šŸ—£ļø I wanna take you for a ride

Played this on dreamcast 100% ;) legally ;) and what do you know, its peak! This game is ridiculous and needs to be freed so more people can play it today without the trickery, of all the retro fighters i've played this is the one i've had the most fun with without a doubt. How could I not, the roster alone is so crazy for its time, you can air combo iron man as a big cactus bloke or send thanos flying as one of tron bonne's one foot tall lego-man looking servbots.

As a crossover this game is a dream and in many ways I just don't know if it could happen in the same way today, i'm much more of a capcom guy than marvel but so many of the marvel characters are a stupid amount of fun to play too. Its the goofy cast i'm drawn to though like the original characters, the mega man characters and bb hood who feels insanely strong in this game. Also by god they went crazy with some of the moves didn't they, you're able to transform into dark sakura or mecha zangief, unlocking entirely new options. Mechanically this still feels so good 24 years later, so many tools to play around with with near endless team and assist combinations. Its also utterly frantic, like this is chaos in the best way, shit going full screen is just a given and you can zip across the screen at absurd speeds. Combos can be looped and extended for so long but you need a ton of skill to be able to pull them off consistently, watching TAS play this makes it look like a completely different game. Plus this is a game that has not only stood the test of time, but people are still figuring stuff out today.

I have to talk about the art and the soundtrack because this game is beautiful, just so colourful and full of personality. From bengus' gorgeously hand drawn character art to the brilliantly expressive sprite work, this game just oozes joy and love for the craft, I don't know if any game with Marvels' name on it could be this effortlessly creative and charming today but they're welcome to prove me wrong. At a time where sprites were on their way out and 3D was becoming more and more common its fantastic to see such high quality spritework take centre stage. I was particularly enamoured by the little details like during Jill Valentine's 'summon' moves where she looks back in shock and then either hops over the dog or ducks underneath the crow, its so cute. There's just too many of these neat little details to list, all bundled up in a game that, despite this, is pure maximalism and I love that.
As for the soundtrack, apparently this was something that was singled out as one of the weaker aspects at the time? Nah, sorry, incorrect take detected. This soundtrack goes HARD, it didn't need to go so hard but it did it anyway, I wasn't expecting the tracks to be like hyperactive lift music but i'm so glad it is because it delivers some total bangers. The synthetic basslines give off that infectious groove, the drum fills are non stop and the horns are just so catchy, this is perfect foot tapping, head bopping goodness. Does it suit what's going on onscreen? Hell yes it does, but its like chocolate and salt, they should be at odds with each other but they actually complement each other wonderfully.

Fighting games are good

This review contains spoilers

Rest in peace Akira Toriyama šŸ’š

Dragon Quest 8 is about as pure of an adventure as you can get and I loved just about every moment of its main story and side content. After beating 11 and now this i'm developing a stronger appreciation for what dragon quest is all about and I feel like i've come around on it massively. At a point I was treating dragon quest 11 like other jrpgs i've come to know and love, this is the series that established so many of its trends after all, but in doing so I feel like I was critiquing it unfairly and overlooking the things that made it really special (which is why I deleted my DQ11 review and reevaluated its score)

The gameplay has evolved from those trends at a, shall we say, 'leisurely' pace; but I think that's what a lot of people love about it and part of why its so popular, you always know what you're getting and fans have actually fought against it to change - see dragon quest 9ā€™s departure from its original action rpg direction and subsequent return to traditional turn-based combat in response to fan backlash. Thereā€™s been experimentation, new additions and quality of life changes but the fundamentals have never really changed all that much and if it isnā€™t broke, why fix it right? It will always sell like wildfire, but for good reason, thereā€™s something about this familiar and homely approach to game design, sure you can pick it apart but if it didnā€™t work at its core and wasnā€™t fun, it simply would not have stuck around for as long as it has. Granted the original on the ps2 had random encounters and iā€™m glad to see those go in favour of visible overworld monsters, a totally meaningful change which is becoming the new norm - infact it always felt like the intention even way back when I was playing pokemon yellow (random encounters felt like a means to an end, a technical shortcut used to ā€˜simulateā€™ bumping into monsters on the road during your adventure by low memory, primitive console hardware). Basically what iā€™m saying is iā€™m glad some things like that have adapted over the years for something that I feel is better, but the template has not changed and thereā€™s something comforting in that.

Comforting is what playing Dragon Quest 8 is on all levels really, even in its melancholic, dramatic and more tense moments, it exists in a fairytale-like universe where you know the heroes are going to win in the end and everyone will live happily ever after. Its not the destination that matters, it is the journey, the friends you make, the places you see and the memorable enemies and rivals you face along the way - simultaneously getting ever stronger and more confident as you go. These games are bedtime stories that you are literally thrust inside of and can take control of and its wonderful; at their best its like the game equivalent of being at home, on a soft chair, wrapped in a blanket with a hot drink in hand (I can also confirm that this is probably the best way to play them if youā€™re able). I came out of DQ11 enjoying my time but happy to see it finally come to an end, but then in DQ8 I truly fell in love.

Tonally I think DQ8 nails it, from the very beginning it is established that you are a guard to King Trode along with your pal Yangus and need to remove a curse from him and his daughter, princess Medea, which turned them into a monster and a horse respectively. This simple motivation extends to the entire rest of the game and thereā€™s beauty in that simplicity, it never steers too far from its focus and I felt actively involved in the charactersā€™ dilemma, rather than just some guy along for the ride. I love being bossed around by Trode and find him and Yangus consistently hilarious and lovable. Yangus in particularly is just the best isnā€™t he, just the most loyal briā€™ish bloke I ever met, heā€™d have your back in a pub fight any day of the week and he carried me hard for the entire game, nothing on this planet could stop a max psyched and oomphed yangus.
Throughout the entire game I never got bored of its antics, narrative arcs and wacky characters with ludicrously over the top voice acting. I love love love its goofy voices and exaggerated accents, how can you not find it incessantly charming, the english VAs go above and beyond (though sometimes thereā€™s something dire like Dominico or Rhapthorneā€™s first form, what the fuck were they thinking honestly, hilarious though).

