Category Archives: Game Reviews

Injustice: Gods Among Us Review

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This game was definitely a pretty big deal when it came out. Part of that was due to the great story in there and then you also had the people who were thrilled to finally have a big DC fighting game. Marvel has always had the Vs Capcom series but DC didn’t really have anything on that level. This was finally a game that could hold its own and the competitive scene for it was really solid. I can definitely say that it holds up really well after finally getting to check it out.

The story starts with Superman murdering Joker after the villain destroyed Metropolis and caused the death of Lois and her baby. Superman finally decided that this was the tipping point and rules over planet Earth. All who opposed him have been destroyed so the remaining heroes serve him out of fear or misguided loyalty. This is revealed to be a parallel Earth and then members of the main Justice League are pulled into a portal to enter this world. Can they convince the corrupt Superman to change his ways or will they quickly be defeated?

An evil Superman is always a very scary prospect. Nowadays we’ve had a ton of different evil Superman versions so the concept isn’t quite as novel but it wasn’t nearly as oversaturated when this game came out. It’s still considered one of the better stories with this premise. I would say the Justice Lords is still the best story to show an evil Superman as it made the most sense as to how he would realistically become a villain. Still, this one at least has more nuance than some other versions…although I say that lightly. He’s so far gone here that it can be hard to actually think of him as Superman at all. Certain other characters like Wonder Woman and Cyborg are also incredibly brainwashed at this point.

You have to just accept that these are alternate universe characters though so even if it all seems out of character for them…well they really are different characters all the way through. It definitely feels great once we finally get to see the main Superman step into the picture. He’s just as heroic as always and his power means that he is a one man army. He can change the entire tide of the war with his presence alone. There are no other characters who can say that. None at all.

The gameplay is your classic 2D fighter. One of the trickier things about it though is that the game goes old school. There are no “Auto combos” like in most modern fighters. (Marvel vs Capcom, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Naruto Ninja Storm, etc.) You can’t just click on the square button and unleash a devastating combo. You have to figure out which attacks link into other ones the old fashioned way and it is different for each character. The story has you cycle through a bunch of them so you really get to experiment with the different fighting styles. For the characters where I couldn’t really discover any combos, it made winning a lot more difficult.

It’s a good incentive to actually learn the game. I can definitely see how this game would have a pretty steep learning curve. I also liked that they brought back the interactive maps which you don’t see as much nowadays. You can punch someone through a wall and end up in a completely different stage. That’s definitely really cool. You can also throw a lot of objects in the background, leap off of others to reset your position, etc. Of course you have your final smash attack for each character and a lot of the animations there are pretty fun. Superman’s and Flash’s in particular stand out. There are a few like Green Arrow that are a bit underwhelming but I guess it was probably hard to think of something real flashy for him.

The graphics are really solid here. I’m not super crazy about the artstyle though, which can make the game look a bit older than it is. It seems to be a similar engine to the Mortal Kombat titles so everyone looks rather gruff. It helps to achieve that somber tone for the game but at the same time, everyone just looks sort of ugly. It reflects the jaded world but give me an artstyle more like Marvel vs Capcom 2 any time. The soundtrack is a bit more on the forgettable side though. It certainly doesn’t have any rocking tunes like Tekken in it.

So this game is really standing on the excellent gameplay and great story. Fortunately for it, at the end of the day those are the two most important elements anyway. The story isn’t too long, you should have it beat in a few hours but of course there are missions, tutorials, and a ton of trophies to try and unlock. Additionally this is a fighting game so there is endless replay value in just battling other fighters and having a good time. The only thing holding this one back is that there is a sequel so most likely you will want to be playing that one more. So after the story you would probably upgrade which makes sense. Still a lot of content to enjoy here though.

Overall, Injustice: Gods Among Us is a great game. It’s really a lot of fun to play as all of the DC characters and they really went to a lot of good effort on the story mode. I love how cinematic it is with the constant cutscenes and the story is well crafted. It feels like you are playing an interactive movie to an extent. The sequel will have to try hard to keep up with the pace here but I’m definitely eager to see how that plays out. There are certainly many different directions you can take the story in.

Overall 8/10

Tekken 7 Review

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All right, it’s time to dive into one of the biggest fighting game series around. It’s been so many years since I played Tekken 6 and 7 definitely throws you right back into the mix. I really like how strong the continuity is in this series. The events from Tekken 6 play a massive part in this one and it’s why Jin is basically out of commission the whole time. This is definitely a great game that you will absolutely want to have some fun with.

The story mainly focuses on Heihachi as the main character this time around. He has returned to lead the Mishima Zaibatsu once again. With Jin temporarily incapacitated, it is his chance to finally take down Kazuya/G Corporation and rule the world. The game even teases a tournament briefly but that is more of a fun little moment for fans. This deep into the story I feel like it’s unlikely that we will ever get such a big tournament again. There are ways you could definitely write that in but I don’t love its odds. Meanwhile you have the main character of 6 (Lars) getting some screentime as well.

It’s pretty fun to still be getting more information on what happened with Heihachi and Kazuya even this deep into the series. I can definitely say that Kazumi is a very interesting character now to be sure. Her arc definitely went into a bit of a different direction than I was expecting but it does make a whole lot of sense based on what we know about Kazuya. The bloodline had to turn at some point after all. It also does make Heihachi a much more tragic figure than he used to be.

This game might be a bit heavy handed in trying to make you feel bad for him though. Like I’m not completely convinced since in the older games he was so antagonistic. Sure it all could be a front but I just have the feeling that this origin wasn’t fully in mind back in the day. Maybe it was since certain story elements do go back that far but I’m 50/50 on it. Either way Heihachi is still a villain either way, sympathetic motives or not. It was fun to have a game from his POV though.

The only part of the story that I think should have been cut out was the reporter. Each chapter starts with this guy monologuing about stuff but he does it in the most bored voice possible. Even when he says stuff like “I was shocked!” he says it in a super deadpan way. I don’t feel like these moments added to the story at all and the whole time I’m just getting ready to go back to the good parts. It doesn’t help that these moments tend to just be illustrations with no actual animation.

The gameplay is a lot of fun as always. To date no series has made the attack sound effects quite as brutal and intense as Tekken. In this game you really feel every punch and kick. I love the electric type effects that accompany every blow as well. It really helps take things to the next level and the movement is very crisp. When you execute on a good combo you really feel good. You can also see how the skill ceiling for this game would be absolutely immense.

For the most part the story mode isn’t super tough but the final boss really goes crazy. You have to beat someone 3 times and on that last attempt he has complete super armor the whole time. It’s super hard to play around that because he can and will counter everything that you do. It took me a lot of tries but hey I eventually pulled through! So you just gotta keep it up and eventually you will make it through. I recommend just doing a lot of blocking which is something I wasn’t doing for most of the game. At least for phase 2 you absolutely need to do it because he loses his super armor after launching the final smash attack.

Meanwhile the graphics are definitely top tier here. This is a very high end PS4 title that looks like a PS5 game. A lot of effort clearly went into both the big CG cutscenes as well as the gameplay. The title was confident enough to even have cutscenes that lead straight into the gameplay. Of course there is a difference but it’s not super massive and still looks really good on both ends. Then you have the soundtrack which is definitely great. In particular the final boss theme is incredible. It’s super memorable and is a song that I’ll definitely be adding to my playlist. It really works well as the end to an era. (Although of course 8 will possibly be the true ending)

I also have to give the game a shoutout for actually making a crossover character really relevant. The fact that Akuma actually does stuff here as opposed to just being in vs mode is incredibly impressive. That means no matter what, he will always be a part of the mythos. He also gets a good amount of respect. Yeah he’s not good at finishing the job to be honest but in a fight we see that he is the strongest. Nobody’s touching that guy which makes sense. He’s always virtually unbeatable in the Street Fighter series and I’d expect the same to be true here as well. Just look at Asura’s Wrath for evidence on just how busted this guy is.

In terms of length, the main campaign is fairly short. I’d say probably about 3 hours or so, a bit less if you don’t die as many times as I did near the end. However there is a ton of replay value here like with the Arcade mode, character stories, and trying to get the Platinum trophy. Additionally this is a fighting game which means that it already has unlimited replay value in the vs mode. That’s always going to be a massive perk of any fighting game title. It’s really hard to beat that and when the gameplay is top tier like this, even more so.

Overall, Tekken 7 is a must buy not only for Tekken fans but for any fighting game enthusiast. It’s incredibly well polished with a whole lot of content to have fun with. There are so many possible combos and different attacks to play around with. I never really got the hang of using the final smashes because the button combinations are rather difficult but that just shows that you really need to stick with this one for a while.

Overall 8/10

My Hero: One’s Justice Review

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My Hero Academia is a pretty huge franchise so it was only a matter of time before it got a big fighting game like this one. I was glad to finally get it, but it is safe to say that the game isn’t super high budget. So it delivers on getting you a fun fighting experience but you aren’t likely to be picking this one up over its rivals anytime soon.

The game starts off with Deku being trained by Gran Torino. He has to use his One for All abilities more efficiently and this is the way to do it. He will have to move very quickly though because the villains are on the move. They aim to kidnap one of the students and then destroy All Might. If the Symbol of Peace goes down then we could be entering a new era of darkness. Can Deku really stop the madness??

So the gameplay is your classic 3D fighter type. You have your standard attacks, power moves, unblockable moves, super attacks, and your assist moves. There are a decent amount of moves but most tend to just be worse than the basic combo. There’s not much need to ever touch some of those attacks but granted I’m not sure how things look at the highest levels of competition. It could be very different there. The balancing just seems a bit off. Like Deku’s standard combo is close to 10 hits long and does a ton of damage while Bakugo’s just lands like 5 hits without nearly as much damage. It’s an odd combination to be sure.

As far as the graphics go, this is one where I think the game did pretty good. I like how bright the colors are and in particular All Might really stands out. They aced his costume here and the guy feels powerful to play as. He’s basically a stronger version of Deku here. There are a lot of fun special effects to the environment and buildings as you fight and there are even some fighting cutscenes where we see the fighters go at it. Again it’s not what I’d call a very high budget title but it looks good enough.

The soundtrack may be limited but the tunes are really good. I definitely liked the main danger theme quite a lot and fortunately it plays a ton of times. In terms of replay value, there is a good amount here. The actual story mode is only about 2 hours long, but there are a ton of side stories. Over double that of the main campaign in terms of levels since you have the villain story on top of that. So all together you’re probably looking at 5-6 hours for completing all of the story mode missions and then after that you still have mission mode and the classic vs mode. Certainly a good amount of stuff considering that the game is super cheap.

I think the game should have been dubbed since that would have made things more exciting but I was glad that the story mode was fully voice acted at least. That was a pretty nice decision. Instead of the comic panel format though, I would have preferred full cutscenes all the way, even if it meant just showing scenes from the anime or something. I’ll be curious just how similar the second game looks. If it’s almost identical to this one or if it goes for something a lot different.

