Wanted to play a nice short game after Metroid Prime 2 so I decided to dive into the Klonoa series finally! While I did have a good time with this game, I wish I liked it more because it has a 4.1 average and a lot of my followers love it so I kinda feel bad only giving it a 7 lol.

I think after beating the game, the absolute best aspect are the bosses tbh. I did not expect them to go so hard but most of them are really damn good tbh. In fact I'd go as far to say they're better than most of the levels. Something I really liked about them was how they all made good use of the foreground and background, thought that was sweet. Also the health bar they had looked really cool with that whole 3D effect.

The levels themselves are decent for the most part. They start off really simple but get more complex as you go on. I honestly didn't think they were getting really good until the last couple stages but overall they're fine.

Another one the best aspects of this game is the visuals. The mix of sprites and 3D models is always cool and its done well in this game. From the little I've seen of the remake, it's a total downgrade which is a shame so I'd recommend the original just on visuals alone.

Klonoa's moveset is kinda weird overall. The grab is very fun, especially when you can get an extra jump from an enemy. The flutter is alright but a lot of the time just doesn't cut it in getting you over large gaps unless you plan well. I just never thought it felt good to use tbh. Also Klonoa himself has a slipperiness to him when you build momentum up and that can trip up the player especially in later stages.

I didn't really find the game that hard until the last couple stages. I got every collectable so I was able to do the extra stage and man was that one tough. It was fun but definitely put your grabbing and hovering skills to the test.

The music overall was just alright. There was a track or two I kinda liked but most of them were forgettable I felt. There was also a track or two that kinda bugged me because it reminded me of the intro song to Amazing Animals. Please tell me I'm not crazy, I just kept thinking about that whenever one of the beginning stages songs was playing.

The game also had a surprisingly abundant amount of cutscenes. I thought the story overall was pretty cute, the very solid voice acting certainly helped that I feel. Like damn, I loved Huepow's voice it was adorable. And while I didn't cry or anything, the ending was pretty sad and was a unique way to end the game.

While I didn't love this game like others do, it was pretty good! I can certainly see how others would love this game cuz it just has that 90's PS1 charm. I did hear the sequel is even better so I'm looking forward to that!

So my dear friend BungVulchungo absolutely loves this game, to the point where he couldn't stop talking about it after he played it. So it had me pretty excited to play it myself. While I can't say I loved it as much as he did, I did have a really good time.

I'd say the absolute best aspect of this game is its presentation. Its absolutely spectacular and was something I definitely loved. Really makes the game feel unique in that aspect. I also really enjoyed the exploration and puzzles. Every time I got to a new section, I was excited to just explore the place. The OST is pretty nice too, minimal for the most part but it works. While I didn't totally understand everything about the story, I thought it was told in a pretty cool way.

Sadly I did have some issues/nitpicks that hold it back from being amazing. I honestly didn't find the game that spooky. Idk, it definitely had some nice atmosphere but as a horror game it's definitely weak on the scares. I said I really enjoyed exploring each area, and while I do...they also dont feel too memorable because they aren't connected like for example the Spencer mansion or even Luigis Mansion 1 lol. Idk, I just prefer how those games did it personally. While I didn't dislike the combat, it's not amazing and can be annoying when multiple enemies are around. In those instances, I usually tried to evade them. One last little nitpick is while I liked reading the optional notes and texts, whenever the nation stuff was brought up..I just didn't care. I cared more about the Replika and Gestalt way more. Also this game did have some boss fights and I can't say I loved or disliked any of them. They were fine I felt.

I did really enjoy this game but it does have some faults I feel. I got the promise ending and I'm kinda thinking about going back to get the true ending once I replay Luigi's Mansion. Maybe I will maybe I won't idk but I did enjoy this game overall.

7.5/10

So I actually played both Judgment and Yakuza 0 before this. I loved them both and was excited to dive into the Yakuza series in order. Well I'm happy to say I do like this game overall, but it definitely has issues imo.

First things first, yes I did play this on my PS2 so I played with the dub. Honestly, it isn't absolutely terrible. I did actually think some moments were effective even with the voice acting. Plus John Dimaggio is in this a lot so that's epic. Obviously though, the dub can be bad a lot of the time too. Sometimes in very funny ways which really works in humorous scenes...and sometimes it happens in very serious scenes which does stink.

