SWERY FILES #1 - The History of Deadly Premonition & Its God Awful Ports czcams.com/video/5iGDAP8wX7A/video.html SWERY FILES #2 - Deadly Premonition 2: Feature Analysis and Comparison to the Original: czcams.com/video/EJTnIRqdOjI/video.html SWERY FILES #3 - The Devastating Drama of D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die czcams.com/video/yU8DC5hY1ig/video.html SWERY FILES #4 - The Good Life Was Not What I Paid For czcams.com/video/MbQN8wKe8oI/video.html
They could have made a really interesting game if they had focused more on the photography aspect, instead of overblowing it with busywork. It's like they wanted to make a game about photography but nobody on the team had any experience with it. It's a shame, there's a lot of lovely character designs going to waste here.
@@wildonionchase3934 DP2 was especially bad imo, performance aside, it was really missing a lot of the charm and character of the original. It's almost ironic how disingenuous that game felt compared to DP1 despite DP1 just ripping off Twin Peaks
One day we all find ourselves playing Downpour and wondering what happened. It's almost like a 21st century rite of passage to realize the thing you like has slowly turned into something you tolerate, then finally into something you ignore. Bands, gaming IP, film franchises. We're all bound to have a Silent Hill franchise moment in our time-wasting careers.
Not sure why he has gotten so much worse lately but it's a fact, DP2 felt like it completely misunderstood what made 1 good and charming and just went "lol bad performance and stiff writing" as if that's what made 1 charming and now this game just takes exclusively the bad and tedious aspects of games like it while abandoning all the potential good making the case that a game like it HAS to be painful and tedious. Suda/Grasshopper games even at their worst still have identity, charm and some fun factor but Swery seems to be losing it.
I think Access Games was just a better studio for him. As someone else commented, Swery is an ideas guy, he needs a good dev team to design a product around his ideas and having his own studio is proving that. The guy just can't design a good game on his own. And sadly it's hard to feel bad for him. He's the sole reason D4 flopped and it seems he's burned his bridge with Access Games. He just seems to have a big head about himself. Good ideas can be a special skill in the media and entertainment industry but well done execution is always more important.
Glad I'm not the only one super disappointed with the lack of jobs and MURDER MYSTERY ;_; I had such high hopes based on the KS description I was so keen to see how my playthrough would effect who the murderer was and it didn't happen. (BTW the final boss fight will differ depending on if you were team cat, dog, or neutral. I think the team dog was the easiest since it just involved taking some photos)
Glad to see I wasn't "missing" something with this when I just couldn't stomach it anymore after finishing route A. Legit feels like one of the most detestable games out there, as if it was made through hate instead of care or passion.
Personally I'm kind of over Swery. It's been ten years since Deadly Premonition was made and he's been riding that success for too long now. D4 was very good but even that was kind of a walking simulator with a very good story holding it up. Since then he can't really seem to write a good story or design good gameplay. It's a shame because Deadly Premonition and D4 are two of my favorite games of all time, but It seems like his cult Fandom has gotten to his head and he really thinks he should be his own boss, which he really shouldn't. While Owl has proven to be a bad move for him and he really needs to come back to earth and work with people that can actually design a game. Sadly I don't think someone as stubborn as he is will ever reach this conclusion, at least not any time soon. It's looking more and more like his fumbling of D4s release will be looked at as a career ending mistake rather than a fluke.
I'm pretty sure Umurangi generation dev was one person and it has so many photography options like a dozen lenses and some options to change the tone and hue of the photos. if you haven't played it yet you should try it out!
You know, I have heard great things about Umurangi Generation. A guy I know even worked on the games OST. I just have not had the time to check it out with the deluge of work on my plate. I'll keep it in mind.
@@HikikomoriMedia ik its been a year, but UG is actually super boring, and more akin to a walking simulator. It's a far cry from pokemon snap in neo tokyo setting. it's not bad, and as DeadsoulDX stated, it goes a bit nuts with the camera options. but it's like _99% opitonal_
I had a weird gut feeling playing the first 2 hours of the game (via Game Pass) that there would be a lot of grind and fetch quests throughout. Sad to hear it doesn't veer away from that. It's a shame so much was cut though. Thanks for this fantastically detailed video. It answered literally all of my questions regarding gameplay mechanics and narrative. You saved me some frustration and a lot of time. Thank you, and Happy Holidays!
@@Rihcterwilker Well, I didn't watch the trailer before playing. Just checked it out, trailer says "a certain client has asked Naomi to investigate a secret and she's hoping this job will help her escape a colossal mountain of debt." ...I don't see where it says "grind."
@@FICTiVETRUiSM i guess a mystery game is not the game for you if you expected the trailer to say with all the words "you have to grind" to understand that there was grind in it.
@@Rihcterwilker You said: "The trailer mentioned the debt to be paid as being a big part of gameplay." So I only looked up the trailer to see if this was true. It turns out that was a lie. But at the end of the day who cares. You like the game? Have you even played it? If you like it more power to you. I'd rather just replay Deadly Premonition again than waste more time with The Good Life.👍
If SWERY starts unironically endorse blockchains/NFTs/Cryptos in the future, then I'll be convinced that SWERY might be the closest Japanese has to their equivalent of Peter Molyneux
What is just total BS ? Peter Molyneux made many amazing games in his best times that are even beloved today .. Dungeon Keeper , Populus , Black & White or Fable. Yes today he makes only Garbage but that doesn't change the fact he was very influential and started a entire Genre the God Game. What did Swery do beside Producing shit ? His best known games is a shameless Twin Peaks rip off that would even be ugly on a ps2 and has worse controls than RE on PS1.
