Cocoabine 最近的评测

I'm a dirty boy.

Score: 8/10
Time to Complete: 30 hours (Approx 60 if doing some sidequests)
Time to 100%: 100+ hours
Similar games: Sleeping Dogs (for gameplay), Mafia II (for story), Akiba's Trip (for wackiness)

For reference, this is the first Yakuza game I have ever played.

PROS:
A Game of Two Halves – The games' primary strength comes from two fronts: Its intensity and its ridiculousness. Its storyline is a fascinating one about betrayal, love, political intrigue, revenge, corruption. A lot of the cutscenes are INTENSE. Expect to see a lot of old, stern-looking Japanese men argue, shout and swear and try to kill each other. Some of the fighting scenes are brutal, with a handful having the same kind of intensity I would expect from something like Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (the sewer tunnel and boat come to mind in particular). Some moments are very somber. Some even made me cry. This is a game that takes itself very seriously.

Well, sometimes. See here's the thing: On the other side it is utterly silly. Expect to be prancing around singing songs in karaoke or hitting the dance floor and busting a move. Asking call girls what they're wearing so you can meet them and go out on dates. Help a pervert find his mojo. Get in a fight with a big buff bald man who wants to steal your hair? Watch softcore videos of dozens of Japanese girls. This doesn't even scratch the surface of what kind of craziness is on offer.

It's completely insane how the game jackknifes between these two states, receive death-threats and have an attack on your life and then go and play some darts. Deal with a kidnapping then go to race tiny remote-controlled cars. It's something that makes the game very unique, very special.

The Minigames & Sidequests – And what a huge selection there are! Bowling, darts, karaoke, dancing, real estate, casino, fishing.. the list goes on and on. There's a real spectrum of entertainment on offer. Some are great fun, some aren't, but a special shoutout to the cabaret minigame which I got ADDICTED to big time.

CONS:
Endgame & Some Minigames – Found the endgame content to be pretty grindy once the main storyline had been completed and some conditions had to been met for certain sidequests. Some minigames are a pain, particularly the catfighting one which was just pure random luck and required me to break my fingers button mashing. Some minigames are very distinctly Japanese and could have done with being explained a bit better.

CONCLUSION:
Yakuza 0 was a great game, lots of fun and I eagerly await the next installment: Yakuza Kiwami on Steam.

Score: 7/10
Time to 100%: 20 hours
Similar games: Danganronpa, The Room

Do NOT play this game unless you have played the previous two games; both 999 and Virtue's Last Reward, which can be found in The Nonary Games for three main reasons. First, the game doesn't have the same impact, since you won't have a connection to the characters in the same way that you would if you have played pervious games in the series, as about half of the cast are reoccuring. Secondly, the game wouldn't make much sence in certain parts of the story, what the heck do you mean an old mans' brain in a young mans' body from the future?!?! And third, it is the weakest in the series - with the first game being the best.

Pros:

A Real Mindboggler - The biggest and most significant aspect of the entire series - the story. It's always been amazing in a weird wonderful way and Zero Time Dilemma is no exception. In true Zero Escape fashion the story only gets weirder, crazier, FASCINATING and harder and harder to explain to another human being the further you progress into it. In Zero Escape style one playthrough isn't enough either, it requires a multiple 100% playthrough in order to fully understand each characters' perspective and the overarching plotline and while this is the third installment of the series, time-wise it's actually the second. Those who finished VLR may already understand why.

Interesting Characters - For the most part these characters are interesting. Some are an enigma to be unravelled. Some have their dark issues yet to be revealed. Some are likeable favourites from previous games and some have complete character overhauls. Zero Time Escape have always had intriguing characters throughout the franchise and this is no exception.

Are Puzzles Harder? - Compared to VLR I actually think the puzzles are a little bit easier, which I found to be okay. I didn't really have any issues with any of the rooms except for maybe one or two - looking at you, weird card puzzle thing - but otherwise I could complete them without having to look up answers or having to go through too much mental gymnastics. Didn't feel like they were too easy either, being spoonfed answers. I will say however that the puzzles do not feel as inventive as they did in the previous games.

