Recent reviews by durian redbag

+Great visuals. Dark Souls 1 has its own visual identity but the direction itself leaves a little to be desired as far as lighting goes. Dark Souls 2 does a LOT with shadows and lighting effects, as well as the rendering techniques used for vistas & horizons. It’s a very unique and gorgeous looking game even 10 years later
+Mechanically very sound - Feels like a strong evolution of DS1 mechanics.
--- Making healing with Estus gradual and harder to ‘pull off’ and making lifegems your go-to for healing between encounters is really smart because it gives you more healing options (letting the game throw more, harder challenges at you) while also making you choose between healing options responding to specific situations.
--- Making respawns finite is smart because you can’t farm souls and you are granted a reasonable appreciated leniency on sections that are completely walling you.
--- Invasions while Hollowed are good because invasions should’ve always been a consistent threat and not something you accept as a tradeoff of another benefit like full humanity (or God forbid, having a white summon - Invasions being effectively ‘opt in’ or giving the player a massive advantage by default like Elden Ring is a disaster)
--- Incremental Hollowing is good because it eases the player into playing Hollowed and lets you space out human effigies vs. being hard cut upwards of 50% of your health after a death and feeling effectively robbed of your fighting odds all at once.
--- Shouldn’t have to explain why NG+ map changes are great
--- Powerstancing is just one more layer to build variety and it provides a lot of reward for a lot of risk
--- More crowd-control centric bosses give the player a greater variety of fights to expect, and more reason to learn other weapons and keep backup options
+Pretty good story that builds on DS1 in a really unexpected alternative way. It’s a compelling exploration of the original game’s themes that turn them on their head a little bit. I’m still not really a fan of Souls story presentation but what’s there is good.
-A couple of rough levels, same as any other Souls game. The Smelter Demon runback sucks, and the Sir Allone runback sucks for the same reason - Allone Knights aggro from very far away, do high impact mid-range damage and they gank the ♥♥♥♥ out of you. It's just irritating.
-The game doesn’t feel super balanced, in the player's favor. Because of the open structure of the game you’re going to be pretty advantaged for the latter half of the game no matter what order you do levels in, with the exception of Iron Keep.
-Crown of the Sunken King DLC sucks. The levels are very twisty and windy in a forgettable way and the final boss is just completely garbage (Awful range, awkwardly paced fight thanks to the RNG on his flights, just terrible). I think all the DLCs overcompensate on difficulty but Crown of the Sunken King does so by putting you through a lot of misery.
-Soul Memory, a total-souls count for your player, makes getting consistent invasions a challenge, and consistent summons ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ impossible. I like it conceptually, it just can’t be the core MMR/ELO system because my multiplayer pool was VERY dried up by the end of the game.
+Music was generally good, though not much stands out
-Another Souls game where you have no reason to, and are arguably punished FOR changing weapons from one you upgraded to one that is not, because your invested starter weapon will be better than a new weapon in the same class dropped at endgame. This is so silly. Cmon.
+Favourite bosses: LOOKING GLASS KNIGHT, Fume Knight, Skeleton Lords, Sir Allone
-Worst bosses: [/spoiler]SINH THE SLUMBERING DRAGON, Sir Allone’s Grab[/spoiler]

Run Time: 48h01m42s

Great game. It has a lot to say about the themes of the previous game and it has a lot that it evolved mechanically from it. The sad part is how many great decisions and lessons were discarded from Dark Souls 2 as the series moved forward

8/10

10/10. Robbed of GOTY in 2020 it's a masterpiece in gameplay, art direction and storytelling.

