Silent Hill 2

         

        Silent Hill 2 was released in 2001 for the Playstation 2 and original Xbox. The game is considered by many to be the greatest horror game ever made. After playing it, I am afraid I have to agree. It is a masterpiece and a must for anybody looking to play horror games or the greatest hits of the Playstation 2’s library. However, the game’s status as the peak of horror games seemingly doomed the franchise. Silent Hill 2’s legacy has effectively been worn out through the awful HD collection released for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, pachinko machines, and Pyramid Head’s use as a mascot. Both what makes the game so good and how it has affected the series will be discussed in this review as I do have a lot of thoughts on the matter. 

            Silent Hill 2’s set up is pretty simple. The game opens with local dork, James Sunderland, looking at himself in a rundown public restroom. He reveals to the player that he has arrived at the fog-ridden town of Silent Hill after receiving a letter from his wife Mary telling him to meet her in their “special place.” This strikes James as odd as his wife has been dead for three years due to “disease,” and he has no idea where their special place could be. Nevertheless, he decides to enter the town. If you played through Silent Hill 1 you might notice that dead wife due to non-conspicuous disease and searching through the town for a family member is the set up for that game as well. The main difference is that the town’s death cult, The Order, that had a large presence in the previous game is noticeably absent. The game lacks a central antagonist which does wonders for the game. The town’s role itself has been expanded, making Silent Hill seem like a character with an unknown goal. The supporting cast has also been changed as well. The characters all act in ways that are subtly off, almost as if they aren’t seeing the same monster-filled town that James is. All of this leads to a great sense of isolation. Wandering the town and its abandoned buildings is terrifying because of how alone you feel, and the sense that danger is everywhere all the time. None of the elements in the game can be trusted, as characters behave weirdly, the town shifts to its trademark dark dimension unexpectedly, and the game’s mechanics begin to play tricks on you. Escapist magazine’s Yahtzee Crowshaw put it best when he said that the only characters at play for most of the game are “the player, James Sunderland, and the town itself, and at some point, you begin to wonder which one of you is James’ greatest enemy.”

The game does more to realize the anxiety-ridden horror it’s going for. The soundtrack and sound design emphasize the isolation and panic that can come with many parts of the game. The voice acting isn’t your typical AAA video game affair but does well to sell you on the characters. Guy Cihi’s James Sunderland is unassuming and makes for a believable clueless dork, all the while pained and tragic. When the HD collection was released and Troy Baker played James, he came off as a typical 20-30-year-old tough male protagonist that Troy Baker plays all the time. Nothing against the actor, it just doesn’t fit what the game is going for. The same goes for most of the cast. Angela Orosco, one of the supporting characters, comes off as distrustful, depressed, and at times panicked, all of which went away once higher end voice actors came into the picture. The sound design with its distant screams, animal noises, and reportedly one hundred plus footstep sounds, all add to an eerie atmosphere. What only adds to it is the dense fog that makes exploring the large town feel more claustrophobic than the tight corridors of the buildings.

The game isn’t perfect though. The gameplay is a bit clunky. It works, but clunky nonetheless. You could even excuse the rough combat for a few reasons. Chiefly among them is that clunkier gameplay that functions, but doesn’t feel like it works against you, works to achieve a sense of helplessness. Secondly, James Sunderland is just some guy. He’s not your Resident Evil protagonist who has been trained to be a killer for years and can suplex lunatics into the next century all-day long. James Sunderland has seemingly never held a gun before so he handles it a bit awkwardly. Later games in the series would try to improve on this formula by redoing the combat to include dodge rolls, finishing moves, and breakable weapons, all of which were changes that made those titles much less scary and more annoying. The camera tends to act quite weirdly, which I have no excuse for. Otherwise, the game is a typical adventure horror game. You spend your time exploring, avoiding, or killing monsters, and looking for that one puzzle item to unlock the very contextual way thing that is blocking your path. 

