Returnal is an extremely interesting first major release for the PlayStation 5 since its launch, because it’s definitely not going to be for everyone. It’s a strange beast, the first of its kind as a rougelike with a AAA budget attached to it. I’m almost certain some have purchased the game simply because they want something new and exclusive to the PS5 and are already unhappy with it, given its difficulty and unconventionality compared to the average AAA title.

I encourage those people to try and stick to Returnal though, because there’s a ton to love.

Edge of Tomorrow

Hades, the best rougelike ever created, treats death as a joke, because everyone in the underworld is either already dead or immortal. Zagreus, a God, comes back to his father’s palace after a death unfazed, ready to try and escape it yet again. You never really “kill” Megara, so much as you slow her down, and can have a chat with her in Hades’ cafeteria on your return down the River Styx.

In this sense, Returnal is Hades’ antithesis. Selene, the protagonist who crash-lands on a mysterious alien world, is slowly unwound with each of her deaths. She finds herself fraying as she stays trapped in the cycles of rebirth after getting killed any myriad of ways by the monsters on the planet.

The plot of Returnal is interesting to think about on a cerebral level, even though I wouldn’t say this game is worth playing exclusively for it. I’m intrigued by the mystery of the planet Selene has found herself on, especially after reaching the game’s midway point, but I don’t expect to be blown away by its reveals. Returnal seems comfortable enough with relaying its plot through atmosphere, and leaving you as the player to put the pieces together, Dark Souls-style. Luckily, the game has an incredible atmosphere, really putting its Alien inspiration on its sleeves. With a good pair of headphones you’ll find yourself fully immersed in the game, possibly to the point of exhaustion — the visual and sound design do a lot of heavy lifting in keeping you on edge as you explore and fight your way to solving the mystery of your cyclic death.

Pew Pew Brain Goo

Exploring and fighting, by the way, are the main highlights of Returnal. Housemarque has made a name for itself with games like Super Stardust and Resogun, which are mechanically engaging and get your pulse up. Returnal is no exception. It feels like an absolute dream to run and gun as Selene. Every weapon you can pick up is unique, and has great impact as you fire at hostile aliens. Dashing and platforming both feel tight. This was especially true after I adjusted the controls so that my dash and jump were on my L1 / R1 buttons, meaning I never had to take my thumbs off the control sticks unless I wanted to use a consumable or perform a melee attack. You’ll never feel like you don’t have any control over Selene, even when the game’s at its most hectic.

And phew does it get hectic. Returnal is essentially a 3D bullet-hell. You’ll find yourself dodging through and jumping over wave after wave of attacks as you fight enemies. The patterns for these attacks are all predefined and well-telegraphed, so nothing about combat is left to chance in this regard. As such, you're encouraged to never take damage in multiple ways. Killing multiple enemies without taking damage builds up your Adrenaline, which gives you a variety of buffs, like the ability to see enemies through walls, upping your melee damage, and widening the timing zone for your weapon's quick reload. On top of this, if your health is at max, items that would normally heal you instead turn into Resin, which increases your base HP pool during a run. In summation? Don’t get hit.

Given it’s a PS5 exclusive, Returnal makes tremendous use of the Dualsense controller, which continues to be the most revolutionary piece of tech in this new generation of videogames. You’ll feel the pitter patter of rain in your hands when it hits Selene’s suit, which is a neat trick for sure, but Returnal also turns the Dualsense’s capabilities into honest-to-god mechanics. For starters, every weapon in your arsenal has an Alt-Fire that can be used off cooldown. Pressing lightly on the L2 trigger will let you highlight enemy weaknesses and zoom in to fire, but pressing the L2 button all the way through switches your weapon to its Alt-Fire mode. It feels like a magic trick every time I use it, but it also feels like second nature at the same-time.

Even the rumble serves as a mechanic! The pulsing that comes off of the controller when you stand next to an item can immediately let you know if it’s safe to pick up, or afflicted with Malignancy (more on that in a bit). Not since the Nintendo DS’ second screen have I been so excited for the potential of videogame hardware, and I can’t wait to see what game devs do next with the controller.

Taking the Plunge - Or Not.

As I mentioned, Returnal is a roguelike, so a variety of aspects about the game change with each cycle of play. This of course includes the layout of the maps, but it also affects the items you can pick up throughout a play through. Much of Returnal is based on risk and reward, and it often works…until it doesn't.

Parasites, for example, are great! When you find one, you’ll see that attaching it to your suit will give you a buff, and cause a debuff in turn, all of which is randomized. You might get restore health to a certain threshold after reaching critical levels at the cost of enemies turning into pools of acid after being defeated, for example. I loved encountering Parasites because I always had a clear idea of what I was getting, and whether it was worth the sacrifice I would make to get it.

The other side of this coin, however, is Malignancy. You’ll often find chests, keys, and other objects inflicted with Malignancy. Interacting with them creates a change of getting a Malignant debuff, which sticks to you until you fulfill a random objective, which can range from picking up ooblites — the game’s per-run currency — to using a consumable or defeating enemies in specific ways. On paper this sort of risk / reward system is a lot of fun, and adds danger to any run. But in practice, I quickly realized that it was almost never worth it to interact with Malignant items. Opening a chest and getting a debuff only for a reward to be a garbage consumable like Ground Spikes felt terrible. I quickly found myself avoiding all malignant items, which felt like I was missing out on a piece of the game. I would love for a theoretical patch to buff up the rewards that come from malignant interactions, in the same way that opening a locked chest with a key almost always gives you a worthwhile reward.