+Gameplay was just phenomenal. I played on Lethal difficulty. The sword combat system hits a lot of the same beats on swordplay as Sekiro but gives you a lot more individual flourishes and swings to use against different enemies, and manages to stay a lot faster-paced despite that in a nailbiting every-swing-matters way. I was blown away by this. It’s really responsive and every death feels earned and not like you got cheated by something you couldn’t expect or react to. You ALWAYS know where you messed up. And because your enemies through the game never really plateau in THEIR capabilities, you’re always put in situations where you’re learning new angles to combat up until the end.
+The side weapons are mostly good. There are some I ended up using a lot more than I ever used others which I don’t think is necessarily bad.
-Inventory management could use a little work in this regard, though. I probably would have used the bomb items more if they were laid out a little better. Sticky bombs being a quickfire ninja weapon while black bombs are a thrown weapon makes sense on paper, but I had trouble remembering where they were and how they were used in time to apply them to a situation, because of how functionally similar they are despite being in two separate inventories.
+Storytelling was just fantastic. I really didn’t think there would be room for so many memorable characters, but they use their screentime to develop a lot of different conflicting viewpoints on the central conflict that give you room to develop your own opinions on what’s happening, and memorable names you look forward to seeing over and over. It’s just well done. The central plot is very tight. There’s no dumb moments that make you think a second, no one has to act out of character to make the conflict move forward, and the themes aren’t spelled out for you and you aren’t told how to feel about them. It’s just great and hard to describe beyond what I’ve said.
+Some of the best art direction (especially environment design) I’ve really ever seen. This game never stops being gorgeous and never stops presenting new ideas to make locations memorable. It can’t be understated. I can’t imagine the work that went into some of the environmental technology here. Character outfits and designs are very memorable without feeling like a departure from the historical setting.
+I played with the English dub and was generally very pleased with everyone’s performance. Jin’s especially is very strong.
+Every game should have photo mode. This one is especially robust
+The Iki Island DLC was especially good. It’s really great to be able to explore Jin’s character more only after spending so long with him and I think establishing a newer, weirder antagonist and island population after the played-straight conflict on Tsushima is a really good way to make it feel novel and fresh. It’s really great.
+Character customization was just fantastic. You’re given tons and tons of options and can even design loadouts for specific situations that include your cosmetics. There’s not much I could change if I wanted to.
-I would’ve appreciated a setting that hides your headwear alongside your mask in cutscenes, so Jin’s facial performance wasn’t obscured
+Sidequests are generally really good. Even basic ones like fetch quests or go-kill-these-goblins quests usually have a twist to break them up a bit. Longer and more detailed ones like the consecutive side-plots for your allies and the endgame/DLC quests are handled really well.
-Less footprint-tracking would be really appreciated. Cmon guys
+Side objectives are mostly really good. There’s a few more fox shrines than I would prefer but that’s my only real complaint. Shrines are really really fun.

-the bow lock-on ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ SUCKS buddy

Persona 3 Reload is a careless remake of an incredibly delicate game that was not handled with the attention to detail and cautious touch that was needed to preserve its identity, thematic intent & tone. All of its DNA is supplanted with something purpose-made to be more palatable and take less thought or analysis to digest, and the game is far worse for it.

-The visual identity and core art direction of Persona 3: FES has been destroyed. There are no decisions in the artwork or rendering of the original Persona 3 that aren't intentional, and zero of those intentional choices are honoured or even really understood by the Reload staff. The tone set by the desaturated palette in the overworld and relatively flat, plain UI is supplanted with blown out colours and overanimated menus that only serve to half-way convert a game with its own identity into a different product that appeals to the market gathered by Persona 5. Neutral, drab lighting that communicated a sterile and uninviting angle on the setting is instead replaced with Anime-Unreal’s iconic flat coloured haze in every room and worldspace. Even characters’ body language communicated by their character art is lost as waist-up portraits illustrated from lots of different interesting or sometimes unflattering angles are swapped for neck-up mugshots. Cutscenes like the opening and ending have added dialogue and animation cues to let you know what to think and interpret out of everything happening on screen, and things that used to be cel animated are now very poorly replicated with in-engine animations, including stock scripting animations. ZERO of the original game’s tone is communicated anymore, and the foundation that tone was built on is replaced with something deeply incongruent for the sake of looking flashier and attention-grabbing like Persona’s previous entry. I really cannot stress enough - if there is anything else that you take from what you are reading, please understand that they have completely destroyed the visual identity of Persona 3 and replaced it with a blown-out parody of a game that once had a deeply subtle presentation.

-Every track from the original Persona 3 soundtrack has been destroyed. The mixing on each song is terrible, with nearly every track plagued by multiple competing lead instruments, terrible channel layers like excessive reverb or flange, and vocals sung by a vocalist who respectfully does not really lend herself to the vocal melodies of the songs she has to re-record. She cannot perform to the bar of vocal technique that Yumi Kawamura can. However, the original tracks made for Reload are great, and she shines on them. She will do an excellent job on Persona 6 and I can’t wait to hear her in the future when she can perform on tracks built around her presence. “Colour Your Night” and “It’s Going Down Now” have been the highlight of my playthrough.
-The voice direction is bad. A few core cast members have decent recasts that bring a lot to the performance, like Junpei. But most, like Akihiko struggle heavily, especially in scenes relying on strong emotion that were played more down to earth in FES. Akihiko’s original VA cameos as an adult in Reload - when they are in a scene together, Akihiko sounds older. Koromaru is a HUMAN making DOG noises. WHAT?? Many lines feel like they went with the first take. I recognize that hiring back the entire high-profile Persona 3: FES cast (Elizabeth, my wife, has retained her voice actor) would be unrealistic. However, Atlus’ continued preference for cheap, un-unionized voice actors clearly shows in their products. The Reload dub is mostly sub-par.

