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Metaphor: ReFantazio (PS5)

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It’s rare I post about a game before I’ve completed it these days, but I felt I had to write something about Metaphor: ReFantazio. I’m only about 10 hours in, with the last five of those being mostly spent in the first proper dungeon, so it’s early doors, but oh my, is this a game.

To begin with, I was a little disappointed in the graphics. I’m not All About The Graphics, as regular readers would know, but it’s sometimes nice to play a PS5 game and have All The Graphics. Sadly, although it’s pretty, for the most part so far Metaphor isn’t an improvement on Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Until it comes to the UI, where it is utterly mental. If you thought, as I did, that Persona 4 Golden had UI diarrhoea (in a good way), then get a load of the exploded fontbook that is the Metaphor menu system and battle UI. Everything moves and has different fonts and styles and it’s all circular and spirals and flashy overlays and and and… there’s no reason for it! It doesn’t affect the gameplay in any way! My guess is the UI designer got bored after their task on the game only took a week.

Look at that beautiful mess on the left there.

That’s the first thing that hit me. The second was more subtle to begin with and is to do with the Metaphor title. After reaching Grand Trad, the (first?) big city in the game, and chatting to everyone and finding out what’s going on, my mission, and the general state of various races, religion, and relationships, added to a class system and a man who wants to change everything and be King, the real story was then as subtle as a brick to the face. It’s all about real life issues and politics under the guise of fantasy and magic. Clever.

That aside, the gameplay is Persona. So I’m loving it. The dungeon I’m in might be big and hard but it’s so slick and the turn-based combat is tuned to be fast and clear and stupidly over the top. It’s a shame the graphics aren’t quite there, but as I said, not a big loss for me.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Switch)

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So I did go back to it! I was prompted to by a Christmas Present though – I received a (physical) copy of Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna -The Golden Country. This is a stand-alone prequel to XC2, but also contains a code for all the additional DLC for XC2, of which there’s rather a lot.

When Xenoblade 2 was originally released, there was a “season pass” type thing going on with DLC drops every so often. Sometimes it’d be in-game items or money, sometimes new sidequests, and sometimes new Blades to find. Additionally, a challenge arena type mode is unlocked, which allows you to gain access – eventually – to Shulk and Fiora from Xenoblade 1 and Elma from, I assume, Xenoblade Chronicles X. These characters act as additional Blades rather than playable party members.

With all this new expanded content, it was time to run round everywhere again, completing more side quests and obtaining all the unique Blades I’d missed as well as tying up some loose ends and getting all my characters up to level 99. With that done, I took the step of changing the difficulty setting to “custom” (another new DLC feature) and tweaking it so that the battles were all over in mere seconds. Then, with another 25-odd hours on the save over and above the main game previously, I went after the end boss again who now could barely scratch me.

Amazing game. But, done. Torna next!

Astro Bot (PS5): COMPLETED!

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Super Mario Galaxy 3 is a real love letter to Nintendo games, especially previous Mario titles. There are so many parts lifted from or referencing bits of the earlier games, as well as other Nintendo titles.

You’ve the Mario 64 Bowser boss fights and Tiny-Huge Island, Super Mario Sunshine’s FLUDD and void levels, Super Mario Galaxy’s worlds and “flying into the level” sequences, a replica of Mario Odyssey’s Lake Kingdom, and characters and enemies from across the series like Thwomp and Wriggler make appearances, as well as Mario game features like a ghost house and switch palaces.

Then there’s a whole level based on Link’s Crossbow Training, another which is Donkey Kong 64, a number of Kirby areas and mechanics, and sections where you’re Samus in morph ball form. There are even a few bits of the game which are taken from Splatoon, a power up to make you a character from Arms, some Wii Bowling, and even a bit based on the Donkey Kong tilting game from Nintendoland on the Wii U. The hub world acts like a Pikmin level too. So much Nintendo crammed into one game!

It is glorious and fun, and slightly confusing, as it doesn’t make any sense that as well as all this Nintendo stuff there’s also a level based on the Sony PSP Loco Roco game, a Minecraft level, about seven million collectible Nathan Drakes, each in minutely different clothes, and the aim of the game is to (re)build a PlayStation 5 console. Plus this is Nintendo’s first game on a Sony platform, perhaps as a response to Sony allowing Lego Horizon Adventures on the Switch? Most queer.

Yes, I am being intentionally facetious but in a positive way. Sure, the whole game looks and feels like a Nintendo game, and yes there are so many bits that seem transplanted directly from a Nintendo title, but it’s done really well. It’s the most Nintendo non-Nintendo game I’ve ever played, and that’s high praise.

Really, this is supposed to be a celebration of PlayStation history, but because Sony doesn’t really have any – not like Nintendo does – most of the referenced games and characters you encounter and collect are actually from the likes of Konami, Activision and Sega. Rez, Katamari, Devil May Cry, Persona, Tony Hawk – they all had a presence on a Sony console but they’re not Sony games. There’s a lot of Ape Escape, Horizon and Uncharted here, but nothing like the amount of first party stuff you could get with Nintendo so it has to be beefed up with cross-platform stuff.

Also, I have no affinity with, love for, or fond memories of Sony stuff so all that passes me by anyway.

What’s left is a great Mario game without Mario in it. And that’s OK.

Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster’s Hidden Treasure (Mega Drive): COMPLETED!

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Since I had my Retroflag GPi out for the Mandatory Playing Of Mega-lo-Mania, I thought I’d play something else afterwards. Perusing those Mega Drive games I’d not really played before, but I remember having reasonable reviews, I came across Buster’s Hidden Treasure and gave it a punt.

And you know what? It’s alright actually.

The 8 and 16-bit console eras were drowning in character platformers, and yet none really touched Mario or Sonic. Even the big games like Dynamite Headdy or Rocket Knight couldn’t really compete, and licenced games specifically generally fared badly, especially on the Mega Drive and SNES.

Turns out that this Tiny Toon Adventures game isn’t anywhere near as bad as most similar platformers. Sure, it’s never going to be in anyone’s favourites list, but it manages to get the physics right (have you ever played Bubsy the Bobcat? Oh my) and have some genuinely fun levels and bosses. It’s by the numbers, but does it well. Even if Buster is trying very hard to be Sonic.

Mega-lo-Mania (Mega Drive): COMPLETED!

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Once more I was in the mood for some Mega-lo-Mania. I’ve gone into why I love the game before, but I just can’t stop playing it every so often. It is still The Best Game.

This time, I chose Oberon (the camp yellow guy), and when I reached the final level not one but two other gods managed to squirrel away some people for me to fight! Which took about ten seconds as I had loads and they had very few. Ah well.