Either way though, finally getting a big video game is an important step. Of course it has quite a few mobile titles and the free to play online one but a console fighter is always a good idea. A lot of titles don’t necessarily start out with the best one out of the gate and things should only get better from here. 3D fighters may not always be the most popular form of gameplay but I’ve played a ton of really great ones so I can definitely tell you that it’s possible.

In a way this game will take you back to a more nostalgic time of the Gamecube/PS2 fighters. A fairly simple fighting game with a limited roster but one you can have a good time with. At the end of the day you want a game that is entertaining and this one definitely does achieve its goal there. You’ll get an extra bump of excitement if you’re a huge MHA fan but as long as you like a good fighting game then you’re set either way.

Overall, One’s Justice is a pretty good game. It’s definitely not great though. The combat itself is a bit sluggish and more limited than the average 3D fighter. You wind up spamming the same moves over and over again. After all, why bother risking your chance at an ultimate move when your standard hit combo does around the same damage with far less risk? Still, I always enjoy a good fighter and there is a decent amount of side content here. That’s definitely something to keep in mind. I look forward to seeing how the sequel goes.

Overall 7/10

Gunstar Heroes Review

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It’s time for another Genesis title. This one is definitely a lot of fun and one of the stronger games on the console. In a lot of ways it’s like classic Mega Man. You have to blast your way through a bunch of enemies and you can even pick which stage to tackle next like one of those classic titles. It’s a hard game but not quite as unreasonable as most of the others on the console. I actually didn’t even have to rewind much until the final boss which is part of why I finished this game rather quickly.

The basic story involves taking down these evil fighters who are trying to dominate the planet. There’s an old guy back at base who supports you kind of like Dr. Light. I think this really could have been a solid Mega Man homage and it’s old enough where they could have made it a real franchise. Sure there would have been comparisons but it could have held its own. Instead this is a title that most people haven’t heard of, I sure haven’t heard of it and that’s even with the game getting good reviews and generally being high quality. Not saying it’s unknown or anything but it definitely didn’t reach my circles.

The gameplay is nice and fast paced. You dash through waves of enemies as you try to reach the goal. The enemies are near unlimited so you want to make enough of a hole to go through before more respawn. That means you can never stay in one place. Sometimes it actually makes sense to go backwards for a bit and then forward based on the timing and the angle. Just don’t rush and you’ll be fine. Enemies also drop little hearts that replenish your health which is very handy.

You also get to choose which gun you want at the start of the match. There’s the close range fire blast, mid range machine gun, and long range homing attack. You know which one I went for right? Long range homing is always the best option! Yes it does deal the least amount of damage but that is a very fair tradeoff all things considered. You can still hit the enemy even while retreating and some of these bosses would have been absolutely crazy without it. In any 2D shooter, I always go for the homing attack. You may be thinking that this can’t be a very frequent event but you’d be surprised. I’ve played quite a few retro titles like this with a homing option and it has never let me down yet. It’s just too good.

You can also pick up a second weapon but I didn’t realize that until the last levels. I had just been ignoring them so they wouldn’t overwrite my main weapon but I happened to see a homing attack on the ground and figured I might as well pick it up. Well, that turned into double homing which does a lot of damage and makes it super difficult for any enemy to approach you. It’s an absolute must have to be sure. So make sure you grab the extra weapon because it probably would have made the game even easier. Not sure if it’s best to mix the weapons or double down on one, but either way you’re in a good spot.

The graphics are really good like I mentioned. This is on the higher side for Genesis to be sure. The backgrounds are very colorful and the sprites have a lot of detail. Out of all of the Genesis games it may be the best in that regard. The artstyle has aged incredibly well. Meanwhile the soundtrack is also rather good. There’s a lot of variety here and fun tunes to enjoy all the while. They really help support the gameplay which is already fun.

It’s a very well rounded experience and the game deserves all of the praise that it gets. It took a rather simple concept of a 2D shooter of which there are ton on the Genesis and made it stand out with the fun gameplay and good visuals. At the end of the day that’s how a game breaks out after all. You don’t necessarily need a crazy hook or gimmick, but whatever you do, you just have to make sure that you execute the concept well and this game did just that.

Overall, Gunstar Heroes is definitely a game that I would recommend. It’s a lot of fun and while it may be short, at least it’s not trying to drag things out for no reason. better to end quickly than to get boring or repetitive after all. The difficulty is very reasonable and while you may have to retry a few times, it’s never annoying. The game is very fair all the way through and I would have loved to have seen this become a franchise. Maybe some day I suppose.

Overall 7/10

Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master Review

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It’s time to return to the world of Shinobi. The last one certainly had a crazy hard final boss and the same is true of this one as well. In fact they ended up doubling it this time since you fight two of the villains and they both have fast moving attacks. Then after that is the actual final boss who is pretty intense as you would expect. He attacks extremely quickly and has so many different techniques that it is tough to match them all.

The plot feels more low key this time. I mean you have the usual villain running around trying to destroy the world and you have to stop him but there’s not much of an intro and then there’s nothing until the final boss. The second game had a more memorable intro all the way and felt more like a full adventure. Admittedly it’s a rather low bar since this is still a Genesis game but I still appreciated that all the way. You’re playing this more for the gameplay than anything else though. That part is largely unchanged from the last game but does have some improvements.

You can run now which is great since last time I said that the characters moved a little too slowly. Now you can actually dodge attacks as needed. Additionally you have better use of your special moves. I still don’t know how you could use the other symbols but in this game there is only the lightning so it’s less overwhelming. Beyond that, it still comes down to your overall ability on slicing through the enemies and landing hits before they strike you back. The Shinobi himself is fairly fragile so if you aren’t careful then you will be completely knocked out.

