Review Round-Up - April 2020

Take a tropical trip to an island paradise with Animal Crossing: New Horizons, SPC's Game of the Month.

SuperPhillip Central had four new reviews on the site throughout the month of April, and the selection of games is tremendously varied for such a small amount of games covered. There's stuff for everyone--an open-world game with superpowers, a collection of classic Disney faves, a life simulation perfect for these trying times, and a long-awaited epic remake of a PS1 classic. It's time for the Review Round-Up!

Starting off, we returned to the virtual simulation of Steelport to kick alien ass in Saints Row IV: Re-Elected for the Nintendo Switch. The game earned a C+. Following that was Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King, serving up an incredible collection bonus feature-wise, but not so much with games that have stood the test of time. The collection also received a C+.

While the first half of SPC's games reviewed didn't amaze with their quality, we kicked it into high gear with Animal Crossing: New Horizons, a game that astounding me with how many hours its siphoned from my free time. It established itself as a daily play for me, and got a fantastic A grade. Last and certainly not least, Final Fantasy VII Remake delivered a stellar part one to what will most likely be a lengthy episodic series. If it keeps its current direction quality-wise, we're in for something truly special. The game received an A-.

I conclude this edition of the Review Round-Up with some excerpts from this past month's reviews, and a reminder to check out the SPC Review Archive for every past review published and posted on my blog.

Saints Row IV: Re-Elected (NSW) - C+

...there's no denying that while some aspects of Saints Row IV are indeed dated, it remains a blast to speed through Steelport's streets, running up walls, leaping over tall buildings in a single bound like Superman, soaring through the sky, and unleashing your superpowers all over Zinyak's intergalactic army. It's some of the most fun I've had moving around an open-world setting. 

Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King (NSW, PS4, XB1, PC) - C+

As a collection, Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King is top shelf material with a lot of love poured into the bonus materials and added features, and is more than worthy of representing the beloved animated classics they're adapting in video game form. As games themselves? Well, it's a compilation of games that's half good and half not. I'll just say that The Lion King isn't the "mane" attraction here. At its current price of $20 for a physical release and cheaper for digital, if you have any semblance of love for either movie or fond memories or nostalgia of either game, you'll find something to appreciate with this well put-together package.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons (NSW) - A

Animal Crossing: New Horizons takes the series and gives it some giant leaps forward in progress while sometimes also taking some steps backward in the process. The online being a major sticking point here. That notwithstanding, I can't think of a better game to play right now considering everything going on in the world, and I feel my New Horizons island really is a home away from home. I think in a few years I'll have the same level of nostalgia for New Horizons as I do with the original Animal Crossing. The only difference is that my nostalgia for the original Animal Crossing is rooted in the years I had growing up as a precocious teenager, while with New Horizons, my nostalgia will come from the unexpected and close connections I made to friends new and old through this game during these tremendously turbulent and uncertain times.

Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4) - A-

Final Fantasy VII Remake is a Final Fantasy game for a new era. Its battle system walks a fine balance between fast-paced finger-fu and tactical strategy, its story is engaging and excites in familiar and totally brand new ways with an abundance of increased and heartfelt character interactions, and it sets out to do almost everything it intended to do. While the pacing of the game can get bogged down at times, and some technical performance problems do hinder the experience a little, they don't slight the game that largely enough to be substantial burdens. Final Fantasy VII Remake has made a believer out of me for the development team's vision for the future of the franchise. I can't wait to see where Cloud and his party venture to next.

The first in a multi-part epic did not disappoint with Final Fantasy VII Remake's first arc.

Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4) Review

SuperPhillip Central may not have had an explosive month when it comes to review quantity, but goodness, is the site ever ending April with a bang! It's time for my thoughts on Final Fantasy VII Remake, one of, if not THE biggest game release of the year. Here is my review.

