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Thread: Doomforge's review corner | This thread is pages long: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 · «PREV / NEXT» |
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TheDeath
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
with serious business
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posted October 30, 2008 09:51 PM |
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Yeah kinda reminds me of Makoto in SF3, if she grabs you once, she deals half of your life bar damage.
I hate uber combos
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Doomforge
Admirable
Undefeatable Hero
Retired Hero
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posted October 30, 2008 09:56 PM |
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you can always turn re-hit mode off in this game.
Terminates uber combos once and for all!
but the ones like from the second video at 0:34 will be still available. ;p
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Doomforge
Admirable
Undefeatable Hero
Retired Hero
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posted December 24, 2008 12:23 PM |
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Hey, Xmas time! I need more reviews
This time.. a game that I really cherish
[FINAL FANTASY X]
I assume you are familiar with the series, or at least heard of it each FF is a separate game, with different heroes, story and battle system.. and this one.. well, I consider it the epitome of Final Fantasy series and the best one ever made. Hands down. Even though some FF7 fans may disagree, but who cares
FFX brought a lot of magic to the series, but contrary to FF7's epic magic, FF8's romantic magic and FF9's fairy magic, FFX offers dramatic magic. No, it's not emo, but the game is simply filled with sadness. Every single sound or theme is somewhat sad and nostalgic. The longer you play it, the more sorrowful it feels. And, well, a little spoiler, you can't expect a happy ending after such a game, can you? The ending is also very epic, with the best ending theme known to FF universe, and.. well.. it's just sad. Period.
The battle system.. that's something what I highly enjoy. It brought the old FF concept of jobs partially back. In FF7 and FF8, the characters had little to none diversity, they could all easily reach 255 stats (especially in FF8 with the junction system), and pretty much were equal in every possible role you could imagine: damage dealer, caster, healer.. they only differed by limit breaks, and some had strictly superior limit breaks to others, making an obvious chance for power gamers. Which sucked. Here, you can STILL get every possible point on sphere grid and create characters distinctble by ultimate weapons and limit breaks only, but a casual gamer will never get that, finishing the game with a perfectly implemented job system that makes Tidus a timemage/fighter, Yuna a summoner/healer and Rikku a thief. And you know what? it's cool! Switching chars to fulfill their roles on battle is simply.. neat
Of course, a powergamer can create the casual FF team where everyone can do everything, but thanks to the mechanics implemented, both the fans of old and new system can be satisfied.
The battling is somewhat more strategy-orientated than in previous titles, but the game is still EASY.. However, after very easy FFVII and EXTREMELY easy FFVIII, it's decent. Mainly because there aren't any steroid skills and strategies, like Junctioning your strongest magic to strength, drain to status attack and using Diablos' Darkness skill in FF8, which effectively gave you super strong attack, TRIPLED by Diablos' skill and healing you for the damage done (lol).. Which you could further abuse by adding autohaste or such.. >.> Some players have had a really hard time with Seymour-flux, too - it was the kind of boss battle the games lacked in the previous installments
What about the villain, the thing that makes a lot of atmosphere in each FF? Well, he's no Sephiroth, he looks pretty gay and his voice.. lol. Pretty creepy if you ask me. At first it makes absolutely no sense and seems out of place, but his calm, feminine voice later on adds well to his madness. Seymour is not a perfect villain - maybe because he's an "additional" one to Sin, but Sin can't be considered one, because it's a mindless beast. So.. ugh.. Seymour is just decent.
Also, I have to mention the soundtrack, the one that captivated me for so long with great instrumentals. Even though I don't like to mention music in graphics in reviews, since they are very subjective, I simply have to do it here - FFX soundtrack kicks @ss with things such as abstract beauty of "Besaid Island", feeling of desolation of "People of the North Pole", calm, relaxing sounds of "Wandering Flame", nostalgic "To Zanarkand" and sweet, heart warming "Yuna's Determination". Those tracks carry a specific emotion with them, and, well, see for yourself, listening to "Wandering Flame" while watching a serene sunset.. wow. Just wow.