5:51 That happened in my neighborhood. They've since reduced the car lanes from two to one on that road and put in a bike lane with protective bars along the edges. The Logan Underpass has always had issues with accidents. There's always car debris on the sidewalks.
This video is amazing. I hate so much these mecanics of getting sick and stuff that i quited the game. But this is the first Swery game I can play. I felt like I was losing an awesome story and then this video showed up and now I see that I've made a good decision. Thank you, mister Hikiko.
Man, Hikiko thoroughly canvased this one. My Spidey senses had this one written off during the Kickstarter and I hate to say that I was right on most counts. What I didn't expect was how intolerable the writing is. Actually, that was the last thing I expected! Every time the main character says something, I find myself grimacing, sometimes audibly sighing. You can't sell me on a 100+ hour partially jank grind fest when I have to share the ride with someone so annoying, swearing every line like a middle schooler.
you had more patience than me, i dropped it, making a 5 min video on this game because that's what it's worth and holy shit, im sad because this had SO MANY GOOD IDEAS
An unexpected gift, thanks hombre Hikiko! If I take one thing away from this… don’t give SWERY your money. Thankfully I waited a week until I got information on PS4 frame rates and performance before buying…
Damn, Swery did us dirty with his beans-on-toast simulator... I didn't get all that far in The Good Life, maybe two or three hours in before I got sidetracked with other games like The Evil Within 2, Disco Elysium and Fatal Frame 4. I did plan on going back (and still admittedly do), but woof, I had no clue about the sheer amount of stuff they cut in the final release. It's a shame the past two Swery games have come out as half baked as they have, especially after the pretty promising debut with The Missing. Well, anyways, Merry Christmas again dude, and have a happy New Year!
Overall, this is quite sad. I believe in SWERY, that old son of a couple monks. But it seems like he can't manage it all on his own. He needs a proper team to do the work.. Swery's animal crossing comparison is interesting. But first, off the top, something you said in the video: - The loan in AC is not predatory at all Anyways dang, interesting that SWERY seems to hate animal crossing, or, at least, thinks selling fruit off trees is stupid. That's not really the point of Animal Crossing, not to mention, if he wanted to add crypto trading, that's essentially the exact same as the Stalk Market in animal crossing, lol....
Thanks for making this, I wasn't really aware of the history of the good life, it had so many things I liked but the gameplay and execution just feels off. In the end the things I liked most was Naomi's character and her interactions with the cast but that wasn't enough to keep me invested in the less than stellar gameplay, A shame SWERY didn't or couldn't stick to his original concept of a murder mystery in a sleepy English town because despite how grouchy Naomi is she's rather endearing. Also spot on with that yeah baby section I got so tired of hearing that.
Trust me, as someone who still plays this game. Clothes hunting in this game takes up all your time. I don't know why the guys at White Owl decided to make hunting material for clothes such a grind. I don't mind the grind but the things you need to make clothes can take you an hour or days to get, and that's of RNG is playing in your favor!
Aliminum cans make me hate Swery. I don’t know why I keep doing it. I think because it’s good when you’re in monotonous gaming mode to just fetch stuff. But I hate that upgrading clothes and other things is such a chore. Takes the personal side out of it for me.
As a Brit, I appreciate the immediate reference to the sitcom. Would have given you an A+ for including its theme tune. Think what you could have done with that +. A missed opportunity. Which seems apropos for this game
If i can be honest, even with all the flaws mentioned, the game still seems charming and fun. Swery became an exaggerated flanderized version of himself right after DP, where he became "the guy that makes quirky games", so i'm fine with that. I already go into these games expecting subpar stories and dumb quests for padding, but it still has more heart and atmosphere than most games coming out nowadays.
If you enjoy it, no hate from me brother. Personally, I do not believe this is one of those cases where it is as charming as his previous games. I'm even including The Missing and DP2 in my assessment. This game is a cynical disaster that patronizes the player's time and intelligence. My case has been stated make of it what you will.
I though the same thing tbh but I found myself feeling like what’s the point of this one of my favorite things to do ever is collect clothes and changes my outfits and I’ve been playing this game for weeks but had no clothing but some ugly red dress and then decided to look at a review and I’m glad I did because I’m now glad I know the rest and I can move on from this boring ass game
One of the best reviews I have ever seen on a video game. You outdid yourself on this one Miles. Merry Christmas and thanks for everything you do for the video game community.
This is a game I started but never got back to. I opted for the PS4 version and played on PS5, and it was borderline unplayable at launch, it had a glitch where the screen would flash white about every five seconds. Really annoying. Decided to play other games and come back to it, but I figured I'd check out your review. Seems that I may not have missed out on too much by not continuing on, which is a shame because the initial setup had me interested. Neither this or DP2 has me too impressed, so I'm hoping Swery's next work can get me interested again. Great review as always!
Dude, one of your best vids. So funny, couldn't stop watching. I remember seeing trailer footage for the Kickstarter a while ago. What a shame. Do you have respect left for Swery?
First of all, I love your work on these videos. You discuss the games in great and in depth ways. Would love to see you tackle some more titles that are a bit niche too though. For example, would love to see a series of long videos on the Corpse Party series, or Danganronpa :). About Swery though, don't you think it is interesting how, ever since his first notable release (DP) each game he made has decreased in quality from the previous one? Maybe what happened was that he made an interesting game with jank in it, people tolerated that jank because of the interesting stuff beneath it, so he somehow thought that people want that jank and increased its amount in every game alongside decreasing the amount of quality work, until we reached the apex of that in The Good Life. What do you think? is it misunderstanding, laziness, or a combination of both+other factors?
Good points, though while I have not played it myself The Missing does not follow that concept I think, seemed like a focused pretty well made game for once. Wonder why everything else has been a mess though.
