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eunbi0530
It is seems to be quite frequent now, I'm tired of getting mine and seeing other people criticism deleted deliberately.
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An error has ocurred. Please try againNot listed in any particular order since I recommend all of those.
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Ghost of Tsushima (2020)
Good game, side activities drag it down, so complete main quest first, do the rest if you want
This game has a good main quest, the scenarios are beautiful, the fighting is quite dynamic and the (few) platforming were fun, even though it was simple (too simple). However, the game also has some great flaws: repetitive and generic side quests, pointless and uninteresting ally quests, side activities also get boring quite rapidly.
The main quest is a good run of the mill story, nothing out of the ordinary, but you get moderately invested in it. Being a game divided in three acts, the first two end with a bang so you get to the following act hyped to see what is going to happen next, it gets a bit lukewarm in the middle, but by the end you get excited again.
However, the game shines in its scenario, what a beautiful game! I took several pictures as I was travelling around the island and most of them can easily become wallpapers even without tweaking anything with software. The only criticism for it is the water, it is ugly, rivers, waterfalls, the sea, all very lame, but other than that quite beautiful, the trees, the flowers, the mountains, the snowy region.
As for the fighting, you can learn up to 4 stances, or combat styles, by watching bosses (PS: I managed to complete all 4 stances before Act 1 ended, but I am a hoarder), where you can use against specific enemies. You have a swordsman stance, a shieldman stance, a spearman stance and a brute stance. If you pair the right stance with the correct enemy you will manage to break their defence and deal significantly more damage. A downside is the limited number of enemy types: you have those 4 previously said that have their stronger variations as you progress through the story, a bowman that shoot from a distance, but if you get too close they might pull their sword, there are some aggressive animals too, but you mostly find them in the wild to gather resources. There is also the stand-off, where you can challenge in the open your enemies, both you and your enemy are waiting for who is going to move first as they taunt you, whoever moves first dies (you won't die, but you will go down to 1health), it is very fun, the only bad side is when you are in a place with tall grass and the camera angle doesn't help you to know if your enemy is taunting or is about to attack.
The platforming is fun, simple, reminded me of Tom Raider, but obviously, without the puzzles characteristic from the franchise. Maybe in a future sequel they should consider adding some puzzles, making the platforming elements more interesting to do.
Now the bad things, which are the main reason I didn't give this game a 8/10.
Side quests are repetitive, you will be doing the same thing, over and over, just change enemy (mongol, bandit, ronin), the "thing" you are helping (person, village) and the objective of the quest (it doesn't matter, because it always boils down to the same ending).
Ally quests aren't any better, some might trick you into thinking they might get interesting, they won't. And every single quest, because the ally quests, or tales, are comprised of a sequence of quests you can do through the acts, you will have to hear them telling you over and over why they are doing what they are doing, some tales are 9 quests long (the quests aren't long, but it is repetitive) and you will hear in most if not all why your ally is doing that. Also, it doesn't matter if you complete those quests or not for the end game, completely pointless story-wise.
As for side activities you have: play catch with a fox (increases your charms, items to "enchant" your weapon), taking a bath in thermal water and Jin ponders about events in the game (increases health), quick time event cutting bamboo (your reward is increasing your "special" meter), write a haiku poem about different topics (you get a headband with your poem), the others are either cosmetic (different swords, hats) or collecting artefacts so you can gather lore knowledge.
Maybe it was the hoarder in me, but by the end of act 1 I had all stances maxed out, by the end of act 2 I was already at max level. Something else I would like to say is that, I was really thrilled by the end of act 1, but when I got to act 2, I sort of didn't want to play the game anymore, I kinda forced myself to finish it, I 100% the first two regions, but I didn't want to do the same for the third one and just rushed the main quest.
It is a good game, side content drags it down, could have been an 8/10, it deserves it, but I just wished more thought was poured into those side activities.
Kingdom (2019)
Netflix forced the hand of the creators and cancelled the show without cancelling
SHOW IS CANCELLED, THERE WON'T BE A SEASON 3
So here's the deal, I just read this and I wanted to share with people since I enjoyed this show: Netflix owns the IP for Kingdom, and in SK they tend to sell different productions around IPs they own like web novel adaptation, musicals, theatre, you name it they do it, only so they can actually make money out of the IP. Netflix - and this came straight from the creators - denied their request to have the IP expand within SK market, maybe even international market considering how successful and popular this series was, so they weren't making money out of Kingdom, so why would the creators keep focusing on an IP that isn't worth the hassle since Netflix can flat out stop them from making money?