Voice acting.. Tidus got a lot of haters due to his english voice actor, which was considered as "trying to act too cool" and with a "too high pitched voice", but myself, I think it suits him. Yuna was more problematic, since they have to include intervals in her speech to match the lipsync (blame the japanese voice actress for speaking so slowly ), which resulted in awkward sentences like "why....... do you....... hate him?". It was corrected in X-2, but X-2 sucked @ss, thus, I won't even mention it. Although I liked to listed to Yuna's voice showing stuff around in the airship in the beginning, her voice actress has a very cute voice indeed
Finally, the characters.. The main ones, I mean, I'm not in the mood to focus on all of them Most FF chars are love or hate, and FFX is no different. We already covered Tidus, which isn't well liked by the majority of FF fans, especially those emo kids who want another nihilistic nerdy cloud/squall Tidus is easy going and relaxed, which sometimes seems almost out of place in the tragic world of FFX. Also, he doesn't act very manly at times, at is pretty whiny, which attracted a lot of haters. Myself I liked him, though - seemed a much more real person with the flaws, unlike idealized characters like Cloud or Squall. As for Yuna, I just love her , the very essence of cuteness, womanly to the extreme I think they wouldn't be a good pair in real life, though. I don't know who on earth created the sentence "opposites attract", I am repulsed by opposites myself, and, well, a hyperactive swank and a shy, calm girl.. nah, works only in games and movies. Maybe that's why we love'em
Like every FF, 10th part features a minigame that is pretty original: blitzball. Some ppl enjoyed it more than the original game It's basically an underwater mini-fifa, which takes some time to get used to, but, well, at least for me, was extremely fun, wth all the special moves of characters and the speed of the game itself. Thumbs up.
And, as for the more technical stuff.. replay value is much lower than in FF7&FF8, because job system pretty much forces you to use certain chars in certain situations, making every walktrough the same until the ending part.. also, the optional quests and bosses aren't available until like 90% of the plot is covered, and you get the airship like 10 mins before the final showdown with Sin. Which kinda sucks. Fortunately, in PAL version, additional dark Aeons were added, eight of them, finally giving the players a reason to pump up the chars to the extreme, because of the insane damage they do
More flaws? I can think of two. First, some of the subquests are simply annoying, like dodging 100 thunders at Thunder Plains to get a part of Lulu's ultimate weapon.. tedious. Also, the plot.. although its generally epic and great, the part where Tidus is discovered "just a dream" seemed meh to me, over-cliched, unnecessarily complicated and.. well, pointless by logic, if you think about it more than 2 mins. Feels as if the designers changed the plot the very last minute.. idk, if they wanted a sad ending, they could just throw in Tidus dying after the battle, or so.. wouldn't be that ridiculous, I think.
But that's really all. Conclusion: A fantastic game, with the atmosphere leaking off the screen, also very fun to play, both battles and blitzball. One of my all-time favorites, and if you don't have PS2, just get PCSX2 emu, with a strong PC you'll be able to get what was reserved for PS2 only for a loooong time - and you won't regret it, I promise ;>
OVERALL RATING: 9.5
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We reached to the stars and everything is now ours
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Elvin
Admirable
Omnipresent Hero
Endless Revival
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posted December 24, 2008 12:35 PM |
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I'm suddenly getting an urge to try it.
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JoonasTo
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
What if Elvin was female?
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posted December 24, 2008 10:27 PM |
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Here we see why fans should never do reviews...
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Doomforge
Admirable
Undefeatable Hero
Retired Hero
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posted December 24, 2008 10:47 PM |
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hah, I may indeed be a little biased - but hey, who can really do a review that is REALLY objective?
The problem is:
Objective review = unbiased reviewer = not enough entusiasm to uncover all the hidden stuff, to analyze balance and such = somewhat lacking review (technical) like the gamespot guys do.
Subjective review = a lot of extra stuff covered, but can be either overbashing, or overpraising - both affect the final score in a bad way
Best would be to find the golden middle, but I'm not that talented, especially not when I'm reviewing my absolute favorites
Oh yes, and thanks for the QP, Mightymage
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TheDeath
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
with serious business
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posted December 24, 2008 10:58 PM |
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I think subjective reviews are better if you add a little bit of "possibilities" for someone who has a different opinion. That's because they cover a whole lot more stuff in there, because objectively you may be 'afraid' to even mention it. Even if the reviewer finds something "stupid because it's too hard" and it explains WHY, I find that a good review not because I disagree with him, but because now I KNOW how the game is like. For example:
"This game is just unbelievably hard and you're going to waste just too much time getting through only one mission only to find they are getting longer and longer. Did I mention they're repetitive? Well, if you are the type of guy who sits long hours straight to replay the same scene all over again until you find the right combination and then feel some kind of relief, then you may like this, but otherwise it's just too frustrating for people who want interactive challenges."
This of course is just a random example, nothing to do with how I interpret it
The point is, I think the "rating" is the only thing that is bad in subjectivity. Otherwise, it explains the reviewer's opinion and in doing so, we know how the game is like. If the reviewer says "this game sucks because it's a RTS and I don't like RTS games. You have units, [...]" then even though the we disagree with the reviewer, we at least know how the game is like.
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JoonasTo
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
What if Elvin was female?
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posted December 24, 2008 10:59 PM |
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Indeed. A little biased.
But gamespot reviews are lousy. They are next to useless. If you read one review from gamespot and one from a real gaming magazine, PC magazine or technology magazine you know what I'm talking about.
