As the backlog grows I had a new goal to achieve for 2023. After only managing to finish 31 games in 2022 I wanted to aim for a realistic goal of 40. The games can be short or long, as long as it’s a legit game and not a throwaway one. The problem was that I ran into various obstacles along the way and unfortunately I only managed to finish a total of 30 video games throughout the year of 2023.
Again, this is another disappointment on my part, but a few months were wasted due to the motivation to re-read the One Piece manga before playing the One Piece games at one point, as well as both my job and being ill getting in the way which didn’t help either.
So despite these issues, how did I feel about the backlog for 2023. I will say that the first half was more polished than the latter half of the year, but I did manage to play and finish three major new releases. Outside of that, we have two Nintendo Switch third-party games played and many digital games on PlayStation 5 (most of them are also classic PlayStation titles), plus more PlayStation Vita games were completed.
Like my previous posts in The Video Games I Played series, I have compiled my thoughts over on Anime UK News and stored them on my blog! They were essentially a collection of what I liked/disliked for each one, and some will have more to say than others but that’s because of the huge scope of the experience. Like before, they are long but I didn’t want to trim down my thoughts as some of this info might make you interested in these titles.
Due to the length of the post, I have decided to split the list into two parts. Part 1 will cover the first 15 games I completed, which were during January to early August.
Shining Resonance Refrain
Many years ago during my PlayStation 3 hauls, I picked up Shining Resonance which at the time was a Japan only release. About a few years later, SEGA decided to remaster the game and release it for the west which was pretty cool. Shining Resonance Refrain is essentially the same game as the original, but with an additional mode that lets you have two characters join your party. Those two characters don’t impact the story in any way but you will get spoiled on specific parts when you speak to them in-between story segments in the town’s hub.
The Shining franchise has been around for SEGA for decades and with Shining Resonance it’s now an Action RPG with gameplay similar to the Tales franchise. You can control any character in your party and each have their own abilities and weapons. Your party consists of Yuma, your main protagonist, followed by Sonia, Kirika, Rinna, Agnum, Marion, and Lestin. Jinas and Excella were added as playable characters with the Refrain mode from the start.
A notable theme throughout the story is that each weapon the characters in your party wield are like a musical instrument and together they can form songs through the B.A.N.D. system. This is a special group ability that helps you and your team during battles. These can give you boosts to support your health but also make combat easier against enemies with them losing attack power or defence. There are three slots on the bar that appear on the left corner of the screen and you can refill it simply by attacking your enemies.
One ability that Yuma has is being able to turn into a dragon which is pretty cool. The dragon ability is very over-powered as you can rest easy on your health while you destroy everything in front of you, but early on you can end up in a berserk mode which can cause trouble if you’re not careful. That said, the dragon only has two-three attacks and that’s about it so there isn’t much on the customisation part of the combat. I also have an issue with how the transform setup works as you can often end up opening the B.A.N.D. function instead because this is R1 while the dragon is Hold L1 then R1 which is annoying.
In addition to your usual attack move you can also customise your abilities from an elemental attack, regular special attack to healing. These are called ‘Forces’ and you have four slots in total to fit each button on the controller (L1 + O/X/Triangle/Square). In addition to this there are various ‘Tunings’ that you pickup throughout the journey. These are orbs that you can equip for each character that offer various abilities; like extra health, magic power, boosts to your attack and defence and more including extra money, EXP outside your party and more.
The EXP outside of your party is called Image Training and that’s going to be be very useful because you can only level up four characters in your party during combat so anyone who isn’t fighting won’t level up. Image Training will not only resolve that issue but will also level up your Tuning trait to get that maximum of Lv30 (if you want to get all tunings in the game, you’ll need Lv30 for at least one tuning per character). One feature I haven’t really used is the Bond Diagram, where you can customise your traits, because to be honest I wasn’t sure how to use it properly, but you can manage without it.
Throughout the game you have a town hub. The town has a bunch of things going on, from resting in an inn to saving your game and even interacting with your companions. If you talk to your companions after being in combat together for at least 5-10 fights you can speak to them overnight which also gives you an opportunity to hang out with them in town (or date if you’re speaking to female partners). If you date these characters at least four times, you will be able to unlock their character ending at the end of the game which once done will still let you revisit the others without having to worry about starting a new playthrough.
Also in town is the Grimoire. This lets you go through mini dungeons filled with enemies which can help you acquire more items and level your characters up much faster. Eggs will help you boost your level before post-game content. Also available in the town hub is a synthesis workshop to create more aspect tunings, a tuning setup so you can switch which major tuning you want for each character, various side quests and also speaking to your characters.
I spent 50 hours going through the game to achieve the Platinum trophy and overall I have some criticisms that I want to bring up. The game does have a difficulty spike especially when you are unexpectedly going to control two characters that may not be in your party and will be super under-levelled if you weren’t interested in them and didn’t know about this beforehand. I put in extra hours just to ensure that I could get past this point in the game (which occurs in Chapter 7).
Another issue I have is that the combat can be repetitive and its saving grace has been the force customisation so that you can have different magic abilities from time to time, and while the dragon combat is fun it doesn’t have enough variety to make it more enjoyable. The character designs I really like but the cutscenes are very akin to visual novels but with 3D models so it does feel rather off. Now it could be a stylistic choice but to me it also feels like a budget constraint as well.
In terms of positives however, I liked the companions in the party as well as one of the villains called Zest who has an interesting attitude and backstory which makes him stand out pretty well throughout the storyline. The English dub I also enjoyed a lot and felt the performances were very good. The only issue I had with the characters was that the main villain was generic and obvious from the start, but the ending to the game was great and enjoyed it a lot. I also felt the Norse mythology aspects did feel out of place but that’s just personal preference.
The level design of the maps were pretty good and there’s enough variety of enemies especially when the weather changes which adds more unique combat experiences. The monsters also level up to help you gain more EXP throughout the story which is handy because you don’t want to end up being under levelled. Music is really good and was co-composed by Evan Call, reminded me of Umineko‘s soundtrack.
Shining Resonance Refrain is a pretty enjoyable JRPG by SEGA and while many may prefer the older instalments I had a fun time with the characters, the story and the gameplay was decent enough. Platinum trophy is achievable as there’s only two missable trophies that can be sorted out quite early on and most trophies will likely be acquired before you even finish the story.
Revisiting Nioh Remastered & Attempting the Expansions
Now this is a weird one to talk about. So back in October 2022 I played and completed Nioh Remastered on PlayStation 5, but only the base game’s content i.e. the main storyline. I loved the game and put tons of hours into it, however a part of me felt like I did not have any form of closure with this game for two reasons; some of the collectible trophies weren’t picked up, and the Expansion content i.e. DLC storylines.
I was motivated enough to return to Nioh and wrap up those trophies that I was referencing. I got the rest of the Kodama collectibles, the final Hot Spring that I missed on the final mission (which was easy to miss) and managed to get a few other miscellaneous trophies along the way. I was very happy with the progress that I had done here, and was settled in terms of the base game content.
Even though Nioh 2 is a prequel, it does have elements that take place after the events of Nioh’s Expansion storyline and when you think about how Nioh ends, the story technically isn’t over. But there is a hurdle with this point – Nioh’s Expansions are not an easy entry-point, in fact this is the biggest issue that I have with the way that Koei Tecmo have done this. Long story short, you need really strong enough weapons (or Divine equipment as some users have called it) in order to make your way through the Expansion content. Many have suggested that you even need to play through the whole game again on a harder difficulty to be prepared. I hate this idea, but at the same time I want to finish the first game’s extended content.
Worth noting that Nioh does have a habit where if you want to leave the mission, the game forces you to give up your Amrita – and Amrita is key to levelling your character’s stats. Sure the weapons are more important but any additional points to your HP and Attack/Ki Pulse does make a difference bit by bit.
After spending 30 hours, I decided that I was getting nowhere and the fun can only last very long. I did manage to finish the first mission for Nioh: Dragon of the North, but with the way that the developers have designed the additional content, it just wasn’t as rewarding as I had experienced. The plus side is that I tried out a different weapon which was pretty cool and what I did play of the new content was great, but as a whole I am disappointed that it was a pretty strict entry-level for those who just want to go straight into the additional content rather than spend hundreds of hours just to reach the same wavelength as the bosses.
