Tron: Identity

• Genre: Adventure/Visual Novel
• Spoiler Free Review: Not exactly. There isn't much to write about without mentioning the progression of the story.
• Time Played: 3-4 Hours.
• Too Short/Long: Feels a little short. I thought the end would have been more like the first chapter. But it's just all there is to it.
• Soundtrack: Pretty good, but standard Tron sounding stuff.
• Why I played: I started to play Tron: Catalyst and met a character from Identity, so figured I should get that out of the way first.
• Did I cry: No.
• Jank: Nothing to really jank up in this game.
• Difficulty: It's so easy the actual game play portions are entirely optional. You can skip or have the game auto play them, or undo any of your moves. The main attraction is the story and the various paths you can take through it.
• Recommend to others: Not unless you're the most diehard Tron fan. Which I am. It's not bad, but the only thing you're going to really get out of this game is "more Tron".

Tron: Identity is kind of your standard detective solving a mystery adventure/visual novel. It's barely "adventure" except you can interact with some environments, choose where to go, and do some puzzles, and things will change in the game depending on your interactions, but it could have just been 100% a visual novel. It's interesting that some of your choices make for dramatically different perspective to a situation, but ultimately they don't change much in the overall outcome. Most of the story beats are still dependent on the fact there are multiple misunderstandings and unknown information, so while your actions have consequences, ultimately they are of no consequence. It also kind of skips the fact you should be able to solve the case 1/3rd of the way through with the resources provided to the detective, and things continue to just occur due to happenstance.

In my opinion, that's the absolute worst way to tell a detective story. Let me investigate, learn things relevant to the case, and solve it. Offering a revelation at the end that the main character and I both should have known 1/3rd the way through the game and most things just occurring because they happened to occur is just too convenient. It's not really a detective story, I just happened to be a detective and I was there. I just don't like it all being a coincidence. So if you consider the issues with the story and the story is 90% of the game, it's arguably a bad game. But it's Tron, so I'm not mad that I played it. The little puzzle gameplay was neat and felt like I was actually doing stuff, but I think it's also set up in a way nearly impossible to lose. I should have just skipped them to pay attention to the story.

Blade Chimera

• Genre: Action Platforming (Metroidvania)
• Spoiler Free Review: Yes.
• Time Played: 12 Hours?
• Too Short/Long: About right.
• Soundtrack: Pretty standard fair, nothing that really sticks out.
• Why I played: I've played all the other games made by Team Ladybug, which are mostly the same genre.
• Did I cry: No.
• Jank: Not very janky. The only jank is maybe the slight awkwardness of the controls. It's something you get used to, but I definitely had to rebind them to even achieve that.
• Difficulty: It's mostly pretty easy. I don't recall there being a difficulty setting, but your level ups and equipment mostly outpace enemies.
• Recommend to others: Not really, not to most. While I enjoyed it, it's not really the best of it's genre. It's aesthetically pleasing and has a unique mechanic but overall I'd recommend many before it. If you've exhausted almost all other games in the genre though, it's certainly not bad.

Team Ladybug makes some pretty visually appealing games. This is their third action platforming metroidavania of the the four games they've made. The visual appeal is good at drawing you in, or me at least, but you need to have substance beyond that to make something really special and I think that's what each of their games really lacks.

The other two were both licensed so I didn't expect them to be the best things ever. They were both decent, but I think I felt like they were missing something. Especially in the level-design category. This is where Blade Chimera doesn't do better, and arguably even worse. Visually? More appeal - there is more stuff going on in the background. Functionally? Less creative, less interactivity. There are a wealth of corridors where it's just a hallway and you're meant to just fight your way through a dozen enemies. Everything is still very awkwardly angled and random to a point the design just feels like they're using a "metroidvania generator", or a "2d platformer game maker", so they can just place tiles down for each room. Very few rooms offered gimmicks or unique set pieces. They did introduce a mechanic in the level design that interacted with the main mechanics of the game, but only used it only a handful of times. It's a shame because it could have resulted in some very cool puzzle rooms, using that combination of mechanics. So the overall level design kinda stinks.