Personal preference aside, D4 was much more focused in terms of design and more tightly directed than DP. It was all of Swery's quirk with none of the jank, so I don't think the premise of Swery being on a downward spiral since DP holds water. There might be more of a case with his output after his exit from Access...
Danganronpa is not niche at all but it would be interesting to see SOMEONE cover its actual development and the past of the studio, there's a lot of info out there.
Such a shame to see how this game turned out. It's the only SWERY65 game I was actually interested without having to have people tell me "dude trust me" like Deadly Premonition. I loved the aesthetic of the game, the location, and the protagonist's attitude. I thought it would be a fun time regardless of the tedium-and that's without taking into account that I did not know about the Kickstarter prototype and promises. This game could've been weirdly good. It's a shame it aimed for just weird.
Dude lots of ppl love it! I just played a few hours but it aas extremely entertaining and I absolutely loved it. If the setting appeals to you so much you should definitely give it a try!
Just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for saving my time and consciousness. I thought "damn, maybe I should give this game a try"... You know, D4 and DP. It's been a while since a Swery game. But just playing through that prologue, my gut was telling me, tho I didn't quite want to believe it: this game's utter dogshit. What the fuck is this, seriously. This is just a lazy, frustrating mess of "something", you can barely call it a game given how much it goes against everything that's at least decent game design. Crazy. Plus all the lies and unfulfilled promises, that shit's straight up scummy. Really changed my view of Swery. Let's be honest, man's a hack. He's gotta have at least a good team to put his ideas to use. Otherwise... This is what we get.
for as much as this game frustrated me, I still kind of love it. I think the main draw for me was Naomi herself. there's just something infectiously charming about her crabby attitude.
Also, just as a possible request, is there a way you could show off all the clothing items in the game in a video? If grinding for those materials is a complete chore, it'd be nice to see all the options available. I just spent close to an hour unlocking as many fast travel statues as I can, as you mentioned here, haha!
I completely understand, thank you for even considering. I'm about 3-4 hours in and...wow. The SWERY magic of Deadly Premonition and D4 is so sparse. It's like spreading a teaspoon of butter across a dry baguette. It seems he went for a more "Harvest Moon" approach to things but didn't even go above and beyond like Stardew Valley or Moonlighter did, and didn't even bother to make it more enjoyable than classic Harvest Moon. Disappointing overall, so far.
@@flipparty8533 There have been many indie games with less budget and collective experience from the devs that have pulled off more engaging worlds than TGL. I hate how much potential was squandered for same ol material grinding gameplay.
@@HikikomoriMedia Deadly Premonition 2 had the same sparse, lifeless open world with worthless side quests and characters with barely any personality. Starting to think SWERY just had three good flukes with DP1, D4, and The Missing.
Shame. I was waiting to try this game eventually 'cause I like how cozy the lil town looked, and the main girl design. Hikiko looks like he's about to sing us something off the 'You are the quarry' album.
Great video - I'm thankful for a the info and context. I'm glad I didn't pay attention to the prototype/devopment and I skipped all the side quests/crafting. I just did the main quest and was done with the game in like 6 hours. It was boring, but I enjoyed parts of it.
In my steam review I pointed out these exact problems I had with the game too. I wouldn't care about the crappy story if the game was fun to play, but when your movement and your basic mechanics are not fun to use, it's over. I stopped around 10 hours doing a lot of sidequests, but seeing how little I missed of the main campaign is just sad.
I think Swery's games have a common problem that they're too ambitious for the budget they have, and end up badly compromised because of it. He can't just keep them as doing one thing, telling one story, well. Instead, they end up trying to have a bunch of systems, subplots, etc, that can't work out without more money and manpower. Deadly Premonition just about pulled it off, albeit jankily, but I suspect that game had a decent budget behind it.
Well, you are right, as always, my man. And i guess i can understand the whole bitter feeling you have, considering you've funded it and all. That's what the love towards favorite creators does. Tbh it more pains me to hear how much it hurt you with its quality rather than the game's state itself, because... personally, not all of the things, but a lot of the things you've mentioned as problems are things i LOVED the game for, including the whole story and especially the ending. But hey, i am a weirdo powered by aspergers who loves the weirdest of shits, i am definitely in the minority. I guess all i can hope for now is that SWERY either somehow gets to listen to your words and reevaluate his approach to developing videogames (or even without your and similar reviews, on his own, maybe), or just... stops, i guess, which would've been sad, but at least this way he would stop tarnishing his own legacy in the eyes of fans like you. And happy late new year.
thanks for watching! I definitely believe TGL was a product of cynicism vs sincerity. The reason Deadly Premonition (1), D4 and The Missing will stand the test of time is for their excellence in drama and engaging worlds. TGL is missing the details and functionality that its predecessors presented. Quirk cannot compensate for all this games flaws in my eyes.
Finally getting around to watching this long video. Looks like all the polish was applied to the wrong aspects of the game. 11:48 That somehow got a laugh out of me. 20:40 What?
It seems that it's just another example of people never having any experience with crowdfunding failing their first attempt because of development difficulties, running out of money and being overambitious from the very beginning. It's sad, but the situation is not different from many other games or projects. Nevertheless, as a person who was broke during the campaign and therefore didn't put any money in it, I kinda like how nihilist and openly hostile to a player the story turned out. It's worth my 20$ on Steam, but yeah, if I was to finance it and to then play it, I probably would be quite angry.
Can't believe I didn't notice this before. Naomi as a dog? Is wrong. She's _lifting her leg to pee_ which is like, super normal right? I see it in cartoons and such! But...only *male dogs* lift their legs. Female dogs...squat. for #1 and #2. Nice one Swery
After dropping this game for so long cuz it got very boring and repetitive when many other games better than this was coming out quickly, and now finished watching this review i'm actually very glad i've dropped this and it seems i didn't missed out on anything at all lol! thank goodness i've "borrowed" this game from the internet and never paid for it cuz i'd would've been pissed off as well like everyone else. It's a shame how far superior the prototype demo is to the final retail version we'd ended up gotten....