The story...was good overall I'd say. It does throw a bunch of lesser little fetch quests and stuff near the middle of the game and then saves the crazy stuff for the very end, which makes it feel a bit unfocused... but it does have some genuinely good moments I feel. Kiryu was surprisingly emotive in this game compared to Yakuza 0, thought that was interesting.

The combat is honestly solid. Once you get used to your entire move set, it's pretty fun. I really like the chunkiness Kiryu has in this game, it feels really good to punch dudes. The encounters can be annoying though, mostly if they have guns. The game feels a but unbalanced where if its a one-on-one fight with a brawler only enemy or boss, it's usually easy. However, if its an enemy with a gun it can be very frustrating. That 2nd to last battle was incredibly annoying, but at least the final fight was fun albeit too easy.

I didn't do many side missions but the ones I did were cool. The fixed camera in Kamurocho was kind of cool, made the town more atmospheric. I liked the ps2 feel this game had compared to Judgment or Yakuza 0.

While I cannot say I liked this nearly as much as Judgment or Yakuza 0, I did enjoy my time with it even if it's pretty flawed. If I played it subbed, it might be a 7 idk but with how I played it...I'll give it a 6.5.

I'm pretty excited for Yakuza 2 cuz I heard it improved on a lot of shit in this game and that it's peak.

Last year I decided to replay Luigi's Mansion after having first played it back in 2018. I had a fantastic time and decided I would replay it every October. Well, Spooky season is now back so it's time for the annual replay. Yeah it's still a ton of fun.

As I stated before in my other review, the short length of this game makes it an ideal one to replay every year I think. I beat it in a day which is perfect since I'm a lot busier than I used to be. The shortness combined with the unrivaled atmosphere, funkiness and control scheme makes this the definitive Luigi's Mansion game in my eyes. There's just little things I love about this game that the other's lack. Like the funky jingle that plays when you pickup keys and stuff or how when you're not interacting with anything, Luigi calls out to Mario when you press the A button. He even has different calls when you're low on health. The one here at 0:04 is my absolutely favorite, has me laughing every time.

This game has that weird 6th gen GameCube charm that I love. 2 and 3 while not bad, both feel sterile in comparison. Idk, nothing is as raw as that ending where Luigi just starts crying and laughing at the fact he's finally reunited with Mario, it's genuinely so heartwarming I love it so much.

As I said in my other review, it does have its faults. I don't particularly like Boolossus. I just think they made it way too tedious to hit the boos with the ice. The high HP boos are also still somewhat annoying, though I feel like they weren't too bad this time around. Again, if they just didn't give them massive amounts of health...or even better just don't let them fly into different rooms, then that issue would be alleviated.

In the end though, I do love this game. Definitely a game I'd like to continue to replay every October and definitely one of my favorite GameCube games. After this I plan on playing Dead Space and Silent Hill, hopefully I'm able to get them in before Super Mario Bros Wonder comes out cuz I'm definitely playing that day 1 lol.

P.S: Oh yeah, this time around I decided not to get all gold portraits. Last year I did and while I'm glad I accomplished that feat, having to gold Sir Weston again doesn't sound like a fun time. I did get mostly golds though which is cool. I also didn't forget the gold diamond in the plant this time around so thank god. Because of that my score was 122,000,000 something which aint half bad. I also forgot to mention I played the hidden mission this time around. I wanna say I played the hidden one back in 2018 as well but i forget if I beat it back then. Enemies do more damage, there's more of them apparently (I didn't really notice a difference) and your vacuum sucks way faster now which was super fun and helpful with those portrait ghosts.

Back in Junior High, I had this duo of friends who would not stop talking about Dark Souls whenever we were at our table at lunch. Dark Souls 2 had just come out and they were obsessed with it. This is the first time I ever even heard of Dark Souls, and with them always nerding out about it, it did intrigue me a bit. Fast forward to March 2017, I had just gotten a PS4 a couple months prior and I was itching to get into all these types of games I never did before. On a whim I decided to pickup both Dark Souls III and Bloodborne. Boy was that timing perfect, because the next day it snowed big time and it wouldn't let up for like an entire week so I was playing Dark Souls III nonstop. A couple weeks later I then moved on to Bloodborne. I love Dark Souls III, as you know from my reviews of that, but Bloodborne especially really captivated me. I ended up beating it months later during my thanksgiving break I think (sadly getting the bad ending and missing out on the final boss) and thought it was really great. Fast forward again to like March 2019 I think? I on a whim felt like playing Bloodborne again. I really sucked at first, struggling immensely with Gascoigne, but once I got the hang of it again, I honestly had an absolute blast and knew it would be one of my favorite games ever. The platinum and several playthroughs later, here we are and yeah it's back in my top 5 again.

