Video Game Reviews [AA: PW vs PL, Uncharted 3]

[jaggedwolf]

Ace Attorney: Phoenix Wright vs Professor Layton

This is a very delayed review, I finished this game back in February. But if I’m going to play every game in the series, I might as well keep up posting my opinions.

It is probably my least favorite of the Ace Attorney games I’ve played, though it’s ending is much less tedious than the first Investigations game.

• So this game has magic. That is not my objection to this. I don’t think I can object to that alone - the Feys summon the dead and have rocks that glow in front of liars. But as always with mixing magic and mysteries, your magic needs to have rules to make solving satisfying. And instead I was often confused by what was possible and what wasn’t. Hearing Maya and Phoenix have actual voices and seeing them in actual animated scenes was so uncanny to me. I have to get used to this for the rest of the series.
• I...absolutely did not see the ending coming. The crux of the ending was so unhinged that I can’t even say I dislike it.
• What I can say I disliked is how much the entire game focuses on Espella. It does not work if you dislike her, or if even as I did, did not care that much about her. Especially the part of the ending that tries to absolve her of one particular action!
• Darklaw’s hot

I’d only play this if you are fond of both series, or want to encounter the most bonkers ending to an AA game. Otherwise, give it a pass.

Uncharted 3

Spoilers under the cut, but the TL;DR is: a fun enough enough conclusion for Nate and co., even if I think Elena deserved a little more from the game. (Also, I’m amazed that they found it difficult to make a good movies out of these trilogies? Just adapt the stories!)

THINGS I DISLIKED

Recall that in my review of Uncharted 2, I said I disliked the pattern of Elena being out of commission during the final boss battles of both games, and that I hoped it wouldn’t continue. This game somehow made it worse, by having NATE DELIBERATELY EXCLUDE HER FROM THE FINAL CLIMAX OF THE GAME, WHEN THE ENTIRE PLAN WAS DEVISED BY HER. WHY. JUST TO ANNOY ME?

Blah blah I still like Nate and the logic might work in a Watsonian sense, but in a Doylist sense I am very cross. Elena deserved better :<(

(Okay, she and Nate do have a fun dynamic, and I liked that the game ends with Nate picking the sensible option for the long-term. Would contemplate the f/f version.)

THINGS I WAS MEH ON

On one hand, the plot mechanics are much better than the second game’s. There is no old guy trying to turn Nate into a selfless hero, Nate stumbles into shit here with a hunger for Sir Francis Drake’s lore that he cannot explain despite how much it endangers him, and we don’t have Nate doing a step-by-step tutorial for the villains.

On the other hand, the very final action sequence felt anti-climactic. No tension in either villain’s death, and the overall vibe didn’t live up to either of the previous’s game.

Under the category of things completely fair for the game to do: No Chloe and Elena interaction :( Let me have Chloe calling Elena “Sunshine” again before we go on with the canon ships, game.

THINGS I LOVED

Scrawny teen thief Nathan Drake! I cannot help but want to pat him on the head as he runs around trying to decode Sir Francis Drake’s secret map and accidentally gets adopted by another thief. Good for him.

(...there’s no way he’s actually a descendant of the guy, huh, given the scavenging orphan vibe of the flashbacks)

We got substantial Sully content this game, as opposed to the previous one. I did think he his final conversation with Nate was sweet. Maybe they should hold hands after all :P

Speaking of Sully, I very much enjoy that Sully and Elena are familiar with each other to a far greater extent than we’ve ever seen before. The games never go into Nate and Elena’s offscreen breakups, but that aspect alone suggests that they made a much longer run of it this second go around, even if it weren’t for the rings.

I’d heard a lot about the big plane setpiece, but my favorite was the cruise ship tilted on its side. That felt epic, from the pan out showing how vast an expanse the ship covered, to the traversal of rooms on their side, complete with combat. Add the water rushing into that big ballroom, and this is my favorite setpiece by far across the trilogy.

Nate’s a fucking history nerd. LOL, I say this every game, but I do like how much he gets into the history of it all, and never loses that wonder. The initial historical quotes that start us off are also good. I might watch Lawrence of Arabia because of this game.

Finally, there is so much Nate whump <3. He gets drugged at least twice, with gameplay sequences I adored (the very rude warping of how he met Sully!), and he retains the classic “oh shit oh shit what did I get myself into” vibe. It’s a good match for the game, as always.

I think these games work best when they understand that (a) Nate is not a heroic do-gooder (b) and he is very badass while panicking out loud (c) the core of the story is Nate self-destructing, disguised as a historical search. (He gets a pass in the first game because who the fuck would predict that island.)

I don’t know much about Uncharted 4, which I will eventually play, but I know there’s a timeskip and so all I can do is hope this idiot (affectionate) doesn’t ruin his relationship too much.