There are a decent amount of health items to grab in the levels though so it’s not quite as hopeless as in the second game. In that one if you ran out of health at any point then you were really doomed. It fits in with the overall feel being that this game is a fair bit easier than the second. The final boss makes them fairly comparable in the end but the actual levels are a lot easier. There is still a really tough maze level near the end though so watch out for that one. You could potentially be running around in loops for ages if you pick the wrong doors so you want to be careful about that.

The graphics look good, I do think they may have improved a bit over the second game although the second had some more memorable shots. So it’s a case of the technicals being better but you feel like the second at some more heart at times. Same with the bosses, they look better here but the second’s were definitely way more memorable due to the references even if they were toned down later on. So I guess what I’m saying is that the second was generally more memorable in every way which sounds a bit harsh.

This is still a good game that holds its own though. At the end of the day the gameplay is quite smooth and that’s one area where I would say that it beats the second one. You’re always in full control of what’s going on which I appreciate. At no point do you feel like you died because you made a mistake. Now there are areas where the enemies are unforgiving which goes back to the difficulty I mentioned but the fact that you can control your character more efficiently is a massive buff and can’t be overstated. Trust me it makes a huge difference. I wouldn’t mind if they made some of the jumps shorter though, you almost have to be frame perfect to make them. Reminds me of my Mario Maker days.

Overall, Shinobi III is a fun game. I do think as with many Genesis games it is a bit too unforgiving. It could stand to add more checkpoints and fun features to be honest. The overwhelming difficulty would have made it super difficult back in the day and I feel like that would even hurt the enjoyment level to an extent. Still with the power of rewinding thanks to the Switch Online it helps a lot. If you already have the service then it definitely makes sense to check this one out. My Genesis marathon still has quite a few titles left so get ready for more adventures soon!

Overall 6/10

Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite Review

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After all these years I have now gone ahead and bought the latest Marvel vs Capcom title. I feel like it never quite had the lasting power of MVC2 or 3 but it’s still a great fighting game with a bunch of characters. I also do appreciate that it has a full legitimate story beyond just intros and endings in arcade mode. So that gives it some points and at the end of the day it’s the kind of game that you can play with friends for hours.

The story starts off midway through. Marvel and Capcom’s universes have merged and it’s been 3 months since then. The heroes are trying to fight off Ultra Sigma from taking over all of the worlds and they are down to their last lines of defense. In order to win they are going to need all of the Infinity Stones. Obtaining them will not be easy though and they might even have to turn to a dangerous villain for aid.

It’s a fairly basic story but it gets the job done. My only real problem with it is that it starts 3 months later so everyone’s already friends so we missed all of the meetups. I feel like that takes a lot of the punch out of a crossover like this. It’s an okay story but I feel like just about anyone could easily write a more interesting one. It just plays things too safe and there is also no power level consistency here. You will see Chris Redfield overpowering Ultron droids and throwing them around yet I’m supposed to believe that Mega Man X and Hulk were losing ground against these guys? Nahhhhhhhhhhhh, but if you ignore all of the power levels and such at least you get to see your favorite characters winning and everything.

The gameplay is a classic 2 on 2 style. Gone are the days of 3 vs 3 but the gameplay is fairly polished. You also have the Infinity Stones in play which give extra powers and abilities. For the most part I’d say they’re kinda pointless but I guess they wanted to tie them in somehow. You have your auto combos in the game as well as a lot of more advanced ones that you would have to do by hand. Those would definitely be more effective but they take longer to master so that’s a very fair ratio.

While the artstyle isn’t the best, the graphics are still really solid. It’s great seeing the updated character models for everyone and the backgrounds as good. I also liked one cutscene in particular where we actually saw all of the characters fighting it out with Ultron. I think they spent most of the budget on that one but it was definitely cool. The soundtrack is a little more on the generic side. I didn’t notice any tunes that really caught my eye but I suppose that I definitely didn’t get to play on every stage.

In terms of replay value there is naturally a ton here. Aside from completing the story you can do arcade mode, play endless vs battles and of course aim for the Platinum. The trophies look like they would be rather difficult to obtain so that would last you a long while. Also in general it just goes without saying that fighting games are endless for replay value so long as the gameplay itself is good. Fortunately that very much is the case so there are really no issues there.

The story mode itself is shockingly easy for just about the whole game until the final boss. Suddenly the difficulty cranks up to 11. It’s a bit jarring at first because you get used to playing in a very sloppy fashion. Endless auto combos and everything but then suddenly you have to actually fight for real. It makes things interesting though so I appreciate that. It actually took me like 4-5 tries to take the guy down because he kept knocking me out before I could get the health all the way down. Even my very last attempt came down to the wire. So definitely don’t underestimate that boss.

In general it shows how rusty I am with this gameplay style though. There was once a time where I would have effortlessly solo’d the boss and now look at me? Barely scraping by when it counts. That was definitely an eye opener and ironically I do better against actual players since they won’t block my random supers the way that an A.I. does. I think they should code in the ability for a computer to fall for a random strategy every once in a while don’t you think?

There’s not a whole lot more to say about this one since it is fairly basic. I guess as a mild negative in a sense, I just think they could have done a bit more for this one. It almost feels in some ways like a smaller budget MVC title than you would expect from something on a PS4 console. Whether it’s making a longer story mode or inflating the character count a bit, you can tell that it doesn’t have quite the same level of effort as something like Super Smash Bros. Few things do of course but I felt like this game in particular really stood out. Like it could have been amazing if it tried just a little harder instead of being great.

