Recent reviews by Busterkuri

Short, funny, spooky, and it's free!

Zestiria felt like the Tales of series was finally making some changes after a long series of riffs on Symphonia's formula. Jumping from that, Berseria is a new high for the series.

The story follows Velvet, turned into a therion against her will and given the power to consume demons with her hand. There's a definite edge-dark feeling to the early game that immediately feels unlike any other Tales game (that we've played, at least). Velvet is obsessed with revenge, and this vengeance is what spurs the plot forward, even as other details get discovered. The themes build on this with a continued look at sin and free will, and those who would suppress those feelings that make us human. The game acts as a prequel to Zestiria, but it's not required that you play that game. Berseria takes places long before Zestiria, to the point where continental drift has happened between the games. There's easter eggs for players who played that first, but it also feels like you could go from here to Zestiria and still have a great time. Love a duology built so that starting at either side creates an equal experience.

Like with Zestiria, the party is tight, as you're joined by 5 memorable characters. The writing throughout is great, funny skits balanced by the way it pulls at the heartstrings. Each character has their own individual goals, tying in with the feeling of free will, but these goals all come together against a common foe. In combat, they each fill one of three roles: melee-focused, magic-focused, and a mix of both. You're allowed to switch in party members on the fly and even given combat bonuses for doing so, encouraging you to use your whole team to create big combos. Outside of the party, the cast in general is great. It all feels very tight, keeping the supporting cast from spiraling out of control, but at the same time the continuing stories of random NPCs are always a delight to learn.

The combat in general builds on Zestiria's improvements and it's very fun and interesting. The TP system that game created is put here by souls. Each soul you have (starting out of 5) determines how many attacks you can do and thus how big your combo can get. Dodging enemies with precise timing gives you souls back. This creates a nice risk/reward system: if you're low on souls, it's actually better to let the enemies attack you to get more. In addition, each character has a Break Soul ability, which costs one of your souls and gives an enemy one more. Playing on Normal, some of the intricacies of this system were lost on us, but it's clear there's a lot there. If you like a challenge, the game has a whole pile of difficulty settings, and the difficulty you play on affects things like the kind of equipment you find. Play on a harder difficulty, get better equipment, another great use of risk/reward.

The flaws are minimal. The biggest one is that, like Zestiria, the environs can often feel too big and too empty. Getting the Geoboard fixes part of that by letting you zoom through areas and run down low-level encounters, but it can't entirely take away some of the backtracking boredom that happens. There are also the Katz boxes, which you have to open by finding Katz souls. Even picking up each one you come across, it often feels like there aren't enough and that getting all of them requires farming for them which...just isn't fun and we didn't do it. It seems like an attempt to balance out the empty environs by filling them with shiny objects, but it instead feels like an extra chore and can make things feel a little visually ugly at times.

We've been a Tales fan for a long time, but this is maybe the first time in a while where one of its entries hooked us like nothing else. For series fans, Berseria is a must-play, and for newbies, it's a great place to get on board. Just a fantastic work.

3/5 of these are S-tier games. Junktopia is good from time to time. Quixort...not a big fan.

After the previous licensed additions to the game (Squenix and Spongebob), this definitely feels like a step down. The jobs are generally pretty good, but it starts off on the wrong foot when the first one is Doc's Van, an unmemorable box van. This put us in a bad mood, and that followed up with learning that Doc Brown and Marty aren't even in this DLC. Instead, most of your time is spent getting texted by Alex the Intern.

And that's when you learn that you're not washing for the characters in-universe. Instead, you're powerwashing during the production of the movie. If the premium DLC is going to be these big licenses, then we're really paying for the license, so losing bonus license opportunities (licenstunities) like "having the characters talk to you" is a big minus. We don't entirely hate Alex -- the bit on the Courthouse is good -- but the bad taste of not even getting a message from Biff or Marty's girlfriend sucks. And most of the time, Alex's texts are just meandering nonsense. At least tell us a story, even if it's something dumb like "how Alex tried to pitch Jaws 19 to Spielberg"

Outside of Doc's van, the other 4 jobs are pretty good. The DeLorean is obviously the star of the show, but the Courthouse is a fun interior/exterior mix. The Movie Theater is an inspired choice, though maybe not the most exciting wash. The train is a lot of fun--loved the rainbow dirt at the start, made it look like 20x cooler--although you do hit a point in final clean-up where you're chasing a mix of train terminology and sci-fi jargon.

If you are happy with everything PowerWash and don't really care about Back to the Future, this has 4 solid washes. If you're here for Back to the Future, this is gonna let you down bad. idk if it's worth $8, but on sale, eh, it is more Powerwash.

Licensed Game Hole Rating:
1 for adaptation
4 for fun

Two great 2.5D platformers. Not much in the way of additions outside of an Easy Mode for both games, but should solidly satisfy newbies and those looking to revisit some classics.

The best Katamari game with 5 new challenges. The extra content maybe isn't super extensive but it's still the best Katamari game so y'know.

Great co-op action RPG. Cool variety of moves, funny script, perfect length.

Not just a great riff on Wario Land 4 but a great game in its own right. The hand-drawn, 90s Saturday Morning Cartoon aesthetic is a delight from the start and provides some laugh out loud moments. The gameplay really emphasizes being fast and precise, giving big awards to those who can make it through a whole level without ever slowing down. Each level has its own gimmicks. You never know what you're going to see next and how it's going to change the way you play the game. Well worth the wait

Loved it. Cried at the end. Feels maybe an hour too short, but maybe we were just bad at gathering information lmao. Badly needs a Log.

Just a cute and chill time