Reviews

It's complicated to review a game that was teased more like an event or an experience, I fell in Square Enix's trap and I eat all the media that came before the game: movie and anime episodes, so my time with the game was pretty positive in regards of lore and story. With that in mind, my review goes as follows:

First things first, the mood of the game it's perfect, it starts as a best friends road trip and that feeling of adventure and friendship never gets old, the sound team made an amazing job making every sound feel almost real, things like footsteps, rain, forests at night, even the sounds of the Regalia (your car) when closing or open its door, it may sound dumb but the immersion and the feeling of traveling with friends through the sound design it's outstanding, it also makes the Regalia like a 5th companion to your adventure. Which leds us to another great topic, your party, the developers took the great decision of making a small party that always accompanies you, they feel real and their dialogues are so detailed and at times silly that only helps to build a real bond with them, there's no need to watch the anime episodes about them but it sure helps to stablish and understand some things related to their personality or bond with Noctis, speaking of Noctis, at first I taught that I was going to hate this guy because of his "generic character and design" but the truth is that I really like it, I understood his feelings and decisions, also I firmly believe that is necessary to play this game with japanese audio, I'm not a big fan of the english dub, its not bad but not great, also is pretty noticeable that they took a lot of liberties with Noctis, they feel like complete different persons, where the Japanese is kind of introvert, sweetheart and silly, the English one sounds more stoic, "cool" and it kinda tries to be Cloud, so at least for me, that it's a big no, no. As for the supporting cast, there are some cool characters like Aranea or Lunafreya, they're good but not as good as our main villain, I won't spoil anything but as for me, at least he is now a top tier antagonist on Final Fantasy franchise.

I really liked how Square Enix dished out unnecessary complex and convoluted stories like the one presented in the first installment of FFXIII, instead, we have a simple "reclaim your throne" kind of story that works for the best, I really liked a lot of the twists and turns, I have no issue with that, but its worth note that there are major events hinted through the game that are just hinted but really important to the overall plot, mainly things in the movie and stuff that happens in the Episode DLCs, its not that they felt so necessary to the plot but they sure feel like holes, speaking of holes, the game has a nice rhythm and passing until you arrive at a point of no return (at 3/4 of the game more or less), it feels rushed and suffers a lot of breaking the immersion.

As for the gameplay, I have mixed feelings about it, first, is very simple and enjoyable, at times almost addicting, its simplicity compensates with its flashiness and fast passing action, my only problem is that the HP system it's broken, you can kill almost everything if you have enough potions so in order to enjoy it you must put a rule of limited potions, but then again that's a thing that was meant to be solved by the designers, not you. Another negative aspect is the side questing, the world map is massive and so beautiful, it's accompanied by a masterfully crafted soundtrack led by no other than Yoko Shimomura (which make instant classic songs for this already filled with classics franchise), but it kind of feels empty at times, the only thing that makes you do any quests is for the combat, which maybe is no the cup of tea for everyone but it's very fun.

In the end, the negative aspects didn't were overweighted by the positive ones, its characters felt to me like real friends and its twists and turns were for the most part very interesting and enjoyable, as for the ending, it has a heavy punch that reminded me why I prefer storytelling in videogames over other media.

As a classic in the point-and-click games, I was hoping to see a far more playable and enjoyable game. I did like the story it tried to tell (not my first choice, but still enjoyable), the humor was fairly good (I just loved the factory man), the art was the type I was looking for and even the soundtrack was reasonably enjoyable! So far so good, at least okay so far - and I was looking into it.

However, here's where it gets troubling. The playing part.

When I think of point-and-click games, I hope there's some kind of hint system that is based at least on the conversations we have with the characters we meet. However, instead of hinting on what's the next thing to do with that, we often get stuck and with absolutely no idea of what to do. Most of the time combining objects and people would do something, but even that seems like a dead-end here. I am guessing timing also play a part. Even worse is that we can't review information we've learned before: when we try to speak with characters we're interviewed before, it doesn't review past informations (the only dialogue is 'Never mind', closing the interaction).

To advance in the game, we need to do very specific actions, and we won't get anywhere if we try to half-solve other puzzles before. This also brings a problem because I had no idea where to start. I know where I want to go, but I don't know if I need to solve all the other puzzles before I can go to step two on this specific puzzle.

I had to go to UHS Hint System and even there it was troubling and hard to figure out what to do, as I said previously. 

I am really disappointed in this game and I'm not sure if I will finish it. It's too hard and complicated to solve puzzles, and the storytelling doesn't develop much past "I need to get out of here and go back to where I grew up". That is all. No subplots, nothing. It's pretty easy to just get tired of the main plot, since it feels like we're never moving forward, nothing happens, the interactions are barely relevant, and we get stuck so many times. I know I have an hard time with puzzles in point-and-click games, but this one was really not smooth at all. I am not this 'dumb' and often need only a couple hints to get through some specific puzzles.

It's a pity and really a little disappointment. I'm sad, because I really was willing to try hard.