Most roguelikes have meta-progression to them, letting you get stronger with each run so that subsequent runs get easier. Returnal isn’t an exception, although its definition of meta-progression is…very narrow, at least in the time I’ve spent with it. The only currency you keep that carries over after death is Ether, which you can spend to unlock items so that they show up permanently in the game’s item pool. That’s basically it. There are other permanent unlocks that help you maneuver around the world, but they don’t actually make you “stronger.” You’re not going to get an increased pool of health or strength upgrades. Returnal demands that you simply get better by practicing and having a little bit of luck. If that sort of level of challenge doesn’t sound appealing, this might not be the game for you.

Save Me

And now, for Returnal’s biggest flaw: the saving system. In a baffling decision, it’s not possible to keep your progress in the middle of a run in Returnal. If you quick the game, if you switch apps on your PS5, hell if the game crashes, you’ll haves to start all the way over back at your ship, the Helios.

I just gotta ask: why? What made you think this was a good idea? It’s not. It’s not a good idea. It makes no sense that the game doesn’t save your progress after you clear a room, or hell, even after you beat a boss. I don’t want a game to hold my time and my console hostage. It’s ridiculous, especially because runs can be an hour plus, if you fight every boss in each biome. Luckily this is the type of thing that can be patched in, and I assume it will be because it's the one aspect of Returnal that seems universally disliked — for good reason.

Also annoying: don’t use any of the alternate costumes if you’ve got them. They’re currently bugged, sometimes causing doors and items to not be obtainable, meaning you’ll have to restart your game to fix it, which — you guessed — will wipe your run. It’s almost like a saving system would make this issue negligible! Who’d have thought.

Dying to Go Back

Returnal is a fantastic game. Just writing about it has made me want to stop so I can go back and keep playing it. It’s a difficult game, but not an unfair one. Most importantly, it’s a game that feels fantastic to play, and that drives you forward with its haunting atmosphere. I've loved the time I’ve spent with it, and I’m excited to see where the second half of the game takes me.

This game is a recipient of the Goopy Goblin Gamer Brain award. The GGGB Badge is the highest honor you can receive from Mint’s Café. A game with the GGGB Badge is one that I recommend for its incredibly engaging, moment-to-moment gameplay and mechanics. It means that even if its story isn’t incredible, or it isn’t a technical marvel, it’s still worth playing based solely on the fact that it feels fantastic to play it.

That’s all for now! Have you picked up Returnal? Are you enjoying it? Let me know @mintmakesthings! And if you enjoy my work, please consider supporting me on Buy Me a Coffee! Till next time!

The 3DS is 10 years old as of last month! I figured it’d be fun to take a trip down memory lane and talk about one of the greatest consoles ever released, and the end of what I consider an important era for Nintendo.

I’m a sucker that got the original 3DS when I was a junior in high school, making me one of the enviously(?) regarded 3DS Ambassadors. I had always asked for every console Nintendo made day 1 for birthdays and holidays, with zero issues…up to that point.

The original 3DS launch was a disaster, which is impressive to think about considering how successful it ended up being by the end of its stretch. The base model felt like garbage, the launch line-up was abysmal outside of like, Street Fighter 4, and it felt like there was a drought of games for a long while after that. As a result, I barely touched the thing for quite a while, focusing on other games, and also getting into college, which took up most of my time anyways. But there was always an interesting core at the center of the 3DS, which was brought to the forefront for me when I got the significantly improved — and also much more of a mouthful — New Nintendo 3DS XL in college.

I love my Switch, you know? It’s a great system. But you know what it’s missing? Nintendo’s trademark weirdness. It’s easy to forget, but go back to the 3DS and look at the buffet of weird, unique features it has that were just never brought to the Switch. There’s Miiverse, which needs no explanation. But there was also Swapnote, which let you create cute art and animations. A much more thorough and fun Activity Log to keep track of the inhuman amount of hours you spent on Animal Crossing New Leaf. Themes, which are still not anywhere on the Switch’s horizon 4 years into its lifespan. And Street Pass, which let you connect with other people’s 3DSs and exchange info, collect puzzle pieces for 3D art, and more. Yes, that last one was kind of useless if you didn’t live in a place with a big population, but it was there! And it was unique as heck, even being implemented in some 3DS games.

That uniqueness stood out in the 3DS’ library as well, which grew to gargantuan levels after that slow start. Sure you had your mainstay Mario and Zelda games, which were fantastic, but the handheld’s cheap development costs allowed for all sorts of fun titles to get the spotlight. I was never big on the 3DS’ main feature, but the puzzle series Pushmo certainly made a believer for a while. The beginning of the indie surge that would later wash over the Switch began here, with heavy-hitters like Shovel Knight, Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse (still the best one, don’t @ me), and the SteamWorld series of games debuting on the system. The greatest game of all time — and this is barely a joke — Pocket Card Jockey, stole so much of my time I’m pretty sure I would have dropped out of University if I didn’t show any self-restraint. Square Enix dropped Theatrhythm, an incredible rhythm game that celebrated the company’s track-record for god-like music. And Nintendo even let Sakurai out of his Smash Bros. cage to make Kid Icarus: Uprising, which was a banger that I feel not enough people played because of its unfortunate control scheme.

