Yeah i really enjoyed the chase sequences but the bosses less so. Rest of the game was great though, prob my fave metroidvania thing.

The first is good too. I’ve had my eye on the sequel. What system were you on?

Prince of Persia the lost crown (Steamdeck)
There's plenty which should spoil this game (story, some dodgy coding / play testing and only being accessible via Ubisoft launcher pish) yet I had a blast and despite it being a fairly bog standard Metroidvania it does enough to feel relatively fresh.
The main reason I had fun with it is the combat and controls (generally), both are super satisfying and it was a joy exploring the map and fighting bosses.  QoL is done really well also, superb map (with a system of taking screen shots and applying them to parts of the map in particular), lots of save points and a hint system.  The platforming is also excellent and always felt just the right difficulty level to test but not frustrate.
As a game onto itself I would give it an 8, as an experience it's a 9 - just great fun and my second favourite modern Metroidvania after Hollow Knight.

Blue Swirl wrote:

The first is good too. I’ve had my eye on the sequel. What system were you on?

RamSteelwood wrote:

it's on gamepass i think

Yeah this.  I’ll check out the first at some point. Doing brotato now.

Far: Lone Sails (Switch)

A magical way to spend £1.37 and a couple of hours. Superb.


[9]

Ooh. Roughly the same play time?

Interesting.

FF7:Remake
I guess the first thing to get out the way is that I never completed the original FF7. I can't remember exactly where I got to but pretty sure I I didnt get much further than where the Remake ends. I'm not attached to the OG in any way so went into this for the most part pretty open.

Overall I loved it. I played on Easy but unlike say Jedi Survivor Easy still meant using Assess, using tactics and plenty of healing. There were a few occasions I could recognise that playing on Normal would probably have ended with frustration so Im glad I didnt bother really, not here for a challenge.
I thought the story was compelling, strong characters that I grew to care about and some good laughs. The voice work for Don Corneo was particularly amusing, looked the guy up wondering if he had done Pete in Kingdom Hearts but I don't think it was him, he was Samuel L Jackson in Team America though, who knew.

There isn't much bad to say really but a couple of points. I'm guessing this is the same engine/base as Kingdom Hearts 3 because lining up the button prompt to open crates and press buttons is the same level of needlessly fiddly.
There is a bit too much forced slow movement, particularly when characters are resetting from one pose to their default pose, like standing or the end of a cutscene, there always seems to be a second or two of static. Both of these are really minor though and dont make much difference.

The only thing I really didnt like was the pacing of side quests.
The story plods on at a decent pace and avoids the Hobbit trap of dragging one thing out into a trilogy with filler guff. I believe a few things like the Chapter where we visit Jessie's mum was added but it felt organic and fleshed out that trio of support characters well. (may have been in the original and I've forgotten).
The side quests though, no. I don't know how much was carried over from the old game and many are totally fine but they rub against the near constant race against time that the various story beats create.
There are three major sets of these "help the town" type quests. I did all of the first two and 1 of the last. The first lot are OK, its early in the game, its a JRPG. The only groan worthy one was finding cats which was elevated by Cloud saying it sucked. 
The next round came half way though the game roughly and come with another "find the..." one, this time kids. Urgh.
Last lot are near the end and by that point myself as the player and Cloud and his friends have bigger things going on than finding the Dr some herbs, fuck off.

Rebirth seems to have a simialr vibe but at least as it stands the story is not in that same place, things have slowed and destiny is not written so it doesn't put me off although we'll have to see how things pan out.

With the whinging done, more positives.
The game looks amazing. I played the PS5 version so I don't know what they've enhanced beyond knob twiddling, nothing I assume. It looks better than most things this gen despite being last gen. A real graphical achievement. The end provides some mental scale and random shit crazy stuff that I think separate games from movies when done well. What becomes a CG mess on the cinema screen is engaging and exciting when in control.

In terms of the major change made, the destiny stuff. Im really glad they did it. Its very brave and I know many wont like it but to me it adds to the concept of a remake and opens things right up for the next two games. Although I am sure we wont be straying too far from the previous path.

As a remake I think this is the gold standard. Its not just a graphical update, it doesn't even keep the same gameplay system. It is lush, indulgent at times in a way that you can really only do with a sure fire hit of a remake of a hugely popular title.

Hard to score but I'll go with a high [8] maybe a [9]. Its just those side quests that just pull it down, I know they are skippable but have to judge the whole.

Just looked that up, weird.
Looks like its missing LODs.

I did notice a couple of lower res textures but normally it was in a cut scene where the cutscene camera had been put in a place where it could see stuff not seen close up in the gameplay area.

I was fine with it.
It went on a bit I guess but was fine. Although the enemies that pop out of the holes in the ground were the worst enemies in the game.

I had a skim through the FF thread earlier and saw some didn't like the Lab. I guess it helps playing on Easy, fights are probably quicker and I didn't get a game over. In fact I only died on the little green cloaked instakill shit in the Sector 5 slums.

Edit: I take it you mean the lab with the 4 doors and the team swapping.

I’m about 4 hours in and finding it all a bit dull. Here’s a side quest to find some fucking cats, oh now go change some filters on a sink and have some awkward dialogue. Hopefully it improves.

I think they're all optional. I seem to remember the third lot being a bit better, perhaps because they've involved more interesting battles, but they're still the weakest part of the game.

Prince Of Persia. The Crown Thingy 
The exploration is good fun and it's quite Metroidvania in that respect, but tbh the combat isn't solid enough in the boss battles that you feel you're ever in control of the back and forth and so I just stuck the game in easy mode, with minimum damage and had a blast traversing the levels and all the acrobatic puzzles. The story is fine. Nothing ground breaking. I stuck with it to the end and its a decent time waster, though not engaging enough for me to want to find everything in the game. 6.79/10

It's his 6th game this year.  HE gave it 79/10.  Amazing score, Cocha would be proud.

Rev wrote:

If it's not two decimal places are you even serious..?

Marry me.