I actually like the character modles in the final game. It's still stylish and lovely to look at. To bad everything else about the game is lack luster at best, cheap iPhone game at worst.
finally got around to watching this and its a damn shame how it turned out because i remember seeing your prototype playthrough years ago and it looked like it had some potential to be really good and i agree the prototype had a nice style to it that i wish they kept in the full game. the status effects sound terrible to deal with where at least in deadly premonition they never got too much in the way of the game btw steam accept my refund so thanks for letting me know a head of time
@@HikikomoriMedia i did not get a chance but when you told me that the game was a huge let down i decided that it might be for the best to refund. but now seeing all the problems you addressed im glad i made that choice because these issues are things that would have drove me mad and i would have dropped it for sure lol
Not going to lie although every criticism you said is completely valid I kind of like the game in a chill sort of way it's no 10/10 but it's a fun game to play for a bit and chilling out to it. With that being said it should of had been cheaper. Definitely not a great game but it's hard for me to hate on it. Also the optimisation for the game is inexcusable bad. Just finished the video I hadn't completed the game yet so hearing that there is no pay off is so stupid it hurts the murderer mystery was one of the biggest selling points of the game wtf.
Didn’t back it and for years I thought it was gonna be vaporware and especially after piblisher switch number 2 or 3. The last 2 trailers got me excited though and I went into the game hoping it would be good. Definitely no longer aboard the Swery train and I won’t read his book or pay money to play whatever he does next and I hope his studio goes under
Swery is that guy who should really work under someone else. Someone should be the lead producer and someone else can direct, while Swery would be perfect as a contributing writer or associate producer. I hope he continues making smaller stuff, but damn if he doesn't need to scale back his prominence on the management side.
I honestly love this game. It's so weird. I haven't played any other of his games but I finish this game all the way through. I will say the beginning it's a little bit rough to get through but then I gets really good. It's so funny.
@@HikikomoriMedia I don't blame you for having a bad taste in your mouth since you put money in it. I didn't know anything about it until I just saw it on gamepass
I think that The Good Life has better gameplay and world design than the Deadly Premonition 2. More stuff to do too. At least I was more interested in doing side quests and collecting materials here than in DP2. The plot is a little disappointing. I expected more horror and mystery... Anyway, for weird comedy game its not that bad. It's certainly one of the better and original/different games of 2021.
Man, the "story excerpts" from this game are tough to digest. She talks like someone at a con who works the staff and never stops pretending to be an annoying caricature.
SWERY FILES #1 - The History of Deadly Premonition & Its God Awful Ports
czcams.com/video/5iGDAP8wX7A/video.html
SWERY FILES #2 - Deadly Premonition 2: Feature Analysis and Comparison to the Original:
czcams.com/video/EJTnIRqdOjI/video.html
SWERY FILES #3 - The Devastating Drama of D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die
czcams.com/video/yU8DC5hY1ig/video.html
SWERY FILES #4 - The Good Life Was Not What I Paid For
czcams.com/video/MbQN8wKe8oI/video.html
How did you put those images in the comment?
No fishing mini game? It's even worse than I thought.
It's Kenny! Real recognize real.
Swery at his next job interview "I'm really more of an ideas guy..."
Sir this is a morgue
Hikiko: "Swery, a notable plagiarist"
I laughed so hard at that! 🤣😂
They could have made a really interesting game if they had focused more on the photography aspect, instead of overblowing it with busywork. It's like they wanted to make a game about photography but nobody on the team had any experience with it.
It's a shame, there's a lot of lovely character designs going to waste here.
D4 was by far the best thing Swery's every produced.
FACTS. And his best work, was never finished.
In fact it was so good they never finish it
Funny and depressing how quickly this whole SWERY renaissance turned into “I guess Deadly Premonition and D4 were flukes” for me
I liked The Missing and DP2 (though DP2 has horrendous technical performance)
@@wildonionchase3934 DP2 was especially bad imo, performance aside, it was really missing a lot of the charm and character of the original.
It's almost ironic how disingenuous that game felt compared to DP1 despite DP1 just ripping off Twin Peaks
One day we all find ourselves playing Downpour and wondering what happened. It's almost like a 21st century rite of passage to realize the thing you like has slowly turned into something you tolerate, then finally into something you ignore. Bands, gaming IP, film franchises. We're all bound to have a Silent Hill franchise moment in our time-wasting careers.
Not sure why he has gotten so much worse lately but it's a fact, DP2 felt like it completely misunderstood what made 1 good and charming and just went "lol bad performance and stiff writing" as if that's what made 1 charming and now this game just takes exclusively the bad and tedious aspects of games like it while abandoning all the potential good making the case that a game like it HAS to be painful and tedious. Suda/Grasshopper games even at their worst still have identity, charm and some fun factor but Swery seems to be losing it.
I think Access Games was just a better studio for him. As someone else commented, Swery is an ideas guy, he needs a good dev team to design a product around his ideas and having his own studio is proving that. The guy just can't design a good game on his own. And sadly it's hard to feel bad for him. He's the sole reason D4 flopped and it seems he's burned his bridge with Access Games. He just seems to have a big head about himself. Good ideas can be a special skill in the media and entertainment industry but well done execution is always more important.