One thing that really stood out to me about the 3DS was how quickly it became a haven for JRPGs. Again, thanks to the 3DS’ large install base, portability and easy development, there was room for all sorts of that kind of game from Japanese devs: Square Enix returned to their classic turn-based roots with Bravely Default and Bravely Second. The Etrian Odyssey games continued on the system, only getting better with pretty much every release, which is good, because we probably won’t get another one with the Switch’s lack of a second screen. 7th Dragon II Code: VFD was a sleeper hit, mixing JRPG combat with dungeon-crawling sensibilities along with a sick art-style and some banger tunes. Rune Factory 4 was so goddamn good that a sequel was announced for the Switch, despite the developers going bankrupt in 2013. Hell, even Capcom threw its hat into the ring with Monster Hunter Stories, which was adorable and super fun.

I realize I’m just gushing and reminiscing about the 3DS right now, but even just putting this retrospective together made me want to pull the thing out and get back to some old games. And this is just the tip of the iceberg! I could wax about how Fire Emblem finally got paid its dues on the system, Shin Megami Tensei IV being a masterpiece, how good Kirby: Planet Robobot was…but we’d be here all day. The point is that the 3DS was a special system for me. I got my first job a month into college, so it was the first console I got to buy games for myself. $40 — and sometimes even less, if I went used — was a lot more palatable to spend than $60 for major console releases. And while the Switch is certainly portable, the 3DS could fit in my pocket, letting me easily get some time in between classes or during lunch (or, uh, during class, if the lecture was boring enough, heh). Let’s also not forget that it was compatible with every DS game ever made, too, meaning you had a metric buttload of games at your disposal at all times.

So yeah. This isn’t exactly a mind-blowing revelation, but the 3DS absolutely slapped. And like I said, I love my Switch, but I couldn’t name 10 games I love on it off the top of my head like I could its predecessor. The 3DS was special, and we probably won’t ever get another console like it again. Which is a bummer, because it represents an era of uniqueness and weirdness that Nintendo seems to not be interested in bringing back. That’s fine! but I’ll miss going to the game store across from my dorm, cruising through the 3DS games on display, and finding another weird, interesting-looking game that I’d never heard of before.

That’s all for now! How do you feel about the 3DS? Got any games you miss on it? Let me know @mintmakesthings! And if you enjoy my work, please consider supporting me on Buy Me a Coffee! Till next time!

It feels like I keep saying “it’s been a while” because it usually has been, but that’s especially true as of late. I haven’t been feeling much in the way of creative drive and real life has been incredibly stressful, so the café has been closed for a while now. Oops. Regardless, it’s time for me to get back in the saddle, so I figured we’d start with a warm-up and go over some games I’ve been playing lately!

Fantasian

This Sakaguchi-directed endeavor is an Apple Arcade exclusive, and joins the likes of a bunch of other Apple Arcade games that I’ll be going over and recommending in their own post. One thing I should stress since people seem to not realize this is that a game being on Apple Arcade doesn’t mean it’s relegated to iPhones and iPads. You can play any of them on Apple TVs and Macbooks too. All that said, Fantasian actually works great on touch-devices because the combat is built around them. Your plucky JRPG protagonists can curve their attacks to catch multiple enemies or to bypass defenses. It’s a cute little system, bolstered further by the Dimengeon, a device that lets you stock random encounters before fighting all the enemies at once for bonuses. One wonders why modern JRPGs constantly find ways to bypass common JRPG conventions, because it begs the question why they’re there in the first place, but the Dimengeon is convenient the same way games like Bravely Default are.

I haven’t gotten too far into this game’s plot so I can’t speak for it, but it’s firing on all cylinders in terms of presentation; it looks and sounds gorgeous. Each environment is a handcrafted diorama, which gives the game a life-like appearance that harkens back to the pre-rendered JRPGs that Sakaguchi pioneered in the first place. And the soundtrack is powered by the legend Nobou Uematsu himself, who really feels like he's given his all for what may very well be his last leading project. If you've got Apple Arcade, definitely check this game out.

Knockout City

Also known as the game with the weird as hell Videogame Awards commercial, Knockout City is probably the most surprising game I’ve seen this year so far. It feels like Splatoon-flavored dodgeball, with a similarly bright, energetic art-style coupled with mechanics that are easy to learn but come with an ocean’s worth of depth. It didn’t take long for me to get captured by the core loop. At first I was throwing my dodgeball and hoping for the best. Then I learned I could fake out throws to bait catches. Then I learned I could curve and lob shots, pass my ball to a teammate to power up their throw, and more. Even the game's level design is surprisingly high-quality, and I quickly found myself utilizing the environment to land some sick plays. The feedback from jumps and throws feel great, and the entire experience has been stable on the network-front as well. I’m genuinely sad that this is just a beta and I'll have to wait until May to play more — that’s how good Knockout City is.

OUTRIDERS

I don’t really have much to say about Outriders to be honest, other than that it taps into my goopy goblin gamer brain, which you probably know I’m a sucker for. I did not like this game on my first go around, and I frankly feel like $60 is still too much to pay for it. But if you liked Mass Effect’s multiplayer you might find yourself at home here, surprisingly enough. It’s basically Diablo mixed with cover-based shooting and super-powers. I play as a Trickster, who can teleport behind enemies and use a spiffy energy sword to cut down enemies. It’s a very aggressive game, which is a nice change of pace from the sit-in-cover style games like Gears of War / the Division. I’m enjoying it a lot more on a second pass, and will probably finish it, which I can’t say I’ve done for most of the new releases this year…yeesh.

