My god Resetera you have failed me. I gave this a go way back when but I dismissed it because it wasn't like the Sands of Time trilogy I loved, but after the rumours and subsequent announcement of the Sands of Time Remake I saw a lot of people praising this game and figured with 12 years of space between my last play of those games, maybe I could give this a proper look with fresh eyes.
...What on earth are you guys talking about? For serious? The first red flag was when I started the game and was going through all the options (as is my preferred way to start any game) and between each and every menu transition was this ridiculous 3 second ball of light travelling animation between them. An immediate waste of time and something that grated, but I chalked it up to the mid 00's tendency to use form over function to make their AAA games seem better than they were.
But after about 6 hours of playing this game... if I had to describe it, it would be "The Worst 3D Platformer I've Ever Played". The Light Seeds are an uninteresting and unsatisfying collectible and from the several hours I played they are the only tangible goal you have. The platforming is beyond dull, and an absolute nightmare to control. It feels so bad, consistently.
There is this constant tension between where the camera is facing and where your character is facing and what controls do what. Climbing poles and ledges is a nightmare in this sense, especially when you have to rotate around and are facing differently from the camera.
About 50% of the time I would try and do a wall climb, but due to a slight angle it would be a wall run and I would die.
Actually no, you can't die. There is absolutely zero failure state in this game as far as I can tell. You can fall into chasms endlessly and Elika will save you. You can get beat around by enemies by Elika will save you. Which would be more annoying if the game wasn't so clunky that this happened often enough that I was actually thankful I didn't have to replay any of the godawful level design I'd already done. The game is built almost like a 3D platformer where you have these abilities to use to traverse the environment and collect the whatevers, but also extreme linearity. I see a light seed floating a few feet in front of me that I can't reach with a jump. However, trying to double jump to reach it results in Elika deciding I need saving and I would have to go all the way around to jump at it from the Game Approved Angle™
Combat is so clunky and overly cinematic while also conveying absolutely no real weight or impact to anything that happens. And to top it all off these characters are so so flat. Never mind that to get the conversations you have to completely break all flow of gameplay and stand still and press a dedicated button (honestly, why did they not make this an optional thing for while you're platforming? It would make the monotony at least halfway palatable) but the dialogue, writing and voice performances are at best... passable, but most of the time they're just bland and uninteresting and completely lacking in character. The prince has the illusion of character, but really he's just a bit of a pompous wannabe cool guy. He thinks he's clever but he super isn't.
ugh. I couldn't do it man, I had to put the game down. I will need someone to explain why this game is even taken seriously because to me this is truly one of the least interesting games i've ever played on just about every level.
...What on earth are you guys talking about? For serious? The first red flag was when I started the game and was going through all the options (as is my preferred way to start any game) and between each and every menu transition was this ridiculous 3 second ball of light travelling animation between them. An immediate waste of time and something that grated, but I chalked it up to the mid 00's tendency to use form over function to make their AAA games seem better than they were.
But after about 6 hours of playing this game... if I had to describe it, it would be "The Worst 3D Platformer I've Ever Played". The Light Seeds are an uninteresting and unsatisfying collectible and from the several hours I played they are the only tangible goal you have. The platforming is beyond dull, and an absolute nightmare to control. It feels so bad, consistently.
There is this constant tension between where the camera is facing and where your character is facing and what controls do what. Climbing poles and ledges is a nightmare in this sense, especially when you have to rotate around and are facing differently from the camera.
About 50% of the time I would try and do a wall climb, but due to a slight angle it would be a wall run and I would die.
Actually no, you can't die. There is absolutely zero failure state in this game as far as I can tell. You can fall into chasms endlessly and Elika will save you. You can get beat around by enemies by Elika will save you. Which would be more annoying if the game wasn't so clunky that this happened often enough that I was actually thankful I didn't have to replay any of the godawful level design I'd already done. The game is built almost like a 3D platformer where you have these abilities to use to traverse the environment and collect the whatevers, but also extreme linearity. I see a light seed floating a few feet in front of me that I can't reach with a jump. However, trying to double jump to reach it results in Elika deciding I need saving and I would have to go all the way around to jump at it from the Game Approved Angle™
Combat is so clunky and overly cinematic while also conveying absolutely no real weight or impact to anything that happens. And to top it all off these characters are so so flat. Never mind that to get the conversations you have to completely break all flow of gameplay and stand still and press a dedicated button (honestly, why did they not make this an optional thing for while you're platforming? It would make the monotony at least halfway palatable) but the dialogue, writing and voice performances are at best... passable, but most of the time they're just bland and uninteresting and completely lacking in character. The prince has the illusion of character, but really he's just a bit of a pompous wannabe cool guy. He thinks he's clever but he super isn't.
ugh. I couldn't do it man, I had to put the game down. I will need someone to explain why this game is even taken seriously because to me this is truly one of the least interesting games i've ever played on just about every level.