Glad I'm not the only one super disappointed with the lack of jobs and MURDER MYSTERY ;_; I had such high hopes based on the KS description I was so keen to see how my playthrough would effect who the murderer was and it didn't happen. (BTW the final boss fight will differ depending on if you were team cat, dog, or neutral. I think the team dog was the easiest since it just involved taking some photos)
Glad to see I wasn't "missing" something with this when I just couldn't stomach it anymore after finishing route A. Legit feels like one of the most detestable games out there, as if it was made through hate instead of care or passion.
Personally I'm kind of over Swery. It's been ten years since Deadly Premonition was made and he's been riding that success for too long now. D4 was very good but even that was kind of a walking simulator with a very good story holding it up. Since then he can't really seem to write a good story or design good gameplay. It's a shame because Deadly Premonition and D4 are two of my favorite games of all time, but It seems like his cult Fandom has gotten to his head and he really thinks he should be his own boss, which he really shouldn't. While Owl has proven to be a bad move for him and he really needs to come back to earth and work with people that can actually design a game. Sadly I don't think someone as stubborn as he is will ever reach this conclusion, at least not any time soon. It's looking more and more like his fumbling of D4s release will be looked at as a career ending mistake rather than a fluke.
The missing was incredible as well
I'm pretty sure Umurangi generation dev was one person and it has so many photography options like a dozen lenses and some options to change the tone and hue of the photos. if you haven't played it yet you should try it out!
You know, I have heard great things about Umurangi Generation. A guy I know even worked on the games OST. I just have not had the time to check it out with the deluge of work on my plate. I'll keep it in mind.
@@HikikomoriMedia ik its been a year, but UG is actually super boring, and more akin to a walking simulator. It's a far cry from pokemon snap in neo tokyo setting.
it's not bad, and as DeadsoulDX stated, it goes a bit nuts with the camera options. but it's like _99% opitonal_
I had a weird gut feeling playing the first 2 hours of the game (via Game Pass) that there would be a lot of grind and fetch quests throughout. Sad to hear it doesn't veer away from that. It's a shame so much was cut though.
Thanks for this fantastically detailed video. It answered literally all of my questions regarding gameplay mechanics and narrative. You saved me some frustration and a lot of time. Thank you, and Happy Holidays!
Well, it having grind was not a secret. The trailer mentioned the debt to be paid as being a big part of gameplay.
@@Rihcterwilker Well, I didn't watch the trailer before playing. Just checked it out, trailer says "a certain client has asked Naomi to investigate a secret and she's hoping this job will help her escape a colossal mountain of debt." ...I don't see where it says "grind."
@@FICTiVETRUiSM i guess a mystery game is not the game for you if you expected the trailer to say with all the words "you have to grind" to understand that there was grind in it.
@@Rihcterwilker You said: "The trailer mentioned the debt to be paid as being a big part of gameplay." So I only looked up the trailer to see if this was true. It turns out that was a lie. But at the end of the day who cares. You like the game? Have you even played it? If you like it more power to you. I'd rather just replay Deadly Premonition again than waste more time with The Good Life.👍
If SWERY starts unironically endorse blockchains/NFTs/Cryptos in the future, then I'll be convinced that SWERY might be the closest Japanese has to their equivalent of Peter Molyneux
What is just total BS ? Peter Molyneux made many amazing games in his best times that are even beloved today .. Dungeon Keeper , Populus , Black & White or Fable. Yes today he makes only Garbage but that doesn't change the fact he was very influential and started a entire Genre the God Game. What did Swery do beside Producing shit ? His best known games is a shameless Twin Peaks rip off that would even be ugly on a ps2 and has worse controls than RE on PS1.
Usually I watch long videos like this spread out across several days, but I couldn't stop watching this one. Great video!
5:51 That happened in my neighborhood. They've since reduced the car lanes from two to one on that road and put in a bike lane with protective bars along the edges. The Logan Underpass has always had issues with accidents. There's always car debris on the sidewalks.
Well... at least The Notorious Pickles were there to make a few faithful players smile
This video is amazing. I hate so much these mecanics of getting sick and stuff that i quited the game. But this is the first Swery game I can play. I felt like I was losing an awesome story and then this video showed up and now I see that I've made a good decision. Thank you, mister Hikiko.
Man, Hikiko thoroughly canvased this one. My Spidey senses had this one written off during the Kickstarter and I hate to say that I was right on most counts.
What I didn't expect was how intolerable the writing is. Actually, that was the last thing I expected! Every time the main character says something, I find myself grimacing, sometimes audibly sighing. You can't sell me on a 100+ hour partially jank grind fest when I have to share the ride with someone so annoying, swearing every line like a middle schooler.
you had more patience than me, i dropped it, making a 5 min video on this game because that's what it's worth and holy shit, im sad because this had SO MANY GOOD IDEAS
An unexpected gift, thanks hombre Hikiko!
If I take one thing away from this… don’t give SWERY your money. Thankfully I waited a week until I got information on PS4 frame rates and performance before buying…
Damn, Swery did us dirty with his beans-on-toast simulator...
I didn't get all that far in The Good Life, maybe two or three hours in before I got sidetracked with other games like The Evil Within 2, Disco Elysium and Fatal Frame 4. I did plan on going back (and still admittedly do), but woof, I had no clue about the sheer amount of stuff they cut in the final release.
It's a shame the past two Swery games have come out as half baked as they have, especially after the pretty promising debut with The Missing.
Well, anyways, Merry Christmas again dude, and have a happy New Year!
Overall, this is quite sad. I believe in SWERY, that old son of a couple monks. But it seems like he can't manage it all on his own. He needs a proper team to do the work..
Swery's animal crossing comparison is interesting.
But first, off the top, something you said in the video:
- The loan in AC is not predatory at all
Anyways dang, interesting that SWERY seems to hate animal crossing, or, at least, thinks selling fruit off trees is stupid. That's not really the point of Animal Crossing, not to mention, if he wanted to add crypto trading, that's essentially the exact same as the Stalk Market in animal crossing, lol....