That is how the series was "cancelled" without being cancelled, Netflix has 0 interest in cancelling the show because it is popular and they make money from it, but the creators don't have interest because they can't expand their adaptations and actually make money out of it, so Netflix washes their hands, you won't see any news like "Netflix cancels popular series" because by contract they place the whole responsibility on the creators. Such a shame because it was a very unique IP.
3 Body Problem: The Stars Our Destination (2024)
Auggie Salazar is indeed a Netflix creation, she is so bad I feel bad for the actress.
From the same person that corrected Jin remarks on a neurologist's pronouns that make zero difference in any plot, or sub-plot, in the story, we now have her calling Wade a "fascist". Where exactly was Wade fascist in the story so far? I would understand if she called him a wanna-be dictator, or even a tyrant if you want to be more philosophical. Besides Netflix's agenda, Auggie has no reason to call Wade a fascist, there's just no elements shown so far for anyone make this comparison, unless you are a person that waters down the meaning of "fascist", rendering the meaning of the word also diluted, hence not "fascist" anymore.
Auggie, in her insufferableness, talks to Jin about Raj's work as if he is supposed to talk to her about classified matters, or better yet, as if Auggie is supposed to talk about those same classified matters with her. A classic example of a smart person being written by dumb people.
Also, can Will's character be anything better than just "oh no I have cancer" and "I love Jin, but I can't confess"?
3 Body Problem: Countdown (2024)
Netflix should fire the people they use in adaptation
Even if you didn't read the books, you can tell this is a questionable adaptation There are these random "girl boss" moments in this episode that serves what purpose?
"Two physicians walk into a bar..." that might be a start of a good joke, but in the case of this episode it just leads to nothing. The scene would have worked in any other place, anywhere else, but it was in a bar because an average Joe could try to pick them up, only for them to reply in a matter that was rejecting the dude by saying how specific their field of work was, that was the sole reason for this being in a bar, to have a common dude turned down by two empowered women.
However, one of these empowered women, is more empowered (Auggie) than the other (Jin), because when Jin asks the Auggie if she visited a neurologist, she said she did. Great, right? Mental health is important, but when Jin asked Auggie "what did HE say?", the latter corrected her "SHE". And that can make you wonder: we haven't seen this neurologist, are her pronouns relevant to the scene? Or better yet, in a broader context, is the neurologist even relevant to the story? If Jin said "what did THEY said?", like most people do, it wouldn't have cause this unnecessary scene.
Then there is a gathering of colleagues, Auggie is there, at some point a male colleague shares some rude comments to which she replies: "I'm gonna punch a hole straight through your head." Now let's change sides, would Netflix allow a man saying to a rude woman: "I'm gonna punch a hole straight through your head"? No, right?
Right after, we have a similar case to the bar, but this time Auggie is approached by a random woman and, unlike the first scene she was approached by a man, Auggie here is very stressed out, her reply to the woman? "You seem like very nice person. I'm just not interested, ok?" Isn't it curious how she behaves differently, even under so much stress?
In the end, the young Ye Wenjie has proven to be way more awesome, the real girl boss. Ironically, it might be that Ye Wenjie is one of the few characters that was kept from the original and the "bad" ones are part of the adaptation.
Wish (2023)
Disappointed at this official release that manages to be worst than a bootleg one
It is a film that tried to copy Disney's style, but failed horribly. How can you screw your own formula so much that official releases seem like bootleg works?
The songs were mid, at best, nothing remarkable, but something really bad is when they change the stress on some syllables to force a rhyme and that happens more than once throughout the OST.
The art is "lacking", it feels like a poorly rendered work, as if they wanted to release a long-feature for Disney's 100th anniversary but kinda forgot so they rushed things out, into a soulless mess.
As for the story, it is just a reflex of how rushed things were. Asha, the protagonist, is shown as a tour guide, but it is never mentioned again in the story. Then she gets an opportunity to be the assistant of King Magnifico, soon-to-be-revealed antagonist, but why does she get this chance? Besides the obvious reason to quickly introduce her to the "wish spheres"? It is not because this is a - supposedly - child's film, that you let things happen "just because." That's a point where the audience gets confused: "are we supposed to side with Asha or Magnifico here?" Asha asks Magnifico about granting the wish of her relatives, isn't this corruption? She is trying to take advantage of a position - she didn't even get yet - so her relatives are benefited. Once again: "are we supposed to side with Asha here?" However, she then makes a good point "so why don't you return those wishes to the people you won't grant?" (every time I quote the film I am doing it loosely, I can't remember all the lines), fair point I would say, and Disney starts their intent to portray Magnifico as "evil", his reasoning to not grant Asha's grandpa's wishes is quite petty, he wants to be a musician to inspire the next generation, but Magnifico sees that as a possibility of revolution? Quite an overstretch.
