I picked up this game on sale for £2.49 I think it was after completing Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth and feeling a bit lost as to what to play next. I can say that I am glad that I chose to pick this up.
It’s a whimsical action role playing game which is similar to the older Zelda games. Where the entire world is inhabited by humanoid cats and the world littered with dangerous monsters.
You play as a nameless and mute hero, so pretty standard stuff here. So all the talking and exposition comes from your companion spirit guardian, Spirry. The plot of this game is that you are in search of your sister who was taken by the evil Drakoth.
On this search you are able to traverse the world at first by foot, but later you gain the abilities to walk on water and even fly. These come along as you defeat the evil dragons summoned by Drakoth. As you are marked with the Dragonblood emblem you are the only one who can defeat them.
The overworld is inhabited with a constant respawn of monsters to fight, where each area they become harder to fight. So, you can only go through each area effectively as you level up.
The capital along with two message boards where you can get side quests from.As much of the world map i’m able to fit in one go.
In order to level up the defeated monsters drop gold and exp orbs, and the levels come with stat increases. Gold can be used to go to the smith and open either a chest of 50 gold or 5000 gold. These give you new armours and weapons which also stack increasing their levels and stats. This does allow for slight character build as you can go for defence, damage or magic. With the middle ground option being a bit of two of them. Some give high damage but decrease health, or give high magic but low weapon damage etc.
The arcane shop to upgrade your magic.This is how to unlock some new or upgrade pre-existing weapons/armours.
You also have 7 magic attacks you can buy and upgrade, equipping up to 4 at one go. You get the power of fire,lightning,ice, healing, doubling in size, spike traps, and the best move an aether like laser beam.
Your basic magic menu where you can equip any variation of the four available to you.
Whilst adventuring around the land, you will come across many dungeons to explore. These dungeons only take a few minutes each and aren’t particularly large. With the goal simply to clear them, which is done by defeating all the monsters inside and claim the chests within.
Now some of these dungeons you’ll visit a few times as the towns you find all come with quest boards and have roughly three to four quests to complete. All rewarding you with exp,gold and new items.
Your armour and weapons menu again, basic and not the easiest ot navigate.
Nothing in this game is long, overall the game only takes about five to six hours to complete. With a couple more to get the platinum. It’s as simple as do the main quest, level up to level 99. Go through all dungeons and find the monuments which give a bit of lore to the game.
It’s a nice experience. Nothing over stays it’s welcome and you’re never particularly bored. Combat happens in real time, it’s quick and to the point. You attack and can dodge, and use your magic which replenishes whilst landing successful blows upon your foes. You can save and heal up at rest points which are everywhere.
The game has a great cartoon design and aesthetic to it, it’s a colourful throwback. Giving me early final fantasy, Breath of Fire or Golden Sun vibes. One nice feature which even some bigger games fail to do is every bit of armour or weapons once equipped show up on your hero. Also having a weird fetish for rituals and summoning circles. Even going all in for it on a four side quest journey involving Santa Claus. Where you save Kitmas.
I think in terms of drawbacks, it could have had a bit of a better plot, slightly bigger map. Gold for the most part doesn’t start stacking up until you are around level 40 which is a detriment when items have levels which require buying a shit load of chests. I think the combat could have just a bit more to it, even if it was just a shield with a block function. Also, maybe having like four or five bigger much harder dungeons. Not too mention when you zoom out on the map it’s static so you can’t look round. It also falls into the same trap of giving you all the best gear far too late into the game so it’s worthless. You can complete every dungeon and mission by the time your level is around the mid 80’s mark.
This game is a banging and Positively Tasty 7/10.
A quick and quirky adventure in the land of dragon slaying cats. What’s not too like? And for a few quid you can’t go wrong with some easy dungeon spelunking across a magical, monster filled land.
Just another quick game collection update in-between the reviews that’ll will continue coming your way.
I’ve got a good spread this time, and if you have been following my on any of my socials you’ll have already seen what I’ve amassed the past two months.
I’ve got a few titles I’ve been after a while which makes me very happy. I’ll start with the PS2 titles. Here we have Guitar Hero 3, Call of Duty 1 and 3. Along with Max Payne 1 which the case has seen better days and the manual is mising, which is less then ideal. A couple of film adaptations in Star Wars revenge of the Sith and Peter Jackson’s King Kong. And a title I have been after some time and comes in near mint condition which is a blessing these days. Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga. A game I was enamoured with but never owned only borrowed for a brief time. Potentially being my first proper JRPG. Next up in the very near future will be the sequel to this beast of a game to round out my collection even more.
Rolling onto the PS3, my newest additions for this console are Lord of the Rings: War in the North, Castlevania Lords of Shadow. Two games again I want to repurchase as having regretting my youth in trading in everything I have to rebuild parts of my collection. The last Simpsons game to be made and it’s that old it doesn’t come with trophies. This doesn’t take away from the fact it’s a really good game. Finally, Alice the Madness Returns, this was one of these games I managed to get an absolute steal with, as it’s becoming increasingly harder to find and going up in price and I’ve been after it since getting my PS3 about 8/9 years back.
