This is a game I desperately wanted to love. It's also a game that, apparently, a lot of people enjoyed playing. A combination of those two things resulted a double-whammy of disappointment. I also have to mention that Nier: Automata is yet another shitty PC port rescued by amateur programmers fixing what the developers shouldn't have released in the first place.
Nier: Automata tells a story rather cleverly flung into a far off future, where humans and aliens are at far using androids and robots as their respective proxies. Our main protagonist, android 2B, is sent to Earth where shit hits the fan pretty quickly and acquires support from another android, 9S. They then both go off to fight robots together. Except when they don't. And if that doesn't tell you how little I ended up caring about the story, then I'm not sure what else will.
The game is primarily an action RPG, with the kind of flashy-yet-simple melee combat you'd expect from the guys at Platinum Games. You attack, and dodge when not attacking to get hit. That's about it. One of the things that Nier: Automata sets out to do and achieves rather well is a strange melding of genres. At times, the 3rd person melee focus switches to a sort of 2D side-scroller, other times a bullet heavy shooter. Those transitions are pretty smooth when they occur, and help keep you on your toes, as well as keeping you engaged as your make your way through the game. That said, I did feel that the game comes across as a sort of jack of all trades but master of none. Side quests are relatively simple affairs, but do provide a bit more exposition behind the game's over-arching narrative, and your game-play style can be better tailored through he use of "program chips" that give your characters buffs like extra EXP, or returning health as you deal damage and so forth. This program chip system can be a little overwhelming, however, with limited space for a huge amount of customisation options, which themselves exist in tiers (EXP bonus I, II, III, etc), with better programs taking up more space. While you can pick options that automatically pick "balanced" "attack" or "defensive" chips, it was a real pain when a chip you like it removed, because you'd have to find something else to was the right "size" to be replaced by it. Nier: Automata also wears some more modern gaming influences on it's arm, like Dark Souls "die and get one chance to cover your exp", only with exp being replaced by all these plug in chips you use to improve your combat abilities.
The controls in the game are sadly pretty questionable, and at times just downright awful. For example, there are two buttons that you pretty much have to keep held down while fighting - those being your "lock on" button, and the button that controls your little robot friend (or "Pod") shooting at the enemies. Both of these really should of been toggled on or off to free up your hands when playing, to remove the need to constantly hold them down. I also found it necessary to rebind some of the controls in the game, and it's great that you're given this option, but at the same time also makes you question how much fine-tuning the developers really did before release. For example, switched the "toggle light" button (L3) with "pod function" (left bumper). The pod function is a sort of special attack with a cool-down timer, and without doing this, you're forced to let go of the "lock on" button (left trigger), meaning you have to suddenly aim the pod function with the right analog stick. This would have been fine, but later int he game, you're forced to use a specific pod function which acts as a radar to find something in the game's fairly-sized open world. This part became a royal pain, because the L3 button isn't the best button in the world to hold while using the left stick to move, but at the same time you still have to navigate the world and deal with enemies as you're searching for this thing in question.
The game looks... ok? It definitely isn't making any effort to beat Crysis on max settings, but manages to give you something nice to look at despite that while playing. It also makes clever use of some pretty minimal art direction decisions at times, which both makes sense within the game's narrative and compensates for a graphics engine that isn't trying anything extraordinary. There's also nothing bad that can be said for the design of the main characters, which will no doubt provide us with some excellent cosplaying for the near future. The soundtrack was definitely one of the games highlights, and made me sadly reminiscent of the anime Ghost in the Shell, which simply had to be intentional, given the story's focus on the existential crises these android's appear to be tackling with as they battle robots that it appears they're not entirely different from. I say "sadly" with regards to the soundtrack because where the game really fell down for me regarding it's story. It's portrayed as some big, sad ordeal, with these androids fighting robots, and what exactly is the difference between them. The game seemingly takes this for granted, and never really got me invested in why I should care. One moment, a 9S yells at 2B about how we can't trust what the robots say, the next, 9S is endearingly calling another apparently "child" robot "little guy" after he ran away from his "Mother". 2B's depiction as a cold and uncaring soldier is thrown away almost immediately when another robot simply asks for some help. The story is further undermined with the game being broken up into 3 arcs, with the second you hope goes some way to fleshing out the first by offering another characters perspective, but fails to do so. The third act just fails entirely, setting up for the remaining two characters and set up to kill each because the narrative needs them to.