Monster Hunter Rise

I was going to write a separate Thoughts On post about Monster Hunter Rise, but what can I even say? It’s Monster Hunter. It’s obtuse and complicated and addicting and beautiful. Rise is probably the best starting point for a would-be hunter yet. Yes, I know people say that about every new Monster Hunter, but I mean it this time. Not because it's been any more streamlined (although it has been, in some ways), but because being a hunter in this game is OP as hell. I've never felt so bad for the monsters in this series in my life. Every attack just feels overtuned for the first 20 hours or so of the game, and the wirebug gives you even more options to attack and evade your prey. You feel like a badass more in Monster Hunter Rise than any previous game, and feeling like a badass is a good way to encourage a newcomer to keep playing your game. The palamutts are another great addition, making navigating the maps and even sharpening your weapon feel better than older Monster Hunters. Every time a new game gets announced, I question how this series could continue to innovate, but Capcom knocks it out of the park without fail, while always maintaining the beautiful core that sits at the center of every Monster Hunter title. Just play it! Play it right now!

That’s all for now! What have you been playing lately? Let me know @mintmakesthings! And if you enjoy my work, please consider supporting me on Buy Me a Coffee! Till next time!

What’s up, I hope y’all are doing well. I’m alright myself. This post is probably a surprise seeing as I’ve never really done a review of tech hardware before, outside of the PS5. But as you know whenever I choose to write something so random, it usually stems from the fact that the games aren’t hitting at the moment, which is once again the case. I’m slowly but surely trudging my way through Bravely Default 2, but I won’t lie that it’s been a bit of a slog. Lately all I’ve been doing is playing Apex, Destiny 2, and FFXIV, all of which you have my thoughts on already! So here we are.

Fam Why Do You Have an iPad?

Good question! Four reasons:

1. I am a flawed human being that likes to buy expensive tech toys when he’s depressed.

2. My old iPad is 5000 years old and I wanted to see how it’s been updated.

3. I wanted to draw on something now that I gave my mom my Surface Pro.

4. My laptop’s in the shop and I needed something to work on while it gets repaired.

I didn’t think I’d be using it as much as I currently am, but one week later I’m already smitten with the thing.

As I mentioned before, the last iPad I had was from 2015, and it’s barely been upgraded with any of the OS updates, so the iPad Air 4 and iOS 14 has basically been a brand new experience for me. Let’s start from the top.

Hardware

The iPad is pretty solidly built out of the box, but I was eager to get it into a case as soon as possible. Without one, it’s hard to hold with one hand, and I cringed whenever I put it on a table, worried that its camera would get scuffed. In a good case though, it feels great to carry around, and just the right size to carry a round from room to room.

Instead of using facial recognition, the iPad uses TouchID to unlock. Considering the pain of unlocking my phone with a mask on, I actually hope that TouchID makes a comeback. It can be a bit finicky at times, but slowing down usually gets it to work on a second go. I let the iPad recognize my two index fingers and thumbs so that I can unlock it whether it’s in portrait or landscape mode.

My old iPad had a headphone jack. The new one does not. I will forever be annoyed by this trend, but at least I have high-quality headphones to match.

Software

Somewhere between now and 2015, the iPad seems to have picked up a bunch of tricks for its OS. This thing is a lot more powerful than it first appears. Multitasking works very welll now. I was super impressed by how I could swipe the right side of the screen to access a list of apps that could overlay on top of whatever I was already looking at. It works with some apps better than others, but a week it already feels natural to swipe, write a tweet or send a message, and get back to whatever I was doing.

When I need a little more space, split-screen lets me go a bit further, letting me pick get enough space for both apps.

The main issue I have with this multitasking is that it almost always works better in horizontal mode. Also, swiping right works well enough, but swiping back to close the drawer of apps can be really finicky and distracting. I dunno if I’m just not getting the positioning right, but it was downright annoying at times.

Another aspect I was very fond of is Picture-in-Picture, which is an bad name for a pretty good feature. Getting to pull up HBO Max to watch a show while I play a game at the same time felt great, even though I sometimes found myself sliding the video around sometimes so I could access buttons on whatever app I was in.

As far as battery goes, I am once again impressed. Even when using all these aspects in conjunction with one another, I found that I wasn’t nervously glancing at the top-right corner of the screen, like I sometimes do when I’m doing extensive work with my phone. After an 8 hour day, I’d be sitting in the 50% range well into the rest of the night. Not bad at all.

By virtue of Apple owning each of my buttcheeks, my iPad quickly sat in well with the rest of my family of hardware. It synced up immediately with my photos and files, and I’ve actually come to find myself using iCloud for once, which I used to avoid because of how cumbersome it used to be. Airdropping stuff to my family or to one of my other devices is pretty snappy too.

Apps

I think it’d be hard to do any real work on an iPad without a keyboard of some kind, but with one, it becomes a tiny little work-horse. In fact, I’m writing this very piece on my iPad right now, in Craft! I’m able to chat with my coworkers on Slack without much issue, and even managed to make a whole presentation in Keynote. I would be lying if I said it went effortlessly, though. Part of it is the adjustment period, but I also found myself yearning for the ability to right click, or have a bit more space on my screen to manipulate things. For example in Keynote a lot of the aspects I normally work with are hidden behind sub menus, where they’d usually just be hanging out on the right side of the screen on my laptop.

One of my favorite things to do on the iPad has been reading. The big, crystal-clear screen and long-battery life has let me tear through multiple series of manga with the Shonen Jump app. I still think an eReader is better for novel/long-term reading, but for stuff like manga, comics, and the news, the iPad’s a great fit. It’s nice to be able to go through my RSS feed while draped on my couch, instead of sitting at my desk like always.