By the way, there's a moment Asha asks "so all those wishes won't be granted?" - besides the moral debate of "should all wishes be granted?" -, Magnifico later on in a song mentioned that "last year I granted 14 wishes, isn't a high percentage?". Magnifico is probably the king of Rosas for at most 20 years, so if 14 seems to be a good number to him, lets assume he did that every year, that's 280 wishes granted and it is shown from the start that people move to Rosas because that can get their wishes granted, so there is no way Asha didn't know all wishes couldn't be granted.
Another thing that Disney should have considered, instead of a generic "you became boring", is how forgoing one's wishes could change how they are. Say, Asha's grandpa wanted to inspire the next generation through music, shouldn't he be uninspiring? But what about Simon, he wished to be a loyal knight to the king and betrayed his friend, didn't Disney use that? No, Simon betrayed his friends because his friends said he became boring, he felt like he needed to do something to feel complete, if his friends didn't mention how he changed, he wouldn't betray then.
So Disney tries to Magnifico look evil instead of making him evil, until they decide to have him use the wishes as a source of power. Well, shouldn't they have done this from the start? Shouldn't Magnifico pretend to be a good a lenient king, but actually he was harvesting his powers from people's dreams from the start?
The ending is quite weak too, we are shown that when Magnifico absorbs those wishes people feel grief, sadness, wouldn't this basically be hopelessness? So he captures every single citizen, destroy most, if not all, of the wishes and somehow, that emptiness that the film introduced before after having your wishes destroyed are abandoned because Asha started singing a song? And said song makes people able to wish again? Honestly, in tune with what Disney proposes usually, but nevertheless weak premise.
In the end, Disney just tries too hard to appeal to nostalgia referencing "When You Wish Upon a Star"'s melody several times throughout the film, the Seven Dwarves, Blue Fairy, Magic Mirror, Peter Pan and many more.
Definitely not worth a watch.
Yu yu hakusho (2023)
There's a reason you shouldn't condense several arcs in 5 episodes. Anyway, watch the anime, it is way better
When I first watched the trailer I was sceptical about this live-action, I even talked to some of my friends asking them "how do you think Netflix is going to adapt X or Y?" and by that I mostly mean the kind of humour that would be considered offensive and completely contrary to Netflix's history.
Unfortunately, both for us Yuu Yuu Hakusho fans and people that never watched or read it before, Netflix took the worst path.
In these five episodes, Netflix managed to cramp basically the same amount of chapters that its One Piece live action did, in YYH's case a little over 100 chapters, in One Piece's a little under 100 chapters. So, yes, they cut A LOT of content, not only the story was harmed, character development, the relevance of some early moments to later pay backs. Overall, this is a very bad adaptation job.
Up until episode 3, I had my doubts, but I was really expecting that this live action would adapt only the Spirit Detective Saga, sure it would be as spread as the manga and they would even have to squeeze what was shown in the anime, but sure 5 episodes for the first saga was doable, after all we are talking 50 chapters. However, episode 4 makes official they will be adapting the first and the second saga, skipping A LOT of arcs. One fight on episode 4 kinda gives you the feeling of what happened in the anime/manga, the other doesn't. Episode 5, then, is terrible, if you watched the anime you tediously watch it and think "yeah... that happened in the anime, but here it is so watered down it is not even interesting".
Do yourselves a favour and watch the anime over this terrible adaptation. The Dark Tournament is the best Tournament arc in anime history, Yuu Yuu Hakusho definitely nailed that arc. This live action was a waste of time.
I am not even going to talk about the actors because there is only so much you can do with such a flawed script.
Yu yu hakusho: Episode #1.1 (2023)
Not as bad as I thought, still misses some marks
As an old school fan of the anime, this is an adequate adaptation of the original work. It has its merits, but also demerits. The first episode is long and spends a lot of time on unnecessary things, considering it is only 5 episodes long, but there is a key moment in the beginning that pays off in the best tournament arc in Anime history that this adaptation completely removed, which is a shame, it might have been possible if we had 10 episodes of 30 minutes each.
What can I say about the CGI? It is okay, but looks "fake", does that make sense? It isn't bad per se, but when you look at it at times, even normal stuff like fire, you can tell they are not using stuntmen for that fire, it is fake CGI fire, so some scenes feel "fake" and because of that, kinda lame?
