Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

Here's one that'll upset more people; I don't like Haru Okumura, from Persona 5. She's very boring, has a questionable amount of forehead and her sociopathic tendencies really turn me off.

@TheJGG I don't really like how she comes in so late, and I don't like the whole Okumura foods arc either. It just felt like the weakest palace in terms of it's writing, and the events surrounding it. I heard it was better in Royal, but even then it still felt flawed.

@VoidofLight Okumura's Palace was a literal joke. All the Palaces felt like they dragged on at times but Okumura's Palace has this feeling the most. And Haru's coming in so late meant menial tasks like developing her Confidants / Social Links was such a rushed affair. After the fourth Palace, we should have stopped getting Phantom Thieves, and the game should have focused more on consolidating the base party members. Akechi's entire plot arc could have been moved up one, and the final three Palaces would have been after the new major deadline of October 20th. But that would have taken a ton of effort so it's not clear how this would have been solved.

@TheJGG Honestly, I agree. The palaces didn't really drag on for me, but I didn't really feel impressed by them either. I always felt that Akechi should've been introduced as an earlier party member, and he should've been built up more. More screen time with Joker, and hanging out as friends instead of just at the end where you get him once, then he betrays you. Not to mention I don't like how he was supposed to be your foil and ends up just dying the moment he truly reveals his true colors.

I also think that the base game peaks at Kamoshida's palace, as the Palace was one of the more cinematic ones in the game, and they really make you hate the guy, which you don't really feel like later down the line with the other villains honestly. The palace in Royal is probably where Royal peaks, and it's honestly my favorite in the entire game.

@VoidofLight Having listened to Gentle Madman recently I can very much agree that Royal's Palace was one of the best if not THE best dungeons in the whole game. It was as you say, Maruki's character was just amazing, really well executed and flawlessly voice by Ferdinand von Ae- I mean Billy Kametz. His sorrow was so human, and so horrible that it was impossible for me to truly see him as a genuinely bad person. He was the same as Joker; wronged by the world and left behind for dead, but Joker made a change whilst Maruki let his hate warp him.

Kamoshida's Palace was also yes, very cinematic. The villains become a bit less fresh as you progress, and for me the first three bosses, namely Kamoshida, Madarame and Kaneshiro, were very similar in personality, meaning there was very little change in dialogue structure for them. Kamoshida's of course hit home the most not only because it was the first, but also because it tackled the more risqué sin of the seven; lust.

@TheJGG Not to mention with Kamoshida, you get to truly see what he did, and you see the effects going on around you the entire time. You grow to hate the man because he's always in the hallways berating you for your existence, and they generally did a good job. The others never really hit for me since they were either too similar, or not actually built up. Shido is supposed to feel like this really powerful and evil character, but I felt nothing towards his defeat, unlike how I felt with Kamoshida honestly. Madarame was also apparently supposed to have a scene where it actually showed him leaving Yusuke's mom for dead, but they cut it for some reason.

As for the Royal content, it felt really refreshing that Maruki himself wasn't a straight up villain, but moreso a morally grey character, who made you question a couple of things, such as how his reality isn't inherently evil, but it's still no good since he's running from his problems. I also just really enjoyed how well written the content was, and how well integrated it was. They went as far as to put Maruki in the background of a scene where Ann, Joker, and Ryuji got back from Kamoshida's palace. Maruki felt like he could've honestly been in the base game itself, that's how seamlessly he was written.

@VoidofLight Very good points indeed. It became difficult to truly appreciate the levity of the situations at hand because none of the villains after Kamoshida were as omnipresent as he was. It would have been very fascinating if you could run into Shido in the street or something. Only Shido, because as a public orator (like No Good Tora) he'd spend time rallying for support. Okumura's a businessman, so no. The whole point of Kaneshiro's Palace is taking down an invisible enemy, though the Thieves' finding him was so luck of the draw..

As for Maruki I'd say he's one of the best written villains in anything I've ever seen in my life, and I've watched a good number of films and have read a lot of books. To quote Todd Howard; it just works.

@TheJGG With Maruki, it definitely hits harder, since you're required to spend time with him if you want the Royal content at all, and he's pretty present in the situation. You even pretty much become friends with the man.

I also wish that Shido was present more in general through the game, and that you got to see more of him mistreating others as well as more getting to know the character's motives. I know that hey build him up a bit with the director guy, but it wasn't as effective as Maruki or Kamoshida were.

@VoidofLight Funnily, with Shido I actually thought to myself as I encountered him in the Wilton Hotel Buffet room just after Kamoshida's Palace; I feel like we're gonna get this particular guy at one point. I'm glad to be right, he was pretty deplorable in the limited interactions we got with him.

@Sunsy Same here, its nice to know we have the same feeling about Metacritic.

Despite Metascores being a terribly bad idea, I do think Metacritic does a good job in terms of giving you a one stop shop for all the reviews. At least that way you can deliberately pick out the people whose opinions you give a damn about, or just look for the outliers.

Here's one I just thought of: I'm probably the only one who really doesn't like Dragon Quest 11. I played it up until I got to the final dungeon, and I just couldn't bring myself to get past it. I played the original ps4 release, and the music itself was just horrid. The story wasn't anything to really write home about either, as it was mainly just the generic JRPG plot, with nothing really interesting to save itself. The only thing I probably did like about the game had to be the graphics themselves, but that was pretty much all.

@VoidofLight Allow me to give my two cents. I played the Switch version, so I played the entire game with the orchestral soundtrack. I cannot stress this enough, the MIDI soundtrack is easily the worst soundtrack I have ever listened to. I’m not a fan of torture but if I was I would listen to that.

