Recent reviews by ImaginaryDragon

One of those games that I finally got the chance to play during a trip overseas.

The card game is quite a lot of fun, but the actual strength of the game lies in its story-telling. Despite the fact that most things are spoken through still images and splash screens, it's the gripping voice-overs that really sold the tensions in the scenes.

That and of course the very thing that Witcher is known for -- choices and consequences. What seems like a good option at the time of choosing might not bear the desired results that you're anticipating. It might even boil down to picking one evil over the other. I have not personally explored all the options just yet, but it's definitely a nice fun ride with the story and a card game to go with the travel!

That feeling when eventually the pirated version of this game is going to:
A: run smoother (Denuvo removed)
B: Allow you to do full resets (No online server side character saved)
C: No micro-transactions
D: Offline play now possible (cus, you know, Denuvo again)

Damn, Capcom do be treating folks like criminals and peasants. I feel bad for the friend who gifted me this game because even if I 'got it for free' I still ain't masochistic enough to be treated like dirt by these big AAA corpos.

It's time to YAR HAR mate-y, there are better games to get than to spend $95 CAD on this water torture session.

Edit: To be fair, I don't want to pirate. But if a PAYING customer gets WORSE experience than a pirate, you bet your fine tiddies I am going to sail the high sea on that one.

It's hard to see the appeal of the game, especially when it's just cobbled together in a way that feels like someone Frankenstein'ed several other games in bits and pieces into this strange fever dream that occasionally shat the bed and crashes you to desktop.

But hey, at least it's not corrupting the system folder this time (I am looking at you FO76), so it's a plus.... yay? Too bad playing the game is still a slog. Frame rate is also all over the place with no consistencies, sometimes the major drop in frames from 144 to 40 something made me grimace as I anticipate another crash that's around the corner.


Ok, so this is the part I said where this thing feels like it's cobbled together (and badly at that) from various other games. The planet exploration feels like it's yoinked from NMS, and it's even worse than the initial launch of NMS atop of that. You got a spaceship and you wanna fly from one spot to another? Too bad, only taking off into space or landing on the ground for you, piloting ship's take off and landing like in Elite Dangerous or NMS in this 'unprecedented' game? No, only load-screen sausage fest for you my friend. It's ABSURD the amount of load-screens you have to get through to even land on a planet from space. It's selecting a planet, loading a cut-scene to fly to the planet, above the planet atmosphere, loading a cut-scene flying to the planet surface, being in the cockpit, load screen into the planet surface. Because who the F cares about immersion amirite? The only reason why Bethesda said that this game is for SSD's only is simply because with HDD you'd be sitting in load-screens longer than you'd be playing the game.

Scanning things is also completely ♥♥♥♥♥♥. Now scan this thing like 7 or 8 times before it's 100% scanned except some exotic floras don't spawn enough in a single 'zone' that's mapped out from the place where you landed, now you better be walking miles after miles for that (before you inevitably hit an invisible wall from wandering too far). Ever wonder why there's no vehicles in the exploration? That's because if you move any faster than that sprinting speed you'll hit the out-of-bound wall very quickly. Instead of fixing this problem by... oh, I don't know, update a ♥♥♥♥' decade old engine or fix their spaghetti code, they chose the easiest way out by just... walling everything in. Sometimes it's even literally physical walls if you're landed in a base, incredible. Resources doesn't take up slots (yay, take that NMS with your stoopid slot system), but things are ABSURDLY heavy, better take up that weight lifting perk and grab a 2000+ kg cargo ship as soon as you can because you're gonna need them just the 1st hour in after some planet scavenging.

Space combat? Yeah Elite Dangerous is pretty good.... Oh sorry it's a dumber version of that here, oops, they did copy the directing power to X system really well though, how many brain cells did Todd had to burn this time to just come up with the 'just copy their homework but worse' idea? No way to land a ship directly into the spaceport, just gonna load-screen your way in? Great, now just see yourself load-screen everything whenever you want to do anything! Enemy is mostly a joke too but at least space battle won't give you as much of a brain dead AI like...

The enemy on the ground is an absolute buffoon, I guess it comes in standard what with Bethestha's entry on Skyrim and FO76 but my god the enemies keep getting stuck and glue to covers while you are off to the side, looking at them, hiding behind their corner, in plain view, taking potshots at them to their head while they groan in pain but not moving. I guess it's really hard to copy something like Mass Effect (and not Andromeda thank god) but I really don't need a bullet sponge cardboard cutout that does 0 threat when it's supposed to be a boss of some sorts.


It's No Man Sky but worse, (seamless transition, interesting things happening in space or on the planet, points of interest)
It's Elite dangerous but worse, (Spacial combats, flight controls, actually good cargo missions and flight related missions)
It's Mass Effect but worse. (RPG element, enemy AI, dialog trees, VOICE ACTING for main character. Seriously, you can record all the lines 'spoken' by the protagonist with just 1 person and just pitch-shift it to accommodate any voice that players want. Just look at Deep Rock Galactic)

Is it better than FO76? At its launch maybe, but now I think FO76 actually is more engaging and has more content than this thing here. Or maybe Todd's doing gods work by releasing a game in the most bare-bone state and then slowly patch it up to a more 'playable' state later... like all the other AAA companies are doing. We're not gamers anymore, just beta-testers, not even a paid beta-testers.

I shall let GSG make another hundred bucks off of me first before I spend another dime on EA / Warners / Ubisoft / SquareEnix !

