Forums > Contributor Zone > Review of the Week May 18 - 24: "I live in the weak and wounded... Doc."

I know, I'm late. No excuses, but this has been a rough week, what with the hospital ramping up surgeries as my town reopens. I was also lead tech this week, which meant a lot of running around that let me so tired I fell asleep multiple times playing games on the couch.

I'm supposed to talking about gaming I've done now, right? There's plenty of that to go around...

Hard Reset
Playing the standard edition because I'm not spending more money on an enhanced edition when I haven't even touched the original. My verdict: it's okay so far. It's nice to play a modern frenetic shooter that isn't DOOM. No, I'm not reviewing this one. I think I'm on the fourth level right now. I can't remember, honestly.

Grandia HD
I picked up the Grandia HD Collection on Switch a few months ago, and I'm just now getting to it. I loved the first Grandia back in the day, and it's nice to play it with crisper visuals and Japanese voice acting. As for progress, I just met Java.

Mega Man X
Mike Suskie has been knocking out Mega Man games like crazy, having gone through something like 27 titles. I'm not going down that pathway again (I did it in 2011 or so), but I'll gladly replay the first X title and some of the Game Boy games.

Mega Man III (GB)
And of all the MM games to play, I pick one of the worst. This one wouldn't be so bad if it weren't both cheap and exhausting. It constantly nails you with enemies that fly in the from the right side of the screen, and always throws extremely wide pits your way. To make matters worse, the latter half of the campaign features a lot of really long, exhausting levels. The final stage sends you through two checkpoints before having you fight a mid-boss. From there, you have to slog your way to Wily, and if you die before getting there, you have to fight the mid-boss over again. Screw that.

Mega Man IV (GB)
A vast improvement over its predecessor. Its challenge factor is more balanced, and you only bump into a couple of cheap spots. I haven't played all the way through this one, though. I'm on the second wave of Robot Masters, with only Stone Man eliminated.

Swap Roles
A delisted, cheapo horror game on Steam that seems like it's trying to be a mix of Saw and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, except with lots of puzzles. You play a cop who's been caught by a killer, and now you have to solve puzzles to survive, not to mention get through a wonky stealth scene. The worst part of this game, though, is that it crashes often. Not at all recommended.

I hope to eventually add Dread X Collection and Swarm Universe to the list of played games. So now, what have you all been reviewing this week?


Mariner reviewed Trials of Mana, which was a terrific piece. I like that you acknowledged that you could have framed this as a mediocre game, but then proceeded to defend your enjoyment of the title very skillfully. While some people have called this game old hat, you dig it because it's old hat. I'm not much of a fan of the original, but this review has improved the chances that I'll pick this up at some point.

Pickhut took on Pixel Ripped 1995. At first I thought, "Didn't you already review this?" Then it dawned on me that this must be the sequel to that particular game. I liked the structure of this one, where you gave a rundown of the game before talking about where it breaks down. It sounds like the game tried really hard to appeal to nostalgia, while not accomplishing much else (sounds like my experiences with Evoland). The conclusion to this review is perfect as well, detailing two scenarios and trusting that the reader knows which game those respective examples belong to.

EmP wrote about Yi and the Thousand Moons, which sounds somewhat like the last game I reviewed, Qora. Mainly, it's the "walking in a straight line from one plot point to another" thing. Hey, we even both gave those games 2.5/5! Anyway, this review is very well balanced, which is required for an "average" score. I especially liked that you mention, pretty much out of nowhere, that it's a musical. It's like a plot twist in a piece of non-fiction writing.

I had a hard time ranking these because they're all damn good. Pickhut picks up third place, EmP takes second, and Mariner walks away with the crown.

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

I actually had a similar reaction to the game when I saw it in GameFAQs' PS4 Upcoming Releases list. I legitimately didn't know a sequel was coming out until a few days prior.

Thanks for the comments and placement. And good on Mariner for nabbing the RotW!

I head spaceshit noises.

I remember playing Grandia again a few years ago. Overall a great experience, with one minor issue. Apparently PS Grandia is one of the titles that has a bit of trouble running on a PS2. It worked good nearly all the time, but there were a couple specific monster encounters that, if combat was instigated against them, the game would crash. Not a specific kind of monster, but just a handful of random ones throughout the world. That was a big part of why I didn't do the third (and toughest) optional dungeon, as I got one of those in it and didn't want to try doing all that again.

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

Glad you liked the review! For what it's worth, while I never played SD3, I did play Secret of Mana and wasn't impressed with that one. I suppose if you weren't a fan of the original because of plot or characters, then you should steer clear; but based on my experience from Secret to Trials, the game plays entirely differently in the move to 3D so it's worth looking into if gameplay was your issue with the SNES game. Personally, the game that I was comparing it to in my head was Ys VIII, which I didn't care for because I thought it was too bloated. That's probably why I hammered in on the stripped down scope of the game as a positive.

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