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--- sb:recommended:playstation2 [2017/10/15 01:53]
gatotsu2501
+++ sb:recommended:playstation2 [2017/10/17 01:59]
gatotsu2501 Ico, P4
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   ***//[[game:Ico]]//** (also on: PS3)
     * wourme: I consider this the best game of its console generation.
+    * Ni Go Zero Ichi: I think in certain respects I actually like this even better than //Shadow of the Colossus//. It's much more brisk and concise, if less spectacular.
   ***//Jak II//** - [[http://www.insertcredit.com/reviews/jak2/|insertcredit review]] (also on: PS3)
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     * Persona: While playing, I've often caught myself trying to respond to one of the friends in the game because I was so caught up in their conversation that I forgot they weren't real. ;_; Persona 4 is great.
     * spectralsound: i'm actually not a fan of Persona 4. the art and character designs are neat enough, but dungeon crawling is a total slog, and the story and writing was just a bit too anime-esque for me to really get into it. i guess combining and experimenting with different personas (personae?) is a neat bit of depth, but it just never clicked with me.
-    * Ni Go Zero Ichi: Has a stupidly long, pointlessly drawn out introduction/tutorial segment (~4 hours) that kept me from getting into it literally for months, and the game as a whole is not quite as conceptually pure as the laser-focused //Persona 3//. Once it gets you though, it gets you good, and most of its tweaks to //P3// both narratively and mechanically are improvements.
+    * Ni Go Zero Ichi: However one feels about the execution, //Persona 3// was a remarkably //conceptual// game - by any standard, let alone for an 80+ hour RPG - with nearly every isolated aspect of the game design, mechanics, aesthetics and textual narrative meticulously built to converge on a single thematic point (its "Memento Mori" motif). //Persona 4//, the obligatory sequel which arose out of that game's breakout success, refines the formula and makes it more user-friendly but kind of forgets the point - the ostensible theme is different, and the design of the game no longer particularly supports it. Even compared to //P3//, this one REALLY bets the farm on you finding its cast of characters so profoundly lovable and compelling that you're willing to spend hours on end watching and guiding them as they deliberate about their anime high school lives. (I'm plenty weeby and I found them to be dull, squawking stereotypes, though maybe the shrill English voices didn't help.) It also has one of those godforsaken tutorial segments endemic to late-2000s Japanese game design where you have to wade through nearly half a dozen hours of setup before the game deigns to allow you to play it. I kinda regret spending something like 130 hours on this, even on my Vita.
   ***//Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne / Lucifer's Call (PAL)//** (also on: PSN)
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     * spectralsound: man fuck you gatotsu, this game's voice acting is some the best in videogames this side of //[[game:souls_series|Demon's/Dark Souls]]//. the final letter is absolutely heartbreaking.
     * Felix: I agree with Gatotsu to the extent that the only redeeming aspect of actually playing this game is the tension, but it is genuinely narratively interesting.
-    * Ni Go Zero Ichi: Genuinely brilliant art direction, music and narrative design married to a mind-numbingly awful game that was wonky in 2001 and downright unplayable today. For 16 years fans have waved off criticism of its staggering shortcomings by arguing without a trace of irony that it's bad on purpose and this burns me up inside. (Example: the voiceovers are //Resident Evil//-esque amateur hour but because they're played over mesmerizing music and images people have convinced themselves that they're looking at some kind of David Lynchian deadpan genius and will accept no suggestion to the contrary.) An intelligently handled remake (astronomically unlikely as that may be) could be truly one of the best things ever but unless you're crazy for awful tank controls and obtuse 90s point-and-click puzzle design this is really not something you can easily go back to.
+    * Ni Go Zero Ichi: Genuinely brilliant art direction, narrative design and easily one of the top 10 video game soundtracks of all time married to a mind-numbingly awful game that was wonky in 2001 and downright unplayable today. For 16 years fans have waved off criticism of its staggering shortcomings by arguing without a trace of irony that it's bad on purpose and this burns me up inside. (Example: the voiceovers are //Resident Evil//-esque amateur hour but because they're played over mesmerizing music and images people have convinced themselves that they're looking at some kind of David Lynchian deadpan genius and will accept no suggestion to the contrary.) An intelligently handled remake (astronomically unlikely as that may be) could be truly one of the best things ever but unless you're crazy for awful tank controls and obtuse 90s point-and-click puzzle design this is really not something you can easily go back to.
   ***//Silent Hill 3//** (also on: 360, PC, PS3)