I have one new game for the Nintendo Ds, in Guitar Hero on tour, a bit of theme here I think. Which you can also find a review on this game locked and loaded already from a few weeks back. Along with a new title for the Gamecube a favourite of mine from my much younger days. XIII, a game that didn’t deserve the piece of shit remake it got and ruined it’s cult legacy. You’d do yourself a favour and play it as it was supposed to be played and that’s on the Gamecube.
And lastly, my newest additions which are for my second favourite handheld console of all time the small and might PsVita. Again if you have the time a review of this console is ready to be read on my site. I have three new games for this system, start with the worst in Fifa football a custom built game for this system. Then the Mortal Kombat 9 port with all DLC content and my 2nd favourite pick up of this update in Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus. The more complete version of the PS3 title of Ninja Gaiden sigma. With the best way to play being this version on the Vita.
So another collection update comes to an end, I’m sure I’ll have another one ready to go soon enough. As I’m already eyeing up a few rare titles to purchase as well as always been on the lookout in my travels.
As always my friends stay happy, safe and the most important stay Tasty. Until next time.
When I did my review on the PS5 edition of the Final Fantasy 7 remake, I was probably a bit biased and wearing nostalgia googles. I maintain my review stance and still say it’s a 10 out of 10 game. This however, is a true 10 out of 10.
This game is truly a behemoth in it’s own right as well as being the second game in a planned trilogy. Now I know this game really does aim for fans of the original more than anyone and it does rely heavily on having played that on PS1 or recently enough to know what the fuck is going on.
Without trying to spoil too much, this game doubles down on the ending of the remake with the multiverse time lines. As well as really bringing in aspect of other stories from the surrounding game series. Taking a more prominent role is Zack from Crisis Core, theres a few flickering scenes that’d you blink and miss from the film Advent Children, as well as character tweaks and outright changes.
From a story point this is a true masterclass in story telling, and this is namely done in the writing and world design. The characters are so well fleshed out and actualised. From all the interactions from the benign chatter as you run around, to the carefully design synergy attacks during combat. Everyone has their time to shine and given reason to care for. The voice acting is of a gold standard across the board helping bringing the correct nuance and intonation as they talk. Having dedicated side quests where a certain companion takes centrefold. You can deepen your bond by selecting the correct dialogue choice and actions. This doesn’t amount too much but you do get to hang out with one of your chums at the end of chapter 12 depending on who you are closest too.
The party comprises of Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Barrett, Red XIII, Yuffie and Cait Sith with the remaining Cid And Vincent being present but not playable. I think this game does a real service to making them all stand out as well as when controlled in combat all of them feel like they could be the protagonist of any JRPG series themselves. My party usually consisted of Cloud, Tifa and Yuffie and Using Tifa as the main heavy.
How to change your mateira, weapon abilities and view stats.General party and menu UI.
Whilst fighting you can do the standard of attack, dodge, and defend. Whilst charging up your ATB gauge to use spells, items and abilities. New to this title is being able to use synergy attacks as well which also grant temporary boons, like increasing the ATB gauge to three instead of two or temporary unlimited MP or nulifying physical damage etc. You also have Limits and summons to help dealing even more damage.
I think the fighter is tighter than the remake and more engaging. You have less control over the builds as your character, weapon and party level all increases. You get stat increases to the character as well as the weapons stats. You can pick the order you unlock your character skill trees but you can obtain them all with two playthoughs which you’d need for the platinum. You definitely hit harder but in return also get hit harder. This time round the devs really upped the sheer amount of boss fights as well as making them far harder. It’s by no means the hardest game in existence but some bosses do cause you a wee bit of grief. Along with a few hidden bosses the most prominent being Gilgamesh. Where once you’ve completed all the protorelic missions which there are 4 to each region. Something I wasn’t the biggest fan off you unlock his island which ends in a fight with him.
Gilgamesh as the sand giant who gets on your tits throughout the dunes of Costa Del Sol.
The game world covers nearly all of the planet this time rather than just the linear Midgar of remake. Now rather then being a complete open world it’s more of a connected up overworld with self contained open areas. Now you get Chocobos to run around faster which each come with their own terrain specific abilities which help traverse the grasslands or desert of Cosmo Canyon. I think this game looks phenomenal and not just graphically. I think some may disagree but the sheer level of detail and effort gone into each areas design is outstanding. From lush pastures, to thick forest encompassing ancient ruins or the rocky terrain lording above the desolate desert below. Or the chilled summer vibes from the beach resort at Costa Del Sol.
As you go around each area, there are a plethora of enemies just plumming it around to run into and battle. Now most bigger enemies or mini bosses only spawn from finding all of the areas intel and summoning them or from a side quest that takes place. Having the variety to fight makes for battling again being better then remake. I thought remake was a bit limited in enemies as well as very little in open areas which stunted it somewhat.
Fucking Tonberries and their one hit killshot. Fuck ’em.Love me a bit of Chocobos and their pint sized babies that lead you to fast travel points.
