#ps4
#ps4
by Don (@opobjectives)
The Yakuza games are well known for being part neighborhood simulator, part highly dramatic hypermasculine gangster fantasy. On occasion, that mix includes an oddly thorough representation of meeting strangers, playing darts, and getting drunk.
Just about every entry in the series offers a few bars with dart boards, with bar staff offering a small variety of minigames like 501, Cricket, or Count-Up. If you play a few rounds, then side characters start to crawl out of the woodwork to offer some competition. That’s par for the course across the series.
Only in Yakuza 0, however, does that competition lowball their skills, liquor up protagonist Kazuma Kiryu, and hustle millions of yen out of him.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
Jupiter & Mars reads like a cautionary tale, not only about the environmental damage the story concerns itself with, but about the considerations we need to give when telling stories within games. Jupiter & Mars often talks over itself. In blunt terms, it’s too much of a videogame for its own good. Its clumsy use of game mechanics and tropes distracts from its environments and iconography, dulling the tools for visual storytelling it comes prepared with.
Jupiter & Mars has a strong central premise. The story of two dolphins making their way through the ruins of humanity, rescuing sealife from the damage inflicted upon the sea. Seeing images of our everyday lives submerged underwater comes preloaded with pathos, and provides a refreshing change from our usual modern apocalypses, which often oscillate between arid deserts and overgrowth.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
Up until its ending, I was never sure where Falcon Age was going. From the colonialist labor camp it opens on, until the final moments where you’re asked to choose between two paths, I never understood where my place in Falcon Age was. Its anti-colonialist message rings clear, and while it’s refreshing to see such a clear political stance, it never digs meaningfully into the effects or consequences, or finds a way to explore them within its framework.
Let me be clear here–its explicit enumeration of the crimes of colonialism and rejection of the colonial ideology is admirable and something I’d like to see other developers follow–my problems with Falcon Age are where it goes with ideas, which never achieve anything as coherent as its stated message. It aims to tell a story of bond between a falcon trainer and her falcon, resistance and its toll, and keeping your culture alive against a force that attempts to erase it, but it constantly distracts from its message through the act of play.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
When I originally reviewed The Caligula Effect for the Vita I found it to be a dire RPG, with a half-baked story and combat that was held back by its abysmal technical performance. I questioned the merit of returning to it for a PS4 remake. Still, I was curious if any of the original game could be salvaged. So once again I found myself, like the game’s protagonists, stuck in an endless loop of high school life.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
Ghoulboy doesn’t quite capture the retro feeling that it goes for. Ghoulboy fits comfortably along games like Poppyworks’ Super Skull Smash and Halloween Forever, which look the part in screenshots, but aren’t quite there when you get your hands on them. The movement is all slightly off, the feedback isn’t there, and some of the stage designs get finicky. Regardless, it ends up being decent fun in its own right, even if it mostly reminds me of games it can’t live up to.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
What if a puzzle game removed the cursor and replaced it with a character? That’s Treasure Stack’s big gimmick, turning an otherwise regular competitive puzzle game into a platformer hybrid. The order which you stack blocks not only sets up chains to attack and defend, but creates a space you need to be able to physically traverse to engage with. It’s a solid concept, only rarely explored in other games like Super Puzzle Platformer or Mr. Blocko Super Tournament Edition.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
“Earthbound meets Zelda”. It’s really difficult to describe Reverie in any other way. You can dance around it, play up its New Zealand mythology, or use a phrase like “quirky top down action-adventure game” but the influences are worn very openly. Often imitated, but rarely replicated, invoking them means living up to a lot of people’s high expectations. So does Reverie clear the high bar it sets?
Maybe. Sorta?
by Amr (@siegarettes)
I love Wargroove. At least, when it isn’t seriously pissing me off. When it’s in the groove, it sets up wonderful capsule strategy scenarios. Each of these make me consider the terrain, the set of units I’m restricted to and forces me to experiment and make hard choices to overcome the enemy. The wonderful animations and lovingly rendered maps enhance every victory and mistake, making me hold my breath as I hope that I’ve made the right move.
All of this helps Wargroove perfectly capture the appeal of the old Advance Wars style strategy games. It’s a refreshing return whose capsule battles generally feel more accessible to people who aren’t strategy mavens. And yet, it isn’t the rousing success it should be, thanks to some BIG problems that soured any high points.
