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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Mar 5, 2024 6:51:20 GMT
Dark Souls Remastered (PC) Sadly on another bad note there's Miyazaki's punishment fetish. This seems to be considered an essential part of the Souls experience, Miyazaki himself said it's intended to be a masochist experience (and I believe he was only half joking), and it's probably the main thing that I don't like about this series. I'm not masochist apparently, I do get a kick out of a good challenge, but I don't get a kick out of being punished and tortured. In the end, even when facing brutal challenges, I play games to have fun, not to be inflicted pain for no reason. The thing I hated most were the boss runbacks which Miyazaki seemingly has an unhealthy obsession with. It was ok a few times, but as I went on it just kept getting more egregious and insufferable, hitting an absolute low with Bed of Chaos which is just cheap instadeath followed by a 2 or 3 minute runback over and over again. And for Seath, stealing your money and humanities and giving you another 3-minute runback wasn't enough, so he also puts curse on you so you respawn with half health. Dude. Stop. Thankfully most bosses didn't pose much of a challenge so I could beat them in 1-3 attempts, if they were on the level of Elden Ring bosses I'd probably have abandoned the game. I'm so grateful that Elden Ring toned down the whole punishment thing, one of the main reasons I love that game so much and like Dark Souls considerably less. There was some reddit thread I stumbled across some months ago, which was by some person who finished it, but still wasn't much of a fan and there was this interesting comment by a developer of some undisclosed Soulsbourne game. He apparently watched a bunch of streams of his game and was shocked how extremely different the skill level of the various people was, with some of them basically breezing through it while being more or less impossible for others.
To be frank, 1-3 attempts for most bosses doesn't sound bad at all. Even on my second attempt, where I felt I was playing significantly better I never beat most of the bosses even in Undead Burg. The boss down the stairs from the Blacksmith was placed conveniently enough that I managed to defeat it and get to Darkroot Garden. I gave up on the game after realizing that it would always stay like this: Run through an area to figure out how the local monsters work, then repeat as often as required to learn the patterns of some boss. And I can guarantee you, it was most definitely more than 1-3 times on average
I'm not covinced that this is good design as it punishes people that aren't very good at it more and forces them into more repetition, so that the overall experience will likely be much worse for them, and that's not just about frustration with the difficulty, but also about wasting time and eventually letting the sense of wonder, the fascination about the world, disappear.
And let's not talk about the quality of the PC port* or the refusal to even mention, much less explain, something as basic as weapon attribute scaling.
*Prepare to die edition, not Remastered.
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Post by rhaegyr on Mar 5, 2024 8:57:15 GMT
Tomb of the Giants is awesome!
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Tomo
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Post by Tomo on Mar 5, 2024 9:09:42 GMT
Where is the -1 button on this forum
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Post by simple on Mar 5, 2024 9:34:13 GMT
Tomb of the Giants is awesome! Its been a long time but I’m pretty sure I just rang through it ignoring those big crawling skeletons most of the time. Don’t think I ever settled on it being the sort of place I could methodically clear out to farm souls like most of the other areas.
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Post by RadicalRex on Mar 5, 2024 10:01:59 GMT
ToomuchFluffySorry if I made it sound like DS1 bosses are easy, that wasn't my intention. If I had started with this game, I can tell you I would probably have struggled a lot. But I was coming in shortly after hundreds of hours of Elden Ring, with Mohg, Malenia, Godskin Duo and all that. And after that, 17 hours of Demon's Souls which I think also has harder bosses. I believe all that just prepared me pretty well for DS1.
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Post by starchildhypocrethes on Mar 5, 2024 10:15:21 GMT
FFVII Remake - 6/10
Eh, it was alright. Disappointing though. For a game that only took 25hrs or so it sure felt padded out. Interesting retelling of a bit of FF7, but way too much of not much happening. The side quests rival FFXVI for pointless time-wasting
Not in love with the aesthetic. All a bit too FFXV for my tastes. Didn’t particularly enjoy the combat either. The whole action-combat-but not-really with an annoying ATB system slapped on was just clunky and annoying. I wound up whacking it on easy towards the end just to get it out the way.
Reading that back 6 feels high, but I did actually quite enjoy it in amongst all the hateful bits.
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Post by zisssou on Mar 5, 2024 10:52:36 GMT
Inscryption
It's very rare of me to think about a game days after completing, but Inscryption has been lodged in there. I don't want to spoil it for others, but it did dip slightly midway through, then picked up at the end. I could seriously have played the first part for 40+ hours.
