Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner M∀RS

I was kind of disappointed with this one, honestly, with how well-received the Zone of the Enders games are, but I think it's one of those cases where you had to play them when they originally came out and when janky game design was more tolerable to "get" it. The recent remastering looks great with the upscaled textures and models, and if you can get it to run at 60 fps the combat and explosions verge right on the point of being overstimulating but in a good way.

That said, the gameplay itself just feels old. You end up wrestling with maintaining control of the camera about as often as you're firing bullets and slashing swords with enemies, which back in the era of 3d action games where they were just figuring out how to handle working in that space it was more forgivable but these days it's just kind of irritating. A lot of the subweapons aren't really usable, and a lot of the strategy for fights feels like it devolves into just button mashing and hoping your attacks are allowed to go through.

I didn't really care for the story, but I can see the appeal for those who like mecha anime kinda nonsense. The English dubbing is kind of atrocious though, especially with the lead protagonist. It's kind of amazing when you consider Konami already had experience with Metal Gear Solid which is the kind of style they're clearly going for, but somehow it veers away from being stilted and awkward in a fun way into something that's just rather laughably bad. The soundtrack's pretty good, at least.

I'd give this one a look if you think you'd like these kinds of mecha action games, but I don't think it'd change your mind if you're biased against this kind of affair to begin with.