That anti Animal Crossing stuff could've really been a bit or overplaying, but difficult to tell tone with text
Thanks for making this, I wasn't really aware of the history of the good life, it had so many things I liked but the gameplay and execution just feels off. In the end the things I liked most was Naomi's character and her interactions with the cast but that wasn't enough to keep me invested in the less than stellar gameplay, A shame SWERY didn't or couldn't stick to his original concept of a murder mystery in a sleepy English town because despite how grouchy Naomi is she's rather endearing. Also spot on with that yeah baby section I got so tired of hearing that.
Merry Christmas Hikiko! Gonna be watching this one in a few
Great review and nice editing. I guess the only good thing that came out of The Good Life is Miles's hilarious and detailed review. Thanks SWERY!
I played this on Gamepass and adored the "Gamecube" aesthetic
How far did you get in the game?
Merry Xmas Miles, hope this year was good to ya and hope to see more great work from ya in the future.
Merry Christmas!
Trust me, as someone who still plays this game. Clothes hunting in this game takes up all your time. I don't know why the guys at White Owl decided to make hunting material for clothes such a grind. I don't mind the grind but the things you need to make clothes can take you an hour or days to get, and that's of RNG is playing in your favor!
Aliminum cans make me hate Swery. I don’t know why I keep doing it. I think because it’s good when you’re in monotonous gaming mode to just fetch stuff. But I hate that upgrading clothes and other things is such a chore. Takes the personal side out of it for me.
As a Brit, I appreciate the immediate reference to the sitcom. Would have given you an A+ for including its theme tune. Think what you could have done with that +. A missed opportunity. Which seems apropos for this game
Next time I will make a Spaced reference and hopefully I will earn that +
Despite all the flaws and jank this game was one of my favorites in 2021, and I'm not even sure why lol
Yeah Ik it’s like one my fav games and I don’t know why
You might get entertained easily or your standards are really low lol
If i can be honest, even with all the flaws mentioned, the game still seems charming and fun. Swery became an exaggerated flanderized version of himself right after DP, where he became "the guy that makes quirky games", so i'm fine with that. I already go into these games expecting subpar stories and dumb quests for padding, but it still has more heart and atmosphere than most games coming out nowadays.
If you enjoy it, no hate from me brother. Personally, I do not believe this is one of those cases where it is as charming as his previous games. I'm even including The Missing and DP2 in my assessment. This game is a cynical disaster that patronizes the player's time and intelligence. My case has been stated make of it what you will.
I though the same thing tbh but I found myself feeling like what’s the point of this one of my favorite things to do ever is collect clothes and changes my outfits and I’ve been playing this game for weeks but had no clothing but some ugly red dress and then decided to look at a review and I’m glad I did because I’m now glad I know the rest and I can move on from this boring ass game
Merry Christmas hope you have a good year
this director is so ambitious like a kid
and I love him for it
@@HikikomoriMedia hes similar to suda51 but not as calculated
I was so certain the villain was going to be Forrest kaysen FK and all that :)
Was JUST ABOUT TO PLAY THIS!!!
Thanks for the Swery File, Hikiko!
When’s Spy Fiction, Miles?!
More likely Extermination first...
been waiting for this one, you always deliver my man
Gravity Rush 2 is sooooo goooood
Thanks for this review, I know now I'd "want" to get the game just once, likely on switch, and definitely on a sale
Loved it.
Happy New year, Hikkiko!
Happy new year Hemang!!!!
Merry Christmas Hikiko! Hope you have a good holiday and here's to a great 2022!!!
One of the best reviews I have ever seen on a video game. You outdid yourself on this one Miles.
Merry Christmas and thanks for everything you do for the video game community.
You saved me some money, pal. Thanks.
There's a sequel to this video that you'll probably find funny. czcams.com/video/v7SA44V3wdk/video.html
This is a game I started but never got back to. I opted for the PS4 version and played on PS5, and it was borderline unplayable at launch, it had a glitch where the screen would flash white about every five seconds. Really annoying. Decided to play other games and come back to it, but I figured I'd check out your review. Seems that I may not have missed out on too much by not continuing on, which is a shame because the initial setup had me interested. Neither this or DP2 has me too impressed, so I'm hoping Swery's next work can get me interested again. Great review as always!
It seems they used a bunch of expensive free trial plugins for Unity or Unreal Engine for the demo then just cheaped out.
Dude, one of your best vids. So funny, couldn't stop watching. I remember seeing trailer footage for the Kickstarter a while ago. What a shame. Do you have respect left for Swery?
First of all, I love your work on these videos. You discuss the games in great and in depth ways. Would love to see you tackle some more titles that are a bit niche too though. For example, would love to see a series of long videos on the Corpse Party series, or Danganronpa :).
About Swery though, don't you think it is interesting how, ever since his first notable release (DP) each game he made has decreased in quality from the previous one? Maybe what happened was that he made an interesting game with jank in it, people tolerated that jank because of the interesting stuff beneath it, so he somehow thought that people want that jank and increased its amount in every game alongside decreasing the amount of quality work, until we reached the apex of that in The Good Life. What do you think? is it misunderstanding, laziness, or a combination of both+other factors?
Good points, though while I have not played it myself The Missing does not follow that concept I think, seemed like a focused pretty well made game for once. Wonder why everything else has been a mess though.
Personal preference aside, D4 was much more focused in terms of design and more tightly directed than DP. It was all of Swery's quirk with none of the jank, so I don't think the premise of Swery being on a downward spiral since DP holds water. There might be more of a case with his output after his exit from Access...
