Category Archives: Reviews

Knuckles Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time to look at the Knuckles spinoff show that came out a while back. This one definitely got pretty infamous online for a bunch of reasons. After watching it, I can say that the show was pretty fun. It’s definitely very comedic with a lot of slapstick and silly moments so you definitely need to keep this in mind. It’s absolutely not a big action thriller series or anything like that. How much you enjoy the series will probably depend on what you’re looking for in this title.

The story starts with Wade losing to a little girl in bowling so Wade’s best friend fires him from the bowling team. Their friendship is effectively over now and Wade has hit rock bottom. His father ditched him at a TJ Maxx a long time ago too and Wade never really got over this. The trauma has been too much and so Wade has begun to believe the people who call him a loser. Fortunately Knuckles shows up and declares that he will help Wade win the world championship of bowling. This will help Wade get his self esteem back as well as giving him a chance to defeat his father. Will Wade be able to pull this off?

If you’re wondering why Wade showed up, he was given this mission by the elder Echidna. Knuckles had been on house arrest but this mission takes priority. It won’t be easy though because Wade really does have serious confidence issues. Technically his bowling abilities are already elite but he just needs to find a way to not choke under pressure. It’s a tougher predicament than you would expect. Also there are some villains running around who want to get Knuckles’ power. Without Sonic to bail him out, Knuckles will need Wade to step up.

So like I said, none of this is played seriously. You’ll have a serious moment sandwiched in between 10 comedic moments. How seriously you take these brief moments is really up to you since the show doesn’t seem to really be all that concerned. I would say this is the definition of an irony show. For example Knuckles will say something heartfelt, then 3 characters jump in with jokes and witty banter. Then Wade will say something heartfelt and the music swells up….only for him to throw a joke in and then everyone groans in the show.

In that way you can say that even the serious moments are a form of comedy so that just makes the show funnier. You can absolutely pick up some good messages and moments in here but they are buried several layers deep beneath the humor. Sonic has a good speech in episode 1 for example as he sits Knuckles down and gives him a good talk. I definitely did miss Sonic after that since he was gone for the rest of the show. I would have liked to have had him at least show up near the end. The show finishes pretty abruptly without any screentime and guest star appearances from the side characters.

The fight scenes aren’t bad. They aren’t played super serious either but we get a fun fight between Knuckles and Mason. Mason’s gauntlets allow him to fight on par with Knuckles in terms of physical abilities which is really pretty impressive. Now there are a lot of power level issues with the series as a whole so you will want to keep that in mind. The speed rarely ever makes any sense because somehow these guys are tagging Knuckles consistently when by all accounts he should be much faster than them. It doesn’t make sense and in a way it’s not really supposed to. All you need to know is that Knuckles has the combat speed of an average human and while his strength is pretty good, it’s nothing crazy. As long as you keep that in mind then the fights make a lot more sense all around.

While Knuckles talks a great game throughout the show, he does take his share of losses. Even by the end of the series he is soundly defeated instead of coming out on top. As strong as he is, Knuckles tends to be overconfident a lot of the time. Fortunately he has Wade there to help him out. Knuckles may not always be quick on the uptake but he’s a fun character to have around.

As for Wade, he’s essentially an Adam Sandler kind of character. He’s not very good at most things and gets pushed around a whole lot but eventually he gets up and makes everyone take notice of him. His sister constantly makes fun of him and beats the poor guy up to which Wade has no real answer. He just goes off to cry sometimes and that’s not the best way to handle that situation at all. He has delusions of grandeur and at times displays a confidence that isn’t earned but those moments tend to be fleeting.

You sort of root for Wade to at least win in bowling but even then I would put some asterisks. For example he is quick to turn on his mom just to impress his father without taking any time to think about it. He was not making the right calls there at all. It’s fine for Wade to be gullible because that’s actually rather expected to a large degree but then you can’t also have him be rude or mean in general. That’s a combination that is just not going to work.

So he’s a fun character for the messing around scenes but definitely isn’t the guy you want to have for the serious moments. As for his sister Wanda, well she makes for a fun antagonist. She really puts him through the wringer at all times. She just constantly has to make a fool out of Wade which isn’t all that hard but even goes as far as to physically attack him at times. Wade has no real answer for this and so she tends to dominate him in all of their interactions. Her personality can be a bit one note so the screentime may be a bit much after a while. This is the kind of show that is not afraid to run a joke into the ground.

Then we have Wendy who tends to be a bit oblivious. She seems nice enough but doesn’t notice when Wanda is picking on Knuckles and likes to both sides every issue. That’s not the right way to handle these kinds of issues. If anything, you could say that is definitely the wrong way to do it since that is often going to mean letting the instigator off easy. She talks tough and actually backs it up during the kitchen fight so I give her some credit there.

Now the real standout character here was Mason. He is one of the main two villains who is after Knuckles the whole time. He is super cocky and loves to make one liners/throw out insults the whole time. You want a villain like that to keep Knuckles honest. This guy is also clearly having a lot of fun with the whole situation and isn’t taking things too seriously. Another good sign if you ask me. Mason is just on a different level from the others and really did come close to beating Knuckles.

His partner Willoughby is the more serious one of the group. She’s always trying to ruin his one liners and telling him to focus. She isn’t as lethal in a fight since she uses an energy instead of gauntlets but is good at throwing the ring portals to trap her opponents. That is a huge help for any big fight because you can ring out your opponent which is what she did to Knuckles. She’s also rather ruthless like how she murdered a Gun agent near the beginning of the show.

Then we have Jack who is a bounty hunter and turns against Wade when the chips are down. He has a lot of aura to be sure but doesn’t get the most dignified finish. By the time the show is over, he has traded in a whole lot of dignity and you can tell that he won’t be getting it back. I did like his confidence though, you always want to have that at least. A part of him just figured that he would never lose to Wade in a million years and in most cases he would be right. He just let his guard down.

The final boss is a guy who doesn’t even get a name. He has a good robot that actually takes Knuckles down but that’s about all that you can say for him. The guy doesn’t have any real super powers or anything and the lack of screen time hurts him. He works as a final boss but I would have much preferred Mason just show up. There is only so much you can do with a fight against a giant robot and so naturally the climax was pretty short.

Of course for the human final boss we have Wade’s father Pete. I like how antagonistic Pete is here. He’s not some guy who feels remorseful about what he has done. No, he is someone who really wants to keep on winning at bowling no matter what. His only loyalty is to himself but he has done a good job of crafting his public persona so that everybody loves him. That takes a good amount of dedication to his craft. He is also just very skilled with how many strikes he gets in a row. This guy was definitely more of a true final boss.