The positives that I can give from this revisit was that I did manage to finish a few missions on the Way of the Strong difficulty (which is Hard difficulty that you unlock after finishing the story) and spend a fair amount of time in The Abyss which is an extra area where you can find better loot and gear for your character. While I did play more of this throughout the month of February, I decided to drop any form of progress and instead watch the story integral cutscenes on YouTube so that I can jump into Nioh 2 Remastered when I get the chance. At the end of the day, I gave it a shot and tried.
Wing of Darkness
Wing of Darkness is a low budget Japanese action mecha game where you fly around taking down targets that appear on the screen. I imported this game from Japan as they had a physical release but it was available for a low price so it was a good opportunity to check it out.
Gameplay wise it’s pretty fun as you can fly around and lock onto targets around you. It is a pretty short experience with only six missions and the task is pretty simplistic. The cutscenes are basically still images rather than in motion despite them using in-game character models so there’s a missed opportunity there but you can tell they just didn’t have the budget to improve upon that.
You have three types of weapons that you can use – a primary, secondary and tertiary – these range from regular assault weapons, to shotgun type weapons and weapons that can select a few close-targets to shoot all of them at once. Each of them have their perks and while there’s no sword weapons like Gundam would have, it does the job fairly well. The enemy types are slim and there’s a range of difficulties that you can use to make the game more challenging.
That said, the biggest issue that I have with this game is its camera positioning. The camera is set way too close to your character so when the enemies keep going around you in circles, it can cause problems. For me personally, the way that the camera had been designed resulted in me getting motion sickness because you had to keep spinning around to get the target from Mission 4 onwards and it wasn’t a fun experience in all honestly. So yeah if you easily get motion sickness, I do not recommend playing this game at all.
That said, the game is short at about a few hours playtime and about 6 hours total playtime for the Platinum trophy. The trophies are also pretty easy, with one or two taking a while due to how many enemies and bullet rounds you need to use up. Given that I ended up with motion sickness due to the game’s design, I had to push myself to make sure that I can get the Platinum trophy so it was a bit painful but at least it’s out of the way. Sure I did consider stopping after finishing the story, but knowing the Platinum was easy I didn’t want to give it up right there and then.
Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania
Not long after playing Wing of Darkness which made me feel nauseated, I thought it would be a brilliant idea to jump into another spinning game, which is Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania.
I’ve always wanted to play the mainline games for years and all I’ve played prior had been the spin-offs which used portable specific features which I felt wasn’t the true experience. Seeing SEGA decide to remaster/remake Super Monkey Ball, Super Monkey Ball 2 and Super Monkey Ball Deluxe all into one big collection is greatly appreciated. And don’t forget – this franchise was directed & produced by Toshihiro Nagoshi, aka the guy who helped create the Like a Dragon series and let alone, this collection was developed by Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio.
This game is massive. You have a bunch of modes available and you have tons of stages to tackle. The general concept of Super Monkey Ball is that your aim is to reach the goal within 60 seconds and if possible collect the bananas that are spread throughout the stage. The stage can vary from simple straightforward layouts all the way to the ridiculous and complex shit you will ever see. This game will be hard when it wants to, so I don’t blame anyone for giving up half-way through.
I started off with the Story Mode which has 10 worlds with 10 stages each. The first half was a breeze but the challenge comes in around the half-way point and it is not easy at times, because you’re also dealing with precision to navigate a tight path and moments where you could lose your balance and fall off due to the path moving about side-ways in all angles. That said, it is very rewarding when you do manage to beat a stage.
One thing that I have noticed with this game is that there is no harm dying multiple times, as you basically have infinite lives all across the game, which I recall was not a thing in the previous instalments. Either way, the fact that you have multiple chances makes the game way more tolerable and room to breathe during tough stages.
Missions are also available for completing a stage or doing something at a faster pace, and the bananas you collect will provide points which do carry over if you die in a stage and had to start over. Those points can be used to purchase more modes, more characters and customisation. Speaking of characters, you can also play as Sonic the Hedgehog, Kiryu Kazuma from Like a Dragon, and Beat from Jet Set Radio.
In addition to the Story Mode, you also have Challenge modes available with stages from each game compiled together so you can tackle them from Casual all the way to the hardest difficulty. I personally only focused on Casual and Normal as I know that the harder difficulties will be painful. There’s also multiplayer modes available but I didn’t touch them as I have no one to play with for that.
Overall I found Super Monkey Ball: Banana Mania to be a fun game and very challenging with some of its stages. While this isn’t a 100% completion run it’s at least sorted for the story mode and two of the difficulty challenges for both Super Monkey Ball and Super Monkey Ball 2 stages.
Tales of Zestiria
After finishing Shining Resonance earlier in the year I was very interested in tackling another JRPG in my backlog and the one that made sense to play next was Tales of Zestiria, which I also bought back in 2018. Tales of Zestiria had been in the backlog for so long because at the time I had wanted to go through Tales of Xillia 2 first, and it’s also a fairly long game so I wanted to wait for the right opportunity to play it.
What’s interesting about Tales of Zestiria is that while its the first game in the series for the PlayStation 4, it’s still a PlayStation 3 game by heart but the re-release performs fairly decently given the year gap between the two versions. The framerate can drop a lot when you get so powerful with your attacks against a whole bunch of enemies that are on the screen, but other than that it’s been a solid 30fps performance. What I also liked about this game is how much faster the transitions are between cutscene to gameplay and gameplay to battle and vice versa, because it makes progress much better especially when you need to spend a bit more time to level up.
One of the main changes going in that I wasn’t made aware of is how your team engages in combat, so whilst you do have four characters in a battle, it’s more like two characters with a secondary character for each person being swappable and because of that multiplayer isn’t included here. I personally found the character swapping to be fairly decent as it’s handy for specific situations.
The story of Tales of Zestiria is overall surprisingly solid, about our main lead Sorey journeying around the world as the Shepherd, someone who will help save the world from the Lord of Calamity. The story is surprisingly dark and it gives me the same vibe that Devilman has because literally anybody could turn into a hellion i.e. a monster, though our main heroes never turn out that way because of plot armour. What’s also introduced in the game’s lore, is that most members of the team are actually called Seraphim, who are like ghosts, but the better description is that they’re essentially like elves but are invisible to the eye. Therefore, only specific people like Sorey can see them.
They are all pretty interesting for various reasons, for instance Lailah acts like a goof every time someone asks her a question that she only knows but doesn’t want to delve into and it’s pretty funny, while Edna will prod you with an umbrella if you’re annoying. The villain in this story without going into spoilers is developed pretty well and acts another layer to the journey and how Sorey deals with his actions throughout, because it’s not as simple as ‘let’s kill the villain and be done with it’ like a lot of other stories are. I also enjoyed the English voice cast especially Sorey, Lailah, Alisha and Rose.
I also want to talk about a specific moment that happens fairly early on into the story (like 25% in). Alisha joins the team early on and is a fun character to be with (and personally I prefer her over Rose), but due to unfortunate circumstances (and for spoiler reasons I won’t delve into why), she doesn’t stick around as much as other characters. While the way Bandai Namco handled it is a unique take on the JRPG party journey (at least in video game format), I felt the execution of this was very poor and to me, it was the game basically gaslighting her.
As such, Rose eventually joins and while I do like her and has her fun moments, she can be a bit too jarring at times (it’s like when you have an anime introduce a non-canon character that is disliked but the animators want you to like them by shoving them into every scene for the sake of it), and it also show you how unfortunate Alisha is especially as she just doesn’t catch a break as the story progresses with her arc. The way that her character was treated led to backlash and Bandai Namco had to provide extra DLC just to please the complaints, though I did not play this DLC because it’s ain’t free and apparently not worth the money.
Like previous Tales games, combat is action-focused with various abilities you can use during combat. In addition to your standard moves you also have Artes that can deal more damage against enemies but uses up a lot of MP so you’ll want to take mini-breaks during combat to replenish that bar before rince and repeat (for instance I guard as I found it to refill a lot faster). Armatization is also a feature in combat where you and a seraphim can basically become one (like in Dragon Ball) to deal super amounts of damage and Artes against enemies.
You can also replenish ‘BG’ which once it has reached a specific value you have two major moves you can choose; a Mystic Arte which allows your character to deal big damage especially if you’re on your own during combat, and Armatization. While you’re in Armatization, you can also perform its own Mystic Arte which deals even more damage which is very useful for tougher boss battles. In addition to the Inns you can of course buy items and equipment for your journey, but one thing that I did think was very handy (and somewhat makes buying new gear a bit redundant) is that you can fuse items together which makes the stats of that specific equipment a lot more powerful.
