Resident Evil 4 (2023)

Managed to finish this up last night. This was pretty brutal so I don't really feel bad for using many of the skips. I think the only one that's a bit too free is the door glitch in Island with Ashley. Also, apparently you can kill Ramon with two golden eggs it's quite amusing. Ch.6-10 are probably the most difficult parts of the game(ch10 is the bug room, double garrados, into verdugo and it's a messed up chapter). You really need to manage your resources and optimize areas you just run through enemies in these chapters, as you really need all you can going into mines, clock tower, Krauser, and ch.15's gauntlet. I used my 15th save for the Krauser fight, so I was sweating bullets during the escape sequence at the end, hoping I wouldn't suddenly make a mistake and die. While it was frustrating, it was still alot of fun. I'm seriously reconsidering changing my score to a 5, as knowing what to expect makes each run more fun and this is a game that very much wants you to do multiple playthroughs. And honestly, I just might based on how Separate Ways and Mercenaries goes. Gonna go for the rest of the achievements on Assisted and just blast through with the bonus stuff I've unlocked.

this game is actually giving me an identity crisis

i thought i was an indie gamer who doesn't play AAA games and doesn't like real-time action combat games, just turn-based/strategy/narrative games and platformers.

but i'm not gonna lie, i am having more fun with this game with, like, any of the dozen indie metroidvanias i've played so far this year. it's just phenomenal. i don't have to motivate myself to play - i have to force myself to stop.

i'd never be playing any modern RE games if i didn't have nostalgia from playing the originals as a kid and tried them on a whim back in 2020. i was surprised i could actually handle the real-time shooting if i pushed myself. i remember the last time i'd tried to play RE4 before that, i died to the first room a dozen times and gave up and knew action games weren't for me.

i'm still really trash at it, i think my playtime is about 3x everyone else's because i die so much, but god it's just so good. it's not the combat per se, it's the immersion of it, it feels so good to run around leaping over fences and shooting enemies. the sound effects, physics, everything, it's soooo satisfying, and the environments are just beautiful.

Around 1/3rd to halfway through RE4 remake.

It's just majestic, you guys.

Capcom's RE engine and their teams' mastery of it are impressive. I'm currently in a fancy castle section and it shares a lot of imagery with RE8. But it looks gorgeous. I'm wondering to myself, did RE8 look this good too, and did I just not appreciate it? I'll have to find out by doing another playthrough when I finish this treat of a game.

The only negatives I can say about this game are subjective. I do not like Ada's voice actress. That's where my complaints stop so far. EDIT: Sucks that so-called fans are harassing her. I should clarify - I don't like that they changed her actress. If Ada's voice actress was the same across both games, I wouldn't have been bothered one bit.

The combat was tricky for me at first. Once I embraced the parry mechanic, it opened up for me and now the combat is a total blast. Switching between gadgets and weapons while parrying and roundhouse-kicking enemies makes you feel like the badass Leon is.

The voice actor for the Merchant deserves all the praise in the world. His lines are delivered with infectious enthusiasm. The entire voice cast besides Ada is equally as strong, but there's something about the Merchant - I just think whoever did those lines deserves a raise.

I enjoy the boss and enemy designs far more in RE4 than the other games and the remake variants are wholly improved. They're the stuff of actual nightmares.

Ugh, my love affair with Resident Evil just deepens. I really can't get enough of these games. I'm grateful for this game because of the sheer replayability it carries with it. I know it's going to be a while before we hear about another RE game.

Capcom is easily up there with my favorite developers right now. I'm keeping an active eye on just about everything they produce.

First playthrough thoughts:

My initial thoughts are very similar to when I first played Metroid Dread where I enjoyed myself, but I'm gonna need to do another playthrough for my thoughts to settle in. Hope it's still the same situation where I adored Metroid Dread on my 2nd playthrough. It's a very faithful remake to RE4 in terms of how it varies its level design, enemy encounters, and the core combat while adding a bit more mechanics that are welcome such as molotovs. It is a vast improvement over Resident Evil Village. All of this is incredible stuff which is what I loved about RE4. I really like how they wrote Ashley and Luis in this remake. Leon is fine. He has some good one liners, but the delivery just isn't there and few were as good as those in the original. His delivery just lacks ham, IMO. While it makes more sense for Salazar to be talking through this speaker rather then jacking the line between Leon and Hunnigan, I miss the back and forth between him and Leon that happened throughout the original. Will definitely replay it to solidify them, but for now, I love OG RE4 more.