The replay value this game tries to represent is another disappointment. Unlike Dark Souls or Persona, which I replayed because I enjoyed them, for Nier: Automata, I had to replay the early part of the game as a different character, before really being able to proceed with the "story". While combat is definitely one of the games better points, this replayed section of the game is done using 9S in place of 2B, who is a substantially weaker character in terms of combat. The game compensates for this by giving 9S a "hacking" ability, which takes place as a bullet hell style mini-game to deal substantial damage to enemies, but it's just no where near as enjoyable. There are other hidden endings in the game as well, which are really more "what if?" scenarios if the story took a different direction. I think I'm happier looking them up on YouTube than enduring the game it's self to see them. Another trope borrowed from Dark Souls is detailing some lore through item descriptions. Weapon upgrades, for example, detail a short story about the game's world. Sadly, like everything in Nier Automata, trying to shoe-horn in all these different things didn't leave any single thing seemingly well done.
I'm bitterly disappointed in Nier: Automata, but at the same time I can appreciate why some people were raving about it. There's some seed there brimming with great potential, but it's just not there yet for me. Part of this could be because the bar had been raised so high by what I had read about the game, which resulted in it failing to deliver. Much like Final Fantasy XV, most of my issues with Nier: Automata could have been remedied with a good story told well. I could have looked past the stupid controls, the cluttered customisation, the blatant fan service and the dodgy port if they had just told me a good story. Sadly this isn't the case.
Monday, 29 May 2017
Saturday, 13 May 2017
Persona 5 - 4/5
So I finally managed to beat Persona 5 after a good 70 hours-or-so of pretty much my undivided attention (with the occasional, compulsive dip into Destiny). That's probably going to give you an idea of how this review is going to turn out.
Persona 5 is bloody good.
I initially went into playing Persona 5 with a bit of a sour taste in my mouth on account of Altus, the people responsible for the game, having a rather archaic and frankly idiotic stance towards streamer's playing their game for too long. That's a story for another day. As opposed to that sour taste developing into full-on revulsion, as D:Ream said in '93, "things can only get better".
So let's get the obvious stuff out of the way. Persona 5 is a JRPG, first and foremost, with a pretty intuitive battle system, likeable characters, decent story, fantastic soundtrack and spot-on voice acting, all of which is wrapped in a slick and stylish artistic direction. Also added to the mix is a more grounded and social aspect to the game, which I'm struggling to describe. Try to imagine "The Sims: Japanese High School expansion" meets "Pokemon", and you're going to get a decent idea of what to expect.
Let's try and explain the Pokemon reference first. The more traditional JRPG elements of the game take place within the "Metaverse", which you can think of as an alternate reality that exists in people's heads. Within the Metaverse, people's hidden natures are made manifest, becoming the "Personas" that handily fill the same niche as Pokemon would in a Pokemon game. There are heaps of these Personas, each with their own strengths and weaknesses that can be exploited in battle. While the rest of your team are stuck with one Persona and it's particular elemental affinity, the main character has the ability to change his Personas as the situation requires.
On the surface, this appears very much like Pokemon and it's rock-paper-scissors approach to exploiting enemy weaknesses, but Persona 5 is able to offer a more strategic and nuanced experience. Say you use Ryuji's Persona (specializing in electric attacks) against an enemy weak to electricity. Not only do you do bonus damage against that enemy, but you also "knock them down", awarding Ryuji an additional attack that turn. Say there's another enemy on the field weak to electricity? Boom, another attack. Later on, you're able to pass this attack between another character who may be able to exploit a different enemies weakness, and so on. It may sound like this makes Persona 5 too easy, but note that there are enemies int he game for which there are no weaknesses. Not only that, but the same mechanics that work for you can also work against you, as well as the existence of one hit kills int he game (which, if they land on the main character, results in a Game Over screen).
Knocking down all the enemies on the field allows you to either do an "All-out attack" (the damage for which was welcome but also not exactly game-changing), or try and "negotiate". Negotiation may award you with money or items, or a chance to recruit the Persona using various multiple choice answers. I was never a big fan of the games negation mechanics, partly because the required answers were a bit too vague for my liking. For example, knocked-down personas have one of 4 various "moods": Irritable, Gloomy, Up-beat (flirty) or Timid, and you need to pick answers that you think will be more appeasing based on these moods. Fortunately this is only one way to recruit new Personas, such as fusing two together in a place called "the Velvet Room", a place you encounter pretty early on in the game's story.
While the events that take place in the Metaverse offer up the "bulk" of the content in Persona 5, we haven't yet touched on the events that can take place within the real world, which also offers the player a heap of content. While experience points improves your ability int he Metaverse, it's various social tasks that help improve the main characters 5 social skills: Guts, Charm, Knowledge, Proficiency, and Kindness. For example, being a high school student necessitates trips to school. At school, the occassional pop quiz or exam gives you the chance to improve your knowledge skill. Hitting a few balls at the battling cages can improve your proficiency. Improving these social skills opens avenues to other social events. For example you can work a part-time job that no only pays more but can improve your social skills providing your other skills are high enough. Hanging out with that lady-friend you have a thing for might require you charm to be relatively high, and completing various "Confidant" side quests may require your social skills to be at a certain level in order to progress.