Then there are the games. I am not one of those people who think games shouldn’t be on the phone/iPad. As you already probably know, I have always been gatcha trash, so I’m not remiss to the idea, and there are interesting methods of interaction that can come strictly from touch. That said, some games definitely worked, while others didn’t. Slay the Spire, for example, is a perfect, and I mean PERFECT fit for the iPad. Moving cards around with my finger felt as natural as breathing. In fact, most turn-based and strategy games worked really well on the iPad, and none of them had much of an impact on the battery either, which is a nice plus.

Action games were another story. I tried out The Pathless and the new Samurai Jack game, and they didn’t feel nearly as smooth. Controlling the camera while performing actions at the same time just felt off. Granted, you could use a controller, but at that point...why not just play on a console, you know?

The iPad came with 3 months of Apple Arcade, which was a nice bonus. I will probably do a separate post with all the stuff I’ve played on it and my thoughts, but my general feeling is that while there are some great games, I don’t know how worth it it is to pay a sub every month to be able to access them. Sorry Grindstone. That said, I can see myself paying for a month every now and then to try out new games.

Apple Pencil

As I mentioned, I also got an Apple Pencil thrown into the deal, and it’s also pretty great. I actually much prefer hand-writing for a lot of things, and it supplements those aspects well. Apparently the first iteration of the Apple Pencil was garbage in a lot of ways? No problems with this one, though. It attaches magnetically to the side of the iPad, which serves as its method of charging as well. It feels good to draw on the iPad’s screen. I was worried it would feel like I was scratching the screen of the iPad if I pressed too hard on it with the nub, but that proved to not be a problem, at least so far. I bought Procreate, and while I’ll never quit my day job to be a full-time artist, it feels great to draw on. The pencil can take on all types of brush sensitivities, and Procreate itself is intuitive to work with.

I normally draw all my design thumbnails in my notebook, but I could myself doing it on my iPad from now on. It’ll make the transfer process to my other software smoother as well.

Final Thoughts

Tablets have always fascinated me on a fundamental level. First mocked as an “extra large phone,” you now see them everywhere, from doctor’s offices to ordering kiosks at restaurants. I think tablets have a place in the technological sphere, but it comes down to who you are and what you need from your tech.

If you don’t use a computer for much beyond minor office work, web-browsing/media consumption, or art, an iPad might be the perfect choice for you. It’s light-weight, easy to use, has great battery life, and paired with a keyboard, can replace a lot of what you might need doing on a computer. It’d save you money in the long-run. But if you’re like me, and are an intense multitasker, coder, designer, or musician/videographer, than an iPad probably isn’t going to be enough. Even then, though, it’s a great supplement for your existing workstation — although it’s most certainly going to be a luxury to get one as an addition.

As for me, I’ll probably be using my iPad all the time from now on, when I’ve got downtime away from my computer. And if we’re ever allowed to free ourselves from the shackles of quarantine, I could see it being the thing I put in my backpack instead of my laptop.

That’s all for now! How do you feel about the iPad? Let me know @mintmakesthings! And if you enjoy my work, please consider supporting me on Buy Me a Coffee! Till next time!

I miss my friends.

I mean, they’re still around — I can pick up my phone and call them, or play games with them online. But this pandemic is now almost a year old, and America has done less than zero to curtail it. I’m lucky that I haven’t been deeply affected by it as many others have, but I still can’t see my friends in person, and it’s starting to grate even on me, your resident local shut-in. I miss going out to eat with them, going to movies and concerts with them, getting to laugh with them in person…it’s rough.

Persona 5: Strikers does not help me miss my friends less. It doesn’t know it, but it’s rubbing my face in with its road-tripping energy. Until I can see my friends in person, I’ll just have to vicariously live through the Phantom Thieves.

Don’t Take Your Time

Returning to the streets of Shibuya with Joker and Morgana felt like coming home, in a sense. Despite my…tumultuous relationship with the game — and don’t worry, we’ll get to that — I still felt a sense of nostalgia as the Phantom Thieves reunited with their former leader a year after the events of the first game to go on a road trip. This being a videogame, things don’t exactly go according to plan, and the Phantom Thieves are forced to travel across Japan to save the country once again.

You’d be forgiven to think that Strikers is a spin-off, given the subtitle and the fact that it’s a Koei Tecmo production, but that couldn’t be any further from the truth. This game is Persona 5: The Direct Sequel in all but name and genre. The characters have a year of history between them, so there’s little in the way of set-up. I wouldn’t recommend playing this game if you haven’t played the original already.

Where Persona 5 was about methodically taking out enemies in turn-based encounters, Strikers has Joker and friends slashing and dashing through tons of shadows. It’s almost like Dynasty Warriors…except, not really. Hyrule Warriors and Fire Emblem Warriors were effectively Dynasty Warriors reskins, but Persona 5: Strikers eschews the formula, with the Phantom Thieves progressing through dungeons instead of defending bases or fighting literal thousands of foes. It’s the most blended game Koei Tecmo has made, with every action mechanic being given a Persona-flavored coat of paint. You’re able to exploit enemy weaknesses by using your Personas, which open them up for stylish All-Out-Attacks that do big damage to your target and surrounding foes. You’ll go nowhere fast if you don’t capitalize on these mechanics, especially when fighting more powerful enemies. These have staunch defenses that, when broken down, let you do even more stylish All-Out-Attacks that are ripped straight out of the original game.

Combat is fun, flashy, and punchy, with actions feeling responsive at all times. Joker is objectively the best character, thanks to the fact that he can fuse Personas to give him access to tons of powerful spells. But I loved how much the rest of the Phantom Thieves shine in Strikers. Each of them feels entirely different to play, while demonstrating their personalities through their mechanics. Ryuji can charge up his specials to do big damage, for example, while Yusuke can calmly counter enemy attacks. Mysterious newcomer Sophie can time her attacks to increase their damage and range, and Haru can hold a button to do big AOE damage for a period of time. They were all, frankly, more fun to play than the protagonist himself.

