Recent reviews by Klinestife

EDF isn't known for its story (even though I think they're underrated), but this one has an absurd, insanely outrageous story that enhances the overall feel of the series' over the top and stupid nature. Is the storytelling or the plot good? Objectively, no, but it has that pure EDF energy. I chuckle every time I try to logically build out all the ridiculous plot points to their logical end because they're so entertainingly stupid and it builds up to some genuinely hype moments.

Past that, it's more EDF but with some tweaks. Mobility's been slightly nerfed for WD and Fencer, at least until the mid game. Rangers and WD get to have a backpack slot that lets Rangers use nades without taking up a weapon slot while WDs can put a melee weapon that lets them pull some anime ♥♥♥♥. Air Raiders don't get to airstrike on way too many of the missions, but they get some very powerful drones as compensation that lets them completely drop limpet guns as an emergency weapon.

You'll hear a complaint that "a lot of missions are copy pasted", but I think that's overblown. There are very rarely any missions that are a flat 1:1 copy of their EDF5 counterpart. I counted maybe three at most out of the 144 missions of the game that genuinely had nothing added to it. Enemy spawns are completely different and dialogue and conversations start diverging drastically.

as someone who's run the gauntlet of action games from the souls games to god hand, re mind has the best designed bosses of modern gaming, and it doesn't even feel close. the boss themes and their attack patterns tell a better story than the actual game itself.

shame the actual base game is lacking in a lot of areas. and the story of the series is told so poorly that it's not even fun to laugh at anymore.

Genuinely the dumbest modern video game story. Banger gameplay though. Anyways, time to 100% everything again.

balance got a bit ♥♥♥♥♥♥ by power creep as per usual, the mood lighting's not as good as the original, the link episodes are way more missable than they should be, and the remixed OG songs are a mixed bag. every other aspect is great.

now give us femc cowards

Real quick. I liked the game, but unless you're a personahead, this game isn't worth 60 bucks. It's a 40 dollar game.

This is a pretty in-depth review after a full merciless playthrough. A quick summary of my thoughts is that the game doesn't put its best foot forward, with the first 10 hours or so spent on maps that are too flat and not enough enemy archetypes. However, once maps start becoming more restrictive and tactical towards the end of chapter 2, where you need to work hard to get into the positions that were just given to you before against brand new enemies that have abilities to control the field, it gets a lot better.

The same goes for the story. It takes far too long to get going, and even when it does, your mileage varies heavily based on how much you resonate with the themes it presents. It relies heavily on the ideas it presents being intrinsically sad to get you emotional because it didn't have enough time to set them up properly. That said, I did resonate and I did enjoy the gameplay when it got better, so it's a thumbs up from me. If you want to know more, read ahead.


The only gameplay worth talking about is the combat system. The day-to-day gameplay is replaced by conversations, and the persona fusion isn't deep enough in this game to talk about.

The combat is another example of Persona 5's gameplay mechanics transferring well to a whole different genre, although in this case, it's a little more apparent that it's not quite the right fit. You'd think it's and XCOM like, but it's more similar to Mario x Rabbids. You have a team of 3 on handcrafted maps that have gimmicks and you need to efficiently kill everybody to fulfill objectives that give extra rewards. Your characters can move so long as they haven't attacked, meaning that they can get into a risky position for an all out attack and move to a safe spot after it's done. Speaking of the AOA...

The Persona twist comes in the all out attack. Before I get into that, I need to explain how this game translated the knockdown mechanic from the original game.

This game is unlike other grid based tactics game in that it only matters what angle people are attacked from if they're in full cover, which gives them full immunity to one angle of attack.However, being in cover gives people a "resist" status, and as long as people have that, they have resistance to damage. That means that you can be standing flank somebody and not deal full damage. Units that are at a higher elevation will also have resistance against normal attacks against anyone lower than them, though magic will still crit them if they're in the open.

If somebody is attacked while they don't have the resist status, then they get crit and knocked down, and the attacker gets one more action. There are numerous ways to remove the status, like melee attack knockbacks, spell knockbacks, or various status effects. The coolest one is the follow-up attack, where you melee an enemy off a cliff to your ally, who crits them and gives the initiator a 1-more. If you're the one that knocked an enemy down, the character that has a 1-more can trigger an all out attack. A triangle is drawn between all three of your characters, and if the knocked down enemy is inside it, you can all out attack everybody within that triangle.

