Recent reviews by ParasiteEve

Incredible presentation. Needs several minutes to get the hang of it at the beginning, but once you're onboard it's very fun and immersive gameplay! Fine characters as well (I love many of them) and their voice dubbing. Offers various options to approach missions tactically, and it's just so enjoyable to do so. Didn't realize several hours went past in a blink of an eye! Dangerously addicting.

Normal mode is very fun, moderately challenging, and is rather hard but won't be too hard for the Casuals. But there is Hardcore mode and plenty of daring achievements for replayability if you'd like to pursue perfect scores in every map. Overall, very very good game, I'd recommend to everyone, especially those who likes stealth and tactical!

GRAPHICS
Despite Life is Strange is not actually the type of game which needs a top notch graphical level, it doesn't sway the developer's intention from delivering a gorgeous one, still. The way they set the tone of its graphic style and environment is spot on, that it did came out as a quite beautifully immersive experience for the players. As you can enjoy the atmosphere of being a student at the Blackwell Academy, as well as a humble Arcadia Bay's citizen.

One of the downside though, probably some people will find it a bit disappointing that they didn't show the detailed resolution of the Art illustrations which are part of the clickable objects in the game (e.g. Jefferson's photography, some drawings, etc), when we actually curious about how much quality does these so-called respected Art hold its values. But then again, they're not actually obligated to do so (because it's just for illustrations). Nor did players need to do something with Art values in this game too, though. But still..
// Rating: 1.9/2.5 (Very Good)

CHARACTERS
Surprisingly, DONTNOD also designed the characters very neatly. I wasn't expecting that when I start this game, but the characters here does moves quite realistically. With impressive depiction of each of their emotional expressions, making them feels alive, but still doesn't look overacting at the same time. It's rather fantastic to be honest.

And the variety of characters you'll see in the game, with each of their own traits and situations makes it further more immersive for players to get drown into the life of Arcadia Bay. Not only the teachers, school headmaster, a bunch of fellow students. But you'll also get to interact with even a cleaning service, security guard, cops, waitress, fisher, some random guy, truckers, pedestrians.. even birds.. doe, rabbit, etc.

And here the protagonist, Maxine Caulfield, is definitely a likeable one. A cute and cool young girl excelling in Photography, who starts to try to understand the surroundings of her life better. With an unexpectedly funky BFF, Chloe Price, both will accompany you to a roller-coaster of the light and dark side of schoolgirl journey in a seemingly peaceful countryside, yet proved to be not so calm at all as how it looks like from the outside.
// Rating: 2.1/2.5 (Extraordinary)

GAMEPLAY
The game mechanic itself is quite easy yet intriguing. Where basically you follows on what circumstances does occur in front of Max, and then choose how to engage with objects, conversations, or incidents in the game. You need to choose wisely though, because many things you did in the game will affects the past and future, and may have some consequences that you might find it rather unexpected in the future.

But not too worry though, as Max has the ability to revert back time in front of her, briefly to some nearest checkpoints a several seconds behind. And then a notification will appear either on top-left or bottom left of your screen when it needed, telling you if you have a chance to change something, with the knowing of the information you've just experienced from the brief future, so that you can outwit your situations. Still, with that said, most of the time you will won't know of what kind of consequences that might come in the long run. And sometimes, the indecision and hesitancy to choose what you think is best, and be mentally prepared to accept for the unknown on the next day, is the actual art of playing this game itself.
// Rating: 2.1/2.5 (Extraordinary)

PRESENTATION
Design-wise, the game is definitely a very neat one. The menus and interactive buttons are pretty much well-put. It's on point, easy to understand and navigate. Just within the next minute or two upon starting the Chapter, I'm sure most people will have already grasped on how the gameplay works, and starts enjoying the rhythm of the show.

One of the notable part is that the Voice Over done in this game is super well directed (again, without being hyperbolic nor overacting at it). You can feel the characters of each persons. Their voice intonations, their emotional feels, etc. Also, there is no missing voice in every line of the dialogues too (which is probably some thousands of lines in these whole 5 episodes), and there is always Max's monologue on every object/things she touches or interact to (which the number is also immeasurable).

Clues are spread through the area of play (mostly included in clickable items/objects). While the placements and design of the items themselves looks on point, that everything just felt belonged in there naturally.

The story itself is pretty well written. Plenty of plot twists and mystery here and there as you walked through the daily life of Max Caulfield, but still without too much pressurizing on the player. You'll feel curiosity, responsibility, puzzlement, etc, but mostly you'll have the time to make it and react as you see fit.