There's a character wearing a particular hairstyle from back in the days, however one of the protagonists, Kuwabara, also has a popular hairstyle from the days, the pompadour. Did they really give up on that?
Anyway, there are some good and bad adaptations, I thought this live action was going to be bad, but it isn't as bad as I thought, might as well keep watching it.
Upload: Freeyond (2020)
It is an interesting series, but the writing is quite flawed
I had a concern as episodes went by that I didn't see it properly addressed at all, Nathan knew that his cousin Fran was investigating his "accident", which she already had some suspicions, however he though so little of his cousin that he brushed her off. Not that long after we see that Fran is killed in the same manner that Nathan was, the next episode Nathan is told by his niece, Nevaeh, that Fran is missing. Nathan had two opportunities to ask his mother about Fran, or even trying to call her, but he never did that. After Fran's death, the show treats her as she is a Jane Doe, why isn't anybody concerned that someone that was investigating an "accident" just disappeared? Not only that, her car ran over a pier fence on broad daylight and there is no news on that? Seems like a huge plothole to me.
Another issue I had, more specifically to this episode, is how Nora knew Nathan was downgraded to 2Gigs, even though she works for another department she is shown to be somewhat aware of how the 2Gigs work, and yet she didn't bother checking him with her VR - like she did earlier in the very same episode - and she just assumed he was ditching her after she said "I love you".
Something interesting though is that 2Gigs are aware that they ran out of data? Because the first thing Nathan says after Ingrid gives him 1 Giga is "I have to call her back", but when he ran out of data they were still on the phone. Shouldn't he said "I love you too" and Ingrid would love that and would make the impact of what she says after even bigger?
Ahsoka: Part Eight: The Jedi, the Witch and the Warlord (2023)
Everything is too convenient
This episode had a sequence of too convenient moments that I am not even shocked fans will let it slip.
1 - Talzin's Sword: We have never seen Morgan in combat, specially wielding a sword, isn't it so convenient that she manages to stay toe to toe with Ahsoka, destroy one of her lightsabers only so the Jedi can steal the sword, kill Morgan and keep dual wielding?
2 - Sabine's "gamble" only gets a slap on the wrist: The whole season was about how Thrawn shouldn't go back to their galaxy because how dangerous he is, but Ahsoka downplays the whole thing because she also did some difficult choices that only her Master sided with her, so she should do the same with Sabine. Makes you wonder how many "Thrawns" Ahsoka brought back.
3 - TIE Fighters as a minor hindrance: Thrawn sends only two ships because he considers those enough to stall the Jedi, not only he underestimate the TIE fighters, Ahsoka's ship suffered minimum damage when Sabine use the "wings" to destroy those two ships.
4 - Fortress of Convenience: With Ahsoka's ship "down", the Jedi have to reach the fortress by rat/horse creature, wasn't Ezra surprised when he saw Sabine with one? How come do they have a second one? Not only that, afterwards Thrawn calls a hellfire rain on them, they miss every shot. Then the three Jedi manage to escape by using the force to open a gate that was locked and they get inside despite the gate almost closing on them. They get to fight some Nightsisters' zombies that just take them where they are supposed to go, here we have the terrible Morgan X Ahsoka fight, while Sabine and Ezra go ahead. They fight some zombies and Ezra gets inside Thrawn's ship, Sabine goes back to help Ahsoka, the latter kills Morgan and Thrawn yet again calls for a hellfire that destroy everything except Sabine, Ahsoka and her ship.
5 - Ezra coming back was the only way: What's a better way to convince the Senate Thrawn is back by having the only person that was stuck in another galaxy with him to testify? Ahsoka and Sabine stayed behind so their Master/Padawan relation could resume
On a side note, I was not particularly fond to how Ezra treated Huyang, Ezra knows Ahsoka, why would he assume Huyang is a common droid and treat him like a lesser?
The worst episode if you logically consider the events, Ahsoka was a bad series and a lot of the high reviews are from nostalgic people that end up rating it subjectively based on previous works.
Ragnarok: Till Death Do Us Part (2023)
Rushed episode, uncharacteristic behaviour
It is understandable what they were trying to achieve with this episode, but it was so poorly written.
For instance, this trope of the young adult easily corrupted by external influence is quite common, but, maybe for the lack of episodes, it feels so rushed. Magne feels pressured and wronged by several reasons: his mum lost her job and she wasn't able to collect what was rightfully hers, his girlfriend was pressuring to get answers on why he acts odd lately (it wasn't what she said, but how she said it), how his environmental concern is blocked by people's fears. All those things tale a toil on all of us, but it all changed in less than a day.