I should probably mention Chadley a returning Professor Hojo created shinra cyborg who helps you by acting as a guide, materia merchant as well as giving you access to beating the summons such as Titan, Odin and Bahamut to use in battle. He pops up all the time, and if you find a life spring, do a battle challenge, the protorelic quests for each area or activate a beacon he will pop and chat some shit at you. It’s fairly constant. I didn’t mind it all that much though, but I think that I played this game from release until recently and it was broken up that much I was never exposed to him in big chunks. He even creates an AI himself called Mai who then also chats shit at you.
The duality of Red XIII, also just a sheer apreciation at the visual fidelity of his design.
The game only has I think something like 34 side quests which isn’t loads but for the most part they are such an improvement over remake. They mostly count for something or help expand on the world and lore of everything. But what this game does have in absolute spades is mini fucking games. I’d argue this is my one draw back from this game. There is an endless stream of them. Now I like mini games as much as the next person but this on regular interval forces you to play them. The games platinum is locked behind them if that’s something you’d usually go for. Having to complete them on hard mode which is unlocked once initially completing them. Most of them I didn’t mind and I often go the highscore with minimal effort but some of them just blow ass.
The world map and misison, Queens Blood and Protorelic tracking.The areas map unlocks as you traverse back and forth.
This sentiment isn’t bestowed upon the might that is Queens blood. My favourite addition to the series. This is what Gwent was to the Witcher. I loved it in fact I wish there was more of it, and more trophies specific to this pass time. I did everything to do with this, I collected all the cards, beat everyone and I wanted more at the end of it. The story that centred around it was weak but it needed to be there to give you more reason to play it. Chocobo racing was fun as well, very Mario Kart like, I did however hate those bastard Cactuar gates which are designed to ruin your life.
Tonally this game is peak Final Fantasy, you have such sincere heartfelt moments which are broken up by the grittier darkness of the looming dying planet. The mental struggles of Clouds fragmented mind from the five years of torture he endured and then you randomly find yourself battling in a colosseum whilst a past villain is on the DJ decks and his cronies are rap battling at you. I find the levity something to behold. This happens through much of the game with the last few chapters really failing up sadness and serious nature of the main story. Forgoing the campiness and comedic moments that are sprinkled throughout.
I do have complaints about the lack of Zack and Sephiroth in the 40 hour long story. I assume this is because they’ll be used more in part 3. I do like how they’ve made Sephiroth straight up evil though whilst retaining the madness he gained in his pursuit of Jenova. I think this was the right choice stylistically and creatively with the game being expanded in such a massive way. Really abusing Clouds psyche against himself by repeated getting him to try and kill his companions.
The Whispers returning En masse even with their own white varience along with Sephiroths further control over the timelines.
So some slight downsides as much as I don’t want to admit them. The overworlds were sometimes not fun to go around, Gongaga was a bit shite, you had to bounce around on big ol’ mushrooms in specific orders. This was mildly infuriating but nothing major, now I hated Cosmo Canyon, you had use your Chocobo to glide around to platforms which you were kept afloat by fans on the ground and air. Some times you had to loop around near half of the map. Luckily you can fast travel to markers everywhere, from settlements, any side stuff you’ve cleared, Chocobo stops you’ve fixed so the more you do the easier it is along with the fetch quests that send you here there and every fucking where.
Just a real visual treat across the board, truly one of the best looking and designed games of this generation so far.
I really enjoy this story and I love the way it’s gone, expanding it’s own universe by using all the media that has subsequently being released since 1997. The over reliance on knowing everything that happened in all these games just stunt the end somewhat. I think the open ended nature of the game is left so we can all sit and speculate what it means. Who knows what, who’s from which timeline, which ones were merged, destroyed, whose swapped places. As well as not really explaining the black or Holy Materia enough. As well as taking away the scene of Cloud putting Aerith in the water. Which is beyond iconic. Now I do personally believe this will be in the last game as a moment of clarity when everything is fully explained but we will see.
Honestly this game is superb. I can’t physically rate this any lower then 10/10. It’s Real Fuckin’ Tasty.
As long as you are intending to play the entire trilogy and just played the main scenario you’d be in for a real treat. The nearly fully realised world of Gaia, as a party of expertly written characters trying to save it. Along with tight and precise combat that’s never a slog. It’s hard to not want to keep going and put the game down. It’s only hampered by slight pacing issues caused by an over abundance of mini games which I think because the developers put so much effort into it they wanted to make sure you played them. I can’t recommend this game enough.
This was a fairly recent pick up and has some what taken precedent over other games. Namely due to my childhood nostalgia running ripe once I saw it and because as previously mentioned, any relatively short handheld game is far easier for me to complete lately.
Now this is somewhat of a quick take review but this is due to being one of those games that there isn’t really a lot to cover. Also, if you have any experience playing any iteration of this series you’ll know exactly what it is.
So, like any normal guitar hero game this comes with it’s own imaginative way of electronically playing the guitar. This comes in the form of the grip and strap. This adapter plugs straight into the Gameboy Advance port of your Nintendo DS. It can be played left or right handed, so for me being a righty. I just tilted the DS anti clockwise and was able to play the four colour coded frets with my left hand and use the guitar shaped pick to strum the touchscreen in time to not create any dead notes.
