Forums > Contributor Zone > RotW // 11th - 17th JAN //

THIRD - Final Fantasy IV: The Complete Collection [PSP] CptRetroBlue

This is a very brief review that threatens to be more of a features list than an actual discussion of the game’s worth, but your final paragraph does go some way towards fixing this. I think this will be most useful to people who have played FFIV, but not the rest of what’s on offer, which makes it viable for a fraction of the potential audience.

SECOND - God of War II [PS2] Rob

Oh Robert, look at the state of your screenshots. They’re all in different sizes. Have you no shame?

I’ll fix that for you later. What I can’t fix is the awkwardness of your opening line. “I’ve never rated this series, and I don’t understand why you lot do”, he says. Then follow with “I only recently played GoW2, and now my opinion has changed”. It seems like an odd opening gambit to go with. You didn’t rate a series you’d not played at least one of the games of, and now that you’ve played perhaps the most critically acclaimed of the original trilogy, you’ve changed your mind? It isn’t the most stable platform you’ve built for yourself.

I think the review shines most when you’re making clever comparisons between 1 and 2. Like how 1 was either all brawler or all puzzle, while 2 does a better job combining the two. Or how the original is very light on boss fights, while the second is littered with them. The last handful of paragraphs seema little aimless at points, but they still score points at me after the low blow effort aimed at quick time events. Urgh; awful things.

FIRST - Yoshi's Crafted World [SWH] jjmccullough

I enjoyed the evolution of Yoshi discussion, briefly tracking his progress from the year’s new power-up gimmick to a protagonist of his own standing and how his spin-off games have developed a character of their own. I found the review tends to get a little listy when you’re squishing gameplay and control discussion into a small paragraph, but mainly only for want of something to complain about. I like that this review not only talks about the game itself, but the surrounding series to establish context. Many would struggle to do this outside of a considerably longer review, so it’s impressive you’ve housed it in so few words.

For us. For them. For you.

Thanks for the comments and all. I wasn't overly sure about this one due to minor things like beating the game in mid-December, but not having much writing time during the whole holiday season, making it a bit tricky to write at times due to having to remember month-old experiences. And, as my writing shows, I'm a bit conflicted about the series where, to me, the games are fun and have great production values, but aren't the "all-time classics" that the general consensus seems to say they are. As far as QTE go, I can understand why they're used and, if used in small doses or only at particular times, I don't overly mind them. But GoW goes full-on overkill with them. I nearly snapped during the final boss fight with how it ends with 5-6 QTE button-presses with any mistake being an instant death. I'm guessing the first of those QTEs is based on how good you tapped the button during the initial shock attack before Kratos does the "I surrender...or not" stuff, as it seemed like if I didn't go all out during that, it was basically impossible to pull it off -- I'd tap the button quickly and still watch Zeus impale him. And in the first stage of the fight with two of the Fates, you finish the battle by grappling, swinging over towards her and hitting A. All well and good, but when she was stunned, she tended to drift away from the grapple points. Took me like 3-4 tries to actually pull off that move because of that. Damn, just have a fight and win it and save that suff for post-fight cinema...don't make me win a fight and then play "tap the buttons" to actually win it.

Now, in my defense, I just used the pics available for the screenshots -- not my fault they were sized all weird and inconsistently!

Might work on re-working the intro, as what you got from it wasn't exactly the same as I was going for. After playing the first game, I thought it was good, but not super-great like most people seemed to think. After playing this one, I still am not on board with the "super-great", but I can at least understand it better due to how the superior integration of fighting and puzzle-ing made it a more consistently fun experience. But I'm guessing that didn't come out quite like I planned. I just struggled to get this one started. I've noticed this series just hasn't inspired "A+" efforts from me, which is bad since due to PS Now, I at least have the option to play like 4 other games in it. Going from what you said, the body is solid, but the intro and conclusion had issues and that's a sure sign that I had trouble with this one.

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

I have supplied new screens. Go use them.

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