Rate The Last Game You Finished

Aeon

Student Council President
As with the equivalent thread about films and anime respectively, here is a place to rate the last game you beat.

This can be out of 5, out of 10, out of 100; however you roll when it comes down to rating is fine.

For me; I will be rating Elden Ring but in my next comment on this thread to keep the original post as succinct as possible.
 
Elden Ring

You know when that rare moment happens; when a game promises so much and actually manages to live up to the absurd amount of promise, well Elden Ring has done it; it is a game that takes an absolutely ironclad formula and brings it to an open world, something that had me rather skeptical as open worlds usually sacrifice level design and, without good level design, the game ends up being nowhere near as fun as it would otherwise be but here the level design is intact, fully intact, everything that is good about the souls games is intact; this is the best use of a massive open world I have ever seen.

This is a game that I have mentioned a few times before but haven't actually rated, as for why I took so long to beat it, well that is down to me really, and I mean reaallyyy taking my time with it, in fact I got it in March and have been on and off playing it throughout the year as I didn't want it to end but all good things must come to an end eventually.

I mentioned the open world in the first paragraph but it needs more mentioning; there are many open world games littering the market, in fact linearity has been deemed as a bad thing, even though it can allow for a game to be far more focused but this game has all the laser guided focus of a linear game while having a massive open world; it's not the first open world game to be done well, Zelda OOT and Majora's Mask do it exceptionally as well but those open worlds are small and contained, Elden Ring's one is huge but somehow manages to fill it with enough secrets, enough details, enough good content that it has a focus that no other game with a massive open world has; in fact it even makes it interesting by having next to no icons on the map to guide the player, the player must instead look at the map itself and think "that place looks a bit different, I'll go there"; compare this to other open world maps that are littered icons that tell the player that there is a point of interest or an activity and this one has the edge tenfold.

The combat system is what one would expect from a soulslike game, simple but very effective, with a light and heavy attack, a dodge that has generous iframes as well as the other usual trappings of the formula but there was one significant change, the block counter, this allows the player to press the heavy attack button and counter the enemy's blow right after blocking, it is a good substitute for parrying, which is here but I personally think the parry system has been unreliable for me since they changed it in Dark Souls 2 so it's good to have an alternative.

The open world is not the only part of the game; there are a ton of levels that are more contained, many of which can be missed entirely which is part of the joy of the game, some of these dungeons are brutally hard, one that really gave me grief was the Haligtree, a dungeon that is loaded with pitfalls and the most brutally hardcore boss at the end of it all.

Speaking of difficulty, this game, at least for my build is hard, like really hard, the way I like to play is a simple sword and shield and a load of dodging but towards the end I had to look into other options because I had grinded my level up really high and I was still grossly outmatched by certain bosses, I'm looking at you Melania, in fact I think this may have been the hardest From Software game I finished (I didn't beat Sekiro).

The art direction is sublime, as expected of From Software, the locations are so varied and contain some very artistic designs; some of the legacy dungeons beg to be explored for this reason.

The music is pretty good, it's kind of the usual flair from a Fromsoft game but some tracks are exceptional, like the penultimate boss theme.

Another thing that is great is the story; as usual, it sometimes can make little sense and requires some interpretation but there are several questlines that can lead to up to 6 endings, one of which can lock you out of the others beware, do not enter the ominous door in the sewers unless you want this ending as, from what I've read, it is a nightmare to undo, requiring beating the nastiest boss in the game if you change your mind; personally I got the Age of Stars ending that is achieved by completing Ranni's questline, there is so much that can be missed on the first playthrough and the quests do kind of require a guide at times; I personally don't like looking at guides for these types of games but it was that or miss one of the best quests in the game.

There are however a couple of downsides, first of which being the font size, I personally am getting really sick of games having a font size so small that one would think the developers didn't want you to read it, in this case reading is seldom needed so I can just narrowly avoid deducting a point for this but it is an issue that really should not be getting worse as the years go by; I don't remember any of the souls games having this problem, why does Elden Ring have it?; also the performance is not perfect, for me it got better after a PS5 system update but what annoys me is that I am on a 1080p tv and the resolution is pushing itself higher than that even in performance mode, as a result I am losing frames for no good reason, this can result in judder at times that bizzarely is fixable for those with the PS4 version via backwards compatibility but I have the PS5 version, performance modes are meant to cap the resolution as needed to keep the framerate smooth but here there is room for sacrifices that are not made and the performance suffers as a result.