It is a late rebellious phase and so uncharacteristic for the character, even considering the whole thing that is going on.
Past Lives (2023)
Beautiful use of lights and colours
This film is filled with metaphors, as Haesung says "Korea would be a small country for you" and we can see that right before Nayoung's family immigrates, where Haesung keep walking a straight path, but Nayoung has to climb the stairs to the top.
Something else worth noticing is the use of the colours blue and yellow, referencing their "first date" back when they were 12 years old, he was wearing a blue jacket and she a yellow one. First time they meet in person after 24 years, when they are 36, we can see that both of them are wearing their colours again, him a blue dress shirt and her a yellow blouse, even the scenario will reference that the blue steps below and the yellow carousel on top in the last moment of their first day together. Curiously when she is back home talking about her day with Haesung to her husband, Arthur, she is wearing a blue t-shirt, and her husband is wearing tones of gray - which reinforces how Arthur doesn't put colour in Nayoung's life.
However, in the next day, Haesung is wearing another blue dress shirt, but this time it is black chequered, and Nayoung is wearing all black. Remember how Arthur wear gray tones? When Nayoung is showing her wearing pictures they are all black and white, except for the very last one which Haesung quickly zoom in on her.
Then we have a beautiful "what if..." discussion.
Fast forward to the end, once again we have this play with colours when Nayoung accompanies Haesung to his Uber, this time the background lights are inverted, blue colour on top, yellow on the floor and you can clearly see how both colours are mixing in between and there are even green plants to both sides, and they are there, for two minutes (actually only one in movie). And you can feel every second. Nayoung stands there, and much like how she did when she was 24 she expected him to make the first move and she wouldn't deny him. Haesung also wanted to do the first move, you can see how he fidgets, but in the end he constricts himself, as Nayoung said he is too idealistic, too Korean. Even after his Uber arrives, she was expecting him to make a move, anything, she didn't want him to leave. When she goes back to her place and sees Arthur, her clothing colour starts making sense, she mourns. And a small detail that might come to pass unnoticed is how Nayoung doesn't hug Arthur back when he is trying to comfort her.
One last play with colours is Haesung, in a blue car, leaving behind the yellow sky into gray buildings.
Ahsoka: Part Two: Toil and Trouble (2023)
Show great promisse to an expanded films/series Universe, but I have some nitpicks
How can Sabine sit up after being impaled on episode 1? Can droids even understand non-verbal communication, like the nod Hera gives to Huyang? What about Morgan's magic, why doesn't she use the characteristic green hue magic inherent to Nightsisters when she is handling that orb? Notice that the green thing that lifts the orb isn't coming from Morgan, hence it isn't her magic, or it isn't how Nightsister magic work. Back again to Sabine's wound, why is her wound no where close to where she was stabbed? Her injury was supposed to be closer to her chest rather than her lower abdomen. Why is Ahsoka's fight so poorly choreographed? For instance, there is the usual 2 vs 1 trope "let me wait you pay attention to me so I can attack you" or how her robes keep on touching her lightsaber and they are intact or how she just let her enemy escape, why not force pull him? Or force push so he misses a step?
Secret Invasion: Harvest (2023)
How can Sonya make that assumption?
My biggest concern surrounding this episode are two moments that are just terrible, for distinct reasons: Rhodes using footage of "Fury" killing Maria Hill two episodes in a row and the "man is bad" trope that has been recurrent in Marvel recently.
It is not hard to consider the first issue as bad writing, in the last episode we were already told by Rhodes that he had footage of "Fury" killing Maria Hill and in today's episode we see Rhodes using that same leverage again? Fury knows about that, so why did he act like Rhodes got nothing on him, so only we are shown the evidence again, for (at least) the third time? Or do they think the audience is ignorant?
As for the second issue, we have Sonya capturing two Skrulls, following one of them threatens to kill the scientist Skrull, then Sonya implies that the "male" Skrull is going to kill the "female" Skrull because that's what males do. This whole "man is bad" thing has been recurrent in Marvel's productions in these recent years, sometimes it seems like they go out of their way to write a scene like this. However, this very same series in the last episode is a huge criticism to this thing: how does Sonya know that Skrull is even a male? We know for a fact from the last episode that Rhodes, despite being a human male, is actually a female Skrull, so did Sonya just assume that Skrulls gender for how they look? Wow...
