Let me start off by that like Okami this game is criminally underrated and despite it's minor flaws and should have been put on a pedestal.The story,for those who don't know, is about a boy named Kutaro who was kidnapped by a monster named the Moon Bear King,turned into a puppet and gets his head bitten off.He then has to find new heads along the way including four main head that give him new powers along the way while fighting his generals to get the Moonstone pieces to put the Queen of the moon back on her throne,save the moon citizens and get your soul back.
First of all the environments.They are extremely varied going from a sword fighting on a pirate ship to an undersea kingdom populated by sea creatures and mermaids to an abandoned pirate's cove where you fight a giant robot crab in a single level.I don't want to spoil anything else but it gets pretty wild.They are full of life with about a dozen things in each level going on in the background and foreground that you can interact with that gets you funny scenes,bonus levels and new heads.
The story and narration are top notch.Some impatient people will bring the score down saying the cut scenes are too long but they are actually very interesting to listen to.It is told in a very storybook like manner on a stage that constantly shifts to adapt to each new scene with the fourth wall being broken constantly as the cast of the game argue,insult and berate the narrator who responses in kind with weird stories and comments.The characters themselves especially Pikarina the 'Sun Princess' pixie who follows you around and talks and complains constantly about everything around her including things going on in the scenery,about herself and the characters,the narrator and even gives hints by pointing out oddities or observing things with funny comments that you can interact with.People who take the time to explore and wait are rewarded by many funny comments and scenes that you would miss if you didn't stop to listen.If the cut scenes really bother you however you can skip any scenes you want.
The gameplay centers around four things. Finding new heads,using your partners Pikarina and Ying Yang as 'cursors' to interact with everything around you,cutting and slicing with Calibrus your magical scissors and finding moons sparkles and Moonstone pieces. Only the four main heads can be used directly in battle or platforming. The other heads activate bonus stages, change the outcome of a boss battle,summon things that change a situation,give you moon sparkles or bring out random wheels that can spin and give you either something good or bad.The best part is finding the place where each head can be used and seeing the results.One of my latest finds is activating a horse race where you have to guess which horse will reach the finish line.Your partners are an important part of the game as they can interact with things which also cause effects,give you new heads and moon sparkles or even clear a path for you.Calibrus the magical scissors is used to cut through anything that gets in your way like enemies or obstacles or a way of transporting yourself upwards, over chasms and swamps or across pathways or finishing off bosses.It can cut through a variety of things even smoke,leaves,balloons,spiderwe bs,curtains,sails,vines etc to get on your way.
Replay value is good too.It will bother some impatient people to go back and explore the stages they defeated but new powers or head can be used in past stages.Not every head is found in the stages it is needed so you can reach Stage Three Level two for example and find a head you needed back in Stage Two Level One which means you have to go back and use it to see what it does many times giving you new heads,bonus stages,cool or strange occurrences,level changing events or moon sparkles.However you can only have three heads at a time(excluding the four main heads of the Guardians).
If the one you want or need gets knocked off and disappears or gets replaced by another head on your way to the place it is needed then your only hope is to get it back is randomly from one of the cauldrons you see floating above you head at certain points or to go back to the place you found the head and get another one.It adds a level of challenge to try to be careful and keep the heads you need for the level.It is worse the first play-through as you don't have a clue what head to replace or what head you will need for a level.I have had many fits of anger after replacing a head that I found out I would need a few scenes down or for the boss battle or bonus stage or for a new head.Even if you find all the secrets and heads you still have to free all the souls of the other captured children trapped in monsters called grubs and unlock all the story books about individual characters in the game.The grubs are not always in plain sight and many times have to be revealed to be cut or destroyed by your powers.