Overall, Marvel vs Capcom Infinite is a great game. At the end of the day it’s a nice, fast paced 2D fighter with a good character roster. It’s not as ambitious as it could have been and might end up falling short compared to some of its competition in the modern fighting game arena but you’re bound to have a lot of fun here. Having a full story mode should be the norm nowadays so I hope they keep that up. If you have time for a good fighting game to dive into, then I definitely recommend jumping into this one.

Overall 8/10

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Review

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It’s time to look at Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, one of the greatest games of all time. This title is absolutely amazing and definitely a real special experience. I liked the first Remake game quite a lot and this one even exceeded it. You feel the grandness of the story all the way through while also allowing for a lot of fun interactions between the cast. There will be less time for that in the third game so this one really made the most of it. It’s due to this game that I finally own a PS5 and I’m sure it’s the same thing for a lot of people so Sony fans should definitely be grateful to this title.

The game picks up where the first one left off, with the gang fighting off Sephiroth. He’s still around though and now that the rest of the team has seen him, they don’t have to doubt Cloud anymore. Unfortunately finding Sephiroth will be difficult as he’s constantly running around with the speed of lightning while the heroes have to take cars and planes to catch him. The deeper their journey takes them into the world, the more they have to confront their doubts and dark pasts. Will the team be able to hold it together?

First off, this game is a fairly long RPG. We’re talking a full 40 hour experience right here. It’s pretty impressive and that’s considering that I didn’t do much in the way of bonus content. I awakened any towers in my way and explored a few ponds for items but for the most part I was plunging ahead to get to the core of the mystery. With the plot being this exciting, it’s just hard to want to do anything else. You just want to dive in and have a blast. Based on the amount of side content I saw here, I’d be willing to bet you could almost double the playtime.

There’s a whole mode for Queen’s Blood, a Yu-Gi-Oh type card game that has its own story. All of the opponents apparently have their own cutscenes, personalities, and it’s really very expansive. The gameplay reminds me of a board game I played not too long ago, Castle Keep or something like that. You want to have the most points in a line and you move based on the numbers on your card. It’s fairly easy to start but difficult to master because there’s a ton of strategy in it. There are tons of other minigames scattered between each world as well ranging from ocean based to space based.

Of course you also have the combat room to unlock new summons, tons of side quests, explorations, mini bosses, etc. They basically grabbed the whole hub world from Tears of the Kingdom and that’s just the side content. So yeah that’s super impressive. Then like I mentioned, the actual story is incredibly impressive. It’s just really emotional and intense the whole time. It adds a ton of extra context to the characters. Cloud’s role in particular is one that I mainly knew the extra details from data books and fan videos but now we actually get to see more of what he went through here. Unfortunately it does mean that he looks pretty bad in times. I would argue he looks significantly worse than in the original game because of that. Technically a lot of the actions are the same but this one has a lot of extra build up to set these moments up and it does feel like he has low will power as a result.

This wouldn’t be a modern Square Enix game without a ton of convoluted plot twists and story developments though so you can bet that it has changed a lot from the original. I’ll offer my ideas on what these twists mean in the spoiler section at the end but the less you know about the story the better. It really helps you to be able to just get out there and enjoy it. Zack’s role here is good but I’m still not sure it’s big enough to justify putting him on the cover. I’d have switched him with Aerith to be honest at least narratively. I’ll agree that having Zack there does look cooler since you have the 3 SOLDIERS at the front.

It also goes without saying that the graphics here are absolutely top tier. It’s one of the best looking games that I have ever played. Of course it’s my first PS5 title but I’d be willing to bet that it would look super sharp on the PS4 as well. Final Fantasy VII just doesn’t hold back. The soundtrack is also really good, I’ll be listening to some of those tunes quite a bit coming up. You’ve got fresh themes as well as a ton of remixes.

The gameplay is a 3D active turn based system. So you can move around and you can use normal attacks at will but to use any items or specials you have to build up enough energy to use them. It’s a pretty unique system since most titles will at least let you use items freely. So that means that you have to really bring your A game at all times because if you’re caught without meter for too long then you might die before you can use a revive or a potion. Not a particularly fun way to go out I have to say.

It’s a difficult style that does take some getting used to. Particularly if you don’t use the combat simulator to learn the basics. I’d say the most important thing is to just fight a lot and you’ll get all of the little intricacies down to an art. You really want to unlock as many synergies as possible as quickly as possible because those will help out a great deal during combat. A lot of them give you super armor and they also raise an enemy’s stagger meter quite a lot. Most bosses will be nearly impossible to defeat without them. You also have your limit breaks and materia of course. The materia you equip will allow you to use different spells so I recommend putting in as many as possible.

One thing to note is that all of your party members get EXP even if they aren’t present in the battle. The same is true for their equipped materia so make sure that you have everyone fully loaded at all times. It will save you a ton of headaches later on. Each one levels up very slowly after all. As for the characters, they level up rather quickly. To compensate for that, there aren’t a ton of minions in the various areas so beating them as you go will have you at the natural level but if you want to be overleveled then you should try to do side quests and extra bosses.

One trick to getting XP is to find a large enemy group that is easy to beat. Defeat all of them except for one and then hit retry battle. You keep the XP this way and can keep on fighting the same mob over and over again. This helps you get around their 15-20 minute cool down before showing up a second time. This is one game where I didn’t skip just about any enemy and for most of the game that worked out fine. I only ended up grinding once before the final boss for an extra few levels and then when I lost at the final boss, I had to grind for a few more hours.