So the game is great, but why has it, and the other three Team Silent games, “doomed the series?” Silent Hills 1-4 are great but the problem is, after the dev team was dissolved, everybody who would work on the game past Silent Hill 4 just tried to use a formula to recapture the magic. Most games after four and the movies felt that a Silent Hill anything must have a clueless dork with a dark secret, take place in Silent Hill, and have The Order in it. Silent Hill isn’t that. Silent Hill  1 and 4’s clueless dorks don’t have anything to hide and the protagonist of 4 never sets foot in Silent Hill. Silent Hill 2 doesn’t have The Order and Silent Hill 3’s protagonist spends much of her time not being in the town and not being clueless. If you asked me "what makes a good Silent Hill game?", all I would say is the feeling of isolation and anxious dread. That isn't particularly the easiest thing to achieve.

Eventually, Konami just said ‘fuck it’ and released a dungeon crawler and pachinko machine Silent Hill game because who knows what you people want anymore. A lot of the monsters’ presences are also weird. In the first four games, the monsters are all representations of whichever character’s psyche the town is drawing from, especially Pyramid Head. Putting them all in the movie so fans can gush at how the Lying Figure looks in mid-2000s CGI does nothing.   The closest thing the series has gotten to reaching the same heights is Hideo Kojima’s P.T. That game seemingly had everything going for it but was swiftly canceled anyway. Even the HD collection was a buggy mess, with several changes that removed a lot of the tension and atmosphere. Not to mention the collection only had Silent Hills 2 and 3 so it can hardly be called a collection. 

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Final Thoughts: Silent Hill 2 is a landmark in not just horror games, but video games as a whole. It is tense, horrifying, and dreadful. Besides the gameplay having some annoyances there really isn’t much to complain about. Everything about the game is masterful and has yet to be truly topped. It is a masterpiece that you should absolutely play. It’s just a shame so many people have tried to recreate the feeling of isolation and missed the mark completely. 

5/5

Oh this shit rules

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment

 This review contains spoilers for Persona 2: Innocent Sin

After the quite easy and admittedly batshit insane game that is Persona 2: Innocent Sin, Atlus released a direct sequel in 2000 for the Playstation 1. Unlike Innocent Sin, Eternal Punishment was localized in the United States. However, when it came time for the Playstation Portable remake in the early 2010s, Innocent Sin was the one that was localized and Eternal Punishment was left to be exclusive to Japan. So, if you played through the PSP version of Innocent Sin, you have to then play the original PS version of Eternal Punishment. This can take some getting used to as the graphics, UI, and voice acting are all much different than the set of remakes. Not worse just takes some getting used to. Although, there is apparently a completely new game scenario taking place alongside the main plot in the remake that is not in the original at all. Either way, I cannot comment on the remake. The game bills itself to be much more mature than the previous games, and all Persona games to follow for that matter, which did peak my curiosity. After playing it I have some thoughts on it. 

The story is; after the end of the first part, the world is reset after its destruction without the main characters having ever met. If the main characters never meet, the events that end the world will never have been set into motion. However, a loophole was apparently found. If all the party members of part one remember the events of the game then the timeline goes back to the way it was originally, world destroyed and all. The villains discover this and call the original timeline “the other side.” The only other person to remember is the protagonist of part one, Tatsuya Suou. After he remembers and discovers the antagonist’s plan to return the world to the other side, he decides to engage in a lone warrior schtick to stop the loophole from ever being exploited. I’ll be honest, his storyline is very cool, if in part because he isn’t the main character of part two. 

You play as one of the party members of part one, Maya Amano. After a rumor appears that calling your own phone number summons a serial killer called Joker, who will kill anybody you wish. Also, no it is not the one from part one or the one in Smash Bros. (Apparently every two-bit nut job gets to be called Joker in this series). Being a journalist, Maya sets out to uncover the truth. Although the mystery of the killer’s identity lasts for about five minutes before the plot’s focus changes. She is quickly joined by her best friend and roommate, a detective and brother of Innocent Sin’s protagonist, a career criminal, and one of the main characters of the first Persona game. What you’ll notice is that all the characters are adults, which lends them to have more interesting dynamics as well as problems that are unique to their characters in the series. The criminal and detective are a perfect example of an interesting duo that has to put aside their differences to work together, which couldn’t be done by the teenage characters of later games. The characters are all quite interesting this time around, and I do like seeing the cast of the first Persona game having an interest in continuing their adventures after the first game closes. The biggest problem the cast has is that most of the main party members from the first game are seen very briefly. Any attachment to them is swiftly ignored to tell the story the developers wanted to tell. 