Due to recent price inflation, the good game that warrants a positive review before can no longer afford it

**Did you know that you can get the game for free and still play multiplayers with friends? Now you can bypass greedy developers and enjoy this great game without supporting their practices, amazin!**

Credit where credit is due:
The game looks fantastic (when it isn't pre-rendered hot trash that they ripped out from the PSP game)
The sound track is great (but that's great to begin with, don't think there's any changes here in this remake)
The story remains intact (None of that ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that FF7 Remake tried to pull)

But that's where the good things end. At its core, it's still a massive, soul-less cash grab. Aside from the graphical upgrade, which, should I add, they didn't even redo the pre-rendered cutscenes, there's practically nothing new that'd justify the absurd price-tag that they give to this game.

The missions in the game are a F-ing joke, it adds NOTHING to the story aside from like only the 5% featuring the Ninja girl and some other crap that currently escapes me. The combat system is slightly changed, but all it ends up doing is making the game feel -just slightly different- than what was on PSP before. Buster sword upgrade is nice, but you don't get that until like 60% through the mission, and they expect you to GRIND the living fk out of it to fully unlock its full potential just to pad out your game time more.

Get it on sale, it's not worth the full price.

EDIT: Don't ever use the English version for VA, that's my only suggestion.

It's an amazingly crafted story delivered through a very enjoyable experience ( a bit too heavy handed on the QTE but that's David Caaaaaaaage for you)

Voice acting is top notch, the branching paths are a treat, majority of the choice within the game will affect and shape how the story plays out in the later date. Aside from the QTE galore (then again, it's not like there's much you CAN do with a game like this, some variety would be nice though, like the pre-construction + execution sections, I think some QTE being replaced with that might be a good touch) there's also a niggling downside where there's no separate saves for the game, which means that to get 100% on all the flowchart one has to redo the chapters over and over.

All and all, it's been a great experience. Plays almost like a CYOH movie of sorts.

Fun game for the most part but my god are some of the story parts are straight up nonsensical.

1. Cloud can be equipped with Heal Materia (but never once occurred that he can use it on injured allies in cut-scenes), at least give me a reason why he didn't use it or think of using it damnit. (Even his ally is a dumb mofo for not asking)

2. Aerith is tasked to rescue Marlene from the Seven Heaven, but as the pillar is about to come down (and would ultimately kill anyone underneath), they still take their gosh darn sweet time chit chatting and even talking about a gawd damn flower... really?

3. Give me a good sense of urgency when squeezing through tight corridors when time is on the line maybe? That slow pace walking and moving through the gap while the music is blaring with that fast-paced dramatic tune really takes me out of it.

4. Cloud, a first class SOLDIER, can't vault over some doors when in cut-scenes he literally jumps several persons high. Then there's the cut-scene of him almost not making it through a broken bridge despite the distance is less than 5m for some 'artificial tense moments'. STOP it, it's not nice and it just makes me want to roll my eyes out.

5. Plot conveniences E V E R Y W H E R E. There's Barret holding Hojo at gunpoint, literally point blank. And Hojo can just straight up activate something in front of Barret, then runs away, without Barret actually shooting Hojo in the leg to stop him from fleeing. Then there's the same ♥♥♥♥ happening again with President Shinra where Barret just straight up L E T the president reach to the desk and then fish out a gun to turn the situation around (all while other 3 protagonist watches... Aerith where your spells at?)

6. Retconning (ye big spoiler). I was hoping to experience the game with graphics on a story I was at least familiar with. But now it seems like this whole thing is going to a whole different direction where Zack is now alive? (way to ruin that scene for me and give me a bad taste in my mouth after I played Crisis Core)

Feels like the story is written and split by multiple team, the continuity in character's ability and behavior sometimes feels all over the place, urgh.

A fun ride into the world of the Guardian of the Galaxy (with a big fat serving of bugs too, of course)
It's a bit of a mixed bag, of course, so let's get into it:
+ the main cast is definitely super memorable, with the quirks you'd expect if you've watched the two guardians of the galaxy movies (of course it also differs from the canon from the movie, can't say which one I like more though)
+ Great nostalgic soundtracks!
+ Gorgeous locations and creatures (including enemy), you'll know which one I'm talking about (it's a D R A G O N)
+ Story is also great, showcasing friendship, responsibility, teamwork and learning to move on
- Bugs, my god the bugs:
Random UI being stuck on the screen? You bet.
Striking a conversation with someone but moving to somewhere else? Now you lost your interact prompt
Enemy spawned in unknown location and keep you stuck in the combat arena? Check.
- Combat: It's not gooooooood. Your regular weapon suuuuuuuucks in damage, the only skill that does reliable damage locks you in place, or lose the remaining damage if you dash. The only way to reliably deal hits is via using your teammate's ability. (Gamora deals so much damage like ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, Rocket does massive AOE on the other hand) Yet the game is surprisingly easy, you really just need to keep running around and then wait for the cooldown to come back, that is it. And it gets repetitive.
- Huddle up: It's cute sometimes, but eventually I don't even use it outside of boss battles because of the pep-talk thing. Some cringy dialogues are written there, be aware.
- Performance is all over the place: They allow for FSR, but it doesn't actually work anywhere outside the part of the game where you control your character, which means...
You get performance hiccups on cut-scenes
You get performance dips on main menu and pause menus
For what it's worth, I am running on High with 6900XT and I can pause the game and have my GPU hit 2300 RPM on fan and 95C on some locations, PAUSE MENU for christ sake.

If you can put up with the quirks, however, it's still an enjoyable game, I just wish they actually polish this piece more so that I don't have to keep rebooting the game because of some buggy mess screwing up the progression

Great fun, but controller is almost mandatory
Whomever that thought that double tapping directional keys is a dodge button needs to be shot