The all out attack is the most powerful attack in the game and every single mechanic is balanced around it. Every character can heal when you AOA, so you're incentivized to play aggressively and just heal up with it. On any difficulty except merciless, it will oneshot the normal enemies and severely wound the elite ones (which is why I played through the game on merciless - it was too easy otherwise). It's a cool system that emphasizes efficient movement and there's a constant choice to be made between "Do I want my character in cover, or do I want them standing out in the open for this juicy AOA?". Not all your characters can have a 1-more, so you need to make sure that whatever character you use to set up the others for an AOA is in a good position so as to maximize coverage.

Unfortunately, it also means that anybody with low movement or lacking any kind of set-up persona skills is screwed. Normal attacks and even engame magic simply can't match up to you just AOAing half the map. Not all status ailments are made equal, and the characters that specialize in the ones that don't set up are never a good pick.

Haru (bless her soul), has the worst movement in the game, so it's hard to mechanically justify using her outside of achievement hunting. The new character, Erina, specializes in the forget status and has the only built in overwatch move, both of which do nothing to set up a 1-more. Even Joker is kinda meh, because his status is "Despair", which lets him run faster and further the next round, something that isn't all that useful next to simply killing the enemy here and now. The sub-persona can cover for them somewhat, but as sub-personas only have two skills in this game, only one of which is inheritable, you can only do so much, especially when the sub-personas are the only source of passive skills like exp+ or multihit damage+.

On top of that, the AOA being so movement reliant means that whether an engagement is fun to play through or not is solely through the mission's map. Early on, maps are way, way too simple. They're flat and boring, and there's very few tactical choices to be made outside of "knock them out of cover and AOA". However, the later chapters have way more vertical maps with gimmicks that actually force you to change how you play. Enemies will be up against the edge of the map on a cliff, and you have to work to get to them. There will be elevators with switches that you have to fiddle with to open up a path.

Of course, all of that goes out the window when it gets to the boss fights, all of which are extremely underwhelming. There's no strategy outside of buff up with Mataru, get in cover, and deal with whatever gimmick they spawn. It's boring.

Side note: the quests in this game are more like puzzles that you have to find the right answer to. They're fun and require more thinking than most fights in the game.


Without spoiling too much, it's pretty much just like the Persona Q sub series in that the whole game is just one giant character arc for a character that, while I liked him very much, will probably never appear again in the future. Every other character has pretty much nothing going on for them, they're just there to be a chaotic scooby gang.

The character's arc gets a bit too long to get going, and the start of the arc is a little bit too insufferable. However, I really enjoyed the bits where the Phantom Thieves try to help him work his way through his issues. Each Thief uses their respective struggles from the main game to relate to him and share with him how they got through it, which I thought was a great use of the characters. The heavier moments that come really do come, and I enjoyed them when they did. I just wish they were dotted throughout the game more effectively instead of being shoved into the back half.

Outside of the story and characters, the worldbuilding is extremely messy, but easily handwaved away by the fact that it's all in the metaverse and metaphorical anyways. And, big spoiler alert, you do kill god in the end. You know, just like every single Persona game.

I really thought I wouldn't like the art style, but I was pleasantly surprised. The simpler art style lends itself great to varied extremely dynamic full body poses in the game's conversations that I thought really brought each character out. It blows Royal out of the water in that regard. The vocal tracks of the game are an insane bop, but I really can't remember any of the other tracks even if you put a gun to my head.

Pros:

• Lotus Juice music.
  
• Great gimmick that actually changes the flow of combat, making it more like Splatoon than anything.
  
• Well paced story that doesn't overstay its welcome and actually manages to be a wee bit sad.
  
• Yoshizawa and Akechi fulfill some unique archetypes that aren't available in the main story.

Cons:

• Can't use DLC characters until NG+, which is stupid because their skill progression is very much balanced for an NG run already.
  
• Can't access challenge stages until NG+, which is doubly stupid because they give you set loadouts to use anyways.
  
• Only took me just under 4 hours to finish on merciless.
  
