Reviews – Page 6 – seeinbytes

The Reviews Explained

So I spoke a little about how the rating system will work. It’s a critical system, but because there will be more 2s and 3s than usual, I thought I would explain the stars in greater detail.

It’s really a four-star system, with a fifth star reserved for rare situations.

The stars:

★ Bad Game. Not redeemable.

★★ Average Game. In the same way that a “C” in school is supposed to be average, but no one ever wants to get one. Leaves little or no reason to play it.

★★★ Above-Average Game. They’re good but you can’t put your finger on what’s hollow about the experience. Many big-budget sequels would fall into this category.

★★★★ Great Game. An undeniably positive experience. It falls short of being a masterpiece, but it’s well worth your time.

★★★★★ One of the best of a generation. Succeeds in both execution and originality. The kind of game you still think about years later.

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII Review

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII

Platform: PSP
Price I Paid: Gift

If I’m being completely honest, I probably wouldn’t have played this game if it wasn’t a gift. I already know way to much about the FF7 universe, for someone who claims not to care about it, and I was sure I couldn’t lie with a straight face after playing another game in the controversial series. My desire to waste time got the best of me and I did jump into it.

The positives: It’s gorgeous (like most Square games), complete, and the story is more redeemable than expected. Zach is a fucking idiot, but somehow endearing.

The negatives: There is zero challenge, zero. Literally, zero. It might take a little effort to collect all the extras, but it hardly feels like it would give any sense of accomplishment. The battle system is simple, and the story is not really THAT interesting, just simply better told than you would expect.

Rating: 3 stars

Jikandia Review

Jikandia: The Timeless Land

Platform (Format): PSP (UMD)

It looks pretty cute, right? The outside is charming enough I bought the game for $10 before a flight to Europe. As an iOS game I would still consider it quite unpolished. The characters and story are generic, but have the potential to bring the whole thing together into something worthwhile, but sadly they are the most unbearable part. The fact that the translation was run through something like babelfish acts as a constant reminder while playing how much of your time you’re wasting (much like an iOS game).

The gameplay is enough of a grind that you develop a routine after the first few levels (go in for a few minutes, die, reequip and gain bonuses from meeting goals, go back in for longer and beat the boss). Even on an Atlantic plane ride I couldn’t bring myself to play it longer than a couple hours. Although I can’t help but feel it might have been pretty funny in it’s original Japanese.

Rating: 1 star

Adding Reviews

I haven’t posted anything for awhile (if you don’t count the post from five minutes ago, which I actually wrote months ago). But I have new motivation in the blog, and that’s to add a review section.

The goal: To provide short reviews, that are (hopefully) not biased by any previously published scores or impressions.

The score system will be borrowed from what I consider the best video game magazine that was ever published, Next Generation. It is a simple 5 star system, but because of the simplicity the entire scale will be used. This is in contrast to a 1-10 scale, where most games place between 7-9, with anything below not being worth playing, and anything above being considered great (really what is the difference between 8.5 and 9, or even 8 and 9 for that matter?). At that level, the real question is it a 4 star (God of War 3), or a 5 star game (Demon Souls)?