The very first thing the drew me into the game, and I honestly think it's hands down the best aspect, is the Gothic-Horror Lovecraftian aesthetic and the art design as a whole. It's my absolute favorite aesthetic in any game next to Automata's post-apocalyptic world. That's like one of the main reason's I rate this game so highly tbh, it carry's so hard imo. From Central Yharnam, to Cathedral Ward and even something like Nightmare Frontier, I don't dislike any area's aesthetic. Cainhurst is the absolute highlight, just exploring a creepy gothic castle while it's snowing outside...hoo baby. Like even something like Byrgenwerth, which is absolutely tiny, is an area I like going to everytime because of the seaside aesthetics. Plus it's really lore important which is rad.

Speaking of lore and the story of the game, it's the absolute best in the Soulsborne series imo. It just makes the whole world feel so alive, first starting off with basic stuff like the hunt and then eventually delving into cosmic horror by the end. I was never too into Dark Souls lore ever but this game? Yeah I'm totally into it, the horror aspect just intrigues me way more.

Next in the combat and yeah it's a total blast. Instead of hiding behind a shield like in Dark Souls, you're totally defenseless and can only rely on your dodging skills. That may seem like it's tougher, and yeah it is but it rewards you for being super aggressive. The rally system allows you to get some HP back for a short time after being hit which means you can be more risky when fighting enemies. I just find this combat system way more fun than the souls games personally and is another reason why this is my favorite. To go along with the combat, you of course have the weapons. Unlike the souls games, Bloodborne has a much smaller batch of them but I think that's much in the games favor. Every weapon is viable and every weapon is memorable. That paired with the transformation mechanic, where if you press L1 you essentially have two weapons in one, just make these weapons the best ever imo. I usually use the kirk hammer, then Ludwig's Holy Blade and then maybe I switch it out for one of the DLC's weapons and yeah this playthrough was no different.

As I said, I really love the look of every area and that's not all, the actual areas are quite good for the most part. The beginning areas like Central Yharnam or Cathedral Ward are simply some of the best level-design wish because they're so interconnected with other areas. It's not quite Dark Souls 1 level of interconnectivity but it's really a nice change from something like Dark Souls 2 or even 3. By the end it does get more linear, but since the first half is well connected, I didn't have much of an issue with it. I think one of the most memorable moments is when you're all the way into the forbidden woods. You find this path down into a poison cave, you climb up a ladder and you end up at the very beginning of
Central Yharnam. You unlock the first gate you ever see when playing and I just think that's so cool. The game has several moments like this, like Yahar'Gul connecting to Old Yarhnam after you defeat Darkbeast Paarl, but no moment will be as good as the aformentioned Forbidden Woods interconnectivity.

Now on to the bosses, I think they're generally pretty great. Early game definitely has the more consistently good bosses, tho endgame definitely has some bangers like Gehrman and Martyr Logarius. The mid to end game definitely does have some not great bosses gameplay-wise, but some of them do have other aspects that make me not hate them. Witches of Hemwick is pathetically easy but the especially creepy atmosphere and semi-interesting way to defeat her, I really enjoyed. Plus she had one of my favorite songs in the game. Rom is somewhat annoying but at least has a beautiful area to fight her in. The one reborn is really easy too but I like the callback to Tower Knight. Celestial Emissary is um, yeah I can't really defend this one but it sure is a goofy boss. Micolash was probably my least favorite in the game before, and even tho I had a much better time with him this time, he still isn't great. What really makes up for it tho is he has hands down my favorite dialogue in the game, god it's so entertaining and goddamn whoever voiced him is amazing. The rest of the bosses I either like or love, and again even some of these I do like because of certain other aspects. I know a lot of the bosses aren't perfect but I'm surprised I never outright hated any of them, can't say the same for something like Bed of Chaos or Dragon God lole.