While the series may be fairly standalone, it was fun to still see some slice of life Sonic adventures. We learned Knuckles’ origin through song and the show also had a large variety of popular songs. Even the classic Hero song got to appear which was definitely nice. That song will always be a true classic. So the soundtrack gets a thumbs up along with the special effects here. On a technical level, the Knuckles show absolutely succeeds.

Ultimately as long as you like comedies then you should like this one. If you don’t like comedies then it’ll be a hard pass so that should make the decision easy for you. If we ever did get a second season, well I’d definitely be checking it out. At the end of the day a show like this is easy to watch and makes for an enjoyable binge. That’s the #1 goal of any show.


Overall, Knuckles is a pretty good show. I had a lot of fun with it and you can bet that you’ll crack a smile here and there. While not all of the jokes will land, most of the ones that miss will end up being funny because of how much of a miss they were. Wade’s whole gimmick is essentially that he’s not funny so every time he tries to do something, that is what makes it humorous. He tries to get Knuckles to enjoy a lot of his songs after all and they all fall flat. In a way that takes some skill because you’d think that you would land at least a few songs. This just wasn’t Wade’s moment. Hopefully he gets a bigger role in the next Sonic movie so he can actually use his vague super powers.

Overall 7/10

Explorers Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for a film about a few kids who decide to explore the unknown and have some wacky adventures. Generally this kind of film isn’t really my style. The kids usually aren’t the greatest main characters and you’re just waiting for the grownups to step in. Additionally this time the plot seems a little unfocused with subplots not really going anywhere. The real world plot was also a lot more interesting than space which is something that should really never happen. That’s when you know that the film made some strategic errors.

The film starts with a kid named Ben having some dreams that look like what you would see in a Tron film. All kinds of sci-fi computer chips and such. Fortunately he is good at drawing what he sees and so his super genius friend Wolfgang is able to make an invention out of this. It’s a sort of bubble that can travel across large distances. So naturally they build a spaceship during the night. Now they are ready to space but is this safe? There may even be some aliens out there.

One thing I’ll give the film credit for is not making the main 3 kids jerks or anything like that. For all intents and purposes they are good kids. Perhaps a bit too eager to grow up like with drinking beer and Ben having a huge crush but they aren’t juvenile delinquents or anything like that. They just have a ton of free time so they may as well get to inventing. The film is a good portrayal of how you can have fun doing anything when you’ve got some friends at the ready.

I will also say that the effects are pretty solid. Again, that Tron type world in the dreams looks really good. The flying around may be less impressive but all in all you can tell that some real effort went into this production. The soundtrack is also very lively. Perhaps not something that you will be jamming to but at least you can’t say that the music is invisible. I will always prefer a loud soundtrack to a movie where you don’t remember what any of the tunes were at all.

Now on the weaker parts, well like I said the characters aren’t the greatest. Ben is basically your average kid but he has a huge crush on a girl at school and basically isn’t able to talk to her at all without stuttering. The romance is really not developed well at all and doesn’t make any sense. Lori and Ben have almost no time for any interactions during the movie so the ending just feels really obligatory.

Lori is okay I suppose but of course she doesn’t really have much character either. By all accounts she’s a nice person within the school but that’s about it. Then you have Darren who seems to have grown up in a rather rough environment. He was pretty hesitant about going back home for example. This doesn’t really go anywhere though so we just have to hope that things got better for him later on. At school he was quick to defend Ben from the bullies so that was good.

From the 3 main kids he would definitely be my favorite. After that we have Wolfgang who is the genius who builds everything. He’s certainly very smart and is a good sport about things but also tends to panic a lot. He worries about every possibility and doesn’t live in the moment as much as the other two. You want him on your team to build everything but he needs to lighten up a bit.

Now the film does have a pretty interesting concept that is introduced about a shared dream world that can be accessed through an alien gizmo. While you are dreaming is when you go to this kind of Tron world. This is how the kids have the blue print for the ship and so it served as a map of sorts. Alien tech is always pretty interesting even if there aren’t a lot of explanations going around. Why is this even a thing and what causes other people to be pulled into it? The main kids all share this world after a while and eventually even Lori gets in there.

The space act is just rather boring like I mentioned before. You have a weird alien who flirts with one of the kids and everyone else starts talking using pop culture references and such. It kind of makes sense that aliens would only know humanity through TV if the signals are all that they could grab. Although at the same time I feel like it means their intelligence is pretty low. Every film still has some kind of a plot, even commercials so shouldn’t they be able to talk normally instead of just using memes and big sound bites?

I mean the aliens are clearly intelligent because they were able to invent all of this technology. It reminds me of when in a show some animals will speak perfect English and then raise a kid who speaks broken English. Like why would that even happen? It just doesn’t make sense once you actually think about it. The film thinks the aliens are absolutely hilarious though so their scenes feel like they go on for quite a long while but get repetitive real fast. The aliens also just seem like creeps so it was probably good to ditch them.

As a result of spending so much time on the alien world we had to abruptly end the plot about two rangers finding out about the UFO and one of them being particularly obsessed with it. He basically just pulls a Spiderverse “Not bad kid” as they dash off in the UFO. Pretty convenient outcome for the kids since he won’t be telling anybody about the ship or doing anything about it. That felt really abrupt and it’s a shame because we could have had a fun government angle.

Overall, This film feels like it’s a bit all over the place. I actually think it could have been a fairly decent school story although it’s not like it would have been amazing or anything like that. Instead going to space was a total mistake and this film is a reminder to me on why you want some adult main characters. The kids are not able to hold their own at all here. It’s a pretty harmless film, no big issues but it’s not really going to be holding your interest either. I’d say to watch Back to the Future instead if you want some slice of life shenanigans.

Overall 5/10

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance Review

Posted on by
Reply


Fire Emblem is one of those titles that is so cool and incredible that you have a hard time believing that it is actually a Nintendo product. The games always have real storylines to them as well as high stakes. People are dying here and the gameplay is quite difficult. The game is not going to be holding your hand at all as you go through all of the maps. Yes, the game also has perma death so if any of your allies die, then they are gone for good. While the game is on the Switch Online, there is no rewind for Gamecube games so that gets tricky as well.

The main character here is Ike and he’s a part of a mercenary guild run by his father. Unfortunately his father is defeated by The Black Knight which forces Ike to take command. He must help a princess escape her fate of death by delivering her to a neighboring country but it won’t easy. The world is divided up into around 8 countries and they had been in a state of peace for a long time until one kingdom suddenly invaded Crimea. Now all of the lands are potentially going to get wrapped up in this. Ike’s standard bodyguard mission just got a whole lot more dangerous.