Two things that stand out above all the rest and truly made this experience for me are its art and its soundtrack. Sadly both Akira Toriyama, the lead artist and Kuichi Sogiyama, the composer, have passed away now and I dedicate this to them, the future of this series and jrpgs in general owe so much to them both and thank you for delivering such outstanding work! The character (and monster) designs of dragon quest are outstanding but few of its characters are so colourful and full of personality as we see in DQ8, along with my favourite hero design in the entire franchise. The expressive models and brilliantly composed cutscenes do the designs so much justice and create some great scenes ranging from hysterical slapstick antics to this gripping, palpable melancholy. All this heightened by what is now one of my favourite soundtracks ever. DQ8ā€™s soundtrack is beautiful and captures the ā€˜vibeā€™ of every sequence perfectly. Every mood it seems to try and convey is done masterfully and drives this consistent feeling of adventure, mystery, and longing. It can be dramatic or it can be soft and ambient, but its never boring, it never fades into the background, it is always there heightening every emotion the game wants to deliver and thatā€™s something only the best soundtracks do. The smooth and soft violins make up a lot of this ost and they are intoxicating, sweeping over and wrapping around everything else.

Its hard to even pick a favourite moment in DQ8 and in this sense it kind of reminded me of ocarina of time, which similarly has these consistent highs where each storyline is as interesting and enjoyable as the last but the overarching tone always stays the same and this sense of familiarity never truly goes away. Not to mention the world itself is really pretty and fun to explore, the 3ds version is among the best looking games on the system I think. The towns and settlements feel like real places and their individuality shines, I particularly loved exploring castle trodain whilst it is under the curse, the melancholic atmosphere is top notch here and the best track in the game plays here aswell, only making it better. The final dungeon is also a total maze and I really enjoyed it, especially the part where you solve a puzzle by circling what looks like a small town which becomes progressively more cursed and ramshackled with each lap. Something that particularly stood out to me were the personal moments like hearing Medea speak to you in your sleep which I adored, the flashback sequence with Medea meeting the hero and looking after him and helping a king to overcome the trauma of losing his wife.

My only real complaints / criticisms are the incessant metal slime grinding needed to defeat that insane final boss and the sheer amount of randomness that involves as well as the creepy treatment / objectification of some female characters like Jessica, it feels out of place and uncomfortable and should go away. I donā€™t care for metal slimes in general and donā€™t see why they exist as a ā€˜mechanicā€™ or whatever, the fact they can be worth anywhere between 2x and like, 200x as much XP as what most regular monsters give is so unnecessary. I mean having some monsters be worth a fair bit more xp is fine but the difference is astronomical and this is the only real way to grind without wasting dozens of hours of your precious time and yet it involves so much randomness. A level of randomness is acceptable but thereā€™s randomness to even find metal slimes in the first place because theyā€™re pretty rare (at least you donā€™t have to find them in random encounters here thank god). After that thereā€™s randomness in whether or not the slime will just flee immediately and thereā€™s even more randomness in trying to get a critical hit to kill them, thatā€™s multiple levels of random and if you get unlucky in any one of them it is frustrating as fuck! Again this wouldnā€™t matter so much if metal slime hunting wasnā€™t the fastest and most optimal way to grind XP since they are worth such a ludicrous amount more than regular enemies.

Without those things I think this would be 5 stars honestly, I enjoyed it so much. This game is just delightful, endlessly charming, warm, comforting and so endearing and silly. Its nice to delve into something that isnā€™t complex or witty or groundbreaking, it is just plain, simple, joyful fun. By the end credits I was smiling with goosebumps as the overture played on the main menu screen, *Keanu voice: yeah iā€™m thinking iā€™m dragon quest fan.

This review contains spoilers

Persona 3 Reload is great just like the original, which I played a couple years ago as this series was cementing itself as one of my absolute favourites. I have a ton of thoughts to dump on this as a remake and as a modern persona game as I think it does a ton of things right - taking the most important entry in the series and elevating its high points to such highs and continuing what persona 5 established in its gameplay and mechanics. But even so, this is a remake of a game that really showed its age when I played it, and there's a number of things that could have changed more. I had been looking forward to this for ages, sidelining like a dragon because even though i've played it before, persona 3 was a game that I felt needed the modern overhaul and I couldn't wait to see how it would retell this really heartfelt story. But despite this, i'd grown wary of some of Atlus' cash hungry business practices and felt quite cynical early on due to them leaving out the female protagonist from Portable and The Answer from FES on release, meaning there's still no 'perfect' version of the game to play. I will hope that the answer at least makes its way into Reload as DLC. Both of these additions are beyond just nice to have too, as the female protagonist gave players a fresh new perspective on the game, new social links including ones with the male party members, excellent new music, a new velvet room attendant and lots more - suffice it to say 'Kotone' (her canon name), has come to be beloved by fans. Then there's The Answer which, while controversial in its excessively drawn out gameplay and muddy storytelling, did actually have a share of great moments when it dropped with P3 FES back in 2007 - like worthwhile character interactions and lore-dumping that ultimately provided more conclusive answers to the game's ending and backstories that showed each party member's previously unseen 'awakening'. The Answer also wasn't afraid to delve deep into each character's grief and trauma and I really like this aspect of it, as each character develops and grows closer to the protagonist throughout the game, only to be parted from them unexpectedly before the credits roll; seeing how each character must come to terms with this is quite a bold decision and while its definitely not amazing, I respect the dedication to these characters to have them argue and bare their scars so outwardly. I would have loved to see both of these additions make their way into the game and 'modernised' like much of the rest of the game, but what we got is still very good.

There's a lingering sense however, that this IS still a game from 2006 with a gorgeous coat of paint, there's aspects of it that I wish had changed more because even with turbo mode on an emulator that let me play at like 3x speed, I felt the length of the original persona 3 and the drawn out pacing quite heavily. I want to get most of my criticisms out of the way but fundamentally, persona 3 in its main story beats, like during full moons and voiced cutscenes, is usually awesome, especially after the summer break, which I personally find to be something of a turning point in the story. It offers some of the most insightful and interesting character development in the series, genuinely heartfelt character interactions and an earnest narrative with a central, all-encompassing theme around death and how it impacts people that I vibe with very much. Inbetween full moons however, I still find a fair bit to be desired, since the world feels smaller and more contained with not a ton to do and the social links in particular are really lacking, something they built on a lot in the following games in my opinion. While ultimately so worth it, you have to push to get to the best stuff a whole lot in persona 3 and the same applies here, but its easier to digest and enjoy because of the stellar presentation, near-constant high quality voice acting that was missing from the original and an improved version of tartarus that is far more enjoyable to explore. This is a highly faithful remake and on one hand I like that, it lets people experience the original for what it was in many aspects and retains that killer mid-late 2000s 'vibe' that I love, but in other aspects, I think it could do more. The s links in this game could really have been changed for the better, there's so many characters I actively dislike and don't want to hang out with and thankfully, since I knew what they were about already, I could fast-forward a lot of them, but still...in Persona 5 I felt like I could build those relationships and get more benefits from them, it was a give and take to some degree, for one I felt like I could say what I wanted to more often and kind of 'roleplay', and in turn you get advantages from hanging out with them in the form of new skills and stuff, I like that. In persona 3, a more primitive experience that established this formula before it was built upon, you have to not only enable, but actively encourage bad habits and toxic behaviours in people to kind of 'suck up' to them and I don't care for it. Particularly noticeable with a couple of the male schoolmates, you do just have to tell people what they want to hear even if that means telling them that they're doing the right thing when they so clearly are destroying their lives, you get more points towards building your s links by being like ā€˜your problematic behaviour rulesā€™ and its not like most of the s links really change themselves for the better, they just grow to like you more.

This isn't to say they're all like this or that they are outright bad, Yuko is great in this game, I love her VA and how naturally she comes across, huge props to Shelby Young, it really does feel like im just listening to a friend, such a compelling performance even though she plays a quite minor character. Akinari is also one of the most beloved s links in the series for good reason, its really sentimental and melancholy with obvious ties to the game's central theme and the way it wraps up and the new scene they add for it at the end drive that home since the player character isn't so different from him, loved it. The SEES girls have pretty solid s links its just annoying that you still have to max out your 3 social stats to be able to hang out with them which is a crazy grind. What does bother me is that you could have the male party members as social links but they just aren't, you could replace kenji, nozomi and kaz with akihiko, junpei and ken, I mean those are in portable and they would fit those same arcanas well enough. BUT, with this being said, they do still do a lot to characterise P3's cast further such as during new hangouts inside and outside of the dorm and being able to talk to your friends almost every day and hear their thoughts on the developing story or just on their lives in general adds a lot, something that 3 does have over 4 and 5. In general I love just chilling with my buddies and the SEES party members are great, but they don't necessarily start out amazingly, early on they don't leave much of an impression, I find them quite one-note and uninteresting to start with, its only around july onwards that genuine character drama, flaws, dilemmas and development begins.

In general I do find Persona 3 to be quite a 'tell, don't show' sort of game in large portions, and the remake doesn't exactly resolve this completely. Its something that doesn't actively bother me or anything and its ok for a game to have quite straightforward narrative beats and dialogue if its done well, but up to when shit starts to ramp up properly around september, does anything really happen? There's an overarching mystery to do with tartarus, the origins of SEES, the kirijo group, where Pharos came from etc, but its stagnant for a huge portion of the game - when it gets going, I like where it goes, but its such a straight line gameplay wise and narratively for such a long time that it does the old joke of 'trust me it gets really good after the first 30 hours' too much justice. Not to say its outright bad up to that point, I don't think it is, but its nothing to write home about, and then it just flicks a switch. Its around the time Aigis joins, the game goes from a fairly repetitive life-sim and dungeon crawler to becoming this truly engaging mystery with drama and stakes - something I think persona 4 and 5 do a lot better because of stronger pacing and more immediacy in its writing and gameplay, such as witnessing the scene of a murder and having to save yukiko in 4, a party member who will just die if you don't make it in time, or taking down kamoshida in 5, a genuinely great first villain that I actively wanted to see beg for forgiveness (exploring the palace is good fun too). This makes persona 3 harder to recommend and genuinely mean it for someone that's never touched these games or anything like them before, this will be where a lot of new players start and i'm sure it will do well in getting them onboard but I don't love it the same as I love 4 golden or especially 5 royal.

