Recent reviews by jules

the terrifying monster beckoning close: i am alive undead... i have come to kill you. i feed off fear.
me: ok whatever. i just modded my 3ds, did you know it's actually really easy to do? i can show you
the terrifying monster beckoning close: NOOOO I AM STARVED OF YOUR FEAR

What makes killer7 a special game is how it chooses to present itself. An iconoclast that actively chooses to ignore conventions of the medium and pursue its own, it guides the player along a bizarre narrative which never willingly reveals it hand to you. It simply asks: "So, tell me. What the hell was it that you just saw?" At its core, killer7 is about the eponymous group of assassins travelling across the United States and outside of it to eliminate the mysterious, otherworldly terrorist group called the Heaven Smiles and take down several targets of interest, either on hire or personal vendetta. It plays as a linear on-rails shooter which you can control, featuring several different variants of Heaven Smiles with weird quirks, and 7 characters with unique weapons to gun down the Heaven Smiles and unique abilities that you'll use to solve the different puzzles through out. The style of the game is exactly as you see it, but the uniqueness of the game and the variety of the characters' weaponry, enemies, and puzzles within the levels themselves are what keep it fresh and fun.

Through its artistic efforts, killer7 becomes a game that has no equal in what it does. Fantastic in its own right in terms of gameplay, art, and story, yes; but there is truly nothing like it. Unabashedly explorative of its own ideas, killer7 is a beautiful example of what can happen when you explore what it is to be art. The only limitation which it obeys are the guidelines that make this a game rather than a movie. It approaches every other facet of creativity and art however it pleases. Art pieces are a whole made from the sum of its parts, and in each part that went into killer7, Suda51 filled it with his own brand of love, creativity, and innovation. There is much more to this game than what meets the eye, and you'll appreciate it either by the time the credits roll, or even months after you finish the game and think, "What the hell was it that I saw? I'm not sure, but damn, that game was one of a kind."

I adore Va-11 Hall: A, because I love people. I love learning about them, sharing stories and seeing people go through hardship together. All the characters are so cute, and fun to interact with, and they all have believable stories and motives within the cyberpunk environment that it creates for itself. Cyberpunk media usually focuses on the sentiment of rebelling against the state, and breaking out from being a brick in the wall; But Va-11 Hall: A just has the sentiment that: even though this world can be hard, cruel and cold; We are all human, and there is compassion in our hearts and there are spaces for us all somewhere in the world. In this visual novel, it's a small little bar in an alley that is off the main street. Even when it feels like the world has turned its back on you, there are people out in the world who are on your side; because we're all living in this world together, and we are all human, trying to live happily. I think Va-11 Hall: A captures that feeling perfectly, not even accounting for the banger soundtrack and clean, appealing visual style. I have played this game through 4 times and loved it each go, and it is definitely one of my top 5 games of all time. One of the best gifts I've ever gotten. Give the game a try.

Whenever I play this game, there's nothing that can make me happier. I want to marry this game and have it hold my hand gently and smile at me as I pass onto the next life on my deathbed, only to meet this game again and forge a new relationship to re-live the joy. If I could trap time in a bottle, the first thing that I'd like to do, is save every day in an eternity and then spend it all with this game, and the friends whom I play it with. Half-Life Deathmatch: Source is the best game of all time. There is simply no question. It is the penultimate FPS experience.