I beat the game at level 50 but I would recommend trying to get to 55 or so in order to give you some more breathing room. One thing I have to warn you about is that you can get yourself trapped. Once you are over the halfway point for chapter 13, there is no way back. You have to complete that chapter and the next one without being able to leave for better weapons or summons. Unfortunately this means it is also very difficult to train since the only minions in the dungeon have a ton of durability or don’t give much EXP. It was one of the scarier moments for me since I was really at about the end of how far the training could take me. Fortunately I just barely managed to beat the boss. I nearly had to resort to lowering the difficulty level.

This final saga is tough for a few reasons but the main one is the time it takes to get there. If you lose and have to go back to change your equipment, then you have to redo 11 boss fights and a ton of unskippable cutscenes. To get back to where I was up to, it took me well over an hour. So that’s why I say better safe than sorry here, make sure you are at a really high level and have good gear before entering the dungeons. Otherwise you will definitely be in some trouble.

It’s kind of fitting in a way that I lost to the first boss in the game as I was still learning the controls and then I lost dozens of times to the final boss. It’s truly an end to end experience here. In terms of quality control I think that’s the one area the game slips in because there shouldn’t be a full lock out like that. If I was just a few levels lower than I could have been permanently stuck unless I entered easy mode.

I already talked about the replay value so have no fear, there is a lot to keep you busy. The Platinum for this game also looks really difficult. Beating the whole game on hard mode won’t be easy and then there’s one that looks like a lot of grinding where you have to get all of the items in the game. From the online stats, more people have beaten the game on hard than have done that, which is quite telling.

As for the story direction, without spoilers I can confirm that I like where it is going. It is pretty controversial that it has changed things from the first title but most of that should have died out with the first game since that’s where the divergence started. It’s not surprising that this one continued with that and even more so I would say. It’s considerably different but this lets us get a new story so I’m all for it. I’ll always be in favor of changing things up instead of just doing the same story for a second time. All right now the rest of the review’s going to involve spoilers so you can skip to the final paragraph for the wrap up or exit here until you have completed the game. Just have to wait 4 years to see how it all goes down.

Spoilers time All right so with all of the universe hopping and that ending there’s a lot to discuss. So first up, I would say that this is flat out a different Earth than the one of the original Final Fantasy VII. It seems like Sephiroth became aware of the multiverse at some point after his origin story which is basically the same as in the original/adapted in Last Order. In Last Order when he stabbed Tifa, it was obviously not a killing blow while in this game it seemed like it might have been from Cloud’s POV which is why he was suspicious. In this case I think Cloud just wasn’t thinking clearly and didn’t notice that she was alive.

Since Sephiroth is aware of the other timelines and universes, it’s why he is able to manipulate the fates. We see at multiple points in the game that he can take control of the body of any cloaked figure. At first this appears to just be Cloud hallucinating but I would say it is literally Sephiroth doing this. Similar to Slade in the Teen Titans episode where he was beating up on Robin, Sephiroth is trying to make Cloud look crazy and also to doubt his own senses which starts working.

We got some foreshadowing of this in Advent Children, where in that movie Kadaj is able to become Sephiroth temporarily by drinking the Sephiroth gene. Cloud ultimately defeats him there and in the film they’re referred to as remnants. Of course that takes place after the game but it’s the same concept. Additionally it implies that eventually he will be able to control Cloud once the degradation is complete which is why he is already able to influence Cloud. I don’t like how he is already able to completely control Cloud though to the point where he nearly murders both Tifa and Aerith in the story.

It’s great that Tifa is so patient with him the whole time but after a point he is basically becoming a villain here so she should probably keep her distance quite a bit. I don’t see how any of the characters can sleep soundly at night with how crazy Cloud gets in this one. The game goes all the way with showing how insane he is throughout. In fact in the ending I’m pretty sure he still is crazy and Aerith isn’t actually there. It would be really cool if she was and I’m sure a force ghost of her will appear at some point but right now I think that he’s just delusional.

We see Aerith get murdered by Sephiroth like in the original game. Cloud was too slow to save her and her hair gets cut off. When she shows up in the big final boss with Sephiroth, her hair is back to being long and the same is true for all of the cutscenes in the ending. Everyone ignores her except for Cloud so we can tell that they can’t see her at all. You could say that Cloud is able to see her ghost because he’s so close to the mako at this point but I don’t think that is the case. Additionally when he tells everyone to look up at the sky, they don’t see the rip in space. So yeah he’s completely seeing things differently from the cast which is scary but also exciting. You just know that’s going to escalate.

Also, the game adapts the final boss from the original FFVII. We flat out finished the game, albeit with some events skipped. So game 3 can really go in a ton of different directions. I think at this point I’d like to see them really double down on the multiverse. Bring in the original timeline Cloud, maybe even the Cloud from Kingdom Hearts. There is so much potential here and it’s all a real blast. That’s about it for now but I’ll be having a lot of fun watching all the different theory videos on this. One thing’s for sure, in this timeline the planet appears to be losing to Sephiroth so the heroes need to think of something and fast. With how he can keep body swapping and how his power level is so much higher than all of the other characters’ in the game they will really need a miracle to stop him. End Spoilers

Overall, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is a top tier title in every way. No exaggeration to say it’s one of the best of all time. It’s right up there with Adventure 2 Battle, Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and Kingdom Hearts II as one of the all time unforgettable titles. Super Smash Bros is still the greatest game of all time so I won’t use it in the same sentence for the comparison just yet. The amount of polish and detail that went into the game is incredible. As always RPG type games tend to be the best bang for your buck because of how long they last. A good fighting game can do the same thing of course as long as you have online access and a friend to fight with but with an RPG all you need is a controller and some time on your hands. I suspect the next game won’t be around for another 4 years at least but at least that gives us plenty of time to watch tons of videos with different theories about what will be coming up. That sure sounds exciting to me I gotta say and of course now the pressure on the 3rd game is going to be absolutely insane.