The game’s tone is much more mature this time around. There is a very real risk of losing, apparent by the increased involvement of the omnipotent characters like Philemon and Igor. Even the main characters don’t have as many meandering comedy scenes this time. There are still some meandering scenes like the first game though. Some scenes take too long, a problem the first game shares as well. They still serve a narrative purpose to some extent but can kill the pacing.

    Like the protagonists, The antagonists are better this time too. Joker being a serial killer rather than a jester who spreads rumors fits the plot much better. Hitler is also nowhere to be seen in this game as well, which came off as sort of comedic in the first game, especially because of the fact he wore sunglasses in every scene. The openings to the remakes of both games can be found on youtube and are perfect examples of this tone shift. So the game as a whole takes itself quite seriously and it serves tremendous dividends. There are real stakes, the characters feel more natural, and the plot becomes a bit simpler. Without spoiling anything the ending maintains a sort of bittersweetness from the first game while still ending on a satisfying note.

On the gameplay side of things, the game plays pretty much the same as part one. Slower than part one for sure, because it is the original, not the remake. Additionally, the game is more balanced, with the random encounter rate being far more reasonable, and it is more difficult than part one. All the gameplay mechanics stay relatively the same, however. The same battle system, same rumor spreading mechanic, etc. You’ll be seeing a lot of familiar locations from part one with just enough new ones to keep things interesting. Otherwise, there’s not really a lot to say about the gameplay if you read my review for Innocent Sin. The gameplay does its job and doesn’t really get in the way of the music, atmosphere, plot, or characters. I will say though, it can be frustrating having to start from level one all over again if you intend to play the games back to back. I didn’t mind that much, but I can see how it would be a problem. Especially considering it’s not a quick run to get the gang back together as most old characters have either changed a lot or have been brushed off to the side in this new timeline. I could hear the argument that part one seems like a long time investment just to enjoy the better half to its fullest. 

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Final Thoughts: Persona 2: Eternal Punishment is a much better experience than the first one. The plot is a lot more interesting with a bit more depth, and all the main characters have better arcs and motivations. Eternal Punishment’s tone is much more dramatic and everything seems like a real threat to the happy ending you might want after the first game. Which you still don’t really get, but it feels more deserved this time. The gameplay plays much the same but the pace is a bit sluggish. The story also has some pacing issues where scenes can drag on for too long, and if you liked a lot of the characters from the original you can forget about it. It’s still a damn good game and one I’d recommend. The music and presentation are also pretty good in this game too. The biggest thing this game has against it is that you’ll have to play the thirty-hour first chapter to be able to fully enjoy the thrilling conclusion. 

I enjoyed it

4/5

Persona 2: Innocent Sin

  

    Next on my quest to play through Atlus’ Persona series was Persona 2: Innocent Sin. It was initially released exclusively in Japan in 1999 for the original Playstation but was eventually released internationally as a remake on the Playstation Portable in 2011. Innocent Sin is an interesting game in the series, for the sole reason that it was made as a part one to a two-part story, meaning that by the end of it you can feel like there has to be more to the story, and there is. The game is also very much a follow up to the first Persona, with a lot of characters reappearing in this game, something that will happen quite rarely throughout the rest of the series. Persona 2’s place in the series is interesting and unique for those reasons and more, which made me excited to play it and after doing so, I have some thoughts on it. 

The story is; a standard cool guy highschooler, Tatsuya Suou, is joined by two friends to play a bloody mary-esque game, no not the one from the last Persona game, which summons the Joker, no not the one from the latest Persona game. The Joker reveals that he has the power to turn rumors into reality and plans to exact his revenge and kill the three main characters. Although Joker quickly retreats when the main characters admit they have no idea what he's talking about, and vows to get his revenge once they remember what they did to him. Thus begins the journey of the protagonists, eventually joined by two journalists, to figure out what the fuck is going on.

