Recent reviews by Atom

- Excellent performing PC port with a ton of options, including UW support and UW cutscenes. Even lower presets look amazing.
- No Denuvo nonsense.
- Cheaper than Console version
- No additional launchers or even account linking.
- All the standard stuff like cloud save, cheevos, cards etc.

If you want to put your money with your mouth is in terms of consumer friendly practices on PC from big publishers, this is basically the best case example of it.

As for the game itself, it's fun so far. Dialogue is so-so, combat is solid but not life-changing, visuals and spectacle is excellent as is the art direction. It's just a nice, polished action RPG. It's no Origins but enjoying it a lot more than 2.

This is the best 3D sonic game in ages. Frontiers Open World but better and more intentionally designed and visually interesting. Unleashed Boost Stages but better, much wider, and with amazing powers that give you new routes through levels in a way more seamless and holistic than Colors' Wisps. Only thing thats not as good are the boss fights (Frontiers' were better, these are still great), and the soundtrack (decent enough but its mostly remixes of old stuff, not as good as Frontiers).

There was a bit of a hullabaloo about some critics saying the Shadow stuff is so good that it makes OG Sonic Generations look dated and, well, they were right. I don't think boost sonic/shadow has ever controlled this good, aside perhaps from DLC Frontiers with momentum/no jump decel.

I think this might be the best horror game I've ever played.

Bloober + the original blueprint is a winning combination. Nothing Capcom has put out since maybe RE7 lives up to the spooks like this game does. Play it in the dark and you'll need to wear a diaper.

Gj Konami + Bloober, welcome back. SH1/3/4 when?

Atlus needs to fix the performance of the game. It's kind of unnacceptably bad/inconsistent. You can get big improvements using DXVK though, or you can lock to a lower refresh rate.

Game itself though? *chef kiss*

Easily the best thing Atlus has made in ages if the prologue is anything to go by. It's Persona 5, but far more expansive, with more compelling characters, an actual protagonist that's less of a self-insert, press turn SMT combat with a FF job system with skill inheritance and mix and matching. The dub is actually good, the dungeon design is solid, the soundtrack is phenomenal, the vibes immaculate and menus unique, and the story immediately interesting, which is something that's harder to say about any of the prior modern Persona games.

It's easily like 5 hours of demo depending on how fast you play as well.

A bit below recommended specs but can't get a consistent 60 fps at 1080p without knocking the image quality down to the point that the game looks like an impressionist painting. The PS5 version would cut the resolution to like 500p in some combat scenes and that's basically what I have to do at points to get the demo to run well. Cutscenes are locked to 30, with poor frame pacing, and stutters between cutscenes and gameplay. There's some traversal stutter here and there. And they didn't fix any of the control issues from the console version so you're stuck with the world's worst lock on system. No way to separate FSR3 framegen with DLSS upscaling. And apparently ultrawide resolutions aren't supported either.

Game is over a year old, and they want you to pay extra for the DLC, which, fwiw, is basically the only meaningful optional content in the game.

Just grab Stranger of Paradise if you need an action FF fix. It's like $20 on sale and apparently half the file size for some insane reason to boot.

As for the game itself, it's fine. Nothing amazing, pretty dry, a lot of filler, but the combat can be pretty good at the very end of the game or if you're doing NG+ stuff. First playthrough unfortunately is pretty boring if you want any sort of challenge, and even then you have to do the dedicated combat challenges to find any sort of interesting encounter design.

OKAY NOW TSUKIHIME!!!!!


TSHUKIHIMEEEE!

GIMMIE TUSHUKIHMIMD

PLEASE!!!

Capcom it's crazy that you just forgot to publish this PS2 game for like 20 years, but whatever I'll take it. Always down for big publishers doing weird things.

Shin Sekai: Into the Depths when? Don't let that game die on Apple Arcade, please.

Feels like a PS2 era Capcom title in the best way. Mix of tower defense, management, lite RPG, RTS and action game with a great aesthetic and strong vibes. Price point seems solid for the sort of game it is, and you can get it for cheaper on other retailers. Looking forward to jumping in with the full release. Give it a try. The one thing I'm hoping for is a little more story. Nothing major or anything, just a little more meat. Hard to gauge if that's due to demo design or just not a priority at all for the game.

If this and what little of what we've seen of Pragmata is anything to go by Capcom might be coming into their second renaissance.

While we're at it, Capcom can we get a port of Shin Sekai Into the Depths? It's stuck on Switch and iOS afaik, and in the case of the former runs at a low framerate and resolution.

One of the best games from the PS2/GC/Xbox generation is back and it looks and plays better than ever.

If you, like most people, skipped it back in the day, jump in and see what all the fuss is about.

And it's a Ubisoft steam release day 1. Hopefully they do this more often.

Game also works in offline mode fine, I know that can be a concern for people with Ubisoft DRM.

WHERE IS MELODY OF MEMORY SQUARE?

Wish I could leave a neutral score. The ports are...they're just okay. Far from the worst but not handled with perhaps the care they should have see discussion threads or other reviews. Putting positive because the games themselves are good and are decent versions for the most part.

For a new player these things will probably not be a big factor but it would be nice to make these undoubtedly the best versions of the games, even without mods.