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BDS Wastes Your Time With Silly Game Reviews!

Started by BlackDragonSlayer, December 03, 2013, 06:53:58 PM

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Olimar12345

thas a good pic braix oh my

btw will read your review BDS, looking forward to it
Visit my site: VGM Sheet Music by Olimar12345 ~ Quality VGM sheet music available for free!

braix

Quote from: MaestroUGC on August 19, 2015, 12:22:27 PM
Braixen is a wonderful [insert gender] with beautiful [corresponding gender trait] and is just the darlingest at [stereotypical activity typically associated with said gender] you ever saw.

mikey

I thought he didn't like undertale
nebbles should be on there instead
unmotivated

Olimar12345

I have learned to love it and it's lovely music. As frustrating as both of those things are, they grow on you o___o

EDIT: OH SHIT I'M ON THE TRAIN YAS
Visit my site: VGM Sheet Music by Olimar12345 ~ Quality VGM sheet music available for free!

mikey

NOT YOU TOO OLIMAR
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Spoiler
[close]
unmotivated

Sebastian




Dudeman

Hype train has a limited number of seats. Sorry. Better luck next time.
Quote from: braixen1264 on December 03, 2015, 03:52:29 PMDudeman's facial hair is number 1 in my book

Sebastian




Olimar12345

Visit my site: VGM Sheet Music by Olimar12345 ~ Quality VGM sheet music available for free!

Sebastian




FireArrow

Quote from: Dudeman on January 23, 2017, 05:35:59 PM
straight from the department of redundancy department

Dudeman

oh my gosh the hype train hasn't come into the station yet


BDS? You still working on this?
Quote from: braixen1264 on December 03, 2015, 03:52:29 PMDudeman's facial hair is number 1 in my book

BlackDragonSlayer

Yep. Just juggling a few ideas around before I finish the review.
And the moral of the story: Quit while you're a head.

Fakemon Dex
NSM Sprite Thread
Compositions
Story Thread
The Dread Somber

BlackDragonSlayer

It's time.

Undertale (PC)

"ButtsPie" - Game

Undertale is a game that... (bzzzzzzz)

Undertale is a... (BBZZZZZZ)

Undertale... WHAT'S THAT (BZZZZPT)

New challenger approaching.

This review will contain spoilers
Undertale (PC)

vs.

Fez (PS3)

"ButtsPie" - Game

"Ualuealuealeuale ualuelaelaellalea" - Chacarron Macarron

Two acclaimed indie games. One fight to the death. Only one game can win. Spoilers, anybody? One of these games is a good game, while is other is a flawed gem that doesn't quite live up to the hype. Which will be which? Read on to find out!

I will compare these games in several categories, including Gameplay, Story, Music/Sound, and Uniqueness, as well as giving any other thoughts about the games. Let's do this.

Gameplay

At first glance, Undertale is just another RPG; you move along an overworld, talk to NPCs, have random encounters, and fight bosses at occasional points. But quickly, you'll find that this is not the case at all: Every battle features a "Bullet Board" where, on the enemy's turn, you have to avoid projectiles and other attacks. As you progress, new attack types are introduced, and, in boss battles, completely different style of gameplay are introduced, known as Soul Modes. Of note, you're also given the option to completely avoid fighting, in which case you must try to spare the enemy by performing a series of actions to placate them (or just flee, I suppose, but where's the fun in that?). While the game is generally good at introducing and using attack types, I do have a few complaints about the battle system:

1: Soul Modes are underused throughout most of the game; while this makes sense story-wise, it would still be fun to see ordinary enemy encounters that utilize these different soul modes, or even give you the option of switching at will between certain modes.

2: There's often a kind of "difficulty dissonance" through parts of the game, noticeable even from the start: some encounters are really, really easy, while others- mostly boss battles, along with a select few enemy encounters- actually pose some sort of challenge. While this isn't a major deal breaker by any means, I think it's something that could use some fine-tuning in order to deliver a more enjoyable gameplay experience.

In general, because of the Soul Modes, the boss battles are never uninteresting and are one of the pinnacles of the game's battle system. Although I can't comment on any of the Genocide boss battles, my favorite boss battles (not including any of the final bosses) were Mettaton EX, Papyrus, and Muffet, because of how their battles catch you by surprise, in a way, if you're not expecting their unique mechanics at all.

As for the rest of the game... another unique trait is that the game remembers certain events that you've done in the past, such as killing a certain person, or being killed by a certain person, or... some more drastic things in the case of the Genocide run. While this starts off pretty neat, and leads way to a lot of interesting situations, I can't help but not entirely be thrilled with the repercussions of a Genocide run, which I feel might affect a player negatively for merely exploring all routes the game has to offer (like killing your friends and just generally seeing things fall apart isn't enough discouragement). For me, this is the only thing preventing me from actually playing through a Genocide run (call me homicidal if you will), even if there are ways to undo this.