The gameplay is similar to the first Persona game with a couple of key differences. Battles play out mostly the same with random encounters, demon negotiation, personas, etc. but does have the addition of fusion spells. Fusion spells are the combination of magic attacks to perform more powerful ones. They’re dependent on which order the characters are in which adds an additional layer of strategy to battles. The positioning of characters on the board is no longer a thing, and the dungeon exploration now has an overhead view as opposed to the first-person view of the previous games. The biggest gameplay difference is rumors. As stated earlier, Joker can make rumors become reality, and how they work is that NPCs will relay rumors to you and you can spread them through an agency to make them come true. These rumors can be what items a shop sells, difficulties, side quests, etc. They sometimes have story importance but those occurrences will be far more scripted. Rumors, as a mechanic, is done masterfully and really makes the game unique.

Most of the mechanics complement each other quite well and never feel that overwhelming. The mechanics are well developed and have a lot of depth to them. I’d go as far as to say they’re quite fun. That said, there are several issues with the gameplay that all relate to the dungeon design. The way you progress through some dungeons is monotonous. Take the first one in a school, for example. You are told to meet with a teacher who is on one of the floors, so you go to that floor and ask around, hear she’s on a different floor, and repeat the last two steps a couple of times until you are finally where you were supposed to be. Dungeons play out like this quite a bit, causing parts of the game to feel drawn out. There’s another area that is built like a circle and has to be looped three times just to progress with the story. That circular area is actually a sub-area of a larger dungeon that you get locked into because of a cutscene where your party members act like complete idiots. Couple this with random encounter rates that are far too high and large swaths of this game can feel like a chore. However, the random battles are quite easy, and I found I could hold the auto-battle button and get by without worry, so it isn’t like you dread every random encounter because it might be the one to make you lose your progress. The game as a whole is quite easy, and on lower difficulty your magic automatically regenerates, so stocking up on healing items can feel unnecessary. I’d prefer a JRPG that’s easier as opposed to harder with dozens of hours grinding, but the length and repetition can really make the whole game feel a bit boring. 

The story itself isn’t that bad. The main villain is pretty cool, the way the world works with the rumors becoming reality bit is interesting, and the main characters are fine. If you watched the intro to the PSP version you’d think you are in for a wild time and that’s only partially true. The first chunk of the game features a lot of individual character moments, which I never really cared for. The characters aren’t immediately interesting and the attempt to deepen them didn’t quite work. The reason they don’t work is because there are more pressing matters happening in the plot than one of the characters joining a pop band and how that makes everyone feel, and it swiftly gets forgotten about anyways. There are some pretty charming moments when the development happens to all the characters in the group, but when it happens to one individual and the others are just kind of there it feels awkward and superfluous. 

The second half of the game is batshit insane, which can be quite jarring. If you don’t want spoilers you can skip to the final thoughts. At some point in the game, it is revealed that the evil cult that is working for Joker, the Masked Circle, had been indirectly created by something the main characters did when they were kids, the innocent sin if you will. After realizing this the group eventually convinces Joker, who they now realize is their friend from childhood, to drop the revenge plot and help them in defeating the cult. Now formed, the Masked Circle intends to resurrect Hitler and destroy the world using an alien spaceship. There are Mayan ruins in japan for some reason, costumed vigilantes, the spear of destiny, five crystal skulls, evil gods, and a bunch of other nonsense. It’s one of those whiplash-inducing tone shifts that I feel I will eventually come around to liking but haven’t yet. It is just too ridiculous and happens so fast that you barely get enough time to register it all, and for a game that went the majority of its time being pretty tame and kind of boring, you end up losing interest in it really quickly. So many other plot points feel like they come out of thin air as well.

The game ends with the Masked Circle actually destroying the world, so the benevolent God character, Philemon, makes a pact with the main characters. He will go back in time to stop the inciting incident that caused this whole mess to happen, being the main characters meeting in their childhood, but everybody will forget out about this timeline. They all agree, say their goodbyes, and none of the events of the game ever happened. Except for the main character, who refuses the pact at the last minute, which will be a major problem in part 2. 

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    Final Thoughts: Persona 2: Innocent sin is not a bad game. A lot of the mechanics are really fun and engaging, and the story has some great moments. The problem is that the gameplay and overall story beats can make the game feel padded, fun at times but more often than not boring. Rarely do you ever encounter a challenge. There’s also a point in the story where there is a tremendous tone shift that will turn a lot of people off. The graphics are pretty good for what it is, and the soundtrack is also pretty good. If you want to play some of the older Persona games or even just RPGs from the Playstation era it’s a good pick, but with the long length, and padded length at that, the game can be a drag at times.