Okay minor gripes.They could have tweaked Kutaro's jumping and platforming a little.It works most of the time but every know and again it could have used a bit more precision especially when you are leaping over spikes and bottomless pits. I kind of wish that each head gave you abilities like the four main heads but there are so many heads I guess that would have made the game way too easy.Speaking of easy this game is not crushingly hard.It is challenging, especially the above mentioned task of keeping your head,but never overwhelmingly hard.Even the boss battles could have used a bit more challenge.This is made worse as the game suffers from 'Mario 1 Up syndrome' where you get more lives then the amount of times you die.You can get 99 lives easily as you get an extra life after every 100 moon sparkles which are not as rare as they should have been.Maybe less lives or a stiffer penalty for being killed was needed.Going back to past levels continuously can eventually get kind of tedious and not knowing what head you will need forcing you go get the head you need when you find out also can get tiresome.
So overall, awesome game, a lot of fun and laughs with a few minor hiccups but not enough to ruin this game in the least.If you don't love this game after playing it through then you should check to see if you are still alive.Trust me after racing a horse against a train,bouncing on a giant steak,watching a robot squid fight a angler fish and wearing a train for a head you will love it too.
Could you get rich by investing in PS3 games? Almost definitely not. Can you make a few bucks by flipping PS3 games over the years? Yeah, sure! It wouldn’t even be that difficult. But let’s face it: Once these games are in your collection, you’re probably keeping them forever.
After a game's multiple generations old, and can't be had new at a reasonable price, that's when I see nothing wrong with emulation.
What's the point of paying someone scalper prices when the dev/publisher isn't even benefiting from it?
I paid $30 for SH Downpour on PS3 now it's around $70-$85 Canadian Lolipop Chainsaw I paid $15 and it has really gone up in price. I wonder if Transformers War and Fall of Cybertron will go up in price two of the best Transformers games every made.
In 5 years time all those games will be worth at least $150 to $200 that you listed
Ever since Sony announced that they would shut down PS3 store these prices have skyrocketed and even though Sony backtracked now most gamers realize that it's a matter of time before the PlayStation 3 store is shut down. If you want these games get them while you can even if digital because once that story shut down the physical prices will just go crazy high we saw that already
And many of these games did not sell like crazy amounts so they are limited number of copies available for sale at any given time
Folklore is a game I've always really wanted to play, but I got a PS3 late in the generation, and it was already really expensive to find, being it didn't exactly sell well, therefore was already kind of a collector's item.
Kept hoping I'd find a cheap copy randomly at stores and flea markets, but never happened.
It was available at GameStop for a while for under $20. Don't know har happened but GameStop started to sell their used games based on ebay prices it seems
You can still find it for around $60-70 and which in my opinion is a good price for a game that will be worth double if not triple that in next 5 years
Have you considered modding your PS3? Neither Sony or the dev would be getting money from that Folklore purchase. Kind of a victimless crime at that point.
@neutral
Honestly, I just want to actually give the experience a try. I'm not someone who would buy it at a premium just to potentially rip someone off down the road.
I mean, there are collectors out there and if paying a couple hundred dollars is worth it to them then more power to them, but I'm not one to be on either end of that exchange.
I know it's taboo, but I might dig in and see the state of PS3 emulation on PC. I have a good PC, so it might be able to power through the often times poor performance, being PS3 is known to be hard to emulate.
I've never emulated anything past the PS2/Dreamcast but, as I said in my first post, I don't see anything wrong with emulation if the game you want to play can only be had used, with no money going to the creators.
It's been a roller coaster on the PS3 front. Prices went absolutely insane a few weeks ago, but with the PS3/Vita stores staying open for now, prices have plummeted back to earth. This article breaks it down, complete with buying suggestions and current prices.
Yes you don't have to pay that but if you want one you will definitely pay over $75+
headline says PS3 games prices crashing down but those prices are still way above MSRP and in the $70-80 range. These prices in my opinion will never come down to where they were before sony announced they were shutting down PSN for ps3/vita. Because before that announcement you could have bought most of these games for under $40 (even less) and now they are $70 plus
Here's my suggestion a lot of these games did not sell well for example splatterhouse, 3d dot hero, lollipop chainsaw and puppeteer just to name few so it's all supply and demand. Because these didn't set sales records there Are less copies in the 2nd hand market. I do believe this in only 5 years time ps3 game prices will be to a point where most won't or can't buy them besides collectors
If you're looking to grab yourself a copy now is the best time or wait a few weeks as soon as prices come down a bit more buy them don't wait
So glad i have a feel for games that will jump in price, i really only grab games i want to play, but i can tell when it's a games that will not only be hard to find, but expensive in the future. Grabbed puppeteer for $7 like a year ago from gamestop. And the Metal Gear Legacy collection for $12 and got 3d dot game heroes free(b3g1) was quite the grab and all 3 were on my list.
