Recent reviews by jacobjoy

this game really gets it right. it gets it right in so many ways.

i have only played dark souls 1 and nioh but i am taking it on faith (with input from friends) that this is basically the core of bloodborne and sekiro with some twists, and a WONDERFULLY reimagined world of pinocchio.

there's lore in the item descriptions. everyone's depressed because of the puppet frenzy (like in ds1 with the dying of the age of fire), some people have gone crazy, and your only safe haven is Hotel Krat.

oh and did i mention the game is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ GORGEOUS?

this game is an instrument with which you make art.

you have a million colors and outfits with which to paint and adorn your character.

every area is a song to learn. the beats are the monsters, and every time you mess up, you learn the rhythm.

every boss is a dance, every misstep learning experience, until suddenly you're doing the tango and you have no ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ clue how you did it but you won and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that was so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ fun why didn't i do this twelve years ago?

This is absurdly good and deserves way more visibility.

I adore the art style, it reminds me of old Gennedy Tartakovsky cartoons from the early 2000s. The main character's expressiveness in splash screens is hilarious, as well as the ending screen you get when beating easy mode for the first time.

As has been mentioned before, this game is pretty hard, but you learn as you go. The reload mechanic is absolutely key to winning; multiple runs have ended and I knew it was because I'd missed a reload. Missing reloads is very painful.

I bought this on sale, but even at "full price" this game is an absolute STEAL.

this reminds me of Axiom Verge in the sense that it's more Metroid than Vania, and i really hope we start getting more games like this. no, there's no real combat to speak of, but my god... every single time i play this game i have several "♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that's SO COOL" moments. billy basso is a game design genius, truly.

i was, for a period of time, completely sick of roguelikes. many of them feel like a shortcut to get a game to craft itself rather than taking the time to make sure the edges are smoothed and fit together. so i avoided slay the spire because i just assumed it was another lackluster attempt.

my god i was wrong. and 6 bucks during the winter sale was an absolute steal. already gotten insane value and i've only cleared the game with 2 of the classes. i'll be coming back to this regularly until sts2 comes out.

This is absolutely phenomenal.

I grew up with this series, have played every version of DQ1-3 that exist (was *not* happy with the Switch versions...), and I'm happy to say we've finally reached an era where Remakes are (sometimes) no longer a cash-in. No, this game was rebuilt from the ground up and is now the definitive version of Dragon Quest 3. (Anyone complaining about "woke mobs" coming for pronouns... just ignore those reviews.)

The graphics are beyond gorgeous. There are so many ridiculous little details - light flowing through stained glass windows of a church onto the cobbles below, fireflies in the forests at night, dust motes in the light in towers, and the hero/ine carrying a tiny lantern in caves... there were real blood, sweat and tears put into this.

The music is quite good, although some of it sounds cribbed from the String Quartet album, not that I'm complaining. There were only so many songs on that album, and with Sugiyama sadly passed, it was probably for the best that they use what already existed.

There are so many QoL enhancements and alterations - hidden points of interest and items on the map (that are very much worth hunting down), a monster arena akin to DQ8's and I'm sure many other things I have yet to discover. I expected a nostalgic stroll through the world of DQ3, and now suddenly I feel like I'm in a completely different - yet familiar - experience.

The $60 price tag might be offputting to some for a game that is "older," but I promise you, if this is your first DQ experience, it'll be a good one.

This is one of those games that sticks with you. I won't be forgetting Elan, Thais, Orentius, Navica, or the old druid any time soon, and I'll definitely be visiting the North again soon. Buy this, it's worth your time.

This game is very short, but it's very, very good.

There is nothing about this game that isn't absolutely phenomenal. Puzzles don't hold your hand and feel satisfyingly difficult without being overly obtuse in their solutions, the look and sound of this game are just top notch (I love the perspectives you see outside the tower), and the way the language glyphs are morphologically marked is *sublime*.

This is as close to a perfect game as I've ever seen.

This game is gorgeous. The pixel remaster quality is fantastic, the upscaling is tasteful, and the music... the music is the reason to play these remasters. They absolutely knocked it out of the park. This is about as close to a definitive version of FF4 as you can get.

However, the one thing I find terribly lacking is the difficulty. The DS version is known for being quite difficult; I got walled on the moon and never finished it. PSP I would place a bit below DS; on battle speed 1, with no extra grinding, it took me over an hour to beat the Elemental Lords in the Giant of Babel.

In Pixel Remaster, I never lost a single fight on battle speed 1. The Elemental Lord re-fight killed a few people, but I was doing so much damage I just basically rolled over every boss and threw some Phoenix Downs in the meantime. If anyone at Square happens to read this, please please consider increasing the difficulty for FF5 and FF6. There's always the option of going to Battle Mode Wait or just turning down the battle speed. It would be nice to have a challenge available for those who want it.

But again, aside from that, this remaster is brilliant, and honestly the music alone makes it worth the price.