The music is decent too. Though there's not always a music in many occasions (sometimes silence is also the design of the levels). Probably to make players feel more focused at some point.

Mostly I finished one episode in about 3 or 3.5 hours.

Other than that, the game performance is very stable. It works perfectly fine in my Windows 10 with Intel CPU and Nvidia card. No problems I see when it's played several hours straight.
// Rating: 2.1/2.5 (Extraordinary)

FINAL VERDICT: 8.2 (Great)

GRAPHICS
Beautiful graphics as how FF franchise has always been unique and iconic in conveying their world and environment. Especially the cutscenes here are just so amazing to watch. Even though it still uses DX9 (hence no need for a high-end Rig to play this game) but the quality and atmospheric scenes that Square Enix puts into this is just completely a whole different level at that time. Even in 2018 it still proves that the beauty of FFXIII doesn't pale in comparison against most of today's AAA titles out there.
// Rating: 2.5/2.5 (Legendary)

CHARACTERS
Three of the main female protagonist (Lightning, Vanille, and Serrah) are incarnation of a pure beauty. Lightning is super cool in every action she does, while the other two are just so much adorable. IMO They are the main selling point of this XIII Series tbh. Not to mention the male characters are looking great too, though. Well, what do you expect from such a gifted designer like Tetsuya Nomura ? Masterpieces. Though the only concern here is probably the rather lack of depths on their dialogues, where sometimes it feels bland or rather cringey.
// Rating: 2.2/2.5 (Incredible)

GAMEPLAY
Now this is probably where it starts going downhill. Don't get me wrong though, as I'm still amazed by how SE managed to delivers such simplistic yet rather-rich mechanism of their Turn-Based battle system. It doesn't look as static as most turned-based game out there. Plus, the auto-command makes it easy to execute and bring enough flows to the fights. Add that with an interesting 'team focus' where you can set roles to each of your team members (called 'Paradigm') depending on the situations of the battle. And the feature to summon beasts (Eidolons) which is pretty cool. Rounded up a pretty much well-designed experience of a Turn-Based battle system.

But as I said before, that there is indeed some aspects here and there which kinda hindering the enjoyment of playing FFXIII itself. For example, the placement of the enemy spots in the pathway actually makes the game felt slow-paced. While the Turn-Based system itself doesn't feel slow-paced, but the way that players had to face one enemy party after another enemy party just within a few meters is practically ridiculous. Why ? Because, despite non-bosses enemies are generally easy to wipe, but it still requires the game to get into the battle mode, just for the sake of clearing a mere 2 to 3 weakling monsters. Now when you've played several battles consecutively in the same map, you'll understand its boredom and repetitiveness. It's a waste of time. Why not just put some of the enemy party in one place altogether, so it will provide some challenge. Or at least reduce the number of the times player needs to engage weaklings in the pathways. The amount of repetitiveness makes the game feels bland at some point unfortunately. This makes most battles looks less valuable and instead felt like a chore.

Also, be advised that all the cutscenes you'll see in the game is completely unskippable. This is a real problem when you face a boss right after a cutscene. Yes, if you died, you'll have to rewatch the same cutscene all over again. I was lucky at some point that I died 'only' three times against one of the early boss. Only. Whereas watching a 4-minute cutscene for three times 'only' cost me 12 minutes. Hell, what if you died like 7 times.. or 10 times, or maybe even 15 times..? that could be a disaster, surely.
// Rating: 1.7/2.5 (Decent)

PRESENTATION
With all those stuffs being thrown together into the game, I'd say Square Enix still managed to compose the layout of the Menus and Action Phase quite decently. It's not too fancy nor hard to learn either. By the time you get into the 2nd Chapter I'm pretty sure most people will already know what to do or where to change what. Any other elements in the game (like Eidolons or Paradigm) can be mastered while proceeding deeper into the storyline.

Controls and FPS aren't bad either. Though this is just a 'port' version from the PS3 but it's still running well very smooth even in an average PC (both on Cutscene and Action Phase).

The only downside here is probably how the Story is presented itself. From the start of the game, if you only watches the Cutscenes, you will not get a proper explanation of what was going on, and why the characters are doing what they did. I go to the 'Event' screen on the Pause Menu occasionally (as it's always updating itself following your Chapter progression) to read up on the explanation of what was what. Though the articles are somewhat repetitive and often mentioning the same thing over and over again, but it did help you understand the story much better (also about the exotic names like Fal'Cie, L'Cie, Pulse, etc). Once I grasp the outline of the stories, I halted from reading the article updates until further if I feel the need to read it again.