Don't really have much to say about the OST besides the fact it's great like most other souls games. My favorite tracks were the aforementioned Witches of Hemwick theme, the Cleric Beast theme, Micolash's theme, the hunter's dream theme and Gehrman's theme. Those were definitely the standout songs.

My take on the Chalice dungeons are they're a nice distraction from the base game but I probably won't play them again on future replay's. I only dived into them on that playthrough in 2019, and while they were cool they do get tedious if you're going for them all. It is nice how they have unique bosses in them, but yeah not super keen on them. Tho I never hated them like other people and I don't think they detract from the game because it feels more like a side thing which I'm fine with.

Before I end of my review, I just wanted to list off a couple issues with the game. Blood vials are obviously a big point of contention for some people and yeah it is annoying how you might have to eventually grind them if you run out, I never really had an issue with this personally. It's really easy to get them naturally and there's a really good early grinding spot right next to the first lamp in the game lol. Speaking of lamps, I guess people find it annoying how you have to warp back to the Hunter's Dream every time and then warp to another place from there? I guess it's a minor convenience but it never bothered me ever. Now this being 30 FPS is definitely jarring when going from games like Dark Souls III or Sekiro (I know I was taken aback when I came back to this after DS3) and while it would be so awesome if a remaster came out (please no remake dear god) I again never had a major issue with it. People saying it makes the game unplayable, I don't get you lol.

Anywho, this was another long ass review from me but I just absolutely adore this game despite some small flaws. It just gets even better with the DLC which I also beat this time around. Look out for that review very soon!

Super Mario Bros Wonder is an interesting case. After four New Super Mario Bros games and them not being super innovative compared to each other, 2D Mario had become stale. Were they bad games? No, they just didn't do anything special in the slightest. Now after 10+ years since the last NSMB game, we have the next big 2D Mario game, Mario Wonder. Does it do enough different from the NSMB series? Hell yeah it does! Am I totally in love with it and consider it peak 2D Mario like a lot of people have been feeling? Sadly no, it has several issues that really hold it back in my eyes. But it does do a lot right.

The biggest change from NSMB and one of the best aspects of this game is the changed art style. Gone is the very samey art style that was used in all the NSMB games. Now Mario and the gang are expressive as ever and really feel more like their more classic games. There's so many different animations for various moves and interactions with things, it's great. They even brought back Mario's hat moving up and down when he jumps from Mario World. There was clearly a lot of love put into the overall style of the game, definitely a much-needed change, I think.

Another really nice change is just the amount of new stuff they crammed into this game. This game is absolutely filled to the brim with brand new enemies and level gimmicks. There were some returning enemies ofc but like 80% of the enemies in this game were all brand new, and that's just awesome imo. And as for the level gimmicks, they tie into the new wonder flower which basically just throws all kinds of ideas at you. One level you may see singing piranha plants, another one you might see Mario turn into a spiked ball. There's even one where you ride this super cool dragon, man that was cool. The abundance of different ideas, even if they do get reused sometimes, is just very immense.

I also enjoyed the secrets this game had. It's definitely not as expansive as Mario World in that regard but finding the game's secrets were pretty fun. Especially since it unlocked the special world that you can access early on like Mario World, man that was cool. I'd say I enjoyed most of the worlds in this game actually besides World 3 (idk it was just lame) but besides that every world was pretty solid. My favorite world though had to been 4 just because I remember being really impressed with some of the levels there.

Badges were whatever. I didn't really use them most of the time because I felt they made the game easier depending on the badge. The badge levels tho were pretty cool even if a little short.

Alright time for the negatives, why I don't love this game as much as everyone else. One of the biggest issues I had was the difficulty curve. I honestly did not think this game had a good climb in difficulty. I found every world pretty easy for the most part up until the bowser levels, which amped it up a little bit. And then the final badge stage was actually decently tough. I found past games, even the NSMB games to have a much better difficulty curve. Speaking of that final badge stage, while I found that somewhat difficult (even if it did have 3 checkpoints in it, that and the final regular stage in the special world were nowhere near as hard as some of the final stages in some of the more recent Mario games. Found that somewhat disappointing along with the easier difficulty as a whole.