This game only comes with 25 songs and a tiny campaign. This career mode comprises of five sections where you play bigger venues as your notoriety rises. Each block contains five songs to master. No boss type song either to prove more of a challenge.
Within each block there are four separate difficulties starting from easy going to medium, hard and expert. Again the usual for this series. I always start on medium as on easy you don’t tend to have to use the blue fret button and I don’t see the point in that. It took me only a couple hours to go through the entire thing not having to replay any songs. And for the most part medium didn’t provide much of a challenge unless I had to play red and blue simultaneously for a chord. Which more often then not my dexterity failed me.
The left screen acts as the stage and the tab then scrolls the notes to play, whilst the touchscreen has the guitar. In order to successfully play a note you have to hit the strings on the touchscreen as you press the fret. You gain a score multiplier for hitting a successful chain of notes. This can be further bolstered by activating star power, which does use the microphone niftily you can either shout into it or blow into to activate not losing your flow as you go along.
You can unlock alternate attires for the few characters you can pick and get some extra guitars to play on stage with as well. But for the most part it’s highly lacking. I know this is a handheld version of a console game but they did put half if not a third of the effort in.
The game runs surprisingly well, as I did think it’d have a chance to be laggy or not as responsive as it should be. You just have to make sure you full press down on the buttons as it won’t respond correctly and give you a miss. Ruining a nice long combo. The other thing to watch out for is if you’re in the zone to make sure you don’t stray too far from the guitar strings as you’ll be playing in time but still missing the notes.
Now the game doesn’t look like complete shit but, it does look it’s age. Fairly fuzzy around the edges and even for the hardware it’s on with the DS not being the most powerful console ever made. I think it passes muster.
My big complaint about the game is even though you can play each song on four varying difficulties, and there is a guitar duel mode where you use pick ups to stop a rival guitarist playing correctly racking up a bigger score, due to the lack of songs and only being able to play the guitar part of the song it’s not all that replayable as I can’t imagine you’ll want to keep playing the same few songs all the time. As for my music tastes it’s nowhere near heavy enough. It’s all but lacking in metal music. You do have Nirvana, Incubus, Ozzy Osbourne and Red Hot Chilli Peppers sprinkled about though.
Overall I rate this a respectable and Tasty 6/10. It’s an admirable attempt at porting a bigger more fleshed out console game series to the little handheld. If it’s there to play you may as well, but you’d probably enjoy playing something else if you can.
I could only find a decent picture in Italian, i’m not sorry.
I initially bought this game on sale for my Switch a good while ago on a whim and never really got round to playing too much of it.
However, in between trying to play any game normally which more often than not I fail at, trying to to fit in life, work, uni work and being a dad there is little time left for gaming. So, having a game like this or Binding of Isaac is perfect to fit in small doses.
I’ve not played it for more than a couple hours having failed miserably on my first few runs as it required me to use my brain. This turn based strategy game with rogue like elements is a quick grab and play.
You play as humanities last hope in giant mechs against the invading alien threat of the Vek. Now you start with a primary squad of three. All teams comprise of three but throughout game play you are able to level up the pilots, find new armour new pilots with different skills, as well as varying types of weapons and armour.
You are tasked with liberating four islands where they are split into separate procedurally generated missions for each run. So no two games are the same where you are tasked with defending civilians or the grid which if buildings are destroyed and it reaches zero you lose.
You drop your mechs into the allotted areas and the vek or boss veks will spawn throughout the game until the turn counter reaches zero and you win the round. Your objectives come with secondary objectives which can reward you further like collecting a pod with new cores and weapons.
Much like each mech the Vek are only able to move in certain manners and attack specifically, so up close and personal, long range bombing or buffing their allies etc.
Now game over here isn’t a complete reset, you are able to transfer a pilot with all accumulated experience with you to start a new campaign.
Each campaign you can choose difficulty as well as a few game modifiers to make it even harder if you wish. I’m not ashamed to admit I had to drop it to easy after a few goes. As I suck major ass at this.
With each run you are awarded coins, to get coins you must reach a milestone or a team specific action. With coins you can purchase new teams to do battle against the Vek with. Along with the standard enemy threat you also have the incoming threat of thunder storms or if you are controlling the terraformer. You can use this to your advantage by punching them into an incoming thunder strike, drowning them in the water or crushing them as grassland becomes desert.
If you are on the defensive you can repair yourself, set up barriers or even if you want to take a hit, place your mech on a square where a new Vek will emerge from halting them completely.
For many I assume this basic tactical play is mere child’s play but for me it can be a wee challenge. But with each round only taking a couple minutes as it runs at a fast pace. You can easily pick this game up in very small goes and achieve a lot even if the Vek win in this timeline. You are always able to go back and give it another run.
I’d rate this game a very respectable and highly tasty 8/10.
An easy but well thought out and executed turn based strategy game that can be played as leisurely as you’d like. With fantastic art direction and infinite re-playability and honestly who doesn’t love a good bit of mech V alien sci-fi action.
I’ll admit my reviews have dwindled somewhat lately, this isn’t due to personal choice,no. I namely blame having three uni assignments dropped at me in the space of a month. Now they are out of the way I can try and get back on track.
