The Rising Tide brings more Final Fantasy XVI, with both the positives and negatives.

I really found myself enjoying the opening hours, and found the new areas to explore breathtaking. The new story is engaging, and the new combat abilities are fun to play around with.

Unfortunately, I found the soundtrack okay, the new primal fight underwhelming, and the new "arcade" mode a rehash of existing systems. Sidequests return in their all their FF14 glory, that is more mundane MMO fetch quests.

Overall it's more FFXVI, a game I enjoyed. The price ¥2420, (about $15USD) fits for the amount of content, but I felt like there was lots of content I didn't ask for. I wish they had taken some feedback on board and played more to the games strengths.

Dragon's Dogma 2 is a return to the "hardcore/cult classic" dark fantasy role-playing game. The power fantasy combat returns, combined with a thrilling world to explore. The game does not cohesively come together, much like the original. Which is a shame, but I'm already hopeful for a "Dark Arisen" expansion to further explore the combat.

Pros:
- Vast open world, that is rewarding and interesting to explore
- Gameplay and combat are excellent with lots of vocations
- The Pawn system remains one of the most innovative and unique game systems
- Voice acting and dialogue are excellent

Cons:
- Enemies quickly lose any threat to the player. The game stops feeling challenging quickly.
- Lack of monster and enemy variety
- Due to above, exploration loses it's thrill, and you mow through packs of weak enemies.
- Quest design does not complement fast-travel system, unless you read guides and plan ahead.
- Story has weak pacing, was short, and lacking depth.
- No Mystic Knight, Trickster was a complete mistake
- (Disclaimer: I'm no music expert) The OST was high-quality, but felt deprived of anything unique or emotional

Overall:
Dragon's Dogma 2 is a game that is fun to explore, with excellent combat and multiple vocaitons/party synergies to try. The pawn system returns, and the enemies from the original; but the player grows strong too quickly and outlevels the game/enemy design. The games looks really good, with improved UI over the first title. There are perfomance issues in towns, but I never had issues during combat. The story starts strong, but quickly falls off. The true ending was somewhat satsifying. They wanted to focus more on the story, but most of what I found interesting they used from the first game. I found the soundtrack largely forgetable. The original featuring "Into Free" by Bz was going to be hard to beat, but it feels like the ignored the originals electric guitars and unique OST which is a shame.
Dragon's Dogma 2 is a fun dark fantasy adventure. The sense of adventure, and preparation is excellent. The combat and pawn system serve only to highten it. I'm definitely hoping they release expansions that focus on the combat, because that is the true strength of the game.

Pros:
- Combat is fun, sessions was a unique and fun mechanic
- Enjoyed playing as all the cast members
- Lots of costumes to collect
- The upgrade systems for weapons, skills, and other mechanics is really good

Cons:
- Little to no quality of life across most aspects of the game
- Lots of wasted time in menus, battle, questing, traversing
- No way to check sidequests
- The game drags on a little too long and without the QoL it starts to feel like a drag
- Combat isn't particularly well balanced, on hard either feel too strong or too weak. Which is a shame because the few battles that they got right were lots of fun

Overall:
A fun, lighthearted JRPG to play on the switch. The story is uplifting and lightweight, the characters are interesting enough and the gameplay is decent for a relative of SMT. The only real downsides are the lack of quality of life features, and the way the game drags in most aspects; story, dungeons, travelling, etc. That being said the combat is fun, and I enjoyed the upgrade system. The music is nothing to write home about, especially from a game based around idols.