No Hard Feelings (2023)
Funny romcom, but does not hold itself together until the very end
I was ready to rate it a 7, it is a funny romcom which mixes elements from the millennial and Gen Z worlds and it suited quite nicely and had me laugh in a few times. However, the last third of the film changes the pace and it is too different, it is tiring watching it, uninteresting even and, honestly, I was hoping for another kind of ending, don't know for sure what would suit the film best, but what they picked ain't it.
By the way, I think the trailer did a good job, because I don't recall expecting it to be as funny as it was - all things considered. Jennifer Lawrence is quite good and Andrew Barth Feldman did his job pretty well too, the rest of the cast is barely noticeable, narratively maybe they could have been better if they had more lines or funny jokes.
In the end, that last third alone made me decrease my score for the film from a nice 7 to a 6, still worth a watch.
Black Mirror: Mazey Day (2023)
It starts off alright, but it gets too goofy. Skip it.
I was very curious on why this episode had its low rating and it takes some time to understand why, because at first you would think the episode would be only about how paparazzi are leeches, but, as some other people have said, this episode is a good definition of jumping the shark.
There is only a handful of episodes of Black Mirror that have such questionable writing involved, but at least those - or at least most of them - were still developing core ideas of the series. At first, the idea isn't bad, she was a paparazzi and one of her pictures resulted in an actor taking his own life so she dropped that life, but when bills started piling she decided to go back to her previous lifestyle. The core idea might have been something that they could have developed better for the show, but there are some questionable scenes that were pointless, for instance why is the roommate complaining about frying garlic and ginger? What's the point in showing that paparazzi are "vultures", when we could assume that from the very first scene and when they find Mazey Day? Also, talking about her, why is Bo's character so buoyant? First she is a paparazzi, then she feels guilty about that actor's suicide, I understand when she comes back to being a paparazzi, but she "saves" Mazey, only to take her picture stone-cold like she wasn't shocked with that other actor? Not only that, she has that fat guy's camera that have pictures "worth a million bucks". Why didn't the cop ask that staff "why is there a car in the parking lot when there is only me here? (the couple we see in the later scene isn't shown then)"? Even the staff, dude fetches a knife and dies from a misfire? That's goofy.
This episode could have been written better, its story, its characters, have a more Black Mirror feel to it than what it was.
Tomb Raider (2013)
Really fun game with some minor flaws.
I haven't touched this games since it was released back then and I had just as much fun as I did in the past. One thing though, I had a different setup 10 years ago and, as some comments from a few forums have said, this was the reason I might had so much motion sickness in the beginning of the game. I don't know if I got used to it, or maybe disabling "screen effects" made a difference, but I think it is important to point that out.
The narrative is really good, even though some characters are not well written. The combat is okay with a small number of weapons and ammunition, the variety of enemies isn't that big either, but it didn't bother me, even though they aren't THAT smart. What did bother me was the climbing with a pickaxe, there are a few moments where Lara just jumps to her own death, which can be a bit frustrating. Ah... Lara doesn't sprint (exclusive to the multiplayer, why though?) so when you go back to past areas your best bet is to "dodge" all the way so you can move a bit faster.
If you find it, there is a treasure map to pinpoint most collectables in the area you are in, however each area has a challenge that won't be shown on the map.
Still, those are all minor details considering how good and entertaining the game was.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Mid film, Marvel is cutting costs on the writers
I don't understand what's up with Marvel thinking it is alright to diminish a super hero to praise another, they did it here with Peter Parker from an alternate universe, they did it with Thor in Love & Thunder. Miles sounds like a chill kid, but writers didn't have to do Peter dirty like they did here, Peter Parker in most stories is always unlucky, losing his loved ones and having a terrible life; here you feel pity for him, not because something terrible happened, but from how pathetic he is displayed.
Miles' origins story is bad, they probably didn't used the original from the comics because there is no way it is as bad there as well and, yeah, I'm talking about having a loved one dying, as per usual for ALL spider-men so no spoilers.
Something else that is weird is Spider-Gwen, she enrols in school - how? - just to get close to Miles and there isn't a sub-plot for it? We don't see neither her nor Peter Parker 2 teaching Miles skills - nor any of the other Spiders. We do get to see how Miles doesn't know how to use his own powers, but when it is convenient, writers make him proficient in his newly acquired powers? Doesn't make sense.
The art is alright, some comic concepts are used in some sort of metalinguistic reference. The animators probably wanted to add way more goofy animations, there are good ones, but there are scenes that are just too slapstick and doesn't really suit the moments.