Why Bobbio? I get the feeling this is going to be funny later on.

An screenshot from early in the game. It's hard to capture the main rotation mechanic in a static picture.

Fez, on the other hand, is dedicated to puzzles and platforming. Very early on in the game, you receive an ability that allows you to rotate the game screen in order to solve puzzles- essentially getting a 3D view of a 2D world by shifting through four different screens. In its purest form, this mechanic is pretty great and is used for a lot of puzzles; there's rarely a point where this becomes uninteresting, as later parts of the game introduce new things to do with this ability. The way it works specifically is best compared to Echochrome, although the fact that you can't freely rotate the camera, in my opinion, makes the mechanic easier to work with overall.

The platforming aspects of the game are workable; though there are a few times where it might interfere with your progress, any delays are usually temporary and insignificant- essentially, it does its job, but it's not the main focus of the game.

Undertale Score: 8.7/10
Fez Score: 8/10

Story

In Undertale, you play as a human who has fallen into the Underground, a place full of monster who have been sealed there after a war with humans. These monsters are determined to escape by collecting seven human souls, and, as it turns out, you're the seventh soul they need. Along the way, you encounter monsters who are more sympathetic to your cause- and many more who are perfectly willing to kill you on the spot until you convince them otherwise. If you manage to get through the game after fulfilling certain conditions- most notably, not killing any enemies- you can unlock another ending, known as the True Pacifist ending. Personally, I feel as if the True Pacifist Route really adds a lot to the game, and makes whatever time you've already spent on the game worthwhile. At the very least, it definitely makes you feel an emotional attachment to the characters (and if it doesn't, either you lack an understanding of emotions or just really hate the game :P).

That's about it in a nutshell.

That better?

There's not much of a story in Fez, really. You play as Gomez, an... I'm not sure what to call Gomez... who receives a mysterious fez from a Hexahedron which then explodes, "crashing" the game (this repeats a few later times in the game, and also seems to be a shared theme between the two games). Using this fez, which gives you the ability to experience the third dimension, you must then recover all the pieces of the Hexahedron, known as "cubes," aided by a tesseract called Dot. In fact, most of what could be considered "story" is a vague history of an ancient race or races that came before you. Aside from this, I can't do the plot justice. Just... just read it. Does anyone even know what's going on here!? This is all made so much more complicated by the "best" ending, which can be seen here. What. WHAT. WHAT EVEN.

tl;dr Who knows what this game is about.

Undertale Score: 9.4/10
Fez Score: 7.5/10

Music/Sound

Undertale's soundtrack is great, full of songs both catchy and thematically powerful. The music covers a wide variety of sounds and feelings, and in many cases (an estimated 99% of the time), greatly captures both the mood of the locations and the feel of a classic game. Standouts include Once Upon A Time, Shop, Bonetrousle, It's Showtime!, Metal Crusher, Death by Glamour, ASGORE (+Bergentrückung), and Hopes and Dreams. Of note is the sheer amount of musical similarities (a few examples), which, in my opinion, borderlines on brilliance: in some cases, you'll never even notice the similarities (as in the third example), and when you realize them, you'll understand their significance and probably chuckle a bit.

The only bad thing I can really say about it is that there are a few short, repeating songs which might get a bit repetitive. However, there are only a few songs I would say that this applies to and, after all, you could likely say the same thing about almost any game. More of a minor remark, but something worth mentioning just to be thorough.

I'm channeling Kaylee (click for music).

Click for moosic.

Fez's soundtrack is also pretty great; each song has a pretty interesting sound individually, but not different enough to the point where you can't tell they're all part of the same soundtrack. I like that about the music, and I think that's why the music is definitely one of my favorite parts of the game- it's the most consistent in terms of quality, and really adds another layer to the game (another layer? Geddit!?), along with just being nice to listen to be itself. Standouts include Adventure, Progress, Beacon, Flow, Forgotten, Sync (+sound effects), Death, Nocturne, and Home.

Undertale Score: 9.6/10
Fez Score: 8.5/10

Uniqueness

Undertale is also notable for its humor- while I have a bunch of screenshots showing this, there are far too many to put in this review (18 of them!)- and I suitably enjoy it. When I went into the game, I was worried that it would not achieve the fine balance required to make such humor work, but rarely do jokes fall flat. There are a few moments in the game that definitely remind me of other games, but, if anything, those moments work well in the game's favor.

Aside from the humor, the already-discussed battle mechanics play a pretty big role in making the game memorable and unique. I don't often play bullet hell games, but I think the combination of styles is very distinct and not at all a detracting point for those typically don't enjoy those types of games. There are also a few places where the overworld gameplay changes from simple interaction with other characters or puzzle solving (most notably, the scenes with Mettaton, and a chase sequence earlier in the game; can't forget that!), and these segments also work very well in the context of the game.