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Duffman5
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big cook, little cook welcome to our cafe
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Post by Duffman5 on Mar 5, 2024 11:16:11 GMT
FFVII Remake - 6/10 Eh, it was alright. Disappointing though. For a game that only took 25hrs or so it sure felt padded out. Interesting retelling of a bit of FF7, but way too much of not much happening. The side quests rival FFXVI for pointless time-wasting Not in love with the aesthetic. All a bit too FFXV for my tastes. Didn’t particularly enjoy the combat either. The whole action-combat-but not-really with an annoying ATB system slapped on was just clunky and annoying. I wound up whacking it on easy towards the end just to get it out the way. Reading that back 6 feels high, but I did actually quite enjoy it in amongst all the hateful bits. I quit on the last chapter, I just could not be arsed anymore. Chapter 17 was such a slog and then my reward for beating it was several stages of a driving combat section and then as I understand (I quit on this bit) it further boss battles. I have zero interest in the next one, but have high hopes for 16 based off what I played in the demo.
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Post by starchildhypocrethes on Mar 5, 2024 11:19:27 GMT
FF16 was my biggest disappointment of last year. It’s a bad FF game attached to a bang average action game.
Enjoy!
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Duffman5
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big cook, little cook welcome to our cafe
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Post by Duffman5 on Mar 5, 2024 11:30:05 GMT
FF16 was my biggest disappointment of last year. It’s a bad FF game attached to a bang average action game. Enjoy! Lovely, thanx mate
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Post by rhaegyr on Mar 5, 2024 11:37:54 GMT
Inscryption It's very rare of me to think about a game days after completing, but Inscryption has been lodged in there. I don't want to spoil it for others, but it did dip slightly midway through, then picked up at the end. I could seriously have played the first part for 40+ hours. Pretty much my thoughts on it, especially the story - very cleverly done and really makes you think. The first third of the game was incredible mechanically (whilst the second and third parts were merely good from a gameplay perspective). It's no surprise that they offer this mode as a separate rogue-like after you complete the game. Ringworm ftw!
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Post by zisssou on Mar 5, 2024 11:41:36 GMT
Inscryption It's very rare of me to think about a game days after completing, but Inscryption has been lodged in there. I don't want to spoil it for others, but it did dip slightly midway through, then picked up at the end. I could seriously have played the first part for 40+ hours. Pretty much my thoughts on it, especially the story - very cleverly done and really makes you think. The first third of the game was incredible mechanically (whilst the second and third parts were merely good from a gameplay perspective). It's no surprise that they offer this mode as a separate rogue-like after you complete the game.Ringworm ftw! Do they?! I'll have to boot it up and check it out.
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Post by ToomuchFluffy on Mar 5, 2024 15:08:44 GMT
ToomuchFluffy Sorry if I made it sound like DS1 bosses are easy, that wasn't my intention. If I had started with this game, I can tell you I would probably have struggled a lot. But I was coming in shortly after hundreds of hours of Elden Ring, with Mohg, Malenia, Godskin Duo and all that. And after that, 17 hours of Demon's Souls which I think also has harder bosses. I believe all that just prepared me pretty well for DS1. No worries, I read all of that as well. I can see how that whole struggle would help with practice
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Post by Wizzard_Ook on Mar 5, 2024 18:21:59 GMT
Red Dead Redemption
After finishing 2, I went straight into a replay of the first. It holds up fairly well. There’s a surprising amount of the sequel in here, the atmosphere, the world building and how npcs act and behave and the general day to day writing etc. It’s probably unfair to compare this to the sequel, but you can also see how they built and improved on this. The story feels patchy in places - the last set of missions are well done, and you feel as though those missions and writing exist in the second game but at times it does feel, not bare bones, but doesn’t have the depth and range of the sequel. Yet you do feel the writers gained the confidence to make 2 after this. Whilst playing it was in the back of my mind that if they were ever going to remake this, they probably have to rewrite a fair amount of it, fill it out a bit, and pace it a bit better. But yeah it’s probably unfair to compare the two.
But it stills plays well and it’s nice to play something that is fairly meaty yet still clocks in at a solid 20-25. Forgo the slight nods to third person action gameplay, and enjoyed picking of challenges here and there - nice not to be over burdened with stuff to do but enjoyed what they offered.
Solid; and definitely worth going back to. 4/5
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Tomo
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Post by Tomo on Mar 5, 2024 19:40:22 GMT
Inscryption It's very rare of me to think about a game days after completing, but Inscryption has been lodged in there. I don't want to spoil it for others, but it did dip slightly midway through, then picked up at the end. I could seriously have played the first part for 40+ hours. Pretty much my experience of it too. Act 1 was best, then 3, then 2. First act could be a game in itself though. Really fun.
