Recent reviews by jujubear

Persona 5 is a special JRPG. When I played Persona 4, I vaguely remember the game having some serious issues but found it charmingly unique in many ways. P5 kept the best aspects from P4 and improved on its worst. I would say the bigger improvements were the dungeons, music, and story.

One of the key themes explored in this game is the topic of mental health. The theme is key to a few of the characters' backstories. Although the normalization and thoughtful discussion of mental health is still relatively uncommon in games, I would say this game does it well. Throughout the game many other real-life issues are explored. You learn about societal issues, some of which are specific to Japan, such as the justice system, politics, and corruption. You also learn random fun facts from high school classes.

In this game you start off alone far from home. You encounter different characters facing personal struggles, who you help before recruiting them to join your team. Although I did not feel strongly about every character on an individual level, the characters as a group felt like they worked well together. The game really makes you feel like you are part of a team. Once I had a few people on my team I started to get really invested in the story. I wanted to see my team through to the end. It was one of my favorite aspects of the game.

I feel like the music really fit the games vibe/environment while also being very nice on the ears. I occasionally listen to the soundtrack, which is something I rarely ever do with games I play.

The dungeons are much better compared to the previous game, but I feel like they still have some room to improve for future titles. The dungeons have these little puzzles you would need solve to progress. These puzzles were not often difficult or interesting but are better than nothing. One of the improvements I liked would be the fact that most battles can be avoided. Avoiding battles also leads to more interesting boss fights.

I really enjoyed the special battles where the goal is to gain a certain amount of points (to unlock prizes) which are earned by doing damage to enemies in a specific way. In a way these battles were puzzles where you determine the best combination of party members and personas needed to solve it. And the solution wasn’t always solved using the most straight forward answer. The higher-level fights were a lot of fun.

Mementos was the worst part of the game for me. It resembles dungeons from the previous game. Which I didn’t care for. I get that there needed to be another area to explore for story and content purposes, I would be fine if this was removed from the game.

There was particularly difficult boss fight that I disliked. It's the only one with a timer. On top of that the strategy to progress to the final stage is very complex. While I did enjoy figuring out the strategy, replaying it many times solely due to time constraints was not very fun.

There is a lot I dislike about the Velvet room. I find merging personas and upgrading them overly intricate and potentially game-breaking when exploited. Typically, I would only go into the Velvet Room if I was really struggling in battles. Simplifying and rebalancing them would make it a much more enjoyable feature of the game.

I would recommend this game to most people who enjoy story driven games. Especially those interested in mental health. Or even those who just like feeling like they are part of a team.

ActRaiser is a unique blend of city-building and platform game. It is a remake of one of my favorite SNES games. The original had some of the best music of any game of that era. The core gameplay has been preserved in this new version, with the addition of new graphics and a few new features.

Although there are some improvements to the new game there is a clear lack of polish missing that the original had. The new music is not good and has a completely different feel. Luckily you have the option of using the old music. The platform game graphics don’t look aesthetically pleasing as the 30-year-old version.

On the platform side, the game has been made slightly easier. The level design was mostly kept the same. Instant death traps like spikes and pits were removed. The boss fights have been completely redone. And there are some interesting new spells added. Some of the old spells are less effective as well.

In contrast, the city-building portion has been made more challenging. You can’t just destroy all demon portals at the beginning of a new city. The biggest improvements to the game are the new characters and story elements. This was my favorite part of the new game. I actually enjoyed seeing the story play out and meeting the different characters. There are these new tower defense challenges that progress the story. In those battles, controlling the heroes feel clunky, but I did still find them fun.

Maybe it’s just nostalgia, but I did enjoy this game. With more polish it could have been a great game. I am hopeful that the release of this game leads to a more refined sequel with modern gaming standards in the future.

I recommend this to fans of the original game and those seeking a unique gaming experience, ActRaiser may still be a worthwhile choice, as long as they are willing to accept the limitations of a SNES-era game.

Subnautica is an underwater exploration and survival game with some horror elements. The game forces you to explore, build habitats, tools, and vehicles. You progress through the game by finding new resources and blueprints for more advanced tools. You also find text and audio logs that furthers the story and guides your exploration.

The game gets quite scary when certain leviathans are around. Exploring out in the deep ocean can be nerve racking. Coming new into this game I had no idea how scary it could be.

One awesome thing about the game is that you can build your own underwater habitats. Some of the most fun I had in the game was building bases in random locations. It may not be necessary for progression, but crafting habitats was too much fun. And leviathans can’t get you if you are in your base.

Although I really enjoyed discovering new resources and blueprints hidden throughout the game. I often found myself seeing the same blueprints multiple times (sometimes dozens or more times). Something that should feel exciting just felt annoying after a while. My guess is that the devs wanted players to be able to craft specific tools or vehicles, but there has to be a better way. Maybe just give hints to blueprint locations instead of shoving them in your face over and over.

One of the late game resources was hard to find, which confused me on where I needed to go next. Making that resource flashier or easier to spot in some way would have been helpful to me.

I would recommend this game to people that like exploration, building and can handle some horror elements.

Papers Please is an original game by any metric. It’s all about facing tough moral decisions one after another while trying to survive. You play as an immigration inspector posted at a border checkpoint. It sounds boring but it is anything but boring.

This game really tests your memory and observational skills. Your job is to double-check that everyone's got legitimate and up-to-date paperwork before letting them in. That alone might be a great way to challenge yourself. While the games story advances you have to decide which faction to work with. On top of that there are little side quests/achievements to complete. There is a lot of value packed into this fairly simple game.

I have tried both pc and mobile. The mobile version feels way better, and I suggest anyone who plays this game to play on mobile.

