Hades (Review)

Hades is the 4th game developed by Super Giant Games the makers of Bastion, Transistor and Pyre which all had universal critical acclaim, but unlike the previous games Hades is a roguelike action RPG that follows Zagreus the son of the god of the underworld Hades and his attempt to escape the underworld, there is a gameplay loop of “One more try” and every time you do try your run will feel significantly more different than the previous run.

the top down action gameplay of Hades feels amazing the action is snappy and the hits feels like they actually hit, every upgrade you get adds a little bit more “Flavor” to your play style, in one play you could get a lot of blessings from Zeus which will make you into a Thundergod jolting your enemies and blowing them up or you could be getting blessing from Athena and deflecting everything, the randomness might feel a bit weird at first but it actually makes the game exciting and fun and it gave me the drive to do one more run every time I died, and I died A LOT.

I don’t usually struggle with hard games a lot since I quickly can find a solution to the issues I am facing but Hades really kicked my ass for a good 10 hours, this game is actually difficult and it throws a few curve balls at you especially the bosses, at times it genuinely felt like I have zero chances to beat a certain boss (especially the last two) just to come back with a new power that made them easy to beat, the difference here is you never know if this next run of yours will be the one that destroys everything or not.

Jen Zee’s art style really shines in Hades, her designs are just out of this world beautiful and she is without a doubt the soul of Super Giant Games’s magical worlds and the company’s signature sounds and music design is right there to shine even further giving a rougelike which is not every well known genre for story telling a story and progression that is just compelling and beautiful, I couldn’t stop myself from wanting to find out more about the relationships between the gods and Zag and everything related to the world, the amount of care and love they put into the game is just amazing and I really enjoyed it.

Verdict: following SGG and their development over the years and their labor of love to come into fruition with Hades was a joy, I am not a much of roguelike fan as a matter of fact I like my games with clear progression in mind but Hades made me a fan I just wish some of the bosses weren’t that difficult that it almost felt like it was cheating, I really can’t wait for what SGG has in stores for their next game (9.5/10.0)

Final Fantasy VII Remake (Review)

Final Fantasy VII Remake was developed by Square Enix for Playstation 4, released on April 10th and it is intended to be the first of a series of games that will retell a fleshed out version of the Playstaion One classic RPG.

it is no secret that FFVII is considered to be a favorite RPG for many fans of the genre as a matter of fact it is the starting point for many fans as well, the classic game is for the most part a landmark title and for decades fans wanted a remake to bring it up part with today’s games and after years and years of rumors and misleading job listings Square Enix finally announced the existence of the project but it wasn’t without issues, I guess to Square Enix remaking a beloved 1997 RPG meant to turn it to a series of smaller episodic retelling of the classic story and that immediately made me lose some of the interest I initially had, Playing the game did make me feel a bit at ease since the flashy new combat style, stellar graphics and interesting characters got me engaged in the game, further more the true star of Final Fantasy VII remake is the setting and the atmosphere of the game which is incredible.

To add more to the awesome package is the amazing soundtrack featuring the classing tunes from the original game rerecorded and orchestrated with new remixed tracks and brand new tracks as well that sure will be a delight to fans of the Final Fantasy music. the combat is fun having a flashy and stylish action game kinda like Devil May Cry-esque combat coupled with a upgrades and customization that is usually expected from an action RPG, even though it is not too deep nor it is too complex which is a bit disappointing.

The story of the game feels more like an introduction to the world and the characters and to its credit it does a really good job at doing so, by the end I found myself caring a lot about what will happen to these characters and to this world and wanted to continue the mystery of the Ancients and the Life Stream with it and it does help that the game has gorgeous facial expressions and great voice acting.

The issues start with the Game side of the game and not the story, the Story is fine and the episodic nature is doing a fine job at telling it, but like most FF games by the end of the game you will have to upgraded your magic from the base level to the final form like Fire will be Firaga for example and this game does give you that upgrade but leaves you wonder what will be the case for the sequel? am I gonna start with Fire again? it is all just too in the air thing right now, further more the worst part of the game is the side quests they are really boring and they feel like an early 2000s fetch quests with things like “Find my cat, Kill a bunch of rats…etc”, if you have played any RPGs in recent years you will know those quests wont do at all and soon I got bored of them entirely and stopped doing them.