A long-awaited reunion with one of gaming's greatest RPGs

When you think of the holy grail of video game remakes, what game do you think about? I'm talking about those classic games that would be a dream come true to see lovingly retouched and retold in such a way that they could move the coldest of gamer hearts. For a sizable generation of gamers, the holy grail was Final Fantasy VII, and for the longest time, fans clamored for a full fledged remake, especially after other remakes in the Final Fantasy series like I through IV, for instance. 2005 saw a tech demo on the PlayStation 3 that revealed what could be with remade Final Fantasy VII. It would be ten years and one PlayStation generation later that fans would finally see their fantasies realized with the announcement of Final Fantasy VII Remake. Is the game a dream come true? Well, let's mosey and find out!

Final Fantasy VII Remake is but part one of what I have to assume will be a lengthy endeavor--a retelling of 1997's Final Fantasy VII. However, take any idea of a 1:1 remake of the 1997 classic that redefined the role-playing game and throw it out the window. Final Fantasy VII Remake takes great liberties with the original story of FFVII, adding lots of fluff both story and content-wise. Final Fantasy VII Remake occurs all within the confines of Midgar, where we join a ragtag team of vigilantes known as AVALANCHE who are themselves joined by a new recruit, a mysterious mercenary named Cloud Strife. The objective is clear--bomb the Mako Reactor to stick it to the nefarious Shinra Corporation who plan on using the reactor to siphon energy directly from the planet. An eco-friendly group such as AVALANCHE doesn't take too kindly to that. 

Cloud gazes at the rather foreboding Mako Reactor.

While Midgar was but a small part of the original Final Fantasy VII and while this is but part one of a multi-game remake, by the end of this particular game you'll feel that you'll have some resolution and that a full arc of the game has been completed. Of course, you'll desperately want to know what happens next, but a lot of plot points that begin with part one of this remake due end conclusively.

Familiar encounters see new life breathed into them in this remake.

Despite the game staying in Midgar for its entire duration, Final Fantasy VII Remake offers a lot of variety in its environments and in your activities in the game. Each major story beat is contained within one of 18 chapters, usually within a special contained zone. You can guess with a structure like this that Final Fantasy VII Remake possesses makes the game a more linear affair, and you would be safe with your assumption. However, you'd be wrong in assuming that the design echoes nightmares of Final Fantasy XIII's corridor level design. There are ample opportunities to go off the beaten path, explore, and discover unique treasures and items just like in the original. 

While most chapters do have a linear structure to them, much like the game structure itself, a good handful of chapters offer myriad points of discovery and exploration. That's whether it's happening across various side quests or participating in one of this remake's engaging mini-games. The side quests may not raise the bar in quest design, offering lots of "go here, find this", "go here, kill this" type design, but the actual moments between the characters that you interact with offer such a pleasant expansion of the world of Final Fantasy VII Remake that they're worth checking out and completing. That's if the rewards for completing quests weren't satisfactory enough--which they are.

The game itself is a lengthy one, rounding out at over 35 hours my first play-through. Now, veterans of the original might find it difficult to imagine how the developers managed to stretch out a gameplay experience that took a mere five hours in the original game and multiply that sevenfold. This is where a lot of liberties were taken with this remake. Apart from stretching certain gameplay segments out to sometimes tedious effect, a great portion of the story content is brand-new. Some of it is expanded upon with brand-new characters, while more importantly, several familiar characters get a whole new lease on life with expanded characterization. The team of Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie are given a bigger role in Final Fantasy VII Remake, and comparing their portrayals now to 1997's game, you'd think they were one-dimensional in the original compared to the fully fleshed out, emotive characters in this game.

While familiar scenes get an abundance of tender, loving care and are all the better for it.

