PerishSong

Solid 7/10. It's a fun game with some neat ideas. It keeps the joy of catching, battling, and evolving Pokemon, and the new and returning Mega Evolutions are charming.

BUT oof, this does not feel like a $70 game. It really feels more like a spinoff that should have been $40-50. The fact that Legends: ZA costs more than games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 or Final Fantasy VII Remake, just feels insulting. It's a fun game, but it's way too expensive for what it is.

@Overzeal Haven't played the game, what'd they mess up?

In the Noisy Pixel review of Hundred Line, the reviewer played / read Umineko (a famously long game visual novel) in about 80 hours, which is a fairly fast pace.

It took that same reviewer about 100 hours to fully get through Hundred Line.

@LastFootnote Looks like the other nominees were "No Case Should Remain Unsolved" and "Life is Strange: Double Exposure".

@ScalenePowers They look good and I've heard pretty much nothing but good things! They are also a combined several hundred hours of game time, and my backlog is already full.

This was a fun game, but I think the overworld will feel pretty janky compared to modern games unless they change it up. The ship combat probably still holds up.

Looks interesting, although the battle animations feel underwhelming. When compared to Mega Man Battle Network or One Step From Eden, the characters moving and attacking feel very flat.

100% would buy a sequel if it's the same quality as Unicorn Overlord, the game was very solid. I had a few nitpicks here and there, but nothing major. I would love to see this IP take off.

@Lizuka I enjoyed Raging Loop, but the ending was pretty rough, imo. It really had a lot of odd twists towards the end, and left several things fully unexplained (and put several explanations behind the optional "post-game" chapters).

As someone who has done almost all of the harder raid battles, I agree that they feel stale, and part of that is the high difficulty. Most of them have practically required a specific pokemon / moveset due to their difficulty, and a lot of the strategies involve skipping phases because of how hard they'll start hitting after several stat-boosting moves. They're basically un-doable with random players, and so the raids were straight up easier to run solo unless you had a premade group.

At this point I'm sometimes interested in getting the pokemon from the raid but don't enjoy the raids themselves that much. The difficulty feels like it's artificial and forcing you into using a specific combination, rather than allowing for more freedom or experimentation.

Before Tears this'd be a tougher consideration, but it's TotK for sure.

I think Patricia Summersett did a decent enough job, it sounds like she wasn't really given much voice direction. I feel like poor vocal performances are just as often due to bad voice direction as they are to bad actors. The voice felt a bit breathy to me (in the same vein as Agnes from Bravely Default) but that felt more like a choice that I didn't agree with, as opposed to an actress doing a bad job. At the very least, I never found the voice lines distracting.

Then again, I felt like the Japanese VA came off as sounding more like a child than a teen/adult, so maybe there's just no pleasing me. I thought the French VA did well!

@Arawn93 @johnedwin
Having played both Elden Ring and XC3, I kind of get it. I think Elden Ring deserves Best Game, but although it had a lot of RPG elements, it's not really what I would think of when thinking about that genre. Action RPG almost feels like it should be its own genre.

@DDFawfulGuy Basically cited examples of "wokeness" in the game as being use of gender-neutral pronouns, same sex marriage, an increase in platonic relationships in the western release, and a tendency for "the church/patriarchy" to be villains.

Which seemed like an odd list of "negatives" to me. The first two felt like inclusive positives, if anything.

@StAmbrosius And you think those are...bad things?

@StAmbrosius "Wokeness"? That seems like a weird critique to make.

I do agree with the other things you mentioned, although I don't think they're necessarily the reason for the drop on the UK charts. Engage's drop is pretty standard for a new game. That said, I really wish they would stop making DLC season passes so expensive. An extra 50% of the game's AAA price tends to be too costly for the content (especially when some of that content won't come out for at least a year).

@Tott They're at least going back to the Charizard raid in a week or two. The other ones so far haven't had anything that's been exclusive to the raids, at least.

This game really felt like a lot of steps forward, and a lot of steps backward.

It's unfortunate that the technical issues are so bad - I haven't personally experienced any major glitches in many hours of gameplay, but the FPS is pretty weak and there are lots of odd pop-ins, disappearing terrain, and lighting jank. I honestly think that if this game was more technically polished, it'd be one of best Pokemon games to date.

@Orochilocka I've played way too much of the game so far, and the only glitch I've seen so far has been one where a Fidough model randomly showed up near doors and in Raids. It went away after closing the game. There are some bugs for sure, but they are fairly few and far between.