"Confidants, Tom? What's that?" I'm SO glad you asked! Confidants refers to the more personal relationships the main character makes in the game. Not only does each of your team in the Metaverse serve as a confidant, but so do other NPC's you encounter in the real world. Each of these confidants possess their own quest-line, with relatively involved stories to keep you invested. Improving these social links also has a direct impact in the Metaverse too, such as giving Persona produced via fusion an experience bonus, giving team mates special attacks, or giving access to new items and discounts in various shops.
Thankfully, all the style and flourish that makes the game-play so good in Persona 5 bleeds over into the games aesthetic and music. Both help really draw the line between events in the Metaverse and the game's real world, like using softer, pastel colours an accessible keyboard melodies in the real world to accentuate the more exiting events that are taking place int he Metaverse, which uses harsh lines of bold colour and rocking guitar riffs. As mentioned the voice acting is also really on point, with Altus clearly investing in capable voice actors who's talents I've heard used in various anime dubs over the years. Fun fact, the voice actress for Morgana was also in an anime with a character called Ryuji, giving me nice throw backs whenever Morgana scolds Ryuji. The only criticism I would say is that character dialog sometimes goes on for a little bit too long. I often found myself skipping the rest after the first line, which gave me just enough context to allow voiced conversations to make sense without me getting bored of waiting for one character to stop speaking.
As far as replay-ability goes, Persona 5 fully endorses a New Game+. Your social skills carry over between play-through's, giving you more time to pursue activities with your confidants without having to rank skills up before progressing. certain items, such as equipment and gifts for maxing out a confidant, also carry over, as well as your obtained library of Personas. Certain dialog options denied you early in the game because you social skills were too low also open up immediately allowing you to try and new take on old scenes. The game also allows you to fast-forward through conversations, meaning my next play-through will probably be a lot shorter than 70+ hours.
In short, Persona 5 is a rock-sold JRPG, and perhaps the first really good JRPG I've played in a long, long time. I'm really glad to finally get a look in on a series I've always been interested in but never really had the chance to play. Fingers crossed this results in some remastered releases of the earlier games o I can try them out for myself as well.
Persona 5 is bloody good.
I initially went into playing Persona 5 with a bit of a sour taste in my mouth on account of Altus, the people responsible for the game, having a rather archaic and frankly idiotic stance towards streamer's playing their game for too long. That's a story for another day. As opposed to that sour taste developing into full-on revulsion, as D:Ream said in '93, "things can only get better".
So let's get the obvious stuff out of the way. Persona 5 is a JRPG, first and foremost, with a pretty intuitive battle system, likeable characters, decent story, fantastic soundtrack and spot-on voice acting, all of which is wrapped in a slick and stylish artistic direction. Also added to the mix is a more grounded and social aspect to the game, which I'm struggling to describe. Try to imagine "The Sims: Japanese High School expansion" meets "Pokemon", and you're going to get a decent idea of what to expect.
Let's try and explain the Pokemon reference first. The more traditional JRPG elements of the game take place within the "Metaverse", which you can think of as an alternate reality that exists in people's heads. Within the Metaverse, people's hidden natures are made manifest, becoming the "Personas" that handily fill the same niche as Pokemon would in a Pokemon game. There are heaps of these Personas, each with their own strengths and weaknesses that can be exploited in battle. While the rest of your team are stuck with one Persona and it's particular elemental affinity, the main character has the ability to change his Personas as the situation requires.
On the surface, this appears very much like Pokemon and it's rock-paper-scissors approach to exploiting enemy weaknesses, but Persona 5 is able to offer a more strategic and nuanced experience. Say you use Ryuji's Persona (specializing in electric attacks) against an enemy weak to electricity. Not only do you do bonus damage against that enemy, but you also "knock them down", awarding Ryuji an additional attack that turn. Say there's another enemy on the field weak to electricity? Boom, another attack. Later on, you're able to pass this attack between another character who may be able to exploit a different enemies weakness, and so on. It may sound like this makes Persona 5 too easy, but note that there are enemies int he game for which there are no weaknesses. Not only that, but the same mechanics that work for you can also work against you, as well as the existence of one hit kills int he game (which, if they land on the main character, results in a Game Over screen).
Knocking down all the enemies on the field allows you to either do an "All-out attack" (the damage for which was welcome but also not exactly game-changing), or try and "negotiate". Negotiation may award you with money or items, or a chance to recruit the Persona using various multiple choice answers. I was never a big fan of the games negation mechanics, partly because the required answers were a bit too vague for my liking. For example, knocked-down personas have one of 4 various "moods": Irritable, Gloomy, Up-beat (flirty) or Timid, and you need to pick answers that you think will be more appeasing based on these moods. Fortunately this is only one way to recruit new Personas, such as fusing two together in a place called "the Velvet Room", a place you encounter pretty early on in the game's story.