Final Fantasy VII Remake does feature plenty of padding in its 30-40 hour story, but a lot of it is enjoyable. Sure, there are far more sections where the player is forced to slowly saunter through corridor after corridor, or inch through a narrow passage far too many times, but overall, the game is a decently paced one. As a chapter-based game, you'll encounter plenty of points of no return, though thankfully you're given warning of this usually. Even still, upon beating the game you unlock Hard Mode and the ability to choose chapters to play, keeping your character's levels and various loadouts intact. Though it's disappointing that Hard Mode is locked behind beating the game, once you realize that enemies are properly scaled difficulty-wise and meant to be taken on by a party at level 35 and not a measly level 7, then you won't mind so much. Considering items are also unavailable to use in Hard Mode, it's probably--moreover decidedly--a good thing this mode is locked behind beating the game!

These Shinra security officers definitely don't get paid enough for this!

Much like the story and structure of the game, Final Fantasy VII Remake's battle system has been greatly overhauled as well. This time around the main mode of combat is all in real-time, more akin to an action-RPG like Kingdom Hearts than your typical, traditional Final Fantasy game. Combat is much more fast-paced and instant, while also providing a more-than-adequate amount of strategy as well. You need to learn how to dodge, evade, and block attacks consistently, while also healing up your party as needed. 

The Active Time Battle (or ATB) system is still in use, but in a completely different manner. As you unleash attacks, take damage, and just allow time to roll on, a gauge for each character increases. As that gauge increases, it fills one of two bars. When a bar is full, that character can use an item, spell, or ability from the Command menu, thus using up a bar. When selecting from a Command, the action on screen essentially stops dead in its tracks, or at least slows down considerably. This gives you some much needed time to breathe and formulate a strategy. 

Final Fantasy VII Remake introduces a stagger gauge to enemies and bosses. When staggered, enemies are especially susceptible and vulnerable to attacks while they're in the staggered state, allowing Cloud's party to deal and dish out some major damage. Different enemies are staggered in different ways. Some enemies have their stagger gauges rise when they're hit by a specific element of magic, while others become more easily staggered when they're in the middle of a specific attack.

Some foes will stagger more easily than others, but when they do,
it's the optimal opportunity to unleash hell on them.

You can switch between characters on the fly mid-battle with the D-Pad, and of the four playable characters in this remake--Cloud, Barret, Tifa, and Aerith--each has a play style that makes them unique from one another as well as each being of use in battle. Whereas Cloud and Tifa do heavy up-close-and-personal melee damage, Barret and Aerith excel mostly in long range attacks. 

Barret's long-range firing is fantastic for taking out foes over long distances and those in the air.

The Materia system from the original 1997 release makes its return in this remake as well. By stocking characters with Materia via weapon and armor slots they're equipped with, they can use all manner of spells and magic, as well as receive bonus abilities like increased health, magic, and more. Materia can be leveled up and mastered by earning points from defeated foes, which allows for greater versions of spells to be unleashed as the Materia levels up. It's engaging and enjoyable to experiment with Materia combinations on characters, but I couldn't help but wish there were different loadouts that I could save for various combat situations. Instead, you can only have loadouts on a per-character-basis instead of a per-weapon or just have a selection of loadouts to work from. Thankfully, when a character temporarily leaves your party, you can still change their equipment and Materia attached to them when they're gone. 

Fire (magic) in the hole!

Weapons, too, have unique properties to them, and can also be customized with skill points earned from leveling up in battle. You can use SP to increase the attack power, defense, magic attack, magic defense, speed, and more of your characters, as long as they're equipped with that weapon. In addition to basic stat upgrades, specific weapons have unique bonuses to them, offering improved debuff resistance, for example, or the ability to equip more Materia at once. There's no need to be frugal with your SP either, as earned SP goes to each weapon in your arsenal and not just the one equipped to your character--so spend away! This remake encourages experimentation pretty much at every juncture, and that continues with weapon abilities. As you continually use a weapon's ability in combat, you can master its proficiency, allowing you to use it even when that weapon is not equipped.

Ah, the Airbuster. I remember you when you were just a bucket of bolts and a smattering of polygons!