Once things really start moving however, Persona 3 has some of the biggest stakes and most affecting moments out of the 3 modern formula persona games, with the revelation with Yukari's father and then Shinji, Chidori and Mitsuru's father's murders creating excellent narrative highs that drive the motivation behind SEES and their ultimate responsibility. But, on a more personal level, they allow the characters to shine so much and come to terms with themselves and their resolve, this is felt even more strongly in Reload which features really powerful voice performances, beautifully animated cutscenes and new, extended dialogue and scenarios that allow these moments to breathe where the original might have just cut right back to your day to day life after experiencing the most traumatic shit the characters' have ever seen. In particular its cool to see Junpei go through such a change because even though I don't like Junpei and find him incessantly annoying, he does have an absolutely raw cutscene when Chidori dies and the VA put in the work for sure, goth girl attention really changed the man huh. I am also a Ken defender and really like where things go with Ken, as I know a lot of people hated him in the original and I do find him underdeveloped and underutilised in P3, but here, they clearly actively try to make Ken more likable and sincere I think. He's a kid that has to go through a fucked up childhood and I think he earns being as conflicted and angry as he is and people like to pin the blame on him for what happened to Shinjiro but its the perfect conclusion to Shinjiro's arc and the perfect driving force for Ken to discover how to move on and live his life. I like the new hangout scenes with Ken a lot where you go out and have food with him and then fight him on the rooftop, it might be more lacking in terms of change and development when compared to say, Yukari, but I vibe with Ken's story a lot and find it kind of refreshing in a way (plus I kept him in my party throughout the game since he's buffed so much now). My favourite character by far though is Aigis, I love Aigis when she's just an ass whooping robot and I love Aigis when she blossoms into her own person just like the rest of the main cast, she's a very important character that I think the game would be actively worse without, I like her that much, she is in my top 3 persona characters for sure. In general I find her funnier and more enjoyable to hang around than Junpei, the actually intended comic relief and then when the major themes come crashing in and Aigis must learn to live and let go, it hits me like a truck every time. Her s link and her final scenes with the protagonist never fail to make me feel all sentimental and in this game it is just handled perfectly, pristine stuff, just having someone to protect and to look after can be all you need in life - those lyrics of the end credits song coming from Aigis' perspective while the protagonist closes his eyes for the last time in her lap give me goosebumps fr.
Another outstanding character that I was looking forward to returning is Elizabeth, voiced by the ever great Tara Platt, Liz's original VA and also the original VA of Mitsuru. Elizabeth is another lighthearted and endlessly funny character and the best velvet room attendent by far, I love how goofy her hangouts are and the way she is basically an alien to the world, enamoured by every little thing and behaving strangely due to a lack of understanding of social norms, just great setup for comedy and earnest, joyful moments. I also really like her formal demenaour and how it contrasts with her eccentric personality and the fact that she is like, canonically one of the strongest beings in the universe or something and the insanely hard optional superboss of the game. Her requests are also a nice change of pace for the game and are something that could have been carried into 4 and 5 I feel, since they encourage interacting with the world, putting more thought into how you fuse personas and reward you with helpful items and cosmetics for completing milestones in tartarus - genuinely surprised this isn't a thing in 4 and 5 actually?

As for the dungeon crawling / combat gameplay, lots of things I could say about Persona 5 Royal basically also apply here, i'm just going to list my thoughts:

- really fun 'all or nothing' combat system that might not be for everyone but gives a great power fantasy and allows you to snowball enemies, shuffle time is a fun mechanic to help with the grind and i'm glad it made a return.
- absolutely gorgeous animations, breathtaking menu design and special attacks and incredibly satisfying finishers, Atlus are at the top of their game with this stuff, the visuals are absolutely stellar.
- a well rounded and balanced party that is an improvement over the original since character strengths and flaws feel less overtuned, you can use anyone you like really and it won't make a huge difference; there's also less of a focus on insta-kill attacks and light/dark attacks can be cast as normal elements and of course, you can control your whole party now! While I do like the moments that having ai party members can give and it allows for personalities to come through in their decisions, its just more sensible and enjoyable to be able to control them so that was a given really, it had to happen.
- exploring tartarus might still not feel as satisfying and since the floors are mostly randomly generated, its not as interesting to me personally, but they have done a lot to make exploration feel more streamlined and involved, with materials you can gather all over alongside treasure chests, new mechanics revolving around a resource called 'twilight fragments' that work well and my favourite new addition - monad doors, since they give a solid challenge and great rewards including being able to map out whole areas. Its a shame they removed being able to use different weapon types with the protagonist though, I liked being able to have a bow or a greatsword.
- mechanically they learn from P5 royal in places where it matters, shift is literally P5's 'baton pass' which was a no brainer I think, such a simple mechanic that has such a dynamic impact on the overall feel of combat and its not as overpowered as P5R where the buffs you get from it might have been a step too far. The stylish aesthetic takes a lot of notes from P5 too and even has the same kind of finisher screens for each party member and there are smaller quality of life mechanics they carried over too, like being able to advance s links slightly even when they aren't available. P3R also pushes this further with even more QoL changes such as teamwide buffs/debuffs being instant rather than one at a time. Fast load times, quick, snappy animations and plenty of other stuff I could go on about make this feel like a much more streamlined experience which I can only commend, I mean I almost forgot that party members in the original would get tired and perform worse in tartarus until you wait a few days, could have been a cool mechanic but instead everyone just disliked it.

In terms of where it could be improved, full moon 'scenarios' are almost identical to the original and still feel sort of like you're just going in a straight line until you beat a boss. I feel like they could have pushed this further such as in the hotel with the mirrors, they could have made it a taller tower with multiple floors to explore and regular shadows to bump into, but instead its pretty much exactly the same - you're told where to go, you go there, there's a short character segment and then you fight a boss, I was hoping for something a bit more engaging than that. The full moons are the thing you look forward to and creep towards during your routine day-to-day life, its the moment where the story develops and the characters must fend off a greater threat so its a shame that they still feel straight out of 2006, but despite this I do still really enjoy the major boss encounters and they felt just right on hard difficulty. It does come off lazy during certain moments in the game such as when you first encounter aigis and have to chase her by running in a straight line across like, 4 or 5 screens for some reason. Going into club escapade and seeing all the npcs just posing and not moving on the dance floor is also dissappointing, that 'minigame' where you have to ask for their drinks made me think of pokemon scarlet/violet gyms which is...well, the less said the better.
I'm also left a little baffled at times by the games' own logic and world since it leaves a lot of questions open and I found the whole 'memory loss' aspect of the ending quite bizarre and unnecessary, it doesn't make the ending any more impactful, but then it doesn't make it any less impactful either, what a fucking ending... The way they really drive home the player charactersā€™ death and make its impact feel as heavy as possible is just great, what with the added dialogues with s links and party members right at the end and multiple instances of chatting about the future, like the devs are knowingly teasing us. Knowing how it ends actually makes its most impactful moments and interactions that much heavier,

