Showing 1-10 of 11 items
(1/25) - Had so much to say about this title that I wrote a whole blog post about it! But overall, it was a real nice game to start the year with.
(2/16) - Finally finished Cold Steel IV after several years! Wrote a blog post about my feelings.
(2/20/2024) - Don't play a lot of shooter but I'm a fan of Lady Bug's work so I checked this out. Ended up having a fun time with it.
(2/25/2024) - Using a let’s play video as a guide.
(3/2/2024) - Using a let’s play video as a guide.
(6/6/2024) - I started out really enjoying Stellar Blade but it kind of felt like I got diminishing returns from the title as it went on. Still had a good time with it but I honestly left the game kind of disappointed (especially since I got the bad ending).
(7/21/2024) - Only a few months later and I’ve already completed another Trails title. My reaction to this game was not as powerful as Cold Steel IV but I still had a good time with it. I felt that Reverie had a very strong start. Witnessing Lloyd and the gang liberate Crossbell was exciting, Rean trying to overcome his lingering trauma from the war was compelling, and I really enjoyed all the new characters in C’s route. However, as the game went on, I felt that the main conflict of the story was pretty contrived and I wasn’t very invested in the Crossbell route compared to what was going on with the other characters. Plus, the reverie corridor in general felt like it was just adding extra padding to artificially extend the length of the game (especially the additional post-game levels). But, in the end, I felt that the game’s ending was very strong and the conflict definitely became more interesting as the story went on. And while I wasn’t the biggest fan of the reverie corridor, the side-stories in the blue spheres contained some of the best character moments in the game. I even got teary eyed playing through Ash’s story. So, overall, I enjoyed Trails into Reverie. Like many Trails titles, it felt like it could have benefited from being a few hours shorter but it was also nice to spend all this extra time hanging out with this cast. Especially since this may be the last time they play a leading role in the series. Honestly, that realization gave the whole game a sense of melancholy that was very cathartic.
(9/1) - Emio feels like a game that is all about the slow burn. I enjoyed my time piecing together the mystery of the Smiling Man and interacting with the fun cast but everything in Emio feels pretty low-key compared to the high body count of the first game or Part II’s prevalent spooky atmosphere. This sometimes made the game feel like it was dragging its feet because I didn’t know what all these eggplant related tangents and cafe conversations were building towards. This may be an odd comparison but the game reminded me a of watching an anime called Giant Robo.The events in the story are entertaining just like in Robo but both often leave you feeling like you are missing some important context behind what was going on and you keep waiting for an unspoken shoe to finally drop. But once it does, it all makes sense and you look back on everything with a new perspective. It’s a game that asks the player to place a lot of trust in it and it certainly doesn’t betray that trust. But the game also doesn’t end in some kind of trumpet plot twist. Despite containing plenty of comedic moments, Emio in many ways is a tragedy and I left the game kind of feeling like I just wanted to stand in a field and think about it for a while. Emio may just be a throwback to Famciom adventure games on its surface but it feels like so much more than that, like a work carefully constructed by a master craftsman. And I’m just really happy it exists.
(10/14)