These two issues should make me knock at least a point off but what is good here outweighs the bad so dramatically that I can not so much overlook them but I can still give the game a super high score.

All in all, there is so much to say about this game, it is a game that is so deep, so filled with meaningful content, so rich in detail that one could play it for a long time and still have probably missed something; it took me a grand total of between 60 to 70 hours to beat and managed to keep me entertained throughout, there are a couple of issues but the monumental achievement of all that is good in this game keeps them from dragging the score down, games very rarely keep me wanting more past the 40 hour mark but this is one of them, a true masterpiece of a game that is so easily worthy of a.

10/10
 
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God of War Ragnarok

When GOW 2018 was first announced; I'll admit, I was skeptical, it looked like it wanted to be like The Last of Us, which put me right off getting it for up until a week after it's release as I don't even think that TLOU is that good, it's alright but there are so many better games out there and I don't find it all that fun to play; imagine my suprise then when GOW 2018 turned out to have very little in common with that game and instead turned out to be an absolute blast to play from start to end; but the real question is, how does the sequel stack up?
For the most part the God of War Ragnarok is just as good if not better than it's predecessor; it is held back a bit by only one bad chapter but all the remaining chapters are absolutely fantastic.

Just like in GOW 2018; the story is basically the best the series has, the old games are great for the most part but, narrative wise, they are very basic revenge stories that one can quite easily predict how they will end, that's not always a bad thing, as it did allow them to get on with the action, but this game just blows the original narrative out of the water while at the same time remaining fun to play, maybe even more so; for all the graphic violence of the original games, this one is far more intense, just the scene where Odin and Thor turn up at Kratos' house near the beginning has an sustained intensity to it that the original games would just chop away in seconds.

Another thing about the story is how we see Kratos have to come to terms with his past; this makes for some riveting dialogue that really shows that this Kratos has really changed from how he was back in Greece, the character development is through the roof with this one for both Kratos and Atreus as well as some of the other characters as well and back to the point of dialogue... Mimir.
This guy's lines are so much fun to listen to, he basically makes it so that every time I should be bored out of my mind going on the same boat or sled ride, I simply am not, in fact I often choose not to move the sled much when he, or most of the other characters for that matter, start talking out of fear that something may interrupt their lines.
Also Brok's lines are great as well with all his anacronistic profanities that often get a chuckle out of me.

The combat system has a real sense of weight to it that, compared with it's responsiveness, makes it a ton of fun to play and it gets even better in the middle of the game, a sucessful parry is both manageable and satisfying to pull off, which I chalk up to the shield; on this note, before the 2018 God of War, my favourite game in the series was actually Chains of Olympus, thanks in no small part to the fact that it provided the player with a shield that made parrying feel like it worked, in fact it was the only GOW game before 2018 to feature a useable shield for this purpose, it was brought back in 2018 and it is mostly here as well.
The player can also play as Atreus as well but here the sense of weight is gone; luckily it is replaced by the fact that Atreus is just so overpowered but I personally find it more fun to play as Kratos.

The take on Norse mythology is so unique in just how it mixes the fantastical with the realistic, for example, Thor here looks a bit like a Worlds Strongest Man competetor and it actually fits the character flawlessly, alongside how Odin looks really frail as he doesn't usually do the heavy lifting himself, he gets other people to do it for him; then there's the world design, I just love how the realms are designed, they literally beg to be explored the moment a new one is discovered, not to mention the fact that there is an entirely optional area in Vanaheim known as The Crater that I still have yet to see all of.