That said, I definitely agree that the frame rate is below where one should expect a Triple-A game to be. I personally didn't find it horribly distracting or anything, but it does suck to see a game that could be one of the best Pokemon titles (imo) get so bogged down by technical issues. It's pretty choppy in a lot of areas.

@BranJ0 To be fair, the list already has some spoilers itself (aside from The Great Ace Attorney since that was recent). Also, isn't every main prosecutor an antagonist with a tragic backstory?

I agree with the top 5 for the most part, although Turnabout Succession probably doesn't rate quite as high for me.

Turnabout Serenade and Turnabout Trump wouldn't have made the top 10 for me. Apollo Justice was a fun game, but it felt much weaker when compared to the original trilogy for me.

I'd at least have The Stolen Turnabout (2-2) on the list; the case as a whole was quite fun, and the twist at the halfway point after you (seemingly) prove your client Not Guilty is really solid.

Oof, there's a lot of bangers. Nearly every main theme from the big games (Mario, Zelda, Pokemon) is really solid.

Thinking of less-famous songs, though, You Will Know Our Names from Xenoblade Chronicles is really good, and would take my pick.

God-Shattering Star is up there (Fire Emblem: Three Houses) but I think You Will Know Our Names edges it out for me.

@Mattock1987 It's to build interest on a soon-to-be-released game. Might not be everyone's cup of tea, but it certainly is mine.

@NintonicGamer I wouldn't be too surprised if he winds up with a cameo. I know he shows up as a secret enemy in Zanki Zero.

Rain Code looks like it is at least similar in style to Danganronpa. The mine cart section shown in the Direct looks a lot like the Logic Dive in Danganronpa 2.

Infinite Space for the DS.

It's a JRPG ship fighting game with a reasonably simple rock/paper/scissors combat style. The gameplay is fairly basic, however the game doesn't present all of the information on combat mechanics well (such as weapon distance where different weapons won't properly fire if you are too far or too close to the enemy fleet). The graphics were pretty bad even for the time it came out.

But the ship/crew customization was neat, the story was excellent, the characters were interesting, the setting was incredible, and it's probably one of my favorite "Hidden Gem" games. I don't know if I'd really recommend it - it feels even more dated now than it did on release - but it was definitely a fun ride.

Mixed feelings on this. I quite enjoy Dunkey's videos, even when I disagree with his opinions. I think his subversive / parody videos (like the "What a DISGRACE" video poking fun at the Smash community seemingly never being satisfied with new character announcements) are solid.

BUT being a Publisher can be a pretty involved process, and "I've played a lot of video games" obviously isn't the only qualification. And while I find him funny and entertaining, I don't place very much weight on his opinions because they often don't align with my own.

@DiggleDog I think some of the individual stories were interesting, but the "final story" where it tried to tie everything together really flopped hard for me. Here's hoping to a better overarching storyline this time around.

I am oddly also playing through 13 Sentinels; it has been in my backlog for a bit now, and I finally started it last week. I'm around 60% through the story/remembrance part and the twisty plot really has me hooked.

Planning to start No More Heroes 3 or Danganronpa afterwards, still have too many games and not enough time!

@Tharsman Originally I posted that you should be able to play XC3 without concern since XC2 did not require you to play XC1, but it sounds like XC3 actually might have some aspects that tie in to both previous stories. You may want to play XC2 first.

Haven't played this, but a friend of mine said it has their favorite movement system out of any game they've played recently, so I'll probably give it a shot.

If I had one nitpick, I suppose it would be that it takes a bit to get to some of the new monsters. In Iceborne, you fight Beotodus and Banbaro as practically your first two monsters. In Sunbreak, it takes a bit to get to some of the new monsters.

That said, Lunagaron and Garangolm are both incredibly solid additions, and I haven't fought the flagship Malzeno yet. Some of the monsters have several new moves added to their Master Rank versions (Goss Harag now mains Sword and Shield instead of Dual Blades). The new Switch Skills and the ability to swap between multiple skills really add some new gameplay, and I'm loving the expansion so far.

@Sobtanian The DLC is also wonderful. I hope the game makes it to Switch someday, as it's a real gem of a game.

I had a lot of fun when I played this game, although there were definitely some head-scratchers in there, and I'll admit I had to look up a few hints online. I got stuck on one of the solutions that required looking at characters' boots and sleeping cots to determine who they were.

> Are there other games that use narrative devices in interesting ways that you recommend?

