this is the last bit of homework i was told i needed to complete before i can FINALLY play the final fantasy seven remake, and while its far from the worst thing the ff7 compilation has to offer, its still pretty mid. the dmw completely trivialises combat, resulting in gameplay that is lacking in depth even when compared to lesser entries in the compilation. the writing and characters are all pretty one-dimensional, with the exception of genesis (gackt) who is zero-dimensional and cringe incarnate. zack and aerith are very cute together, but their relationship is never developed enough to really get me invested in either of them. strangely, crisis core's narrative shines brightest once the game has ended, which leads me to believe that the writers started with a strong conclusion and then tried to develop a story from there. this was a technique i once attempted while writing an essay in high school.

none of it is offensively bad, but its hard for me to ever consider recommending this game to anyone. if you're really interested in the ff7 compilation, then i guess you could give crisis core a shot. its short, stupidly easy, and pretty mindless. just don't go into it with any expectations. however, if you don't care about the compilation, there really isn't any reason to touch this.

the kind of thing that can only really be enjoyed as baby's first video game. controls are clunky, camera is vomit-inducing, level design ranges from decent to terrible, and the team gimmick gets old pretty quickly.

the most interesting part of sonic heroes is how directly it signals the beginning of the end for this franchise. everything bad about the games that come after start to rear their heads in sonic heroes. to be fair, there were moments when i felt myself enjoying parts of this game. i can see how there's some satisfaction to mastering each of the character's abilities and seamlessly switching between them. but would i recommend this game to anyone? only if i hated them.

when i was a kid, i had a grand idea for a game i always wanted to play. it was a top-down 2d rpg that takes place in a huge fantasy world with hundreds of hidden secrets to find and lots of different items and enemies. a link to the past is that game.

even though the world isn't huge, it's absolutely littered with so many things to do, monsters to fight and secrets to find that it feels so much bigger than it really is. it perfectly divides your time between overworld exploration and dungeon spelunking so you never get bored of either and always have something new and fresh to experience. despite the clunky controls and combat that somewhat date the game, it incorporates mechanics that feel so far ahead of its time, i was constantly surprised whenever i encountered something new.

sure, i often had to resort to guides to figure out how to progress, but that's all a part of the fun. i actually quite enjoyed seeking out 14 year old dungeon maps and discovering entire hidden areas or items i never expected to find. it's like, even outside of the game, i was still discovering new secrets in the guides that others have made over the years. the secrets never end! thanks to my poor memory, i'm sure i'll eventually forget where all of those hidden pathways or fairy fountains are, so when i inevitably play through a link to the past again (and i'm sure i will), it'll feel as magical as the first time i played it.

there are two things that i despise most in a video game: long, boring, slow moving platforms, and having to redo the same thing over and over again. shadow the hedgehog commits both of these sins, and then takes them to the extreme. words cannot express my utter contempt for this game, or just how angry and exhausted it made me feel. i came into it looking for answers to shadow's backstory. instead, i was left with even more questions.

who am i? why am i doing this? why do i enjoy torturing myself? why does this boss have so much health? why do i have to collect 400 (four hundred) rings to progress? are the people who enjoy this game even worthy of the title "people"? the existential crisis i felt as i forced myself through shadow the hedgehog's abysmal level design was unlike anything i had experienced before. perhaps, that was the intention. what better way to convey shadow's angst than through a game so bad the player has no choice but to feel the same way?

the game seeks to answer the burning question "who is 'shadow the hedgehog'"? is he a hero or a villain? parallels can be drawn between the protagonist and the game itself. is it a fast paced platformer or a methodical third person shooter? it turns out, neither. it's just fucking dogshit. it has zero redeeming qualities. having played almost every mainline sonic game to date, i can say with confidence that this is the worst of them all and nothing comes close. i hated every second of it, and god only knows how i made it through the whole thing. there is no joy to be found within shadow the hedgehog.