Also returning from Final Fantasy VII is that of Summons, and like many other aspects of Remake's design, these have been altered as well. Only available for use in certain battles, Summons fight alongside with you when they're called upon, allowing you to select commands for them when a given character has enough bars in their ATB gauge. Summons are invincible and otherwise automatically attack enemies in battle. Once their summoning gauge has emptied, they bid adieu with an ultra-powerful attack that erupts across the screen to deal heavy damage.

When it concerns the presentation of Final Fantasy VII Remake, it's no surprise that Square Enix delivered an uber-impressive experience. Jaw-dropping vistas abound, characters amaze with their degree of detail and superb animated quality, and effects like fire and lightning dazzle and delight. Things aren't totally perfect, however, as some textures noticeably fail to load or offer such a strikingly low quality that even someone who usually doesn't mind such things like myself couldn't help but get turned off by them a bit. Hopefully a future patch can correct this, if such a thing is possible.

Square Enix is like Jurassic Park's John Hammond when it comes to presentation.
They spare no expense, and it certainly and satisfyingly shows!

On the other side of the presentation equation, the sound performance is exquisite. The voice acting is mostly of great quality, though the dialogue sometimes doesn't do the voice actors any favors (that's not their fault, though), and the musical renditions of familiar Final Fantasy VII favorites are utterly fantastic. The completely new tunes added round out the package, and are of a pleasant sound as well, offering a well-rounded soundtrack that both pays homage and pays great respect to the original.

And, that's really the theme of Final Fantasy VII Remake. It's an exceptional game that breathes new life into the Final Fantasy VII universe while respecting a lot of what fans loved about the 1997 classic. Final Fantasy VII Remake is a Final Fantasy game for a new era. Its battle system walks a fine balance between fast-paced finger-fu and tactical strategy, its story is engaging and excites in familiar and totally brand new ways with an abundance of increased and heartfelt character interactions, and it sets out to do almost everything it intended to do. While the pacing of the game can get bogged down at times, and some technical performance problems do hinder the experience a little, they don't slight the game that largely enough to be substantial burdens. Final Fantasy VII Remake has made a believer out of me for the development team's vision for the future of the franchise. I can't wait to see where Cloud and his party venture to next.

[SPC Says: A-]

Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4) "Accolades" Commercial

The word is out, the reviews are in, and Final Fantasy VII Remake is a certifiable critical success. Check out what the critics have to say about the game with this special commercial. Meanwhile, stay tuned for the end of this month for when I'll have my own final verdict on Final Fantasy VII Remake when I publish my review!

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot (PS4, XB1, PC) "A New Power Awakens Part 1" Trailer

The first of two DLC boss battle packages arrives tomorrow for Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot with a planned story DLC arc available later on as well. The battle with Beerus and the arrival of Super Saiyan God form for Goku and Vegeta both come to Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot tomorrow. If you're interested, check out my original review for the base Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot game.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons (NSW) Review

We're in the last week of April here at SuperPhillip Central, but that doesn't mean I'm ready to slow down just yet! After a month and an extended stay as part of the Nook Deserted Island Giveaway Package, I have finally arrived with my verdict on Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Here is my review!

Your Island, Your Way

Ever since Animal Crossing's western debut with 2002's eponymous release on the GameCube, I've grown accustomed to spending hundreds of hours tending to my town, carousing about, chatting it up with my fellow villagers, and collecting oodles of furniture, flooring and wallpaper with each release. Some entries in the Animal Crossing series have been more of a jump than others, and with the series's mainline installments missing a generation by skipping over the Wii U, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the very first HD mainline entry in the series. It manages to push the series forward with impressive innovations while also keeping intact a lot of what made players of Animal Crossing love about the series in the first place.

Tom Nook is a crafty, shrewd businessman--er, business-raccoon--and his latest venture is the Deserted Island Getaway Package, offering a new life aboard an island. Starting off, your custom-created character begins on a weed-infested, barren island wilderness to call home, with limited mobility to explore the entire isle. You're introduced to the island by Nook himself, and you're joined by two random animal companions who also decided to take the plunge on the Getaway Package. New Horizons's first day serves as a tutorial. You pick out the plots where your fellow island denizens will pitch their tents, collect a host of materials, and you are introduced to life on the island itself with the aid of a new tool, the NookPhone. The tutorial is a bit of a breezy one, but engaging all the way.