Verdict: For the first part of the story FFVIIR does a good job setting the world and the characters with what is soon to be more important chapters of the game coming down the line, I just really hope Square Enix don’t stretch it for more than 3 games and the upcoming games give a larger variety of side quests. (8.5/10.0)

The Last of Us Part II (Review)

The Last of Us Part II was developed by Naughty Dog and Published by Sony for the Playstation 4 on June 19th, 2020. it is written and directed by Neil Druckmann and it is a direct sequel to the 2013 Masterpiece The Last of Us.

When the game was announced right out of the door it had too much riding on its shoulders, carrying the legacy of the first game which for the most part didn’t even need a sequel was already a heavy burden and on top of that the name Naughty Dog on its own carries a major toll.

Warning: This Review more for people who already played the game it will include all sort of spoilers including the big twists and the story events.

For the most part The Last Of Us Part II is perhaps the most beautiful game on current generation consoles, its cinematic presentation and atmosphere and sound design is a new benchmark that will be used to judge other games with, the game takes place in Seattle city which is well known for its pouring rain and the Naughty Dog really captured that sense of wetness that comes with that, it is genuinely beautiful and just magnificent to look at. The combat is mostly like Part I albeit more bloody and gruesome, you can approach the situations with stealth and the game gives you many tools to help you with that if not you can just shoot and bash your way around the map and you have tools for that as well, the game also has upgrade trees which can help you develop your character and weapons and become a force to be reckon with in Seattle’s war zone. one of the many things that make Part II a technical set piece is the audio design, the background sounds are just incredible and it makes you really immersed in the game, the facial animations and voice acting is perhaps the best since Red Dead Redemption 2 and I doubt anything will beat it anytime soon (Maybe Cyberpunk 2077?).

The Problem is the praises for the game stops there, what drew everyone to this game wasn’t graphics and game play it was the story and the characters but the sequel really messes with that, and after a few months of thinking about it I genuinely believe the game fails in everything it set out to do and here is why: The general theme of the game is a revenge story, the daughter of the surgeon who is about to perform a fatal surgery on Ellie which you (Joel) killed, and after years of the first game’s events she (Abby) tracks Joel down and brutally kills him in front of Ellie and she goes on a revenge quest to track down Abby and her friends and brutally kills them, so far so good right? nothing wrong with that but no the game doesn’t stop there, it actually starts a 2nd campaign, this time time you play as Abby and her quest to save two kids from the society that they lived with and Abby’s campaign makes no sense, this soldier who spent her life fighting against this Cult-Like society is suddenly so attached to these kids that she risks her life, her friends and a war she was fighting for a decade to save them, these two campaigns takes place in parallel and both lead to a point of confrontation between Abby and Ellie both with motive to kill the other person. here are the issues: Abby’s campaign makes no sense, if the purpose of this campaign was to show us how Abby is not a bad person and what she did was justified, but why did I have to confront her fear of heights in a 12-15 hour campaign? it was so damn pointless, I genuinely didn’t care about this character and her struggles all of it seemed pointless to me, every theme they jammed it in that campaign felt pointless, Ellie and Dina’s relationship was a beautiful bond and was an LGBTQ+ positive story that made sense, but Lev’s part felt just forced and Jammed in there for the sake of it, and with all this the game still doesn’t stop and it adds one last insult to the list, Ellie is Abby’s final boss fight, Ellie of all people, when I was fighting her I genuinely felt bad, I didn’t want to fight Ellie I didn’t want to hurt her, why did the game make this choice? it literally felt like the worst thing a game ever made me do I rarely “Hate” things, but I really hated that part.

Verdict: The Last of Us Part II is a massive game with lots of ambitious ideas and ground breaking technical aspects, but when it comes to its story the game fails at everything it is set out to do and ends up giving the player a confusing and convoluted mess that is just feels hollow instead of deep. (6.0/10.0)