I remember seeing the Kickstarter for Exo One back in 2017 and being confused and inspired at the same time. On one hand, an idea about an exploration game where you use a spaceship marble to explore planets sounded extremely fun. On another – very limited and hard to imagine past the concept stage. Four years later Exo One is finally here to disprove my doubts. I mean, sure, it is still quite limited in potential. But what it does is still far more than I could ever expect.
Tag: great soundtrack
O tempora: Final Fantasy III (Pixel Remaster)
O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.
Of the three NES Final Fantasy titles that I tried playing years ago, FF3 was the one that get me hooked. I still dropped it at around a quarter of the story in, but I was planning to return someday. I even gave the 3D Remake version of the game a chance, even though I really disliked the style and approach to those DS Remakes. But it wasn’t until now that I’ve finally finished Final Fantasy III. And I really liked it.
O tempora: Final Fantasy II (Pixel Remaster)
O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.
While my attempts to play the original Final Fantasy usually failed because of how hard and outdated it was, while also having a really simple story, Final Fantasy II in addition to the difficulty and chunkiness was also really weird. All of my attempts quickly hit a wall and every time I’ve tried to check on some guides to help me start, I’d read about some bizarre but seemingly necessary tricks where you’d grind for a few hours by hitting your own party members. With the Pixel Remaster version I was finally able to give the game a proper look and appreciate what it tried to be. Even though it still has some questionable decisions.
O tempora: Castlevania Advance Collection
O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.
Well, this was unexpected. After spending years locked to Game Boy Advance, a console that most people nowadays probably don’t have or use anymore, Konami has decided to release the Castlevania entries made for that console for modern platforms and most importantly PC. Oh and the SNES port of Rondo of Blood as well, for some reason. Unfortunately, this isn’t some extremely complicated NightDive Studios remaster or what Square Enix did with the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster collection. This is just a collection of original game ROMs, wrapped in a nice emulation package with a few extras thrown in. Luckily, it’s a well made collection and playing these titles is a joy.
O tempora: Final Fantasy (Pixel Remaster)
O tempora is a series of retrospective posts where I play games from ages before to see if they stood the test of time.
How many times have I tried to play the original Final Fantasy… I’ve tried the original NES game, the Final Fantasy Origins version on PS1, Dawn of Souls on GBA… But I’ve never actually finished it until the Pixel Remaster release. It’s strange to finally play the very first game in such a huge and influential franchise to completion. And it’s especially strange to realize that despite being so quaint by modern standards, even with so many improvements Pixel Remaster version brings, there’s still a place for a title like this.
Happy about: GRIS
GRIS is a wonderful example of when a game doesn’t do anything extraordinary or anything new, yet what it does it does really well. It looked so “seen it all before” in trailers and bits of gameplay, that I didn’t consider playing it myself. And now that I have played, it’s not like my expectations were completely off. Yet, I enjoyed this game quite a lot.
Happy about: NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139…
I’ve tried playing NieR (Gestalt) when it first came out years ago, but just like it happened with Drakengard even earlier, I got bored with the game. So it wasn’t until slightly later that I’ve learned about how inventive the storytelling in NieR becomes, how the game twists your perceptions with the second playthrough and just how intentional a lot of the boredom I’ve felt was. Years later, NieR: Automata came out and was absolutely fantastic, doing a lot of the same concepts, but in a much more fun way. And given its success, I expected that it was only a matter of time NieR will get a modern re-release. NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139… turned out to be much more than a simple re-release.
Thoughts on: Yakuza 5 Remastered
Yakuza 5 is considered to be one of the best entries in the franchise. To me, it’s the least enjoyable one so far.
In love with: Chicory: A Colorful Tale
A couple of years ago I saw the first teasers of the “Drawdog” game on twitter and it looked really neat. The project regularly popped up somewhere on my timeline, consistently looking more enticing until finally it changed the title to the current Chicory: A Colorful Tale and then finally, and very recently, got released. Despite me not liking the previous title from the developer, Wandersong, all that much it was a promising game with lots of heart, so I was hoping that Chicory will be better. It turned out to be more than that.
Happy about: Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective
From the screenshots, it’s easy to think that Labyrinth City: Pierre the Maze Detective is a Where’s Wally\Waldo?-type of game, like Hidden Folks. That’s what I thought at first too. But while wonderfully detailed screens, full of charming characters and fun interactions, are indeed present, the game plays quite differently. This is, as the name would suggest, a maze game, where you must figure out how to get from one point to the next. And it’s quite fun, even though it has some frustrating elements to it.
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