Recent reviews by IanStoianov

Great action RPG. All the necessary Final Fantasy elements are present, including a BRILLIANT soundtrack, Don't skip

No caminho pra passar meu tempo no skyrim, e foi um personagem só.

Everyday's great at your Junes!

SOTN, if it wasn't owned by a pachinko company.

Easy to learn, hard to master, lots of depth . Learning each characters` strengths and weaknesses will take some time, but it is deeply rewarding and you can become a better fighter with only a couple matches a day if you want.
Been playing on the Switch, hence the low play time.

Only problem is the season passes are more expensive than they should be. Either the base game or the season passes need to drop a bit in price, as the whole package can get really expensive.

Worth full price if you're a fighting game fan, very much worth it discounted even if you've a passing interest.

Pick the best of metroidvanias. Now add a lot of dying. And boy, do I mean a lot of dying

BEST.GAME.EVAR

So... yeah. Skyrim Remastered is basically the same game as the original version launched in 2011, but with some nifty new graphical effects and the DLC already bundled in. Textures actually seem to be... average, at best, but mods should correct that in time.

The new graphical effects could be achieved on the original game by using mods, but their quality varied, and performance tended to tank depending on what you were you using. A powerful enough computer could have the OG game looking better than this remaster, but more likely than not, would have worse performance.

Speaking of mods, they changed the standard way to use mods! To something far worse. Now you download mods in-game, and need a Bethesda account to do so. The interface for selecting the mods is the same as on the consoles(I'll get to that) and are ill-fitted to navigate with a keyboard and mouse. Also, using mods disables achievements.
Thankfully, Nexus Mods has already updated their Mod Manager to support this new version, and there's already file to enable achievements on modded playthroughs.
Quite honestly, this version doesn't feel rushed or badly ported, but its focus is clearly on updating the game to the new generation of consoles, and also allowing mods to be used on them. The PC version isn't unnecessary, but it is certainly less than it could/should have been.
That being said, this version IS 64-bit and, in time, should allow for more things to be done in the game, especially once the Scrypt Extender gets a new version. THEN we'll have something truly special in our hands.

Owners of the old version and it's DLCs were given this new version for free, so I won't complain, but until the mods from the old version are properly ported over, and/or new mods are made that take advatange of the 64-bit executable, the original game CAN look better with the right mods, and will have the same content. Recommended, but for newcomers, stick to the old version for now. I will update this review in case this situation ever changes.

Here's to another 100 hours in Skyrim

Let's split this up:
First, the game itself. It's a strategy RPG with a wild, sometimes self-referential plot, several jokes, references to movies and TV shows, led by a lovable cast of characters. Gameplay wise, the game's main feature is the possibility to take the characters all the way to level 9999(yes, four nines in a row), several over the top attacks, combo possibilities, and the geo-panel system, all adding to a highly replayable game.
Combined with the "Item World", where you can go through randomized stages to strenghen your gear and even acquire some of the strongest in the game, and with the several endings and new game +, this will keep fans of JRPGs entertained for hundreds of hours. I had over 250 of those back in the PS2. Highly recommended.

Granted, some mechanics are rather dated, but there's nothing obnoxious enough to disturb the enjoyment of the game.

Now, the port. Look, it's a 13 year old game. The original was on the PS2, and this version is based on the PSP port. Personally, I expected the game to be a straight port and locked to 30fps, and I would have been fine with that for this game, but they added new surface textures, a new interface, and high quality character portraits. The character sprites themselves have not been touched, and offer the same pixelized style from back in the day, witth an optional "filter" that basically blurs the images(meh).
Otherwise, the game has no real resolution options, but seems to run at your desktop resolution when in fullscrenn, and has a "Depth of Field" and "Background Blur", which to me, end up just bluring the top and the bottom of screen, and an option for SSAO, which at the very least makes the game jitery.

Upon release, there were random performance issues, but the first patch seems to have fixed most of those. Avoid the needless SSAO option and it should run fine. I barely scratched the surface of what the game offers with this review, and can't recommend this game enough.

TL;DR
3DS port, barebones, but functional. Controls could use some improvement, but the game is fun and priced well.

UPDATE
Control options to use special skills have been added to the right analog stick on controllers. Full rebinding is coming for keyboards in a future patch.

As far as ports from a portable device go, this one is perfectly fine. There's the fact that the original version is on the 3DS and therefore, has two screens, but the game provides multiple ways to arrange them on the screen by alternating them with F5. Personally, I like one on top of the other.

The graphics are all 2D and there doesn't seem to be any upres on the sprites, but the game looks good for a 2D game, and there's a certain nostalgia to the way the game looks. No complaints on that part.
What I will say that they could have improved is the controls. As it stands, you can play on kb+m(don't, it's awful), or use a controller(strongly advised), but the mapping is basically 1:1 from the 3DS controls, with the "second screen" being clickable with the mouse. Special attacks during gameplay can be activated by clicking or pressing F1-F4, but there's no way to map those to the controller. Functional, sure, but there's room for improvement.

As for the game itself, gameplay revolves around using a gun to "tag" enemies and activating an electric field around the character, which extends to the tagged enemies and damages them. Interesting mechanic, but there's very little explanation inside the game as to how to use it effectively, or what each color of the tags do differently, if they happen to differ at all. Platforming wise, what I've seen so far is basic jumping over gaps, avoiding spikes, and using the electric field to slow down your fall to reach distant platforms. Just like the combat, it's an interesting mechanic, but when you're faced with multiples enemies on-screen and trying to escape from a flooding section, it can get a bit confusing. Probably just a matter of adaptation.

Sure, it's a port from a portable platform, but the port, while barebones, is functional, and the game seems to be fun. Price is also good. The option for the original japanese version with english text is also nice, and is not present on the american 3DS release.