The Curse of Monkey Island (1997)
Amazing game, deserved a better ending
Beautiful art, great soundtrack, funny dialogues and nice puzzles. I have played this game several times so I know by heart where the answer to most puzzles are, I confess that my biggest issue remembering is the unique insult sword fighting, but you can get used to it quickly.
Some thing that must be said, though, is that from the six chapters this game has, the first four are amazing, the last two, which are really short, are not as good. I reckon the last chapter's puzzle is alright, but since we are stuck in a repetitive situation it can get a bit frustrating for those that might not know what to do, it is such a shame such a good game ends in such a low note.
By the way, the game has two sets of difficulty, one with easier puzzles (which takes you less steps to complete a puzzle) and Mega Monkey (the more complex one), there is also a sea battle difficulty (don't get your hopes up, those battles are quite simple, it is only a matter of how much damage your enemy takes).
Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge - Special Edition (2010)
"Why is the game so long?" said the devs in the Game's comments
It feels like the developers tried to do a lot of different things with this game and you can notice it by playing and if you turn on the comments from the developers.
What I like about the series is how lighthearted Guybrush is and how no one believes he was the one responsible for taking down the ghost pirate LeChuck. However in this game, Guybrush has this cockiness in him, understandable, but still feels out of character. The story was also poorly written, it keeps on promising this huge reward that keeps on building, but it doesn't deliver.
There is something that even the devs mention several times in the comments: "why is the game so long?", that might be a weird thing to say, how can a long be bad? There are 3 major islands you visit, the game is long in the following matter: Puzzle in island A, visit island B to that has an item for island A, but you have to visit island C to get the another item to unlock island B's item, and that happens several times and it takes times, specially if you don't know what you are doing. That's how "long" the game is.
It still has some of the characteristic humour of the franchise, but it feels like a weird game, I wouldn't play it again. Secret and Curse are better games.
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy (2021)
A solid 7, but so badly optimized for PC I had to rate it a 6
After reading several reviewers mentioning how good this game was and how much effort the devs put into this game, I decided to give it a try. I have watched The Guardians of the Galaxy's films and found them alright, so I thought maybe it will be alright to play the game as well.
The game itself is alright, as I said in the title it is a solid 7, the interaction between the characters are on point, the story is alright, it has a good gameplay. However the major issue this game has, at least on PC, is the recurrent frame drops and heavy stuttering to a point it is almost unplayable at some points. I also had this weird bug where Peter would start shooting non-stop and considering how his weapons overheats if used for too long it was another bother, at times I felt like the controls weren't responding how I expected them to and the skills from your characters are not the easiest to remember what each do and the fact that the game doesn't "stop time" so you can use them is a bit frustrating, even though the difficulty isn't that high.
Did I have fun? Somewhat. The stuttering made the experience less pleasant, but I wouldn't recommend this game as some other people have, sure console might be a smoother experience, but PC is not good, hence a 6.
Spider-Man (2018)
Amazing game, terrible DLCs
I'll say it upfront so people are made aware: the game itself is superb, but the DLCs are bad.
The last time I played a Spider-man game was back in Playstation 1, so there is a huge gap and I don't remember that game that well, but I do recall having a blast. I really liked the story in this game, the characters, but at times I had issues with the controls. I don't know if it is a common issue with the PC port, but sometimes Spider-man would not behave as I intended and that lead me to many deaths, considering I was playing on a higher difficulty. Still, it didn't happen often, but it is not unusual.
About the characters, I liked most of them, but I had a big issue with MJ, she would get in the worst situations possible and would get annoyed at Peter because he got worried with her, she was meddling with the Kingpin and many other villains and she thought Peter was treating her like a baby. Then there is Silver Sable, I don't understand why to make her look good she has to kick Peter's ass, there are other villains and even common enemies that are tougher than her, and yet Peter only loses to her? Luckily in the
DLCs we are introduced to Black Cat, which is someone that can fight toe to toe with Peter, at least closer than Silver Sable. I also don't quite understand the appeal of Miles Morales, it feels like Marvel wants to bring new consumers, but without changing the formula, might be wrong, probably would have to play the spin-off game to be sure.
Something else I disliked are the side activities you can do, the game will even "stop" the main quest so you can do those activities, things like taking pictures, completing challenges, defeating enemies in a specific area, travelling around to complete research projects, even catching pigeons. I just don't like how the game stops the main quest for that. PS: there is also this Screwball character, really annoying, I hope I never see her again.