Overall 9/10

The Revenge of Shinobi Review

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All right, the Shinobi has returned for another adventure. This time he is going up against a bunch of different fighters who look like popular characters. Unfortunately this version is after the references were toned down a whole lot but it’s still fun to see them. The bosses stand out and the game has a real story but ultimately it still isn’t a great title. The gameplay isn’t all that high end if you ask me. It’s got its share of issues spread throughout the game with a difficulty level that almost doesn’t feel fair at some points.

Basically you can throw Kunai until you run out of ammo. Then you use your short blade to attack the other fighters. You can also use the blade by getting real close to an enemy even when you still have ammo. In general there are enough ammo boxes where you won’t run out of kunai too often. Typically this will only happen when you are fighting the bosses since they have so many invincibility frames everywhere that it can be hard to get through to them. Some enemies require you to wait until they temporarily expose a weak point and for others you just have to keep on blasting them. Naturally I preferred the latter but there is a fair mix of the two different types.

Then you have your special abilities. I couldn’t figure out how to toggle through them so I only used the thunder one. It’s really handy though, you temporarily get a barrier that is impossible to penetrate. With this barrier activated, you can really play hyper aggressively for a little while. I highly recommend saving this for when you fight the boss at the end of each area because it saves you a ton of rewinds. It’s not always possible to do that but it should be your goal.

You could also change up your weapons a bit at times although I didn’t fully understand how this works. You hold up or down it seems when you fire off the weapon and sometimes the kunai will turn into 3 or you will shoot off an energy blast instead. Either way I was pretty happy whenever that happened. You can also duck under some attacks so you should definitely get used to crouching whenever possible.

The controls themselves are fairly smooth. My only issue is with the double jump. Rather than be like most games where you just tap the jump button twice, you have to tap it at a specific time in order to land the double. This gets real tricky and I actually messed it up a whole lot of times. I wonder if there’s something else to it beyond the timing because I felt like I got the timing right a lot of times. Maybe it’s also in the angle or something.

You’ll get it eventually but it does result in a few jumps where you die but feel like you shouldn’t have though. Meanwhile the graphics are pretty solid. The third game will end up having a noticeable improvement even over this one but it has aged well. The color are dynamic and I like all of the stages. The soundtrack is actually good as well. So this one had a good budget behind it and is a very well rounded title.

The length isn’t very long but considering the kind of game it is, it would be more frustrating to replay if it was much longer. I still say just add check points and a level system but I’m not sure how common that was on the Genesis. There’s not much replay value but playing through it once is good enough. The final boss is fairly original with how he throws his hair at you the whole time. It’s extremely hard to dodge that attack and it took me a ton of tries. He doesn’t even look crazy hard at first but the trouble is with how fast the attacks move. If this was Mega Man you could just dodge because he moves fast but the Shinobi is rather slow in times like these.

It’s part of the difficulty in the game because you will see the attack coming and just won’t be able to dodge it. That’s always the worst part because deep down you know that this is no match for your gamer reflexes. You could absolutely outmaneuver the opponent but it just won’t work in the end. I’d like to see the character’s speed improve in the future because I think that would address some of the difficulty issues and also make you feel like you’re more in control which is always a good thing.

Overall, Revenge of Shinobi is a fun game. The difficulty level that take some of the joy out of it though. High difficulty can be a good thing as long as you have proper check points and a good level select system but in older games like this it would often be more of a deterrent than anything else. You don’t want to go back and play the whole game over again once you get a game over. Trust me, it just wouldn’t feel worth it at that point. Still, as long as you have the Switch Online you should give it a fair shot. It’s still a nice way to spend an hour or 2.

Overall 6/10

Golden Axe II Review

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It’s time to follow up the original Golden Axe with the sequel. This one is very similar to the first game to the point where you could almost think of it as unlocking some new levels. They did fix the magic system though which I appreciate. The A.I. is a bit easier as well so it’s easy to always trick them into pitfalls. I highly recommend doing that to save yourself some time. It’s not like there is an EXP system anyway right?

The game starts off with the villain returning to conquer the land once again. You must now put an end to these evil ambitions! Yeah it’s an extremely basic story all the way through. Not much is going on here at all in terms of the plot so you’re really just thrown into the gameplay once again. The game feels shorter than the first and you should have it completed in under an hour. I think part of that is due to the difficulty not being as high so I didn’t need to rewind quite as much.

The basic attack combo does more damage than the first game which I appreciate. The jumping attack does a little less but that balances out fairly well. Your hitboxes also seem a bit bigger so you can actually approach the enemy more often without having to worry about getting hit with some kind of a counter attack. I definitely enjoyed being able to be a little more active here. Additionally the magic system fixes the main issue I had with the first game.

In the first title, you could store up to 6 magic crests so that you can cast spells but you were always forced to use the all up in one shot. Your magic would be more powerful when using all 6 of course but sometimes you just wanted to use one or two. Well, in this game you can hold down the action button to determine how many magic orbs you want to use at once. You don’t have to actually fire everything off in one shot unless you really want to and I can’t stress enough what a massive quality of life upgrade this is.

In terms of graphics and soundtrack, it’s very similar to the first game. It sounds and looks fairly good/decent so I have no complaints here. The themes may not stand out a whole lot but they work well enough within the context of what’s going on. It’s high budget enough to assist the gameplay but also not quite impressive enough to amplify it either. So it’s sort of in that happy middle ground.