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Tomo
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Post by Tomo on Mar 5, 2024 19:41:02 GMT
Oh yeah forgot about the rogue like mode.
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Post by stuz359 on Mar 5, 2024 22:23:30 GMT
FF16 was my biggest disappointment of last year. It’s a bad FF game attached to a bang average action game. Enjoy! Lovely, thanx mate Well as a player that really doesn't have the time, nor want to grind to progress in an RPG anymore, I found FFXVI really enjoyable. I liked the characters, liked the writing, gameplay was enjoyable if on the easy side, some of the side quests were forgettable, some were good, but I really enjoyed my time with the game. Add to that some of the most spectacular action sequences I've seen in any game, it's worth a play.
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Rich
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Post by Rich on Mar 7, 2024 18:59:34 GMT
Final Fantasy VI Pixel RemasterSometimes, good memories are best left unspoiled. As I said in the Currently Playing thread: I played this back when it was re-released on PlayStation but despite having fond memories of it, never completed it. It's different to how I remember. The first part races by with little time for the characters to breathe or develop and then the second part really slams the breaks on. It's fun and I want to stick with it until the end this time, but it's not the masterpiece I remember. ...and I'm sticking by that. The huge cast really is a double edged sword both in terms of story and mechanics. Luckily the game is very easy so it's not too much of a problem when it forces you to use the poorer characters late in the game. Kefka was a fun if underdeveloped bad guy. I'm glad to have finally seen the ending, but in doing so I've rather sullied my memories in the process. Teenage Rich remembers this being great, possibly my favourite Final Fantasy. Now it is not. Still ranked above VIII though (sorry tengu). 7/10
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 8, 2024 9:46:26 GMT
Avatar Frontiers of Pandora
It looks absolutely amazing and Pandora is fantastic. The world they've built is really impressive.
It's a shame thats where the effort ends as they have arsed the combat and the open world and mission structure is basically every other Ubisoft open world. Taking off location markers and using hints of the environment is quite cool but it's such and average game wrapped up in a beautifully created world.
5/10
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Post by RadicalRex on Mar 9, 2024 17:54:08 GMT
Dark Souls 2: Scholar of the First Sin (PC) Sorry it's a lot again, I'll just put it in spoiler tags to not make scrolling down this page a pain in the arse. DS2 has a reputation, especially SotFS, and I already knew it's by many considered the black sheep of the series. I found it's not as bad as some make it out to be--it can be fun and pretty--but the reputation isn't unearned either as it has its fair share of issues, and most of all it can be frustrating for all the wrong reasons.
World and level design sadly lacked the trademark intricacy and complexity of the Miyazaki games, it felt like an action-adventure world that could have been made by any other developer, just with DS combat and mechanics. But that's ok, I can take it for what it is if it's fun. The levels were hit and miss, some were perfectly fine and interesting while others showed their troubled development by being little more than a bunch of linear corridors and empty spaces. Boss fights also rely a little too much on the "big knight with big weapon" trope for my liking. The DLC really upped the game though.
Mechanically, it's a bit of a mixed bag too. I really like some new features like 360 degree dodging, powerstancing, and dodge distance changing progressively with equip load. However I don't like having to invest in a separate skill just to get i-frames for my dodge rolls, the somewhat stiffer and slower feel and the wonkier hit detection. It's not the end of the world, but aside from the dodge rolls DS1 felt a little tighter and more responsive.
But let's address the elephant in the room, cheap difficulty and gank fights. Yeah, I can see there's a reason why this game has a reputation. It's inconsistent, in some levels it's no issue at all, but in others... oh my God. Wading through waist-high water being swarmed by dozens of melee enemies that just keep coming from halfway across the map, while two sorcerers are shooting infinite range homing projectiles from 100 metres away, and right in the middle of all this madness there's an NPC invasion... I'm just glad they forgot to make the swamp poisonous. It's like Elden Ring after a trumpeter alerted the entire neighbourhood.
Or have a misty forest where you can hardly see anything and populate it with virtually invisible ghost enemies that can't be target-locked. Nice. Also, even more status effect nastiness than before, yay. Also gotta love the new acid status effect that breaks your equipment so you can't use it anymore until you pay the blacksmith thousands to repair it. And bosses that have this effect on the weapons you hit them with. My bullshit meter is off the charts.
