Finally beat FFVII: Remake on PC and….those last two chapters were a rollercoaster of mixed-emotions as a fan of the OG game. Interesting setup for the next instalment though.
Now I can finally get back to Xenoblade Chronicles: DE! Juggling two JRPGs at the same time was too much for my poor brain
I just beat Kirby and the Forgotten Land, the first Kirby game I've purchased and played to the end, including the post-game content. I'm not a very big Kirby fan; I think the games are either too easy or too boring to keep my attention for long enough. I did really like Superstar on the SNES, but that's about it. However, this game may just shift my viewpoint on Kirby if HAL decides to make games like this going forwards. I do want to say that I played the entire game on Wild Mode.
1 - Gameplay: Overall, Forgotten Land feels very good to control. Kirby's movement is nice, fluid, and has a solid speed overall. I do wish that his aerial speed was a bit faster, but other than that, he feels good to control. The new Mouthful Mode ability is a way bigger deal than I initially thought it would be. It's way more than just a gimmick, it's a common tool that you use time and time again throughout the levels. The copy mechanic is very well-implemented in this game as well. Not only does every ability feel substantially different from each other, but all of them can be upgraded by finding rare gems, giving you a great sense of progression as you fight your way through some of the games' tougher challenges. However, the upgrade system arguably leaves a bit to be desired overall; it likely would have been a better system if it was more of a choice for the player as to which type of upgrade they wanted to use - with each iteration having strengths and weaknesses - rather than the next upgrade tier just straight up being better than the last one. However, the system they went for works well. I also want to briefly touch on the dodge move that Kirby has. I think it's a good idea, but it's executed rather poorly. You frequently don't have enough I-frames from your dodge to effectively avoid the enemy's attack and counter it. If this move was more based around Breath of the Wild's flurry rush, where time slows down and you're invincible during that time, or even if the amount of I-frames you received was about doubled, this issue would not be as annoying.
2 - Levels: The levels in Forgotten Land are overall very creative and interesting. Most of them have a distinct theme that sets them apart from each other, and a good chunk of them play differently as a result. You'll go from grassy lands to big pools of water to an amusement park to a "haunted" house, and it all feels fun to traverse. The levels are admittedly pretty simple, and they're never going to rack your brain, but they're fun enough to keep you interested. Another thing that helps these levels is the challenges and "side quests" that each one hosts. They host a number of secret rooms that lead to brief yet exciting challenges. You'll have to race as Carby, solve a quick puzzle with a match, or fight a miniboss. The rewards you get from completing these challenges are also very exciting. They generally all give you a Waddle Dee to save, but on occasion, you can also obtain things like blueprints, Gotcha figurines, or Star coins. The Challenge Road missions are equally great. They only take around a minute each to complete, but they tend to live up to their name. They are challenging. Not only that, but they are very rewarding to beat.
3 - Enemies, Minibosses, and Bosses: This game hosts a LOT of different enemies, with the majority of them allowing you to copy their ability. Most of them fundamentally play the same - just dodge their small attacks and either whack them or swallow them - but it helps in keeping the game fresh. Unfortunately, the same can't quite be said for the minibosses. There are only about 4 or 5 different minibosses total, and they are reused wayyyy too much for my liking. They're fun to fight the first couple of times around, but after about the 10th time fighting them, it just gets boring. At least they all play differently and have unique moves because otherwise, it would be a total drag. Fortunately, the bosses are much better in this respect. There is a great number of unique bosses in this game, and that's not even taking to account the post-game ones. Some fights are shockingly challenging, to the point where I actually died multiple times in some of the late-game scuffles.
4 - Graphics and Performance: This is a very, very pretty game to look at. It's definitely one of the best-looking games on the Switch and gives games like Super Mario 3D World a run for its money. The environments are always extremely rich with plants, architecture, and small little details throughout. The animations of both Kirby and the enemies he fights are very expressive and adorable as well. Unfortunately, performance-wise, this one's a bit of a letdown. The game runs at 30fps, which is fine since the input delay is extremely low, but 60fps still would have been really nice. Maybe it's not fair to compare this game to Odyssey, because it likely had a much bigger budget and development team, but that game came out near the beginning of the Switch's lifespan, looks better than Kirby with much larger levels, and runs at a buttery-smooth 60fps. Not only that but enemies and objects at a distance run at a much lower framerate to help performance. This is a very distracting trick because it's sometimes applied to enemies that aren't even that far away from the player. There are some small FPS drops here and there as well, but nothing too severe or game-interrupting.
5 - Music and sound effects: This game has some pretty good music. It's nothing too earworm-inducing, but the main theme and Waddle Dee Town are some especially enjoyable tunes, along with a couple of boss fight bangers. This soundtrack does tend to use the same few riffs over and over again throughout different songs, which got a little repetitive over time. It would have been nice to have some fully original tracks, rather than having them play off of already established themes. The sound effects are equally pretty good. The only sound effect that got a bit on my nerves after a while was the "Hit" sound effect. It's pretty darn loud for some reason and doesn't sound that great when it's played over and over and over again when you combo an enemy.
6 - Story: I initially was not thinking that story would be something to consider in a Kirby game, but the story goes shockingly deep towards the end. I won't spoil anything here, but overall the lore goes a lot deeper than I was ever expecting. Some of the plot points are told in somewhat confusing ways, and some stuff just isn't explained at all, at least as far as I know. Overall, it's a pretty solid story, especially considering that this is a Kirby game.
