Forums > Contributor Zone > RotW: Sept. 4-10 -- Seriously, Bravely Default's Tiz can go to hell.

So, because everyone hates me, people have been forgetting reviews or submitting them on their own week, meaning I have to try to remember that both EmP and Nightfire have something for me. I mean, I'VE NEVER DONE EITHER OF THESE THINGS!!! NEVER!!!!!

*ahem* Now that my chronic dishonesty has broken the Internet, let's get to this thing. Looks like EmP has 3-of-8 reviews with his holdover added in and looks like Hastypixels was also a busy writer, with two to his name. And then three other writers with one each. Nothing to be held over with my name on it, because I'm in this awkward position where I haven't finished anything in a while, but can see me finishing 3 games at about the same time, so I'll go from 1 review in about 2 months to throwing a bunch at people in short order.

Speaking of which, a brief rant: Shouldn't someone have told Square-Enix at some point that maybe it isn't such a good idea to have Bravely Default go on and on and on, never f-ing (look at me, using restraint with my language to not fully swear, but only mostly do so!) ending until long past the point in which I care. Should have gone from C4 to the endgame instead of adding four more chapters of pure filler. Over the past couple years, I've gone from loving JRPGs to hating any of them that take more than, say, 40 hours. After that point, there's too much padding for the sake of saying it's a long game with a lot to do. PROTIP: When your idea of "a lot to do" involves things like fetch quests, re-fighting every damn boss, repetitive and long-winded dialogue, etc., you suck.

PS: If I ever meet Tiz' voice actor, I'm punching that person in the throat. Tiz sucks and is the definition of a flat character who exists solely to tag-along with more interesting people (best example: the first boss fight at the beginning of Chapter END when all your party members are yelling at the boss about how it's hurt them and all he comes up with is that it hurt Agnes, one of the more interesting characters. Good job, loser. Now die.) and his whiny, plaintive voice makes me far angrier than anything like this should make a supposedly semi-well-balanced person. Should have just killed him off in the prologue and made, I don't know, maybe Alternis be the fourth member. At least the conversations between him and Ringabel would be interesting!

Oh, spoiler warning for the above, I guess. I might have let something slide. Whatever, I just don't care.

Okay, now to the reviews. I mean it!

THIRD PLACE

Zach Walton's Warriors All-Stars (PS4)

It was kind of tough picking a third-place review, as Venter's review and Hasty's one for Pip both had merit, as well. But this one won out, simply because I think you did a good job hitting on a big issue for when a company makes a multi-series fighting game -- how it can be tricky to create a crowd-pleaser because of the character quandary. And, as you mentioned, Tecmo could have done a lot better in that regard, with some character being relegated to support roles and others not even being mentioned. On the flip side, you also did a good job of explaining how the game was really fun to advance through with good maps to fight through and some enjoyable character interaction, giving hope that future tries at this will result in a more full overall experience character-wise.

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SECOND PLACE

EmP's HellDivers (PC)

This was a really entertaining review that dropped you into a particular session with this one and has you discussing its pros and cons while going through one day's experiences with it. Some parts were really hilarious, such as your experiences with the crappy (potentially griever troll) player and others were informative, such as the second paragraph, where you discussed the three races of opponents, in particular citing the bugs as providing crazy and chaotic fights. This might not be my sort of game, but you made it seem wildly entertaining. At least your review was, as you did a great job of inserting information about its mechanics into "Story Time With Uncle EmP: Three Guys Adventure With An Uncooperative Fourth Wheel".

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REVIEW OF THE WEEK (aka: Overdrive Place)

Nightfire's The Shrouded Isle (PC)

Huh, this seems to be the sort of game that'd be right up my alley if I didn't have an obscene backlog to get through. I have no qualms about being evil (or at least really rude) and I tend to be a fan of Lovecraftian fiction. Chernobog in this game seems to be a stand-in for Our Great Lord Cthulhu and this game seems to be pretty deep if, as you said, easy if you're alert and paying attention. What I think I liked best about this review and what brought it slightly above EmP's top submission was just how you kept adding new elements to it, so every time I thought I'd figured out just what it was about, you altered my view. Up to the point where you point out that, at heart, this is a detective game where you have to pay careful attention to details in order to make the proper sacrifice. While also engaging in resource management, as indicated by how you place certain people in positions of power to mollify them after you sacrificed their beloved daughter or whatever. A very strong review of a game that at least sounds really neat and surprisingly deep.
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And now, it's time to put on a fake smile and plug in Bravely Default again… Or just go out drinking. Yeah, the latter choice sounds way more appealing.

I'm not afraid to die because I am invincible
Viva la muerte, that's my goddamn principle

Congrats to the winners. I thought Nightfire's review was pretty sweet. Too bad he'll never see his recognition since he's too busy now.

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Thanks for the topic, Overdrive. Congrats to the winners, but also to those others who failed to crack the top 3, like me!

"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." - John F. Kennedy on reality

"What if everything you see is more than what you see--the person next to you is a warrior and the space that appears empty is a secret door to another world? What if something appears that shouldn't? You either dismiss it, or you accept that there is much more to the world than you think. Perhaps it really is a doorway, and if you choose to go inside, you'll find many unexpected things." - Shigeru Miyamoto on secret doors to another world2

Good old Helldivers. Even in misery, it remains a fun game.

Good work getting this up, and congrats to Nightfire on his win.

For us. For them. For you.

I like a near miss as much as the next guy, and I certainly consider it a complement to be put in the same class as our venerable host, Jason. The only way to polish one's skills is to keep abus...er, using them.

Look, the only time I'm not wrong is when I'm right, so...

Thank you for the win!

And sorry for the holdover. Won't happen again, obviously. :)

placid like acid