For most players, the opening tutorial should take but an hour or two to complete.

The first major goal within New Horizons is to amass 5,000 of a new currency in the game to go along with Bells. These are Nook Miles. You collect Nook Miles by completing specific in-game achievement-like tasks, such as collecting bugs, collecting fish, pulling weeds, buying and selling items, cutting down trees, picking up shells from the shores of the island's many beaches, among many other tasks.

Despite the tutorial being over rather quickly, Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a bit slow to give you true freedom in the way that previous games in the series offered. For instance, you're limited in how far you can explore the island until you earn the ability to make a pole or a bridge to cross rivers. You won't be able to traverse cliffs until you gain the ability to make a ladder. All of these abilities aren't made available until a little ways into your first week. This is perfect for beginners of the franchise, but for veterans like myself, it can seem a bit limiting.

Chop trees to acquire valuable types of wood to craft furniture with.

As you work to complete tasks and as the early days go by, you'll get introduced to the concept of crafting, a new mechanic to the Animal Crossing series. Here, you use materials found around the island, such as weeds, wood from chopping trees, ore from mining rocks, and branches from shaking trees, to create a host of DIY tools and furniture. In fact, a major early part of the game is acquiring enough materials to craft new homes and furniture for new islanders to visit and call the island their new home.

In addition to making furniture, tools like shovels, fishing poles, nets, axes, and such are available by crafting. Unlike previous games, all tools besides your ladder and pole break after repeated use. This can be a bit annoying when a tool breaks at an inopportune time, such as being in the middle of a fish-catching excursion or while you're in the middle of chopping down a tree with an axe. You begin with a very weak tools, but as you learn new DIY recipes as the game progress and your life on your island continues, you'll gain access to stronger tools, though these still break routinely as well.

The first of many ceremonies I had on my island of Central was for Nook's Cranny.

My early weeks of playing New Horizons saw me do my best to fully populate my island with ten animal villagers, picking out their plots of where they will live, building bridges and inclines to connect my island to its more remote locations, and beautifying the island through various means. In New Horizons you can place furniture outside, serving as a neat way to decorate your island as you see fit. I enjoyed making my own outdoor pizza parlor, complete with brick oven, checkerboard-clothed tables with lit candles on each, and a marketplace stall where a cassette player sits, playing some appropriate musical ambiance.

I've been waiting 7 hours here for my pizza. I'm starting to think that "We're Open" sign is a big, fat lie.

It's not just to make your island yours and make it more appealing and entertaining to traverse. Of course, most players will want and be able to create the island of their dreams eventually, but there's a goal attached to making a more visually stunning island. Eventually Isabelle will visit the island and make it her home as well, serving as a way to see how well your island is shaping up. If you're able to get an island evaluation from her that's at three stars or better, you'll gain access to what I consider the coolest new feature of New Horizons: the ability to terraform your island. Yes, you can don a construction helmet and make paths, cliffs, and rivers to your liking. While the process is a bit clunky and heavy-handed, taking a while to really create something special, the results conclude with being able to customize your island habitat like never before. You have more freedom here than in any past game in the series. It makes me actively seek out how other players have designed their islands, draw some inspiration, or simply just envy their creations.

A barren island can slowly and steadily turn into a miniature metropolis.

And that is by far the most pleasurable part of Animal Crossing: New Horizons for me. It's the ability to start with a deserted, bare-bones island and slowly but steadily create something that you can call your virtual home. What was once a weed-covered plateau in the northwest corner of my island is now a soccer field, complete with two soccer goals and benches for attendees to watch on. The barren center of my island is now a bustling village with fenced off backyards for each animal islander, and a playground with slides, jungle gyms, and drinking fountains. If you've got the creative spirit, you can come up with your own projects to further improve your island.