Overall I loved my time with this and I realise that because im replaying persona 3 not long after the original, I am very burnt out and much more aware of the little nitpicks I am making. This is still not my favourite persona game but man does it make me excited for what is to come, this is a beautiful game in its best moments and enamoured me and even made me cry like, 3 times? Memories of you is still the greatest track in all of persona and speaking of the soundtrack, I do actually really like this games' ost! I know some people find it to be a 'flatter' and less interesting iteration of the original, but in general I really like how much jazzier and softer parts of it are, I am also so glad to see Lotus Juice back even though I don't find his lyricisim impressive at all, I love his rapping and his flow and how much it adds to the aesthetic of persona 3. I don't think the ost is as good as the original though in fairness, the original has that punchiness in its percussion and is so early-mid 2000s that I can't help but love it, though I am glad that they kept the kind of 'weirdness' of the originals' soundtrack in songs like deep breath deep breath (literal auditory panic attack) and a deep mentality (one of the strangest, but simultaneously coolest tracks in the entire series with those bizarre edited vocals and hard hitting breakbeats). I guess its kind of another way that this remake takes from persona 5 since the soundtrack is mostly toned down with the edges smoothed out, incorporating more jazzy elements and a wall of sound. This isn't to its detriment neccesarily, I mean persona 5 + royal has my favourite soundtrack of all time and it still retains that early 21st century alternative vibe so im all for it, but that original soundtrack is just so strange and cool. I held off from listening to the new memories of you because I wanted to hear it in game and i'm so glad I did because it destroyed me, getting multiple minutes of instrumental feels like christmas again. Thank you as always Shoji Meguro, one of the GOATS, Atsushi Kitajoh you did an outstanding job with the material. Persona to me is moreso about the feelings, the aesthetic and the joy of just existing and interacting with this parallel world full of fun characters that become your mates than it is about an amazing narrative with complex roleplaying elements or anything but I also just love the combat/exploration gameplay wholeheartedly. I do start to feel the fatigue of this formula with the sheer amount of dialogue and day-to-day stuff you have to go through, but i'd still be ready for it all over again when Persona 6 eventually carries the torch since they craft experiences that aren't quite like anything else.

Lovely little time, short, sweet and a perfect anniversary treat. Thanks Celeste devs for being so good to your fans :))
It translates the feel of celeste into a 3D N64 style platformer in a way that feels just right and i'm not going to score this because, like the bloodborne demake, its a nice little passion project that doesn't need to be rated, just go out and have some fun jumping around. Mad that they made this in about a week, loved the mario sunshine esque bonus levels with the acapella music, so tough but so fun, that last one I did defeated me but I mostly didn't suck at them which makes a change!

2022

In some ways, Tunic is one of the smartest and most beautiful experiences i've had in a game in a long time, but the reality of actually playing it leaves something to be desired for me, but never enough to outright diminish just how exquisitely crafted the world and the game 'experience' feels. The atmosphere of this game is outstanding and though a tiring comparison, does feel reminiscent of dark souls with how you venture out as a lost and lowly 'face' without much purpose only to discover your grand purpose and fulfil your destiny. Also the vibe of the world, the isolated feeling and looming ambience are spot on and the ultimate goal of the game is not unlike dark souls or hollow knight, but similarly you have control over how things play out.

Fundamentally, the game's runaway success is the instruction booklet both as a feature and as a piece of art in itself. The art inside of this little booklet is stunning, evoking a feeling of old school game manuals, text guides and retro game magazines like nintendo power. The delicately handcrafted nature of the art combined with the cryptic application of the information it divulges into tunic's own game systems is ingenious and a masterpiece by itself. Its rare to see an idea so original and so well designed and applied to the game experience, from finding your place in the world with its intricate maps and diagrams, to uncovering uses for items and upgrades as you have to decipher this kind of alien language and make pictures make sense. This is best done in the first half of the game where I felt particularly isolated and confused, as the way the manual intricately teaches you the game and helps you along as a constant companion allowed me to develop an attachment to the game and its mechanics in a way I had never seen before, its just so smart.

I don't have many problems with the cryptic nature of the game or how it seeks for the player to uncover things for themselves, I think I just find it more difficult than a lot of people and it doesn't come naturally to me. Also, once you put the guide down and start actually interacting with the game after you understand its basic mechanics, I find that the game is an actively lesser experience. This is why I find the 'idea' of the game better than the game itself, as once that guide is down and you're set off on your adventure, I realised how little depth there actually is in the gameplay. Now, this is an indie game developed largely by one guy and I need to give credit to that because that's incredible, what an amazing achievement. However, I do find playing this a bit of a chore, most secrets are found by lazily walking against walls in an isometric perspective once you realise how many hidden paths there are. In the beginning, this is dope, when you find out how the world interconnects through its hidden bridges and shortcuts, again not unlike the first half of DS1, but eventually it became tragically tedious as I constantly found myself circling the edges of an area to try and find my way to a chest or secret - usually successfully, but not in a way that felt all that fulfilling.

I also take some issue with the game's combat, which feels somewhat stale and derivative and less interesting than some of its counterparts, there's also such a short range on attacks meaning you need to be right up against an enemy to hit them and a general 'heaviness' to the overall feel of combat, with almost every action in combat feeling slow and clunky. The depth of field is a cool cinema effect that adds to the games' aesthetic and adds layering to the world, but in combat i'd rather it were toned down since I just find it overwhelming and frustrating since it blurs everything including enemies, attacks and projectiles, making translating what is on screen tricky at times - its particularly noticeable during the siege engine boss fight. I also find dodge rolling quite sluggish and ineffective a lot of the time since the long animation means you're vulnerable for a lot of it and enemies will lock onto you mid-roll and hit you with an attack even after you roll behind them - you will dodge through an enemies' first attack perfectly only for their entire body to turn 180 degrees instantly and hit you again, its not heinous or anything but it makes dodging feel worse than just putting your shield up and makes combat feel less dynamic and engaging as a result.