Cons:

Graphics - Again with these weird old Playstation 2-looking graphics. Didn't work for VLR, doesn't work now. They should have kept the cool looking 2D art style from the first game, personally.

Pacing - They talk reaaaaaaaaaaally slowly. Kind of takes some getting used to. Wish they would speed up the tempo, or atleast let me skip ahead.

Unskippable Cutscenes - There are several cutscenes throughout the game which are shared with multiple characters perspectives. The cutscenes themselves have about 90% similarity through each of them and you have to watch the same thing said from Zero over and over and over again.

Convoluted Timelines - In the past games, you pick a timeline and you see how it plays out before you go down another. Not in this one. In this one you jump from different universes and at different times. It's very easy to get lost and forget what is happening in a current timeline, it gets a little bit crazy.

Ultimately I definately recommend this for fans of the previous two games as it keeps its CRAZY storylines, characters and wraps up this wild ride known as Zero Escape.

Score: 9/10
Time to Complete: Approx 13 hours
Time to 100%: 23 hours
Similar games: Bastion, Transistor

Short version:
This is a prisoner sports RPG where players compete for their sins to be forgiven.

Long version:
However, to call this game just a sports game does it a great disservice, as it’s so much more. "But wait Cocoa!", I hear you cry, "I don't like sports games!". Well firstly, shut your big beautiful mouth. I don't particularly care for sports games either, yet I love this game. Sometimes it's difficult to label a game under a certain genre, because sometimes they feel so much more than that. This is one of those games.

But also secondly, for those who have played Supergaints' two previous games, you should already know that the studio themselves are capable of making some truly breathtaking, emotionally-packed gems and this is no exception. Trust in them to make another one, you won't be disappointed.

For those who haven't played a Supergaint game before, here’s a look at just some of the reasons that make this game so special.

PROS:
Supergiant Excellence – This is the third game published and developed by Supergiant Games, and I have noticed undeniable patterns between the three; both Bastion and Transistor contained gorgeous visuals, incredible music with characters and situations that were packed with emotional resonance, Pyre is no different. From the onset, as you travel through the world of the Downside you notice lovingly crafted drawn visuals, distinctive across its array of locations. The music is catchy and distinct, with groups of characters given their own memorable soundtracks and critical events given an extra sense of poignancy. The characters too – both those who join your party and even your opponents which you will be facing are likeable and memorable, delving further into their stories as the game develops.

The Sport Itself – The sport itself is “kind of” like handball/basketball, in which your team have a ball and must try and put this in the opposing teams goal, or pyre in this case. On a technical level the game works quite nicely, in that each of your party members play and act differently so that you can mix and match your team members in a way most suitable to you or in direct contrast to your opponents. Some party members and large and hulking, with their slow but strong presence taking dominance over the playing field making it difficult to bypass them, whereas other members are quick and nimble able to dodge amongst the playing fields’ obstacles. Some have abilities like teleportation, flight, explosions, throwing distance and jumping prowess making mixtures and matches even more intriguing.

Should I Stay, or Should I Go – As I mentioned previously, the main aspect of this game is the fact that your characters are playing for their “freedom”, to have their sins forgiven and to go back to where they had come from. This caveat of the game is what ultimately makes it a fascinating one. You are trying to save your friends and as the story progresses you find that you form an attachment to them, both from a game play perspective (this character has a high level/ has a play style I am good at) as well as an emotional one (this is a character that I like and want to know more about), and so making these choices as to who should be saved can be both a difficult and a fascinating one.

CONS:
Sweating the Small Stuff – Some may find the initial traversal of the game world tiring, impatient and ready to just jump into the story and the game play while others may find that the game itself is designed in a way of linearity and repetitiveness, core to its game play. There may be those put off by this, while others can forgive these transgressions.

CONCLUSION:
It's games like this that remind us why gaming is truly an art form.