However, it’s a bit difficult to stay engaged for the entire 30+ hours of playtime, for a few reasons. Exploiting weaknesses is far and away the best way to get through most encounters, so you’ll find yourself spending more time sitting in a menu spamming your persona’s effective spells to stun-lock and damage them than actually engaging in action combat. It still feels great! But there’s one spoiler-y fight in particular that really showcases the game’s physical, moment-to-moment combat, and I wish there were more situations where that would be the best course of action. Because spells are most effective, you’ll find yourself drained of SP all the time, forcing you to go to a checkpoint to leave the dungeon and get your SP back, before immediately reentering to continue making progress. It’s very choppy, and while I’m on the PS5 so load-times are quick, it could have easily been circumvented by checkpoints automatically restoring your HP and SP. Not huge issues by a long shot, but worth considering.

All Grown-Up

I did not like Persona 5 very much. The high of its ending carried me for a while, but my thoughts have heavily soured since. It had too much gross content in it, and its overarching conclusion was basically “keeping the status quo is actually really cool!” It fell short of the things it was trying to achieve, especially as the game went on (for way too long, I might add). Persona 5: Strikers does not have most of these issues. It has more depth, and writing that makes its characters infinitely more likable.

This time around, the Phantom Thieves are infiltrating Jails, which form as manifestations of their target’s trauma. These Jails let their Monarchs take control of people and bend them to their will. The antagonists of Strikers aren’t nearly as cartoonishly evil as they were in Persona 5. The Phantom Thieves are forced to come to terms with the fact that trauma isn’t an excuse for doing bad things to other people, along with the fact that even good people can do bad things. Their never-ending optimism is curtailed by an excellent addition to the cast, Zenkichi Hasegawa, a world-weary adult who reminds this troublesome bunch of kids that the world is not nearly as black and white as they’d like it to be. It’s incredibly refreshing in comparison to the weak efforts from Persona 5, and it’s delivered in half the time as its predecessor — even though just like that game, it overstays its welcome by the end.

That said, there’s one instance of fat-phobia in this game that I simply can’t ignore. It slapped me in the face, not only because it showed up in the first place, but because it showed up in a way that makes no sense at all for the character it’s attributed to. I’m being purposefully vague because of spoilers, but a game that’s about the physical manifestation of Id should know better than to so carelessly shoehorn in this ridiculous disdain for fat bodies out of what can only be described as laziness. Moreover, this game keeps sexualizing Ann and I have absolutely had enough. Her animations are ridiculous, the breast physics on her character are ridiculous, and the way the game’s camera frames her in and out of combat drives me feral. It’s not nearly as egregious as Persona 5, but I am getting older and less patient for this garbage as a result. Do better, I am begging you.

We Fight For Our Friends

Replacing Social Links is the Bond system, and surprise surprise, I like it more too. Battles and social events alike will level up your Bond with your friends, which gives you points that you can spend on upgrading the various systems of the game, from upping your team’s stats, to increasing the range of items you’re allowed to cook, to even restoring health and SP after battles.

I love the Bond system because, like the Social Link system, it marries the themes of the game with its mechanics. However, unlike Social Links, it’s not predicated on picking the “right answer” to make someone happy regardless of how you feel (or to get in their pants). The Bond system is about sharing in friendship, no matter what’s happening, and it makes sense for a series that should be about the relationships between all of these characters, not just how each of them feels about Joker. It will never happen, but I wish that the Bond system is what we’d end up getting in the inevitable Persona 6.

Together Again Someday

By the time I was finished with Persona 5: Strikers, I was filled with happiness, as well as a deep, deep sadness. It’s a sunny game about a group of friends that love each other, going on a road trip to save the world and eat a lot of delicious food while great music plays in the background. As the credits rolled, I could only scream into the void: I miss my friends! I miss going on trips! I miss the summer! Get me out of this hell! Strikers unfortunately can’t save me from this pandemic, but it did something almost more impressive: it restored my faith in Persona 5. It’s better than the original game by multiple miles — so good, in fact, that it retroactively makes me feel good about owning Persona 5 merchandise again. If you were a fan of the original, I can’t even imagine how much you’ll love this game. But even if you didn’t, you might find something to love about it anyway. At the very least, it’ll probably make you think about how great your friends are, and that’s worth the price of admission alone.

That’s all for now! Have you played Persona 5: Strikers? Do you have a deep pit in your heart because you miss your friends too? Let me know @mintmakesthings! And if you enjoy my work, please consider supporting me on Buy Me a Coffee! Till next time!

Ys is one of my favorite unknown series. I’ve played pretty much every entry available, and have been extremely fond of them all. They’re games that know exactly what they want to be: lightning-fast Action JRPGs that feel SNES-like in their simplicity, but simply feel amazing to play. It should come as no surprise that I was excited to finally get my hands on Ys IX when it released in the west, more than a year after its Japanese release. So, was the wait worth it?

…Well…

Grimwald? More Like Grimacewald. Ooh. Got’em.

Ys IX should have been a slam-dunk. My expectations for Ys games aren’t very high, if we’re being honest. All I need is for Adol to have an excuse to explore some ruins, fight some monsters, and probably save the world in the process (or at least whatever continent he’s currently visiting). As long as the battles feel good and the plot doesn’t get in the way, then Falcom has succeeded in giving me what I wanted. Until Ys IX, it has always succeeded in giving me what I wanted.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think Ys IX is a terrible game, by any means. But it’s by far the most mediocre Ys game I’ve played. It makes Ys VII look like East of Eden in comparison.