Especially having the dual use of the Switch and my Portal, I should be able to zip through some of my backlog in no time. I am half way through two reviews as we speak and one shouldn’t be too far behind.
Now even though my gaming has halted somewhat, my collecting has not. If anything I’ve been more rampant with that then ever as of late. And if you follow my instagram or facebook pages you’ll see I’ve periodically posted my new additions. So this post is somewhat just a quick overview of everything I’ve acquired lately. A bit of an overdue update, I have more yet to come that I’ve already purchased and a few more titles in the post. So there will be much more coming your way my tasty lot.
So as you aware of my amazing photography skills from previous updates, you’ll see I’ve attempted some stylistic flair now. In showcasing my ample collection.
I’ve added a few Wii titles, in Destroy all Humans Big Willy Unleashed and Far Cry Instincts. Then I’ve gained Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary for the Xbox 360. Along with a lesser known gem on the PS3 in Majin and the Forsaken Kingdom.
For the PS2 I’ve added Mercenaries and Shellshock Nam ’67 as well as the Hitman Triple Hit pack, And rounding off this consoles additions is my favourite new game for now in Evil Dead and a Fistful of Boomstick. Most the time i’ve only really bought games I’ve played and have just wished to replace but this is genuinely a game i’ve never played. Being a massive fan of the Evil Dead film and tv series I am very much looking forward to giving this a bash.
I decided to get some more handheld titles as my DS and 3DS collection is missing many a title I wish to own. I managed to nab a couple of ebay bargains and for the DS I’ve added two Final Fantasy titles. With Crystal Chronicles Ring of Fates and Final Fantasy 3. I didn’t stop there oh no, I also went out of my to buy Grand Theft Auto Chinatown Wars, complete with the map. Not only is this one of my top DS titles it’s also one of only eleven titles that got slapped with an 18 certificate for the console. A wee bit of trivia for ya, don’t say I don’t give you anything people.
On the 3DS so far I only managed one more title for now and that comes in at the series that is the mighty Dragon Quest. Specifically Dragon Quest VII Fragments of the forgotten past.
I also added a few games to my PSP collection. The three new titles in question Killzone Liberation to add to the Killzone series I’ve nearly completed. Along with Grand Theft Auto Vice City Stories and the legendary God of War Chains of Olympus.
So as you can see not too many games for this part but far more then I’ve added thus far in one chunk. It only gets better or worse depending how you see this game collecting endeavour as I have like another ten or so titles to catalogue and showcase in the coming weeks.
As always don’t forget to visit the site regularly or keep up to date via one of my social media accounts. And the most important part of all, forever and always. Stay Tasty my friends.
I love me a bit of the Professor Layton games, especially the original trilogy. Now the other titles have their own merits still and for the most part are just as fun but they are lacking somewhat.
This spin-off was initially released on the 3DS and as a game for your phone for IOS and android I believe, before dropping like a year later as a deluxe edition on the switch. Now I think the deluxe edition is more for show than anything. Without looking too much into it I think some puzzles were changed and the ordering swapped over, you can get all the daily extra puzzles and clothing DLC from the get go. It may be a bit more than that but that’s the meat on the bones of it I’d guess.
Now unfortunately the puzzle master who did the six main line games before for the original trilogy and prequel trilogy sadly passed away. It does show somewhat in the puzzles this time round. A lot of them a fairly similar or just a harder version of the previous one so the variety has dipped and if you play it for long enough chunks you kinda just get used to the pattern you are looking for. I won’t say I breezed through it some of them did properly stump me, and made me use some of the precious hint coins you find on your travels.
For this spin-off game rather than you being Professor Hershel Layton and his trusty companion Luke you play as his adoptive daughter Katrielle, who has started her own detective agency in London.
Some of the new supporting characters, Emiliana and Inspector HastingsAlong with Ernest and Sherl.
One of the biggest draws for the early games was the story that interlinked over titles along with its unique and distinct look. The kinda Victorian, steam punkesque setting. The weird ambience and music, all the strange designed characters you get to know as you travel back and forth from differing locations. Now a lot of this carries over and you can tell it’s set in the same world, but it all just seems dialled down.
Some of the areas you wonder round on the chapters.
Even on the switch with the clearer and brighter HD, and the added rumble from the joy cons to add to it even more then the DS or 3DS could. It just lacks. Now the game runs smoothly, the animation and voice acting are top notch but the weirdness isn’t quiet there and the new characters don’t feel as fresh or fleshed out as much as they could.
The story is told over twelve chapters which revolve around solving a case per chapter. Taking around an hour and a half per one I’d say so if you just want to complete the game without doing any optional puzzles you’d be looking at around 17-18 hours. But if you want to do everything revisiting the chapters opens up more puzzles. As well as utilising the touchscreen to tap at everything to find hint coins, fashion coins, hidden collectibles as well as hidden puzzles.
Your UI for working round the game and mini games.The ideal meal game is one of the three mini games at your disposal.Some of the hidden collectibles i managed to sleuth out.
I think collectively with daily puzzles there’s something like 550 puzzles to work though, as well as three mini games you can do at any time. One is finding the perfect four course meal for some supporting characters. You have the mini maze game for Sherl where you have to get to the exit in a required amount of moves. And lastly the shop game where you have to direct customer to purchase everything in your inventory.