Score: 9/10
Time to Complete: Approx 35 hours (without sidequests)
Time to 100%: 70 hours
Similar games: Tales of Berseria, Final Fantasy XV

Since being a huge fan of both Studio Ghibli and the previous Ni No Kuni game (bought a PS3 back in the day just to play it!) I had high hopes for this and it didn't disappoint. From beginning to end I was grossly absored in it's many mechanics and couldn't put it down until I had done as much as I could. An absolutely addictive gem to play from start to finish.

PROS:
Just so much content! - From upgrading weapons and armour, finding collectible creatures called Higgeldies and leveling them, managing your castle, recruiting civilians, traversing deram-door labyrinths for loot and levels, to army-scale skirmishes and hunting down darkness-riddled monsters: This game has SO SO MUCH to do. So much so that it's easy to get addicted to one element of the game and then switch to another when you need a break. So much so that it hits this sweet spot of always being fun and having something to do. Let me tell you, the most addictive part of this game is easily recruiting civilians. It's like Mother Base from Metal Gear Solid 5 all over again! But you know, with cutesy Japanime charm.

Ghibli Magic - This is a game that is absolutely beautiful, from its sound design to its art direction, everything shines with that Ghibli magic (although the studio themselves where not directly involved in this game like they were in the first). The effort involved to make the game's primary cityscapes is simply lovely and very enjoyable to traverse through. It also has some nice little touches that some would overlook, but others would appreciate. For example, in a later Chinatown inspired area you meet people with names similar to Chinese ones, while also being influenced by their race/profession. Like Bao Wow the dog or Nu Bi the newbie apprentice. Like I said, the game is full of little things like this that make me smile.

As a brief sidenote, I think this is an excellent game for a parent to recommend to their child if they want them to get into RPGs like I did when I was a wee little'un.

CONS:
Underdeveloped characters - For all it's multifaceted gameplay mechanics and lovely looks which will keep you engaged and absorbed from start to finish, the actual group of companions feel very much underdeveloped - with the exception of Evan and Roland. People will join your ragtag group for very little rhyme or reason and you don't really understand much of their motives, nor develop their characters any further. They very much take a back seat in these regards and I can only assume because greater emphasis was placed on city-building and exploration.

Another issue is that sometimes during key points in the story the development process felt very hot and cold. Some of the time no expense is spared for the voice acting and character animation while at others it's very diluted. Understandable in the pointless fetch quests that populate the game, but quite often this happens during key dialogues as well which I felt hampered the emotional gravitass of those moments.

Difficulty? - For the entirity of my playthrough, barring a small handfull of endgame content (looking at you, Faraway Forrest) - this game was shockingly easy. Does a game need to be difficult to be good? No, not at all, so I only consider this a minor issue. But I did find it rather peculiar when going up against a boss they would die very, very quickly - sometimes even within seconds. I'm not bragging saying that I must be some kind of pro-tier gamer - look at me! look how easy this is! - but quite the opposite, I played the game no different from any other RPG I play. My only reasoning for the ease of gameplay is that it's not that important to the game overall, and that it also attracts both a wider and younger demographic. Which is understandable.

Speed - Another minor gripe. Your character moves REALLY FREAKING SLOWLY LIKE through the game world and it isn't until several hours in can you get a slight speed boost, but it's still annoying to have your character move really slowly through all these big, long dungeons that you just have to keep mashing the dodge button just to get the tiniest little boost.

So in conclusion - although I must admit - it does feel clear that Studio Ghibli very much stepped back from this game, as it lacks the animated cutscenes and emotional resonance that the first game packed, I still found myself full of child-like glee and wonder. Is this game better than its predecessor? No. Do you need to play the first to enjoy this one? No. Is this still an excellent game and one I would recommend to any RPG enthusiast/fan of lovely animations? 100% YES!

Score: 9/10
Time to 100%: 65 hours (Main game + DLC)
Similar games: Batman: Arkham Origins, Overlord

You know those games that are just so much fun that you can't put down until you've completely sunk hours and hours into them, have to play constantly and consistently until you've done absolutely everything in them until about a week or two later you've found it's finished, it over now and you're a little disappointed in that because you wanted more, more, more? Shadow of War is one of those games. An absolute joy to play and difficult to put down until it's been absolutely exhausted.