Ys IX has Adol getting trapped in the prison city of Balduq, located in Gllia, which is under Roman control. Normally, it’s easy to let the geopolitical politics of the Ys games fall off the wayside, but in IX, they take center stage, and guess what: it sucks! If the Trails games are any indication, Falcom does not have a strong track record when it comes to political writing, and that continues to be the case in Monstrum Nox. The game attempts to give gravitas to the turmoil between the Gllians and the Romans, but it ends up giving a half-hearted approach every step of the way. Particularly disappointing is the game’s handling of the revolutionaries who want to take back their homeland, with the proposed solution being that “fighting isn’t the answer,” which makes no sense whatsoever.

There’s also the plot-line for one of the party characters, White Cat, which I just can’t let go. White Cat, upset by the plight of the poor residents that live in the slums of Balduq, takes it upon herself to take money from the coffers of her wealthy merchant father to give to them. This results in said poor residents “relying too much” on the charity of White Cat, refusing to work for themselves and spending all their money on gambling. White Cat decides that simply giving the money away doesn’t help these citizens after all, so she decides to…open a Flower Shop that will make people happy.

Typing all this out is just making me disappointed all over again. Obviously, a game released in 2019 couldn’t have predicted a COVID-19 Pandemic. Nor could it have predicted that the USA still hasn’t given its citizens any sort of help with this pandemic, as of this blog post’s publishing. But even despite all that, it comes off as an embarrassing understanding of people with low-income, and not the kind of stuff I want to engage with at all in a Ys game.

Hey speaking of Party Members: they’re not great! None of the main cast is very engaging and their personalities are incredibly one-note. I can’t touch on it too much because of spoilers, but for plot reasons, each member of your party has basically the same backstory, making them all much too similar to each other. The only time they ever differ is their reaction to whatever the plot is at the moment, where they all give a line based on whatever anime archetype they’re comprised of. I had to look up their names in the middle of writing this to remember who was who, and the members of the team that join your base — now an undercover bar instead of a shipwrecked cove — are equally uninteresting.

None of this would matter if the plot didn’t take up so much of Ys IX, but it does, and it’s also a negative. Each character is given their own chapter before they enter your party, making the pacing of the plot feel like molasses. Cutscenes constantly interrupt the gameplay, which would be fine if they were well-written or interesting in any way, neither of which is true. It takes forever for the actual plot to get anywhere meaningful, and I was completely checked out by the time it did.

Also, I couldn’t find a good-way to segue into this, but I was particularly disappointed in the gross outfit one of the characters in the game wears, who is 9 years old. And the game has some disappointing opinions regarding the disabled. It’s hard to talk about without spoiling the plot, but basically, Ys IX thinks that a disabled person would rather be trapped in a prison city with nowhere to go so that they can walk than checks notes not have usage of their legs. And they magically regain their ability to walk anyway. I’ll leave the deeper unpacking of that particular thesis to someone smarter than me, especially because that’s not a disability I have, but I can pretty confidently say after discussing with a disabled friend that the resulting implication is Not Great.

“Fair play, Mint,” you’re probably thinking. “But the combat has to be good at least, right? That’s what makes a Ys game a Ys game!”

…Well…

Hardcore Parkour!!

To be fair, besides the music, combat is still the best part of Monstrum Nox. Attacks give great feedback, skills are fun to throw out, and flash dodges and guards feel incredible to pull off back-to-back. I’m also very pleased with the parkour abilities Adol and the Monstrums have through their “gifts.” Wall-running, dash-teleporting, and gliding through Balduq was a blast, and I spent a good chunk of my time simply using these abilities to explore the city and find treasure chests and exploration points.

That’s about where the praise ends, though. Ys IX maintains the same Rock-Paper-Scissors style of combat applied to the last few games, where each character has a particular attack type that’s strong against particular enemies. Despite this, the game rarely — if ever — gives you a reason to switch out. About 70% of the enemies have no particular weakness at all, so there’s rarely a point to switching unless the character you’re currently playing as is low on health. Because of this, I had no reason to use Adol, who naturally becomes the strongest character in the game, and spam his gigantic, area-of-effect sword skill, which is the best one in the game, and which you will unlock about halfway through playing it. Ys VIII had an incredible combat loop, where you were constantly bobbing and weaving between attacks, swapping to whichever character was most useful on-hand to crush mobs of enemies. The energy just wasn’t there.

That same lack of energy can be found in the game’s setting. While the prison city is a cool, dense local, it’s also extremely grey. Actually, all of Barduq is grey. Because the game takes place in this central location, there’s not much room for interesting or colorful locals. It won’t be long until you find yourself in your forth grey and greenish-brown ruins, wondering if you’re experiencing some extreme déjà vu. Normally, that sort of thing doesn’t bother me as much if a game’s loop is entertaining, but Ys IX’s is not.

The game also attempts to repurpose the base attacks from Ys VIII, and while their importance to the plot is better weaved, they’re also not fun in any way. They start out fine enough, but there’s a painful difficulty spike two-thirds into the game where you’ll be forced to grind materials to upgrade your defenses, slowing the game’s already glacial pacing to a complete halt. I would have been happy for them to be removed entirely.

Tenth Time’s the Charm

By the time I was done with Ys IX, I was happy for it to be over. Not because I was satisfied with my time, but because playing it felt like a chore. This hit me like a punch in the gut because Ys games have always pleased my Goopy Goblin Gamer Brain. They’ve always felt like the opposite of a chore. But I realized near the end of the game that I simply wasn’t having any fun. And that sucks.

