Bear with me guys as Ive just come off a brief ban so I was able to soak in as much as I can from the game while observing everyone elses reactions on here.
This is easily in my top five of the year so far. Ive always been a huge Suda fan (K7 being in my top ten of all time) and this game delivers for me on so many levels. Sure the story is messy, but I find the episodes to be more like brief windows into the world, and the characters within the Bryan Firm.
You don’t really get to know Mondo, nor do you really need to. Sometimes it’s more fun to just sit back, observe and soak in. These are the type of experiences Suda is known for. If a Suda51 game has a sharp, cohesive narrative then it wouldn’t really be a Suda51 game.The polarization of his titles shouldn’t really be a surprise to anyone anymore. It should simply come down to “If youre a fan of Grasshopper games, then you will enjoy it.” Period.
The game is like a culmination of various aspects and ideas from each console title Suda has been a part of this generation. Pieces of NMH 1 & 2, LC and Shadows are rampant throughout. The art style alone is obviously comparable to an amped up Killer7.
Yamaokas soundtrack, or at least his directorial abilities, is distractingly excellent (and for fucks sake it has barely been mentioned by anyone), changing its style and genre seemingly in what feels like every shot (even thought its basically every scene). I found myself trying to pay more attention to the music being played than the character dialogue. That doesn’t happen too often with me. You never know what to expect musically and its never disappointing (jumping from electronica to dark hip hop beats to smooth jazz and then to hard rock) He easily outdid himself and I find it personally to be his best work and one of my favorite OSTs this year, possibly this gen
Everyone made such a fuss about the “misogynistic” qualities of gigolo mode and yet, it’s actually in fact a rather unique, humorous and original mini game. It reminded me of some bizarre combination of Leisure Suit Larry and Catherine and it actually requires some skill if you want to obtain the weapon upgrades. X Ray glasses actually help a ton because you’re able to see what gift the woman prefers in order to make the mini game progress more quickly and smoothly. Otherwise you’re basically playing a guessing game with what item to gift each particular female. Trial and error but its cool and worth it in the long run.
Screen tearing exists but I only really noticed it in the first mission. It was definitely apparent but wasn’t detrimental. It really only occurs in tight spaces and is basically non existent everywhere else (PS3 version)
Episode 51 can easily be completed after Episode 3, or whenever it becomes immediately available. It’s a perfect early and easy way to grind out XP crystals and cash.
*A color manual! Holy shit!*
*Skippable cutscenes!* You can even skip all the company logo bullshit when it initially boots up!
Past Suda Game Connections & Similarities:
-Mika makes a comment in a very early cutscene that is an exact line Juliet says in LC. Same tone and all.
-Enemy designs are very similar in looks to the enemies in SOTD. Some enemy attacks are actually directly identical. (Spikey roll charge guy)
-Diamonds = Health -> Diamonds are upgrade currency and XP in SOTD. The graphic model is exactly the same, just a different color with some shading and depth differences.
-Dodge burst is the same as the Dark Step method in NMH. Same controls to pull it off. Same flurry of attacks afterwards, just 10x faster. Just as fun and as satisfying as youd expect.
-Shots of the moon throughout. Colored moons were seen thoughout the loading times of Killer7
-BLOOD makes another appearance as a tool for special moves (like in K7). Also all the letters for the word “blood” in-game are in caps just like they were in K7
-After successfully gifting a lady in Gigolo Mode, you hear Garcia Hotspurs “Magnifico!”
-Sword animations are very similar to Travis’ in NMH. The switch to gun animation looks, feels and sounds the same from SOTD. Aiming feels fluid and mirrors the feel of aiming the Johnson or Chainsaw Blaster.
-Mission selection screen is akin to NMH2, with mini games and sidequests, even with “Bug Hunt” which was an actual mini game in NMH2
-Vivienne = Sylvia(?) (NMH)
-Executions are like those single wiimote/move swipes to finish baddies in NMH, except this time a different execution is mapped to the ABXY buttons. Also like in NMH, this only occurs after stringing together a lengthy combo.
-When you first obtain the Musselback, the candle lights you have to shoot in order to leave the room are reminiscent of the goat lights in SOTD only this time theyre deer heads.
More to come. I just finished on Hard with everything maxed out except the Musselback weapons and my BLOOD. Still picking up pieces of my brain and putting things together in regards to the story.Playing on Very Hard for now and finishing up all my Scarlett searches and challenges. Easily in my top five this year. Easily.
Oh and as awesome as the overall package as the LE is, the soundtrack is pretty disappointing to me. It contains close to zero of the tracks that play during cutscenes, nor does it contain the best episode music of the game (Episode 8 & 10). At least it contains this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRhcHifOkfc
