Recent reviews by swoky

"A Final Fantasy For Fans & First-Timers"

I waited to review until all dlc's were out and I can tell you that it's not my first final fantasy, but it's my favourite at the moment (waiting for FFVII Remake to change my mind).

Played it first on the Playstation 4 and I didn't expect to replay the entire game again on the PC, but I did.

PC ports tend to be bad, but this is not the case, quite the opposite in fact… it got a lot of options and support/love from Square Enix to push the game to its limits.

It’s a great game with a lot of good things, but it as its flaws:


• Noctis Friends - I really felt like I was the main character and more importantly that I wasn't alone in my journey. They felt like “real” people.

• Villain - Great personality, not your typical Final Fantasy boss.

• Graphics – I’m pretty sure that there isn’t an RPG with such graphics (download the 4K Resolution pack if your PC can handle).

• Combat - Great Combat that relies a lot on Noctis versatility in combat/skills and teamwork. It’s fun and easy to learn! (Spoiler Video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoDPeelENLo
• Sound - 10/10 OST (Somnus, Omnis Lacrima), later you can buy some original soundtracks in game from older final fantasy games to hear in the radio.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oiHFWarHVs
• Support - Square Enix support to the game after releasing (mod support, 4k resolution pack, benchmark, free demo, collaborations with other games, …).

• Ending / Post Game -A lot of side content / activities to do while finishing the game and/or post game.


• DLC - I have mixed feelings towards the paid dlc's, but I really like the type of storytelling, where specific events were told in afterwards and the dlc's were all good (Ignis > Prompto > Ardyn > Gladious).

• Story - Story could be so MUCH BETTER, if felt like half a story. Too much got cut out/fragmented, split across anime, a movie and the game + dlc’s.


• Canceled DLC - Aranea and Lunafreya dlc's cancelled (really ****** mad at this, you had 10 years to do this game).

• Hunts - I didn’t mind the hunts, but the fact that I had to travel back and forth to accept and complete the mission felt like a shore.

• Magic System - The magic crafting system was interesting but it felt weak and boring to use.

--

I would recommend watching the first anime and the movie before starting the game:

Anime
Final Fantasy XV Brotherhood[myanimelist.net]
5 Episodes
14m per episode

Movie
Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV[myanimelist.net]
1h50m

Anime (watch after playing the game)
Final Fantasy XV: Episode Ardyn - Prologue[myanimelist.net]
1 Episode
13m


Websites to download:
• https://mirror.animetosho.org/
• https://nyaa.si/


TL;DR: Felt like half a story, could have been better with all the “ingredients” they had, still it was an awesome experience and a great game nonetheless.

"The hardest battles are fought in the mind"

Hellblade (Wiki): "Inspired by Norse mythology and Celtic culture, Hellblade follows Senua’s, a Pict warrior who must make her way to Helheim by defeating otherworldly entities and facing their challenges, in order to rescue the soul of her dead lover from the goddess Hela."

Once in upon a time there's a game that will make me add the OST to my playlist, listen to the main theme all day, change my desktop wallpaper, search videos of players explaining and reacting to the ending and documentaries about the game... and I can happily say that this game is one of those.

Finished this game in 2-3 days and i can say that the reviews are correct... this game is "one of the kind". It’s a simple game gameplay wise but so in deep at the same time.

Illusion – Ending Song (Credits)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9hjH4FMi58

• Price - 30,00€ for a quality Indie + AAA game. It’s a 7-9 hour game but the experience that you get its more than worth it. I think it lasted exactly as long as it needed to. If that’s not enough for you, you can always refund after 2 hours.

• Graphics - Really good graphics and well optimized (Max settings with a 970 GTX, specs below). There’s is no HUD or hints telling what to do.

• Soundtrack - 10/10... The atmosphere of the game in some chapters is so well done and a big part of that is because of the sounds, voice and music used throughout the game to make you feel immersive and have a realistic experience.

• Character - Holy **** Senua’s character feels so authentic. Voice acting and motion capture were fantastic. The performance is one of the best I ever saw... some moments gave me goose bumps. Congratz Melina Juergens.

• Story - It’s a game that evokes the voices and visions experienced by people who live with psychosis and by many that may be considered taboo. Voices… they are a double edge sword... when they aren't there for brief moments, I legit felt alone. I had some moments where I was afraid of going further… the dark atmosphere, the voices in my head, the monster blocking my path I was legit scared. More people should play this game so they know how to approach a person with psychosis.

• Language - (20 available) (I used Portuguese subtitles because it’s my main language, but if I do another playthrough I will probably disable subtitles... so I can have a more realistic experience).

• Gameplay - Fighting sequences + atmosphere + SFX + OST = some of the best battles I ever had. Many people say the combat its simple and monsters are easy to read (it’s all true) but in a game like this I think it’s the best approach... I liked it.
Puzzles/Illusions... I’m not a big fan of puzzles but it didin’t feel like a shore in this game mainly because the puzzles are part of this mental illness.

• Lorestones – At first I was only doing this because of the achievement but after hearing Druth and his teachings of the Northmen I felt intrigued and anxious to hear the rest of the story of Nordic and Celtic mythology.



• Play the game in 2 or 3 days. Don’t stop playing for a long time or you will lose the emotional effect.

• Use "Auto" difficulty, it felt challenging for me.

• I HIGHLY recommend using headphones mainly because of the voices on Senua’s (your) head.

• Played with an Xbox One controller and recommend it.

• There’s no tutorial, most of the "hints" will be given by the voices in Senua’s head.

• There’s only 1 missable achievement, "Stories From the North" (get all lorestones). You can use this guide to get all the lorestones but to be honest I would only use that in your 2nd playthrough so you don’t break the immersion of looking ahead on time.

--
I highly encourage you to research this game after you finish. See documentaries, dev diary’s and psychosis to further see why they made this game, the difficulties they had and the result of all this. I will leave some links below, have fun.

Wellcome Trust[en.wikipedia.org] - Is the company that helped the team behind Hellblade to make an authentic representation of psychosis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42wG9WEl_9o&list=PLbpkF8TRYizaT6GfMcKBG-RoUOQ6BJRXp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEfUajzJv5U
Windows 10 | i5 4460 3.20GHz | 16GB RAM | MSI GeForce GTX 970

"Listen to my story. This.. may be our last chance."

Ohhh Zanarkand... this song was the reason for me to start playing this game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-0G_FI61a8
When Yuna falls through Tidus as he starts to fade, and says "I love you". ♥♥♥♥♥♥ onions.
That ending hit me like a truck and for me a game that makes you feel emotions it’s already a great game in my eyes.

If I played this game in the ps2 era I'm sure it would be one of my favourite games of all time.

"HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA" - FFX players will understand.


+ Great and well paced story with some twists
+ Really well done CGI Cutscenes
+ Lots of side content (Al bhed language, monster farm, blitzball, dark aeons, celestial weapons, chocobo race, …)
+ Awesome soundtrack
+ Graphical and gameplay wise it aged well for a 2001 game
+ Deep sphere grid system
+ Colourful cast of interesting characters (Favourites: Rikku and Auron)
+ Turn based battle and you can change characters mid battle
+ Aeons (Summonings)


- Random encounters
- Lackluster VO at times (looking at you Tidus and Seymour)
- Tidus clothes
- No skip during cutscenes
- Cloister of Trials (puzzles, puzzles and more puzzles)
- Blitzball (sport)

If you want to just enjoy the story and you like the combat, but you get bored at the random encounters I recommend using some “cheats” that are already built into the game that will ease your adventure through Spira. There’s nothing wrong if you just want to enjoy a typical final fantasy story.

F1 - Speed (normal, 2x, 4x)
F2 - Supercharged (heals HP, MP and overdrive at the start of everyturn)
F3 - Encounter rate (normal, frequent, none)
F4 - Auto-battle (everyone will use "attack" every turn)
F5 - Hide HUD

It’s strange to say this but in some aspects Final fantasy X it’s a better version of Final Fantasy XIII.

TL;DR: I'm gona be honest, there’s a lot of things I don’t like about this game, but if you can overcome those things and give a chance to a 2001 game you are in for a ride.

First Monster Hunter game.


+ Graphics are gorgeous (even on low). Cutscenes are well done.
+ 60fps, fast loading and probably mod support incoming.
+ The soundtrack is really good. 1 | 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFBXcl6FW6M
+ Finished the main story in 85h, but there’s still better and harder missions/bosses to do.
+ Each monster/boss that you fight feels like a new challenge.
+ Some armor sets are just beautiful and there’s so many to craft. Same for weapons.
+ 14 weapons to choose (I’m using longsword because it’s easy to learn).
+ Turf Wars are amazing. When 2 monsters meet each other do yourself a favour and don't attack for some time... you will see some really well done attack animations between each other.


- Multiplayer/Connection problems. Made me leave some missions because everyone would disconnect from the session and the monsters were scaled to fight vs 4 players and not 1 player (IT'S FIXED!).
- I never got this error but there’s some players that get a graphic card error playing the game "err12: Graphics card error".
- Didn’t happen to me but if you fight the last boss, you may lose ALL your progress... so backup your save before killing it just in case. (It looks like this problem is in fact because of missing codecs link).
- Chat system, dont know why npc dialogues apear in the chat.
- Can´t skip cutscenes.


I had to kill a Barroth in 50 minutes. When I found him, he was on a sand circle that was different from the rest of the area. I didn’t care much at the time, so I started attacking him.

Fast-forward 30 seconds, I hear a really loud scream coming from some pseudo ptero monsters that were close. Suddenly the sand starts to shake and me and Barroth fall down on a big hole into a completely new area bellow, that I never saw.

When I’m trying to get up I see a MASSIVE DRAGON WITH 2 BIG HORNS and suddenly there’s 2 monsters in front of me trying to kill me. I try to run behind a rock just to be killed by the dragon that can easily destroy the rock.
I wasnt even mad, i was really impressed by this random event.


- Fix the connections, graphical problems and bugs that some players have.
- Bring mod support.
- Bring the crossovers that you made for PS4 and new ones for PC players.
- New monsters or even a whole new map.

TL;DR:
Great game, if they fix the current problems is worth its 60€ price tag.
Still, I recommend buying and playing for 2 hours and then refund if you don’t like.

[Pod 153] Will the story make you feel a roller coaster of emotions?
[Pod 042] Yes

[Pod 153] Is the ost glorious?
[Pod 042] Yes

[Pod 153] Should I buy NieR:Automata™?
[Pod 042] Yes

[Pod 153] What do you think about 2B's butt?
[Pod 042] 10/10 would NieR again...

[Pod 153] What?
[Pod 042] What?


+ Glorious soundtrack [The Weight of the World]
+ Incredible and lovely in-game world
+ Great character development and design [2B,9S,A2]
+ English voices are worth trying
+ Smooth and beautiful graphics
+ Intriguing and weird [in a good way] story
+ Gameplay...the one and only [Platinum Games]
+ Multiple endings [A-Z]


Don't read or watch anything that could spoil you the game.
Save often, especially when something sounds fishy *wink*.
Don't let 2B's *** distract you from the main story.
Get some tissues, the game characters will lead you to a roller coaster of emotions about what makes us human...the good, the bad and the ugly.
The more you play, the more addicted you will get, it only gets better and better.
Final credits ≠ Ending of game.
Stop reading and buy the game already.

One of those games where you sit back and start thinking about what you just experienced.

To all NieR:Automata™ players: Thanks for the help at the end! Glory to Mankind!