Forums > Contributor Zone > Review of the Week 6/25 - 7/1: Battle of the RPGs (and one game that isn't an RPG, geez pickhut)

What fresh insanity have I gotten myself into? Well, I've decided to take on nine reviews at once (this is not including my upcoming review for Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves). With plenty of RoG stock to revamp and games I've recently completed, I've got a lot of work ahead of me: 720 Degrees (NES), Avencast: Rise of the Mage (PC), Beyond Oasis (Genesis), Breath of Fire II (SNES), Cthulhu Saves the World (Xbox 360), Legasista (PS3), Oniken (PC) and Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time (Vita). Meanwhile, I've begun playing both Anima: Gate of Memories and Darksiders: Warmastered Edition. I'm not terribly impressed with either, though I will say Gate of Memories is more entertaining than its Metroidvania-esque predecessor, Anima: Ark of Sinners.


Anyway:

Peter Butter wrote a review for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. I appreciate a good, funny opening line, because it's supposed to hook you into reading the rest. Mission accomplished.

I played this rotten game ages ago, and forced myself through it with a Game Genie. I'm glad you brought up the addition of monsters that had nothing to do with Robin Hood at any point in history (still not as funny as the Italian Hercules movies, where Lou Ferrigno battles a giant robotic bee and an animated fire monster). I think what I like most about this review is how you make this game sound hilariously inept. "Immediately, it's obvious the game does not understand perspective." and your parenthetic comments in the next paragraph are great. This is a pretty straightforward and informative write up, but the subtle bits keep it interesting.

Overdrive wrote about Asdivine Dios, a mobile RPG published by Kemco. One of the review types I struggle with is the "good but not great RPG." How do you tell someone that a standard RPG is better than average when it features mostly average content? In this review, you accomplish that by drawing comparisons to other Kemco material without falling into the "this game is good because it's not this other game" trap. However, the story portion of the review almost leads me to believe it's not that great of a title. Then again, I had to rewind and remind myself that you did crank countless hours into this game, so obviously its cringey story can be ignored to an extent. Ultimately, a good, well structured review.


Pickhut takes third place with No More Heroes. I like how this review starts with really basic information about the game and just balloons from there. Your first paragraph makes it sound modest. The next reveals some ridiculousness that could be grating or eye roll-worthy, then it all begins to expand as you talk the game's irksome and unnecessary open world. I can feel your irritation throughout the review, mostly through some of your nuances and style. My only tiny complaint is not really an inherent problem, since we all do it: a lot of negatives, then a section at the end for positives (for other reviews, it's vice versa). We all lean on this formula because it works and keeps the flow focused on our thesis, but if I really have to nitpick something, it would be that. It's not a huge issue in this write up, though.

Overdrive cheated and submitted two reviews this week, and that's how he got second place with Mother 3. As Jesse Ventura says, "Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat." You avoided one of the downfalls I feared could happen. Thankfully, you didn't jab Mother 3 too hard for not being Mother 2. That's good. This review had me hooked from the start and kept me reading. You talked about what made it a good RPG and what didn't work, and your description of the story was perfect. It dished enough details to tell me what it was about, but didn't spoil anything outside of the preliminary events. Its tricky to pull of a good RPG review, but this one succeeds because it's engaging and efficient.

But our Review of the Week comes from Freeman, and it involves the indie game Hyper Light Drifter. By the way, you better hide that food metaphor before EmP sees it.

But this:

"...video games as a medium are better suited to storytelling by image than storytelling by text..."

Yes! One game that really taught me that point was Closure. It doesn't have many cutscenes, but its narrative is composed of background images that take nothing away from the gameplay. I digress... Word choice is one of the strongest here. While this review doesn't carry as much of a casual tone, it's very pleasant to read and well thought-out. It flows beautifully and it's well organized. You also provide excellent and detailed examples to support your claims. Best of all, you did some homework and incorporated that into your review. I never knew Hyper Light Drifter was inspired by Preston's health issues, but it makes sense.

---

That's all I got.

The only thing my milkshake brings to the yard is a subpoena.

Thanks for the placement and kind words about both of my reviews! I mean, I'd have rather gotten first, but that review by Freeman was really good; possibly the best of his that I've read. Yet another interesting game that he's written about really well, making me a bit depressed that I have too large a backlog to pick up new games at will. I mean, I could...but that'd go against my goal of finishing a good bit of what I do currently have.

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

Geez!

I understand the nitpick; it's a common thing to do at the end of a review, and it also annoys me at times... yet I still use it! Thanks for the third placement, glad you understood where I was coming at with the open world aspect. If you're not going to do anything worthwhile with your open world, then don't make one! It'll also save you a lot of time and money.

Congrats to Freeman for nabbing another RotW! Good job.

I head spaceshit noises.

Good on you for getting this topic out so fast, Joe. Not like you at all! Also, congrats to Freeman, for his continued dominance.

I wanted to ask for clarification on your nitPick (ha). The formula you described... isn't that just a logical way to write a review?

You know, so: "This game is crap crap crap crap crap. But at least this one thing about it is good." Or, "This game is sweet sweet sweet. It just has this one little weakness, but otherwise it's so SWEET."

It seems like the way people would like to read things, no?

I don't have to prove I'm refined - that's what makes me refined!

Uh oh, are we having an RPG Review Battle Royale? I'll just wait in the -- wait, did I win? Oh. Yay!

Thank you for the sentiments, everyone, and I enjoyed your reviews, as well! I'll try to keep making reviews on a weekly basis, but I've been busy with this: https://letterboxd.com/Follow_Freeman/

also i'm going to do my best to shoehorn in as many food analogies as i can when EmP can't do anything about it

Reminder to Freeman! Since you got RotW, you can claim a game listed here within 3 days, if you haven't yet.

I head spaceshit noises.

Whoa, I'm glad you mentioned that, Pickhut! I guess I'll go grab Tombstone since a pick-up-and-play puzzle game will fit nicely into my schedule now that I'm making movie reviews, too. I'll mosey on over to that thread; thank you!

Good work, gang. Fine reviews, all.

For us. For them. For you.