Another thing I didn't like were the lackluster bosses. Reusing Bowser Jr 4 times was just really lame imo. They got so creative with the levels and they end up doing that for the bosses? Man, that's just so much missed potential I think. Speaking of the final Bowser fight, it was alright? It was again easy but also felt uninspired. Like the first thing I thought of when I saw it was the final boss to DKCR. Idk, they could've done much better with it along with the bosses as a whole.

Something else that kinda irked me, while I do like how experimental a lot of the levels can be, a chunk of them just felt like filler. You have your regular levels, your little badge levels which is fine but then you have these break levels that sometimes take literally 5 seconds to beat. I'd much rather play actual full-length levels instead and a lot of the time I just said out loud "what was the point of that". Idk, I never hated any of them, again they just felt more like filler.

I guess one more little thing that annoyed me, and it ties into the easiness of the game, is the fact that when you collect those purple coins worth 10 and then die, you keep it even after dying. Star coins never worked like that in the NSMB games and it makes certain levels that would otherwise be pretty tough to 100%, super easy.

The talking flowers I'm neutral on. They can be kinda funny but they never made me hate them nor like them too much. They're just kind of there and don't disrupt the gameplay really.

Before ending the review tho, I will say after beating the final final badge level, that final badge you get is very awesome. I just love how weird the developers got with this game, that badge reminded me of that one song in We Love Katamari lol. Also the end credits to the game were really cool too.

In the end I did really enjoy this game and it's definitely a step-up from the NSMB games overall. However, it has enough issues imo that hold it back from being really great. I know that's a hot take, I'm not expecting a ton of people to agree with me but I'd take Mario World any day over this game personally. I'd put this game around on par with Mario 3 and 3D World methinks. Also speaking of Mario World, playing this made me wanna replay that so that's what I'm gonna do. Look out for that review next!

7.5/10

So after playing Mario Wonder and generally enjoying it, I wanted to replay my favorite 2D Mario. I wanted to see if it was total nostalgia that was keeping me from not liking Mario Wonder as much as this and well maybe it still is? Either way, as I did with my other playthroughs, I had an absolute blast playing this and still consider it peak 2D Mario and one of my favorite platformers ever.

I think the main reason I really love it, is there's just so many secrets to find. There's 96 different exits in this game and like at least a third or more are secret exits. They're everywhere and they're really fun to find. Some of them can be quite tricky for newcomers, tho I've played this game so much that I know where everything is. Finding a secret exit in a normal level and then finding a secret exit in that secret level you just unlocked, man it's just so cool. Every single time I start a new playthrough, I always go to the star world really early, it's super fun.

I also love just how weird and wacky this game is, a lot of the stages can feel very dream like with how out there they are. In general the level design is very fresh and there's new ideas thrown out you even until the very end of the game. The game is also chock full of brand new enemies, even ones exclusive to this game that never returned to future titles.

The general gameplay is more slippery than Mario 3 and while some players may dislike this change, I enjoy it. It takes a little getting used to it at first but once it clicks, it feels great. It's more skill based but also never frustrating at least for me. I also think the game as a whole is never super frustrating (well maybe some of those special stages lol) but also never a walk in the park. I think this game has a perfect difficulty curve, it can get a bit challenging in certain levels near the middle and end. Though you could also easily get 99 1-UPs from that one level with the immense amount of Koopas lole.

I really love the OST, it's very simplistic with how it's just different renditions of the same song for most of it but it really works. I absolutely adore the end credits theme too. Another awesome thing this game did was give Mario a lot of personality. Whether it's his hat bobbing up and down when he jumps, to those really wacky cutscenes that play when you beat a castle, this game is full of personality.

Even though I've played this game many times, I still have trouble with it at certain points. I had a really rough time trying to get the secret exit for Cheese Bridge Yoshi-less, and then some of the special stages (specifically Tubular and Mondo) always give me a hard time. Some castle levels also trip me up sometimes too, I don't think this game is super easy like I've heard some people say idk.

So in the end, yeah it may just be nostalgia talking but I truly think this game is peak and definitely peak Mario, at least for me. I love this game so much man.

