Most present feeling I have is that this sure was the game made before Little Goody Two Shoes. Which isn't bad per say, but the accomplishments of LGTS shine brighter while the rigidity of this games ends up peaking through.
Pocket Mirror is at it's core an RPG Maker game but with a ton of great presentation and not a lot of aggravating puzzles and death states. The thing is though, that that's about all I can say about it specifically. With it being the predecessor to LGTS, you can easily see how this games direction would go up in scale and and expanding on.
Along with that, since I played these games chronologically, most of the value in the story was seeing how everything had turned out from this game's prequel. It's neat to see which ending was "canon" and how little details lead into this game.
"Neat" is the word I would have to say though overall. It's neat to go back and see the previous works that originated from something you like. Not groundbreaking exactly, but you get to see the DNA of another thing and trace how it developed.

So much internet culture and entertainment has roots in this game, and even now I can understand how I'd be so impressive, but also this game is mid.
The world and campaign of HL2 is so strong, so much of the game feel desolate and hopeless. Gordan Freeman really is a messiah for what he'd accomplished in a few days when every outpost and cache made by the resistance is either skin and bones or filled with death. Your trek is filled with stops and starts of needing to clear a narrow path against an overwhelming force. Or at least until the end where out of nowhere the resistance rises in just a week and overthrows City 17.
And with the main writing and direction there's the massive weight of being a 20 year old game. So many of the things that would be impressive like vehicles and physics puzzles seem cool until they end up tedious or jank. Another thing is that there's only like, 4 enemy types. Yes many of them function differently, but the game only really having Combine, Head Crabs, and Zombies alongside other miscellaneous things makes a ton of encounters boring. This is probably the worst in the last chapters of the game when you're running around a grey city fighting waves and waves of Combine with the only exceptions being repetitive rocket launcher fights. There are more boss enemies in then game and set pieces, but it really feels like the budget and smoothness of the game dropped out at the last minute.
Looking into the development of Half Life 2, I can kinda get why that is with a different build being leaked and them restarting development along with advancements in the larger industry making games like these quaint. But also, I don't think there's enough meat here for me compared to the other shooters I've played.

[This Review is for FF14 Patches 6.1-6.55]
The long and short of it is that I like EndWalker as an expansion. Ultimately not as much as Shadowbringers, but it's a solid second place.
To preface, I didn't see all the content included. I did not do any Savage or Ultimate Raiding, though I did clear all Extreme Trials at least once. That said, I did enjoy all the battle content I did.
The Pandaemonium Raid series was fun and had some pretty cool designs and music. The new Variant Dungeons are a welcome addition to duty modes, feeling like there's proper dungeon puzzle solving and is a good challenge to try and clear solo. All the trials except one tied into the MSQ which made for them being a good climax for each patch with a lot of good interpretations of old FF4 bosses into a modern MMO fight. All the Tribe Quests tie directly into stuff from the main story, which is something rare to see but always appreciated. Eureka Orthos was there. There wasn't a Field Operation for this expansion which at first I understood then cursed when I went through its replacement.
Island Sanctuary sucks so much as it docks a full point off of this expansion for me, omg. It's such a nothing mode of content that takes forever to do for virtually no reward other than having a beach episode with some side characters. It's the first form of this content they've done so they better do this better in Dawn Trail. Similarly, the Relic Weapon series cut down basically all grinding, but it's become so nothing as a result. With this expansion, it's nothing more than quest to check off on patch day to get a new stat stick. Which could be seen as a larger complaint of the expansion overall, there really isn't content to chew on in lax manner. So much of it, while high quality, is very one and done.
Finally, the patch MSQ is probably the best it's ever been. A problem with previous MSQs is that they're split between being closure for the previous expansion's story while also setting up the next one. The problem with that is some of those don't feel all as well done as the original MSQ or can come off as fluff that doesn't actually mean that much for the larger story. Not to say it's bad per say, but going into a new storyline for the 5 patches feels more cohesive. And it makes it feel less awkward when you dump 40+ hours into the initial MSQ then have to wait months at a time to get to the big conclusion of that original story. Pretty much all the trials being moved into the MSQ also working in the same vein in that all of them feel climactic and adds weight for the story in having real threats more present. It is a doubled edged sword however as it limits the amount of side quests that can be conflict driven to only really having one single trial at the end of the Relic Questline.
Now, my experience with previous expansions has been admittingly very different to End Walker. Being able to burn through an entire MSQ, Raid Series, and other pieces of content really quickly when ever I wanted to do them is very different than doing everything in steps patch to patch. That said, I don't think I can say I enjoyed End Walker as much as Shadow Bringers as an expansion. The variety of content in ShB was all stuff I ended up enjoying more than EW's, even with the flaws I'd complain about for both. Not to mention that the way ShB's story is written acting as a massive recontextualization of everything that's come before, the amazing moments it has, and the set up for the finale of EW ends up meaning more to me than just how well EW capped everything off and set up a new path for things to follow.
Even with the problems I have with End Walker, I'm excited. I think Dawn Trail can only come out stronger and better.