So far I played it's still a breeze. No crashes, no lags whatsoever on my Windows 10 with Intel CPU and a Nvidia card.

Other than that, the Music is pretty much awesome and immersive, SFX is also very good. The Story is intriguing too. What else ?
// Rating: 1.9/2.5 (Very Good)

FINAL VERDICT: 8.3 (Great)

I recommend this game only for E-sport entertainment purpose. Not for daily online casual MOBA-ing.

MULTIPLAYER:
This game is too stressful for casual players, even for the hardcore ones if you're temperamental, or you just don't have the patience / good mentality to survive the adversity in almost each game of Dota (you need to know this yourself). Mainly due to high-ceiling of technical skills and endless learning of the gameplay mechanics (yes, endless. It's evolving from time to time). Hence you need to learn, at least the outline of a newest patch (and every upcoming patches), to even stay on your current league (Medal), otherwise you'll get behind. And possibly be bullied, not only by enemies but also by your own teammates.

Public games (online) are so unforgiving for any mistakes you made in the play. Not only because the people here are toxic (though Valve tries to remove these type of players recently), but understandably, any mistake you do in Dota DOES have a risk to cost you a game (meaning the enemy will take advantage of your 'small' faults, and then by next two minutes it's maybe GG). So it's normal to see the losing side bashing each other at the End Result screen.

PRO-SCENE (E-SPORT):
But in the professional scene, it is a whole different story.

They are a crowd of high-skilled, high-patience, positive mentality peoples you can see from top Dota Leaderboards. Getting paid by sponsors and tournament prizes, to showcase some incredible chain of beautiful gameplay, teamwork and tricks. They fight for pride and honor, in a competitive official matches, between teams from around the world. So it is super fun to watch Dota on stream (Twitch / any Broadcasts), coupled with good Production quality and Commentators / Analysts. You can enjoy your Pizza and Tea while watching tournament days. Even better (and more complex) than watching European Football (though I still watch football).

RATINGS:

Audience:
[ ] Kids
[ ] Everyone
[ ] Casual
[v] Hardcore

Graphics:
[ ] Potato
[ ] Ancient
[ ] Meh
[ ] Decent
[v] Good
[ ] Beautiful
[ ] State of the Art

Price/Value:
[ ] Full Price
[ ] Wait for Sale
[ ] Refund if You Can
[ ] Don't Buy It
[v] Free to Play

PC Range:
[ ] 90's PC
[ ] Wooden PC
[v] Net-Cafe PC
[v] Mainstream
[v] Gaming PC
[ ] High-End
[ ] NASA PC

Difficulty:
[ ] You just need to be healthy
[ ] Easy to Learn
[ ] Casual / Arcade
[v] Will test your skills
[v] Hard to Master
[v] Insanity

Duration (hours):
[ ] Short (1-3)
[ ] Half-Day (4-7)
[ ] Few Days (8-14)
[ ] Long (15+)
[ ] RPG / Sandbox (30+)
[v] Endless

Story:
[v] It Doesn't Have
[ ] Mediocre
[ ] Still Better than Twilight
[ ] Good
[ ] Fantastic

Replayability:
[ ] Boring
[ ] Good for pass time
[ ] Just finish the game once
[ ] I can replay a couple more times
[v] Addicting

Game Modes:
[ ] Single-Player Campaign
[v] Multiplayer
[v] versus A.I.
[v] Custom Games
[v] Occasional Events

Overall Rating:
8 / 10

RECOMMENDATION:
Scenario 1: Install, accept whatever Medal you're calibrated into (after 100+ matches), forget pursuing higher Medal if you're not too ambitious type of a player. Enjoy watching and following the E-sport scene as if you enjoy Premier League or NBA. No worries, 75% of Dota players worldwide actually fits into this category.

Scenario 2: Install, accept whatever Medal you're calibrated into (after 100+ matches), grind your way up to higher Medals (or even to top 1000 of Regional boards) if you know you have what it takes (and the mentality). Watch official matches, watch pro-players streams their Pub games, learn as much as you can especially about your role(s) and the hero(es) on your particular post. Goodluck.

Scenario 3: Are you a casual gamer ? And don't like MOBA or don't like watching E-sport too ? Don't install it. It's a waste of time.