Sub-events also make a return, including skits which adds extra fun dialogue from going to an inn, reaching a save point, or acquiring a specific item or wrapping up a side quest. The skits are also voiced which is handy and use their 2D artwork like previous games. There are tons of collectables spread out throughout the game; Monoliths are these stone statues that act like manual guides for players, reading them gives you AP which can help you use up some battle abilities (though if you unlock Half and Half I highly recommend you avoid turning this on because it will make combat twice as long as due to your attack damage being halved).
Also collectable are these little creatures called a Normin, and when you find one of them they can provide you power upgrades to your weapons and will add bonuses to the specific area of the world. There’s also a few Crucibles that contain a round of enemies in combat for one individual in the team (with the final one locked until post-game). And to provide even more of a challenge, there’s 36 special boss fights which are pretty tough and once defeated you’ll receive an Anomalous Orb that offers more HP to your whole party. There’s also post-game dungeon which from what I heard feature some cameos as boss fights.
Overall Tales of Zestiria, despite some of my issues with the game, is a solid instalment to the franchise and there’s tons of content here. With its fast-paced story and combat, it makes progress a lot easier and I haven’t had issues with boss fights as the levelling up was balanced. Sure some character choices are disappointing, but it’s just what the developers wanted at the end of it. I spent 49 hours going through the story as well as the side content.
Resident Evil 4 Remake
Resident Evil 4 is the first game that I’ve finished in the franchise. It’s a great blend of action and survival horror, and one that I was confident enough to proceed throughout the story without being a wimp. Despite being afraid of the franchise due to its gameplay, Resident Evil 4 was a good starting point as the developers switched the stance from ‘being selective with who you kill’ to ‘just murder every monster in your way’ and in the end it’s considered one of the best games ever made.
I’ve played the original Resident Evil 4 multiple times at this point – my first experience was on Nintendo Wii via a rental copy, then I bought the digital version for Xbox 360 which I finished for the first time, and then I bought the PlayStation 4 version which is the best console version to date thanks to its 60FPS gameplay. The PC version with mods is still considered the definitive experience, but I was more than happy with the PlayStation 4 remaster. In fact, it was because they announced a remake is why I ended up getting interested in playing the PlayStation 4 remaster of the original and various others in the franchise to begin with.
I didn’t think Resident Evil 4 needed to be remade but after playing through this game on PlayStation 5 – my god, they did it, they actually made a really good remake, if not one of the best out there. Capcom’s remakes for Resident Evil is no stranger to the community – they did this with the original Resident Evil on Gamecube, which blew people’s minds with its added survival horror, then we had Resident Evil 2 & Resident Evil 3 during the PlayStation 4 & Xbox One generation, which was a suitable modern hybrid of the classic gameplay with modern controls and save system, and now Resident Evil 4, which is just the same as the original but with tons of improvements, tweaks and amendments for specific things for the modern audience.
As someone who played the original, this remake is not an exact copy of the original in terms of its level design. The three story arcs do remain as intended, but within each arc the design has been reimagined. You still have the iconic village sequence at the beginning as an example, but there’s also new content spread out. For instance areas have either been expanded upon, flipped around, sometimes cut or trimmed down for good reason, and if its already good in the original then it’s kept in tact. One of my favourite parts in the remake is the design of the Castle arc because it’s like playing a classic game in mirror mode as it feels both familiar but also new which is both exciting and scary because you have no idea what’s coming and new to experience.
Now it’s not Resident Evil 4 without the Merchant so he’s back and has some cool tweaks to the original setup. You still buy weapons and upgrade gear, and sell treasure, but you can now sell weapons and receive close to what you spent on it so that you can upgrade similar weapons without too much hassle, and there’s also a trading option. Trade is based on the spinel that you earn from doing requests like shooting blue medallions, or killing a specific foe that is a slightly tougher version of a regular enemy. Trading these spinel can be used to redeem treasure maps, add-on gear and more.
Another big component to the game is Ashley, the girl that you have to protect from enemies. The remake switches things up in various ways, her character design and attitude has greatly been improved and she no longer has a health bar system but rather a simplistic way of knowing when she’s in danger or not, and you can ask her to steer clear from you during combat or be close when trying to run away. You can still get her killed, whether by shooting her or an enemy does it, but it’s not as bad as the original. One downside to this remake however is that there are very few hiding spots now so it’s going to be a bit more challenging depending on the situation but I didn’t have too much issue with this. Ashley’s mini segment is also way better on the horror aspect which is really good.
In terms of other characters, Leon is more serious than campy (but still maintains some fun humour throughout) and Luis has been revamped so he has more character and better interactions compared to the original, and the story in general is more consistent and rewarding whereas the original felt like separate components slapped together with some plot holes. The boss fights are also both familiar and new depending on the individual but other than the dodge prompt not always working and one new change to a boss fight that I felt was rather unfair, the rest of the experience has been very positive in general.
Another new change to the remake is the knife. Now the knife in the original was infinite and technically over-powering, so here in the remake there’s now a durability meter. This isn’t much of an issue as expected as you can still destroy boxes etc with a button prompt and the Merchant will let you fix the knife each time, plus it can be upgraded to stick around much longer. Also new to the remake is the knife’s parry mechanic. This is really cool and adds more fun to the gameplay.
You can also use multiple weapons without having to switch back and forth through the suitcase inventory (which is back in its original glory) and receive gunpowder to craft new ammo of any kind, which was carried over from the Resident Evil 2 Remake. Quick time events have been removed so some sections had to be adjusted, like the boulder parts were removed and there’s no shock death during cutscenes this time around.
The levels themselves feel more open-world so you can travel throughout the area without worrying too much about missing content, especially as the Merchant will warn you if you’re going to reach that point. The shooting range from the Merchant also makes a return, and it’s just as good as the original. Getting high scores will reward you with coins that you can use in a gacha machine that gives you add-on power to the suitcase, like extra ammo for a gun during crafting.
My playtime with Resident Evil 4 Remake was about 17 hours in total with all of the collectibles picked up, all requests completed and got an S rank on each of the shooting mini-game rounds. I was playing the game on Standard difficulty, but much like the Resident Evil 2 & 3 remakes, you do have Hardcore difficulty that utilises ink ribbons which was not in the original.
Overall I think that Capcom did an amazing job with this remake, and while some parts I feel were a bit tedious the overall experience was fun, nostalgic and a solid entry in the franchise’s remake line-up. As of the time of this write-up I have yet to play the Separate Ways expansion so I’ll look into it sooner than later!
Resident Evil 2 Remake
Much like the Resident Evil Remake, I also have never played the original PlayStation games in the franchise for the same reasons that I had never played the first game prior. But my interest in the remakes started to appear more because of the Resident Evil 4 remake announcement but I knew of the positive feedback that the remakes for Resident Evil 2 & Resident Evil 3 had received (though one was more favoured than the other). Therefore I eventually downloaded both remakes from the PlayStation store when they were on offer.
Now I do prefer physical copies it’s no secret about that, but Capcom only released the PlayStation 5 versions digital only and while you could use your PlayStation 4 disc to get free access, at the end of the day the next-gen versions are not on the disc. The PlayStation 5 version offer 4K resolution, HDR, Raytracing and a High Frame Rate mode (which turns off RT), so I played Resident Evil 2 Remake with HFR mode.
So what do I think of Resident Evil 2 Remake? I really enjoyed it. In fact one of the biggest surprises going in was that you can save as many times as you want without having to rely on Ink Ribbons compared to Resident Evil Remake. This is because Capcom saved Ink Ribbons for the Hardcore difficulty which is a very smart move because it allows both newcomers who prefer modern layouts and classic fans to get that original challenge with this remake. Now Resident Evil 2 isn’t exactly a very long game, but to get the full complete experience you need to finish the game roughly four times; twice for each character but once in each path.
Resident Evil 2 is similar to the original Resident Evil where you have two characters to choose from, and each character has a similar structure but there’s different character interactions throughout; for instance one person goes through an orphanage whilst another has an extra section over in the sewers. The two characters you choose from; Leon and Claire, don’t have many differences in terms of gameplay – both can wield a variety of weapons, but Leon has the flamethrower, magnum and shotgun, whilst Claire has an electric gun, an additional pistol and a grenade launcher. I do prefer Leon’s weapon selection in general because his shotgun is very good and the flamethrower is useful for the last half of the game.