Honestly I would like to give this a perfect score because it is very nearly deserving of it but the very nearly part comes from one bad chapter in the middle of the game, the first visit to Jotunheim; there are a ton of slow moments without Mimir's epic lines to save them in this chapter, it goes on for way longer than it should but the worst thing is that this is the only chance to properly explore Jotunheim as far as I'm aware, I did get the Jotunheim seed post game but it seems like it only leads to Angrboda's house and I'm unable to explore again outside that area at my own leisure, which is a shame because I actually like the aesthetic of Jotunheim, furthermore there is no taking a break from this chapter, as it's an Atreus chapter, once it begins the player must go through it from start to end and there are a ton of timewasting errands that must be done, this makes it so that when something cool actually happens, it becomes a fair bit harder to appreciate said scene than it would otherwise be; it's not all doom and gloom though, the art direction of Jotunheim is exceptional, I can say that about most of the realms but this is one of the best one's in this regard; topped only by Vanaheim in my opinion.

This being a modern Sony published game; there are a ton of accessibility options, the one I am glad to see is the ability to adjust the font size, I'm not unhappy with the default font size as it's plenty big enough to read, unlike some modern games, but I can make it even bigger if I want.

God of War Ragnarok is one brilliant game; in most other years it would be a very strong GOTY contender but Elden Ring gets the Elden Lord title on that note; regardless, there is so much to love about this game, one naff chapter aside, there is still so much that is brilliant about this game, the dialogue is almost always engaging, the combat system is a ton of fun and the story just begs the player to keep playing to find out next; an exceptional game that I highly recommend for anyone who has a PS4 or PS5.

Score 9/10
 
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Star Ocean The Divine Force (Raymond's playthrough)

The Star Ocean series is one that has a ton of potential that is often not met, out of the 5 games I played in the series, only two of them were actually any good; First Departure R (the second is probably good as well but I haven't played it sadly) and this one.
This is easily the most I have enjoyed a Star Ocean game since I played first departure but it is not without it's flaws that hold it back from being a great game rather than a good one.

Starting with what's good; the DUMA system, flying around the map and collecting DUMA points is a ton of fun and it makes exploration enjoyable in ways that the previous games struggled with, furthermore there is very little time wasting, dungeons usually don't take longer than 10 minutes to finish and the grinding that was all too prevalent in the previous games is mostly eliminated.

The story is pretty good for a while as well; I was invested in trying to find out the motives of the villans and why they would deliberately infect an underdeveloped planet; however, by the time everyone goes to space it loses most of it's mystery and, in doing so, becomes much less interesting, it doesn't help that this particular act of the story is chock a block with cutscenes and not many gameplay and exploration opportunities during the part where exploration would otherwise be the most exciting.
The combat system is pretty fun, in a similar way that I find Ys's combat sytem to be fun, it is generally quite responsive and it is often satisfying to pull of a well timed dodge.

Something I've often liked in Star Ocean is the world design and this is no exception, I believe that making the setting look interesting is just as important as making the game fun to play, as that's what makes the experience memorable, with that said, there are not as many cool locations as there were in some of the previous games but the ones that are memorable hold up just as well; however, the game does have a more washed out colour pallete compared to it's predecessors that holds some of the locations back a bit.

One thing that both works to this game's favour and detriment is the fact that it is really, and I mean really, easy, in fact the hardest boss in the game was about a couple hours in and beating him was just a matter of keeping on top of everyone's equipment and skill tree, as well as equipping Laeticia with determined princess and Albaird with rainy day fund to increase EXP and Fol respectively, in fact this is the case with basically every boss in the game; one one hand, this allows me to really focus on the story, but on the other hand, it makes experimenting kind of pointless as I can literally beat the final boss with the same combo settings as I started out with, with upgrades to their stats of course.
Personally I didn't mind this so much as it made progression with the game a breeze and almost completely eliminated grinding for me; with that said, it did remove the need to find that one EXP farming spot and upgrade my characters to insane levels like I had to do in First Departure R.

