Recent reviews by ristarthestar

average phoenix wright game:

I WON'T LET US LOSE THIS CASE! ANY LEADS? I GOT IT! ANY LEADS? I GOT IT! ANY LEADS? I GOT IT! EXPLAIN THIS! MORE EVIDENCE! ACCORDING TO- ACCORDING TO- ACCORDING TO THIS DATA- I HAVE EVIDEN- SOMETHING SUSPIC- I'VE GOT IT! OBJECTION! I'VE GOT ALL I NEED! SEE YOU IN COURT SEE YOU IN COURT SEE YOU IN COURT SEE YOU IN COURT THAT'S ILLEGAL CONTRADICTION CONTRADICTION CONTRADICTION I WILL SUBMIT THE EVI- I WILL SUBMIT THE EVI- I WILL SUBMIT THE EVIDENCE THE ONE WHO ACTUALLY COMMITTED THE CRIME... IS YOU! NO ALIBI, NO JUSTICE, NO DREAM, NO HOPE! IT'S TIME TO PAY FOR YOUR CRIMES! TAKE THAT!!

TL;DR: Game is good as always, okay re-release, but it's plagued by some strange flaws that could hamper your enjoyment if it's your initial playthrough
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So let me preface this by saying that this is probably the most accessible version of Corpse Party available. It's inexpensive, has all of the content from the 3DS port (plus, some extra chapters), has temp saves and a skip button, is on several platforms, and looks incredibly crisp in high-definition. I highly recommend playing this version of the game first if you've never played it before. But this version of the game has some REALLY strange quirks to it and I'm not sure how they even made it in. Everyone sings praises for this version of the game and while I don't completely disagree, I haven't heard ANYONE talk about these issues so I'm just gonna go off about them now.

1. In many cases, one voice clip will cancel out another. Obviously not a problem most of the time, but there are more than a few moments throughout the game where multiple characters will talk or scream in unison (e.g. the Kisaragi students falling in the Chapter 1 opening... only one character's scream played for me). Really takes you out of the moment sometimes. Similarly, it seems like some sounds just get cut off a tad bit early for some reason. This is also easily noticed during the Chapter 1 opening (the sound of the floor breaking open keeps cutting itself short).

2. Sometimes, certain sounds or voices will just fail to play for some unknowable reason. During a certain character's death in Chapter 5, they make slamming noises and you hear them crash through a window. But I didn't actually hear that during this playthrough at all; the dialogue still gave me the effect in asterisks but I never actually HEARD it. Later, during the same chapter, a certain cameraman gets his thought interrupted by the sound of someone else's scream. This did not work correctly for me either; his dialogue is instead interrupted by... nothing.

3. A LOT of sprites are leftovers from the PSP version of the game. These are the original PC sprites scaled to fit the PSP screen, then scaled back up for this version. This results in sprites that are really ugly and blurry and look like they were stretched in MS Paint. This was the case in the 3DS game too, but for these to still be present and completely unaltered in the supposed definitive release available on consoles is really egregious to me. They REALLY clash against the updated sprites and you'd think that they would have taken the time to overhaul everything considering the large gap in time between this release and the last. I gladly would have given up the new Extra Chapters if it meant they could finally clean up some of those smudged looking visuals.

Overall, I'd still say if you're looking to play Corpse Party, this is your best bet. But it's not perfect. Maybe the sprite overhaul is asking a bit much, but these first two issues HAD to have been noticed before release, right? Surely fixing these two things at least would not be that hard to do with an update? Just that would already make a whole world of difference. It isn't unplayable, no, not by any means. But given the gap in time between the last version of this game and this one (also considering how little we'd heard about Corpse Party during that time) I was hoping that this would be a more polished release than it ended up being, and it's kind of disappointing.

i have a problem

I really enjoyed playing the original Portopia, despite all of its flaws. When I read that the game had been fully remade in English for the first time (officially), I was excited. It's a historically significant game, after all. And maybe they could improve upon it somewhat!

Unfortunately, this blows. Like, it REALLY sucks. The parsing is "you can't get ye Flask" levels of shoddy. Even when I knew what I was supposed to do, I ended up getting stuck all the time because I couldn't find the EXACT wording that the game required me to use to proceed. Even the most innocuous suggestion becomes an absolute chore. "Pendant. Use pendant. Give pendant. Show pendant. Ask about pendant. Look at pendant." What do you want from me?! There isn't even any AI being used here. Can you imagine releasing an AI tech demo without bleedin' AI to demonstrate in it?

On the bright side: there's no ♥♥♥♥♥♥ first-person maze segment in this version of the game, and finding items (which was one of the worst parts of the original in my opinion) isn't nearly as cryptic since they shine in the background art. So there's something.

Otherwise, I'd only recommend this game if you've already played the original version or you're willing to play with a walkthrough on hand. Or you hate yourself. How Square Enix thought releasing a game in this state would be okay is beyond me, but they REALLY dropped the ball on this one. Maybe just play Zork or something.

you can shoot your uncle for the cost of a cheeseburger

okay i'm gonna be honest, i really cannot get into this one. i love this game's sequel but this is very flawed. the ai of the survivors is absolutely terrible and they constantly get stuck on things and walk into hordes of zombies when you call for them. the difficulty is also pretty high. i can't recommend this one but don't let this review stop you from playing Dead Rising 2 or Off The Record which are both awesome sauce

its kind of like a dating sim except you get scarred instead of hard

this happened to me one time

this game's really freakin' good

play it if you like majima and punching people

just thinking about this game makes me irrationally angry

fun game