Stylistically I think this is awesome, evoking the wonder of old school exploration games and top down zelda games while also putting its own spin on things. I think I preferred death's door for the most part but tunic's general atmosphere is unmatched, with a beautifully calm and delicately ambient soundtrack and a cute and charming low-poly artstyle. The cover of this game doesn't do it justice at all I don't think, they should have used the type of art taken from the game manual, its not what I expected at all. I didn't know much about this game going in but I was positively surprised by how it turned out, since I was expecting something more akin to ocarina of time but instead it takes more influences from zelda games pre-ocarina. I understood the developer's intentions a lot I think, since I felt the need for the player to uncover things for themselves and experience a feeling of wonder, it just doesn't always work for me since I value really strong, faster-paced gameplay (DS1 being an exception) and an engaging narrative told through gameplay and cutscenes - instead, tunic favours a slower-paced feeling of patient discovery and a story that encourages putting the pieces together and then interpretation, but instead of the souls' approach of finding things out largely through visual storytelling and lore-soaked environments, tunic leaves a lot of it to pages in a manual and an indecipherable language that is cool, it just doesn't do much for me. That said, exploring the inside of the ziggurat and seeing the foxes trapped inside obelisks and deciphering what might have happened to this fox 'civilisation' is intriguing enough by itself.

I do find the game falls off pretty hard in the last third for me, I genuinely would have preferred if it just ended after you got the keys since by that point I was ready for it to be done and I don't think the last third adds all that much since you're kind of just retracing steps, but in terms of pure 'vibes' its definitely a really humbling moment and meaningfully changes how you see the world. In terms of what it sets out to achieve I do think its successful and a great achievement as an indie game, but it leaves a lot to be desired in the gameplay for me personally, I think there's lots of games that have done this kind of stuff better but the art, soundtrack and that manual system invigorated me, that stuff is worthy of the highest praise on its own.

A simple and wholesome experience all round, thereā€™s not really anything strictly bad about this game, I enjoyed my time with it, its just a basic fun time where you dig to reach objectives, make money by mining ore which can upgrade your tools and rinse and repeat. Its a satisfying loop despite the fact that it gets a little repetitive since I had to go back to el machino constantly to trade, but as you progress it does become less frequent.

This game has lovely presentation, a charming cartoony artstyle with a goofy steampunk aesthetic and a really quality soundtrack too, some of the beats hit kinda hard. I was expecting something with procedural generation or randomness not unlike spelunky or minecraft or some kind of roguelike, but its actually a very intentionally crafted metroidvania with thoughtfulness in its placement of enemies, ore, tools, objectives etc. Thereā€™s clear barriers for progression until you get new tools and said tools feel excellent to use, especially the grappling hook and jet pack which make traversal so much more fluid and fun. This is also a game with very little focus on combat, every ā€˜boss fightā€™ is crafted around your movement and digging, just as youā€™ve been practicing throughout the game (though ā€˜combatā€™ exists to an extent), which was the right decision, but still, none of the boss or enemy encounters are particularly interesting or enjoyable, theyā€™re more of an obstacle and an inconvenience than something I actively want to encounter.

In general though, the game is fairly basic but quite effective and I really enjoy being given a far away objective that I have to find my own path to get to, all the while exploring caves (which offer some great platforming & puzzle challenges), gathering upgrades and becoming more efficient at the core gameplay loop, simple but well executed stuff. The economy and upgrade system is also very well implemented and balanced, allowing me to upgrade at a good pace but still feel restricted enough as to feel like I had to prioritise and choose my upgrades meaningfully. The cog system letting you take out and re-use cogs like a ā€˜slotā€™ mechanic rather than a currency mechanic was a great choice. Thereā€™s also tons of secrets to be found, a charming and generally jovial tone and the game is just the right length for what it sets out to do I think, an all round good, albeit easy and inoffensive time.

Really enjoyable but sadly cut short, this is basically an indie castlevania clone with its own flourishes so if you like sotn style castlevania games (with multiple weapons and spells and such) youā€™ll probably love this. Infact, gameplay wise, I may even like it more than sotn and aria of sorrow, which is high praise, because it offers a really interesting and unique elemental spirit system that is fun to use and a bunch of welcome quality of life changes like being able to strike diagonally and upwards. The bow is also a great addition but can be a little awkward to control. Thereā€™s a great range of weapons, and though its very linear, the action is constant and rewarding, encouraging aggressive, close quarters fighting instead of hunkering down and fighting from a distance, since you want to keep your elementalsā€™ ā€˜metersā€™ up to dish out max damage and gradually restore hp.

This is also a gorgeous looking game with some really wonderful pixel art and animations. Thereā€™s weight and intensity behind all attacks and genuine expressiveness in its characters and sentimental moments which is often missing from similarly styled games. Deedlit is a cool character with a fabulous design and the story is quite lean and easy to follow, but still meaningful and drives the game forward nicely.

Despite the lovely animations and effects in isolation though, boss fights can be a bit of a visual mess, with too much business to keep track of things, especially when you need to watch your tiny hp, ap and both elemental bars whilst youā€™re fighting. Its nice having enemy health bars onscreen mind you, and sometimes the cluttered visuals were cool in their own right during particularly frantic encounters, but thereā€™s also times where the very intentional, methodical vania style combat verges on being a bullet hell game and it doesnā€™t really work too well. This, the length and maybe some grating audio does hold it back a little, but not enough to make this anything but a great metroidvania that is 100% worth checking out.

Absolutely amazing, do not sleep on this, this was an insane amount of fun from beginning to end. The lost crown is a new metroidvania that takes plenty of notes from the likes of hollow knight and the ori games, but it has plenty more to offer and might even set a new standard for fast-paced 2D platforming.

