Pros & Cons

I got bored, so I made a thread about the things that are good and/or annoying about certain games I/you played.

Let's start with a game nobody knows:

Shadow Hearts:

Pros:
+ Interesting story
+ Fun and interesting characters
+ Great designs of monsters
+ Fusions
+ Decent soundtrack

Cons:
- Battle animations are long
- Some dungeons are easy to get lost
- The Malice mechanic    
- The Judgement Ring quick-time events are annoying
- In battle mode, the escape option appears when you press L1 or R1 instead of the battle menu
- Berserk Mode

Never played or heard of it before, so I can't critique on it.

Smash King wrote:

Never played or heard of it before, so I can't critique on it.

Me either, but based of the box art it looks like a decent/good game

Johnny64 wrote:

Smash King wrote:

Never played or heard of it before, so I can't critique on it.

Me either, but based of the box art it looks like a decent/good game

That's how they get you, my good friend.

I've also never heard of the game, is this a community page? So anyone can post something and say their personal pros/cons?

You can post your personal Pros & Cons about the games you played, this is the whole point about this thread.

Gonna cheat and put down 2 here.


Pros:
+ Solid gameplay with good controls
+ Great level design
+ New Abilities are exciting and fun to use for the most part (I think Circus was the my favorite out of the new ones)
+ While not too hard, completing it 100% is fairly difficult
+ Fun boss battles
+ Awesome soundtrack

Cons
- The game by itself is a little too easy, but what do you expect from a Kirby game.
- The Hypernova ability is shoved down your throat as it appears way too often in the game, and the puzzles involved with it are really gimmicky
- Kirby Fighters doesn't really live up to the hype. If you were expecting Smash, you essentially got Street Fighter
-Kirby Fighters was also lacking in ability selection. 10 was okay, but it would be interesting if almost all were included (Not counting Crash, Mic, and Hypernova of course)



Pros
+ Fun boss battles for the most part
+ Graphics are nice
+ Combat system translated well from a 3D environment to a 2D one

Cons
- Enemies are generic and uninspired
- Have 3 seperate characters was pointless as they have almost nothing unique about them aside from items and magic.
- Items are pointless
- Level system is unneeded as all it did was unlock combat moves
- Difficulty is way too easy for a Castlevania game, and it doesn't punish you at all as there are no lives and the game respawns you at the beginning of the room
- Quick time events need to die a fiery, painful, and slow death
- Gameplay cut scenes look better than cinematic cut scenes; seems pretty backwards to me
- Final Boss is underwhelming
- BACKTRACKING
- Story could have been better... nah story sucked
- Completing game 100% isn't worth it

Then I shall do my Pros & Cons on one of my favourite games...

Spoiler:

Pros:
-Very solid controls (WiiMote)
-New captains have a lot of character
-A lot of detail
-Beautiful Graphics
-Very impressive bosses
-Amazing Mission Mode
-Pretty fun Bingo Battle
-Nice atmospheric soundtrack
-New enemies have good designs, some old enemies are slightly redesigned nicely.
-Very big areas (Pro because lots of fun exploration)

Cons:
-Short story mode
-Wii Gamepad controls aren't the best (IN MY OPINION)
-Pretty easy game
-Basic storyline
-Very big areas (Con because it takes forever for stuff to return to the ship, since you're timed this can often make you lose Pikmin, especially if you have some working on berries.)

Despite the slightly minor cons, I'd highly recommend Pikmin 3 if you have the money to spare, and got a Wii U. Love it.

Pros:
-It's Zoo Tycoon do you need an explanation
-You can spend hours playing this shit
-Graphics are pre-rendered (Like the DKC games) but they actually look nice
-The animals actually look like the real counterparts (see: Zoo Tycoon 2)
-Almost 200 animals which kicks the living shit out of the sequels
-Lambeosaurus / Herrarasaurus

Cons:
-The cool animals need to be bought in the form of expansion packs
-The only map you are going to play on is the MM Kids map
-Campaign mode is garbage you're only going to play freeform

If you have a 3DS and you want a hard game, I recommend this one.