Verdict: Overall, Kirby and the Forgotten Land is a very well-made 3D platformer. It has some disappointing caveats; namely the repetitive miniboss fights, lackluster performance, and occasionally irritating combat. However, the game more than makes up for this with some great level designs, beautiful visuals, a diverse amount of enemies and bosses, and a pretty solid soundtrack. This game is nothing groundbreaking for the 3D platformer genre in general, but it's a groundbreaking game for Kirby as a series. If the Kirby series follows this style of design in the future, I will be more than happy with that.
8/10 Great
"Science compels us to explode the sun!"
Currently playing:
Xenoblade Chronicles X Definitive Edition (Switch)
Balatro (PC)
Age of Calamity beaten. Just like BOTW, its about the journey not the destination. (by that I mean, the final boss and ending do little more than exist compared to the rest of the game)
I dunno the story's kinda dumb. For as much as people wanted this story of the past, this makes me think I knew most of the worthwhile details. Didn't add much to it and the attempts to make it an epic story out of context of being a love letter to BOTW's characters falls flat. I could not tell you why people like the story outside of being an amusing BOTW fanfic.
Game's cool though. I love the Hyrule Warriors games, to the point that I almost wish I had the time to justify trying a proper Dynasty Warriors (not 9). They hit such a perfect balance between being just mindless enough to be cathartic army destroyer simulator but not so much as to be boring.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity - I reached the end credits, delved into some of the post-game content, enjoyed that, then decided to move on when I grew tired of the skirmish > grind for items > buy items/upgrades/perks > repeat all.
Definitely a fun Musou title, one that has quite a varied use of characters with different play styles. My favorites to use were Link, Impa, Mipha, Urbosa, Zelda (After her abilities activated; she felt more like a gimmick before that), and Daruk. It was pretty neat to engage in the Hyrule of 100 years ago and get to learn more about the characters introduced in BotW and their characterizations. I hold the original Hyrule Warriors in high regard, but I think this one trumps that. Visually, the presentation echoes the cel-shaded style used in BotW and looks great...in docked mode. Handheld is a bit rough. The music holds up well too.
My complaints, in no particular order:
1. Even with playing docked almost the whole time, I experienced some slowdown when a lot was happening on-screen. Nothing to ruin the experience, but it was noticeable.
2. The plot, while interesting, doesn't feel like it's canon at all. I could see it all working up until the point where Terrako brought the four "present" Champions into the past to save the four original Divine Beast pilots. I'm not buying the whole "this is the actual story" bit Nintendo hinted at when the game was revealed. I can maybe buy that this is a different timeline for the Great Calamity, but there are a few plot holes to be sure.
3. Enemies shouldn't be allowed to attack through solid walls.
This is definitely a fun one, and is recommended for those who are Zelda fans, or at least those who enjoyed BotW. However, don't go in expecting something too coherent in the story department.
Well, from what I've heard about the Zelda series, the timelines of the main games get confusing, too, @Tyranexx ..... Glad you enjoyed the game, though!
Ratchet and Clank (2016) and Digimon Cybersleuth. Both of which I fell in love with and would consider amongst my all-time favourites. Something I wouldn't expect as I close in on my 30th birthday 😂
@BruceCM Yep, the Zelda timeline (if one bothers following it) gets fairly convoluted. I find it to be a nice conversation piece and a "What if this was all connected?" idea factory (Basically, a bit of fun), but I don't take it as gospel outside of obvious sequels and prequels. XD
Just finished Assassin's Creed Odyssey story and I got the best possible ending! All of the family members are alive and they dine happily in their home in Sparta. I read after that that all other endings are sad especially the one where you are alone and everyone in the family is dead.
I played as Alexios. I know it is not the canon choice but I loved every little bit of it. The game is really good! Really satisfying!
It took me 37h 20m of game time
From the modern ones only Valhalla is left to be done!
Got end credits on Rune Factory 5. Not done with the game but I can spin up something else now. I am thinking kirby.
Taiko is good for the soul, Hoisa!
Japanese NNID:RyuNiiyamajp
Team Cupcake! 11/15/14
Team Spree! 4/17/19
I'm a Dream Fighter. Perfume is Love, Perfume is Life.
I finally beat Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. I played it on PC, and all-around had about 16 hours of playtime. I also played the game entirely solo. This review is gonna be a little shorter since I don't feel too strongly about this game either way. I think that overall, it's an alright game.
My biggest problem is that they definitely went for quantity over quality. There is a lot of recycling in this game, mainly puzzles, bosses, and quests. Some of these things will be in completely different chapters but still play exactly the same. The boss fights suffer from this the most, as your basically just mashing the attack button in every fight with little to no difficulty.
Combat is another area that I'm not huge on. I was really excited to see that they were overhauling the combat with a DMC-lite chain system. Unfortunately, though, it's very easily exploitable. Pressing the attack button and the jump button in that order over and over again will obliterate every single enemy, trivializing pretty much every enemy you encounter. The combat feels pretty good, but when every single encounter boils down to the same thing every time, it gets repetitive.
The graphics and performance overall are pretty good. The game looks great most of the time, and I usually hit 60fps in most areas. However, some areas had severe drops, to where I was hitting around 20fps and sometimes less. It's not my system, as I can play much more demanding games at a much more stable rate. It just seems to be an optimization error, and I hope that they are able to patch these issues out. Bugs are another area that aren't great for this one. I encountered quite a few bugs in my playthrough. It was never anything game-breaking; I never had to reset the game or anything like that, but there were a lot of visual and gameplay bugs that tended to be quite distracting.
Like I said at the start, this game is alright. It's not offensively bad, nor is it outstandingly good. It's just... not bad. Now granted, I did play the game entirely single-player. It likely would have been a much more fun experience with another person, but alas, here we are. The Skywalker Saga is definitely an impressive feat for TT Games. However, this feels like their stepping stone into something much greater. This game laid the foundation, but the formula will certainly need to be improved for their next game.
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