Danganronpa is not niche at all but it would be interesting to see SOMEONE cover its actual development and the past of the studio, there's a lot of info out there.
20:35 This cracked me up :D
Such a shame to see how this game turned out. It's the only SWERY65 game I was actually interested without having to have people tell me "dude trust me" like Deadly Premonition. I loved the aesthetic of the game, the location, and the protagonist's attitude. I thought it would be a fun time regardless of the tedium-and that's without taking into account that I did not know about the Kickstarter prototype and promises. This game could've been weirdly good. It's a shame it aimed for just weird.
Dude lots of ppl love it! I just played a few hours but it aas extremely entertaining and I absolutely loved it. If the setting appeals to you so much you should definitely give it a try!
Just wanted to say thank you. Thank you for saving my time and consciousness. I thought "damn, maybe I should give this game a try"... You know, D4 and DP. It's been a while since a Swery game. But just playing through that prologue, my gut was telling me, tho I didn't quite want to believe it: this game's utter dogshit. What the fuck is this, seriously. This is just a lazy, frustrating mess of "something", you can barely call it a game given how much it goes against everything that's at least decent game design. Crazy.
Plus all the lies and unfulfilled promises, that shit's straight up scummy.
Really changed my view of Swery. Let's be honest, man's a hack. He's gotta have at least a good team to put his ideas to use. Otherwise... This is what we get.
for as much as this game frustrated me, I still kind of love it. I think the main draw for me was Naomi herself. there's just something infectiously charming about her crabby attitude.
Also, just as a possible request, is there a way you could show off all the clothing items in the game in a video? If grinding for those materials is a complete chore, it'd be nice to see all the options available. I just spent close to an hour unlocking as many fast travel statues as I can, as you mentioned here, haha!
No and I mean this earnestly, I never want to play this game again.
I completely understand, thank you for even considering. I'm about 3-4 hours in and...wow. The SWERY magic of Deadly Premonition and D4 is so sparse. It's like spreading a teaspoon of butter across a dry baguette. It seems he went for a more "Harvest Moon" approach to things but didn't even go above and beyond like Stardew Valley or Moonlighter did, and didn't even bother to make it more enjoyable than classic Harvest Moon. Disappointing overall, so far.
@@flipparty8533 There have been many indie games with less budget and collective experience from the devs that have pulled off more engaging worlds than TGL. I hate how much potential was squandered for same ol material grinding gameplay.
@@HikikomoriMedia Deadly Premonition 2 had the same sparse, lifeless open world with worthless side quests and characters with barely any personality. Starting to think SWERY just had three good flukes with DP1, D4, and The Missing.
Loved this deep dive into this sweary game the man myth legend.
You should check out clock tower 3 it's an interesting gem
It's not the best Strand game but at least Naomi's cute
You saved me from buying it, which is a shame in a way because I was very hopeful about the game. Merry Christmas!
Comment for the youtube lords.
Great video fam. :D
I laughed way too hard at the girl eating the fried egg with her bare hands roflmao 23:10
Hiki and Whitney would be a dream co-op video.
Shame. I was waiting to try this game eventually 'cause I like how cozy the lil town looked, and the main girl design. Hikiko looks like he's about to sing us something off the 'You are the quarry' album.
Strange ways here we come maybe
This is a very high effort video for the amount of views it has!
The framerate for dp2 is ok outside due to patches but should I get thee good life
One of the best reviews i've ever seen. Cheers from Russia, Hikki!
Спасибо
Happy 1 year anniversary of this video!
2022 the year of Hikikomori Media! Cheers man! 🍻
Thanks RGP! Keep that shit retro into 2022 and beyond
Great video - I'm thankful for a the info and context. I'm glad I didn't pay attention to the prototype/devopment and I skipped all the side quests/crafting. I just did the main quest and was done with the game in like 6 hours. It was boring, but I enjoyed parts of it.
In my steam review I pointed out these exact problems I had with the game too. I wouldn't care about the crappy story if the game was fun to play, but when your movement and your basic mechanics are not fun to use, it's over. I stopped around 10 hours doing a lot of sidequests, but seeing how little I missed of the main campaign is just sad.
I just wish there was more life to the open world. It's straight up a desert with a max of two towns to visit and not much to do in them.
I was tempted to Gamepass this for sometime now. Thank you for suffering so I don't have too
39:25 Counterpoint: You can't talk about movies with York if you fast travel.
1:02:29 i actually disabled the machine by getting the super camera flash, not peeing on it
Hell yeah
Oh God I got deadly premonition 2 for Christmas :(
It's a good game though. My favorite on Switch.
I think Swery's games have a common problem that they're too ambitious for the budget they have, and end up badly compromised because of it. He can't just keep them as doing one thing, telling one story, well. Instead, they end up trying to have a bunch of systems, subplots, etc, that can't work out without more money and manpower. Deadly Premonition just about pulled it off, albeit jankily, but I suspect that game had a decent budget behind it.
I think main problem with Swery and Suda games is that if you played one of their games - you played all of them.
I would say they both have HIGH HIGHS and LOW LOWS. Check out D4 from Swery and Flower Sun and Rain from SUDA.
Well, you are right, as always, my man. And i guess i can understand the whole bitter feeling you have, considering you've funded it and all. That's what the love towards favorite creators does.
Tbh it more pains me to hear how much it hurt you with its quality rather than the game's state itself, because... personally, not all of the things, but a lot of the things you've mentioned as problems are things i LOVED the game for, including the whole story and especially the ending. But hey, i am a weirdo powered by aspergers who loves the weirdest of shits, i am definitely in the minority.
I guess all i can hope for now is that SWERY either somehow gets to listen to your words and reevaluate his approach to developing videogames (or even without your and similar reviews, on his own, maybe), or just... stops, i guess, which would've been sad, but at least this way he would stop tarnishing his own legacy in the eyes of fans like you.