Pros
+ Cel Shaded graphics look great in game
+ This game is really hard, in a good way
+ Boss battles are challenging and fun to fight
+ Final Boss is the most difficult boss you'll ever face if you don't attack in a specific pattern

Cons
- Story really isn't easy to follow
- The training stages you receive through streetpass have difficulty that is extremely cryptic.
- You can't block. Instead you get this parry attack that is really hard to master unless you know the exact timing of your enemy's attacks.

Pros:
+ Good Art Style for its time
+ Great Designs
+ Awkward yet interesting gameplay
+ Fun to use weapons
+ Interesting concept for story
+ Alice
+ Jabberwocky
+ Cheshire Cat
+ Good boss battles (With one exception)
+ Save options in the PC version is a welcoming addition

Cons:
- Jumping is very tricky
- Sometimes you can get lost
- Falling down pits can occur a lot
- Enemies can gang attack you and suck all of your health (Which happens a lot in the final levels)
- Boojums
- The Final Jabberwocky fight
- The drama is corny
- Some parts of the level design are frustrating

Pros:
+ Gameplay designed by god himself
+ The amount of freedom and choice you have in this game is absolutely unreal. This is a true blue role playing game, Final Fantasy eat your heart out
+ Do I even have to mention the plot or writing
+ Unprecedented cyberpunk atmosphere
+ As close as a video game has ever come to being truly prophetic. Predicted so much regarding technological developments in post-9/11 America it's almost terrifying
+ The soundtrack
+ Goldmine for cheesy voice acting
+ Best game ever basically

Cons:
- Falls into the same audiovisual design traps as most well-regarded PC games of its time, though this is mainly due to limitations of the era
- Certain skills are almost useless for the majority of the game and feel redundant to invest points in
- The temptation to abuse the quicksave mechanic, while useful, can be highly immersion breaking
- First few levels are tedious and could mislead the player towards the nature of the game. Makes replays highly inaccessible, which doesn't bode well for a game with immense replay value

Possibly the only video game better regarded than Ocarina of Time. It's less than $10 on Steam and runs on toasters. Play it.

Spooderman Too: Duh Vidya Gaem:

Pros:
+ Free roaming over world of Long Island is awesome
+ Attack system is done better than the first game
+ Web swinging mechanics are better than the first game
+ There is a whole lot of things to do and see in the over world
+ One of the best super hero games ever released
Cons:
- Enemies are pretty generic and repetitive
- THE BOAT MISSIONS
- Boss Battles are... eh

C_Mill24 wrote:

Spooderman Too:

Pros:
+ Free roaming over world of Long Island is awesome
+ Attack system is done better than the first game
+ Web swinging mechanics are better than the first game
+ There is a whole lot of things to do and see in the over world
+ One of the best super hero games ever released
Cons:
- Enemies are pretty generic and repetitive
- THE BOAT MISSIONS
- Boss Battles are... eh

Cons:
- Balloons, balloons everywhere.

Ikethegreat wrote:

C_Mill24 wrote:

Spooderman Too:

Pros:
+ Free roaming over world of Long Island is awesome
+ Attack system is done better than the first game
+ Web swinging mechanics are better than the first game
+ There is a whole lot of things to do and see in the over world
+ One of the best super hero games ever released
Cons:
- Enemies are pretty generic and repetitive
- THE BOAT MISSIONS
- Boss Battles are... eh

Cons:
- Balloons, balloons everywhere.

That too, but you can always pop them for pure amusement.

Pros
+Engaging story
+Excellent character development and writing
+Epic and beautiful soundtrack
+Really easy for beginners to pick up and play due to variety of difficulty levels
+Some of the best visuals on the 3DS
+Very good voice acting

Cons
-Ending is rather anti-climactic
-Choices within the story don't affect the storyline

ZS wrote:

Pros
+Engaging story
+Excellent character development and writing
+Epic and beautiful soundtrack
+Really easy for beginners to pick up and play due to variety of difficulty levels
+Some of the best visuals on the 3DS
+Very good voice acting

Cons
-Ending is rather anti-climactic
-Choices within the story don't affect the storyline

Two other cons I want to add to this if you don't mind

-Money is not easy to get unless you get "Gold Rush" DLC.
-DLC of past FE characters are silent & generic.