All the way back in 2010, me and my brother were gifted a Wii during our first week of school that Fall. I had just started the 5th grade and a week or two prior I had rented and played a chunk of Super Mario Galaxy 2 on my dad's friend's Wii during a beach trip. I absolutely loved what I played of it but after the trip was over, I had to return the game back to the rental store and of course the Wii was not mine, so I craved more. Like I said, my dad gifted us a Wii and with it was Super Mario Galaxy. My brother got the Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs game so it's pretty clear only one of us got a quality title. I was infactuated with this game. I can still remember running home from school, going right to my Wii as I couldn't wait to play it any longer. I'd wake up super early on weekends too just to play more. This and Galaxy 2 were basically the first non-licensed game's I truly loved and I'm very thankful for that as it made me want to play more Nintendo titles afterwards. As you can see I adore this game, let's talk about why!

I think the defining factor as to why people love this game so much (besides the story) is its atmosphere and portrayal of space. Sure, you have more goofy or lighthearted galaxies like Honeyhive or Beach Bowl that wouldn't feel out of place in another game. But a good chunk of the galaxies in this game, as well as the Comet Observatory, just have this really unique emptyness or marvel that really makes you feel like you're in space. Take Space Junk Galaxy for example. It's a very serene and solemn galaxy where most of the setting is literal space with some junk spread throughout just like the name implies and it's very relaxing to go through. A lot of the time I would just go into first person and marvel at the scope of all the planets or just look at the different skyboxes each galaxy has. Even on this playthrough, when I've played this game countless times, I still did this..it just never gets old to me.

As I said, the story is probably the other aspect people love about this game the most. It's still a Mario game so don't expect something mind-blowing but the cutscenes that are here are all great. Be it the beginning cutscene where Mario gets shot at by a magikoopa and gets flung to the starting planet while Peach screams his name, to the ending cutscene where all the Luma's save the entire universe by sacrificing themselves. It's just all so well done. Granted, these cutscenes only really happen at the beginning and end of the game, but it's what's contained in them that matters and it's the single best story in any mainline Mario game hands down. That's not even getting into the optional Rosalina's storybook which is in itself the single best part of the story. It just adds that extra depth to her character and let's you see who she is and how she got there. And even replaying it now, I still teared up...it's that good.

The OST I also think is the single best soundtrack in any Mario game. It has it all, it has catchy songs, it has majestic songs, it has atmospheric songs, it has emotional songs. I love Galaxy 2's OST too but it doesn't top 1 in my opinion and I think that's specifically because 2 doesn't have those emotional/sad songs which I value a bunch nowadays. Those would be A Wish, Sad Girl, and Family. Those last two especially, goddamn dude, I always can't help but get emotional when I hear them. Some other more lighthearted songs I love are Gusty Garden obviously, Melty Molten Galaxy, Buoy Base Galaxy and The Comet Observatory. All in all, an absolutely fantastic soundtrack.

As for the galaxies themselves...they're good! There may be some I'm not the biggest fan of, mostly the beach/bee galaxies and that's mostly because they reuse that theme twice which kinda stinks. But in general the galaxies are quite good even if they're aren't a ton of main one's. In that regard, 2 still does it better because there's way more fun and varied galaxies in that one, but 1 still has some really great levels to play around in. My favorites were Gusty Garden, Buoy Base, Freezeflame, Melty Molten and Space Junk. Special mention to Toy Time too for being so wacky and fun. Though, honestly another small critique I have with the game is the prankster comets. I'm fine with the purple coin ones but for the ones you playthrough your first time through before Bowser, there only being 4 types is kinda lame. 2 fixed this somewhat by adding more types and making it less obvious what it's gonna be but I felt it was worth pointing out. I will also say, people saying the movement in this game sucks I will never get. Is it better than Odyssey's? Definitely not but I still think it's a ton of fun to play around with the gravity. That's just me at least.

So yeah, I know I gave a criticism or two but I still absolutely adore this game and 2 fixes those issues I have and I sort of group them together as one game so it balances each others faults out. It and Galaxy 2 are basically my favorite games ever and I go back and forth on which one I prefer regularly for different reasons so I usually group them together even if both give pretty different gaming experiences. Either way, this game means everything to me and it's a must play for every gamer I think. I love it so much. Anyways, figured I'd go and replay 2 while I'm at it so look for that review soon!

