Recent reviews by TheBlueFox

This game is a breath of fresh air.

Coming from Zestiria I was disappointd to see the latest installation of the Tales series to be so lackluster, boring, and tedius. I was hesitant to give this game a try, but I'm glad I did.

From the get-go the story is vastly superior, the characters are interesting and I'm actually inspired to find out more about them.

The combat system has gone back to a better place, and the new mechancis introduced are alot easier to work with than in Zestiria. The camera also DOESN'T FIGHT YOU like it did in Zestiria! The camera certain got an AI upgrade to say the least. All in all it feels smoother and easier to manage.

NO MORE SKILL BOARD!

Jesus that thing was a nightmare. No longer will you have to get 40 peices of gear just to find the RIGHT one with a skill to transfer over to another piece of gear, just to replace that gear later on. Now, you break down unused gear into materials which can be used to flat out upgrade other materials, increasing their base stats and unlocking extra skills. When it comes time to swap to new gear, break down the old upgraded gear for rare materials and use those materials to upgrade your new gear! You also get to KEEP one skill from mastered gear permanently on your character, so each new gear mastered adds permanent benefits.

There are some re-used assets from Zestiria, and not just items. Character models, animations, enemies, you'll find yourself thinking "wait, I've seen that guy before" or "Why is this dude using Lilah's moveset?" and "Hey! He's using that cosmetic weapon!" but it's not a bad thing, it's just something you'll notice.

All in all I believe this is a step up in every direction from Zestiria, and I'm looking forward to playing it more.

People will tell you that Street fighter V is a bad fighting game, and they're wrong.

What they mean to say is "Street fighter V is not a GOOD fighting game" and they are right.

SFV has the fewest technical aspects of a fighting game that I have seen since mortal combat 3. It has combos, Cancels, Specials, juggles, and a V skill system that lets you use a separate resource for getting out of pressure or saving up for one bursty skill. And that's it. Those are ALL the mechanics.

Is this a bad thing? No, not particularly, but it certainly isn't GOOD.

So why am I putting this as a positive review? Because SFV is great at being your entry into the fighting game genre. It's got enough technicality to let you understand the concept of special cancels, frame traps, priority, combos, spacing, footsies, etc. The game is so basic that you learn a framework fairly quickly and get a foundation for future fighting games.

I can attest to this, as I have never been good at fighting games, but I'm rather decent at SFV. I rank in the mid/high silver, which for someone who has a rather poor track record with this genre is an accomplishment at least in my eyes. In a fairly short amount of time with a particular character you can get a feeling for what they can do, what they're supposed to do, and how to do it. You'll learn to spot overheads, understand what a mixup is and how to punish.

If you're looking for a deep fighting game with long combos that test your dexterity and give you a ton of options at your disposal, you'll be pretty disappointed here, maybe check out BlazBlue or Skullgirls. But if you're looking for a game to dip your toes in the genre I have to recommend it.

To all the people that are furious and upset that the game is now going F2P:

Yes, I understand you are angry that you paid money for this game, had a bad experience, and now it's being given away for free. But look at it this way.

There were LESS than 200 people playing this game recently, that is how far the community fell. It DIED, the people who still were playing were veterans, angry veterans, who may not even all speak your language.

But now? Now that the game is free, more people will try it, More people will play the game. Newer players of all skill levels will come take a gander, and see if they like the game. Matchmaking will be quicker, games more varied. This is not a bad thing.

So you may say that you are angry and upset that you paid a good bit of money for this, but now it has a second chance at life.


So, as far as if I recommend this game or not, I do

I played very little of this game during some free opportunities, because I didn't feel it was worth sticker price. I tried it, enjoyed it, and let it be waiting for discounts that just never came. Now I may pick it up again, see how it's changed, see if more people like me will give it a shot. The concept, the gameplay, it's all rather interesting and deserves a second shot.

I have been having a blast with this game, but it isn't without its faults.

The Good:
The game is fun, it really is. It's a great experience that i've been enjoying ever since I got it. There's a ton of character customization options, almost too many, and the situations i've gotten into have been both hilarious as well as frustratingly difficult. Controlling 6 characters takes a bit of getting used to and a LOT of pausing, but the result is combat that feels tactical and rewarding when you get it just right. Characters have a limited AI that lets them handle themselves for basic actions, but always lets you give them specific orders so you don't have to babysit their every move. The world itself is charming and there are subtle (And not so subtle) pop culture references that made me chuckle when discovered.

The Meh:
The UI can be confusing at times, especially since the game's ruleset is from the earlier days of D&D. I tried explaining what THAC0 was to a friend, it took him a while to understand it. And durations of spells (Round? Turn? Hours?) are not explained well in game...or at all? I couldn't find it, I had to look it up. You can tough it out and learn by experience, but I feel the game could have been more user friendly if it tried.

The Bad:
Bugs. Oh god the game is buggy as heck. Is it playable? Yes, but it takes alot of jumping through hoops to get multiplayer working. Eventually it resorted to Hamachi virtual networking and port forwarding, but even then the game crashed and some pausing issues happened causing us to frequently restart the game entirely and load up a save. This happened with SOME friends, but not others!? LIke, what? Single player seemed decent, I haven't had any issues there, but multiplayer needs some serious work. It's functional, but barely.


Overall:
The game is good, and I would recommend it. Just expect to find yourself with a bit of a learning curve to handle, and some technical issues may arise, but the game is fun and engaging, and DIFFICULT.