Pros:
+ The metroidvania-esque world is done well with great level design and collectibles to compliment exploring the world.
+ Abilities have multiple move options like in Kirby Super Star
+ The new abilities introduced were fun to use
+ Cell Phone is really convenient to use as it allows you to call for help in solving puzzles or beating a boss, or calling the warpstar to go back to the hub world.
+ The boss battles are a lot of fun to participate in
+ Memorable final boss
+ Worth completing 100%
+ Master ability is really useful for solving puzzles

Cons:
- Enemies some times take longer to kill as they have a vitality meter.
- The game isn't really easy to navigate as the map you're given isn't that reliable and memorizing where to go can be a pain.
- Lots of trial and error can be found when finding new routes, especially when going to an area you haven't investigated in yet
- The Kirby AI is awful
- Sub games are eh
- Not too big on the copy paste enemies and bosses

Quick question: Does it have to be games only?

Smash King wrote:

ZS wrote:

Pros
+Engaging story
+Excellent character development and writing
+Epic and beautiful soundtrack
+Really easy for beginners to pick up and play due to variety of difficulty levels
+Some of the best visuals on the 3DS
+Very good voice acting

Cons
-Ending is rather anti-climactic
-Choices within the story don't affect the storyline

Two other cons I want to add to this if you don't mind

-Money is not easy to get unless you get "Gold Rush" DLC.
-DLC of past FE characters are silent & generic.

I'll add a pro I suppose:
+DLC is fairly challenging and actually worth the money spent

Wait, is Awakening's voice acting good? PoR and RD's were a train wreck.

Also, I guess this is only a con for grumpy old veterans like me, but from what I've seen the DLC of old characters changed them all significantly, and made them all somewhat boring.

C_Mill24 wrote:

Quick question: Does it have to be games only?

Eh, go all out.

I'm putting two of my favorite games here (One being my favorite game of all time)



Pros
+Excellent story
+Great character development
+HUGE world to explore
+Midna is awesome
+Great soundtrack
+Dungeons are really well designed
+Final Boss is epic
+Zant is a great villain
+Horseback riding is perfect
+Most of the boss fights are awesome due to the scale and size of the boss
+The items introduced are really creative

Cons
-Ganondorf felt shoehorned

Spoiler:

-Zelda is rather useless as a character
-Wolf sections could have been better
-Bosses however are a bit too easy (Fyrus)



Pros
+High octane action
+The story gets the job done....
+Amazing soundtrack
+Some of the best boss fights in a game
+Raiden is a great character
+The side characters are cool (Doktor, Boris)
+Is really challenging
+Has alot of impressive segments
+QTE's done right
+DLC is well done

Cons
-Is short
-Character development (especially Sam) is kept to a minimal
-....However, even for a Metal Gear game, the story is too silly
-Stealth sections were meh
-Level design is uninspired

Dry wrote:

Wait, is Awakening's voice acting good? PoR and RD's were a train wreck.

Also, I guess this is only a con for grumpy old veterans like me, but from what I've seen the DLC of old characters changed them all significantly, and made them all somewhat boring.

Except for Marth (who is counted as a Lodestar class like Lucina, not Lord), they all are counted as the normal unit that most closely resembles their original appearence. This goes for skills as well, so they all start with skills otherwise inaccessible to them with Awakening's mechanics (like Micaiah having Shadow Gift or Ike having Aether). Also they have specially made artwork just for them and most of it is pretty badass.

