Recent reviews by litui

I don't review very many games, but this one deserves all the credit I can muster after 125 hours of play. Metaphor: ReFantazio is nothing short of an outstanding game worthy of Game of the Year.

Plot: interesting and layered. The game introduces lots of questions early on and takes its time answering them, revealing little details along the way. Metaphor has nuance and while one of the main plot points remains the same at a surface level throughout the game, the reasons shift forcing the characters/player to reassess their motivations for continuing along that path at multiple intervals. There are moral lessons here and while yes, in early game it feels like some of them are introduced hamfistedly, as the game progresses they are revealed to be somewhat more complex.

Characters: I found myself loving all the team members and friends the protagonist meets and forms connections with throughout the story. Each has their own well-fleshed out story and motivation. There is no character romance in this game but I'm not convinced that's a problem - there are bigger fish-shaped baddies to fry in this world. The friendships and related story scenes are believable with a clear progression as the protagonist gradually becomes a bigger part of each of their lives.

Dungeons: If I had one complaint it'd be that some of the dungeons are a bit "same-ey" with the basic mechanics not changing much from dungeon to dungeon. Some dungeon elements are clearly just there for the gameplay and otherwise don't make much sense in terms of design. The biggest offender in my mind is holes to crawl through - why are these here and for what purpose are there so many rooms that can only be accessed by crawling? It would make more sense to me if these were visibly the result of obvious cave-ins, broken doorways, broken walls, etc. rather than purpose-designed to force the characters to crawl. Otherwise, monster variety and placement is pretty fun, the dungeons are at an acceptable level of size and difficulty, and there is at least one stand-out as a complex dungeon with world-revealing design elements.

Music: I love the music overall though as a musician I found it got a bit repetative at times (particularly fight music and music in towns I spent a lot of time in). The composition and performances are very interesting and complex (love the chanting) but I thought it could benefit from more separate compositions centred around a common leitmotif. It'd be nice if battle music in different dungeons used variations on the same theme rather than the same theme again and again. That's just me being picky though, overall the music was great throughout the game.

Graphics: Could be more modern but it's clear the game was made for portability (it was also released on the 3DS). Now that they've added in antialiasing options there's little more I could ask for. The town settings are beautiful given the graphical limitations, painted scenes observed enroute to destinations are breathtaking, and the enemy model and texture designs are very cool and clever. There's a lot in this game that's painting-inspired (Hieronymus Bosch for one) and these designs were very cleverly adapted to 3d models with a wide range of movement. Anime cutscenes at low framerates feel a bit jarring in contrast to the smooth gameplay but evaluated on their own, they're good and add a lot to the richness of the setting.

Enemies: Range from basic people and beasts to fully terrifying and uncanny. When characters are afflicted by anxiety by a terrifying enemy, I'm right there with them. There are some enemies with complex mechanics where work is needed to coordinate attack order or perform certain skills at certain stages. Battles can be long at times, depending on the difficulty, but are rarely boring.

There's probably a lot more I could say, but I'll leave it there. In short, well worth the full price both in terms of enjoyment and hours per-buck ( < $1/hour ).

Edit: Just editing this review for the steam awards perk =)

While I haven't played much of the previous Elder Scrolls titles, having played Fallout 3 and some Oblivion, I had a good idea of what to expect from Skyrim. Open world games that allow me to play as I like and explore at my own pace are enormously appealing to me and Skyrim doesn't disappoint with an enormous map and more quests than I can keep track of. With the official high resolution texture pack and realistic lighting mods this game is beautiful and difficult enough to keep me interested.

I still have no idea how far along on the main quest I am, and I like it that way.