The game is split into a few big sections with the first part acting just like the first Resident Evil‘s mansion so you have various rooms that are locked behind specific keys, items scattered throughout, lots of cool puzzles, and various types of enemies all over the place. One key point I want to mention is how you kill the zombies – in the first Resident Evil Remake, you kill a zombie and they can come back as Crimson Heads, but that idea was kept exclusively for that game. So going into Resident Evil 2 you can shoot any zombie you want and they stay dead, but Capcom has also decided to utilise an adaptive difficulty feature so that zombies get more spongy as you avoid taking damage – which to me is the game’s biggest blessing and a curse because it does make the game rather unfun as you progress throughout the game’s playthrough, but at the same time it adds more to the survival horror and decision making. I do try to avoid zombies as much as possible, because ammo can still be finite throughout, but when you have zombies that should be dead but still aren’t is more of a nuisance in the moment.
Another big change to the game is the addition of Mr. X who returns from the classic Resident Evil 2 game. He’s an immortal big dude who will haunt you down throughout the police station and he’s certainly a threat because he does make the game much scarier due to his speed and attack damage. Now I have one issue with his move set and that he always tends to stick around you whenever you go into a safe room that only has one exit, so it’s not exactly fair when you need to progress. Now I did learn about how he’s able to track you down and I really liked that concept – basically walking reduces the chances of him locating you, running will find you sooner, and shooting means he knows where you are, so you will need to be tactical on what you need to do and where you want to go.
If you’re not a fan of Mr. X, the good news is that he’s basically scripted so he won’t spawn until a specific point in the character’s 1st run and 2nd run (during your 2nd run, you want to avoid going through a hallway that has the S.T.A.R.S. door because that’s where he starts spawning early, but he goes away once you go down an elevator underneath the statue puzzle) and he doesn’t appear often after that so you can go through the areas after the station at ease.
Despite those issues, Resident Evil 2 is a great modern take on the classic formula. Combat feels smooth and you can get add-ons to make those weapons even better, searching for items and getting that section highlighted to be 100% searched is rewarding, and the puzzles were pretty fun – like the three statues, using a camera room to find two hidden draws, the chess pieces, mixing the chemicals and using a wave device to get the right wavelength.
The design of the police station is also really cool, especially when you factor in the fact that some sections are exclusive to a character because of the keys you find throughout, for instance Leon can access a handle that lets him open up an area that’s near the burning helicopter, while Claire can access an office that has another safe zone around the higher floors of the east area. The sewer section I knew had some complaints in the original, but the remake was overall fine with the only issue being those large monsters that are annoying but apparently a flamethrower takes them out which I didn’t realise until I finished my fourth playthrough. The lab section was also pretty cool and the final acts were great, with one of them tied to the 2nd run route.
Overall I had a great time playing Resident Evil 2 Remake. I finished both runs for Leon and Claire for a total of 5 hours, 4 hours, 4 hours and 3.5 hours to finish their respective playthroughs. Surprisingly I managed to get pretty much all of the trophies related to the main game’s contents outside of the ‘complete x doing y’. I played all four runs on Standard difficulty so I can go through the game at ease.
Resident Evil 3 Remake
So not long after playing the remake of Resident Evil 2, I decided to jump straight into the remake of Resident Evil 3. Now I didn’t play it immediately as I had to do some work-related stuff but I started as soon as I was free.
Resident Evil 3 for the original is one that a lot of people either love or hate due to its more actiony approach and Nemesis as a menacing stalking enemy throughout. I was intrigued but I didn’t know much of the game in terms of its structure and storyline other than Jill is back and Carlos is there to assist in the escape of Raccoon City. The remake is interesting, because not only did it get released a year after the Resident Evil 2 Remake, but it was also polarized for cutting out content and altering how Nemesis is handled throughout.
As someone who hasn’t played the original and finished the remake, you can tell this game feels rushed. The ideas also feel incomplete, as you start off with an interesting introduction to Jill and Nemesis which follows up with a mini open world area of the city where you try to survive, get the right items to progress and Nemesis will occasionally appear to make your life a nightmare. However, Nemesis is nothing like Mr X in terms of the remakes, he’s actually scripted so he only appears in specific sections and once you escape the city portion of the game, it’s constantly linear from there on going from the sewers to the hospital.
Now saying that, what the remake does right is with its presentation and characters. The presentation of Resident Evil 2 was very good, but Resident Evil 3 takes that and improves upon it so the characters look really good and Nemesis looks pretty good going from PS1 graphics to PS4/PS5. The voice acting and character development for both Jill and Carlos are very strong and I like their portrayal in this game. Other side characters were also handled pretty well. The gameplay is slightly different to Resident Evil 2, with the knife no longer has a durability effect and you can now parry when timed correctly which works pretty well, however the quick-time event moments when you get grabbed were not that great as you always take damage even if you hit the button prompts fast enough.
Like the original, Resident Evil 3 does not have separate playthroughs for each character. Its one single playthrough where you switch back and forth between Jill and Carlos depending on the story, and honestly it works fine in general. The real issue is that because the game is so fast-paced it does feel like there’s not enough room for Carlos to shine right. Now Carlos does have more space with the hospital stuff but that area is decent but nowhere near the interesting aspects of the city section from earlier on with Jill. Now I know the original also has some branching path choices, like whether to fight Nemesis or run away, but this remake removes that part so it’s just one ending in general.
Upon finishing Resident Evil 3 Remake, I felt like I had a pretty enjoyable time with what was on offer and it was good to see a version of the events of this game in terms of its story. But I do agree with the fans of the original game that they should have made the game longer by keeping the areas that were removed and make Nemesis more menacing like how Capcom handled Mr X going from classic to remake for Resident Evil 2. The playtime was about 4-6 hours in total on Normal mode. Overall Resident Evil 3 Remake is not a bad game by all means, but not on the same level as the remakes for Resident Evil, Resident Evil 2 & Resident Evil 4.
Resident Evil Revelations
With the remakes done I decided to keep the Resident Evil mood going and check out the spin-off game Resident Evil Revelations. Originally released on the Nintendo 3DS, Capcom did eventually release a HD remaster for modern consoles starting with the PlayStation 3 & Xbox 360 versions before being ported over to PlayStation 4. I do remember playing the demo for the Nintendo 3DS game but the PlayStation 4 version is the first time that I’m properly playing it.
What I liked about Resident Evil Revelations is how it introduces itself. It gives you a pretty big backstory about a disaster in a city and how Chris & Jill’s investigations led them to a ship, and I think Capcom handled this pretty well. I also enjoyed the BSAA side of things as it gave me a PS2 nostalgic feel with its dialogue and story beats. The new characters that join Chris & Jill were also developed fairly well and you even play as some of them for a short period of time. The villain had a decent motivation but it felt it didn’t exactly hit the landing that it wanted and the final boss was annoying, but overall for a spin-off I found that it worked as a whole.
The gameplay is an interesting one, because it’s not exactly the same as the mainline games in terms of combat. You are able to walk around and shoot as normal, and you collect items to progress etc, but the quick swap for the weapons is rather sluggish and the fact that your ammo can’t transfer from one assault rifle to another is really frustrating, especially as you’ll end up being forced to use that weapon and accidently place the ammo on that weapon when you want to use the more powerful gun in the heat of the moment.
Also introduced is a side weapon that lets you spot shiny objects throughout the game, and it works due to the game’s level design but when it’s an open space it can get a bit overkill and ruin the pacing. There’s a puzzle involving moving some wires around which I found rather amusing, and with the side weapon you can scan enemies which rewards you with an extra health item.
Speaking of the enemies, Resident Evil Revelations has a new type of virus and it works pretty well. Rather than zombies or earth type monsters, we have water or sea type monsters instead which works with the game’s setting, but some enemies are insta-kill and they are rather annoying to deal with. The level design is also pretty cool as it brings back the classic Resident Evil mansion feeling as you’ll backtrack to specific areas using different keys and the map system does the job fairly well but it wish it was more in-depth like identifying if a room’s been cleared of items or not.
The game is also presented like you’re watching a series as there’s 12 episodes in total. Each episode is basically like how Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5 were structured but it works and there’s even recaps along the way. The tone of the game also felt the same as the CG anime films as well.
Overall I had a pretty enjoyable time playing Resident Evil Revelations. It’s like playing a retro Resident Evil game and while the combat is a bit rough the story and characters were interesting enough and graphic wise was decent considering it started off on a portable device. Playtime was about 5-6 hours in total so it’s short but rewarding.