3/5

eh

Revelations: Persona

    

     After hearing a lot of internet commotion around the Persona series, and being stuck in quarantine this past six months, I decided to play through Atlus' Persona series. The Persona series is a spinoff of the Shin Megami Tensei franchise, and its first entry was released in 1996, titled Revelations: Persona. It was released for the Playstation 1, with a Playstation Portable remake released in 2009. The game was also added to the Playstation Classic's lineup of games. It's a JRPG featuring high school students using the powers of different identities, being personas, as they attempt to discover the cause behind supernatural happenings in their town. I played through the PSP version of the game from start to finish and I have some thoughts on it.

    First off, you may ask why I chose to play through the PSP version of the game, and we're already off to a complicated start. The Playstation 1 version famously has localization issues. A lot of it has been Americanized in numerous ways. Characters were made to look either more white or racially diverse. Famously the character Masao was renamed Mark and was race-swapped to be black. Most of the references to Japanese culture was also removed, which isn’t a deal-breaker to many, but it most certainly isn’t the way the game was intended to be experienced. Additionally, the North American release has some issues with battle outcomes, causing a lack of cash to buy necessary equipment some ways through the game.

On the other side of things, the PSP version has problems of its own. It goes back to the heavy Japanese culture and original character designs. The gameplay balance is also more in line with the original Japanese release. All of which are positives, however, the soundtrack was completely redone. Gone is the more tone appropriate music, but replaced with upbeat jpop. Not really bad music per se, but it can cause some tonal clash throughout the game. And, again not a deal breaker just not the intended way to play. Additionally, the game still looks quite bad. So which is the better version to play? Well, probably the PSP version since it is closer to the original vision but it still comes with its own cons. 

The story is that a silent Japanese or American depending on the version, kid and a couple of other high school students play the Persona game, a fortune-telling bloody mary-esque thing, which brings them to an encounter with Philemon, the series’ resident good guy God. He tells the gang that they are now able to summon Personas, powerful representations of their inner selves, which can be used in battle. Thus the cast is set to investigate supernatural happenings in their town. From there, there are two branching story methods, the SEBEC and Snow Queen quest, each of which are similar enough at their simplest. Both quests have the cast stop the end of the world by killing a God, with the central theme of being true to your self. None of the characters are that interesting, with a few exceptions, and the story itself never feels like it expands beyond “your typical RPG jaunt”

Gameplay-wise, the game is broken up into two sections; dungeon crawling and battles. The dungeon crawling is in a first-person perspective. You navigate through tight corridors in order to find objectives, items, and random encounters. The issue is that the corridors are so tight I found myself staring at the minimap more than the game screen itself most of the time. In individual rooms, the game goes back to a third person perspective you’re used to with classic JRPGs of the era. Despite much of the game being a fairly normal JRPG, the battles do have a lot more going on. The encounters are random and turn-based, but otherwise much of the mechanics are unique. Every character has different weapons from both standard melee attacks and firearms, which they attack in a grid format. This means that wherever your party is positioned can affect which enemies they can attack.

The aforementioned personas are where the biggest gameplay mechanics come into play. personas have most of your magic attacks and have type strengths and weaknesses. It isn’t unlike Pokemon in this way. However, each character can swap personas with new ones you get throughout the game. Each character also has different compatibilities with each persona. By talking to enemies and performing actions that raise the eagerness stat the enemies will give you persona arcana cards. There are several different arcanas. This whole mechanic is called “demon negotiating.” After collecting enough cards you can give them to the freak show in the Velvet Room, another series staple, in exchange for different personas. Which dialogue options do what and how many cards you get probably have a method to them, but you will spend much of the game thinking they’re completely arbitrary. There are other emotions you can make the enemies express which can grant you more xp, or money, or sometimes make them attack you more aggressively. I swear it’s not as complicated as it sounds, but it takes some time to get a handle on it. 