-The character writing in Reload is worse than the original in every area where the script deviates. Takaya is written to be a knuckle dragging moron in the additional Strega content. Characters that previously had interests & hobbies are somewhat flanderized to be predominantly “about” those interests as they’re converted to quirky anime traits instead of understated passions. This happens BADLY in Persona Q & Q2. It isn’t as bad in Reload, but it's similar and noticeable. The characters are a lot more immediately comfortable with eachother, more akin to 4-5, than they were in 3. Yukari especially took a huge hit in this regard by the rewrites - she’s far less aggressive and standoffish toward you, which was a very realistic and compelling angle to her character that is lost. The important part is that nobody leaves Reload better or as good as they were in FES/Portable, which means the writers failed, and the game is littered with these granular but cumulative failures.

-The gameplay of Persona 3 is destroyed. More specifically, Persona 3 established a unique identity within its gameplay that has been slowly chipped away into something else, both by subsequent Persona games (acceptable) and by additional releases of Persona 3 (not acceptable). There IS provided value in Portable’s player party control, despite this being at odds with the VERY thematically relevant Tactics decision made by FES. There is value in this more approachable option being available to gamers because it does not EXCESSIVELY compromise the gameplay identity of the game. It comes at the cost of thematic identity in a version of the game that is otherwise faithful to those concepts, so it ‘gets a pass.’ What is not OK is the degree to which Reload has rebalanced Persona 3 into a game that provides zero adversity whatsoever. Bosses do not punish you or take time to figure out, they’re balanced now around being easily surpassed with zero preperation. The game gives you bundles of high-value freebie items. There’s added mechanics like theurgy and Persona 5’s baton pass that are effectively free - they’re powerful options that greatly increase your damage per turn and they didn’t counterbalance the game around them. Fusion spells are STILL items. There are even provisions in place to, NO JOKE, ASSIST YOU in assuring every Social Link is completed before the game is over. Cannot make an example of “missing the point” harder than that. As with most modern games, the default difficulty’s INTENT is to provide zero adversity. You cannot choose to have little challenge, some real challenge, and lots of challenge anymore. You can choose zero adversity, zero adversity II, and a “hard” mode that is typically about half of what you would expect from a challenging game (or just flat number-tweaking, which is a disaster and true of Reload like most modern SMT releases).

Some comments focused on the opening/ending with spoilers marked to give better case-by-case examples of the subtlety being lost:
-Yukari in the opening - The original scene builds suspense by showing you something shocking you immediately want to see the conclusion of but dragging you away from it with interspersed cuts. But all of this is lost with Bladerunner-tier re-editing of the original scene script with zero cuts and a VOICEOVER??
-Adding a walking section where Makoto interacts with different effects of the Dark Hour is insane. A lot of ambiguity is applied to the way Makoto is ‘perceiving’ the Dark Hour in the original game and this is complemented by his dialogue responses to being asked about it. Not only does this change remove that ambiguity, it supplants it with something very concretely stupid; Makoto walking up to the coffins and asking “Is this a coffin…?”
-Ambiguity of Pharos’ existence is also IMMEDIATELY dispelled by his Alice in Wonderland schtick in a way that again removes the fantastic (literary term, not compliment) angle of the original game’s opening.
-ending spoiler adding a shot of SEES reaction to Aigis on the roof is so thoughtless and horrible. What were they thinking man
Edit: I made a mistake in wording here - SEES is shown in FES. I dislike that that shot was moved before credits and their reactions detailed/voiced. My mistake!

TL;DR play FES

slop

Elizabeth my beloved, (FC) Throw > OMC > 66 > 214AB > 236236C > 66 > 5B > 2AB > 236CD [4] > OMB > 5BB > jc > j5B > jA > jC > 2B > j5B > 5B > 5C > 214A > jC (Awakening)

Starbreeze has an incredibly long and detailed history of spitting in their customers faces, over and over and over. Payday 3 is in an awful state.
No XP for missions, only for "challenges" - because everyone loved that about Halo Infinite, right? The game that died within weeks of launch? Get ready to deal with throwing teammates and dumb equipment cycling to progress your build.
Better yet, I have an hour and a half in-game and I have played ZERO (0) heists. Because the game does not work.
No one can play multiplayer at all, because their servers have been down consistently for FOUR DAYS.
And the best part? Single-player is run off their servers, so I can't even play the game alone.

You HAVE to be online, and HAVE to be connected to THEIR SERVERS to play this game you purchased with your money alone.

I'm staring at a menu wondering HOW this is supposed to be better an improvement over the P2P and local servers of Payday 2. I don't think it is.

Its fun

Very very very seamless translation to VR. Fun, bug-free, high quality work. Feels like a AAA adaptation.

Excellent. Accomplishes everything it aims to achieve

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