• The physical/special attack split is so all over the place, so many compromises to have good builds (Absol 😵‍💫)

• Norman being the Champion would have made the story a bit better. Team Aqua and Magma do stink but it makes it funnier when they realize how much they screwed up by summoning Grou and Kyo and OF COURSE I have to go call their mom to stop them from fighting

• Gardevoir and Hariyama 💓💓💓

• There's a lot of water and I regret not getting Manectric

• You destroy a sick kid's hopes and dreams right at the end goal, what did GameFreak mean by that

Kirby Forgotten Land is my favorite Kirby game of all time, and I'm not even done with the post-game content. This game has so much charm and a lot of love put into it by HAL. The only thing I didn't really like about this game was the lack of copy abilities (12 of them) and the amount of moves removed from them. I was surprised at the amount of abilities that were in the game, even some staples like Stone, Fighter, and Beam were removed.

Other than that I didn't have any problems with this game because it only goes up, there are no down moments in the game at all. Like when I found out that with the d-pad you could get Kirby to say hi to you or the Waddles Dee's, and the Waddle Dee's I love them. There are over 250+ Dee's in the game but you only need 1/16th of that to actually beat the game, BUT. If you miss out on any Waddle Dee's out in the open or are so obvious to collect, you are a monster and no matter how hard you pray you will find yourself in hell when you die.

Waddle Dee Town is one of my favorite areas in the game. You can say hello to Waddle Dee's and they'll say hi back, you can knock one down and they'll get back up looking sad, it's such a neat detail and I love it. The more Dee's you collect the bigger the town grows and you unlock more buildings that will and can help you in the game. How HAL worked the Star Coins and Waddle Dee's is so good because it gives players an incentive to look around the area for hidden rooms rather than just speed blitzing through levels.

I don't have much to say about the level design rather than I enjoyed just about all of them and I like how detailed each level is, they all have their own story to tell.

Kirby had a stellar transition into 3D and I can't wait for more games like this one.

Atlus certainly did not waste the rare opportunity to tell a character focused story where most of the main cast isn’t composed of snot nosed brats. No stupid kids here to spoil the fun of leading a party of nothing but sad, pathetic individuals going through their quarter-life crisis. FUCK you, Persona 5. Adults ROCK!

Joking aside. Within the context of the Persona franchise, Eternal Punishment is definitely among one of the more distinct entries. As opposed to the other games, major character moments don’t consistently act as these scenes of clarity that overtly define a character’s progress as a person. In fact, it’s not uncommon that these moments will raise more questions than they answer, rarely ever making it immediately clear how a scene reflects on someone’s journey in the moment. And it’s through this handling where I think P2EP’s cast shines. At the start of the story, these characters feel genuinely detached from each other. They really struggle to open up, sometimes even lashing out over the simple idea of emotionally connecting. But they don’t strictly develop through opening up about their insecurities and immediately growing past them. It’s more so through their amazing chemistry and challenging each other through their unique perspectives on life that you feel a real bond begin to form. It’s a perfect balance between focusing on the cast members as individuals while also highlighting their importance in how they work as a collective.

I find one of the more under-appreciated aspects of Eternal Punishment are the major, fundamental changes it makes to Persona 2’s core to accommodate for the new, jaded perspective of its characters. The tone is far more subdued. Gone is the goofy, lighthearted bickering between Ginko and Eikichi; replaced now by moral conflicts of ideals between Katsuya and Baofu. The importance of individuality is put into question by the recurring motif of ‘Fate’. Asking what purpose is there to finding one’s self if one’s self can crumble under the power of nihilism, fortune, and higher powers? Its apparent emphasis on challenging gameplay, not only finally forces the player to fully engage with the duology’s battle mechanics, but reinforces the brutality the characters endure throughout the story. The game isn’t some cynical tale that spits in the face of its prequel. Nor is its prequel worse off because of its more outlandish and comedic nature. FAR from all of that. These aspects just allow for Eternal Punishment to act as a wonderful contrast to Innocent Sin, establishing a tone that compliments and builds off the heavy nature of the prequel’s final act.