Two things I very much do mind though are the text size and the performance; first off the text size is awful, it is so small that one would think they were looking at stars in the sky, not text, it is getting absolutely ridiculous now, this was not an issue that existed in the past and yet for some reason beyond my comprehension, suddenly AAA developers thought it would be clever to make the font size so difficult to read; on a good day I have to really strain my eyes to comprehend some of the words, I turned on the Playstation Screen Zoom function, which puts a band aid over the issue but that's only ideal for reading the UI when the game is paused as it takes control away from the player while the screen is being adjusted; text size being so small now is absolutely unacceptable when it was never an issue in the old days; I would rather it be a bit too big than too small.
Then there's the performance, sometimes it is fine but other times it stutters like crazy, literally causing the character to start borderline teleporting around in some areas, considering that this game looks in places like a late PS3 game, this amount of lag is unacceptable for a game running on PS5.

One other annoyance is how I cannot enter the menus when the characters are talking; this is annoying as I maybe just want to adjust something or fast travel somewhere or save the game but I have to wait for the characters to stop talking which is a ridiculous design decision.

Overall I think that Star Ocean The Divine Force is a solid JRPG, but it is one that is held back by some baffling decisions that sour an otherwise quite enjoyable game, when it's good, it's really good and it does mostly move along at a very good pace, which is rare for a Star Ocean game, it is one of the better one's though I have to be pretty hard on it for it's ridiculous text size as it does require quite a bit of reading and this issue really has no excuse to be getting worse as the years go on.

Score 6/10 (7 if the font size and performance gets patched)
 
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You finish games?

Last game I finished was Elden Ring in the summer. With my then dear friend. It was a great moment that will now will be a bittersweet memory as this is someone that had to be cut off.

I am continuing through Elden Ring and Dark Souls 3 with another friend currently. As well as about 80 thousand single player games
 
You finish games?

Last game I finished was Elden Ring in the summer. With my then dear friend. It was a great moment that will now will be a bittersweet memory as this is someone that had to be cut off.

I am continuing through Elden Ring and Dark Souls 3 with another friend currently. As well as about 80 thousand single player games
Sorry to hear about your friend, it must be hard losing contact like that.

With regards to finishing games, I sometimes make time for it when I'm not too busy developing my own; I've made it a point to try and keep on top of all my physical PS5 games (my digital one's are usually through PS Plus anyway), though I haven't managed to finish them all since early last year, despite the fact that there's only a few left.

Also the type of game is a factor, I usually have to really prepare myself for JRPG's because they usually last an absolute age, on rare occasions, the JRPG in question is just so good that it can justify such a long length but those are rare; on the flip side, platformers are usually the one's I manage to finish the most of.
 
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Sorry to hear about your friend, it must be hard losing contact like that.

With regards to finishing games, I sometimes make time for it when I'm not too busy developing my own; I've made it a point to try and keep on top of all my physical PS5 games (my digital one's are usually through PS Plus anyway), though I haven't managed to finish them all since early last year, despite the fact that there's only a few left.

Also the type of game is a factor, I usually have to really prepare myself for JRPG's because they usually last an absolute age, on rare occasions, the JRPG in question is just so good that it can justify such a long length but those are rare; on the flip side, platformers are usually the one's I manage to finish the most of.

What games do you develop???

JRPG goes one of two ways for me. I start it and then don't get very far at all or it's good enough for me to binge and finish quick. Latter so far has only been Persona series, FF7, Nier Automata and not much else

Games I like recently don't really have an end and just require a perfection of the formula, like Tarkov and Gran Turismo
 
What games do you develop???
Just one game ATM; I'm planning to make it a 3D collectathon platformer type game with PS2/Gamecube esque graphics, it's very early in development though so nothing is set in stone but I think I'm coming out of the planning period; I've recently been working on the model for the protagonist and hopefully later this year I'll have a couple of playable areas.

I'm planning to develop it over the course of 2 years but considering that I'm basically a solo dev with huge ambitions I would not be suprised if takes longer lol.
 
Just one game ATM; I'm planning to make it a 3D collectathon platformer type game with PS2/Gamecube esque graphics, it's very early in development though so nothing is set in stone but I think I'm coming out of the planning period; I've recently been working on the model for the protagonist and hopefully later this year I'll have a couple of playable areas.

I'm planning to develop it over the course of 2 years but considering that I'm basically a solo dev with huge ambitions I would not be suprised if takes longer lol.