I was actually reminded of the style of Obra Dinn when playing Outer Wilds (which might someday release on Switch); the "puzzles" had a similar feel where some of the more involved ones required knowledge obtained from several different places, and the solution involved combining that knowledge into one answer.

Lotta hate in the comments for Musou games. I love 'em. Yes, they're very similar, but when you boil it down, a lot of genres have very similar game feel within the genre.

I get that they're not for everyone, but having played FE Warriors, Age of Calamity, and Hyrule Warriors they all felt different enough to have their own identities. Very excited for this one.

"Three Hopes" and "Age of Calamity" seem like they might be setting a precedent of combining Musou gameplay with plotlines that function as semi-sequels/prequels to the base games (FE: Three Houses and TLoZ: Breath of the Wild). I'll be interested to see if there are any other major titles that get the same treatment in the future.

Persona 5 Strikers as well, now that I think of it.

@d_b_cooper @princess_shantae
Was going to say. The only comments I've seen were CA responding directly to a fan, saying "I do think Super Zoo Story has taken it a little too far" in regards to how similar their art style is, that he thinks they should have "come up with their own art style", and that he would have an issue if it turned out they straight up ripped his assets from the game. That's a pretty far cry from pitching a fit.

Stardew Valley is obviously very heavily inspired by Harvest Moon FoMT, but the art style is different enough to feel like its own thing, imo. Super Zoo Story almost looks more like a mod for Stardew Valley than its own game.

I was pretty curious on whether or not they'd be in the game. Glad to see them make an appearance!

Switch Skill looks so strong. Being able to swap between Sakura Slash and Soaring Kick on Long Sword is going to slap so hard.

Co-op games tend to have decent communities, and Monster Hunter is one of the best, imo. I think I've seen, like, one toxic individual across three games.

@MattAllsopp Nope! The OPUS games are all designed to be standalones.

@RubyCarbuncle I feel the consensus has been positive towards Origami King and by extension its combat, although it's definitely a departure from previous Paper Mario games in that regard. I loved it, but I definitely don't begrudge anyone who didn't.

Having played the game, I honestly don't think the graphics are that bad, although they could certainly stand to be better. Some of the shading on characters feels a bit off to me. The trees don't bother me at all.

To be honest, if it weren't for all the people calling out the graphics being janky, I probably wouldn't have noticed anything too bad.

@blindsquarel I don't think they've added any monsters since the addition of Valstrax, new Apexes, and the final storymode monster, which were about half a year or so ago.

@Arawn93 It really depends on the run, but I agree that runs where a glitch is the focus is pretty boring. There are some runs with some pretty wild glitches (Skyward Sword with its bizzare Main Menu glitch is pretty interesting to watch), but the ones where it's a handful of menus and a rush to the final screen can be rather boring to watch.

Gen 4 is the only generation that I never played (or rather, I played HG/SS but missed Diamond/Pearl/Plat), so this is going to be a day one for me. I'm a little bummed to see the EXP Share doesn't have an off switch, but I tend to play with it on most games anyway unless I'm doing a challenge run.

Grabbing Pearl since I'm pretty sure it'll be the less popular of the two, which is usually how I make my decisions on which version to get.

@Savage_Joe LoL is pretty notorious for having one of the most toxic communities, and from what I've seen, it's pretty rare that Riot takes action. When you report someone, the game will send you a "by the way, someone you reported had action taken against them" if that person gets punished (or gets a warning). I've seen folks flame pretty much non-stop in games, players intentionally throwing matches, straight-up bullying other players, etc., and almost never received the notification. The few times that I have, it's been for folks outright using slurs or threatening people.

I've largely swapped to ARAM, an alternate LoL game mode that is much faster, and generally more chill. There's still certainly some bad eggs and some poor sportsmanship (folks sure do like typing "gg ez" at the end of matches) but it's at least a step up from the normal game modes.

I think it'd be solved by Riot actually taking action more on toxic players, but I think they're afraid of losing players to suspensions and bans tbh. They're removing the allchat feature (or maybe they did already?) where players can talk to their opponents, which feels a bit like a misguided step to me.

Give me more DLC, the controls are good and I am interested in Rise.

@VoodooTrumpet It's heavily based on the original Skyrim mod by the same creators, but it uses a different engine (Skyrim used Creation, The Forgotten City uses Unreal).

@RetrovisRabbit WHY ARE YOU BUYING CLOTHES AT THE SOUP STORE