Like, heck yeah! He knows me!

When you beat the game, you unlock first person view... which allows you to complete more puzzles...

Fez is a pretty interesting game at first glance. The central mechanic is pretty unique, and the general atmosphere of the game is also very reminiscent of older games- not just the graphics, but also through homages to other games- including Tetris (oh yes, there are plenty of Tetromino puzzles), The Legend of Zelda, and a whole Mario-esque sewer area in original Gameboy-like graphics. Personally, I think it does a fairly decent job at creating good memorability and atmosphere.

One thing worth talking about is the world map. Personally, I found the map to be a bit too complex, and it doesn't always do you favors- a quick glance at it isn't always enough to get the information you need, though taking time looking over the map reveals that it's not completely useless. I mean, just... JUST LOOK AT IT! And that is only after you've completed the game! Imagine using something like that when it's only half-complete... whycantthesethingsbesimple

Undertale Score: 8.2/10
Fez Score: 7.8/10

Other Thoughts

A more major complaint I have about the game is that there are a few parts in the game that I found more tedious than the rest due to a seeming excess of unnecessary dialogue (specifically talking about pre-Snowdin and some of Hotland after leaving the lab, but before reaching the MTT Resort). These sections really stand out in the game because of how glaring they are compared to everything else. However, aside from that, I don't really have anything else worth noting... which is good, I suppose. Your mileage may vary in this regard, of course, depending on just how much you consider "necessary" or "unnecessary."

And, uh, about that Bobbio thing...

You're talking to a guy named Bobbio. Worth it.

I don't have any more pictures of Fez to show you, so have this picture of Gomez.

Now, Fez... oh, Fez... this is where the game really starts to fall apart. See, I first played Fez when it was released on the Xbox Live Arcade. But after a while, I had trouble getting through the game without using any outside help. So I stopped playing it. Later, I got the game again when it came out on PS3, figuring I'd give it another try.

One of the worst puzzles in the game, for me, is a puzzle which relies on exiting the game and resetting your system clock based on cues inside the game (sure, you could just wait it out, but for all intents and purposes, that just makes things worse). But there's a problem here... you have to do this four times, and climb up a fairly perilous stretch before you can complete the puzzles.

So imagine this: You get in the game, run up the clock tower, check how the clock is on ALL FOUR SIDES, exit the game, set your system clock, go back in the game, climb back up the tower, and hope you set the time right based on what is essentially a guess (the time frames are pretty specific, which, for the larger periods of time, is not as easy as it might sound, if it even sounds easy in the first place). Oh, and if you don't get to the top in time, you have to do it all over again. You have to do this if you want to 100% the game (or should I say, 209.4% it, which would technically be more correct). At least you don't have to do all four at the same time. This is a basic explanation of it, though it doesn't capture just how frustrating and tedious it is in-game. And this isn't the only headache-inducing puzzle, oh no: that would be too easy (see: the solution to what was considered one of the hardest puzzles). I mean, I suppose you can appreciate these types of puzzles for their creativity, but they're not in any way fun to play (which, considering this is a video game, takes a lot away from the experience).

Undertale Score: 8/10
Fez Score: 6/10

Conclusion

Undertale is a great game that's both a breath of fresh air and a delightful experience overall. Would I call it one of the best games of all time? No, but you should definitely play it. What about Fez, then? Do I regret playing it? No, not at all. Would I play it again? No, probably not.

It's beautiful.

Gomez.

Undertale Pros:
+ Unique battle mechanics.
+ Touching story, especially with the True Pacifist ending.
+ Charming characters and eccentric humor.
+ Memorable events and locations.

Undertale Cons:
- A few dialogue-heavy parts in the game that are a little tedious.
- Occasional difficulty dissonance.

Undertale Final Score: 8.6/10

Fez Pros:
+ Fascinating gameplay leads to some interesting puzzles.
+ Charming style.
+ Tends to draw you in with mysterious backstory, urging you to fully complete it.

Fez Cons:
- Unnecessarily complex at times.
- A few seriously "WTF" puzzles.
- I dare you to 100% it without anything other than your controller. Sometimes you might question whether it was worth it.

Fez Final Score: 7.4/10

Reviwer Notes:
  • Whew. That's over with.
  • I think I need to take a break after all the writing. But it's all worth it, isn't it?
  • Oh, Bobbio, I'm so afraid! Bobbio! Bobbio!
[close]
And the moral of the story: Quit while you're a head.

Fakemon Dex
NSM Sprite Thread
Compositions
Story Thread
The Dread Somber

BrainyLucario

#89
I think I'm a little late on the hype train....I thought your review of Undertale was actually pretty fair. Glad you enjoyed it!
When given the choice between adulting and music, choose music every time.