jrmiller14454
Lifetime Total
1+
IMDb Member
13 years
Reviews
Kingdom Hearts II (2005)
A bit of a letdown but worth the money and the effort.
I realize while starting to write this that it saddens me that most people are too stunned with the actual game itself to write a critical review. I shall try my best to do otherwise.
Let's all face it we were all damn excited to hear of the sequel to the Kingdom Hearts series. I myself had bought and played Chain of Memories just to keep up to date with it. And as you could expect, I was thrilled when this was finally in my hand.
Graphics: Terrific! There is not much to critique on this, the graphics are smooth and very nicely done. As someone mentioned in an other review, Port Royal is the only world that is a bit pixalated and rough. But that is to be expected of course, considering the game designers were trying to get as close to possible with the real thing. I felt that the facial expression were Superb, Sora's mouth as well as others are now 3 dimensional, and actually attempt to go along with their voices.
Voice Acting: I felt like this could have been loads better. Considering the success of the First Kindgdom Hearts, you would think they could be a little more original with the voice acting. Don't get me wrong, they chose the best possible people to voice act the real thing, but it just wasn't cutting it....Butchering Captain Jack Sparrow, and Will Turner, I rather wish they would have just used text bubbles. Some others I was disappointed in was Leon, Simba, and Mulan. But, all in all they did a decent job at trying to get similar voice actors.
Battle System: This was definitely an improvement, anyone could see that. Sora's movements are nice and fluid, and there are a TON of new abilities, making the battle system highly more strategic, and instead of mashing X the whole time you can use other buttons too and coordinate your attacks, the Limit attacks, and the Drive ability were ingenious! There however, was a GIANT hole in this system...This made the game is ENTIRELY too easy! All of these things combined made the bosses look like cupcakes...Even Sephiroth was a joke to me.
Content: Now this is what really got me...For some reason I keep feeling like the worlds are way shorter than in the first one. It never really dawned on me until recently, that it was because, again they made the game too easy. The treasure chests are no longer hidden, and are in plain site, there are hardly any mini-games that actually give you something for all the frustrating times you tried doing them, and there isn't NEARLY as many secrets...No secret bosses except for...Seph-Cough cough...And the paths you walk all throughout the game are linear. No secret rooms with treasure chests, and no dungeon to explore, you go this way and that is it. There arn't nearly as many weapons and equipment this time around unless you want to synthesize....But by the time you get all your materials it's pointless anyway because you can kill everything with a flick of your wrist by then. I miss trinities, because it gave you a REASON to go back to the worlds. I feel like you main goal in this game it to get to next cut scene....There was hardly any satisfaction with the replay of this game.
One thing I was excited about was the gummi missions, they are addictive and extremely entertaining, I spent hours one time trying to get them all S rank.
OVERVIEW: Honestly, I love this game. But it seems to me that they tried to appeal to both an older and younger crowd this time around, throwing in the fun factor....But with no difficulty, and no thinking process.
Let's all face it we were all damn excited to hear of the sequel to the Kingdom Hearts series. I myself had bought and played Chain of Memories just to keep up to date with it. And as you could expect, I was thrilled when this was finally in my hand.
Graphics: Terrific! There is not much to critique on this, the graphics are smooth and very nicely done. As someone mentioned in an other review, Port Royal is the only world that is a bit pixalated and rough. But that is to be expected of course, considering the game designers were trying to get as close to possible with the real thing. I felt that the facial expression were Superb, Sora's mouth as well as others are now 3 dimensional, and actually attempt to go along with their voices.
Voice Acting: I felt like this could have been loads better. Considering the success of the First Kindgdom Hearts, you would think they could be a little more original with the voice acting. Don't get me wrong, they chose the best possible people to voice act the real thing, but it just wasn't cutting it....Butchering Captain Jack Sparrow, and Will Turner, I rather wish they would have just used text bubbles. Some others I was disappointed in was Leon, Simba, and Mulan. But, all in all they did a decent job at trying to get similar voice actors.
Battle System: This was definitely an improvement, anyone could see that. Sora's movements are nice and fluid, and there are a TON of new abilities, making the battle system highly more strategic, and instead of mashing X the whole time you can use other buttons too and coordinate your attacks, the Limit attacks, and the Drive ability were ingenious! There however, was a GIANT hole in this system...This made the game is ENTIRELY too easy! All of these things combined made the bosses look like cupcakes...Even Sephiroth was a joke to me.
Content: Now this is what really got me...For some reason I keep feeling like the worlds are way shorter than in the first one. It never really dawned on me until recently, that it was because, again they made the game too easy. The treasure chests are no longer hidden, and are in plain site, there are hardly any mini-games that actually give you something for all the frustrating times you tried doing them, and there isn't NEARLY as many secrets...No secret bosses except for...Seph-Cough cough...And the paths you walk all throughout the game are linear. No secret rooms with treasure chests, and no dungeon to explore, you go this way and that is it. There arn't nearly as many weapons and equipment this time around unless you want to synthesize....But by the time you get all your materials it's pointless anyway because you can kill everything with a flick of your wrist by then. I miss trinities, because it gave you a REASON to go back to the worlds. I feel like you main goal in this game it to get to next cut scene....There was hardly any satisfaction with the replay of this game.
One thing I was excited about was the gummi missions, they are addictive and extremely entertaining, I spent hours one time trying to get them all S rank.
OVERVIEW: Honestly, I love this game. But it seems to me that they tried to appeal to both an older and younger crowd this time around, throwing in the fun factor....But with no difficulty, and no thinking process.
Devil May Cry: Debiru mei kurai (2007)
An excellent addition to the well loved series of novels and games.
First of all, I am going to note that the games were much more involved with the action and the overall theme of Devil May Cry.
HOWEVER, most people that have given this anime a poor review and try to base the game on the anime seem to forget one little detail; a GAME NEEDS action to progress. This is one key element to a hack and slash/action game. That being said, I see a lot of unfair reviews bashing the anime because "it was so unlike the game". If it were made like the game in 12 episodes then we would see 20% personal character development and 80% all fight scenes. AND even THEN, the same group of people would be disappointed because of the lack of that. Give some credit where credit is due guys. Really, it was a GREAT work of anime and as there are with ANY production, some flaws to be had. An UNBIASED opinion is required for such a task as reviewing this. Unfortunately both I or anyone who has watched these most likely, shall ALWAYS compare them to the game. That is a sad realization, but all in all the anime was brilliant. Anyone who loves a good time would love this.
HOWEVER, most people that have given this anime a poor review and try to base the game on the anime seem to forget one little detail; a GAME NEEDS action to progress. This is one key element to a hack and slash/action game. That being said, I see a lot of unfair reviews bashing the anime because "it was so unlike the game". If it were made like the game in 12 episodes then we would see 20% personal character development and 80% all fight scenes. AND even THEN, the same group of people would be disappointed because of the lack of that. Give some credit where credit is due guys. Really, it was a GREAT work of anime and as there are with ANY production, some flaws to be had. An UNBIASED opinion is required for such a task as reviewing this. Unfortunately both I or anyone who has watched these most likely, shall ALWAYS compare them to the game. That is a sad realization, but all in all the anime was brilliant. Anyone who loves a good time would love this.