That is very cool

do you post updates somewhere? please link me so I can see your progress
 
That is very cool

do you post updates somewhere? please link me so I can see your progress
Sadly I don't currently post updates as I'm literally in the very first stages; I'm hoping however that, if all goes to plan, I will have some content to show in a couple of months time and, when I do, I'll be sure to let you know via a reply to this comment as well as in the Creative Arena forum on this site.

With all that said; I may occasionally mention a few things that I'm doing in relation to the project before then in the What you guys doing right now thread.
 
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but i would like to see it now
After giving it quite a lot of thought I have decided to show off a few screenshots of the level I am building, I have picked two of the most interesting parts so far as well as one that I will get around to coating beyond just bricks very soon but at the same time will hopefully show that this is very much a work in progress.
Screenshot 1.pngScreenshot 2.pngScreenshot 3.png
 
After giving it quite a lot of thought I have decided to show off a few screenshots of the level I am building, I have picked two of the most interesting parts so far as well as one that I will get around to coating beyond just bricks very soon but at the same time will hopefully show that this is very much a work in progress.
View attachment 28476View attachment 28477View attachment 28479
yes I like

especially the first picture because there is a big planet in the background, and also the cylinder building at the end of a walkway

what is there? it must be something special of course, so i need to go there to know
 
yes I like

especially the first picture because there is a big planet in the background, and also the cylinder building at the end of a walkway

what is there? it must be something special of course, so i need to go there to know
Thanks.

Without saying too much, this area is basically the tutorial level so you won't be spending long in the cylinder room, it's basically the first room in the game where failing a jump actually means game over rather than a brief inconvenience.
 
Thanks.

Without saying too much, this area is basically the tutorial level so you won't be spending long in the cylinder room, it's basically the first room in the game where failing a jump actually means game over rather than a brief inconvenience.
I really like this idea you should keep it!!!!

BUT I will say, this cylinder room you made, it's more cool than that, I really don't think you should have it as a tutorial

it should be something more important than that, it deserves more than that....
 
I really like this idea you should keep it!!!!

BUT I will say, this cylinder room you made, it's more cool than that, I really don't think you should have it as a tutorial

it should be something more important than that, it deserves more than that....
Thanks.

I might bring the cylinder room back in a later dungeon with far more complex level geometry, though if I do then I'll probably only do that once as I would also like to bring many more interesting designs to the table as well.

Edit: Just remembered that I should mention that I've now posted up a thread related to my game in the Creative Arena on this site, it's currently called "About that game I've occasionally said that I'm making", it's currently not got much that I haven't shown here except for a screenshot of a different angle for my userpic that I created in Blender but if I have any new updates then that's where I'll probably post for now.
 
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Freedom Planet 2 (Lilac's Playthrough)

A quick note; this review covers Lilac's Playthrough, although this game is good enough for me to try to beat the others as well, I've so far only done the first level for them; I picked Lilac because her control scheme is highly responsive and I am not used to the other control schemes like I am with Lilac's; what little I played of the other characters, I can say that they control better than I remember from the first game but Lilac's always going to be my main for this series.

When I first played Freedom Planet back in 2019, I was genuinely suprised at just how good it was, prior to that I thought it would probably be an ok game that borrowed a lot from 2D Sonic but, while it did borrow quite a lot from that series, it also made a ton of improvements to the core gameplay that transformed it into a game that was vastly superior to the game that inspired it.

One other thing to point out is that I am not personally a fan of 2D Sonic, I feel that the time it takes to reach max speed and adjust the movement direction is ridiculously long and to top it off, the fact that the enemies have damage coating around them basically makes running at top speed a massive hazard, which kind of defeats the point; those issues were not replicated in Freedom Planet, the controls are much tighter than the game that inspired it and the character only takes damage when there is a visible hazard on screen, such as when the enemy is firing a projectile or has spikes around it's body; here it is so much less frustrating.

But this is not a review of the original... this is a review of it's sequel and I must say, it manages to blow the already fantastic original game out of the water; it improves on it in so many ways that it truly takes full advantage of being a sequel.