While the events that take place in the Metaverse offer up the "bulk" of the content in Persona 5, we haven't yet touched on the events that can take place within the real world, which also offers the player a heap of content. While experience points improves your ability int he Metaverse, it's various social tasks that help improve the main characters 5 social skills: Guts, Charm, Knowledge, Proficiency, and Kindness. For example, being a high school student necessitates trips to school. At school, the occassional pop quiz or exam gives you the chance to improve your knowledge skill. Hitting a few balls at the battling cages can improve your proficiency. Improving these social skills opens avenues to other social events. For example you can work a part-time job that no only pays more but can improve your social skills providing your other skills are high enough. Hanging out with that lady-friend you have a thing for might require you charm to be relatively high, and completing various "Confidant" side quests may require your social skills to be at a certain level in order to progress.
"Confidants, Tom? What's that?" I'm SO glad you asked! Confidants refers to the more personal relationships the main character makes in the game. Not only does each of your team in the Metaverse serve as a confidant, but so do other NPC's you encounter in the real world. Each of these confidants possess their own quest-line, with relatively involved stories to keep you invested. Improving these social links also has a direct impact in the Metaverse too, such as giving Persona produced via fusion an experience bonus, giving team mates special attacks, or giving access to new items and discounts in various shops.
Thankfully, all the style and flourish that makes the game-play so good in Persona 5 bleeds over into the games aesthetic and music. Both help really draw the line between events in the Metaverse and the game's real world, like using softer, pastel colours an accessible keyboard melodies in the real world to accentuate the more exiting events that are taking place int he Metaverse, which uses harsh lines of bold colour and rocking guitar riffs. As mentioned the voice acting is also really on point, with Altus clearly investing in capable voice actors who's talents I've heard used in various anime dubs over the years. Fun fact, the voice actress for Morgana was also in an anime with a character called Ryuji, giving me nice throw backs whenever Morgana scolds Ryuji. The only criticism I would say is that character dialog sometimes goes on for a little bit too long. I often found myself skipping the rest after the first line, which gave me just enough context to allow voiced conversations to make sense without me getting bored of waiting for one character to stop speaking.
As far as replay-ability goes, Persona 5 fully endorses a New Game+. Your social skills carry over between play-through's, giving you more time to pursue activities with your confidants without having to rank skills up before progressing. certain items, such as equipment and gifts for maxing out a confidant, also carry over, as well as your obtained library of Personas. Certain dialog options denied you early in the game because you social skills were too low also open up immediately allowing you to try and new take on old scenes. The game also allows you to fast-forward through conversations, meaning my next play-through will probably be a lot shorter than 70+ hours.
In short, Persona 5 is a rock-sold JRPG, and perhaps the first really good JRPG I've played in a long, long time. I'm really glad to finally get a look in on a series I've always been interested in but never really had the chance to play. Fingers crossed this results in some remastered releases of the earlier games o I can try them out for myself as well.
Saturday, 4 March 2017
Nioh - 4/5
Hey guys, for the one or two people that may stumble across my game reviewing efforts, I've decided to take a slightly revised route towards how I go about reviewing. I've decided to go with a really simple X out of 5 system. I feel this will keep things both simple and honest. I mean, why say a great game is 81 over 89? Where is that definitely point between 89 and 90 for an amazing game? Also, instead of making you guys sift through all my thoughts before coming to the conclusion, I'm just going to whack it in the title. It's not like I'm getting paid by any adverts to bore you guys with!
Also, I appreciate that Nioh has been out for near a month so this is dated to say the least, but at the same time I'm not fortunately enough to make my passion of games any kind of career, so any games I review are paid for out of my own pocket during the public release and I don't have the time to play a game to completion (or near enough) to write an honest review. Thanks for popping by and let me know if you have any thoughts!
So anyway: Nioh.
Nioh is a great game, that gets a lot of important things right. It's a game that wears it's influences in it's sleeve, but at the same time takes those influences and makes them its own. Team Ninja clearly spent a lot of time working on Nioh's combat. Your protagonist, William (based on a real-life western Samurai) has both "heavy" and "light" attacks to play with, as well as three different stances (high, mid, and low) that affect how these heavy and light attacks work. Stamina in this game is called your "ki", which each of these attacks and stances (as well as dodging and blocking) use varying amounts of.
While low-stance light attacks using a little amount of ki and allow you to attack continually for minimal damage, a high-stance heavy attack will do both substantially more damage while using substantially more ki. Coupled with this is the game's "ki pulse" mechanic. This allows you to quickly regain your ki, as well as purifying "Yokai domains" (small areas left by demon enemies that both hinders your ki recovery while enhancing their own). It's similar to Bloodborne's regain system but with recovery being on your ki rather than your health. All these aspects added together result in a fun and engaging combat system that would never get old if it wasn't for some issues we'll be getting around to.
The game's mediocre story is more than made up for by this awesome combat, as well as touches of Japanese history and detailed descriptions given by the game's bestiary and encyclopedia. You're also not forced to fight every enemy you come across. The bows and matchlock rifles give you the option to (mostly) one-shot snipe headshots from afar, giving the game an aspect of stealth that is rather satisfying. So satisfying that I couldn't bear not mentioning it among all of Nioh's other accomplishments.
I should point out that I decided to play with the game's "Action" setting and favouring a regular 60fps, over the "Movie" setting which favours prettier graphics but at 30fps. Having never seen the difference in Movie mode, and with the game being plenty pretty already in Action mode, I'm not at all concerned about what I'm missing from Movie mode. I'd recommend everyone else to do the same. Just having this option is a great inclusion, and something I hope other games adopt going forward into this new generation with multiple versions of the same console. I'm fine with PS4 Pro users having prettier graphics at 60fps, providing my little PS4's framerates aren't made to suffer
Nioh, while great, is not perfect, however. Part of Nioh's initial appeal for me was how long and lengthy people made the game out to me. Given that the length is compensated by having the same enemy encounters over and over again, I feel this game would have greatly benefited from being a lot more concise. It's sort of the opposite problem these open sandbox games have nowadays: instead of there being big empty voids to traverse, the game is littered with repeating content.
The game's loot system can also be a bit of a saturating experience, as well. Each piece of gear can have numerous perks, but there's simply so many different options that I ceased caring about them. This is partly because of how versatile the combat system is. Do I want a weapon that lowers the ki I use for my quick attacks? Or increase the damage I do during my mi-stance? Or does more damage with heavy attacks? I just stuck with weapons that seemingly hit harder and armour sets that gave additional perks based on how many pieces of that same set you had.
While as mentioned the combat is great, the game's lack of enemy variety really gives you no real reason to change an established and effective tactic. I'm still fighting the same enemies in sub-mission 100-something that I was fighting in the first mission after the game's tutorial in the Tower of London. I say "still fighting" because it's actually become a chore for me to switch the game on and play, because really I'm still having to do things that I've done countless times already.
One particularly disappointing example of this is the game's first real boss, Onryoki. I understand the idea of taking an early boss and making it something of a surprising to turn up again in later missions, but I've fought this guy 6 times already. And I know for a fact there's going to be a 7th. The worst part is this game has heaps of great bosses, but they've only used this same boss. I'm totally over it. So over it, in fact, that it was the 6th Onryoki encounter that's stopping me going back in and finishing the game off. I'm a handful of missions from the finale but I'm burnt out.
This is something PVP should be able to help with, as players learn and adapt within the same fight, you too will have to change up your strategies to beat them. Relying on the same tactic won't work with an adapting enemy player.. Unfortunately, the game's "Revenants" (NPC-controlled versions other players, spawned from the graves where they've died) suffers from the same problems of the games other enemies. The same tactics will pretty much get you through it. They definitely add a welcome change from fighting the same enemies you've already slaughtered 100's of times already, but even they get a bit samey before long. They're a good compromise until PVP goes live in a few weeks/months time, but they are just that: a compromise.
In retrospect, I think part of the issue with this overly samey gameplay is how I decided to tackle the game. I've played each of the games missions and submissions on order of the level indicated on the game's hub map. If there's a level 100 submission and a level 101 mission, I'd take the submission first. This is mostly because Nioh is a difficult game (though no-where near as difficult as the Dark Souls games). Having any opportunity to level up as much as possible just seemed like a good idea at the time. Perhaps it'd be a better idea to stick to the main missions, and only dip into the submissions when I came across a particularly tough mission in order to level up? Hindsight is 20:20, as they say.
To close, Nioh has the potential to be an amazing IP for Team Ninja. Not only in the coming months as they tweak the game (I'm particularly looking forward to how PVP plays out), but also as they take Nioh's already solid foundations and polish it further in future iterations. I'm looking forward to seeing where Nioh ends up!
Also, I appreciate that Nioh has been out for near a month so this is dated to say the least, but at the same time I'm not fortunately enough to make my passion of games any kind of career, so any games I review are paid for out of my own pocket during the public release and I don't have the time to play a game to completion (or near enough) to write an honest review. Thanks for popping by and let me know if you have any thoughts!
So anyway: Nioh.
Nioh is a great game, that gets a lot of important things right. It's a game that wears it's influences in it's sleeve, but at the same time takes those influences and makes them its own. Team Ninja clearly spent a lot of time working on Nioh's combat. Your protagonist, William (based on a real-life western Samurai) has both "heavy" and "light" attacks to play with, as well as three different stances (high, mid, and low) that affect how these heavy and light attacks work. Stamina in this game is called your "ki", which each of these attacks and stances (as well as dodging and blocking) use varying amounts of.