The game has come a long way since the early betas of last year. It's been a rocky road, and we still have a long way to go but if the team can keep up with adding content as well as evolving the game with this "community first" attitude they've stuck to. I think this game will have a long future ahead of it.

Of course this game isn't going to "kill COD" but as a nice alternative I can see it developing quite the devoted fanbase. Mark and his team need to remain communicative now that the game is out tho.

Elder Scrolls Blades could be "fun" I think if it wasn't for the fact it has wait times to build shit and premium currency to skip these times. The loop of being sent on little missions to get loot and then use that loot to build the town seems fine enough. The missions are short and extremely simple, and there are secrets to find (sort of like a doom level), except every interractable item glows so you can find the secret levers very very easy.

This does take the loot of Elder Scrolls and turn it into piss because they "needed" to make it have descriptors like "Fire Hide Helmet" or epic/rare versions of Hide Helmets. Elder Scrolls doesn't need that shit if they EVER add that to mainline Bethesda games.... God save our souls...

Also the touchscreen controls suck. Moving in a 3D space with the virtual thumbstick AND moving camera by swiping sucks. You can tap the screen to move somewhere, but it doesnt feel like it understands what you want to do so it sucks.

Like I do think what this game's basic concept is could be dope, but its designed to be a free mobile game, so it has free mobile game bullshit.

This is the second part of a two-part review for Monster Hunter: world, except this one will be for Iceborne. I strongly encourage you to read the first part here. Iceborne is an equally long game as World, but I don’t have as much to cover this time, so it should be shorter. This DLC has been hyped up for me way before I got into Monster Hunter, so I went in with moderate expectations, but considering my issues with the base game, I wasn’t expecting anything mind-blowing. Needless to say, it was a fantastic experience with a few snags, let’s get right into it.

Iceborne is a substantial DLC right away because it fundamentally changes how each weapon is played and what they can do. Longswords for example, get the Iai slash and Iai spirit slash. Iai slash becomes an essential tool since landing it will allow your meter to naturally charge overtime, giving you more room to disengage from the monster without fully compromising your ability to perform your Spirit Slash combo. Iai Spirit Slash on the other hand is a higher skilled foresight slash that rewards you with tremendous damage, large part-break damage, and is visually striking. However, the issue with this particular move is the timing is far too tight at times, and it has a lot of factors that make it unreliable and random which severely hinders any sort of benefit it could provide on paper. I’m not an expert when it comes to how this move works, however, I recommend watching this video by Peppo, a former speedrunner about Iai Spirit Slash. It was incredibly informal, and was personally the decision for me to never use this move despite the theoretical potential and advantage it provides. With that said, the simple inclusion of Iai Slash makes Longsword much more forgiving to play despite already being rather easy. Other weapons I can’t comment on as much, however a lot of them usually tie into another mechanic introduced into Iceborne, which is the Clutch Claw.

Clutch Claw is a rather divisive mechanic overall. In concept, it allows you to latch onto a monster from a relatively close distance, once you are latched onto a monster you have a few options. You can “tenderize” that part of the monster, which allows for more damage to be dealt in that specific area. Tenderizing takes two strikes to tenderize with light weapons, while heavy weapons only take one. This would be a fantastic mechanic because it’d allow the hunters a much faster means of defeating monsters while also rewarding monster knowledge by tenderizing weak points to deal even more damage. The issue with this mechanic for Iceborne specifically are the monsters themselves, or rather their bloated health pools. Monsters in Iceborne require you tenderize them to deal adequate damage for them to go down at a reasonable pace, which bogs down many fights to “clutch claw and tenderize as soon as possible”. It heavily restricts the approach one can take fighting monsters in Iceborne, that’s not to mention how inaccurate The Clutch Claw also is. Aiming the clutch claw requires you to aim a reticle at the part you wish to clutch onto, if you aim successfully, then there’s no issue, but that’s the problem, the aiming is terrible. Monsters are incredibly fast and always moving, so having the time to carefully aim and clutch onto a monster is a nightmare, on top of its short range, you really need to put yourself in danger to do it. At least if you latch onto the wrong part, you can jump to other parts of the monster, but this can waste time and has incredibly odd input buffering issues from personal experience, but this may have been my own issue entirely by quickly hitting the buttons, it was annoying all the same.

