2003

What's scary is how brutal the game is on you.

Missed out on this gem as a child. I definitely think it's deserving of a remaster.
Excellent world building and setting like early One Piece and probably inspired Skypiea and some other things in that anime.
A bit aged, but all of my negative opinions about this game (slow animations/fights/sailing, encounter rate) are easily ignored by modern emulation.

A gem in a time of AAA garbage. As an animator, the mixture of 2D and 3D are astounding. Musical choices for the OST make every scene pop. The world moving with the rhythm is an excellent touch. Such a colorful and wonderful game. Definitely going to be my personal GOTY. I played it on the hardest available difficulty for my first run.

Answers the old questions we had 13 years ago while introducing some newer ones. The graphics of this game and facial mocap are very well done. Cool puzzles in beautifully detailed environments. Very creatively worked on with the all the budget they could.
However it was very movie-gamey compared to the first. Traded responsive controls, driving, and fast-paced action of the first game for some Resident Evil 2 Remake styled combat. (They got rid of jumping altogether). They seem to have got rid of the object physics from their earlier games - everything is glued to the ground. Not only that, timeloops (call me jaded but I'm tired of them) are involved and you're forced to revisit areas. A lot of the game feels like a chore in that regard.
An odd congregation of everything Sam Lake. Get used to seeing his face. Love hearing James McCaffrey, though. I'm sure if you're into the Remedyverse and lore you'll love it.

Very impressive korean Souls clone. Not perfect, but it definitely has the Fromsoft feeling. I feel like most people don't understand the combat and got filtered easily. The option to parry and roll in the same build is nice. Enemies got a bit too tanky near the end, however.

Didn't quite fully scratch that Danganronpa itch, but it was a great time. Hopefully the sequel irons out the minigames and makes the mysteries harder. Cast is not bad, but I'd imagine the next game will have a new one. (After that ending, there better be a sequel.)

Improves on Y7's gameplay while bringing tons of new content for you to play on the side. Amazing OST and tons of effort was obviously put into this latest game of my favorite series.
However, the story in this game is unforgivable. Questionable decisions were made regarding the plot and established characters. The last half of the game seems sloppy. Did they get new writers?
Even with worse gameplay, I think Like a Dragon (Yakuza 7), is the better game.

better gameplay than the first
I think the first one had a better premise

What was meant to be originally a DLC became one of their best games
also a whole-ass demo for 8

This time around, following Travis Strikes Again, it feels like Travis is just Suda51's self-insert character. The game spends too much time wanking off Suda51's other works and favorite films. Many of the bosses you see in the game aren't encounterable, and many of the locations you see on the map aren't accessible. Performance was awful. Stages were removed and replaced with very small enemy-rooms. A very rough and rushed game with a fake cliffhanger ending. What a way to end the franchise... At least you could be creative with the combat.

Actually rough. I usually can play JRPGS fine but this game got unbearable many times. First JRPG where I don't really like any of the characters.

A classic
Great setting, message, and soundtrack
the controls are a bit awkward, however

The sequels failed to capture this aesthetic again

Prensentation alone deserves all the stars. What every VN-type game should strive to be. Ending will divide the fanbase until the end of the earth, but it is still the best.