Resident Evil Revelations 2
So after playing the first game, I decided to immediately jump straight into the second game which was released episodically across four parts during its run. Resident Evil Revelations 2 is a completely different type of game to its predecessor whilst still keeping hold of some elements sprinkled throughout.
The game keeps the episodic type approach with its story chapters, using an ability of sorts to locate shiny items throughout the levels and also maintaining specific story beats that aren’t related to the mainline games. While Resident Evil Revelations had that nice combination of classic mansion unlocking design with some modern controls, Resident Evil Revelations 2 goes into a different direction with co-operative gameplay, a very specific type of horror that feels like grindhouse at parts, and two different character campaign perspectives to make it feel familiar.
Resident Evil Revelations 2 also feels like a low budget game, with its graphics rather weak, the story dialogue is a bit shit in places and the combat is quite sluggish especially when you’re playing in single player. While Resident Evil Revelations also had gameplay issues but you could let it off as it was originally designed for the Nintendo 3DS, whereas Resident Evil Revelations 2 was released on consoles digitally throughout.
The first episode had some cool ideas but it gave that rather underwhelming and disappointing feeling to which you could just give up playing due to what it was trying to offer. Whilst the game is trying to deliver on horror, at the end of the day it’s still an action shooter at heart so when you barely have any ammo around or have to rely on a secondary character to focus solely on using a flashlight to find any it’s rather tedious and breaks the pace of the game. That said, once I started Barry’s route it had a different change of pace in terms of gameplay as it leans more towards stealth at times but had a good balance as you move forward.
Another issue I have with Resident Evil Revelations 2 is the general structure of the game. While it’s four episodes in total, the game basically makes you replay the areas twice, once under Claire and then another under Barry but with a different order of sorts. Now the story is why it’s like this, but it also gives away that repetitive feel and a clear sign of ‘lack of budget’ when it comes to switching things up more. That said, the storyline and enemies are different between the two routes.
Despite all of my criticisms, I do think the latter episodes try to switch up the formula and there’s some positivity throughout all of this. I felt Episode 3 is where the developers found that spark with what they were building, as it had a fun mixture of puzzles and action as well as some pretty good variety of enemies. What I also enjoyed was how one action you take in one route actually adds rewards for the other route, for example you open a door in Claire’s route and while it’s empty from her perspective it actually gives you an extra weapon for Barry’s route.
I also want to mention that Barry’s route has a character called Natalia who has an ability to see enemies, which is a pretty cool and handy feature to have and it supports Barry’s stealth sections a lot. Moira in Claire’s route has a crowbar but her character’s sole purpose is just searching for items with a flashlight which is only useful for trying to fill up your inventory. Both Natalia and Moira have the ability to open up specific crates which is a puzzle in itself but I actually didn’t mind it.
The inventory setup is similar to Resident Evil Revelations as you can wield a few weapons and have to swap them around during specific spots throughout the game. Each weapon can also use an upgrade slot and you can combine items together to create a throwable weapon like a flame bomb, smokescreen, and decoy or for health support like clearing your screen from infection or getting extra herbs. The game does make you run out of ammo a fair bit and there’s no support for swapping the ammo from one type of pistol to another, an issue that I also had with Resident Evil Revelations.
When you finish an episode or check the settings in the pause menu, you can use the points that you’ve earned to unlock skills to support your gameplay. This ranges from better speed of using knives, more range for evasion, more range to spot enemies, your secondary character actually hitting someone (which is also stupid to lock behind) and more.
Now the villain of the game is an interesting choice. They make it sound like it’s a big deal because of their relations with the mainline games, but when the mainline games don’t even reference you at all it feels rather shoe-horned in as a result. I do think they had a decent motivation for what they were doing (and I guess you could take the relationship between them and one of the main characters as something akin to Snow White with how things play out), and there was a good added amount of mystery as you play through both routes along the way.
One more point I want to make about Resident Evil Revelations 2 is that it brings back the choice decision from the classic Resident Evil games. Now I mentioned that one action from Claire’s route can support Barry’s route, but there’s also one decision that can affect the game’s ending. There’s a Good Ending and Bad Ending, which on paper sounds like a cool idea, but the execution is rather poor because you have to replay Episode 3’s fairly long segment and then replay Episode 4’s also fairly long segment just to see the result which took me about 2.5 hours to go back and sort out which was rather annoying. Not to mention there’s not much reward for doing so either, especially as the trophies don’t have one dedicated to the ending choice which is rather bizarre for a trophy list (even Resident Evil Remake had trophies for different decisions).
Overall I do commend Resident Evil Revelations 2 for trying to provide an interesting horror experience, but its budget clearly got in the way as the graphics, gameplay and structure is very unpolished. I do think that if you have someone to play with, the co-op experience will probably be much better going into this game than the single player route that I went with. That said the story in general I thought was fine and honestly wish it was adapted as a CG anime (like Capcom has done with Resident Evil Damnation, Resident Evil Vendetta, Resident Evil Infinite Darkness etc.) rather than a video game. Playtime was about 8 hours taking it slow on Normal and an extra 2.5 hours to get the other ending of the game.
Resident Evil 6
After going through the rest of my physical games backlog of Resident Evil throughout the month of April, what was left is the one that basically went off the rails for the whole franchise – Resident Evil 6. Unlike Resident Evil 5, I did not play this when it was first released and I remember at one point I had an opportunity to get the PlayStation 3 version for £5 in HMV but I ignored it. Eventually Resident Evil 6 was remastered for the modern consoles with better framerate and honestly that does hold up well, just like the PlayStation 4 versions for Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5, this is pretty much the best console version to date.
Now I spent a whole week playing Resident Evil 6 and I did manage to finish the story, which was very long to begin with. Clocking in at 18 hours 30 minutes, this is one of the longest games in the franchise (though Resident Evil 4 Remake does surpass this but in a good way). Overall there’s a reason why it’s this long, because essentially Capcom had decided to provide us with four separate story campaigns focusing on one character and a sidekick each, with each one having a specific type of concept and gameplay ideas. I do think there were some really interesting ideas throughout, but overall it’s not a perfect experience either and there are some ups and downs.
The game lets you choose which campaign to start with, so the first one I went with was Leon’s campaign which aims for a traditional Resident Evil survival horror type gameplay with the modern action approach that we’ve seen in Resident Evil 4. This is a perfect example of style over substance, as the concept overshadows the gameplay and pacing which drags for way longer than it should. I did enjoy the puzzles that were shown throughout, but I was not having fun when it came to the combat because for some reason the zombies were way more of a nuisance than previous games had been. The health system doesn’t help either as it’s completely redone and is the perfect example of why you shouldn’t change something that had already worked in the first place. On top of that, the campaign’s first half was not as fun as I had hoped. That said, I did like the story but it’s main gimmick is providing us with questions without concrete answers. Took about 6 hours to beat.
Next came Chris’ campaign which switches things up and continues the Resident Evil 5 tone with its action approach and honestly I started to like the game more in this direction. There is still elements of horror with its setting and enemies, but the gameplay felt much better due to the enemy variety. In terms of the story, it does provide more context from what we saw in Leon’s campaign, but I did not think it was as interesting because it felt one dimensional at parts. That said, I did enjoy the ride and it helped that your progress from Leon’s does carry over so the difficulty and gameplay balance does improve. Took about 5 hours to beat.
Then we have a rather interesting storyline with Jake’s campaign, which is a combination between traditional and modern Resident Evil tones and gameplay, with its inclusion of a Nemesis style monster and the over-the-top action seen in Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5. Yes this game has Jake essentially pulling some Matrix moves, but to be completely honest this worked really well. I also enjoyed the character dynamic between Jake & Sherry because it works really well when you consider the context and historical lore, but also how the two grow to know and trust each other as the story continues. Took about 4 hours to beat.
Last but not least we have Ada’s campaign, which is essentially this game’s equivalent to Resident Evil 4’s Separate Ways campaign. The general gist of this campaign is that it’s mostly side stuff whilst also trying to fill the gaps on the story beats. I didn’t enjoy the first mission of the campaign, but it did get better as we progress with the next mission forwards. I will admit she does monologue a bit too much but overall it ends on a good note. Took about 3 hours to beat.