Portal is like, toxi yuri.
In the modern day, it might be hard to think about how far physics, camera work, and player movement have come when a short game like this would be cutting edge. The writing and aesthetics are also surprisingly well done considering how much of it has been opening discussed. Having taken classes for psychology and taught how to ethically run tests, a lot of Glados's dialogue comes off as not that far off from actual instructions and disclosures I've had to write. And the build up to stuff being wrong and the small reveals are also more prevalent that I'd heard. There are multiple rat hole you can get into, not just "the cake is a lie" one and finding the observation rooms devoid of any activity is eerie.
Really want to play Portal 2 again since I remember it be so much better than this in so many ways.

Girlie Game of the Yuri.
This game is a mishmash of so many different influences in both its gameplay and presentation that it's amazing how well everything meshes together. You might think it would be a mess or they would need to sand down the different parts to make it work, but everything sticking out works to make it so unique.
The gameplay is a mix of dating sim and stat time management, minigames, and elevated RPG Maker puzzle & exploration moments. It all mostly meshes well together, technically I'm mixed on the RPGM segments, though. They do seem a bit unfair and trail and air with their puzzles, but the damage is easily heal-able and plays into your health being another state to think about.
The presentation is so immaculate. You'll have fairy tale book cutscenes and areas along with full motion anime cutscenes and stop motion dolls. The character art and cgs are all in a shoujo style I've never really seen replicated anywhere else. Did you know there's multiple musical segments?
There's so much craft and vision put into this game, I Love It.

How the hell did people investigate in the 19th century?
The task of exploring and finding bodies then figuring out how they died was fun. At the same time I'm not all that energized for this kind of puzzling so I just randomly guessed on some entries and completed it that way.
That said, the way the story of the ship unfolds is great as you can stumble upon different events out of order and have no idea how much of everything was connected until you've found every last death.
The detail through out the game is amazing also. Different languages are spoken through out to fit with the passengers and crew being of different nationalities. And the dire state of how people are left by the end with their estates being given a whole 5 pounds for compensation is just grim.
I might not have jived with Obra Dinn's gameplay, but the craft present is unavoidable.

Finished the game for a 3rd time on Survival and going for the Artifact ending.
Being pressed in this way, I saw just how well designed this game really is. While some of my favorite survival horror games don't have problems with how they handle inventory and sub-weapons per say, but the constraint of simplicity from this game's design is so tight that every part of it is perfect. The risk and reward of using the tools combined with the limited inventory puts you in a situation where it's almost dumb not to use them.
The small details are great also. You can insta-kill the first two bosses using thermite if you get real close to them. After an update, you can also upgrade your flash light to not take up space, which doesn't compromise on the concept of keeping the "only 6 item slots" rule. You need to explore to earn that convenience.
There is no single part of this game I dislike, might actually be perfect.

Finally beating this was like finding the child that was switched at birth and realizing that it was better this way. The switched child being Metroid in the family of exploration platformers.
The whole driving point of the game being about clearing a level in one route to unlock new levels, power ups, or change old levels in a cycle gets old real fast. I got lost last time I played and had to use a guide to actually beat it this time. The levels eventually lose their luster from having to go through so many of the same annoyances and gimmicks again and again, and when it's not even for anything that will move you forward, it doesn't feel all that rewarding. In comparing it to Metroid, in even Super Metroid, there's a clear sectioning of the areas with clear indicators of where you can and might be able to go. In Wario Land you can kinda just get lost not know that a long chain of level rewards was what blocked one path.
I entirely get why Wario Land 4 & Shake it went with the idea of escaping the level under a time limit.
Wish there were more Wario games than just Ware coming out, though.