When I say it takes a lot of notes from hollow knight, thatā€™s true in many aspects and I donā€™t think its a bad thing at all, the best games borrow from other great games and this doesnā€™t feel overly derivative. In HKā€™s case (my favourite game ever), its a no brainer, because its a masterclass of design and more games should borrow from it and put their own spin on things. The amulet system is straight up hollow knightā€™s charms and thereā€™s an innocent npc who hums and gives you maps cheap (and is somehow able to reach impossible locations). Other than that thereā€™s a general feel to the gameplay and the vibe of some areas that feel highly inspired by HK and ori. For the most part, massive portions of this play like the white palace / path of pain but more forgiving. This isnā€™t to say the game isnā€™t challenging though, some parts are really tricky to manoeuvre and solve but it all works brilliantly.

Movement is by far this gamesā€™ biggest success, I also feel like it has basically no dips in quality, it takes some getting used to because the gamefeel is quite different to other metroidvanias but once it clicks it feels absolutely fantastic. It starts off a little generic but when you stick with it it just gets better and better, I LOVE the fact that it never dips or slows the pace down, many would argue even hollow knight has its weaker moments, this game just doesnā€™t? At least not in the gameplay, the story and vibe arenā€™t as gripping. In pure gameplay this is a 10/10 for real, it is addictive, neuron-activating joy with 0 fluff. Whatā€™s crazy to me is that it keeps getting better too, just when you think youā€™ve seen the coolest part of the game, it hits you with a delightful new challenge that satisfied me time and again. This is a decent length for a metroidvania too, taking me about 18 hours to finish with quite a lot of exploration packed in.

In essence, prince of persia: the lost crown is a giant climbing frame that also functions as a interlocking maze. Everything I love about metroidvanias is brought out in full force and then they take it a step further with unique and clever new abilities and intense, punishing combat that takes a lot of practice but delivers outstandingly tight action with dozens of amazing finishers and special moves, it feels almost like what a 2D sekiro would look like and thatā€™s some of the highest praise I can give. There is a focus on ā€˜jugglingā€™ enemies and maintaining your combo whilst you weave around attacks and projectiles and anticipate your chance for a counter, in some ways it kind of made me think of smash bros too which is an odd comparison but the range of moves sargon has (he basically has ā€˜tiltsā€™ and different combo routes) combined with the 2D platform fighting and floaty airtime the game allows did not feel all that dissimilar! Attacking an enemy from below a platform with an up air attack and capitalising from that into a punishing air combo, thatā€™s some smash stuff right there, sargon for smash bros?? Then thereā€™s the bosses, taking everything thatā€™s already great about the combat and heightening it further. Thereā€™s a really nice range to the bosses in this game, covering all bases and testing your reactions in many different situations, plus their movesets are limited but not too limited and the ā€˜tellsā€™ feel just right to give you a window to anticipate and react to certain attacks, the devs really did their homework on hollow knight! Thatā€™s what this game is really, it is passionate devs demonstrating that they know what makes a great metroidvania since every aspect of the gameplay from exploration to platforming to combat to the power fantasy is delivered.

Now, what I will say is the gameplay and story donā€™t entirely marry up for me, neither does the overall atmosphere. This is a very pretty game with awesome audio design on the gameplay side, but ā€˜vibeā€™ and driving motivations are also important in this genre and this game isnā€™t bad for that but its not great either. The story feels like a fairly generic fantasy story about royalty and magic powers, complete with quite boring npcs and voice acting that, sadly, left something to be desired. I never found any of it to be terrible but thereā€™s just a lack of convincing drama or compelling characters, but it still has its own sort of appeal in the same way a modern superhero movie does I guess, in terms of quality its in that sort of vein too. The story leads your exploration and moment to moment gameplay nicely enough, giving enough context to your powers and your objectives to make it all feel worth it, but it could have been better.

Must say though, I was incredibly positively surprised by this, I fell in love with it a couple hours in and went from ā€˜yeah this is goodā€™ to ā€˜this is one of the best metroidvanias of all timeā€™, plus there really is something for everyone here. While iā€™m sprinting, dashing, vaulting and grappling my way though the game at 100 miles per hour thereā€™s this massive grin on my face at all times and it just doesnā€™t let up at any point, its constant, for those with attention span issues: this shit is going to blow your mind and keep you concentrated. On top of all this, it controls flawlessly, has tons of great quality of life features like generous coyote time and near instant load / waiting times (I did play on ps5 though) and notably, there are generous accessibility options like aim assist and objective markers which are often lacking in this genre.

Outstanding, play this asap.

Completed in 2 days and I had quite a bit of fun with it, its good but its the most 7/10 game iā€™ve ever played. Even so, it shows really high quality and polish for a small studioā€™s first game after 5 years of development. Kena is an incredible game to look at and admire and its fun to move around in and soak in the warmth and vibrancy of its world, aesthetic and soundtrack. Plus its short and paced wonderfully! Still, it has its share of issues and sorely lacks in originality which I canā€™t look past.

This feels like a game that wants to be lots of things at once and though I hate the critical tendency to compare games to other games all the time, Kena feels like it desperately wants to look and feel like things that already exist (and do the things it does more effectively). There is taking inspiration and wearing your influences on your sleeve and then there is looking and feeling so familiar that iā€™m getting deja vu every 5 minutes, kena has the movement and platforming of jak and daxter or ratchet and clank, combat that is a stripped down version of god of war 2018, the puzzles and bow gameplay weā€™ve seen plenty of in stuff like zelda and horizon and the story & characters are just straight out of disney / dreamworks. This game was originally considered to be an animated film or series and you can tell because of the emphasis on sentimental cutscenes and narrative arcs which give me big moana vibes tonally. The developers, Ember Lab, partnered with a studio called Sparx to work on the art and animation of the game, a studio that work closely with disney and illumination and it definitely comes through (though tbf I donā€™t know if that was them or ember labs), the entire look of the game and all of its character designs immediately made me think of the trademark disney style whether intentional or not (big hero 6, moana, luca etc).