First off I have to say that Ike is really a great main character. He is always ready for a fight and he doesn’t bother with the usual pleasantries. He isn’t going to play the game of the rich just because he needs their help. Ike has always been a mercenary and so he is all about producing results instead of just playing nice. His troops really trust him as a result, well except for two who run off for their own solo journeys. As with most Fire Emblem games you will have the chance to recruit a bunch of characters or destroy them yourself. It’s not always an intentional choice as some can only be recruited by specific units and others will die before you get to them.

Generally I tried to recruit everyone but I did end up missing out on quite a few. The game is fairly long with 30 chapters and the character cast is huge. Even as late as chapter 25 you are gaining new units to help you out in battle. I believe the last one may even be around 27 although I wasn’t really keeping track by then. There are so many characters in the game that you will want to settle on a few to take into battle or your resources will be spread too thin.

Each level has a certain amount of characters that you can bring into the battle. Typically the limit is around 13 but this can go as high as 19. Generally I would try to keep my group between 8-10 fighters. The reason for this is two-fold. The first is that the more guys you have on the field, the harder it is to protect everybody. You have healers, warriors, archers, etc. The healers must be protected and so each one will require around 3 bodyguards to keep them totally safe. That slows your guys down from breaking into the enemy camp.

Most of these levels reward high levels of offense so if you stay back then they will begin summoning a lot of backup over and over again. That puts you in a potentially unwinnable position so you don’t want that to happen to you. Also, it’s hard to keep everyone at a high level when each character is fighting for EXP. There are no side battles or retreat options in this game meaning there is absolutely no way to grind EXP. All you have it what you get from each level which you can distribute among the team between chapters.

You can see how this would get very dicey after a while when you have nearly 30 army fighters. So trust me when I say you want to keep the army small. Additionally, it just makes every level a lot quicker since there is less loading times between every turn on all factions. Even then it can be hard to guess what the enemy will do. Strategy is 95% of the game but the other 5% is pure RNG.

I’ll explain, so the main gameplay here is an overhead turn based system. Your objective is always to either murder the enemy king, arrive at a destination, or seize a castle. You usually don’t have a timer on how long it takes to get there, you just have to complete the mission. Now where it gets tricky is each character has a different amount of movement options based on their class. You have to keep track of all of yours as well as the opponents.

Then adding onto that you are able to see how much damage your unit will deal to an opposing one and vice versa. This lets you pick who will fight and when to move each unit. Where the 5% luck comes in is that there are critical hits and misses. Either one can completely flip the tides of battle and any death will set you back in a major way. You should always try to have some leeway but that’s not going to be possible in some instances. So that’s when you just have to hope that your opponent doesn’t suddenly land a bit critical hit.

The game feels fairly generous so typically you’ll be the one landing criticals and dodging hits. Just remember that it can go the other way around as well. Between chapters it is important to visit the shop and the forge to keep your guys properly equipped. As soon as you unlock the silver weapons, you will want to put that on everybody. For that reason I didn’t spend any money until around chapter 20 and that’s when I started arming everyone properly. It really makes a huge difference.

In terms of who the best units are, I would say Titania and Marcia were my two MVPs. For most of the game I could send Titania into a 7 vs 1 fight and she would win. She is absolutely unstoppable. The only downside is it means she can be a bit of an EXP hog and so she hit her max level with around 10 chapters still to go. Still worth it if you ask me. Marcia is also super strong with incredible range. She isn’t quite as durable though so I always had to be careful with her.

Ike is naturally strong as well. He ended up being my third best fighter with the axe wielder in 4th. The beasts tend to be strong as well and you definitely want to use the guy who gives you two turns. Unfortunately the mages felt nearly useless in this one so I highly recommend keeping them on the bench. They’re just way too weak and can die in a single hit. Same for a bunch of the other fighters. I assume they get better over time but without a way to grind, it felt too risky. Fire Emblem titles always have some fighters who are stronger than others though so in this game Titania was just the right character to have around.

The main campaign should take you over 20 hours to complete so you are getting a lot of content right there. The flip side is that there isn’t a whole lot of replay value here without side modes. You could try playing through the game with different party members or some self inflicted challenges though. It’s fine though because when the main campaign is long then you don’t really mind all of that too much. A multiplayer mode would be pretty fun but odds are that you are playing this one for the big story.

Overall, This was a great game and it is definitely a top tier Fire Emblem experience! It really makes me hyped to get more Fire Emblem titles down the road. I’m really early on in my journey here so I really do need to fix that. Should I get the remake of the first game, the iconic Awakening, or the really controversial Three Houses? They’re all right up there but in the meantime I highly recommend picking this game up if you have the Switch Online. It gives you a whole lot of bang for your buck and is a really well crafted game.

Overall 8/10

Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of Deep Night Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for a quick Sword Art Online adventure. Of course that means Kirito gets to take the center stage once more so that’s always fun. I thought that going back to the classic days of Sword Art Online was a brilliant decision but it’s a shame that it takes so long for these titles to come out. I want them to adapt all the floors already! Well, in the meantime this is definitely a fun title although it is held back quite a lot by the random fanservice thrown in. The series is quite shameless when it comes to this area which is too bad.

The mini series starts with Asuna challenging Kirito but she is taken down very quickly. This discourages her quite a lot since the gap should not be quite this big. What she lacks is confidence more than skill. It’s hard to just obtain that though and Kirito is no help since he has always been able to show up in the big moments. Asuna will have to just try to keep on moving forward. Unfortunately there appears to be a weird underground group that is trying to stir up tensions between the two big armies in the Sword Art Online world. Everyone is stuck in this death game until it is cleared so who would be causing trouble like this?

Kirito and Asuna spend part of the volume trying to get to the bottom of this mystery while also just hanging out and making memories. They visit a nice cafe for drinks and even collect some treasure. At this point they have a solid amount of trust between the two of them but it isn’t absolute yet. A good example of this is when Kirito decides to head off into the caverns alone to deal with the villains instead of bringing Asuna along. Kirito says all the right things but it comes down to him not trusting her enough to be a part of that fight without slowing him down.

Sure enough, it wasn’t Asuna’s best moment as she allows herself to be disarmed which grants the villains a powerful weapon but she does make up for the blunder. Asuna also gets to fight against Argo one on one which was pretty fun. I would have expected Asuna to have done better but I suppose this was pretty early on in her career. Give it a few more months and Asuna would easily be claiming victory here.

While Asuna does panic a lot, she is definitely better than in the last volume. She blew up at Kirito way too many times in that one and just didn’t seem as mature as she should be given the circumstances. In this volume, while she panics in dangerous situations a bit, at least you can see the improvement and character growth. She is gradually gaining more confidence.