So in terms of the gameplay, it does work better on the shooting aspect of things especially as you can walk and shoot at the same time compared to previous games, but for some reason they really overcomplicated the rest of the setup. The way that you switch between weapons just doesn’t feel right and can be jarring especially during combat. In previous Resident Evil games you had a good balance between easy switching of weapons/items and a big loadout where you are able to pick and choose at ease, but here it doesn’t have the latter’s flexibility and is just a single row of messiness. I already spoke about how bad the health system is as well, so overall the best way to describe it is that they took a step forward on the aim & shoot part, but multiple steps backwards on the interface, gear and inventory management.
So after playing through the whole game, is Resident Evil 6 a bad game. Technically it’s a decent shooter but as a Resident Evil title it does falter on various areas. The story feels incomplete because there’s a lot of missing gaps that needs more context and whilst I liked the idea of interconnected storylines across four campaigns it does feel choppy and inconsistent. While there’s not that much horror throughout, I do think it’s a decent game in general but definitely not a good Resident Evil instalment. It’s still better than Resident Evil Revelations 2 though.
Also this game does have co-op so I would say you’ll probably get a much better experience playing the game with a friend. The partner AI is fine in general and hasn’t annoyed me at all, but for more entertainment co-op is probably the way to go.
Hyperdevotion Noire: Goddess Black Heart
It’s been a year since we last checked out a game from the Hyperdimension Neptunia franchise and it’s been on my mind for a while to revisit more of the games. So I decided to finally check out the game’s second spin-off for the PlayStation Vita. I don’t own or plan to even touch Perfecting Perfection because it’s noted to be pretty terrible.
Hyperdevotion Noire: Goddess Black Heart puts Noire in the spotlight as the game’s protagonist and alongside that is a different genre, going from your traditional turn-based RPG to a tactical style similar to Fire Emblem. The general concept is simple as you control a set of characters (from 4-7) and you guide them through a map to defeat enemies or do a specific task to complete the mission.
What I liked about this game is the range of characters you have available, each of them being a reference to a franchise and considering Noire is based on PlayStation, the side characters are all based on various games released on the console – this includes Lee-Fi (Chun Li from Street Fighter), Lid (Metal Gear Solid), Estelle (Dragon Quest), Ein Al (Final Fantasy), Moru (Monster Hunter), Ai Masujima (The iDOLM@STER), Ryuka (Like a Dragon), Blossom Aisen (Sakura Wars), Wyn (Winning Eleven aka Pro Evolution Soccer), Saori (Tokimeki Memorial), Vio (Resident Evil) and Sango (Dynasty Warriors). Each have their own abilities and gameplay styles which adds to the tactical decisions you want to make during the missions. For instance, Wyn can reach far distances which helps to getting to another part of the map, whilst Sango can buff your teammates to enhance their strength and Vio can turn people into Tofu using a special move.
Like previous Neptunia games, Noire, Neptune, Blanc and Vert each can transform into their HDD forms which adds more to the gameplay but I only saw minimal differences like being able to reach higher ground and deal more damage as they can still be hit pretty hard and even be affected by buff effects. That said, their special moves does add more value as it can deal a lot of damage when handled correctly, like with the right items and support effects.
There’s a lot of buff effects that can be inflicted upon your team, ranging from skill seal (which disables skills), frozen (which limits your movement), freeze bug (which stops your character for the phase), reaper (which will insta-kill if you don’t have the cure), love (which makes your character randomly heal you or the enemy), and even tofu (which turn you into tofu). There’s tons of effects in this game so while it can be overwhelming it does add more value to the combat. There’s also elemental abilities like fire, wind, lighting and ice which can be used against enemies or even treasure chests that you find throughout each map to receive more items.
Speaking of maps, whilst Hyperdimension Neptunia tends to re-use their assets a lot, the map designs in this game are pretty good as there’s a lot differences for each story mission and even though the enemies are mostly the same as before they do have different ranges of attacks in terms of distance and style. Though I will say it’s rather inconsistent how enemies can easily avoid areas where your team can’t traverse like traps and even the height differences can be rather annoying. Despite these issues I do think there was more effort on the level design and gameplay here than usual, and that is likely down to developer Sting who collaborated with Idea Factory on this spin-off.
The game’s difficulty is for the most part pretty doable as the only real struggle I had was the final boss which insta-killed my whole team in one turn. This prompt me to venture into the rest of the trophies like the Lily Ranks and Level 99 for all characters. Admittedly it’s because of the Platinum trophy journey is why I held off on this game because I had heard how much time is needed to sort out the Lily Ranks. A game that would normally take about 25 hours took me 75.5 hours because of the Lily Rank grind, and there’s not much reward for it other than getting that trophy at the end of it, so it comes down to whether you are a die-hard fan who wants to Platinum the franchise or not at this point. I will also admit that as much as I had enjoyed my time with this game, it didn’t make me want to immediately jump into playing it each day, and I suppose part of that was down to the game’s difficulty and time it takes to finish a mission.
The story for Hyperdevotion Noire is also an interesting one because it adds the inclusion of a self-insert male protagonist which worked at first but over time it felt one-dimension and deviated from the interesting dialogue between Noire and the other side characters. There’s also some inconsistencies with the English dub especially with Neptune going from regular form to HDD form. Overall the story was fine but it didn’t feel like it had that much of an impact on the world that makes you want to explore the whole place and instead it felt like it had the idea of going with a ‘everyone forgot who I was’ to just scrapping it afterwards with the simple ‘oh everyone stopped teaming up with you’.
Despite the rather exhausting Platinum trophy journey, Hyperdevotion Noire is a pretty decent spin-off for the Hyperdimension Neptunia franchise and worth a shot, though at this point you’re best going for the PC version since it’s either that or on the PlayStation Vita. The Vita version actually holds up pretty well with the only issue being loading when going into a mission.
Final Fantasy XVI
Final Fantasy is a franchise that I do like a lot, but admittedly I had only played a few of their games. Final Fantasy III on the Nintendo DS was the first one I’ve played but it was very challenging and hard to navigate, while Final Fantasy XIII on Xbox 360 was off-putting and when I reached the open-world section, I got knocked out instantly and pretty much gave up. That said, Final Fantasy XV on PlayStation 4 was the one that I was able to complete (and even get a Platinum trophy).
When Final Fantasy VII Remake was on its way I used the opportunity to play both Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XII in the backlog, which were two great JRPGs. Final Fantasy X to me, I still consider to have the best turn-based system amongst the many that I have played, and while I did enjoy Final Fantasy XII I felt its battle system wasn’t up to par due to how automated it felt.
Going into Final Fantasy XVI I didn’t exactly feel the hype and anticipation that everyone was having, and I wonder if its because of the Final Fantasy XIV fanbase given its the same creative team involved. Regardless it’s always good to keep a low expectation or try to avoid the hype so that your stance is at a better level to enjoy it and not feel dismayed by any promises or rumours that you may have encountered.
One thing that I had expected going into the game was the concept itself. Final Fantasy XVI is the franchise’s first M-rated & PEGI 18 rated mainline game (a few spin-offs received these ratings prior) and going in we knew it had elements that were similar to Game of Thrones but keeping the fantasy aspect of the franchise. You could also say they were even inspired by Attack on Titan. It’s a weird comparison to make for both of these popular IPs but it actually makes sense why I mention those two in particular. Final Fantasy XVI goes back to the medieval theme of the classic mainline titles but also provides ideas of rivalry between nations and families with some twists here and there. And then you have the addition of dominants which are individuals who can transform into giant eikons like Bahamut, Shiva and Garuta.
So after playing Final Fantasy XVI, I can say that the marketing did a very good job fooling you expecting the comparisons that I mentioned above. They are there, but it’s more so part of the introduction to what the game truly offers, because what we have at the end of the day is still our usual Final Fantasy journey. The game’s world map features vast amount of monsters and people that you can interact with, all fully voiced and the transition from battle to travelling is pretty fast. The people are also dicks but eventually it gets better as you progress the story.
Despite the game being available for more than a month, I found that the story is best experienced going in blind so I won’t talk about it much here. But what I will say is that after playing the game, I felt that what we have is essentially a modernised version of the classic Final Fantasy games. The modernised parts being the Action RPG gameplay, the realistic graphics, the mature tone and world-building that gave people comparisons to Game of Thrones. I very much enjoyed the story and I think it’s up there as one of the best in the franchise, especially how complete it felt with its conclusion. If you get lost in the story, the game does feature a lot of information to help you understand each character, factions and more to keep you up-to-speed.
