Panderson

Ghost of Tsushima Review:

Ghost of Tsushima comes from Sucker Punch Productions known for the Sly Cooper and Infamous series. The story follows Jin Sakai, the only surviving samurai of the Mongol invasion of Tsushima Island. Beaten and alone, Jin sets out to recruit any allies he has left on the island, so he may retake his homeland from the Mongol leader, Khotun Khan.

The technical aspects of this game feel like the natural next step for Sucker Punch. Infamous: Second Son felt like a PS4 launch title designed to take advantage of the controller’s new touchpad and the system’s ability to render massive amounts of particles in a way that didn’t add anything to the experience of the game. In the case of Ghost of Tsushima, the touchpad is implemented effortlessly to provide additional control options, and all of the leaves and other particles blowing in the wind are used to support the artistic design of the game’s world.

Ultimately, it’s the game’s atmosphere and gameplay that sell it for me. If exploring beautiful vistas and cutting down waves of enemies wasn’t so satisfying, the game wouldn’t work as well as it does because that’s the bulk of the entire experience. It sounds repetitive, but the gameplay loop becomes terribly addicting because the game constantly rewards you with new weapons, techniques, and cosmetics that all affect gameplay in a meaningful way. By the end, I could think creatively in many different combat scenarios because each new element served a practical purpose.

My biggest issue is how smaller moments are presented. The main story cutscenes are fantastic, but it becomes painfully obvious that they cut some corners elsewhere. Though side missions are fully voice acted, the camera is kept far away from the characters’ faces, so they don’t have to animate them. Or, when opening a gate from within an encampment, the screen fades to black and fades back in with the gate now open. They’re small but these moments break the immersion that the game otherwise executes near perfectly.

That said, once you start Ghost of Tsushima, I doubt you’ll want to finish it before exploring everything the game has to offer.

Mulan Review:

Okay, another Disney remake. Does it remain overly faithful to the original like The Lion King? Does it change things up a little bit like Aladdin? Well, the movie has no singing and none of the side characters from the original, so yea, you could say it changes some things!

Immediately, the film tells you that Mulan has a lot of stored up chi, but her family is telling her to hide it away and fulfill her duty as a woman. Because of her chi, she is able to pull off some incredible physical feats, and while I liked the idea because it brought a Wuxia influence to combat scenes, the execution of the film’s ideas came out pretty awkward. The movie is two hours long, but somehow it feels rushed. It’s pretty jarring, and overall, it’s easy to remember that you’re watching a movie. For instance, the production design is beautiful, yet everything from the clothing to the stone stairs in Mulan’s village looks like it was crafted and cleaned up the day before filming. Absolutely nothing has any visual blemishes, and it feels like a stage play. I wish they took some risks and added some actual grit. It feels so Disney-fied, yet it’s PG-13.

So, what else? Well, there are side characters with potential like Donnie Yen’s Commander Tung, Gong Li’s Xianniang, and Jet Li’s Emperor who could all be interesting on their own, yet the film doesn’t flesh them out, especially Gong Li’s character. We’re expected to accept her decisions without knowing anything about her. The only character that gets a deep dive is Mulan, and all of her character development amounts to stripping off her armor, letting her hair down, and showing off some sweet moves. Obviously, the crux of her arc is being able to fight just as well as the men, but when she’s revealed here, it feels unnecessary and flubs up the message behind the original film.

For me, the movie falls apart by the end. Do I think it’s worth $30? No. But when it goes free on Disney+ in a few months, I recommend checking it out because, despite its shortcomings, I was drawn to it the entire time purely for its novel aspects. At least put it on in the background.

Talk about a pleasant surprise.

Bug Fables was developed by Moonsprout Games as a spiritual successor to the early Paper Mario games, and it very much delivers on that promise. It centers around a group of three bugs named Vi (a bee), Kabbu (a beetle), and Leif (a moth) as they explore the land of Bugaria in search of the eternal life-granting Everlasting Sapling. It sounds juvenile, yet throughout the adventure, the story reveals its incredible depth and juggles the weight of some deeply tragic themes. The longer I played, the more the world would become charmingly fleshed out through Bugaria’s quirky characters and cleverly designed locales. Ultimately, I found playing Bug Fables to be a bit of a sacred experience.

I have heralded Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door as one of my favorite games since I was ten years old because of its emotional narrative and satisfying-yet-simple combat and customization that built on the original Paper Mario’s foundation. Both the original and TTYD were unique gameplay experiences, and no other games have had been made in that style since—not even within the Paper Mario series. With Bug Fables, not only do the developers emulate the classic Paper Mario style, they logically build upon it and manage to fit in every new feature I would’ve hoped for and then sprinkle in a few more just because they can. In this process, the developers pay homage to what came before without forgetting to carve out the game’s distinct identity.

There is so much to love about Bug Fables that I completed every piece of content the game has to offer. It’s astounding how much optional content exists that expands the lore of the world. Each character is unique, and by the end, I understood the feelings and motivations of each one. Throughout the 60 hours it took me to complete it, I felt like I was finally scratching a 16-year-old itch, and all I wanted was more. Simply put, Bug Fables is a game made BY classic Paper Mario fans FOR classic Paper Mario fans, and if you’ve always wanted to return to that nostalgic feeling with a sense of something new, Bug Fables is your ticket there.