I don't find this stuff fun. In DS1 and ER, even if something's frustrating, most of the time it feels like the purpose is to give you a challenge to overcome. When DS2 does its thing, it feels just malicious, the entire point being just to kill you for the sake of it. Weirdly, boss fights are usually considerably easier than in DS1 or ER, hell they're usually much easier than their own levels.
The way enemy aggro works is weirdly contrary to DS1 and ER. In those games, they typically have a small aggro radius and can easily be lured and taken out individually, it's downright comical how enemies don't give a fuck about what's going on around them, and it's clearly intended. It feels as if the DS2 devs saw that as a mistake to be fixed, as DS2 enemies are aggro'd from halfway across the map and rarely individually, always in groups.
A great example would be DS1's painting room in Anor Londo, with the guardians bizarrely not giving a shit about anything that's further than 10 metres away. In DS2, the entire room would go aggro the moment you enter it, and they'd chase you to Blighttown and back.
I get this feeling of DS1 mechanics being viewed as mistakes in other places too. Like how you were safe the moment you reached the boss's fog wall, while in DS2 you're still vulnerable and stoppable during the long animation. Or how you weren't further punished for dying after losing your humanity, DS2 with its Hollowing mechanic is the only game that insists on further punishment every single time you die even from the most unfair bullshit.
I mentioned earlier how I just modded this mechanic out early on in my playthrough, and I think that was a great decision so I could still enjoy the game as best I could. Dealing with the Hollowing on top of everything else would have pissed me off so much I'd probably have abandoned it. If that's cheating or just bringing it in line with the other games, you decide. I only care that it was more fun that way.
It's kinda sad because I think at its core DS2 is a decent game, but there's just too much frustrating nonsense that lets it down. I'm told that a lot of this was added in SotFS and that the original version is much more reasonable. In hindsight, I'd have preferred to experience that, and before buying SotFS I was indeed considering the original version as that's also on Steam. Sadly, just the base game without DLC costs the same as SotFS with all DLC included, so I went with the latter.
In the end, I think it's worth playing and I'm glad I did, but damn does it make it unpleasant at times.
6/10
DLC 1: Crown of the Sunken King
Much improved and more complex level design, had cool Zelda vibes with its environmental puzzles and all, really good. Some of the enemy encounters felt cheap and frustrating first, but on the upside there was also genuine satisfaction over figuring it all out. Sadly the boss fights kinda sucked.
7.5/10
DLC 2: Crown of the Old Iron King
Again some pretty interesting level design, if not quite on the same level as the first DLC imo. Over-reliance on enemies spawning out of the ground everywhere before and behind you was pretty annoying, and that assassin invader with the lance can fuck off. However, imo it has the best two boss fights of the entire game, by far. Genuinely fun, great stuff.
8/10
DLC 3: Crown of the Ivory King
Fuck. Me. Level architecture is ok, but fighting the enemies is a slog. Worse, it has the two worst boss fights in the entire game. Up until here, it would just be bad, but then... there's Frigid Outskirts. The worst region and the worst boss runback in any of these games, by such a margin it's completely off the scale. I'm laughing at myself now for thinking the Nito runback was bad. Completely and utterly unacceptable.
0/10
I was hoping to end my DS2 journey on a high note with the third DLC, but boy did the devs had other plans. I'm so glad that I forgot about Sir Alonne before finishing DLC 3, because so I went to him afterwards and he is now the final experience of my playthrough. Got my high note after all!
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Post by JuniorFE on Mar 9, 2024 18:03:48 GMT
I'm actually not 100% sure DadFE did the Frigid Outskirts back when he played it (wiki says it's optional FWIW)... but yeah, I know exactly what you mean, screw that place.
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hicksy
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I'm good for some but I'm not for everyone
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Post by hicksy on Mar 9, 2024 20:36:43 GMT
Shadow of the Tomb Raider (PS5)
A great end to a great trilogy!
8/10
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Post by Samildanach on Mar 9, 2024 21:02:22 GMT
I don't mind the Frigid Outskirts too much. Obviously it is one of the worst areas both visually and gameplay-wise but something has to be said or the growing dread as you desperately run for cover before the whiteout comes, failing to get there and having the ice stallions thunder out of the nothing before you lose them again. You run on madly but hear that menacing echoey neighing right behind you. Or is it in front of you and you just got turned round? FUCKING RUN! Oh shit there is another one coming! Where the Hell is that shelter?! Yeah, I give it points for atmosphere and dread, even if it fails at anything else.