Posting a game I completed a few days ago. Twice.
Pros:
+ Interesting weapon selection. Not the best, but comes close;
+ Different playstyles for each character, to the point the gameplay changes a lot only because of the characters - Mega Man = harder stage/easier boss, Bass = the opposite;
+ Good graphics. We're talking about sprites with Mega Man 8's style (a PSX game) in a SNES/GBA game with almost no loss of quality;
+ Somewhat encourages the player to use said weapon selection creatively (especially with Mega Man);
+ Interesting CDs extra feature - it's basically a bit like Trophy Descriptions in a Mega Man game;
+ Probably the hardest classic Mega Man game (this is both a positive and a negative point, depending on the situation);

Cons:
- Said CDs feature could have more info;
- About half of the Robot Masters try to run like crazy around the boss room (Burner Man, Magic Man, Dynamo Man, Ground Man), relying on contact damage. It's no Mega Man X3, as even all these bosses have some good attacks, but it's easy to notice;
- The somewhat linear stage selection (you defeat X boss, you can fight Y and Z boss, etc) feels like it could be done better;
- I may be wrong, but this is the only game in the entire classic series where weapon energy doesn't fully recharge between stages unless you just defeated a Robot Master;
- Maybe excluding Wily, this game has some of the worst fortress bosses in any classic Mega Man game;
- Some missing features could help a LOT, like Rush Coil/Jet for Mega Man and E/W/M-Tanks instead of Eddie.

Bump because I can

Muramasa: Demon Blade:

Pros:
+ Fantastic Art style
+ Great Gamplay
+ Well done soundtrack
+ Interesting characters
+ Exploring is fun
+ Unique Boss battles
+ Special moves makes battles spicy
Cons:
- Story isn't the greatest/Story isn't focused much

Barkley: Shut Up & Jam Gaiden :

Pros:
+ Fun Gameplay
+ Characters are entertaining
+ Very Hilarious with satire
+ Interesting Locations
+ Decent Story, even if the game is a satire
+ Decent Soundtrack
+ Side quests are Fun
Cons:
- Quick Time Events
- First Phase of the Final Boss is really annoying
- You can accidentally save the game in the first slot, because of how long the pump's speeches are, you may be mashing the button.

Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix:

Pros:
+ Adds more content than the the vanilla game (More bosses, modes, and abilities)
+ Gameplay is fantastic
+ Great Music & Visuals
+ Disney worlds are really fun (with one exception)
+ The Organization XIII are enjoyable villains
+ Some bosses are enjoyable
+ Best final boss in the whole series
Cons:
-The story is not great
-Some bosses are nothing special
-Some enemies are frustrating to fight (Hot Rods, Undead Pirates, Dancers, Sorcerers)
-The beginning can go die in a fire
-Atlantica can go die in boiling water

Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance:

+ Gameplay is still fun
+ Flowmotion is great to use
+ Dream Eaters are an interesting addition
+ Disney worlds are pretty enjoyable
+ Music is pretty good
Cons:
-The Story is not that great
-The bosses were not that great (with a few exceptions)
-Grinding Dream Eaters for the Ability Link is tedious
-Worst final boss in the whole series

[PROS]
+ Extremely vibrant environment and scenery, some of the best texturing I've seen in a game in a long while.
+ Cool character design, especially Knack.
+ Although linear, level design isn't too bad.
+ Good music.
+ Nice voice acting.

[CONS]
- Not just corny, this game has the worst story to a game I think I've ever witnessed. It's super unengaged, filler, and makes me hate every cutscene.
- Speaking of cutscenes, this game abused the hell out of them. Things that would require a simple jump to clear are substituted by a (just as cinematic) 5 second shot. Waste of my time.
- Although you grow in size, you never feel powerful because enemies scale with you and still manage to kill you in a couple hits.
- The story barely has anything to do with Knack. Half of the time, the characters just take a path separate from knack and meet back up with him to shoot the shit. Thanks to this, it makes me, the player, feel less important in the long run. Bogus.
- Besides design, I hate literally every character. Seriously, go back to fucking Dreamworks. The professor is the worst, especially. You wanna know why?