While low-stance light attacks using a little amount of ki and allow you to attack continually for minimal damage, a high-stance heavy attack will do both substantially more damage while using substantially more ki. Coupled with this is the game's "ki pulse" mechanic. This allows you to quickly regain your ki, as well as purifying "Yokai domains" (small areas left by demon enemies that both hinders your ki recovery while enhancing their own). It's similar to Bloodborne's regain system but with recovery being on your ki rather than your health. All these aspects added together result in a fun and engaging combat system that would never get old if it wasn't for some issues we'll be getting around to.
The game's mediocre story is more than made up for by this awesome combat, as well as touches of Japanese history and detailed descriptions given by the game's bestiary and encyclopedia. You're also not forced to fight every enemy you come across. The bows and matchlock rifles give you the option to (mostly) one-shot snipe headshots from afar, giving the game an aspect of stealth that is rather satisfying. So satisfying that I couldn't bear not mentioning it among all of Nioh's other accomplishments.
I should point out that I decided to play with the game's "Action" setting and favouring a regular 60fps, over the "Movie" setting which favours prettier graphics but at 30fps. Having never seen the difference in Movie mode, and with the game being plenty pretty already in Action mode, I'm not at all concerned about what I'm missing from Movie mode. I'd recommend everyone else to do the same. Just having this option is a great inclusion, and something I hope other games adopt going forward into this new generation with multiple versions of the same console. I'm fine with PS4 Pro users having prettier graphics at 60fps, providing my little PS4's framerates aren't made to suffer
Nioh, while great, is not perfect, however. Part of Nioh's initial appeal for me was how long and lengthy people made the game out to me. Given that the length is compensated by having the same enemy encounters over and over again, I feel this game would have greatly benefited from being a lot more concise. It's sort of the opposite problem these open sandbox games have nowadays: instead of there being big empty voids to traverse, the game is littered with repeating content.
The game's loot system can also be a bit of a saturating experience, as well. Each piece of gear can have numerous perks, but there's simply so many different options that I ceased caring about them. This is partly because of how versatile the combat system is. Do I want a weapon that lowers the ki I use for my quick attacks? Or increase the damage I do during my mi-stance? Or does more damage with heavy attacks? I just stuck with weapons that seemingly hit harder and armour sets that gave additional perks based on how many pieces of that same set you had.
While as mentioned the combat is great, the game's lack of enemy variety really gives you no real reason to change an established and effective tactic. I'm still fighting the same enemies in sub-mission 100-something that I was fighting in the first mission after the game's tutorial in the Tower of London. I say "still fighting" because it's actually become a chore for me to switch the game on and play, because really I'm still having to do things that I've done countless times already.
One particularly disappointing example of this is the game's first real boss, Onryoki. I understand the idea of taking an early boss and making it something of a surprising to turn up again in later missions, but I've fought this guy 6 times already. And I know for a fact there's going to be a 7th. The worst part is this game has heaps of great bosses, but they've only used this same boss. I'm totally over it. So over it, in fact, that it was the 6th Onryoki encounter that's stopping me going back in and finishing the game off. I'm a handful of missions from the finale but I'm burnt out.
This is something PVP should be able to help with, as players learn and adapt within the same fight, you too will have to change up your strategies to beat them. Relying on the same tactic won't work with an adapting enemy player.. Unfortunately, the game's "Revenants" (NPC-controlled versions other players, spawned from the graves where they've died) suffers from the same problems of the games other enemies. The same tactics will pretty much get you through it. They definitely add a welcome change from fighting the same enemies you've already slaughtered 100's of times already, but even they get a bit samey before long. They're a good compromise until PVP goes live in a few weeks/months time, but they are just that: a compromise.
In retrospect, I think part of the issue with this overly samey gameplay is how I decided to tackle the game. I've played each of the games missions and submissions on order of the level indicated on the game's hub map. If there's a level 100 submission and a level 101 mission, I'd take the submission first. This is mostly because Nioh is a difficult game (though no-where near as difficult as the Dark Souls games). Having any opportunity to level up as much as possible just seemed like a good idea at the time. Perhaps it'd be a better idea to stick to the main missions, and only dip into the submissions when I came across a particularly tough mission in order to level up? Hindsight is 20:20, as they say.
To close, Nioh has the potential to be an amazing IP for Team Ninja. Not only in the coming months as they tweak the game (I'm particularly looking forward to how PVP plays out), but also as they take Nioh's already solid foundations and polish it further in future iterations. I'm looking forward to seeing where Nioh ends up!
Tuesday, 7 February 2017
Skyward Sword made me critical of games.
If I'm honest, I've been critical of the video game industry for a while, now. In a world of day one patches and buggy releases, it's hard not to be just a little bit cynical. Even good decisions, like Hajime Tabata postponing Final Fantasy XV by two months, became a huge slap in the face when they still released, in my opinion, an unfinished game. I mean, sure, the game-play was ok, but that story? I'd rather read The Hungry Caterpillar.