I think you're right and done of the lesser known games will be harder and more expensive to find in the flipside you could probably continue to buy GTA IV and cod for a few dollars for the next 10 years.
Profchaos
If you look at the call of duty games on PlayStation 3 they hold their value quite well some of them are actually quite expensive if you want the original case with the game manual and a good disc
isarai
Me too I bought a lot of PlayStation 3 games over time I have over 200 of them I can't imagine if I want to buy all of them and now it would cost double if not triple what I paid overtime
Holy crap I have a copy of puppeteer still sealed 🤯. Paid very little during clearance because nobody cared. Had no idea it would increase that much... lol
Wow, I feel lucky. I grabbed a sealed copy on eBay back in August of last year for $25. Excellent game!
Still own Shadows of the damned, another great game and Lollipop chainsaw. I can’t part with a lot of my older games.
Since the invention of people treasuring sealed items. Or even a instruction booklet that were just left laying on the counter at every Funcoland for years as free to take. I sold an empty partially wrapped Nintendo console box for $300 that some guy gave me in store 20 years ago.
You wrote Funcoland and I just went back 20 years hahaha. Those price sheets were the best. I knew everything I wanted before I got in the store and how much it would cost
Replies(1)Recently I sold Lightning Returns for $25, Tales of Symphonia for $50, Bleach for $40, Night Trap for $90 and The Orange Box for $45. I'm making a business of finding PS3 games for cheap and selling them for slightly less than what other people are selling them for on ebay. I ordered both the standard version of Doom Collection for Switch and collector's edition for Doom Collection for PS4 for the purpose of resale in the future.
Honestly as more things become digital and these digital store fronts on consoles won't stay up forever I think game prices will only go up. Especially now that Sony made an announcement only to backtrack it's not if now it's when they close it(I can't imagine pss storefront staying up for another 5 years)
A lot of niche ps3 games that sold under 1 million are becoming very expensive. We only saw the trailer I believe once psn shuts down on ps3 we will see what real high prices will look like(I hope I am wrong about psn shutting down on ps3 but I don't think Sony can justify keeping it live if there is very little traffic)
The Ghetto Gamer has been predicting and tracking PS3 prices over the past year. The last few months have seen a massive spike in the pricing of PS3 games, and it may be too late to pick up some of the more rare and hard-to-find ones at a reasonable price. Some of these are nuts.
Replies(5)Again, seen this coming from the start, glad I already bought everything I wanted over the years 👌
This happens to every retro console, there's a tipping point, this is ps3's tipping point
Stil remember selling ps3 titles to buy a PS4. but i keept the ones i liked more. Did the same with the titles of the PS4 to get a PS5.
And it's $7 on PSN (with PS+) during the 14 in 2014 sale. No excuse, people. This game is great.
great game and great review. app'd
What you're buying is boss battles and pantomime-style presentation.
It's interesting but the difficulty spikes, whilst not of Viewtiful Joe levels, go way up on the frequent bosses. Which doesn't make it the relaxing experience that I probably would have preferred it to have been.
I'd suggest making sure you've played more consistent experiences like Limbo, Rain, The Unfinished Swan before you consider tackling the gameplay quirks of Puppeteer which veers between super easy and super hard in the space of a few minutes.
Great Game. Very unrated and it is only $7 for the psn sale.
Fantastic game.
Bleeds 100% unadulterated charm.
When it's back on my rotation I'm going back in to see if I can find all those damn heads I missed!