Same as the first Sonic game, Sonic The Hedgehog 2 has aged so well. In regards of control, music and challenge I think it surpasses its predecessor, I was having the time of my life till I get to the penultimate level and last level, the music doesn't quite match the height of the previous levels and my biggest issue, one that for me keeps this game of being a masterpiece is the level design, it just feels clunky, messy and pretty unfair, the unfairness comes when you go full speed or take a trampoline or something alike and then an enemy appears out of nowhere and hits you or kill you, I know that Sonic is more about of quick reflexes than speed but those hazards were really unfair. This issue goes on and on to the last levels and it's pretty noticeable, one of the things that save those levels are the platform segments which are pretty good, if only they were more abundant than those cheap enemies.

Setting those complaints aside, the boss fights are great and especially the last fight which came with a surprise, it's very hard until you realize the pattern but even then it keeps the challenge.

There are some things that I'll never forget about some games, and Sonic 2, even when I certainly didn't like some aspects, is such a joyous ride of speed and outstanding music, maybe its not a masterpiece but it's truly a classic.

What a fun flash game.  This is definitely a great example of how good design can turn a game into more than the sum of its parts, as the individual components (battling, mini-games, skill trees, idle game mechanics, and an item store) pale in comparison to the total product.  There's something fascinating in how the sheer volume of different game mechanics and the different styles of gameplay end up meshing so well together. 

After an engrossing session trying one of the simple to figure out yet complex to master mini-games (which are so simple that I'm embarrassed to describe them), you can go back into battle with some new upgrades and items and quickly destroy the enemies in your path to get your attention back.    I especially love how well-paced the skill/potion/spell cooldowns (which makes watching what is a mostly static battle surprisingly engaging).  This is not super-complicated or well-written gameplay, but the fun atmosphere make this a perfect distraction whether you are waiting for the bus or need something to engage you for an hour or two after a long day of work. 

The mini-game and battle mechanics, while not super-substantive, are also interesting enough that the game has a surprising amount of replay value.  I ended up picking up the game again after a several year absence and was surprised how fun it was to go through the same motions that I had already beaten before.  Overall, highly recommended -- probably the only reason I can imagine re-downloading Flash!

Dota 2 is a love-hate relationship translated into a game, with the highs being transcendent and the lows being painful enough to make you regret starting the game in the first place.  All in all, the gameplay elements unrelated to team interaction are so well done that I recommend that gamers try Dota 2 at least once, but the Dota 2 community and the unbalanced nature of gameplay are flawed enough that it falls short of being exceptional.

The Good:  The game play is unbelievably rich, with 119 heroes, 155 items, and a huge number of different mechanics and strategies.  This is the type of game that you can play for 250 hours just to get enough competency to be able to play the game without other players flaming you, and there are so many different possibilities that each game plays out differently enough that it's not boring.  Indeed, the variety of strategies is so great that you can basically adapt Dota 2 around any player's weaknesses and preferred style of gameplay.

The Bad:  Players in Dota 2 are generally easily frustrated and will tend to flame or even deliberately play badly if you make mistakes and frustrate them.  I am very polite to players so I have the highest possible behavior score, but I still have a surprising number of games ruined by toxicity, uncooperative teammates, or poor communication.  Anecdotally things are much worse at lower behavior scores, where you might have teammates that don't speak English, who deliberately try to lose, or who will basically play in a certain way to try to force other players to accommodate them.  The other problem with this game is that wins and losses tend to snowball, meaning that losses turn into humiliations that further feed toxicity and tend to tilt players.

I tend to avoid Dota 2 these days, since I find that it tends to feed procrastination and addictive behavior, but it's clearly well-done so I would recommend it to other gamers.  Just be aware of toxic players and try not to get too angry after a crushing loss.

to address the well over a year old controversy with regards to how it released, FromSoft (read: Bandai Namco) didn't do the best job of releasing it
it's a shame that prepare to die is off steam because, while i do think remastered is a better way to play the game overall, the modability of prepare to die can only be experienced by people who already own it
also making it only half off for existing owners was shit, even Bethesda didn't do that for Skyrim
i still bought it though because i wanted pvp (and the pvp in one is shit, don't bother), but i ended up finally 100%ing the game on this version

okay actual game overview

the beauty and excellence of dark souls has long been catalogued, it's a meme at this point to even begin to compare anything else to it because of how influential its success has been
the first half of this game is next to perfect, at least to me
the overall experience is very flawed but in a human way that i can still feel passionate about, up until the second half where it all falls apart because the development team didn't have the resources to properly finish the game as wanted
i think in years to come, this game could do with a proper remake that fixes that second half as i do believe it to be some of the weakest content in the overall Soulsbourne series

but what it does right it does very well, i'm certain if you're reading this you've played it so i don't exactly have to say how it works or whatever
but i will say that i love it, flaws and all
it's just a shame that i rarely actually finish the game these days because of that second half, but what i do like i passionately adore
it's worth playing once in your life if you've never touched it, just know it's not for everybody