Each puzzle still awards you picarats the higher the amount the harder the puzzle in theory. With the daily puzzles awarding you points to unlock bonus behind the scenes stuff from the entire backlog of the series. You unlock furniture points so you can decorate Layton’s office as you’d like as well, and can even get new outfits for Katrielle and Sherl.
Puzzle difficulty comes fromthe picarat rating.You have a memo option to help solve these conudrums.
So there is a lot to be done and keep you occupied as long as you like quick thinking riddles or brain teasers. So going in as a new fan I’d doubt you’d be too disappointed but going in as a long standing fan it is a bit underwhelming. The story isn’t the strongest even if the games had already started losing it’s initial more grounded roots and the supporting cast isn’t as interesting either. You have Sherl a talking dog with amnesia who is the best new addition, Ernest Greeves, Emiliana Perfetti and inspector Hastings which round out the main characters.
You collect six pieces of info to complete a case.
Overall I think there is a lot of enjoyment to be had and the game story is neither tasking nor does it overstay it’s welcome. Each chapter being relatively bite sized really allows for ease of play along with re-playability for at least two rounds of each chapter. Along with the bonus content that can be earned through the extra puzzles at your disposal.
I’d rate this game a respectable Tasty 6/10, an easy going puzzle driven story that’s only lacking due to the hefty weight of it’s main titles legacy bearing down on it. If given the chance a sequel could easily improve on a lot of small things amounting to a much better experience overall.
This is a strange one to begin, not because I don’t know what to say rather than it’s just an all-round strange game. At it’s core it’s a rogue like game with every dungeon run being different, as you’d expect, but that’s where the similarty ends.
What sets this one apart is the horror setting and it’s weird obsessions with scat and everything exploding into gore. The basis of the game is you play as Isaac and his mother has been hearing and talking to a voice whom she believes is God, who naturally tells her to kill her son to cleanse his sin, and in fleeing he jumps into the unknown.
Now the unknown in this case are random procedurally generated dungeons, which contain all sorts of enemies. From floating heads, headless bodies, flies, masses of flesh, poisonous spiders, even literal turd monsters along worm looking things that pop up through the floor and that’s just the tip of what you can run into. Most of them have variations that spew poison rather the shoot blood at you, and some may explode causing further damage, turn into other enemies or spew more out of themselves. You defeat these creatures by shooting tears at them, in a twin stick shooter fashion. Now along with basic enemies you have bosses. Which you have to defeat at the end of each level to progress. However with this being the sort of game it is you can easily run into multiple bosses just as you make your way through the rooms. Within the rooms as well are hidden chests, fires, spiked floors, piles of shit which along with the rubble you can destroy for items.
I’m not lying about the scat and goreOne of the many bosses, that during screenshot end up looking like turds.
Luckily though you aren’t stuck with just the base stats of Isaac or any of the other characters you unlock along the way. This game gives you items aplenty, from random enemy drops, loot from bosses, chests you unlock if you find a key. Along with all the alternate rooms you come by on your travels. Some are just reward rooms with loot in, some are shops, others a ritual covens you make with the devil, or vice versa for angels along with arcades and challenge rooms. I’m sure I am missing some, however the only other to mention are secret rooms, where you have to use bombs to blast a hole in the wall to access. I should probably cover bombs as well, now bombs are one of two other methods of killing your foes. You pick these up like loot if you come across them, and the other is power ups you can get which usually require batteries to recharge or limited use.
Some of the floaty friends you can acquire. One of the four horsemen boss fights.
Now this game which is loaded with various rooms to help buff you up and kill your mother faster which is the aim of the game to survive. Now you usually face her at the sixth level, so by then you should have picked up a plethora of items to help. On the downside like any game some pick ups are shit and detrimental to you. You want ones that increase your health, range and fire rate for your tears. Then you also want the bonuses that increase damage but also allow for you to shoot in 360 degrees and having a little devil friend that periodically shoots laser beams, or you leave a trail of damaging blood. Now some revive you but you only come back with 1 health, or some blur your vision up one stat but lower the other etc. The usual sort of quid pro quo style you get in games.
Some of the many in game stats.I love a good bestiary that somehow includes myself in it.Game is loaded with items.
This is the bad part of the game, it relies heavily on constant play where you can learn all the enemies movements and knowing what all the items do without automatically collecting them. Along with everything being ties to spawn rates, so on some runs your pick ups are phenomenally bad and this can continue for multiple runs in a row. Now I get that this is how these sort of games run and it’s not a downside as such. But with multitude of updates and DLC that’s been added over the years, it’s not exactly beginner friendly nor something you can ease back into, if you want to play this game it’s something you’ll either get frustrated at an put down quickly or continue to play until you finally get through a full run.
For me this game is frustratingly fun, now I’ll be the first to admit that I am utterly awful at this game and my good save file died with my original switch which for some reason never backed my save data up. I had a good few completed runs and I’d unlocked a few more characters than I have now. Since returning to this game I just die, and again this ties into not being beginner friendly. As you need to know what to do get even more out of it which I find by looking a forums mainly. Learning that in shops sacrificing gold to the machine in the corner means the next shop that spawns will have better items, blowing up the shop keeper encourages more devil rooms to appear, knowing where to find secret rooms etc.