I'm becoming increasingly despondent when it comes to new releases. I was this close, this close, to buying Nioh today. Samurai Souls. Pretty widely critically acclaimed, from what I can tell. What could possibly go wrong? The only reason I didn't in the end was because the only retailer in New Zealand that seems to understand what a "Release Date" is was EB Games, aka Gamestop. Not only does EB Games whack on an extra 20-30 dollars to encourage buying something pre-owned, but the sheer desperation I feel when I enter that store makes me physically ill. "Is there anything you'd like to pre-order today? Please? Please?".
I began to reflect on the reasoning for my despondence on the drive home. It probably doesn't help that I'm trying to save for a Masters with the money from a full-time job that I don't actually have yet. Money is tight, is what I'm getting at. And sure, there's been games I've played in the past which I just didn't like, but I wasn't critical about why I disliked them. I hated Final Fantasy XII with a passion. I'm a big fan of the Final Fantasy series, but XII... nah. This isn't to say that I thought the game was bad. It was more like if you told a die-hard Sonic fan to play a Mario game. They probably wouldn't like it, because it wasn't Sonic.
This is where The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword comes in, a game from another series I'm extremely fond of. The difference between Zelda and Final Fantasy, though, is that Final Fantasy always tries to quite drastically mix things up between games. It's expected. Not so with the Zelda series, which adds things that vitally contribute to a rock-solid formula. Majora's Mask built on Ocarina of Time by giving us a taste of the other races in the game, as well interesting use of time and space. Wind Waker gave us a visual style that will never age. Twilight Princess made clever use of the Wii's motion sensing remotes.
The problem with Skyward Sword is it took the extra motion controls of the Wiimote Plus and didn't vitally add to the experience, but inundated us with it. It tried so hard to be clever that it ended up tripping over it's own feet. I actually failed one of the first tutorials in the game, the one where you learnt how to use Link's Loftwing bird. "What?" I thought. "This is a tutorial for a Zelda game! How on Earth did that happen?!" Part of the charm of a Zelda game is its casual familiarity. Every other series to date I'd been able to pick up and play, fitting into a comfortable and familiar groove. The Zelda series was an old friend, but what was in front of me was becoming strange and unusual.
I totally, totally understand the appeal of using the wii-remote plus' capabilities for things like boss fights. I think there was some moblin (or something) with metal arms, where you had to slice through the gaps he left open using the extra motion controls. That was cool. That was a good idea. There was also small trees you had to cut down that blocked certain paths in the game. This is nothing new to the Zelda series. What was new, however, is you could no longer simply chop them down and move on. You had to cut them in a specific way in order to progress. That was stupid. A perfect example of the game trying to be too clever. Now it's been a long-arsed time since I play this game, so I apologize if I'm wrong here, and would really appreciate it if someone could correct me. That said, if I remember correctly you also couldn't just hold up your shield anymore either. You had to actively parry incoming attacks to deflect them. This made even the most basic of fights an utter chore to play. Imagine if you had to parry every attack in Dark Souls, instead of just holding up a shield. Totally not fun.
Then there's Fi, Skyward Sword's Navi. Fi was atrociously bad. Instead of saying "this is/isn't the right way", Fi would give you some random percentage. What I didn't know at the time was that these percentages were scripted, not an actual indication of progress. I'd wander aimlessly for ages trying to find a trigger for the the "right" route, the higher percentage. Bad idea. I'd trade Fi in for Navi in a heartbeat. Skyward Sword made me realise that, I should never underestimate people's capacity to mess up. Not even Zelda is safe.
Being more critical is something that is more of a curse in gaming. There's the obvious examples, like Assassin's Creed Unity and Batman Arkham Knight. Even Final Fantasy XV, a game that is generally well received, is having a whole chapter of the game revised because of how appalling it is. More personal to my heart is Tales of Zestiria, another series I love, whose skill system was a convoluted but necessary evil in order to play the game. Another example of developers over-reaching. I could forgive Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain's crap story because of it's otherwise solid gameplay. Then Chapter 2 happened, where I was made to play missions I'd actually already played in mostly the same way I already played them. Then there's that one mission, where a staple mechanic in the game (being able to abort, do other things, and come back later) is inexplicably taken away from you for no reason. This is a game that had, up until now, even made the effort to interrupt the story, giving me the opportunity to go and do something else in-game if I wanted to.
Once I've stumbled across such a critique, it's so much harder to forgive a game, even if it gets so much right before I found that critique. I yearn for an earlier time, where you knew that you could literally buy the thing, plug it in, and play. Where developer's didn't have internet access to patch over the cracks they left. Where they made damn sure the game was ready to ship, because once it did, that was the end of it. I miss demo's, where I could play the game to see if I liked it before parting with my cold hard cash to find out the hard way. But that's enough of that. I'm hungry. And you wouldn't like me when I'm hungry.
