Games to Buy Week of October 1st, 2019

Oh dear, Let me check the calendar. Hmm, October. That can’t be right. I only found one game this week… one. You would think this was the dog days of summer. And honestly, it isn’t really that good of a game.

There are a lot of misses this week. For starters, there are two Ghost games. Ghost Recon Breakpoint and Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered.

Ghost Recon Breakpoint is getting the worst reviews I have seen a major Ubisoft game get since that ill-conceived motion-controlled launch title on the Xbox One, Fighter Within. Between the bugs, copy and paste cheapness, and excessive microtransactions it has turned at least one usually levelheaded YouTube reviewer into a frothing madman.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered is what it says on the tin. It is a barebones remaster of a ten-year-old game that no-one was clamoring for. The original Ghostbusters game was best known for its story as the principal cast members from the films were involved in the game’s production. All the main Ghostbusters in the films (Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Bill Murray, and Ernie Hudson) lent their voices and likenesses to the in-game characters. In addition, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis wrote much of the game’s script.

In theory, this sounds like a perfect remaster candidate, and it would be if the original game wasn’t backward compatible on the Xbox One. The game itself has little replayability value and suffers from difficulty spikes and linearity. There is a reason Ghostbusters: The Video Game is better known for its story and voice acting rather than its gameplay. There is no reason to just not play the original outside of a lick of paint.

Speaking of an ill-conceived remastered game YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World a 1996 visual novel is getting a new lick of paint and a release on consoles and PC. Now an over twenty-year-old visual novel might sound like a niche project but this one has a decent fanbase. In fact, there is a 2011 fan translation that inserted English voice acting (From an old Sega Saturn port) and the original soundtrack in what they consider one of the better fan mods of this type.

So what is wrong with a remaster? I mean it’s not like they left in the obscure gem themed puzzles and convoluted plot but took out all the sex scenes… Oh for the love of God. This is the equivalent of releasing a 4k collector’s edition of Basic Instinct and using the commercial television edit. I mean you have a limited market for such things and hacking any whiff of adult content out of the game I am afraid you have eliminated that market down to about zero.

Seriously, what is the issue with this recent tide of game censorship with obscure niche products? Are we really that gung ho to protect society from animated titties?

Anyway, like I said, I found one game that barely qualified to go on my to buy some time in the possible future list. Not high on the list mind you but beggars can’t be choosers.

Legrand Legacy: Tale Of The Fatebounds

Legrand Legacy is a throwback to the old turn-based JPRG’s of the PS1 era. I am guessing the nostalgia sweet spot is finally moving on from the sprite-based JPRG (Thank God since we only have about five hundred of those released in the last ten years) and onto the pre-rendered backgrounds with 3-d models style JPRG.

The reviews are positive overall, but there is a worrying lack of praise (or even mention) of the story and the game seems awfully grindy. Visually, it looks like a PS1 JPRG with pre-rendered backgrounds. Still, it’s our only game of the week.