I recommend this game to anyone looking to test their memory and observational skills or looking for a unique gaming experience.

Metal Gear Rising is action RPG mixed with a bit of stealth. As a fan of MG games, somehow, I just recently heard that this game existed. It lacks some of the stealth of the main series but makes up for it with extremely fun boss battles in the later part of the game. The game still manages to fit some politics and future predicting that we love from the main series.

One of the special features this game has is something called sword made where you control the exact angle to slash your sword. The default controls for sword mode are too awkward in my experience. Maybe it’s because I didn’t use a PlayStation controller. Using a controller with paddle buttons on the grips made it much easier execute slashes in the directions intended. Maybe it’s because I didn’t use a PlayStation controller.

I don’t think metal gear games are known for their good music but the music in this game seems especially subpar and distracting.

Kojima games always seem to predict events in the US a few years before they happen. This game definitely holds ups to that standard. Does the final boss remind us of someone?

The boss fights were generally boring and easy until near the end of the game where things get more interesting. There were 2 huge difficulty spikes in boos fights that felt so out of place it was like playing a completely different game. Though jarring, those fights were a lot fun because you couldn’t just button mash randomly to win. Ideally, the game would have more of these types of battles getting progressively more difficult over the course of the game.

If you like Metal Gear games, play this one.

The prequel to Automata sort of. While Automata had an interesting world and story, this game is almost the opposite. Replicant surprised me with its larger cast of characters and their playful interactions. However, the game's storyline and world failed to leave a lasting impression. Instances of storytelling seemed incoherent or uninteresting.

The gameplay was standard action RPG style. Most of the fights are extremely repetitive and take way too long. Only a select few boss fights require thoughtful strategy, offering brief moments of challenge amidst an otherwise uninspiring gameplay loop.

The majority of quests in Nier Replicant are tedious fetch quests, often requiring you to incessantly traverse between towns. Although fast travel becomes available later in the game, it offers only marginal time-saving benefits compared to manually traversing between locations. One of the longest quests in the game has no reward at the end. I’m not sure what message the devs were trying to give the players for that one. Maybe they are pointing out that players will do whatever the game tells us to.

I have noticed that the music in this game is better than most games. However, the limited number of songs in the entire soundtrack can cause them to feel repetitive after a while.

The game’s characters and dialogue are its strongest aspect, in my opinion. Individually, the characters aren’t extremely interesting, but their interactions together are entertaining. Kaine and Grimoire had me laughing anytime they were on screen. While playing the game I was always wondering what crazy situation these goofballs would get into next.

This isn’t a strong recommendation. Only those who value fun character interactions and dialogue to the extent that they can overlook the several major deficiencies of the game may find it worthwhile.

Roguelikes are one of my least favorite genres of game, so my initial expectations were not high.

The gameplay was smooth, and the controls were great. In terms of the game's music, I found some of it to be quite impressive, while some was very average. A mixed bag in my opinion. However, the voice acting was excellent. The dialogue, for the most part, was good, although there were moments when it felt like the game was spewing out a jumble of random words.

I found the story, characters, and world of the game to be interesting. Th elements engaged me and kept me playing. I enjoyed discovering the best combinations of boon. Having the freedom to choose which rooms to enter after each encounter kept the game from being completely RNG. This feature greatly alleviated my experience of playing this Roguelike compared to others. The incorporation of rerolls were also a great addition later in the game.

In my playthrough certain character events took a ridiculously long time to trigger. It's possible that I had bad luck, but it was undeniably one of the more frustrating aspects of the game. Also, the cosmetic improvements to the house are way too expensive. There’s no way that anyone will have purchased anywhere near most of the decorations after completing all of the game content.

I would recommend this game to most people even though I don’t like roguelikes.

I was quite excited to try this one, because Metroid type games are one of my favorite genres. I like how many different abilities there are to choose from. I enjoyed some of the boss fights. The unique art style was something that really caught my eye when I first heard of the game.

The biggest issue I had with the game was that it wasn’t very fun. Normally in these games the story or the idea of exploring the world keeps you playing. I never had the urge to learn more about the story or to keep exploring the world.

The map system is not great. The map is worse than Super Metroid, a game made 30 years ago. One of the other major issues I had with the game was the leveling system. I don’t like having character levels in real-time action/RPG type games. I think these types of games should mostly be based on skill. And ideally should have difficulty options available.

I would not recommend this game for most people. As a fan of this genre, I would say this game needed a lot more polish to compete with similar types of games.

An open world action RPG. Very good world, characters, and story. Amazing dialogue. Extremely rare for a game to excel in so many things. The gameplay wasn’t amazing, but it was just good enough to play through. As a bonus the card game was fun too.

I played on the DX12 version. There were some graphical bugs. Nothing big just random objects moving around when they obviously shouldn’t be. Sometimes certain lights would flash on the screen. Unrelated, doing anything on the horse felt clunky and unrefined. Luckily the horse isn’t needed for most of the game.

The main quests and secondary quests were interesting and fun to play. I can’t say the same about the Witcher and treasure quests though. Those were quite boring and didn’t add much to the game.

I would recommend the game to fans of fantasy stories. Though the game gets creepy and dark at times. Be warned.

This is an awesome puzzle platform game. The gameplay is super smooth and fun, and the levels are clever. The game has a cool hidden secret you can access near the end of the game. Maybe there are more secrets that I missed?

My only complaint is that the game is way too short. It's like a tiny taste of what could have been an epic adventure. I wished there were more levels to dive into and enjoy.

Overall, this game gives you a memorable experience. If only it was longer, it would have been a masterpiece. But still, it's a must-play for anyone who loves platform/puzzle games. Recommended.