Memory of the Old Iron King however has no redeeming factor at all. Copy paste dull-as-hell textures and enemies from the Iron Keep, a time limit, a gankfest throughout, and a wonderful boss that you wouldn't want to miss out on (unlike Lud and Zallen which is perfectly missable if you hate Frigid Outskirts).
The rest of the Ivory King dlc I thought was pretty good.
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Post by dfunked on Mar 10, 2024 21:34:13 GMT
Persona 3 Reload (SX) 8/10
It really felt like it was angling for a 7/10 (or lower) earlier on, but the story starts to get great in October and it definitely redeems itself. Junpei is still an insufferable prick who I couldn't kick out of my party quickly enough. Some of the social links are pretty awful too, but there are some great moments buried in others.
There are some great QoL improvements over what I've played of P3P, but it felt like they could've been a bit more ambitious perhaps. Just something simple like the weather changing stat gains would've kept things interesting when you're struggling to max your social stats (which takes far too fucking long!)
Tartarus is still pretty awful, but once you reconcile with there not being much else to do do every evening, it becomes a bit more bearable. Just dip into it a few times each month instead of aiming to get it polished off in one go.
I have no idea how long it took me to beat... The in-game timer says 103 hours but I saw that jump up by 10 hours between saves when using quick resume so don't believe it. Xbox app says 62:46 which seems a bit too short on the other hand...
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Post by richyroo on Mar 12, 2024 14:52:34 GMT
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth 6/10 (its a well made game, but there was just too many issues getting in the way of my enjoyment) I really enjoyed the 1st Like a Dragon game, it was my entry point into the Yakuza series. I was expecting to really like the sequel, but overall I did struggle in a lot of areas of this game. The first game was very heavy on the narrative, but my god did this game up the ante in this regard. TOO much dialogue, way too much. I was over-leveled for the majority of the game which made the need for any kind of strategy go out the window. Side missions were mostly boring. No catching panty thieves this time. Kiryu Kazama - what an extremely dull character. The game made me have to play a few chapters as him as the main protagonist. These are the worst chapters in the whole game due to how emotionless he is. Perhaps its down to the terrible voice actor, but Kiryu should not have been in this game and should have been retired off. Just give me Ichiban any day of the week, he's such a better character.
The game featured far too many references of the previous games. Like a Dragon was a good entry point for first time players to this series, but they then baffled those players in the sequel by featuring a huge amount of references to the previous games. They even make you go through these reminiscing scenes with Kiryu of events from the previous games (which are not skippable). So events I do not care about featuring the most bland protagonist in history, it was all rather boring.
I did think about ditching it off at one point but I stuck with it. It's not a game I would ever replay again though and I wont be bothering with new game plus or the end game dungeon.
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Post by uiruki on Mar 12, 2024 15:52:56 GMT
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Perhaps its down to the terrible voice actor, but Kiryu should not have been in this game and should have been retired off. Just give me Ichiban any day of the week, he's such a better character. I assume you played it with the dub.
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Post by richyroo on Mar 12, 2024 16:29:28 GMT
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Perhaps its down to the terrible voice actor, but Kiryu should not have been in this game and should have been retired off. Just give me Ichiban any day of the week, he's such a better character. I assume you played it with the dub.
English dub yeah. I like all the other English voice actors. Would have been great if I could of chosen to play with English voices EXCEPT Kiryu's.
I assume the Japanese voice actor is far superior then?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 12, 2024 16:30:47 GMT
Yes. Never play Like A Dragons/Yakuza with English voices. Except the first, with Michael Madsen and Mark Hamill. That dub was pretty good.
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Post by richyroo on Mar 12, 2024 16:42:31 GMT
Yes. Never play Like A Dragons/Yakuza with English voices. Except the first, with Michael Madsen and Mark Hamill. That dub was pretty good.
But the English voice actor for Ichiban is so good, he nails his personality so well. I really wouldn't want to miss out on this. All the other English voice actors do a good job too, its just Kiryu, which is always one note and like the VA is reading lines from a script.
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loto
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Post by loto on Mar 12, 2024 16:51:17 GMT
Tomb Raider 1 remaster (PS5) 9.8/10
Some of the sequels had their moments, but THIS game is what it’s all about for me. The wonder and excitement at exploration and discovering a path, a secret, a new area. And the music is just hauntingly beautiful It occasionally does that thing where you see a new area, then reach it much later in the level and look down/back on where you’ve come from. Hell yes.
0.2 marks removed for some shonky combat and late game enemies, but so it goes.
A real joy to play it again after all these years and well worth the admission price alone, never mind all the DLC and the two sequels.
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