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Lord_Woock
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Daddy Cool with a $90 smile
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posted December 24, 2008 11:17 PM |
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Quote: Objective review
A review is, by definition, subjective. A review is an expression of the reviewer's opinion on the reviewed work. Opinions can never be objective.
What you describe as an objective review is merely a half-assed attempt at a review.
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Yolk and God bless.
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Doomforge
Admirable
Undefeatable Hero
Retired Hero
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posted December 24, 2008 11:26 PM |
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well, you're probably right. Still, sites like gamespot give us exactly those half-assed attempts as reviews
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Lord_Woock
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Daddy Cool with a $90 smile
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posted December 24, 2008 11:40 PM |
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When you try to be objective, you end up with ridiculous statistics of the kind favored by the Polish magazine, Komputer Świat GRY. Ironically, they tend to be completely uninformative.
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Yolk and God bless.
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My buddy's doing a webcomic and would certainly appreciate it if you checked it out!
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Doomforge
Admirable
Undefeatable Hero
Retired Hero
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posted December 24, 2008 11:54 PM |
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hey, do you remember CD-action?
I vaguely recall their 97' magazines.. so full of enthusiasm.. so fun to read..
and I accidentally got my hands on the latest number.. God.. like reading an obituary
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Lord_Woock
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Daddy Cool with a $90 smile
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posted December 25, 2008 12:14 AM |
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Do I? I own most of '97, a couple each of '98 and '99, as well as all of 2000-2005. Then I stopped, and - from what I've seen from the recent ones - rightly so.
Yes, they truly were the awesomest thing back then.
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Yolk and God bless.
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My buddy's doing a webcomic and would certainly appreciate it if you checked it out!
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TheDeath
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
with serious business
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posted December 25, 2008 02:04 PM |
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Quote: Also, I have to mention the soundtrack, the one that captivated me for so long with great instrumentals. Even though I don't like to mention music in graphics in reviews, since they are very subjective, I simply have to do it here - FFX soundtrack kicks @ss with things such as abstract beauty of "Besaid Island", feeling of desolation of "People of the North Pole", calm, relaxing sounds of "Wandering Flame", nostalgic "To Zanarkand" and sweet, heart warming "Yuna's Determination". Those tracks carry a specific emotion with them, and, well, see for yourself, listening to "Wandering Flame" while watching a serene sunset.. wow. Just wow.
To be honest with you I didn't really enjoy the songs you mentioned, except "To Zanarkand", that song is just epically beautiful and nostalgic or something
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Doomforge
Admirable
Undefeatable Hero
Retired Hero
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posted December 25, 2008 02:08 PM |
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Well FF music can't be awesome to everyone
To Zanarkand is considered Uematsu's best composition, btw. Check the ending theme too, it contains an orchestrated version of To Zanarkand, very nostalgic, very epic, very sad .
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We reached to the stars and everything is now ours
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Mytical
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
Chaos seeking Harmony
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posted December 27, 2008 01:23 PM |
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Edited by Mytical at 13:25, 27 Dec 2008.
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Well I liked your reviews even if I don't agree that X was the best Final Fantasy. Looking forward to more reviews.
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zamfir
Promising
Supreme Hero
Allez allez allez
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posted January 06, 2009 10:10 PM |
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I hope I'm not too late here, let's talk more about OMF (I didn't saw this thread when the game was disscused.)
What can I say? OMF is BY FAR the best fighting game I ever played (and I played many Mortal Kombat games). It's one of those games: you can stop playing it and resume after a period for 1531821 times, without getting bored.
My fav character is Christian (he resembles me in a way; we even share the same first name). Raven and Shiro are close runner-ups.
My fav HAR is Thorn, but I play at my best with Shredder (the guy is really IMBA).
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Doomforge
Admirable
Undefeatable Hero
Retired Hero
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posted January 06, 2009 10:14 PM |
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Sure it's not late.
oh yes Shredder is tough cookie. Very close to gargoyle and katana in terms of raw power.
Thorn is a bit too slow and without killer combos, though. He's still cool.
My favorite is Flail, cool concept, even though it's crappy in two player mode.
As soon as I'm done with three reports, a new review's coming up
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DagothGares
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
No gods or kings
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posted January 06, 2009 10:19 PM |
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Quote: with the best ending theme known to FF universe
If you mean the battle theme, I can mathematically prove you wrong
I never played FFVII, but the latin choir and the orchestra of one-winged angel beats the semi-hard rock puffing of the end fight against sin.
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Doomforge
Admirable
Undefeatable Hero
Retired Hero
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posted January 06, 2009 10:21 PM |
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No I don't mean the final boss battle theme. FFX has three "final boss" themes and they aren't really that good as One Winged Angel and The Extreme.
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We reached to the stars and everything is now ours
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