Pros:

Fighting Mechanics - If I was to describe the mechanics of this game, I would closely compare it to the Batman: Arkham series when it comes to the physical combat. But there's more to it. You also take into account when you've fighting the orcs, you look at their strengths and weaknesses and try to combine that in your battle against them. Maybe there is an orc weak to fire? A possible strategy is luring him to a barrel or campfire and lighting that baby up and watching him flee. This is a game where you mix fighting, stealth, strategy, domination (taking over the orcs), amongst other things during your combat which leads to very satisfying gameplay.

The Orcs - If I could pick one element from this game that seperates it from all other games and say "This is why, this is why you should try this game", it's the orcs themselves. There are hundreds of possible combinations of orcs that you can possibly meet on your travels and it creates some real water cooler effects of conversation between others who have played the game, where people have their own stories of the orcs they have met and fought against. On a fighting level the orcs are separated into fighting classes. You'll see tanks, beastmasters, marauders, warriors, assasins and several others. They then have their own tribes, which again adds additional abilities to their fighting style. On top of this is that they also have their own personalities. Some with bite at you, scream at you, taunt, sing or make weird clickly noises at you. Each time you meet a new orc is always a joy as to what kind of character you are about to meet, and in your travels you will find a few highlights.

Story - Although ultimately forgettable, I found the storyline to be very entertaining throughout. If you haven't played the previous game you may be wondering, "Do I need to play the first game to really enjoy this one?", and the answer is not really. Long story short from the first game (which comes from the beginning of the game), guy gets killed along with family, guy seeks revenge, guy kills all those responible. One or two slight differences but that's basically it. When it comes to this game, the most interesting part of the storyline actually came towards the end, when it goes more into the Nazgul. As someone who has watched and loved all the movies, but haven't read the books or anything - I thought that shedding more light on them, who they are and how they came to be was very interesting and it was something I never really thought about from the movies.

Cons:

Technical Issues - So when I first got the game I had a real difficult time even getting it to play. It would just show that it was running on Steam for a solid 5 seconds only to go off again and not start the game at all. This took me HOURS AND HOURS to fix. Firstly, I needed to reinstall the C++ Redistributable from 2015 which worked, but that was only the first part. The problem then changed into another thing, it's solution, after all these years of gaming, was one of the most bizarre technical fixes I've ever come across. I had to - get this - update Internet Explorer. Excuse me, what? Yes, that's right. I had to update a browser I never even use or give a toss about. The solution came from Warner Brothers Games themselves as seen here[support.wbgames.com]. But whatever, it worked in the end.

Endgame - When you get to the last stage of the game it gets quite jarring. What was previously a very dynamic, intriguing story with lots of different things happening quickly becomes a grindy-chore. The story comes to a screeching halt and you'll find yourself repeating the same thing over and over again like 20 times before the game comes to an end. It was very suprising how lazy and tacked-on it felt considering how entertaining the game was up to that point.

Microtransactions - The ever pervasive, constantly shoved down our throats issue that plagues many triple A games of our time, Shadow of War is also inclusive with microtransactions. It's not as bad as in some other games, where it feels like a necessity to purchase to avail the full experience of the game, but it's still annoying. You'll find top tier orcs and gear (known as legendary gear in game), but of course they'll be found at a much rarer rate so that you may be tempted to buy these things. I went through the entire game without spending a single microtransactional penny, so it's certainly possible, but it's still a minor gripe. Also to be expected with AAA games there is DLC. This DLC is availbe any time, but storywise tacked on after the game's ending by the way.

Score: 7.5/10 (8/10 for 999, 7/10 for VLR)
Time to 100%: 40 hours (20 hours each)
Similar games Danganronpa, The Room

The Nonary Games are two games in one, including both 999 and Virtue's Last Reward. They are story-rich, mystery visual novels where their core emphasis is on trust and betrayal. Locked in escape rooms where you must solve puzzles to survive, can you depend on the kindness of strangers? Or stab them in the back before they do so to you?