Character and difficulty selection,Progress slowly,Die, rinse, repeat. The life cycle of this game.
I am aware of the final DLC in repentance which adds even more of everything and I’ve been tempted to get it but whilst getting back into this game I think I’ll leave it a while longer. As I’ve got around 10 more endings to unlock, however many characters still. I’ve only filled out about half the bestiary and a third of the items, not to mention the alternate difficulty options and challenge modes I can run through still. For a game if you know what’s what, it won’t take you long to complete around 40 mins I’d say. It’s loaded with re playability, even more so than a lot of similar games. However with the weird horror and brutality of this game, along with it’s hundred of items and enemies its a real standout.
Overall I’d rate this game a mighty 9/10, Pure Tasty Gaming.
Over the 13 years I believe it’s been out, this game has masterful become a frustratingly addictive game with fine tuned balances and multitude of variation with in game rewards that benefit your time and dedication learning the ins and outs of every aspect of the game.
Well this one is coming in a bit late considering 2k24 came out like a month and a bit ago. But hey-ho, better late than never. Plus I’ve yet to pick said new iterations for this year so I may as well go for this one in the interim. Not to mention it’s Wrestlemania weekend, time to get hyped.
Now if you are just a casual fan of WWE a hardcore WWE is the only wrestling show for me or even just a fan of the games, you’d be aware of the year gap of 2021, this was because 2K20 was such a steaming pile of shit they needed to build it up from the ground again. This gave us 2K22 which was the year of Rey Mysterio and I gave the game a deserving 8/10.
I bring up this because 2K22 was one hell of an upgrade to the series, it was a blast not without it’s faults though. Multi man matches especially ladder matches were just an absolute shit fest. They were a mess, albeit sometimes fun but mostly 40 minute slogs that the AI refused to target anyone other then you. Some of the character models were awful, the my rise story was a bit ass. My faction was too pay 2 win for no real gain and MyGm was lacking. Now some of these issues were addressed this time round. MyGm is definitely more in depth and comprehensive still half a game though if you ask me. Not enough control over your shows still, its a tad limited in all the options for the slots of the show even if there’s far more match types to choose from. You can’t do much from a promo, trying to build feuds is wobbly at best. Not too mention if you don’t want to wrestle the matches yourself the chances are they will all be lowly ranked. Which negatively impacts you winning the ratings and getting more followers. I am waiting patiently for a football manager style wrestling game. I think there is money to be had there.
Some of the choices you can do to imprive the quality of your shows.Not much control on the match as a whole, just select type and whos involved.
Now multi man matches are still broken, it is definitely the least fun part of the game for me, especially when you have to do one in either of the story modes. Which there’s two to choose from and they both have slightly branching choices which allow for multiple play through. Still I’m not sure why you would again this year it isn’t much better. You can tell they are working on it but the lock story, the main character even with dialogue options just comes off as a dick bag and it isn’t the most enthralling story. Then the other story, the legacy has a bit of a better story but again not worth the hassle or the fact one of the new original characters again just is highly unlikeable. I think this was more of a planned choice though. It’s still a noticeable improvement however.
Just one of the dodgy looking environments you’ll come across with all the souless looking npcs you could want.
Now in terms of just match variety or creating your own character there’s just so much variety to be had. I think attire selection is the weakest area, not much to use unless you are willing to go that extra mile and mess around yourself to create something from scratch,but there’s an endless amount of moves you can choose from. You can even make and edit your entrance again not the most in-depths and I think a lot of people won’t bother but it’s nice to have the option.
The creation suite is something to behold really, you can literally create a superstar how you want and use them in evey standard mode, or if you want tweak existing sueprstars to your hearts content.
The graphics are slightly better and I think the game play is slightly tighter overall, reversing doesn’t feel as horrendous and there’s more option of attacks to do. It has the same reversal and dodge system or if you want to counter that’s still in play. There’s a more pronounced stamina gauge in the wheel that turns up. So the wrestlers get more tired, you can launch over the top ropes set up more moves with ladders, putting some through a table etc. Just small quality of life improvements or additions. Which is what it needed to be 22 should be the ground level and for the foreseeable future it should just be a myriad of improvements rather then system overhauls. I think the combo choice and grappling works well, just a couple button inputs and the move-sets auto changes on your position to you opposition. Same as if the are grounded, outside the ring on the apron, going for a superplex etc. I’m gonna judge the hair graphics though, that still blows I’ not sure why they can’t seem to do that well. In fact a lot of the background graphics and NPC in the story modes were fucking dreadful as well. Including dodgy body movements and voice audio. I think though for immersion sake it’s not the worst thing in the game.
Just a casual power bomb through the top of hell in a cell.
You get wargames for the first time in game and mostly I enjoy it. I think if you crank the difficulty up and are willing to play for a good half hour, you’re in for a good time. Especially when you make your self the first entrance. Introducing weapons into the match is more fiddly then it needs to be, but for variation it’s a welcome addition.