  If you aren't planning on NG+, you are pretty much only getting the 4 hour story (which is stupid), 3 hours if you're a better player than me. Up to you if it's worth 20 dollars or not, but I will say I enjoyed my time with the DLC far more than I did with the first arc in the main story.

I overall enjoy the game more than the first game. The most annoying enemies from the first game are pretty much gone, save for small one-time miniboss encounters. The game is almost fully based on navigating the arena and finding ways to close the distance instead of chasing after RNG teleports or outrunning suicide bombers. This is accentuated by some really fun late game mobility options that really shake up the gameplay enough to avoid the repetitive feeling I got towards the end of the first game. The boss fights are also better, but still easy and simple. I beat most of the boss fights by running in and slashing, parrying whenever the boss made any kind of move, and dashing back in when they knocked me back. It was only ever the segments between the boss phases that gave me issue.

There are only a couple of negatives for me to mention. The most major one is the enemy having map hack. There were multiple moments where I rounded a corner to flank an enemy and they immediately opened fire as soon as I came into view, killing me before I could react. I don't know if something changed with the AI between games or if the first game's arena designs simply didn't have that many walls, but this happened enough times in this game to get me heated. I had to start rounding the corner while immediately holding block to survive.

Another one is the facial animations being genuinely really bad. There is now a hub level where you can walk around and talk to players. The writing is shallow but alright, and I enjoyed these moments. It lets you interact more with characters that don't make much of an appearance in the story, and highlights Jack's personality more through interactions with more normal people.

However, it's really distracting when you talk to the NPCs and their lips are the only thing moving, with their cheeks and eyes being completely static. It's animation from two generations ago and very disappointing.

The last negative to mention are the exploration levels with the bike. The linear levels with the bike are fine, if not a little bit unforgiving considering how imprecise the bike feels, but the open exploration levels just don't feel made for the bike at all. There are little bits of geometry dotted all around the map that my bike kept getting snagged on. It happened enough to affect the flow of the map and my enjoyment of them. These maps also had pretty much nothing going on, as once you're forced to properly get off, it just turns into another normal Ghostrunner level, which makes me question how necessary how necessary the massive open areas were.

All in all, a pretty good upgrade to the first game in my book.

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Would be a damn near perfect game if act 3 wasn't so bug-ridden and designed linearly, which is in stark contrast to the rest of the game. Come back in a year and the game will probably reach its potential.

There have been bosses aggroing from three floors away, forcing me to skip a story conversation with them that's the culmination of one of my companion's character arc.

I have had a companion's quest line flat out not start.

A new character at my camp never progressed past her initial dialogue, which I only know exists because she did progress in my first playthrough.

Characters that say they'll be at camp aren't at camp even after multiple long rests.

All my companions believe I slept with them and are getting angry at me for sleeping with everyone.

My dialogue options get deleted to be replaced by "continue".

I'm flat out unable to long rest or go to night. I click and nothing happens.

Chests spawn under the world and I can't access them without some funky interactions.

And much, much more.

Design-wise, Act 3 is filled with encounters that only have 2-3 choices.

1. Talk to them and start the fight.

2. Talk to them and pass a skill check to get some kind of advantage and then fight.

2b. Talk to them and avoid the fight by doing something evil. Because tough choices or something.

3. Don't talk to them at all and just start the fight on your own terms.

And if you've done something previously, you'll start the fight with some kind of advantage. Probably with allies.

Still recommend, if only to make those stupid devs on twitter shut the ♥♥♥♥ up. Yes, you should buy it out of spite.

These are my thoughts after getting 100% of the achievements. I'm gonna talk about the game is bug-free, but keep in mind it very much isn't. There will be some very frustrating bugs, like but not limited to:

• Not being able to rest.
  
• Rest not saving your game.
  
• An infinitely spawning onslaught alien that will sprint straight to your location while you're in stealth.
  
• An uninjured squadmate randomly deciding that they're no longer able to sprint, forcing your whole squad to walk.
  
• Your squad blowing stealth by opening fire immediately on everyone they see.
  
• Datapads randomly being uninteractable, or respawning over and over.

And these are all things I ran into post-patch. Your mileage may vary.


The game is separated into two layers, like XCOM. There's a meta layer where you have to manage your resources, gear up your squad, and unlock new gear, and there's a tactical layer where you control a squad to complete missions.