Pros:

The Rabbit Hole - Despite the differences between the two games, and there are quite a few, something they both share in common is their trippy writing. The games are meant to be played multiple times, as they have various branching storylines, each of which helps to further explain plots within the game, uncover mysteries and motives of the characters who are with you.

The Unusual Suspects - Speaking of characters, these games also do a great job of unraveling these mysterious people over the course of the gameplay. 999 in particular did a great job in this, as several of the characters I didn't like in the beginning I ended up liking more as the game progressed, while others did a complete 180 by the games final credits. In a good way.

Puzzles - The gameplay is your standard locked room puzzle fair. The kind of gameplay you would expect to see in games like Myst, The Room or many other point and click games of their ilk. It's your usual - Find key for the box/Open the box to find a red thingy/Put the red thingy in the red thingy hole - you know. In 999 they are not too taxing, in VLR the puzzles can be a little bit trickier, and if you are doing hard mode expect to be caught out a couple of times.

Cons:

The Art Style - Most of my cons, and there are not many of them, mainly come from the second game. Personally I think the art style of the first game (999) holds up better than the second (VLR) as in the original they use animated sprites for the characters, whereas in the second they use 3D rendered characters, which look like something I'd see back in Playstation 2 era. It's a small gripe I have, I'm not sure why the developers chose to go in that direction. But it's nothing major, anyway.

Transitioning - This wasn't a problem in the first game but in the second one expect to see a map with a blinking dot and slowly opening doors MANY, MANY TIMES.

All-in-all a good series that I had found after looking for something to scratch my Danganronpa itch, which this had done and then some. I look forward to playing the third installment.

Score: 8/10

Another enjoyable romp into this twisted series where murder is the core curriculum.

PROS:

+ The writing in this game is so good. One moment in particular I found to be one of the biggest twists in gaming I have ever seen! I had to vote it as "THE DEFIES DESCRIPTION" award on Steam, because seriously, that chapter!

+ The cast of characters are great. I generally find in the previous games there are quite a few people that I didn't like or care for, but in this one I found them all pretty likeable in their own weird ways. A certain character in particular is a real troll who likes to mess with people, can't help but hate him, but also love him for it.

CONS:
- One or two of the chapters are a bit predictable.
- No, I don't want to do another taxi minigame!

MEH:
The ending is a real Marmite, love it or hate it kind of thing. I personally didn't mind it but it is laid on a little thick. Curious what will happen if/when there is another game.

Having to wait a whole month to play the full game fills me with despair, but this demo gives me hope.

Score: 6.5/10
Time to 100%: 20 hours

One just for the fans.

PROS:

Story - Amongst the Danganronpa series this game has easily the darkest of the storylines, for reasons such as torture, betrayal, murder, sexual abuse and all for the most part involving children no less. It is a pleasure (or displeasure?) to play thorugh if only to see how things turn out for the characters involved and its the primary reason to play through this game.

Characters- The characters in the game - specifically the bad guys - are fascinating individuals in their own right. They're full of different neurosis and demented backgrounds. Their history is unravlled through their breakdowns and from books scattered throughout the game shedding some light on why they are just so f'ed up. There's also the appearance of a very special someone.

CONS:

Gameplay- It's pretty basic third-person shooter fare with substandard level designs with poor looking graphics. Although in all fairness, this is a port of a PS Vita game so just bare that in mind. It's also extremely easy as most enemies in the game will die in one shot if you hit them in the right place, even on the hardest difficulty.

Other Characters - So in the pros I had mentioned that the BAD guys are the interesting characters. That's because for the most part the good guys, namely the two main characters are not interesting AT ALL. Let's start with Toko. I never liked her in the first game and I still don't like her now. She's whiny, neurotic, annoying and insulting pretty much all the time and while they try to give her some kind of character development it falls far too short as she's still just as irritating as she's always been. Then there's the main character who is so bland and boring that they constantly make jokes about this fact again and again. We get it, you're normal and boring, okay great.

So in conclusion, play this for the great story and certain characters if you're a fan of the series. As it is worthy of a playthrough and fills in some of the gaps between the first and the second game. And need a fix before Danganronpa 3 comes out!