Now this year is the year of John Cena . It runs the same as last years and those before where you play out some of their biggest matches with some nice video introduction before the match as to why and stuff. Now the slight twisty twist this time is that you play as Cena’s opponents and are aiming to win rather then lose to ol’ John boy. I like the concept and that you get some actual match footage thrown in but I do think for what it’s worth the matches do go on a bit and for some reason Cena is insanely hard to beat sometimes. I usually play on a mix of normal and hard, but for ease of unlocking everything from winning I dropped it to easy. My fucking good God it’s constant reversals, signatures and finishers its relentless yet this doesn’t carry over against him in any other mode.
I should mention as well in just standard play you earn points for your match ratings as long as you win and you can unlock more superstars, arenas and trophies which for me is a win. I’m all for a game with unlockables you can get by just playing the game. I won’t go into myfaction all that much as you either like it or you don’t. Getting ranked cards of the same superstars with better stats that can only be used in this mode. You gain points that unlock new packs or you can fork out a small fortune to buy points and get them that way I don’t see much point in that but that’s just me. I like it and I do play it a far bit, but I’d rather just play with who I want and in what match type I want, as in settings you can set each superstar to higher or lower stats anyhow.
One of my favourite moves to do, always looks super cool.
Now I will compare it to that of AEW Fight Forever as both games dropped in the same year. Both offering different takes of the wrestling game. Now in terms of content and match variety WWE just kills it, no question. It’s the more realistic sim with probably 200 odd superstars to choose from and so many match types to piss around with. Ladder match, all the no disqualification varieties, tornado tags, hell in the cell, cage match, iron man, submission only,backstage brawl. war games, royal rumble now and that’s probably not even half. You have 1v1, 2v2, triple threat, fatal 4 way. It’s fucking loaded. Now this is my biggest drawback to Fight Forever. The lack of variety in matches, now they’ve had some dlc and have added stadium stampede as well, and in terms of ease it’s an easier game to get behind. It does the arcade style well and I regularly play it on my switch still, but it’s hard to argue that this game offers far more. Which is why if I wanna wrestle I am going to be booting this up for a couple hours of mindless fun.
Just some of the match types on offer.You’re only limted by what you don’t want to play.
I’m going to give this game the same as last year which is highly tasty 8/10.
Now for the most part outside of a change in roster slightly it’s basically the same game as last year. This comes with the still weak story option, long and annoying campaign but this comes with a better MyGm and MyFaction. As well as slight graphical tweaks and gameplay tweaks. It’s still a ridiculously enjoyable game which I think the biggest fix needed is the bigger multi man modes ’cause they just don’t work. Even if you don’t keep up to date with every years version I think I’d go for this over 2K22 and stick with it for a while and maybe buy 24 when it’s on sale.
Where to start with this one. First off the story is good, kind of what you’d expect from a final fantasy, big bad guy, a twist and Cid is introduced in this game as the inventor. Unfortunately that’s where my praise for this one stops, the gameplay is ok, it’s the same turn based combat as the first game but the level up system is this game is very divisive.
It reminds me of the Skyrim style of levelling where you gain xp for your weapons like swords or axes or magic and the more you use them the stronger you are, which is great except FF2 also does this for health. So the more you get hit the more health you get, which makes it very easy and tempting to exploit this and break the game. You could for example go unarmed with one weaker character and wail on one of your others and get your health up to 9999 before even the first boss if you really wanted to. The pixel remaster does fix this a bit, it lets you switch it to health gained after a set amount of enemies are killed but it’s still very easy to exploit.
For example I had no idea where I was going and ended up grinding through 2 hours of higher levelled monsters with magic which meant that all my boss fights I could run on auto and win while AFK making an unbranded non sponsored noodle in a pot snack. This dulled any challenge in the game for me and meant I flew through the story once I realised where I was going.
Another issue I have is I’m addicted to platinums and intend to try and platinum as many ff’s as I can and the bestiary in this one that you need to 100% is in the strangest order imaginable. When your trying to catch all the enemies and the first 3 you find are 15,74 and 140 in the list it makes it very challenging, in an annoying way. I had to use a guide online to find them all, some of which are missable, which was very annoying and takes away from the achievement.
I finished this game in 14 hours and like I said before it was very easy to do after my initial balls up which led to being massively overleveled. I enjoyed to basic story and I do like the swap out mechanic for the 4th character in the party which constantly swaps at points in the game, however they are irrelevant because of this as my main 3 we’re 4 or 5 times stronger than them.
There are no classes in this game so everyone can do everything. I can see where they were going, giving you more freedom to level the areas you want and make your party more custom to your preference however it doesn’t seem to work, probably again due to the massive overleveling but none of them feel like they have any real characteristics. I prefer having a leader that’s balanced, a tank and a mage or two.
Overall I can’t give this game any higher than a 6/10, it’s not bad but it just doesn’t feel right and the combat elements take away from what this could have been. I can see why the original was divisive and if it wasn’t for the fixes the pixel remaster introduces this could have been as low as a 4/10. After that disappointment, it’s on to the next one.
TastyRetroGaming 