Death Stranding
Death Stranding is nothing if not unique. It manages to tell an interesting (in a Hideo Kojima way) story, but the gameplay is definitely the star of the show and is absolutely of the “love it or hate it” variety. Traversing rough terrain while transporting items is 80% of what you’ll be doing, and there is very little in the way of combat to be found. You unlock more ways to handle your cargo, more forms of transportation, etc. as you play and I found it genuinely fun to try to figure out how to get from point A to point B with my cargo intact. However for me this gameplay could not sustain the length of the game, and I lost interest around I’d say the half-way point. A heavy reliance on backtracking doesn’t help matters. Worth a try.
A Hat In Time
Every once in a while a game is praised by most who have played it and from all appearances is exactly the type of game I like - but just falls flat with me. This was one of those times. I honestly do NOT get the praise for this game. Controls, especially for the camera, are finicky. Game design feels like a mash-up of other games in the genre with no cohesion holding it all together. Story is completely non-sensical, which isn’t NECESSARILY a deal breaker but in this case it just felt stupid. There was nothing I found appealing about this game in the slightest, and I have no problem saying I’ve given it a try but won’t be going back.
Fairy Fencer F: Refrain Chord
I typically don’t like Compile Heart games. They usually rely on fanservice to cover up cheap production values and generic gameplay. But Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force was one of the rare exceptions. I found the fan service to be tame, the characters genuinely interesting and the dialog funny, and the gameplay was fun and engaging. I consider it a hidden gem JRPG on the PS4. So when a sequel was announced, I was very excited. Unfortunately it had a couple of big flaws that kept me from digging into it deeper. First, there was no English dub. I can get around that, but I prefer English dialog (since y’know, that’s what I speak) and the first game had a great dub. Turns out this was the first Compile Heart US localization to skip the English dub. But that wasn’t what really killed it for me. The first game had explorable dungeons, as you would expect, but this game is completely menu driven. You never move your characters anywhere in the world - towns, dungeons, overworld, everything is just a menu selection. That really killed it for me. I might try this one again at some point if I get it cheap - then again, there are a ton of JRPGs I want to play and I suspect most of them are better than this one. Time being finite and all, the odds of me going back are low.
Shadow Warrior 3
There’s a new genre name that’s come up in gaming that I personally hate - “Boomer Shooter”. Mainly because all the kids throwing the term “Boomer” around these days apparently have no idea what that even means. At any rate, this would probably fall into that category. It doesn’t have a throwback art style - it’s actually a pretty flashy looking game - but gameplay-wise it adheres to the old-school FPS philosophy of “move fast and keep shooting - there’s no such thing as cover”. I had a lot of fun with this one, but I trailed off for whatever reason. I could definitely see myself going back to it if I get in the mood for this type of game again - I don’t recall anything about it I didn’t like. I was playing it on Gamepass, and one side effect of that is that I don’t always feel a real attachment to the games I’m playing. It’s easier for me to put them down & move to something else, because I didn’t pay for them anyway. That’s pretty much what happened here. That said, I wouldn’t mind owning this one at some point.
Immortals of Aveum
This game is stupid. I downloaded the trial and started playing it - I think because there were some reward points tied to playing it or something. So I grabbed it & fired it up, and after a little bit Tam comes through and I tell her “This game is so stupid.” She looks at it a few mins, then leaves the room. A little bit later she comes back - “...why are you still playing it? I thought you said it was stupid.” “It is.” *keeps playing*
In early December it went on sale on the Xbox digital store for literally $8. The deluxe edition. The game released on Aug 22 for $70 ($80 for the deluxe edition). Yes, I bought it.
It’s dumb, but it’s dumb fun. It has 3 types of magic, red/blue/green and a rock/paper/scissors type of system to some extent but still it looks like you’ll mainly be using one or two “go-to” spells (I definitely had favorites that I was sticking to during my short time with it). It looks good technically - art direction isn’t anything to write home about, but it’s serviceable. Controls well. I’ll fire it back up when I’m in the mood for something mindless.
Ys IX: Monstrum Nox
I have tried to get into this game twice now and bounced off of it both times - I’m not sure I have a third time in me. Nothing about this game really grabs me, and everything it tries to do I’ve seen done better elsewhere. I think I enjoyed the setup for VIII a lot more than IX as well - the building up your settlement on the deserted island angle, finding survivors and bringing them back, etc. combined with the flashback sequences that were really intriguing. By contrast the city in IX doesn’t do much for me, and neither do the characters I’ve been running into. With RPGs in particular, if they aren’t great then I feel like they aren’t worth my time because they are such a huge investment.
Final Fantasy XVI
This is a great linear action game with RPG elements, and a really crappy Final Fantasy game. I got probably a third of the way into it and something else pulled me away - I’ll get back to this one eventually, but I’m not in a huge rush to do so. I mean, it’s a lot of fun. The combat is very well done, and switching between magic types (summons/whatever) is easy and adds some neat twists to combat. The story is even pretty interesting, even if it is set in a very brown/grey world that’s feels more Game of Thrones than Final Fantasy. But that’s the rub, nothing about this game feels like a Final Fantasy. Every once in a while there’s something like, “hey, a Chocobo!”, but you can’t just toss in a few traditional elements and call it a day. Heck, I even read somewhere that they weren’t going to put Chocobos in originally but changed their minds. They should have called this something else and started a new franchise. And they NEED to go back to basics with Final Fantasy. Give me a colorful fantasy world, tech hybrid or FF9 style I don’t care, and bring back the ATB battle system.
Street Fighter VI
I really enjoyed what I played of this one. I made a custom character and was really digging the unique single-player story/adventure mode. I think it just fell victim to PS5 syndrome for me. Have I mentioned that I *hate* the PS5 controller? I do! It’s physically painful to use thanks to the sharp edges they replaced the previous curvy handles with. Why did they do that? I DON’T KNOW! I got SF5 on the PS5 because I think I had some psn store credit at the time, but I wish I had grabbed it for the Xbox instead. I also wish Sony would let me use PS4 controllers for PS5 games - turn off the haptic crap, I hate that too - and just let me use a comfortable controller! *sigh* Yeah, I’ll definitely be playing more of this at some point. I’m going to have to either come to grips - pun fully intended - with the Dual Sense controller, or find a good third party alternative that’s comfortable to me.
I'll start with the ranked games next.
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