Meanwhile Kirito looks great as always. He was absolutely not going to let the villains get away with their plans and found a way to manipulate both sides into doing what he needed them to. It wasn’t a solo effort as Argo helped a lot with the information and they both had allies to help. Kirito is just the guy with enough ability to make it all work together. He is completely indispensable in that area. I’d have liked to see him take the two saboteurs down himself though. In every encounter there was some kind of extenuating circumstance that prevented a true fight.

With 3 volumes there isn’t too much time f a lot of adventure but they squeezed in a good amount of Kirito and Asuna bonding moments. Additionally the whole third volume is for the floor boss which was a good decision because that boss as really intense. I really enjoyed the theme that he got in the movie and the manga definitely makes him an imposing figure as well. So the manga’s final volume really flies by. The pacing is super fast and you can’t go wrong with nonstop action. The enemy is rather huge so there isn’t a lot of hand to hand action this time around. Think of it more as a platforming challenge as Kirito and the others have to keep jumping around and trying to dodge all of the blows.

Now like I mentioned before, the fanservice does hurt the series quite a bit here. This would be an easy 7-8 just for the fun action and all but the constant fanservice does knock it down a few pegs. It’s not as extreme as the last one but does keep this as being in the middle as a passable series rather than being a good one all the way. It’s a shame that every Sword Art Online product seems to have an asterisk next to what would otherwise be known as an incredible adventure. At least we have a video game coming up which shouldn’t run into that problem.

In some ways the series s also going to be a bit limited in what they can add in the early floors. We already know that Laughing Coffin will turn out to be the name of the organization to which the two saboteurs are a part of. I’m looking forward to the big war since that is generally off screen in the Aincrad story. That said, you can’t really add a rival to Kirito and there aren’t too many humans you can add without dramatically changing the tone of the series. So we’ll see what they do to keep the ideas fresh as we go through the series but a part of me doesn’t think we’ll ever even make it to the 10th floor so it’s probably a non issue.

The artwork is really good here, I think it has improved from the last one. The action scenes are really sharp and there is always a lot of detail here. Naturally that does backfire when you have some of the fanservice moments since less detail would be good there but this doesn’t feel like some kind of cash-in/tie-in manga. It feels like a legit adventure so I appreciate the effort there. The pacing is good and it’s definitely a reminder of how much you can get done in a 3 volume series.

I’ll also give a quick nod to Kirito and Asuna still being one of the few pairings that actually works. The shipping is done well and this is the kind of slow burn style that I like to see. The characters are taking their time and so you get to really believe in the bond between them. I enjoy the banter and they never take it too far. Their personalities are also quite different and just work together. I guess what I’m saying is that this romance really works in every possible way and I imagine that is where a lot of the appeal for the Progressive series comes from. It’s a chance to see the two of them hanging out a lot without the constant end of the world stakes from the main arcs.

Overall, I can’t fully recommend this one but it is a cool novelty to see Kirito and Asuna fight. The outcome may be obvious from the start but it doesn’t make the experience any less entertaining. Hopefully next time we can get a longer battle though as this one ends almost instantly. You’ll finish the volume wanting more Sword Art adventures which shows that this one did a good job on the intrigue at least. Stay tunes for the next manga title!

Overall 5/10

Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos Review

Posted on by
Reply


Fullmetal Alchemist is known as one of the greatest manga and anime titles of all time. No matter what circle you’re in, people talk about this series with a great amount of reverence. Would the movie really be able to live up to such a high reputation? Well, I thought it was a really solid one, I’d say another great addition to the franchise. Now personally, I thought there was quite a lot of action in the title but apparently that’s not the main view. It may not be a ton of punch, punch scenes but there’s always a lot going on. Mix that in with a good story and I’d say that we’re in a good place here.

The series starts with a crook escaping just like in episode one of Brotherhood. Just like with that instance, Edward and Alphonse are clowned by the villain as he escapes. They are then roped into what will be one of the more intricate political problems they have had to deal with. Surely it’s not as bad as finding out that the leader of your country is a biological monster trying to destroy the world right? So they follow a clue into a small country/land that has fallen into ruin. It has the unfortunate luck of being right in the middle of two larger countries which are always fighting each other.

All of the spillover damage constantly ravages this place and its people. They cannot escape either as neither country will allow them passage. So everything sucks down there and it comes as no surprise that this has fueled a bunch of terrorist/resistance fighters. You have one group that wants to liberate the country by picking a side and another that wants to take both of them down. Naturally the former is more realistic but how do you choose? There aren’t a lot of easy answers here and even by the end of the film you can’t say that the situation is resolved. Ed and Alphonse do their best and the film does try to have an optimistic ending but it depends how much you buy into it.

The film is fairly long which is a good thing because there is definitely a whole lot of story going on here. I will say right off the bat that they do a pretty good job of keeping things interesting. Ordinarily you don’t want to be adding a bunch of original characters and making the whole film based on them. Naruto in particular always got a lot of shots taken at it for having the classic princess of the week at every turn. Well, at least in this one the characters are very memorable and have a lot of motivations so it works.

I’ll get into the characters in a second but first I will warn you that Ed and Alphonse look pretty weak as always. That’s nothing new since they lose a ton of fights in the main series as well. For that reason I wasn’t really torn up about that. It would be one thing if they looked out of character or something but looking weak isn’t a really big deal. I was disappointed that Roy doesn’t get any on screen fights this time though. I get that he’s a bit overpowered but cmon, at least show the fire abilities off a little bit. The fact that he gets a fight and it’s off screen is even more puzzling than if he didn’t have any fights.

The animation is really smooth and looks top tier as you would expect. I definitely have no issues with the film on that front. You’ve come to expect nothing less from the series by this point though. Then we have the soundtrack which is decent. I wouldn’t say anything to write home about but it works well enough. So the technical effects are as good as needed.

Now as for the characters. First we have Melvin who is a wanted fugitive. Seems like your classic brawler type but he gets several plot twists in the film. On the surface he just wants to save his sister Julia and get her out of this war torn territory. Seems nice enough minus the violence but it’s not like he really has a whole lot of legal options here since all the governments are against him. Naturally the guy starts to go more and more off the rails as the film goes on. He is absolutely and unapologetically a villain all the way through, nothing ambiguous here.

You could say that he gets a little overconfident though. Honestly the plan wasn’t bad and he got super close to victory. Once he was in reach of the stone, he shouldn’t have been stopped so easily. Although in the original series I also thought that the Philosopher’s stone wasn’t quite as impressive as it was cracked up to be. Yes, it does allow you to do alchemy with no penalty or sacrifice but Ed can already do it without seals. As for the whole equivalent exchange part, there is always something on hand so it doesn’t feel like a big penalty.