The tactical gameplay looks like XCOM at first glance, but when you actually get into the game, you'll find it actually feels more like a CRPG than anything. One click moves your whole squad, and when you input a command, whoever's closest will attempt to carry it out. The outdoors serve as an "overworld", and the "dungeons" are just the interior of buildings. Combat success is more focused on setup rather than in-combat tactics, kind of like prebuffing.

The lack of micro has its ups and downs. It cuts down on a lot of tedium, but there are many, many situations where individual control would have helped. I want a slightly different angle for my sniper to take a silenced shot? I have to waste a precious second trying to get him into position because I can't change my formation mid-mission. I want my sergeant to yell at everyone to reduce stress? Well, too bad, whenever I input an suppressing fire command, he's always the first one to do it, and he can't yell while he's suppressing. I want my mine guy to lay down mines while another guy's hacking the door? Well, he happened to be standing the closest to the door so now I have to cancel that command and get someone else to do it. So on and so forth.

The game flow revolves around alien aggression. Every time you blow stealth against an alien, you'll enter the hunt phase after you kill the alien that spotted you. So long as the hunt phase is active, alien aggression will rise. Once it reaches certain thresholds, an onslaught of aliens will run straight at you after a small preparation window. As it progresses, elite aliens can spawn in and make your life even harder because most of your stealth strats won't work on them, steadily snowballing things further and further against you until you simply run out of ammo.

The hunt phase will also make your squad's stress increase. When they reach 100%, they will get a debuff that lasts until the mission ends or you bring it back under 100%. Frankly speaking, people are making a far bigger deal out of stress than it warrants. Resting - which should only take one tool unless you're in an emergency, is enough to manage stress unless you're constantly failing stealth. And once your Sergeant class soldier gets the ability to stop stress increase for 30 seconds, it becomes a complete non-issue.

The game gives you a lot of tools to avoid stealth. You can create a noise distraction that attracts enemies, lay down mines to take out patrols (although mines stop oneshotting on Nightmare), or use a stealth sniper to oneshot the patrols.

Of course, the biggest asset is how absolutely braindead and predictable the AI is. You can snipe aliens right in front of another one and they will have no reaction. If they run into a mine and not die, they will keep calmly walking like nothing happened. If you use a distraction to send them into your vehicle's turrets, they will have absolutely no reaction to the vehicle itself and just stand there if they managed to reach the source of the sound. The AI can genuinely get so bad that it becomes immersion breaking.

Underneath all that, though, the game is still fun as hell. Setting up a killzone and watching everything just melt before you will never not be satisfying, and stealthing through everything is still somehow still challenging enough for you to feel accomplished if you manage to do it.


The meta layer sucks ass. You only have one resource - materials - and three types of personnel - physicians, technicians, and marines. Physicians are used to reduce the time your marines are spent wounded, technicians do nothing other than give you materials every day, and marines are deployed.

Because physicians exist, there is absolutely no reason to have more than one squad. In XCOM, you'd naturally build up at least two squads because your main team might be too wounded to react to emergency situations. There is only one such situation in this game. Even on my nightmare ironman playthrough where I didn't RNG any physicians and only picked up the guaranteed ones, I still had a week to spare on the doomclock without even bothering to have more than 5 marines ready to go at all times. And this is with my marines being up to 9 days out of commision due to playing horribly. I had them back up in 3 days because of the existence of physicians.

Materials are what you use to buy upgrades for your marines, unlock new gear, and give your team more supplies to start with in a mission. The gear progression system is very, very linear. If you have a marine at a certain level, you will unlock a new gun. This further incentivizes you just using one elite squad, because you'd be delaying your tech if you don't. And there are simply not enough things to buy in this game. I had an excess of 300 at the end of my nightmare run, and I didn't have all that many technicians.

There are events that happen at the end of every day, but they are extremely repetitive. You'll see most of the non-unique ones by the end of the first week of the game, and there's practically always an objectively correct choice. It's boring as sin. And on top of that, the customization is extremely lacking for your characters. It's probably a choice made to preserve the Colonial Marines aesthetic, but it makes your soldier's impossible to differentiate in-game outside of their guns.

The XCOM meta layer is meant to put pressure on the player and also provide an emotional attachment by letting you personalize the base and your soldiers, and this layer fails on every level.