Clutch Claw’s second important use is wall banging with the slinger. In World, the slinger was mostly used for environmental interaction and getting the monster’s attention while also being able to interrupt their attacks if timed right. Wall banging is not only better in every conceivable way to these options, but once again brings up a balancing issue, except in reverse to tenderizing. If you can clutch onto a monster’s face while they’re not enraged you can use up all of your slinger ammo to make them go sprinting into a wall, which will deal tremendous part break damage and have them topple over, giving you a gigantic opening. You can also adjust where the monster is facing to ensure they run into some obstacle or wall for the topple, which is useful. Wall banging pretty much trivializes any fight before Iceborne, and in Iceborne itself, it can be equally trivializing with the right coordination, guaranteeing a topple is already strong, but wall banging itself can deal immense damage to a monster as well. While I think the challenge of the monsters you fight in Iceborne can make up the difference here, wall banging at first is an incredibly satisfying and fun mechanic, but it’s far too easy and rewarding for something that only requires some slinger ammo and the monster not being enraged. Let’s not forget to mention that tenderizing the monster will drop slinger ammo for you if you use a light weapon, the game is giving you the resources to repeat this process over and over. That’s the fundamental problem with Iceborne to me, they design these monsters around both of these concepts, to tenderize, and to wall bang,, so to make up for that, they made monsters have so much health and resistance, if you decide not to use these methods, I’d argue your chances of succeeding later become vastly lower. Not to mention it can slow down certain fights to an absolute crawl, because you need to use the clutch claw, but if the monster is moving around a lot, and you’re just getting unlucky and knocked off a lot, you’re just kind of screwed. Granted you can still fight the monster normally, but with their health, and that lovely time limit adding pressure to be a bit faster, it’s a combination I did not enjoy very much initially, but you do get used to the new flow Iceborne presents, though I feel it dumbs down gameplay a lot and can be a crutch.

I think I’ve addressed some negatives, let’s get into some positives! The monster roster for Iceborne is nothing short of utterly amazing! While I definitely had my favorites from World like Nergigante, Teostra, and Odagaron to name a few, Iceborne quickly introduced me to some of my all-time favorite monsters ever in both design and fights. Nargacuga’s blinding speed yet incredibly fair openings, Brachydios being a knuckle duster with explosive AoE’s, and Barioth’s blinding speed and aggression that can be stopped cold by shattering his wings. There were very few fights in Iceborne I didn’t enjoy or at least tolerated compared to base World, it gave the game much needed variety outside of World’s roster which felt very dinosaur and dragon loaded. Iceborne certainly doesn’t shy away from adding more of these types of monsters, but was pleasantly surprised to see more diverse design inclusions like Banbaro. One thing I could have done without are all the new variants of old monsters. In concept, I think the idea is good, but in Iceborne, they didn’t feel substantial enough at all to warrant including in my eyes. There are exceptions of course like Coral Pukei-Pukei, and Frostfang Barioth to name a few, but others like Ebony Odagaron and Nightshade Paolumu felt more like padding than worthwhile variants worth being in the DLC. That’s a negligent issue in the grand scheme of things, but still an issue regardless, still an amazing roster of monsters I was very pleased with.

Iceborne also has us exploring a new region: The Hoarfrost Reach. Hoarfrost Reach is a beautiful landscape covered in snow, but wasn’t too large or difficult to navigate, on top of being rather flat compared to the likes of the Ancient Forest, I was immediately a fan of this new area. One thing I was not a fan of constantly having to consume hot drinks to ensure my stamina wasn’t lowered by the cold. Thematically speaking, it’s incredibly cohesive and makes sense, mechanically? It’s bothersome to keep up with, but considering it’s not that often you need to refresh your immunity, it’s ignorable, but something I noticed compared to Elder’s Recess where you only needed to consume Cold Drinks for specific sections, not the entire map. We also get an entire new hub for this DLC, Seliana, wow. Seliana in stark comparison to Astera, was remarkably designed, much flatter, much easier to traverse, and had an unbelievably cozy and immersive feel. I loved everything Seliana had to offer in both layout and new activities such as the generator which just made certain items an absolute breeze to get without farming expeditions anymore. Seliana also had a much better and inviting Gathering Hub, with hot springs, more convenient layout, and again just really cozy. It has much better music, you get your own room you can customize and do side quests to obtain more decoration options which is an awesome inclusion that’ll give the game far more playtime and longevity for people who enjoy that. I personally only dabbled with it, but I was thoroughly impressed with how much you could do with it. As soon as I reached, I never went back to Astera, it’s just too bothersome and badly designed to navigate. I appreciate its verticality and scope, but Seliana is just more inviting and non-intrusive, it wins by a landslide.