The DLCs are separated in 3 parts. The first one you team-up with Black Cat, which is really nice; the second one you have to fight against Hammerhead, and it is not very good storywise and; the third one you "kinda" team-up with Silver Sable to take down Hammerhead, but the story gets worst somehow. The DLC isn't even innovative, the first two add one new enemy and that's it, nothing new is added, sure you get more side activities, but most is more of the same, you might get some background info for completing a few of them, but only if you are really into the game.
Detroit: Become Human (2018)
Shader Compilation Process 0%
This game has a serious issue that I find amazing that isn't addressed more often: "Shader Compilation Process". Some people might say "oh that is just something that happens the first time you boot your game" or "did you update your drivers recently? That happens when you do that". No, it does not. There are several people, even today, complaining how EVERY TIME they boot the game they have to go through the Shader Compilation Process, they already played it once, they have space in their storage to save that kind of info, they didn't update the drivers, they even have CPU with 12 cores and yet this issue still happens. It is enraging to sit through this kind of process every time when you have limited time to play a game.
Sure it might not be an issue that happens with all players, but notice that there is a precedent with several people mentioning it.
Pokémon Legends: Arceus (2022)
A lot of handholding and repetitive gameplay
The game has a lot of dialogue and a repetitive gameplay. At some level it reminded me of a Visual Novel and something that would make a huge difference would be introducing voice actors to the franchise - which would also be a major risk considering other games aren't as dialogue heavy as this one. However, they would still need to revise the dialogue because there are a lot of uncalled for repetition. You can't even skip the dialogue and cut scenes, you have to sit through the whole thing.
I reckon they tried something new with the open world approach, but the gameplay itself is so repetitive and I find hard to believe that a majority of players of the franchise play Pokémon as developers wrote this game, for instance to complete the Pokédex it isn't enough to capture one pokémon, some times you have to capture 25 of the same pokémon and there are other "challenges" as well.
I must say however that most of the Hisuian forms are really cool.
HACHIKO (2023)
Another Chinese rip off that misses the point of the original story.
(Second time sending this since it was deleted for no reason whatsoever.)
Hachiko was a real Japanese dog from the breed Akita Inu, this breed has a peculiarity that isn't found in most breeds, they are extremely loyal to one person.
I have watched the brutal 1987 original and the lame 2009 American rip off, both show an Akita as the dog the story was based on, however this Chinese adaptation changes the meaning of Hachiko's name, which was supposed to be "lucky", to "eight dots" - a mahjong reference . Also, another huge issue is how Hachiko, or rather Batong, isn't an Akita Inu, but rather a Chinese pastoral dog.
So this adaptation pushes away core elements that makes the story of Hachiko so important, even the American adaptation didn't do that, but the Chinese adaptation changed those to make it seem like it was something that happened in China.
Such a shame they felt like they should change those elements of the story.
The Mandalorian: Chapter 24: The Return (2023)
Was this bad season intentional?
The episodes starts with the Imperial troopers' armour conveniently protecting them from the same blasts that took them out in the previous episode. Din Djarin manages to escape and is saved, in the last moment, by Grogu in IG-12, that somehow evaded Bo-Katan and managed to find Mando somehow.
Why is R5-D4 Din Djarin's "buddy"? Aren't the writers aware how Din Djarin treats droids (with the exception of IG-11)?
When Din Djarin is fighting those Imperial troopers their armour are once again not as protecting.
I am not big on Star Wars lore, but even I know about midi-chlorians from "Phantom Menace", where they did shy away from using terms. They could even use Season 1 as reference, Moff Gideon would mention how midi-chlorians are related to The Force and that would have been better, pleasing both Star Wars fans and casual watchers.
Once again we have a jetpack-Grogu dilemma, why doesn't Din Djarin uses his jetpack to reach Grogu before the Praetorian Guards?
Why did Bo-Katan slam Moff Gideon when she could have used her sabre to cut his head in one clean sweep?
Praetorian Guards versus Din Djarin's choreography was nowhere as good to the previous episode. Paz Vizsla was attacked by them in sequence, as for this episode, they were waiting to attack in turns.
THEY BROKE THE DARKSABRE? What about the whole "the ruler of Madalore must wield it"? Will the Children of the Watch conveniently forget about that?
Well, at least IG-11 is back, I'm not sure if I liked that outcome but whatever.
And what a cartoonish ending, simply terrible.
It seems like the writers wanted to do something of the lines of The Book of Boba Fett instead of continuing the great writing they did for seasons 1 and 2. I might be wrong, but since Ahsoka's series will premiere soon, maybe sabotaging this season was a way to avoid people from comparing both series or even decreasing people's expectations for that series for we would expect something as good as The Mandalorian used to be.