We still do get a nice fight at the end though so that was nice. Meanwhile Julia is sort of dragged around the place with everyone wanting her on their side but I was glad that she was standing up for herself by the end. She ultimately chose to help the resistance and wasn’t going to let herself be misled in the meantime. I do feel like the heroes guilt tripped her a bit about the stone though. I get not wanting to create a stone since you need to sacrifice souls to it. 100% on board there. However, once it has already been created, I feel like you may as well use it. Try to build a better tomorrow with it instead of just breaking it. Ultimately the situation evolves to a point where she has no choice but the heroes are way too hesitant about using it.

Then we have Herschel who feels like he didn’t think things through nearly as well as the others. My main problem with him is that the guy feels a bit abrupt in his scenes by the end. He just shows up out of nowhere and while that can work in theory, I just have a hard time seeing his end game play out. Even if Ed and Al weren’t there to stop him, he doesn’t have enough allies to make a big difference. The guy just came off as super crazy and the first villain was a lot more interesting.

Overall, I had a good time with this film though. There were definitely a lot of moving pieces with how many factions were running around. You had werewolves, the armies, etc. If you are looking forward to Ed and Alphonse dominating then this film isn’t for you, but otherwise I would say this is a strong all around title. It’s the kind of film that is pretty accessible even if you’re not familiar with the series because of how detailed the world building here is. You could even use it as a pilot and then watch the main series with how similar the start and setup is to the first episode.

Overall 8/10

The Tower of Druaga Review

Posted on by
Reply


This is easily one of the worst NES titles that I’ve played. I’m afraid it just hasn’t held up at all. Any game where you have a missable item that makes completing the title almost impossible is definitely going to be a thumbs down from me. It’s a super obscure gameplay decision but this isn’t the first time that I’ve run into this. So that’s already a bad thing against this title. The gameplay actually had some potential too so that’s what makes this one sad.

There are 50 levels in the game. You essentially start off in a Pac-Man type of maze. You have to find the key that is scattered somewhere within the maze and then use that to unlock a treasure chest. When you’ve done that then you will have completed the level. Rinse and repeat for 50 levels. There are various enemies and ghosts that will try to get in your way. If any of them touch you, then you lose a life. You seem to be able to slash at them and can defeat most enemies but it is unclear on exactly what enemies you can defeat. I didn’t have very much luck with defeating them.

So far this doesn’t sound so bad right? It means you will be getting a good amount of exploration done and you have to move quietly and carefully so that you don’t bump into the enemies. Well, the main problem comes midway through the game when the title suddenly turns the lights off. Now you can’t see anything and it turns out that the reason for this is because there is an item you have to get from one of the minions. This would have worked as a flashlight of sorts and by missing it, you are now in big trouble. With the help of rewind I was able to power through 2 of the dark levels but it takes an incredibly long amount of time to do that in each instance. It’s definitely not easy, to put it mildly.

This was an absolutely massive misstep by the game. It makes the later levels virtually unplayable as a result. Not only can you not see the various paths but you can’t even see the enemies in some cases which causes you to bump into them. Your only recourse is to start the game from scratch. When that is the only thing to do, you have essentially failed at being a game. There should never be a case where you are effectively soft locked like this.

To an extent you can get a small pass on this in strategy games but even then it should be something that is difficult to achieve. For example in Fire Emblem games it is absolutely possible for this to happen but in general I would say that it should be rare. More the exception to the rule if you would. In this game, odds are very high that you won’t get the light because defeating enemies is already very difficult.

The game incentivizes you to skip them and to focus all of your attention on the key. So now you have a gameplay mechanic that goes against the game itself. There also could be more gameplay mechanics like that within the title. I don’t know about them because I didn’t make it to the end of the game but it certainly feels likely to me. This is a game that is all about punishing the player and that’s a problem.

The gameplay also isn’t very smooth which is part of why defeating enemies is so difficult. It is very ease to just move too quickly or to miss something. If you really want to make a game about finding things and going backwards, well then I’d suggest making a rogue-lite kind of game. The kind of title that encourages you to play over and over again with quick runs on the back-end. If you develop a game like that, then you could have game ending scenarios. I would still recommend not making it quite as easy to fall into as this game though. No matter how you look at it, this feels too excessive.

As for the graphics, well it looks okay. The game is definitely old and the graphics reflect that but at the same time it doesn’t look below average or anything like that. I would say it fits in with the rest of the games well enough. As for the soundtrack, it’s certainly on the bland side but that was the case for a lot of the NES titles back in the day. So even this is more par for the course really. The technicals are not holding the gameplay back, it is simply the game design which did that.

In terms of replay value, well I believe the game does loop after 50 levels so you can keep on trying to play it and see how far you go. That’s the only kind of replay value here though and the original 50 levels should only take you around 2-3 hours to get through. As long as you don’t lose or miss any items. The amount of content here is about up to standard as well.

Overall, If you have the Switch Online then you have access to hundreds of other great games. I would recommend playing those instead of checking this one out. It’s easily one of the weaker games that I’ve played through and that’s saying something. It is definitely not the kind of game that will become your favorite franchise going forward. Trust me on that one. That said, maybe I’ll check out another game in the series because it sounds like it is a very different kind of experience. You can only go up after a title like this as well. It’s pretty rare to play a game that I would say is downright “bad” so in a way that will end up making this one fairly memorable, more so than if it was actually good.

Overall 3/10

Mendel Palace Review

Posted on by
Reply


It’s time for one of those retro NES titles. I definitely hadn’t heard of this one before, but granted, I suppose a lot of these were really before my time. The game is decent, it has a very unique style to it. That being said, I don’t think this would end up being a game that I would seek to replay. It’s not like Mario or Pac-Man where the gameplay is just super solid. The gameplay is original and can be fun but isn’t super great or anything like that.

Basically you are on a checkers board of sorts. You can move across the tiles and flip the ground which sends a little shockwave in the direction that you are facing. You will be faced off with 4 opponents and your goal is to shockwave them into one of the walls. Once your opponents are slammed then you move onto the next level. Each world has 10 levels to it and there are around 8-9 worlds. Each one introduces you to a new enemy until the final world where you fight them all. Now that is definitely a real ambitious final world, I can tell you that.

The levels range from being a few seconds long to several minutes. It really depends on the different tricks that the villains are using and a little RNG sprinkled in as well. The gameplay is simple so you can really just focus on positioning and being in the right place at all times. There are also different kinds of floors which becomes more of a factor as you play through the game. You have star spaces which cause shockwaves in all directions and other tiles that cannot fire shockwaves.

The most annoying kind of tile is definitely the portal which allows enemies to infinitely summon new versions of them. You need to flip these tiles over immediately or the levels will get much more difficult. You have no health bar so if any villain touches you then you lose a life. Additionally if a shockwave hits you, you will lose a life. So there is absolutely no margin for error here. For the most part you can react to any kind of attack, but one exception is when enemies bump into each other and then get sent into a bunch of different directions.

