I was originally going to write a very long review but instead I'm going to keep this as simple and to the point as I can.

For a whole year now I've been struggling with a quarter-life crisis and a fear of death caused by several things like a health scare, the deaths of loved ones, uncertainty about my future, and more personal reasons I won't get into. Throughout that past year, said fear of death has grown into borderline thanatophobia, to a point I am sometimes afraid of even leaving my home out of fear something may happen to me or others. "We only have so much time in life so live your life to the fullest" is something I've heard again and again but it's a mentality that's easier said than it is to apply. It's not like I can just wake up the day after hearing it and go "Okay, I feel better now!" But something about Persona 3 Reload, about the way it presents it, about the way it says it, just really, really clicked with me in a way no other piece of media with that message has since I played Majora's Mask for the first time nearly fifteen years ago. I bawled my eyes out during the ending. Not just because it was very touching, but even more than that because a whole year's worth of fear and anxiety I had been bottling up came pouring out, and it felt like those worries were being lifted from my body. Yes, I'm still afraid of death (as I said it's not like I'll get better in a single day), but after sitting on my experience with the game since beating it a week ago, I can say this game's answer to my biggest fear has given me newfound resolve to continue moving forward and keep changing myself for the better. This game has seriously impacted my outlook on life and I am so grateful to everyone who worked on Persona 3 Reload, as well as the original Persona 3, for helping tell me what I needed to hear. Tomorrow is a hope, not a promise, so please take care of yourselves. Life is such a precious thing.

HOT TAKE OF THE CENTURY - METROID PRIME 2 IS JUST AS GOOD AS THE FIRST ONE.

Now granted - this is assuming some stuff about the way you're playing. There's three pretty massive issues that can stop plenty of people from enjoying this one.

1) AWFUL save placement in Agon Wastes - I just used save states during that part, but if you don't use them this is probably so much more painful.
2) Dark World draining your health - Don't wait until your health is all the way back up!! There's health pickups everywhere!! Don't be a coward!!
3) Both starting areas are pretty gray - If you can't have me at my Temple Grounds, you don't deserve me at my Sanctuary Fortress. 😙

But aside from the above? My GOD I loved this game. There's so many little improvements from the first.

Big open rooms that make the planet feel less claustrophobic, while still keeping things tight and tense when the devs want to mix things up. Dramatically more unique area theming, meaning you get way more than just the "ice area" or "lava area" of Prime 1. World design that uses ESPECIALLY creative vertical and interconnected maps compared to the "hallway" approach of the first game. Different beams that actually require some on-the-fly strategy to mess with. World progression that's convenient to navigate AND avoids having the solution be a room you forgot about on the opposite side of the planet (most of the time). Tons more focus on kinetic movement! Making Samus feel so much more powerful at the end compared to the start!! The Dark World genuinely making you feel powerless and spooked!! Actually fun bosses!!! (most of the time).

Even the ability to use mouse and keyboard on PrimeHack was such an improvement for my overall immersion...I wish I could use this control scheme for the first game's remaster. It's SO good.

I think there's some totally fair points against Echoes, like the Dark World's areas totally blending together, dimension hopping being fairly underbaked, the love-it-or-hate-it implementation of Zelda elements, and some pretty tanky enemies here and there. I also can't ignore the fact that emulation and some minor cheats - like automatically skipping the world transition cutscenes - definitely impacted my time with it, and in a more "vanilla" play-through I probably would be much more annoyed.

But even with those in mind...I still think Echoes deserves way more love. It's easily the most underrated entry in the Metroid series, and with some minor fixes, it's JUST as fun as the first Prime entry. IMAGINE what this game could look like with an official remaster!!

I'm eating SO good as a new-ish Metroid fan wowwww.

on this game's cover the batmobile is basically the same size as batman. very accurate job from the cover artists!! because that awful car not only eats up so much of your runtime but actively brings down everything else to make room for it too.

about 75% through the main story gotham changes dramatically and forces you to use the car for like an hour. and i had to uninstall it at that point because I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE MAN.

but nine years later it's a PERFECT game for game pass. it's so cool to look at and so fun to play! until it keeps on going and going and you miss the interior tight designs of arkham & city...and a properly paced story...and gameplay that wasn't TANK STEALTH OVER HERE OH MY GODDDDD.

Wow, these new levels are kinda terrible. I can't believe that they were designed by the same people who made the best stuff in the base game. Sure, the charm is still there, and exploring the cruise ship is fun at first. However, actually navigating the ship as a level is really unfun, and the levels that try to mix it up are somehow even worse.

Also the Death Wish levels feel like they were designed explicitly for the freaks that eat, sleep, and breathe Kaizo Mario romhacks. I can't imagine deriving pleasure from this cock and ball torture.

I'll call this finished because of the Arctic Cruise world more than the Death Wish challenges. The challenges suck ass and purposefully waste your time by hiding bonus goals behind completing reused levels from the base game, forcing you to replay already frustrating levels multiple times for no good reason for cosmetic rewards which while cute, aren't worth wasting my time over.

Arctic Cruise is okay, but the second act is far too overtuned for a level entirely based around RNG objectives alongside a straight up broken objective arrow that lies to you. I think there's a part of me that's also a little bothered by how kind of overly mean-spirited the brief story is here compared to anything in the base game. While Hat Kid is a crazy force of pure chaos, she never really actively does something as straight up mean as intentionally crashing a ship just for a time piece here. There isn't really a great resolution for the Captain which is probably what makes it bothersome for me, he's a bit of a grumpy character but he's never antagonistic towards you like say the Conductor is in the base game.

It's $5 bucks and could be worse, it's still more A Hat in Time, but some of this frankly should've just been a free update. There's still charm to that extra world but it's far too short, and the challenge stuff is only going to appeal to veteran players who really want to grind for the rewards.

I'll preface this review with that I have barely touched the Death Wish mode included. However, I have played The Arctic Cruise chapter and it is not very good. All three of the acts require you to fetch things and only get worse the further you get into the chapter. The final act is extremely infuriating to play because it exemplifies the main flaws with A Hat in Time, the camera in tight spaces and janky clambering (especially with sloped surfaces). Don't bother with this DLC if all you are interested in is the new chapter.