Where Innocent Sin is remarkable for its effective balancing act of heartfelt character work and the most insane set pieces you could possibly imagine, Eternal Punishment looks to take a bit of a different approach with its priorities. The constantly escalating tension and shocking revelations remain, but the downtime between these moments become just as integral. It’s the short conversations mixed with powerful silence and contemplative penitence that’ll leave just as big of an impact as most of the overarching drama. It’s no surprise one of the lead writer’s favorite scenes is a short, one minute exchange revolving around the nature of adulthood where most of the dialogue boxes are filled with nothing but pauses.

As I further age into early adulthood, it’s easy to get lost in the confusion spurred forth by taxing shit like sin, identity, and especially responsibility. I’m not usually one to see myself reflected somewhere within a story’s world, but I find it’s so easy to attach myself to a cast so… human in their writing and presentation. Whether it be Ulala’s longing for comfort. Katsuya and Baofu’s ever-present battle with their regret. Tatsuya struggling to introspect on his strange, confusing life while dealing with consequence. Or the way everyone is able to find some sort of value in their relationships and provide for each other in their own ways. There’s a resonant aspect to find in every character that hits twice as hard thanks to the narrative’s mature handling of its personal beats.

It’s good, for my sake, that Eternal Punishment is here to affirm that there truly are some good things about being an adult… Just a few.

When I first started playing Yakuza 3, one of the games the opening chapters reminded me of the most was Kingdom Hearts II. It wasn't nearly the same in its goals, but both provided compelling character work and symbolism in a sort of "calm before the storm" of the main game. Ever since that thought entered my mind, this game etched its way back into my brain more and more before I decided to just drop everything and go through a full replay of this game. I hadn't played this game in a long time, I played through it several years ago on PCSX2, partially due to my excitement for the release of Kingdom Hearts III, and had the time of my life. Revisiting games that hold this status to you run the risk of them turning out worse than you remember, but that couldn't have been more of the opposite of my experience. I formed a newfound appreciation of the mastery behind this game, especially with a few contributing factors.

One thing I decided to do was use the site's journal feature to record my progress through this replay. Normally I really struggle to make use of stuff like this, (I failed to do so for Great Ace Attorney) but I found it oddly natural to do so here. Maybe it was because I played it before, and I didn't have to focus as much on speculation. Nonetheless, my favorite experience of this was how I ended up thinking more about the game and finding a further appreciation for some elements, even if I didn't jot them all down. Like the way the Disney worlds tie into the game's main themes of identity, or the way Roxas's presence continually comes through in so many elements of the game. I had glimpses of these previously, but I didn't really hone in on them as much until this playthrough.

More importantly, this was my first time playing through the game on Critical Mode. Now I can say for sure that Critical Mode is one of my favorite difficulty settings in any video game, and the definitive way to play this title. All of the enemies and especially bosses are absolute powerhouses, but so are you. You get so much extra abilities and are so much stronger, but mistakes are far more punishing due to increased damage values and having half the maximum health you'd have in any other mode. It's a type of difficulty that I honestly wish was present in more action games.

This experience also does wonders for the bosses, particularly the fights against Organization XIII. If there's any difficulty where Critical Mode shines it's here. You can constantly make large strides and deal massive damage to your opponents, but it also forces you to be mindful of what they're capable, pay attention to their Revenge Values, and learn when the opportune moment to stay back or strike is, with your many movement options coming into play. It makes each fight feel like a no-holds-barred duel in ways that only the Vergil battles in the Devil May Cry series can compare. This game has so many of my favorite boss fights in the entire medium, they're all extremely satisfying to take on.

This is less of a full review of the game and more of a stream of thoughts reflecting on my re-experience with one of my favorite games of all time. Even though I have a lot of games I plan to play this year, I feel like I'm consistently going to be coming back to this one to work towards beating the hardest challenges the game has to offer, maybe even full-on completion if I feel like it. I honestly don't know what I'm gonna play right after this, I think I'll just let my heart guide me.