Progression with Iceborne also felt far better than base world. A plethora of new monsters means more gear than ever to craft, and most of them are once again useful in their own right and look good to boot, with the added bonus of not having an armor set that can essentially carry you throughout the game like the Defender Gear. With that said, the last armor set in the game one could arguably obtain is far too versatile with how it’s designed, every single weapon or playstyle can be supported by it, and it’s due to this armor set that Iceborne’s endgame grinding is always the same, which is a huge detriment. Had the game allowed for any and all armor combinations to, in theory, be viable, it would have made building and using them long-term far more satisfying and valuable, but instead, what awaits you is a far superior armor set everyone uses, with zero reason not to, no negatives, no drawbacks, nothing, the only caveat being how you obtain it, but we’ll get there. Besides that one issue, the plethora of new options is great, and I very much enjoyed the progression in Iceborne more than the base world. I personally built far more weapons and armor in this expansion than my entire time in Base World because the monsters and difficulty increase every mission warranted it enough to feel important to do.

Iceborne unfortunately retreads the same issues the base world does with cutscenes, missions, and characters. None of it mattered to me, it’s all simply, once again, a means to justify why you’re fighting specific monsters, it works, but is completely unimportant overall. I once again found myself wanting to skip these cutscenes in favor of fighting large monsters. Characters are as one-dimensional as ever, but we do get a break from the Handler in this expansion for a little while, which was nice, but nothing significant. It’s honestly a tragedy these negatives still exist, as you also need to watch the cutscene first before others can join your hunt, which was equally annoying in base World, this same issue persists here. For as much as Iceborne improved upon base world, this was not one of those areas, and it’s a shame too because this DLC truly felt like it was really trying to right every wrong, but I guess it can’t all be perfect.

Let’s get into my largest criticism for Iceborne, the endgame, or more specifically, the endgame monsters you will be fighting. Now, it’d be hard for me to talk about this since it’s riddled with spoilers. I was inspired by one of my friends and inspirations, @DetectiveFail to use pastebin to discuss spoilers. So for the last section of this review, I highly suggest reading it here if you want my thoughts on it. For those who don’t, or wish not to, I will still give a brief summary here. Essentially, a lot of the final Monsters you fight in World boil down to DPS checks that don’t necessarily cater to skill, but more so how good your build is, and forces you to grind for something good enough to overcome the challenge. Monster Hunter already made it difficult at times to win due to the time limit implemented in hunts, and here that problem is exacerbated further. If your damage isn’t good enough, then you will simply wipe, that’s all there is to it. Not to mention the difficulty spike in the last two monsters especially is far too high, and I personally struggled to defeat them for several hours, to days. It was certainly rewarding and a huge accomplishment, but also an obstacle that will ensure I will never aim to complete this DLC ever again because the entire grind was rather unpleasant and not very fun. Instead it was incredibly frustrating and felt like the odds were always against me to win, this is ironically in the same spirit as Monster Hunter aims for, to feel an insurmountable challenge against giant monsters you can and will overcome. But here it feels legitimately impossible, and many have told me from talking about the final boss in Iceborne that they never came close to beating it.

This has been a very long review in the making, I appreciate everyone’s patience and support as I got this finished. I’m happy to say it is now finished, and ready to review some other great games I’ve been playing while working on this. Overall, I did love Iceborne, it was nothing but an improvement from the base game with tons of implementations, monsters, and ideas I felt were mostly good, others I can’t necessarily say I’d be sad if they never returned. While I do take many issues with the game and its expansion, I got to say it’s still a remarkable game. I’ve always wanted to get into this series, and I’m glad I did with this one! I can easily recommend it to others for the immersive monster behavior and designs, the soundtrack, and the fun combat that hits a few snags along the way. Thank you all for reading my review of Iceborne! Next time, we’ll be mixing drinks and changing lives! Until next time.