I mentioned this in the intro, but if you see any area where you can fall, absolutely make sure to bring the enemies over there. It saves you a lot of health from having to beat them. Basically the trick is to exploit the fact that the A.I. mirror your movements. So just go a little to the left or right of the pitfall and walk down. Keep going and they will keep repeating the action until they fall over. It wasn’t so easy in the first game so I wonder why that switched. Granted, there aren’t many areas where you can fall so it is still a decently rare occurrence.

All of the different bosses tend to be very unique so the game did a good job of not copying them. Most of the bosses tend to be a bit easier than the minions since you only have to deal with one opponent. The exception to this is the final boss though who is incredibly difficult to defeat. That’s because he constantly summons new minions to attack you. He brings out up to 3 at a time and while they are weak, this is the kind of game where sheer numbers are hard to deal with. No matter how careful you are, a lucky hit will get through and deal a lot of damage.

You already have to approach the boss carefully as it is so this also messes with the timing. Then there’s the time factor because if you leave him alone for too long, the boss hits you with an unavoidable, unblockable magic attack. So you have to hit him before he gets that off, meaning you have to stay really close to him. This boss took me quite a while to defeat due to that. Get ready for a lot of rewinding or if not, a ton of game overs at this point. This is the kind of game where you have to start from scratch if you get a game over and let me tell you…that’s not very fun. Particularly when you lose at the end because in the back of your mind you know it could happen again at which point you will lose all of your progress.

Overall, Golden Axe II is pretty much just the first game all over again but the gameplay did have some improvements that I appreciated. The short length becomes more noticeable in this iteration though so that’s something to keep in mind. You will absolutely be blasting through this game at record pace. So it’s a fun title but definitely keep that part It keeps this one from going any further but it’s still worth a playthrough if you have the Switch Online.

Overall 6/10

Phantasy Star IV Review

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Phantasy Star IV may be known as one of the easiest in the series and all but I had a good amount of trouble with it. The enemies are very dangerous and it takes a long time to level up in order to beat them. I’m always impressed at how people coast by these RPGs on such low levels. It goes to show that there is a whole lot of strategy that you can use once you have really mastered the system. As more of a casual RPG player I had to compensate by getting lots of level ups. So the game took me longer than most but I was still able to clear it.

The basic plot is about the eternal battle between light and dark. The light has won the last few rounds but now The Dark One has returned to cause a lot of mayhem and destruction at every corner. A dark plague has begun to get many people sick and it’s hard to know what to do. The main fighter for the heroes ends up going down early and so her sidekick must prove himself. Does he really have what it takes to fight against ultimate evil when he is still just a kid? Well, he’s about to learn the answer to that because ready or not…this is one battle that cannot be avoided.

Right out of the gate one thing I really liked about this game is that it had actual illustrations during the cutscenes. This is clearly a really high budget Genesis game and it is leagues above all of the others that I have played on the console. This absolutely could have been onto the next console and it still would have worked really well. There are a good amount of cutscenes here in general. The hub world is rather big, particularly since it is split up into 2-3 worlds. You have quick travel which is excellent as well as different vehicles to drive around in.

There are a lot of good quality of life features in here. The enemy spawn rate is rather high so you will be seeing a lot of minions but more times than not, you can outrun them. The only real downside here is that level ups take a while like I mentioned. I feel like the EXP wasn’t set up perfectly because you always feel like the minions should give a little more considering how long the battles take. Once you find the perfect area you can do fairly well with the battles but it’s still more work than the average RPG.

The gameplay is classic turn based combat with different spells, techniques, and physical attacks. You should play around with them and at times you may even use a combo by mistake. This seems to be part RNG but if you choose the right attacks in the right order then your allies will land a hit at the same time. I could never figure this out exactly but it was fun when it would work. Except ironically in one instance where it turned into a combo attack that the enemy boss was immune to, so I lost a turn there.

Aside from the graphics being solid, the soundtrack is also on point here. There are a lot of good themes throughout the game ranging from the battle themes to even the main tune when you first open the title. It has a lot of energy throughout and that’s always a good thing because it really gets you pumped to play the rest of the game. There may not be much replay value once you have beaten the game but the main story is already long enough where that’s no problem. It took me at least 15 hours or so to complete it and apparently there are side quests so you can work on that. Maybe there’s even a post game but I’m not sure how that would work here since beating the game takes you back to the loading page. I would have to double check that.

In terms of tips, this is one of the only games where I would recommend not equipping a weapon for some of your fighters. It’s way better to have the double shields for a lot of defense. Yeah I know that sounds crazy but it’s surprisingly worth it. I initially started out with 5 attack builds but they would all get shredded in an instant. So you want two medics that only heal and can use magic and then the other 3 can have their signature weapons. In general the concept of having to choose between equipping a weapon or shield is an interesting one. It definitely adds some extra depth.

Another reason the game can be really difficult is the way the techniques and skills are labeled. The game doesn’t provide you with any descriptions for any of them and the titles are super abbreviated so it can be hard to tell what does what. You will need to consult with an online guide for that or you will be really doomed there. You definitely need to be using the right abilities to defeat the boss. If nothing else, just test them all out against minions. By the end I was still confused on some of the abilities and why they would work on some enemies and not others…but as long as you beat the bosses that’s what counts.

Overall, Phantasy Star IV is a pretty fun game. Definitely make sure you grind levels quite often or you will get stuck though. I had to reach around level 45 before I was able to beat the game and even then it was super close. The bosses will randomly throw out crazy attacks that down your party sometimes so you have to hope that RNG is on your side. Towns don’t sell many items in this game either so if you get lost in a dungeon then it’s all over. Yeah, I would definitely say that this was one of the harder RPGs that I’ve played.

Overall 7/10