Clive as a main character is well-developed and likeable throughout your journey, he grows as the story progresses and is pretty cool. Other noteworthy characters are Cid, Gav and even Dion who I wish had more time because he’s also an interesting character in this game for specific reasons I won’t mention. The rest of the cast I felt were not as memorable as I had wanted, probably because there wasn’t enough charisma in the voice, or they felt 1-dimensional or not enough interesting lore related to them when you compare them to others in the franchise. They’re not bad, just not enough to make me go “oh yeah that person was great because of this and that”.
With that out of the way, let’s talk about gameplay because many kept comparing the game to Devil May Cry and button mashing. The game does start off with a simple one button combo approach but as you progress you will unlock more abilities that branch out your options and give you enough of a variety to change up the combat with different styles, for instance using various elemental attacks and special moves whether its projectiles or extra parrying options. I also enjoyed the dodging mechanic as its very useful and effective during combat, whilst the parrying is more of a risk and reward approach because it’s challenging to pull off. All abilities can be upgraded and you can mix and match so you can have a variety at your disposal. I enjoyed all of them and there are trials available to test your skills on them, so you can try them out and see what best fits for you.
In terms of content, outside the story we have side quests, hunts, chronoliths, and curiosities collectibles. Side quests are the game’s weakest points as most of them are pretty forgettable and repetitive, but there are some that do have major connections to the story (noted with the + sign) and add more context to the locals in those areas. A few will also pave way for bonus travel options, more weapon unlocks and more space to use potions and items during combat. The hunts are really fun, essentially you fight a big boss to earn more EXP and money, but a couple are also tied to side quests if you want to complete them. The chronoliths are the mini trials that test your skills on each elemental ability (being vague here, but this unlocks later in the story). Completing the chronoliths will also unlock a curiosity collectible, as most of these are sorted through side quests. Before you ask, only the first 20 side quests are missable and you’ll know when you’re at that point when a notice appears, so once you sort those out and continue the rest can be done at any point.
Last bit to talk about is performance. The game offers two options; high graphics or framerate, and I went with the latter. Now I won’t lie, the performance is not particularly great but for the most part it was serviceable and the developers are looking to patch this in the future to get this sorted. The graphics had a lot of flack from the gaming community but to be honest both the graphics and the user interface reminded me of the PS3 era in terms of presentation so it felt retro and nostalgic. The voice work was solid and thankfully they went with proper British accents rather than Americans pretending to be British with their Victorian ‘cup of tea’ accents (for instance Cid’s voice actor is Ralph Ineson, one of the cast members from The Office UK which was amusing).
So overall is Final Fantasy XVI worth the full retail price? I say absolutely. The game provides you with a complete and accessible story with a great protagonist, a solid music score and tons of content that makes it worth while. You also have Final Fantasy mode which is this game’s New Game + feature which allows you to take on tougher enemies during the story. This was a really enjoyable experience and while I have yet to decide whether this would be my favourite in the franchise, it’s definitely up there. I will admit it is not a perfect game, as the side content was hit and miss, and there are definitely pacing issues here and there (they’re essentially side quests in disguise), but overall it’s a solid mainline game. I didn’t talk about the Eikon battles because that’s best going in blind because they are a lot of fun, but given there’s a Capcom staff member involved I would not be surprised if they were obsessed with Asura’s Wrath.
One last thing to mention is the trophy list if you’re going for the Platinum trophy. Now I didn’t get the Platinum because the game wants you to playthrough the story twice (the second time for Final Fantasy mode). That said, the list is very easy but will require a lot of time spent doing the side content. I spent 58 hours on my first playthrough dealing with almost everything and Level 50 is the cap for your first playthrough, whilst Final Fantasy mode increases the cap to Level 100.
Hyperdimension Neptunia: Action Unleashed U
After completing Hyperdevotion Noire I wanted to keep the Nep Nep spin-off train going and wrap up what was released on the Vita. To recap, back in 2018 I purchased most of the Hyperdimension Neptunia games released on the PlayStation Vita (all excluding Perfection Perfection) but they weren’t played until years later.
What Hyperdimension Neptunia did with their games is that each of them tend to share a specific theme, whether its a gameplay design or a concept. To provide some examples, Perfecting Perfection was an idol simulator (a badly designed one from what I had heard) and Hyperdevotion Noire is a tactical RPG with various characters each having a connection to Sony PlayStation. With Hyperdimension Neptunia: Action Unleashed U we have two new characters who are references to magazines/editorial companies with Dengeki and Famitsu, plus the gameplay is now an action focused one where you whack enemies on the screen all over the map. It’s not exactly a Musou type experience but more like the Senran Kagura titles which coincidently this spin-off was developed by Tamsoft.
Now I’ll get this out of the way, due to how the game was designed I had accidently skipped the dialogue because once you press skip it keeps it active throughout the whole game and by the time I figured out how to undo it I decided to just focus on the gameplay because there really isn’t that much going on other than Dengeki and Famitsu want to interview our CPU cast. The gameplay has three sections – the main story mode which consists of quests spread across multiple locations. The locations are mostly recycled from the mainline games and the goal is primarily find some items or defeat all enemies on screen until a boss appears.
Much like Senran Kagura, when you start the quests you don’t do that much damage against the enemies but you will eventually level up and gain more attack power and defence against tougher enemies. The enemy variety isn’t much but the quests for the most part are fairly short. The gameplay consists of you hitting enemies using a high and low power attack and when you deal enough damage to enemies, a bar fills up mid-way through that allows your partner to use their CPU powers which provides more damage and power against the enemies on the screen. This is a weird mechanic because it does force you to control both characters during your quest, which is not a bad idea but at the same time it can cause balancing issues depending on the situation, as your partner may not be on the same wave length i.e. they could have different attacks that don’t fit the level or they may get K.O.’d faster than you would have wanted. That said, when the powers are used it does a good job clearing enemies from the screen, though there isn’t much variety overall so it does become repetitive.
What made Hyperdevotion Noire really interesting was that each character had different abilities and personalities so they stood out, but here we only have 10 characters in total and while its cool to have the option to use CPU mode, without a wide variety of abilities, repetition is all that’s left. It is fortunate the quests are not super long but it can take a while if you start one that recommends a much higher level than you are currently at. As you defeat enemies you will notice coins show up which are medals that you can use to redeem additional health, defence and power points as well as unlocking more accessories and weapons.
The story mode only has three chapters which is rather short compared to other games that came prior, but in return we do have two more modes available. The second mode that is unlocked after finishing Chapter 3 of the story is a mini tournament mode which is like those old tournament modes you get in a Dragon Ball Z Budokai game, where you can select a character and fight to reach the top spot in an arena that looks like it came out of Kingdom Hearts’ Olympus Coliseum. To be fair this mode is pretty entertaining as Compa and IF make a cameo appearance to spectate the fights.
The third mode is Neptral Tower which consists of 50 floors with each floor containing various monsters to fight. The tower is not exactly balanced but you can manage to get to the top without major issue, however each character has to play all 50 floors to reach the top, but it counts the pairing which can speed up the pacing. Other than that, the game does have clothes destroying stuff like Senran Kagura but is fairly tame. There’s also mini event dialogue but it’s not much.
The trophies in this game are much easier than the others in the franchise released at that point. The Lily Ranks system does make a return, but to build a level you need to play 3 stages with your chosen partner which can be sorted much faster when you unlock in-game cheats like 1-hit kills. In total the game took me 34 hours 13 mins to get all of the trophies which consists of finishing the story, playing the tournament mode with all characters, finishing the tower with all characters and all Lily Ranks completed for all characters in addition to all accessories and medals collected.
To be honest, Hyperdimension Neptunia: Action Unleashed U is a rather mediocre spin-off despite its gameplay and additional modes. I like the ideas throughout this game but is rather underwhelming. I suppose Hyperdevotion Noire was the peak in terms of spin-offs for the PlayStation Vita but I still have more to go for the franchise. Performance on the Vita was pretty good outside of the long loading times.
MegaTagmension Blanc Plus Neptune Vs Zombies
And as soon as I had finished Hyperdimension Neptunia: Action Unleashed U I immediately went to the next spin-off in the backlog which was MegaTagmension Blanc + Neptune VS Zombies. This game puts Blanc as the main lead and the story is a surprising one as we have the cast now in a school where they decide to make a zombie film because the school is in danger (literally Love Live!‘s plot but without idols), but also use real-life zombies during the filming which adds some more amusement to the mix.