And happy late new year.
thanks for watching! I definitely believe TGL was a product of cynicism vs sincerity. The reason Deadly Premonition (1), D4 and The Missing will stand the test of time is for their excellence in drama and engaging worlds. TGL is missing the details and functionality that its predecessors presented. Quirk cannot compensate for all this games flaws in my eyes.
Man, you are a hero!
Just a broke boy bad with money
@@HikikomoriMedia that somehow manages to make impeccable 1-hour-long videos of absolutely insightful content 💪
SWERY drank too much that it affected his writing, what a shame...
or maybe, he didn't drink enough....
Finally getting around to watching this long video.
Looks like all the polish was applied to the wrong aspects of the game.
11:48 That somehow got a laugh out of me.
20:40 What?
It seems that it's just another example of people never having any experience with crowdfunding failing their first attempt because of development difficulties, running out of money and being overambitious from the very beginning. It's sad, but the situation is not different from many other games or projects. Nevertheless, as a person who was broke during the campaign and therefore didn't put any money in it, I kinda like how nihilist and openly hostile to a player the story turned out. It's worth my 20$ on Steam, but yeah, if I was to finance it and to then play it, I probably would be quite angry.
Can't believe I didn't notice this before. Naomi as a dog? Is wrong. She's _lifting her leg to pee_ which is like, super normal right? I see it in cartoons and such! But...only *male dogs* lift their legs. Female dogs...squat. for #1 and #2. Nice one Swery
I didn't consider that possibility at the time, but it's worth exploring.
Nice Joe Bob shirt!
I have 7 others in the wardrobe lol
still looks better than my life 😎
Happy Xmen
After dropping this game for so long cuz it got very boring and repetitive when many other games better than this was coming out quickly, and now finished watching this review i'm actually very glad i've dropped this and it seems i didn't missed out on anything at all lol! thank goodness i've "borrowed" this game from the internet and never paid for it cuz i'd would've been pissed off as well like everyone else.
It's a shame how far superior the prototype demo is to the final retail version we'd ended up gotten....
Love the Joe Bob Briggs shirt
thanks mutant fam
I was wondering why I'd heard so little about this game for so long...
Eyy Nier gameplay
I liked the Nier Replicant V1.2
Was the prototype made by a different company or something?
Nope, same company. Same engine.
So... did Swery released the story of D4 already?
He blocked me for asking...
I actually like the character modles in the final game. It's still stylish and lovely to look at. To bad everything else about the game is lack luster at best, cheap iPhone game at worst.
finally got around to watching this and its a damn shame how it turned out because i remember seeing your prototype playthrough years ago and it looked like it had some potential to be really good and i agree the prototype had a nice style to it that i wish they kept in the full game. the status effects sound terrible to deal with where at least in deadly premonition they never got too much in the way of the game
btw steam accept my refund so thanks for letting me know a head of time
I was wondering if you had played it yet? Glad to know this video could help.
@@HikikomoriMedia i did not get a chance but when you told me that the game was a huge let down i decided that it might be for the best to refund. but now seeing all the problems you addressed im glad i made that choice because these issues are things that would have drove me mad and i would have dropped it for sure lol
Not going to lie although every criticism you said is completely valid I kind of like the game in a chill sort of way it's no 10/10 but it's a fun game to play for a bit and chilling out to it. With that being said it should of had been cheaper. Definitely not a great game but it's hard for me to hate on it. Also the optimisation for the game is inexcusable bad.
Just finished the video I hadn't completed the game yet so hearing that there is no pay off is so stupid it hurts the murderer mystery was one of the biggest selling points of the game wtf.
Didn’t back it and for years I thought it was gonna be vaporware and especially after piblisher switch number 2 or 3. The last 2 trailers got me excited though and I went into the game hoping it would be good.
Definitely no longer aboard the Swery train and I won’t read his book or pay money to play whatever he does next and I hope his studio goes under
Swery is that guy who should really work under someone else. Someone should be the lead producer and someone else can direct, while Swery would be perfect as a contributing writer or associate producer. I hope he continues making smaller stuff, but damn if he doesn't need to scale back his prominence on the management side.
I honestly love this game. It's so weird. I haven't played any other of his games but I finish this game all the way through. I will say the beginning it's a little bit rough to get through but then I gets really good. It's so funny.
I would recommend trying SWERY's other games
@@HikikomoriMedia which ones to start?
@@teedytat8147 Deadly Premoniton (Xbox) or D4 (PC)
@@HikikomoriMedia I will check them out!
@@HikikomoriMedia I don't blame you for having a bad taste in your mouth since you put money in it. I didn't know anything about it until I just saw it on gamepass
I think that The Good Life has better gameplay and world design than the Deadly Premonition 2. More stuff to do too. At least I was more interested in doing side quests and collecting materials here than in DP2. The plot is a little disappointing. I expected more horror and mystery... Anyway, for weird comedy game its not that bad. It's certainly one of the better and original/different games of 2021.
The criticism "Looks like an app game" is a very unfortunate and fitting one in many cases such as this.
The game need a Yiik i.v level update
supposedly it's getting dlc
@@HikikomoriMedia oh fr? For the good life?
@@thejonbrownshow8470 yup
Swery burned so many fans with this yikes
Tales of Xillia 2 is a debt repayment RPG, lol.
is it fun?
Man, the "story excerpts" from this game are tough to digest. She talks like someone at a con who works the staff and never stops pretending to be an annoying caricature.
"Bring it, bitches" was the payoff for me
SWERY games feels like a monkeys paw for those that want AA games from the ps2 era back.
Well, I have no words but
GODDAMN HELLHOLE