The story was admittedly quite boring but there was a bit going on. It reminded me of an anime in that there were several self contained stories that begin as soon as you walk into town. The writing and voice acting however, makes up for it massively. They obviously knew what they were doing when translating the Japanese script, and the voice acting is extremely on point.

The world design itself is very good. I like the regional dialects and the obvious reflections of real world societies and cultures, like Lonolulu (Hawaii), Sniflheim (Scandinavia), Laguna di Gondolia (Venice, Italy), Pnomh Nonh (Cambodia), Arboria (Ancient Greece), Hotto (Japan), and the Medal Academy (France). It really reinforced the idea of travelling the world, and seeing all sorts of cultures. Only things I’d criticise is how the name same background music plays for every single area. Having the Switch version was good because I could swap over to the Dragon Quest 8 Overworld Theme instead, which in my view makes the original song look like garbage.

Another thing I’d point out is the very similar character models for children, men, women, and elderly. It’s extremely easy to tell that the old woman in one area is the same as the old woman in another, just with orange hair and glasses. But the models are good, and fun to look at.

@TheJGG I guess another thing that probably hindered the experience for me had to probably be that I did literally none of the side quests for the game as well.

I always have trouble with the video games are art arguments (which is different to me than games can be artistic), mainly as the games that get cited are terrible examples especially when it's just moving to cut scene to cut scene or having multiple path endings.

However there is something which has slightly swayed me on that which are video game difficulties as a strength of argument for games as an artform. Something like Catherine Full Body where the sense of urgency to complete the stages coming from playing it on higher difficulties is a great way to convey the panic the main character is feeling who is under pressure story wise to take action but doesn't. This is something that other mediums like books or movies don't have as a story telling option, like how first person narrative works very well in books and is more often than not complete pish in movies.

So TLDR Metal Gear Solid's cut scenes are silly and Catherine being hard is actually a work of art. ;p

I think Metacritic scores are perfectly fine as long as you don't take them too seriously. It's interesting to see how the average review scores of a game compare to others, and the Metacritic site is useful for finding all the reviews in one place, as pointed out above. Just don't take them to be an objective measure of a game's quality, which should go without saying really.

Aight I've written more on DS, @BloodNinja.

Death Stranding. One of the most expressive games of our generation, yet one of the most divisive and controversial games I have ever played. Ironic for a game whose primary message is about reconnecting America and bringing people together under a unified front. But beneath the superficial flaws, the seemingly over-repetitive gameplay, and the so-called ugly coat of paint, lies a masterpiece on multiple levels, a game that almost demolishes the barriers between film and video games, and ensures it will stay in the hearts of players for the emotions.

The game is a walking simulator, is one of the most intrinsically flawed arguments to this game that I have read across the internet thus far, because it has very little depth, contrary to the various systems of the game itself. The main challenge of this game is the terrain, the journey. Encountering real enemies, like MULEs and BTs, combines a material, or immaterial, threat with the challenges of the world beneath our feet, to create a unique kind of problem.

The sense of teamwork is also a driving force in this game, and is as omnipotent as the walking itself. Playing this game without an Internet connection is objectively harder to do, compared to playing it with one. The community Kojima has designed has been incredibly helpful and efficient, due to his own designs. According to interviews he designed the Likes system to promote and mandate positivity, and increase oxytocin levels, due to the scientific implications of approval. In fact it’s this need for oxytocin, need, and approval, that leads former porters to become bandit-like MULEs. Their need to deliver pervades their very mind.

Things like climbing a mountain or traversing the landscape are harder without an Internet connection because Kojima hit home the notion that teamwork and solidarity beats all. Other constructions built by players in their worlds are transported to yours, giving a sense that you aren’t alone in the struggle to reconnect the world.

@TheJGG And if I'm not mistaken, the game isn't just about delivering packages, since there's also a story in it.

@VoidofLight The story was for me extremely engaging. Like in Kingdom Hearts the lore was placed in a dedicated section (Interviews), and really expanded the world. Of course some things are jarringly left out of story cutscenes like some character backstories. No joke, most of the supporting cast's fates are revealed in interviews which are just subjected; "Fragile's fate" or otherwise. But some of the story beats were truly amazing, and at the end of the game I nearly cried because of how powerful the ending was.

I have to say though that the pacing's very inconsistent. The game's divided into fourteen episodes (and a prologue), and they vary far too much in length and story significance. Episode 13 for example is an hour and a half of cutscenes, and that's it. Episode 3, however, took me a month to finish because of how large it was. You covered about 45% of the Central Region map in that episode and there was such a small amount of story. Plus, out of the 70 story delivery missions, orders 18-38 take place during Episode 3, which is a good third. And in many instances, like Episodes 4, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, the entire chapter can be covered with a single order. It takes three entire episodes (10-12) to travel from the Chiral Relay all the way back to Capital Knot City. I loved the whole process, it showed how much you learnt over the course of the game, but the story takes a hit.

The cinematics are top notch, and at times border photorealism. That makes the game better off. The human emotions are captured best by... well... humans. So bringing in top notch Hollywood names like Norman Reedus, Mads Mikkelsen, Léa Seydoux, and a sensational voice actor in Troy Baker, (plus Tommie Earl Jenkins) was the best thing to do, and honestly I doubt it would have worked otherwise.

@TheJGG Huh. Sounds like a pretty interesting game. I remember wanting to try it out due to the odd trailers and the gameplay itself, but just never got around to it.