So the gameplay is very similar to Hyperdimension Neptunia: Action Unleashed U as Tamsoft have returned to develop this title, but in return Tamsoft the character joins the group and she’s a fun busty ninja which fits in line with the Senran Kagura homage. Now the story and dialogue I did enjoy this time around and while the final villain reveal was lacklustre the journey was entertaining and I appreciated it. The gameplay on the other hand I felt was rather messy and convoluted.
It’s hard to describe how I feel about MegaTagmension Blanc because the mission structure I enjoyed a lot more in terms of difficulty as it was the right balance compared to Hyperdimension Neptunia: Action Unleashed U which was grindy, but the setup in terms of the equipment and progression was inferior. Previous games had accessories that gave you additional health or offence power but this game they replace that with mini slots within your weapon which is not great. You also have to rely on points gained by levelling to add more health, defence and power which is alright but it just means you have to grind in a specific way just to progress and I hate that.
There were numerous occasions where I struggled and because of how messy the controls were, I didn’t realise you could activate HDD until half-way through the story. The way the game uses EXE abilities is not as simplistic as Hyperdimension Neptunia: Action Unleashed U which is ironic considering I had some gripes with the combat on that as well. But overall what does save this game is how short it is because I would have considered this to be one of the least likeable spin-offs had it been twice as long.
Alongside the story mode we also have multiplayer which can be played solo using ad-hoc. In the multiplayer mode, we have more missions available and I have played through all of them. Honestly they were pretty solid in general, however the big bosses are terribly designed because they keep running away when you want to perform specific moves and I found this to be infuriating as all it does is just pad out the fights themselves.
It’s even more ridiculous when you want to go for the Platinum trophy because some of the trophies requires items that have a pretty awful drop rate that can range from a few minutes to a couple of days if you’re very unfortunate. I got very lucky getting the rest of the trophies a day after I started the grind whereas others had waited much longer. And while in-game cheats do make a return, they don’t apply to multiplayer compared to Hyperdimension Neptunia: Action Unleashed U. There’s no Lily Rank max trophies at least but I find these drop rates to be worse given Lily Rank progression in this game to be much better paced.
So MegaTagmension Blanc also ended up to be a mixed bag. It’s like the opposite of Hyperdimension Neptunia: Action Unleashed U where I really enjoyed and engaged with the story mode but the gameplay goes in the wrong direction. I do think it’s worth checking out if you’re not a trophy hunter at all as there’s some fun in the dialogue and it’s fairly short compared to other spin-offs.
Superdimension Neptune VS SEGA Hard Girls
Here we are, the final Hyperdimension Neptunia Vita game in my backlog and the most recent one as well for the device before the franchise moved to home consoles. So despite my time enjoying Hyperdevotion Noire, and having mixed thoughts on Hyperdimension Neptunia: Action Unleashed U and MegaTagmension Blanc, Superdimension Neptune is probably the best spin-off I have played to date for the franchise.
To fully explain the idea behind Superdimension Neptune I will have to go into early spoilers because it’s important to properly explain how this game works with that context in mind.
So, what exactly is Superdimension Neptune you may ask? It’s a turn-based RPG once again but IF is now the main character. The story is a mix between the darker parts of Hyperdimension Neptunia and also two classic games Chrono Trigger and The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. Somehow this idea actually works. What’s happening is that IF teams up with an original new character called Segami to revisit various parts of the world to fix history, because something is causing trouble that could wipe out their existence. During these visits, they encounter Plutia (from Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory), Neptune, Nepgear (from Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2), and Uzumi (from Megadimension Neptunia VII) going up against the SEGA Hard Girls, a group of individuals who are based on SEGA consoles and devices.
It is worth mentioning that a vast number of characters from the franchise are not included in this game, so Noire, Blanc and Vert who represent PlayStation, Nintendo and Xbox are not involved in the story. Because essentially what we have is a SEGA vs SEGA fight, as Neptune is based on the cancelled SEGA Neptune project for those who didn’t know. Each person from each group are fighting each other and that causes problems for the world, so its up to IF and Segami to figure out how to stop this.
But this is where things get interesting. The game’s structure is based on missions so you start one at a time to defeat an enemy, find an item or for story progression, and there’s a number tied to each mission. Every mission you beat, the number will decrease and eventually it will disappear. In addition each mission has a star rank which determines how fast the number will also decrease. Eventually you will get to a point where certain missions can’t be unlocked because they were eaten up and you’ll be left with nothing. At this point is where you will meet a boss fight that essentially eats those missions that you didn’t complete – and you will die.
But you don’t die, because time resets. This is where the idea of comparing Chrono Trigger and Majora’s Mask comes in, because what’s basically going on is that every time you are killed by the boss fight, the missions that were eaten are now back and you have another opportunity to progress with the story and the side content. The twist here is that you are also free to fight the boss and finish the game at any point, but its recommended that you do that as soon as the time resets because the longer you leave it and complete more missions, the tougher the fight.
Another touch to the game’s story progression is that you can actually start any saga at any order, but do note that difficulty spikes may occur. I went though the Game Gear saga, a brief bit for Dreamcast saga, then Mega Drive saga, back to Dreamcast saga, then wrapping up Sega Saturn’s saga to get the right pace. Levelling up wasn’t too bad but the True End route will be a challenge unless you use a special tactic with uses Dreamcast’s special ability that was charged by Mega Drive.
The game also has three different endings. Bad Ending is by defeating the boss without experiencing the time loop which can only be done through New Game +, the Normal Ending which is after having enough power and progressed through the story enough to do so, and the True Ending which is fully completing the story and getting the context to what’s going on. Normal Ending will allow you to reset time so you can continue without having to worry about starting over from scratch.
The gameplay is very similar to traditional Hyperdimension Neptunia where you have a turn-based RPG approach but you can walk around the battle circle to reach an enemy to attack. You can customise your skills and also classes, the latter of which are unlocked in the latter parts of the game. Despite Level 99 being the cap for your characters, the Classes Levels will also help improve your stats but it is capped at Level 20 until you find a mission that can unlock it to reach Level 50. I highly recommend you unlock those caps when the opportunity arises if you wish to defeat the Delphinus boss in New Game + because otherwise you’ll be wasting time like I did.
A new inclusion to the game is Fever mode which allows your team to attack the enemies without having to see their turn appear. This window also allows you to use special abilities to cause tons of damage. The damages will be capped until you unlock more settings and formations. The settings, like the mainline games, adds more tweaks like weaker enemies, more EXP, and more. The formations is how you can build your lily ranks and each formation has additional bonuses as well like more strength or limit breaks.
The levels and monsters are assets re-uses from the mainline games, but each area has different variations of those levels which is a nice touch to the mix. Some places may have parts that are blocked off, but those will be unlocked when you find specific missions and random character discussions on the world map.
So the game’s story up to the True End took me about 24 hours or so, but I didn’t get the Platinum trophy until 29 hours 20 minutes, due to underestimating the difficulty of the Delphinus boss. I had the right tactic in terms of attacks, but I wasn’t strong enough despite being Level 99 and the cause is due to not increasing the Class level, so I was able to do it at Class Level 44 despite the guides suggesting going to 50. Other than that, the Platinum trophy is pretty simple as long as you plan ahead.
There are some missable trophies in this game, like collecting the medals (which will pop-up on the area list with a hat that indicates it’s all collected) and baseballs. Both the medals and baseballs will be missable for one area that’s tied to the story and a Toypolis area where every time you build a new floor it resets the existing floors so you’ll need to redo those again otherwise you’ll have to wait for New Game +. That said, you won’t be able to get the trophies for both the medals and baseball until you unlock the little room where Delphinus boss is located.
In terms of criticisms, Segami as a character is not very likeable at all due to her attitude which really isn’t justified at all. It clashes a lot with IF and Neptune and it was too jarring. Her role doesn’t get revealed until later into the story but it’s the only issue I have with the whole ordeal. I also had an issue with each SEGA Hard Girl but the True End clears it all up so I was fine with it.
Overall, despite that one character, I found that Superdimension Neptune is the best spin-off released on the PlayStation Vita as it nails both the gameplay and the story part which other spin-offs struggled to nail down. The game isn’t too long either and the Platinum trophy was tedious but not as long as some of the other games in the franchise. From here on it’s now time to check out the PlayStation 4 instalments (Megadimension Neptunia Victory II, Megadimension Neptunia Victory II Realize, Neptunia Virtual Stars, Neptunia x Senran Kagura: Ninja Wars, Super Neptunia RPG).
And that concludes Part 1 of my list of video games I played throughout the year of 2023. You can view the rest of the list here!
The Normanic Vault 
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