With all the descriptions out of the way, the million-dollar question is would I recommend Revelations: Persona, both on its own merits and as a necessary part of the franchise? The answer to both is no. Revelations: Persona is by no means a bad game, but there aren’t a lot of reasons to play it anymore. For starters, you have the obvious issue of the two different versions having their own startling downsides. The characters and plot are nothing to write home about, and the gameplay can often feel convoluted and drawn out. It doesn’t help that random encounters are never something that’s particularly enjoyable either. Even visually the game isn’t that bad, but it’s quite boring. Again, none of it is awful, but out of all the games out there, especially the JRPG’s of the 90s, it’s extremely bland. I played it in August and I still had to google a lot of info just to remember what the hell happened. 

I find a lot of the love for the first entry from longtime Persona fans are superfluous in their reasoning. A lot of people like the inclusion of Philemon and that other characters can use different Personas, both are noticeably absent from Persona games after 2, but 2 still has them nonetheless. I’d argue both aspects are more interesting in 2 anyways. Most of the mechanics, besides the board placement, are in future Persona games and are done better. You want demon negotiating, Persona 2 and 5 have that. The first person view for dungeon crawling isn’t fun but hey it comes back in the Persona Q spinoffs. Hell, even the characters almost all come back for Persona 2. All of these aspects aren’t unique to Revelations: Persona, nor are they that important or good in that game. 

Super Mario 64

 

    With Nintendo re-releasing Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy on the Switch as part of a “3D All-Stars” collection celebrating Mario’s 35th anniversary, I considered it time to replay the 3D Mario games and see where my thoughts lie on them now. Thus, I recently one hundred percent completed Super Mario 64 and have some thoughts on it.

    Super Mario 64 came out in 1996 along with the Nintendo 64 and revolutionized the way video games are made and ushered in a generation of 3D platforming. Most of the innovations in 64 are so new that concepts had to be heavily explained or given analogous representation. For example, a player-controlled camera was so new that Nintendo used a cutscene to introduce a Lakitu holding the camera just to make it clear to everybody that this was a thing you controlled. Those innovations and creative workarounds do deserve a lot of credit. Although this means that much of the game is rough around the edges by today's standards. The camera can often feel like it isn’t doing what it’s supposed to, there’s a hearty helping of glitches, and the game doesn’t exactly look that great. Although the port to the switch has upped the resolution to 1080p docked and the HUD has been completely redone so it most certainly looks better than it ever did officially. Despite all the innovations Nintendo made gameplay wise, the story stays pretty much the same compared to previous entries in the series. Bowser kidnaps Peach and in other news, it is a day that ends in Y.

The controls are probably where Mario 64 has aged the worst. A lot of people online have mentioned just how smooth or effortless Mario is to control, but after all the changes made to platformers in the past twenty-four years, that’s hardly the case. Mario can often feel a little too slippery for my liking. Many levels have thin walkways that made me feel on edge for just how awkward it is to make Mario go in a straight line at times. Additionally, one tends to get used to Mario’s death sound for when he’s falling off a cliff quite quickly. That said, the sheer amount of moves at your disposal, from the dive, slide kick, somersault, and more, all feel natural. Some of those moves wouldn’t return for Sunshine and Galaxy which did feel quite jarring at first. None of this is to say that Mario 64 is filled with sloppy controls, but some levels sure do push their luck with how many times Mario falls into an instant death pit. 

There are fifteen levels across Mario 64, each with seven stars to collect (six for missions and one from a 100-coin run). Many of the levels are iconic and rightfully so. I genuinely enjoy most of the levels and the star missions within them. I have played through Super Mario 64 a few times and I still feel there are new things to discover in Hazy Maze Cave, which is a fantastic feeling. Music is another one of the game's strengths. I could listen to Koopa's Road until the end of time, it's the perfect boss level theme. So perfect it got remade for Super Mario Galaxy 2. The level design, coupled with the music, makes for a great atmosphere across the board.

Not all of the stages are winners though. Tiny-Huge Island can feel extremely jank at times, and Rainbow Ride is pretty annoying in its layout. Tall Tall Mountain and Tick Tock Clock also have issues with the mission design. Half of Tall Tall Mountain’s stars require climbing to the top of the mountain which can feel repetitive, and Tick Tock Clock is just climbing a certain portion, falling off, climbing again, getting a star, and doing it over again for the next star but going up higher this time. It makes playing those parts of the game frustrating, especially if you want to go for a completionist run. Although, you can get enough stars to beat the game without ever entering those stages, so whatever.