This dude is hilarious. I love at the end where he says (paraphrased), “man, these action games have bosses that do different things, which is neat” like he’s never seen it before. Then goes on to berate how childish everything looks and how he’s upset this action gamey stuff is getting into his RPG games and what a bummer it is.
He’s like the ultimate “get off my lawn” dude, only frozen in time, somewhere in the early 90s?
Well, he’s reviewing a game from 1986, so…
Seriously, he acknowledges his own biases and within the context of Western style RPGs he’s fantastic. He puts a much heavier emphasis on mechanics than most reviewers certainly did at the time that those games were released, so his thoughts are very useful to a student of the genre. Indeed, essential reading, I might say.
This particular article turned out to be a bit of a train wreck, but he seems to have intuited that going in.
I mean, he started the article by talking about pissing off people on reddit and how there’s a big generational gap there. He obviously knows what he’s doing.
I do like his technical and critical approach, but man, this is “guy who hates desserts reviews cake”.
I doubt many Zelda series fans have played and liked Realms of Arkania or Betrayal at Krondor. Feelings seem to be pretty mutual to me, though console gamers aren’t complaining as much.
I have. I grew up with the western stuff, and came to appreciate Nintendo/Zelda later in life. I can’t be the only one! :)
The guys main issue seems to be ‘this art style is for kids, and I’m a grown man’. As he says in the review:
If I’m going to play a racing game, I want to race race cars , not goofy little go-karts piloted by mustachioed plumbers. If I’m going to pit monsters against each other in gladiatorial matches, I want them to look like monsters , not characters from the Island of Misfit Toys. And if I’m going to play an action-adventure, I want to play a classic hero , not an effete little elf with bare legs and a pointy hat.
Which is fine, that’s what he likes and he can’t get past it. Personally I can appreciate ‘cute’ as well as ‘cool’, and even ‘ascii’.
I agree wholeheartedly. But there is little overlap in terms of cultures and game titles played.
I haven’t played this in way too long, I’m eagerly awaiting the right moment to do a second play through when I get through some more of my Switch backlog, but there is a reason this game was on my GOTD list. And shit like this is a big part of it.
I haven’t played the game, but the physics there doesn’t seem right to me. It didn’t look like it came out of the ground with that kind of velocity, so it shouldn’t send that spider into the air that high.
The force vector of the hit that launches it is multiplied by being in slow mode and coupled with scoring a critical hit while in the slow mo mode. Not real world physics, there are elements/abilities and weapons in use there that facilitate what’s happening. Play it!
Detailed explanation from Reddit:
When you go into bullet time, almost all movement in the world is slowed to a twelfth† of normal speed. But not everything is, because you can move your aim at (close to?) normal speed. This means that they had to specify which things slow down and which don’t.
They forgot to specify some things. They forgot to slow down the change in velocity for shield-surf-enemy-head-bounce, and now we’ve learned they also forgot to slow down Cryonis-pillar-lift. These are left out of the division by 12†, so they add the normal change in velocity even in Bullet Time.
When you exit Bullet Time, all speed is multiplied by 12† to go back to normal. But those velocity changes imparted by the things mentioned above don’t get left out this time, because the game doesn’t know “the Guardian is moving upwards because of the ice pillar”, it just knows “the Guardian is moving this fast in this direction.” So now they go 12† times as fast as they should. Wheeeee!
† 12 might not be the right number here; I’m not sure.
I never use those powers for anything really…now i guess is should! I do see my kid using them quite often…I’ve only played 6 hours or so though.
The more important bit is how he shoots an arrow at the arcing foe and nails it
Not shown - the 1 million attempts where he didn’t nail it. ;)
Very cool!
At least!
I boughted and started playing 2 weeks ago.
This game is amazing. This is one of the greatest gaming accomplishments of the modern generation and probably of all time. It’s phenomenal.
I started playing it again in earnest this year, after never finishing the Wii U version. It’s magnificent.
And I haven’t seen a move by other open world games to copy a lot of the things this gets right. Seems like the Ubisoft open world model still reigns supreme.
One of us! It is indeed pretty special. The sequel can’t be too far off now, probably out next year.
I’ve had it since I’ve had my switch and have gotten sorta pulled in a few times. But the constant wear of weapons and stuff sort of kills it for me eventually. But now that I have my switch setup on a tv instead of only using it in handheld mode I may try again and see if I can let its magic work on me.
I bounced off it twice — after 25 hrs the second time. The third time, it hooked me. I think I was trying to play it like other RPGs, when it really is a unique experience that won’t conform to typical RPG play. There’s more “real” exploration, more risk in the early game, and generally, a more relaxed pace. Give it another try and try to go with the flow… follow where you want to go. I think you’ll eventually find it has its hooks in you.
It’s easily my all time favorite game. I’m having a hard time getting into any other game post-BoTW because, I’m my opinion, it simply is so much better on so many fronts.