broken Moon is one big pile of ♥♥♥♥, you can't even predict where people COULD or COULD NOT be anymore, everyone has evac towers on top, everyone has 5 times as much mobility now even though it was more than fine enough, why is this a thing?

- blatant cheating: how does EAC not detect blatant aim snapping from head to head? And why does this happen so often?

I'll be honest, I enjoy the core game and a lot of its mechanics, but maybe it is best to put the game down for good. None of my friends are having fun with the game anymore and neither do I.

After playing Persona 5 on my PS4 first, playing Persona 4 Golden on my PC afterwards now playing Persona 3 Portable I have to say, it was absolutely worth it.

I was glad they chose the Portable version because of the female protagonist, as this feels like a major change. It sounds mundane, however this was no simple "I change to female and the dialogue and the comments stay the same", there are many new dialogue lines, the female protagonist was clearly more involved around the girls of the group and was treated different by everyone - not in a bad way obviously, but I actually felt like being involved in situations and dialogues that would have never happened with the male protagonist, which was very refreshing compared to modern video games, where it is often NO difference at all when you choose your sex.

Graphics are exactly what you would expect in this game from a ported version of a portable... I learned about the drawbacks I made when watching the FES version - here is hoping for the rumored remake, then I would play the game right again immediately in its full glory.

To the people having troubles with the sound, I'm pretty sure this is tied to the English VO of the game, as playing with the Japanese VO was absolutely no issue at all to me. Although this is the first Persona I played in Japanese VO, I just preferred it a lot more than the English one. However in Persona 4 Golden and Persona 5 Royal English VO is superb, I just didn't feel it here though. Speaking of the music, it truly is top tier in ATLUS fashion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jFaoLrLzd4 (Male MC battle OST)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cTS7iSNvUg (Female MC battle OST)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfaPQibemwE (Female MC school OST)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCpo61azoYE (Moving around in the city)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXX94yJgTz4 (Second semester in school)

Just to name a few example. Final boss OST actually is an absolute banger and should be listened blind to at this point.

Gameplay does not really differ from its sequels, although the social aspect was kind of a slog as some social links were just available for a VERY limited time (a few for only a month or two at best). The characters are charming and as expected in ATLUS fashion I felt attached to them after a while, as they have well-developed personalities and hardships.

Combat is as you expected, although the start of the game felt almost unfair as enemies were able to RNG you pretty quickly unless knowing the weaknesses already, but after receiving the AOE skills it was doable. The endgame made the little grinding obsolete however, as you get a "special little dungeon" and thus able to get to level 90+ relatively fast and easy. I was stuck with Siegfried and used all the stat cards on him alongside with skills tailored for him as I started to one-shot mobs with AoE physical attacks (the nice attack with +great bonus).

I definitely recommend the game and if I didn't play any Persona prior to this I would have done it from 3 to 4 to 5 as they just get progressively better in terms of quality of life and many other additions. I really liked the story aspect and chose not to write about it, because it should be experienced blind. Personally I couldn't really say which story I liked the most, as 3, 4 and 5 have a great story to tell.

I genuinely want to like this game and despite having great gameplay, the item fetching and running in circles, just because I missed something so small that I ended up spending 20 minutes more for a single level, the maps are WAY too big as well, although well crafted.

I just ended up dropping it because I don't feel like doing the same thing over and over (fetching and puzzle games being really annoying at some point). Shame, because the game is actually great. When I want to play a boomer shooter, I don't want to play a puzzle game though.

The balance in this game is so out of control, this is unreal.
Also massive lags in between.