I'm becoming increasingly despondent when it comes to new releases. I was this close, this close, to buying Nioh today. Samurai Souls. Pretty widely critically acclaimed, from what I can tell. What could possibly go wrong? The only reason I didn't in the end was because the only retailer in New Zealand that seems to understand what a "Release Date" is was EB Games, aka Gamestop. Not only does EB Games whack on an extra 20-30 dollars to encourage buying something pre-owned, but the sheer desperation I feel when I enter that store makes me physically ill. "Is there anything you'd like to pre-order today? Please? Please?".
I began to reflect on the reasoning for my despondence on the drive home. It probably doesn't help that I'm trying to save for a Masters with the money from a full-time job that I don't actually have yet. Money is tight, is what I'm getting at. And sure, there's been games I've played in the past which I just didn't like, but I wasn't critical about why I disliked them. I hated Final Fantasy XII with a passion. I'm a big fan of the Final Fantasy series, but XII... nah. This isn't to say that I thought the game was bad. It was more like if you told a die-hard Sonic fan to play a Mario game. They probably wouldn't like it, because it wasn't Sonic.
This is where The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword comes in, a game from another series I'm extremely fond of. The difference between Zelda and Final Fantasy, though, is that Final Fantasy always tries to quite drastically mix things up between games. It's expected. Not so with the Zelda series, which adds things that vitally contribute to a rock-solid formula. Majora's Mask built on Ocarina of Time by giving us a taste of the other races in the game, as well interesting use of time and space. Wind Waker gave us a visual style that will never age. Twilight Princess made clever use of the Wii's motion sensing remotes.
The problem with Skyward Sword is it took the extra motion controls of the Wiimote Plus and didn't vitally add to the experience, but inundated us with it. It tried so hard to be clever that it ended up tripping over it's own feet. I actually failed one of the first tutorials in the game, the one where you learnt how to use Link's Loftwing bird. "What?" I thought. "This is a tutorial for a Zelda game! How on Earth did that happen?!" Part of the charm of a Zelda game is its casual familiarity. Every other series to date I'd been able to pick up and play, fitting into a comfortable and familiar groove. The Zelda series was an old friend, but what was in front of me was becoming strange and unusual.
I totally, totally understand the appeal of using the wii-remote plus' capabilities for things like boss fights. I think there was some moblin (or something) with metal arms, where you had to slice through the gaps he left open using the extra motion controls. That was cool. That was a good idea. There was also small trees you had to cut down that blocked certain paths in the game. This is nothing new to the Zelda series. What was new, however, is you could no longer simply chop them down and move on. You had to cut them in a specific way in order to progress. That was stupid. A perfect example of the game trying to be too clever. Now it's been a long-arsed time since I play this game, so I apologize if I'm wrong here, and would really appreciate it if someone could correct me. That said, if I remember correctly you also couldn't just hold up your shield anymore either. You had to actively parry incoming attacks to deflect them. This made even the most basic of fights an utter chore to play. Imagine if you had to parry every attack in Dark Souls, instead of just holding up a shield. Totally not fun.
Then there's Fi, Skyward Sword's Navi. Fi was atrociously bad. Instead of saying "this is/isn't the right way", Fi would give you some random percentage. What I didn't know at the time was that these percentages were scripted, not an actual indication of progress. I'd wander aimlessly for ages trying to find a trigger for the the "right" route, the higher percentage. Bad idea. I'd trade Fi in for Navi in a heartbeat. Skyward Sword made me realise that, I should never underestimate people's capacity to mess up. Not even Zelda is safe.
Being more critical is something that is more of a curse in gaming. There's the obvious examples, like Assassin's Creed Unity and Batman Arkham Knight. Even Final Fantasy XV, a game that is generally well received, is having a whole chapter of the game revised because of how appalling it is. More personal to my heart is Tales of Zestiria, another series I love, whose skill system was a convoluted but necessary evil in order to play the game. Another example of developers over-reaching. I could forgive Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain's crap story because of it's otherwise solid gameplay. Then Chapter 2 happened, where I was made to play missions I'd actually already played in mostly the same way I already played them. Then there's that one mission, where a staple mechanic in the game (being able to abort, do other things, and come back later) is inexplicably taken away from you for no reason. This is a game that had, up until now, even made the effort to interrupt the story, giving me the opportunity to go and do something else in-game if I wanted to.
Once I've stumbled across such a critique, it's so much harder to forgive a game, even if it gets so much right before I found that critique. I yearn for an earlier time, where you knew that you could literally buy the thing, plug it in, and play. Where developer's didn't have internet access to patch over the cracks they left. Where they made damn sure the game was ready to ship, because once it did, that was the end of it. I miss demo's, where I could play the game to see if I liked it before parting with my cold hard cash to find out the hard way. But that's enough of that. I'm hungry. And you wouldn't like me when I'm hungry.
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