Also forgot to say, I played as Luigi this time around. He's fun to play as even if he is slippery cuz his jumps are much larger. The reward you get for 100%ing both Mario and Luigi is lame as hell though and definitely was improved in 2.

dragon quest is by far my favorite series of all time, and even then i only hope i can one day love dragon quest as much as dragon quest 11 loves dragon quest. it hears everyone out there who ignorantly derides this series for every "this is too basic" criticism you could think of and simply says "even if you were right, who cares?", because dragon quest 11 is a game that adores the structure and stories of the games before while simultaneously knowing there's so much more that can and will be done with that structure going forward.
i'm really glad that i played all of the other 10 mainline games before 11, because it really does feel like a victory lap with all the little nods to the other games you notice along the way. i hope very deeply and sincerely that one day that this beautiful celebration of this momentous series's storied past will be looked upon as another step in its long history.

for a long time i've been very resistant to playing jrpgs, but i think chrono trigger may have changed that. there is no doubt in my mind that this is one of the greatest games ever created.

maybe it's because it's been a while since i've played a game with decent writing (i just played dirge of cerberus), but within the first hour of play i was enamoured with the story. the plot is simple yet complex, there's always something happening and it never lingers on a specific plot point or event for too long before moving on to the next thing. time travel stories can be hard to pull off, but chrono trigger does it perfectly.

all of the characters are incredible. i love them all. dialogue is short but sweet, conveying exactly the right level of emotion and narrative direction in as few words as possible. the entire cast has a key role to play in the story, and there wasn't anybody who felt irrelevant to the narrative or was a significantly weaker character than the rest. whenever anybody felt sad, i felt sad too. when they were excited, i was right there with them. when they got hurt, i was ready to beat the shit out of whoever was responsible. how dare they hurt robo

i've always known that the genre lends itself well to good storytelling, but i think much of my reluctance to play jrpgs stems from the use of turn-based combat, because that shit can get BORING. that wasn't the case here. much like the narrative, the battle system is extremely easy to understand but offers enough depth for each fight to feel unique and (somewhat) challenging. the atb system is well integrated into chrono trigger, so battles always feels fair and keep you on your toes. and i really loved the inclusion of duel techs. they added a lot of complexity to combat, forcing me to make quick decisions about whether to heal or attack, or if i should attack all enemies or just one, or decide on which elemental magic to use. rarely did battles ever start to feel like a chore, not to mention how i didn't have to grind AT ALL to progress, which is super awesome. in fact, grinding seems to be actively discouraged. but the greatest feature of chrono trigger's combat is actually something else. it's the absence of random encounters. holy shit i cannot tell you how much i love that this game does not have random encounters it is so good

techs are cool not just because they're fun, but also because they look pretty. i loved unlocking a new tech and trying it out just to see the unique animation. in fact, i was always impressed by chrono trigger's visuals as a whole. environments and enemies alike are super varied and detailed, and its surprising how much emotion can be expressed through the simple, low resolution sprites. you can actually tell when your team's crying or cheering, even though they're, like, 12 pixels tall. and, of course, the soundtrack is near flawless. easily one of my favourite game soundtracks i've ever heard. every song is so deeply emotive and memorable, and perfectly communicates how the characters are feeling in each scene. in fact, i'm listening to it as i write this review. my favourites were frog's theme, peaceful days and wind scene.

so i really liked chrono trigger. if i had to make one complaint, it would be that the ending felt a bit unsatisfying. the game ends almost immediately after defeating the final boss, and for a while i was convinced that it was a fake out. but no, that was the true ending. it was still a decent conclusion, it just felt a bit rushed. i would've liked to have spent a bit more time saying farewell to the incredible cast of characters that i'd become a little bit attached to over the past 23 hours of gameplay.

chrono trigger is a game whose every part is so simple, clean and elegant, yet simultaneously complex, emotional and ambitious. its a cozy game, and i think everybody should play it.