I don’t think Ys is a lost cause after this disappointing entry in the franchise. But I sorely hope that Ys X shakes the formula up once again, and gets a bit more time in the oven. Retune the combat, or make a new loop entirely. Let Adol stretch his legs and go adventuring again! And please, for the love of God, keep the story simple. Let my Thoughts On: Ys X, which will probably launch in 2025, be more positive than this one. My heart can’t take another hit!

That’s all I can take! Have you played Ys IX? Let me know @mintmakesthings! And if you enjoy my work, please consider supporting me on Buy Me a Coffee! Till next time!

Happy new year y’all. I’m ready to leave 2020 behind, and while I’ve certainly done that mentally, December and January are the most quiet months when it comes to videogame releases, so I’m playing a bunch of stuff from last year. That’s fine though: it’s easy on my wallet and lets me chill out with the games I have in hand right now. On that note, here’s what I’ve been playing lately:

Destiny 2

I don’t have much more to say about it that I haven’t already in my Destiny 2 post from a few weeks ago, but yes, it's still in my rotation and it's still a lot of fun. Contrary to what many fans seem to feel, I appreciate that I don't have to play the game forever. On reset day I can do a whole bunch of my weeklies to get some gear that pushes my ilvl up at a decent pace, and then I can chill and boot it up whenever I'm in the mood. Playing more is always an option, but I don’t have to, especially because I'm not in a rush to Raid weekly. I still think the Stasis grind is terrible, especially in the very specific things the game wants you to do, but I've largely been able to ignore those quests because I like my Fire Knives and I'm keeping them.

Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla

I bounced off this game hard the first time I tried to play it, but I'm enjoying it a lot more on the second go-around. Assassin's Creed games are great gap-fillers when there's nothing new coming out that you're not interested in, because their loops tend to be just engaging enough, and they're stuffed to the brim with content. One thing I appreciate about Valhalla is that it separates activities by “Wealth,” “Mysteries,” and “Artifacts,” on the world map. Wealth tends to give loot, and Mysteries are usually World Events, little vignettes that let Eivor participate in small stories in whatever region she’s currently in. Artifacts are most often collectables and the like.

This system is cool because I don’t have to run from spot to spot, worried I might miss something. I care most about loot and world events, so I can see which Gold and Blue dots are on the map and prioritize those. The other cool thing is that the size of the dot on the map represents how much weight you should give it — so a big Gold dot might be armor or a new weapon, while a smaller one usually has lesser treasure. The combat in the game is pretty good, though I think I’ll enjoy it more when I have more Adrenaline bars unlocked. Adrenaline is what allows you to use your special moves, and I’d like to do that more often. Otherwise it’s just light and heavy attacks, with parrying and dodging sprinkled in-between. Even on Hard mode I don’t feel like I’m engaging with the combat systems much. But that’s fine, not everything needs to be a Platinum game (or maybe they do, check back with me). I don’t like it as much as Gods & Monsters, which I found to be quite entertaining, and I’m sure I’ll fall off the game without finishing it once something I care about more comes along, but until then I’ll make do with AC:V as my story-driven game for now.

Should also mention that I got a review code of this game. Just a disclosure because there's no way I'm willingly paying for anything that Ubisoft makes anymore.

Final Fantasy XIV (Patch 5.4)

How shocked are you really? If you spend 5 minutes on my Twitter you’ll see at least one shitpost about the misadventures of the Sailers. The 5.4 patch brought with it the final tier of Eden raids before the expansion comes out later this year, and they’re a lot of fun (except for E10, which sucks ass). I’ve gotten my full Eden set, missing only the accessories, so we’ve been cleaning up some old content, like the Warring Triad Extremes and doing the Byakko Savage trial unsynced. The more Sailers that join and reach end-game, the more content we can play that I normally wouldn’t be all that into, which is cool. My goal this year is to prog at least one current Savage raid — we’ll see if it ends up happening.

A Bunch of Playstation Plus Collection Games I Fell off of Hard

Here’s the rapid bonus round:

Days Gone

It’s just boring. The plot isn’t very good, the protagonist is actively unlikeable, and the zombies — excuse me, freakers — are spooky the first few times you see them, but lose their edge after a few hours. Literally nothing new or interesting here besides the setting and I guess Deacon's bike. Pass.

Uncharted 4: A Thief's End

NakeyJakey mentions the concept of the Goopy Goblin Gamer Brain and it's a good descriptor for how I like to play games. Basically, the less gameplay there is, the more impatient I get, because most games don't have a story that can carry boring gameplay mechanics. Uncharted 4 does not break the mold here. After 2 hours pressing X to climb pre-scripted structures in what can only be described as “fake gameplay," I threw in the the towel. It also doesn't help that the shooting mechanics feel super sloppy in my new, post-Destiny 2 world.

God of War (2018)

This game is actually not that bad? It has that horrible “I just had a kid and I need to tell you about in a game” energy to it, but as far as big budget, AAA games go it’s the most game-y and pleases my goopy goblin brain. That said, I still feel like the game peaks with the very first fight with Baulder and kinda goes down-hill from there as far as pacing goes. The environmental puzzles were generally just…okay. I'm sure I'll finish it one day but for now I'm not really in the mood.

That’s all for now! What have you been playing lately? Let me know on Twitter @mintplaysthings! And if you like my writing, please consider donating to my Patreon or Ko-Fi. Thank you!