Here's why:

- You only have a single three hit combo and a rolling aerial attack. You have to rely on dodging to get literally anything done.
- Knack is given barely any personality or lines, and when he does, it's just generic heroey shit. No conflict or anything.
- Unfitting dance song at credits. Right. Like I said. Back to Dreamworks.
- Unlockables require combinations of pieces to work with itself, and by the time you get all the pieces to a single unlockable, it'll be close to the end of the game.
- "Powerups" feel like hindrance to Knack's abilities (Ice armor renders him useless after sun melts it, logs make him weak when he catches on fire, stealth knack literally always dies in one hit.)
- No replayability. Fuck, it was barely even playable to start.
- SO GOD DAMNED LONG. I'm not just saying this because of the game's quality, but because the level design doesn't actively renew itself enough for me to stay interested. I personally believe it should have been close to half it's length.

Whew. That feels good.

I'd figure now would be a good time to review this.

Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS:

Pros:
-The core formula is adapted to a portable system very well.
-Still fun as hell to play.
-Revamped Classic Mode allows more freedom and different routes of progression.
-Relatively diverse cast of characters (besides the clones.).
-It's fun to be the crap of Nintendo enemies in Smash Run.
-Customization gives a new way to play battles.
-Mii fighters. Enough said.
-Nice selection of songs. My favorites include N's Castle Medley, Gerudo Valley, SMB3 Medley, Melee Menu Ver. 2, among others.
-Most stages are fun to play on. My favorites are Magicant, Unova, 3D World, Gerudo Valley and Find Mii/Streetpass Quest.
-Actually functional online.
-Now you can take Smash with you where ever you may go (minus the grave).

Cons:
-Stage roster is limited and relies too much on past stages.
-The package as a whole feels rather lacking, even for a portable smash game.
-Smash Run has no non-character customization what-so-ever, unlike City Trial which allowed customizaion for Time, Events, Final Battles and CPUs.
-Smash Run can also screw you over based on which character you've chosen, which is also unlike City Trial where everyone started on equal ground. For example, Ganondorf with lack of significant speed boosts and the Final Event turns out to be Run! and you're against Sonic.
-Lack of Special Smash outside of Smash Run is inexcusable.
-No Download Play.
-The absence of certain missing characters is felt, especially the Ice Climbers.
-3DS wasn't made for a game like smash, and it certainly shows. (Lack of c-stick instantly comes to mind).
-No Ridley

All in all, Smash has made a good yet flawed transition to portable systems, and I honestly wouldn't mind a 2nd portable smash game provided it significantly expands upon what this one offers. Otherwise, it's better off sticking to consoles.

As I only just recently beat this game, I might as well discuss my thoughts on it.


PROS:
- Every recruitable unit has they're own unique personality and quirks to them, making each one memorable and likable
- Support conversations can be very entertaining.
- Game can be a shipping simulator!
-

Spoiler:

- Despite being intimidating at first, the combat system and how each weapon works given the situation is very simplified = and easy to understand.
- The cutscenes are beautiful. There may have not been very many, but they are then only when needed for major plot point additions and plot twists.
- Has a lot of post game material to partake in, including DLC missions and DLC characters.
- You can have your avatar marry any unit of the opposite gender in game. So you can marry your waifu or husbando and have a kid unit.
- The best game to be introduced to in the franchise.
- Mah waifu is in this game!

CONS:
- The character in game models have stubs for feet!
- Pairing up units in game is a near necessity, as units are very vulnerable on their own which can lead to sometimes going into a mission with unequal party members and having one of your units not being paired up can get them killed within 2-3 turns.
- While you have access to many different units who have different abilities, there are those that explicitly perform better at their job than others, causing most to be set aside to never be used again (especially the units you recruit early on).
-

Spoiler:

- The main characters in this game are over powered and outshine the other units in every aspect imaginable, no matter the circumstance. You can literally go through entire missions using just the main characters themselves and essentially win.
- As the game kept progressing, I felt it got easier.
- Balance between the different weapon classes could have been done better.

Since I was told I could go all out in this topic, I might as well give my thoughts about this:


PROS:

+ Animation in the anime is fast and smooth, making action scenes look impressive and adrenaline pumping.