You just have to try and prevent this from happening in the first place because you will really not be able to prevent this from happening. There are simply too many enemies and they are all over the place. One wrong step and that is game over. Each enemy has a different movement style, some are easier to deal with than others. You have the sumo wrestler for example who can resist the shockwaves pretty well. You need to land lots of hits to take him out and he counters after each one. If any counter hits you, you don’t die but you get sent across the field.

There’s the swimmers who…well they swim across the riles which isn’t a problem since you can still hit them with shockwaves. You even have other “players” who move and attack in the same way that you do. For the most part they aren’t a big problem but you definitely don’t want to underestimate them. After all, they only need to land one good hit on you.

The graphics aren’t bad in this game. It’s definitely basic NES stuff but it’s not under average or anything like that. It’s good enough and it’s not like this is a very complicated game either. So as long as you can see what is happening, then you’re good. The game delivers on that front. Then for the soundtrack, well that is more on the forgettable side. There aren’t any tunes that you will be humming to yourself later or anything like that.

In terms of replay value, there isn’t a whole lot here. There was a score display at the top so I suppose you could try to get a higher score. This doesn’t feel like a game that is really made for replay value though. You would need to really enjoy the gameplay style a whole lot for that to be possible. Ideally that is what will happen though. The main game’s length isn’t very long but that’s usually the case for an NES title.

What the game could have done to be more fun would have been to not have the teleport tiles. I feel like those were the cheesiest with how they kept spawning new monsters. If you’re going to add that in, at least don’t make it infinite. I think that would have gone a long way to making the game feel more balanced. The levels would be more on the straight forward side, compact and not too crazy all around. Without rewind this game feels like it can just be a little too unforgiving. Maybe if it took more than one hit to defeat you, that could have been another way to enhance the game a bit. So some good ideas in here, but it’s clear that the title was a bit rough around the edges and that’s why it didn’t end up being the next big thing. Nobody’s really heard of this title which means that it was fully forgotten to history.

Overall, This isn’t the kind of game that I would play a whole lot of but if you have the Switch Online then you should check it out. After all, it’s effectively free at that point so why wouldn’t you want to give it a quick shot right? If they ever made a modern remake of this game, they could probably do some cool things with it. Throw in a fun story and then you’re really off to the races. It does beat the next NES title that I will be reviewing though so prepare yourself for that.

Overall 5/10

Secret Invasion Review

Posted on by
Reply


The Secret Invasion storyline is one of those really famous ones from the comics. It touched on a ton of different series and affected all of the biggest heroes and villains. So when it was revealed that this would be adapted into a 6 episode tv series with none of the big characters present, there was a little concern. This would end up being treated more like a small footnote than a big event. Well for better or worse, that’s pretty much how it went down. It’s entertaining enough as a series but it’s best to ignore that this is actually related to Secret Invasion. Think of it more like a quick drama title with some action.

The series starts off with Nick Fury finally returning to Earth. He had retreated into space for a long time after the events of Infinity War but with the Skrulls showing up everywhere, he felt that it was his job to fix this. We find out that he is even married to a Skrull, so as always Nick has been keeping a whole lot of secrets. His main ally here is Talos, a skrull general who has been helping Nick behind the scenes for years. This time their friendship will be tested as tensions continue to grow with a faction of the Skrulls deciding to destroy the planet. Many in SHIELD also doubt Nick’s ability and feel like he has lost a step.

Now I will say that Nick has absolutely lost a few steps. He spends a lot of the season being really depressed and blowing up at everybody. It doesn’t feel like he is in control the way that he used to be. Yes he does have his big moments where he crushes someone and gets one step ahead but they are surrounded by scenes where he is absolutely getting devastated. I would also argue that some scenes revolve around other characters just looking bad. One example of this is when he puts a bug inside his rival’s owl statue. I don’t see how she could have missed that and the whole time I was expecting her to reveal that she knew all along.

When Nick beat up a body guard it was a good look for him but it’s a really bad look for the agent. You can’t be losing like that unless Nick had super powers or something like that. In the end this is sometimes unavoidable when you have the mysterious character finally get his own series. As the main character you are going to show more weaknesses and vulnerabilities than when you are a guest star. I think they could have balanced it a bit more in Fury’s favor though. His worse scene is definitely when he blows up at Talos and tells him to get off the train. The two had been working together for so many years so to dismiss him like that was a terrible look. Additionally later on Fury tries to take all the credit for what he’s done in the past and Tavos points out that Fury could get away with that in any other context, but not in front of the guy who actually did the legwork.

I don’t really get how Fury would miss that. So yeah not a good look for him in general. Fortunately there was an explanation for what would have been Fury’s worst moment in the final episode so I can’t use that against him. If not for a twist though, whew I would have been bashing on him for quite a long time. So Fury’s not the great leader you would hope for but the show does make room for one in Rhodey.

Rhodey hasn’t had a big role in a very long time and I can say that it was worth it for his role here. He shows up as smug as Tony Stark and really dishes out the pain. All of his scenes here are great as he launches into threat after threat. He’s really made a name for himself in the military, it’s all quite impressive. His role in the show is bigger than you might have expected as well. Either way he is the standout character here and I can tell you that it’s not even close. He really had Fury on the back foot the whole time.

As for Talos, well he was okay but really weak. Like with Fury he ends up losing almost every fight in the series. Characters constantly get Talos into a choke hold and he underestimates all of the heroes. I also get why the Skrulls are mad at him because Talos isn’t selling a very comforting dream here. This all leads back to Fury making more mistakes. Suffice it to say, Talos did his best to be a loyal ally all the way to the end. He did keep some secrets but for the most part they were rather reasonable. Particularly with how much he knows about human deceptions.

The main villain, Gravik gets a lot of support early on and it’s clear to see why. Basically he believes that Nick Fury betrayed them when he promised to find a planet for the Skrulls and didn’t produce anything 30 years later. The worst part is that he was correct. Fury realized he wasn’t going to find anything and so he gave up a long time ago. So the whole time the Skrulls were doing all of Fury’s dirty work and it was absolutely futile. They were assuming human identities and putting their lives at risk on a daily basis with nothing in return.

Now some Skrulls didn’t mind this as they got power in high ranking positions but for the others this was just a tough living arrangement. So Gravik decides to just take Earth and yes he’s a villain. The thought process makes sense rather than doing nothing though. This was a completely avoidable issue the whole time. Naturally to make sure Gravik isn’t too sympathetic, we then see how he goes around murdering everyone including his own allies. He’s super insane and all which always feels like a cop out to this kind of moral dilemma.

I felt like the show didn’t quite penalize Fury enough for all the mistakes that he made. His wife Varra had to go through a lot as well since Fury just ditched her and she was on her own for so long. He shows up to just start over fresh but it’s really not that easy. She makes it easy for him and ultimately chooses to keep on fighting but Fury made it hard to really feel bad for him.

Then we have his rival Sonya who looks really good here. She takes a very aggressive approach against the Skrulls and has a lot of battle experience. She is able to take down quite a few of them and is also pivotal to the end of the series. Fury really needed at least one ally in a high position and she fit the bill. Sonya was a lot of fun so I look forward to seeing more of her.

Then we have Giah who is essentially the main heroine of the show. Maria Hill almost could have fit into that role except her screentime was far too brief for that. Giah isn’t really sure which group of Skrulls to side with. She has a lot of mixed feelings and looks to continue as a big wild card in the MCU going forward. I wonder when she will appear next, in some ways she is probably a little too powerful so I could see her being bumped off early on. She’s not bad but there isn’t a whole lot to Giah at the moment. She’s essentially just a powerhouse, almost a sentient set of powers is how I would describe her for now.

The end of the show is incredibly interesting, it’s just a shame that it has yet to be followed up on. America is essentially in for the fight of its life and that should attract the attention of every big shot around. The show just didn’t have that kind of budget. As powerful as the Skrulls are, it feels inevitable that they would get stomped out here. Especially once the tech and magic experts step in with ways to detect them. It should really be a turning point in the whole universe with how fractured trust is on all areas. That’s why, while I love the ending, it really feels like a missed opportunity. This series should have been more important.

I was glad to see that this show had an actual theme song, but unfortunately it totally sucked. It’s extremely drawn out and boring. The artwork does not look good at all, it’s going for an artistic, indie kind of vibe and fails massively. The general soundtrack is nothing to write home about either. I thought the final fight looked pretty good at least, even if it does get mocked a lot. I was just glad to see some super powers at play in the ending there.

This is a show that will make less and less sense as you think about it. The logistics with the aliens just aren’t very well thought out because shapeshifting is way too powerful. The skrulls realistically should have even more people in positions of power based on how many of them there are. That said, the show succeeds in showing how nobody can be trusted. The pacing isn’t always super fast but with 6 episodes I wouldn’t say that the show is buying time too often either.

What I will say in defense of the series is that it does feel like a classic Marvel product. You could watch this after the Avengers films and it feels like it belongs. The smaller scaling is apparent, but otherwise the atmosphere and script feel right. The show has high stakes and some pretty intense moments while keeping up a light hearted tone. It probably just takes some extra time to be somber and sappy with some of Fury and Varra’s drama. I could have cut a lot of those scenes out. There was the interesting question of if they would have gotten together if Varra had kept her true form. I would assume that’s a No and so I was impressed when Fury just dodged the question. It’s too easy to just say yes without thinking about it, so it felt like an honest response.

Overall, Secret Invasion is a series that will keep your interest. It has its share of good moments and is a good story but it definitely wasn’t prepared to deal with the sheer scope of a Skrull invasion. I don’t think there is really any way to adapt this into 6 episodes unless you plan to have a War of the Worlds type of ending. Without that, there are simply too many moving pieces and characters running around. It would be unsatisfying no matter how you sliced it. So just enjoy the situation as a whole and don’t worry about the missed opportunities here. Rhodey is already worth the price of admission since this is his best portrayal in any Marvel media. This is at its core a good show, but one that could have been great if it took the story to its logical conclusion. Maybe we will get a season 2 at some point….I doubt it, but that would address some of my issues.

Overall 6/10

Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 Review

Posted on by
Reply


All right if someone asked me if I could survive 5 nights at Freddy’s I would definitely say yes. The animatronics are slow and clunky so that’s not a problem. If they asked me if I could survive 5 more nights? Well now that’s getting tricky. The monsters in this film seem to be considerably more powerful than in the first film although I would say that they are still under the average horror title. For that reason nobody in this film is really putting up much of a fight most of the time.

The film starts off with Mike trying his best to forget the events of the first film. He figures the best way to do this is to gaslight Abby into thinking that he will fix the old robots when he doesn’t plan to. Then on the side Mike is trying his best to fix Vanessa from all of her childhood trauma but Mike doesn’t really have the temperament for such a journey. Eventually his plans fall through and Abby runs back into Freddy’s to bring her friends back while Vanessa heads over for some closure. Unfortunately they both end up bringing something far darker back into the world. And yes…there are now two Freddy’s locations.

This is definitely one of those films where everyone looks pretty bad which is what the villains are able to capitalize on. For example in the first flashback scene we see how William wasn’t exactly subtle in grabbing one of the kids to destroy but even when another kid notices, nobody wants to help. The adults are painfully oblivious and almost go out of their way to ignore the situation. Then once it all happens, we see how the media blamed this on the kid who died. Now that was crazy and it sets the stage for how this is a world without a whole lot of empathy. Everyone is just looking out for themselves here and they don’t want to stick their neck out.

The fact that this happened before the other 5 murders is also crazy because it really shows how William was allowed to do whatever he wanted to do. Now in the present, we’ve got a number of plots going on. For Abby’s, well I feel like she looks really bad here. She wants to bring the robots back since some of them had her friends from the beyond but even in the first film it was always a 50/50 chance at best on if they were actually the kids. Usually they were the evil demon robots so she is risking everyone’s lives for a small chance. Not a smart thing to do.

Abby definitely shouldn’t have been going to Freddy’s by herself. Then we have Mike who comes across as really annoying the whole time. He gets upset with Abby when she notices that he’s been lying a lot and that’s on him. Then even after Vanessa has saved his life on multiple occasions and saved Abby, he still tells her off. There are some things like a life debt which should not be so easily broken. Certainly not in this manner. Mike really needed to lock in more.

He got one good scene where he actually fights one of the animatronics but that’s about it for him. Then we have Vanessa who is dealing with the most issues right now. William is still attacking her through dreams which she just barely manages to survive through. It feels like there is only a matter of time before she falls to him unless she can find a way to destroy him forever. Of course that is not going to be easy.

Then Vanessa has to deal with the new villain of the movie, The Marionette. Unfortunately a gun isn’t going to do a whole lot to this thing. She definitely should have told Mike more about what was going on but I still tend to place more of the blame on him for not taking the news well at all. With the stakes this high, there is no time to be falling apart at the seams.

The Marionette makes for a pretty strong villain. She leaves more of an impact than a lot of the different Freddy creatures and for now I would say she was more impressive than William as well. She has a good amount of space and can basically take control of someone’s body which is a really big deal. I suppose that the name is quite fitting.