The controls are made even better than before and feel super responsive, some sensible changes were made to the gameplay such as the fact that Lilac's cyclone move no longer absorbs energy which allows the player to use cyclone, which you're going to be using a lot, without using up the energy needed to use dragon boost, furthermore the game even lets you cancel dragon boost which leaves behind a burst of energy that can quickly knock away the enemies health, also there is now a guard button that allows you to parry attacks, I have not used this move much as I didn't have need of it but it is great that parrying is now an option.
To top it off the game even supports framerates above 60, something the original did not as that was made in Clickteam Fusion rather than Unity, which this game was made in, it feels great to play at 144FPS and it really makes the game feel even more responsive and gives the natural motion blur like effect of such a high frame rate; with that said, it plays great at 60FPS as well so you are not missing out on too much if you don't have the high refresh rate display.

The level design is top notch, like in the 2D sonic games, there are multiple ways the level can be approached and it also hides a fair few secrets; I know there is much more to find hidden in the levels, the platforming is really fun here as well, which is why the controls being so good is essential, there is something new and unique in every level and the art direction for said levels is sublime, as I've said before, the value of making a game's setting memorable should not be underestimated; although the game is inspired by Sonic, I'm actually getting more Mega Man vibes from the aesthetic as well as the soundtrack and speaking of.

The soundtrack absolutely slaps, there were some really good tracks in the original but here there are even more, some of my favourites include Sky Bridge, Zao Land, Tiger Falls and of course, lest we forget Shade Armoury with it's absolute metallic banger of a track; there are other favourites as well; it's also worth knowing that every boss now has their own theme, admitedly non of them are quite as epic as the boss theme from the first game but they are all well worth listening to in their own right.
The game also features full voice acting for it's cutscenes, a rarity for indie games, it's really good as well, the actors clearly give it their all here and it really brings the characters to life; alongside a wide array of sprites that were built for specific scenes.

Quick note on the visuals, they are absolutely fantastic, I know that pixel art is really common for indie games but the pixel art here is some of the best, the animations are really good and the amount of detail that went into each and every tile and sprite is immaculate; it literally looks like a AAA 2D PS1 game, which doesn't sound great if you think about it's 3D output but the truth is that the PS1 was an absolute powerhouse at 2D graphics, just look at Mega Man 8 for example.
The character designs are great as well, obviously the main characters have a strong visual design but it's clear that a lot of effort and care was put into the other character's designs, whether they're playable or otherwise

Now onto the story, this is where the game shows a few hiccups; first off, the good, I actually really like the new adventure map and hub areas, I know it has been controversial for some people who just want to get to the levels but I actually like how it lets me immerse myself in the game's world a lot more, it's not exactly open world (it's actually not unlike Smash Ultimate's adventure mode) but it's no longer just finish the level and watch a cutscene, I can now talk to the many residents of the various cities, many of whom have their own unique design, it's a neat touch that makes the game world feel lived in; also there is an optional arcade game in the battlesphere that is actually pretty fun.
The story itself is alright, it's clear that this area was not the highest priority but it does the job well enough, I did like how the characters and the villans had some connection with one another and I also like how it does have it's darker moments at times, albeit in a PG sort of way; I also really like that the game has a stage that has the trappings of a penultimate stage but is really just the second to last stage of the first half of the game; it actually had me worried that it would be over at that point.

Where the problem for me kicks in is in a few irritating characters; the most sinful of them all... Ahh... yes Ahh is the guy's name, and oh boy he lives up to it, he often starts screaming for no reason and his voice is highly irritating; your mileage may vary but this guy seems like he wants to go up against B.E.N from Treasure Planet in an annoying character battle royale, he won't win against B.E.N though as at the very least Ahh is actually a villan so it makes a lot more sense why he would cause trouble for the protagonist.
In terms of the games sense of humour, sometimes it is fine, I don't recall it ever making me laugh but I didn't mind most of the jokes, though some of them were pretty annoying, case in point Ahh.

Despite the occasional annoying part, this game has so much to like about it, it is one of those rare games that I never get bored playing and make me think the next morning; I'm gonna go back to playing this, responsibilities be damned, I was actually worried when it started showing signs of a penultimate stage at the halfway point because I did not want it to end; luckily it didn't at that point, giving me a whole new region to explore and a whole bunch of new levels that are really good; I was thinking that the odd annoying character was enough of a reason to dock a point but in all honesty, there is just so much good about this game that I won't dock a point, as a result the game (at the very least when playing as Lilac) is worthy of a.

10/10
 
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Tunic

Once upon a time, there was an age where instruction manuals were a huge part of gaming, a guide to the shiny new game that would quite possibly have to last you for months because they were not as easy to buy as they are today, not only that but they would serve as a mini book for you to read on top of the game itself; nowadays they are sadly almost nonexistent as games go increasingly more digital but there is one game that, in a stroke of genius, includes an instruction manual as a part of the game itself, though sadly not in English, that game is Tunic, a fantastic little game that I’ve been playing over the last weekend and really struggled to stop playing until I eventually got the platinum trophy.

First off, Tunic may seem intimidating with most of it’s text in an original language, however the clever thing is that you don’t need to understand it to finish the game, in fact you can get through the main game without a guide, it’s not as hard as it looks, at least not if getting the first ending is all you plan to do, however if you’re a completionist then you probably will need a guide as some of the optional puzzles are almost La Mulana levels of complex, in all cases though, it is crucial to refer to the manual in which you find pages of scattered throughout the world, despite mostly not being in English, the manual has many visual clues and the very occasional word in English that is surprisingly enough to go on most of the time.
Also, with or without a guide, I highly recommend trying for the good ending after finishing the game normally.

The story is shown rather than told, which can create some ambiguity as to what is happening at times, here you play as a fox who washes ashore on an island and must free a fox spirit by finding three keys, seemingly your standard video game fare but over the course of the game, there was at least one twist that caught me off guard and the game manages to make it so that even though I don’t understand everything that is going on, particularly later on, I can still understand enough to appreciate the narrative, all with barely any English words spoken.

Visually the game is great for the style it goes for, it’s simple polygonal look is greatly enhanced by clever use of lighting and textures that make the game’s visual quality stand out from most modern polygonal graphics.

The soundtrack is great as well, with several atmospheric tracks that greatly enhance the overall aesthetic of the game, I wouldn’t say that any of them truly stand out but they all complement the scene very nicely.

One thing the game does really well is letting the player sequence break, technically you can skip the intended sequence of the game via several shortcuts that are open from both directions but are really well hidden that I didn’t know about them until I took said shortcuts from the intended route, however, it must be said that using a guide for non completionist content on the first playthough may spoil these shortcuts so that’s something to bear in mind, regardless, skipping the earlier game tasks on a replay using shortcuts you have learnt over your previous playthrough feels incredibly satisfying.

Also the game really rewards exploration, in fact it basically requires it if you don’t want to be stuck on a particular boss, if you’re stuck, simply go back, explore a bit and hopefully you’ll find a stat boosting item to offer to the fox spirit statue in exchange for a mostly permanent boost to your stats, though some of these items are really well hidden, this makes exploring feel incredibly rewarding, at least for a large chunk of the game.

If I had to fault anything here I’d say that it’s the fact that the game later on locks you out of the main world and nerfs all your stat boosts without sufficiently adjusting the game difficulty to compensate, by this point you can no longer boost your stats until you have beaten a particular difficult challenge, however this issue is probably made a lot less of a problem thanks to various accessibility options, including a no fail mode, although I didn’t realise that was a thing until after I finished the main game so I only really used it for a particularly awkward trophy that required me to start a new game anyway.
Also it would be nice if the game had a way to translate the text perhaps as a late game unlockable or maybe a letter at a time, like how Final Fantasy 10 had the Al Bhed language that you could translate, it’s a bit of a missed opportunity but not a big deal by any means.

Overall Tunic is a fantastic game, its exploration is incredibly rewarding, the gameplay is so much fun and the puzzles can be really clever at times, overall it is worthy of a.

9/10
 
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