+ Premise is pretty cool. Students attend an academy to become meisters and weapons to hunt evil souls in the name of Death (Shinigami [God of Death]).

+ A lot of memorable and great characters, both main and side characters. Along with big name Funimation voice actors in the English Dub doing the voices, with the likes of Laura Bailey, Todd Haberkorn, Vic Mignogna, Eric Vale, and Travis Willingham to name a few.

+ Opening songs for both arcs ("Resonance" by T.M.Revolution and "Papermoon" by Tomoko Kawase (credited as Tommy heavenly6) are excellent in my opinion.

+ I like how the anime/manga itself doesn't take itself too seriously. They both have their serious moments, but a lot of the dialogue and moments in Soul Eater are comedic.

+ I like how Maka was created as a response to most female leads in Shonen manga at the time. This makes her a strong, independent, and quick thinking character who's always there for her friends. If you don't like that, be happy she wasn't written like a woman in the 90's.

CONS:

- Not a big fan of the art style. It has its moments, but everything looks angular and unnatural, not to mention it gives the characters kind of odd facial expressions.

- A lot of plot points tend to come out of left field; with no information or build up prior to new plot points that come up, it makes the plot become convoluted and doesn't really give enough time for a break from the previous events that happened.

- The voice cast and acting performances tend to be hit and miss. While most of the VAs do a good job at portraying the characters (the only exception I have is Brittany Karbowski's performance as Black Star where I think her voice pitch didn't fit the character well), the performances are okay at best. There are definite times where I think maybe some of the lines should have gotten a retake.

- There is way too much fan service and sexual jokes for my tastes. I understand that fan service is sort of a main stay in anime, and while I'm fine with it happening like every once in a while, but in Soul Eater there's a little too much for my liking. Yeah, I'm weird. Also =, yes we know Maka is flat chested, now will you STOP pointing that out for me? I'm not blind.

- I find Maka's relationship with her parents to be odd. Her parents are divorced and she hates her father's guts because of his affairs with other women during his marriage. Maka stays in Death City with her father to attend Shibusen (DWMA for the English Dub), though not living together, while her mother is out traveling the world. What's odd is that Maka holds her mother in such high acclaim, yet her mother gives practically zero support at all (being out travelling the world and stuff), while Maka's father is doing his best to tie loose ends with their relationship, and she wants none of it. I just find Maka's relationship with her parents to be backwards. I guess it can be implied that Maka's mother wanted her to attend the academy while her father watches over her, but that isn't really discussed at all in both the anime or the manga.

- Despite there being little filler, a lot of the episodes or chapters in the anime and manga respectively don't really get anything accomplished, plot or not.

- With the exceptions of Asura and Medusa, the villains are fairly underwhelming and not too interesting of characters. Asura and Medusa were the only villains with any sort of build up or plot development, while the rest tend to just come out of the blue just like new plot points. In the anime, Asura and Arachne are definitely underplayed in what exactly they do as characters. Both of them mostly just sit around and do... well, nothing.

- The atmosphere itself in the anime is pretty weak. It exists, but with all the comedic moments and distractions that happen that clash with all the build up of the villains of Asura or Medusa, you sometimes have to be reminded that there is a threat out there, and the anime does have to point that out sometimes.

- The anime's ending is a train wreck, not just because of how underwhelming it is, but also because it completely forgets what the main characters were supposed to set out to do; Make Soul into a Deathscythe. I understand that the anime adaptation caught up to where the manga was at the time, but it just completely shoves aside the what the original plot of the story was and throws in this ending with the already convoluted plot points, making the ending itself confusing and underwhelming.

- I hope the manga/anime's hindsight is 20/20.

BLURBS:

~ This was pretty much my official introduction into anime.

~ I ship Maka and Soul :3 I'm a sad soul, I know.

~ Still waiting for a reboot of the anime, sort of the same way as Fullmetal Alchemist did it with Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, but with better execution.

~ I like Soul Eater NOT. You may now hate my ever living guts.

~Have you ever tried to compare the artwork of the manga originally, to how it is now? It's frightening.