You eventually reach a point where your play sessions in Animal Crossing: New Horizons become a bit of a daily routine, which might be a tad boring to some players. For myself and I imagine many others, there's almost a zen-like quality to it. Between going around chatting with all of my fellow islanders, checking in on their day, digging up fossils and donating them to museum, catching some bugs and fish to sell for Bells (I just had to get Nook off my back by paying off my house's loan for home expansions, of course), going to Nook's shop to see what wares are available to buy, and combing the beach for new DIY recipes on a daily basis, there's definitely a routine that starts happening. For me, it's quite an enjoyable one. With the addition of Nook Miles+ activities, there's a never-ending supply of tasks to take on, earning Nook Miles for completing each one, and when one is completed, another task takes its place. Plenty of times I found myself playing longer than intended just to complete more tasks as they popped up, finding new things to do in the process.

There's nothing like chilling out in the early evening by the town hall.
I'm obviously not alone with this thought!

That said, even when a player settles into a routine, Nintendo offers regular new updates that bring new events and happenings to their island. Already there's been celebrations and events for Easter, as well as a fishing tournament, and currently there's an Earth Day celebration going on, where players are encouraged to complete nature-related Nook Miles tasks for rewards. With these events happening all year round and weekly things like special visitors arriving on my island on random days, like the flooring and wallpaper-selling Saharah or the bug-buying Flick, there's always a reason for me to return to New Horizons and keep playing. I'm already at over 120 hours of play in just a month's time, and I don't see me slowing down anytime soon.

Bunny Day brought an array of specially costumed islanders outside to play.

While New Horizons does offer a lot of new improvements, such as new customization abilities, a new format, crafting, among other things, there are some niggling issues I do have with the game. For one, you can only craft one item at a time, which is really vexing and clumsy. This is especially apparent when trying to craft fish bait. Rather than being able to craft 10 at a time if you have the required materials available, you have to slowly craft one at a time, really making for a slow go of things. Further, while the online is slightly better than past games in the series, the slow entry and exit of players when they enter and leave your island is a tremendous pain in the neck, and communication errors can make otherwise enjoyable excursions to other player islands a complete mess. The use of Dodo Codes to only allow certain players into your island at once is pretty much necessary, otherwise you can get multiple folks from your friends list entering, causing all of those unwanted pauses in gameplay from when they arrive. Lastly, the lack of hourly music until a rather lengthy amount of time invested into your island is a bit of a curious concept. Fortunately, once those sensational songs do arrive, it's oh-so-good!

New Horizons looks exceptional on the Nintendo Switch, delivering a degree of visual elegance never before seen in the Animal Crossing series. The island is vibrant and the way leaves on trees and flowers and weeds wave in the island breeze is mesmerizing, and animals themselves reveal much more personality than ever. They're emotive, they react in funny ways, and their dialogue is just delightful in every sense of the words (and their words in general!). It's a joy to walk around my island and see the various shenanigans that the island citizens get themselves into, whether it's seeing them fish, sneak up on a bug with a net, investigate one of the many decorations around the island--whether they be furniture or flowers--begin singing, or engage in conversations with other animals on the island. It's incredibly endearing.

Happy faces abound at Zucker's place.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons takes the series and gives it some giant leaps forward in progress while sometimes also taking some steps backward in the process. The online being a major sticking point here. That notwithstanding, I can't think of a better game to play right now considering everything going on in the world, and I feel my New Horizons island really is a home away from home. I think in a few years I'll have the same level of nostalgia for New Horizons as I do with the original Animal Crossing. The only difference is that my nostalgia for the original Animal Crossing is rooted in the years I had growing up as a precocious teenager, while with New Horizons, my nostalgia will come from the unexpected and close connections I made to friends new and old through this game during these tremendously turbulent and uncertain times.

[SPC Says: A]