On that note, the main Freddy crew don’t get to do quite as much here. They threaten the humans a whole lot and are always on the move but don’t technically produce a whole lot of results. More often than not they are foiled at the last second. The body count is a bit smaller than you may have initially guessed. Also unless you are a hardcore fan you will have some trouble differentiating the designs between the new ones and the old ones even when you see them back to back.

The film does go all in on the jump scares though. There is a lot going on at all times and the characters act super suspicious the whole time. There’s a new night guard named Michael for example who seems ominous the whole time. He’s constantly grinning and seems to know a whole lot about Freddy’s. They’re going to want to keep an eye out for him. So the film knows how to be scary.

Then on the other hand it also has some funny moments. I liked the cab driver who was always ready to break the ice. There’s also a mean science teacher who is a complete antagonist but does a really good job within the role like when he “accidentally” broke a girl’s toy. This guy has clearly been in the game for a long time. The film certainly leans harder on horror than comedy but handles both genres rather well.

The writing and script are certainly not realistic but you can put that to the same camp. The film also still keeps itself from being too violent. It’s maybe a little more violent than the first one but I would say that it was close. There is less focus on all the kids who got murdered from the first film which is a good thing. I would also say that the film’s story is a lot more interesting now that it is embracing all of the crazy characters. It was sad that Golden Freddy didn’t show up but I guess the film was getting rather packed.

There are quite a few clffhangers in the film too which sets up the third film nicely. First up we already have a main villain, then a returning villain shows up, and then a hype message which might signal a third one. In theory it’ll be hard for the heroes to stop these guys next time because there is no longer any kind of an off button. Physically these creatures are mainly still robots so you can mess them up but that requires no tripping or panicking which is rare.

For the next film I would like to see some more action though. One issue I have with this one is that the animatronics all tend to look very slow aside from the Marionette and just don’t seem to be a huge threat. Mike takes one out extremely easily in one scene and it feels like that would work on any of the others as well. So I feel like the next film needs to show them actually fighting and moving a bit quicker to make things scary again.

Overall, I definitely wouldn’t be eating at Freddy’s but the film does a good job of staying scary while adding in a lot of story this time around. The concept of Freddy’s is definitely an intense one. I am glad that the series continues to reign in the violence and doesn’t go for a ton of grit. It would be nice if we could go one film without children being among the fatalities though. This time it was brief and then it was over at least but we don’t need to retread the plots. Since this one hints at a much larger threat looming, it may be time to call in the government. Some may say that would be jumping the shark but I think it would be hype!

Overall 6/10

Pragmata Review

Posted on by
Reply


Pragmata is one of those games that I was hyped for right away. By all accounts it looked to be some kind of a backdoor Mega Man spinoff even if nobody would admit it. Even after playing through the game it feels that way and it technically goes out of its way to not appear to be a Mega Man game. Maybe one day we’ll get the crossover but either way this is a great title.

The game begins with a group of people heading onto a space station but unfortunately something weird is going on. The A.I. may have gone rogue as everyone is murdered except for the main player. He runs into a kid, the Pragmata. She is his only chance at surviving this encounter but this guy doesn’t really trust robots. Can he get past that and team up with her? The stakes are high so there is really no time for any in-fighting or anything like that.

Naturally the horror element here is in the fact that there is no escape. There is no easy way to get back to Earth. In fact the whole game is about trying to get to the center of the station so that they can use the escape pods. Unfortunately the whole place has been shut down and there are killer androids everywhere so getting past them is definitely not going to be easy.

The gameplay is a 3D shooter but mixed in with a bit of puzzle gameplay. Technically these are “hacking” components where you shut down an enemy’s defenses in order to do more damage. This is really mandatory because your shots will practically bounce off otherwise. Fortunately the hacking gameplay is quite a lot of fun so I really enjoyed just blasting away at everyone. It really encourages you to learn how to do two things at once. If you are not a multi tasker then this will be very tough.

As the game goes on you will unlock a ton of different weapons as well as enhancements to the hacking program. Each level gives you more clearance on the spaceship which unlocks more things. You can then use your new abilities to go back to old areas and get more collectibles. It’s almost like a vania in that regard except for the fact that you never need to go back. It is purely optional.

The gameplay and navigation are so smooth that I did have fun going back and getting things though. I got almost all of the collectibles and beat every training exercise. The main campaign is very short so I wanted to make sure that I got my money out of this. Also it just helps when the game flows well. If going back and forth meant having to sit through a lot of loading screens or something like that then I wouldn’t have bothered.

Also the collectibles and such really do improve your overall abilities so there is a big incentive to getting them. The final boss is actually very tricky so I was glad that my stats were all heavily boosted. Then when you beat the game there is a little post game content in the form of a new room with some challenges in there. That was pretty cool. This isn’t the kind of game where I’m aiming to get the Platinum anytime soon but it was still cool to see.

The graphics are really good here. The level of detail is impressive and so this is a AAA PS5 title all the way. The robot designs are super good throughout and I also liked the NYC based level. You will always have a lot to look at here and the hacking successful effects are always satisfying. The soundtrack is less memorable. We do get an emotional track at the end but for the most part this is one of those quiet type of games. They probably figured that hard rock music would mess with the tone but I can’t agree with that. I’d have loved to have more intense music.

We also got a pretty intense main villain here towards the end. The first one was decent but not super interesting so I was glad at the switch. It made the stakes a lot more personal and all. I also enjoyed the main character and the kid because they were locked in from the start. No petty grumblings or drama, they were just trying to survive here. It’s one of those things that feels more realistic than if they had been fighting because this really wouldn’t be the time for it. You like to think that in a life or death situation everyone would be focused and working together so the game is hopeful in that way.

My only piece of advice gameplay wise is to buy the module that lets you see where all collectibles are in a level. I got this as soon as I could and it really makes a good difference. After that I would focus on upgrading my main weapons and for the gold orbs, upgrading the gun. I figure those are things that you will be using constantly anyway. I’m always partial to increasing attack power in general because win or lose, the fights will go quicker. It just forces me to get better at dodging and blocking.

Overall, Pragmata is definitely a game that you should buy. Yes, the length is short which is a blow against the game but everything else about it is absolutely top tier. The story is really great and the title has every quality of life feature you can think of. It is a very satisfying game to complete from start to finish and that helps the length to not bother you quite as much Just have fun exploring the levels and don’t rush to the end. There are plenty of collectibles to grab and little story discs that explain the surrounding context. I also feel like this game is just helpful in general for multi tasking. It can be harder than it sounds to be shooting, aiming, and hacking at the same time. If we ever get a sequel to this title, I’ll definitely be there!

Overall 8/10