I felt a detachment from the gamesā€™ narrative because of how uncompelling, familiar and unoriginal I found it to be, it has things to say but its done in this very toned down, easy to digest disney style that lacks the richness it reaches for because of a lack of emotional highs and stakes and a lack of comedic or otherwise palette cleansing ā€˜reliefā€™. Characters also feel generally half-baked and underdeveloped, its themes of loss, grief and moving on are also disappointingly one dimensional. This irks me a little because it comes across like its meant to be aimed at young children, but that is in stark contrast to the gameplay which is surprisingly challenging and in my opinion, aimed at an older audience, so I find an odd divide there and kind of have to wonder who exactly it is targeting, perhaps it is a sad indictment of this game trying to be lots of things at once and appeal to everyone. As I touched on, for a short experience it stretches itself quite thin with all of its facets and ideas which donā€™t all work together to make a cohesive whole, this doesnā€™t mean any one aspect is bad perse, just not as good as they could be because kena is a game that is a jack of all trades and a master of none, I sincerely believe if it focused on being a puzzle platformer first and foremost it would improve the experience dramatically and allow those to shine brighter. As it stands, every aspect feels good but not outstanding, at its best, like when you first get the bow and the bomb, thereā€™s a great flow and sense of satisfaction to the very intentional gameplay that feels missed during combat, cutscenes and exploration, which donā€™t reach the same heights. The leadup to the final bosses in particular stand out so much more than the bosses themselves, since combat is largely just fine.

With this being said though, thereā€™s a lot of fun to be had here, its astoundingly, intoxicatingly fucking beautiful, controls brilliantly and runs at a buttery smooth rate. The platforming and puzzle solving are generally good fun and never get boring since the pacing is this gamesā€™ strongest aspect, but I do wish the double jump didnā€™t fuck with your momentum and slow you down, its a small gripe that has a big impact on how it feels to play, genuinely wish I could mod that. The bow and bombs are really fun to use and I particularly like how aiming mid air slows you down allowing for more precise shots (reminiscent of botw / totk). The upgrades and the rot system are also decent, the rot themselves are cute and interestingly implemented gameplay wise, allowing you to restore the environment and discover secrets and its easy to get into a rhythm and play the game quite effortlessly, I particularly love using bombs to cause rubble to levitate, creating unique platform / puzzle scenarios that they make full use of. I also really enjoy zipping around with the grapple flowers and finding secrets, just a shame that the currency you collect can only be spent on cosmetics and not anything actually useful, it makes exploring feel kind of pointless which is a shame because they clearly put a lot of work into it for little reward. You can find charms and stuff but it might be better if you could also buy these? That would make currency actually have some value.

Either way, fun game with a lot to like but just set your expectations lower for the story, dialogue and characters, the voice acting isnā€™t anything special with the odd exception and the gameplay aspects are spread quite thinly but when its good, its great, genuinely challenging and really fulfilling even. I like it, it could be better, but I like it, this is the most confident 7/10 of my life.

Paid 90p and I still feel ripped off

This review contains spoilers

Cyberpunk 2077 / Phantom Liberty Review

There are three things that cyberpunk 2077 and its expansion excel at and those are its major characters, its art direction and its setpieces, everything else works well enough but isnā€™t outstanding. Iā€™m happy I got around to playing this now in its patched and re-released state, because if it was released in this state when it was actually supposed to, I think a lot of people would not only be more fair on it, it would probably be regarded as one of the greatest first person rpgs ever, a reputation it is steadily earning but it still sours people with how its launch went down and how it has still got a lot of rough edges. But I have to hand it to cd projekt, they got extremely ambitious and wanted to create something special, something different, something people would remember for a long time - and in my mind they did just that even with its rough edges, largely unimaginative gameplay and mild inconsistencies.

Iā€™ll get the negatives out the way because I want to focus on what I loved about cyberpunk but frankly, I do not love cyberpunkā€™s open world all that much; its too small to feel worth exploring and didnā€™t motivate me to sink my teeth into it but it is simultaneously big enough that youā€™re forced to spend a long time just trying to get around when its simply not that fun and pads the game out somewhat. Up until you can get the dash and a double jump or charge jump, walking and running around is slow and boring especially since thereā€™s not much to see or do besides admire the aesthetic, shop and interact with a bar or club once and never do it again because thereā€™s no point. Driving is fine but just feels kind of tacked on, most vehicles feel too bulky and slow or too slippery and finicky to control. Shooting / combat is the main focus of cyberpunkā€™s core gameplay and definitely the most fleshed out and interesting part of it since thereā€™s a lot of variety and a nice range of weapons and builds to play with, any of which can be used at any time with no restrictions or necessary optimisation. You could probably do this whole game melee and with only a few exceptions, youā€™d likely have no trouble, you can hard focus on a particular weapon / style as I did with the shotgun, or you can get a taste for everything and not suffer for it, its well executed. With this being said though, enemy ai is often plain dumb and the difficulty is never particularly challenging or balanced on normal since its largely a breeze + when it IS slightly more difficult, it feels kind of artificial because it means they just throw tons more enemies at you or have enemies zip around and just delay their inevitable death, same could be said for enemy hacks which just feel like a mild annoyance rather than a real challenging gameplay obstacle. Thereā€™s some noticeable dissonance in cyberpunk between the constant fear and stakes being held over Vā€™s head / the trauma that V undergoes in cutscenes and the cakewalk shooting sequences which consist of a gallery of meat puppets that you can mow down with little more than a gust of wind. Thereā€™s times that style of gameplay works though, like making me seem like a badass in johnnyā€™s sequences and during particularly driven story moments, but its often such a breeze that I feel like going stealthy or playing a hacker when youā€™re up against such pissant enemies would bore me to tears. I can think of two fights in this entire game where it was particularly difficult and one is because thereā€™s infinitely spawning enemies and one is the final boss so, stands to reason I guess? There are times where the gameplay gets interesting and tries something new which I appreciate, such as scanning through braindances to find clues for your jobs, which I think work quite well and add to the immersion of a technologically advanced universe - but it could have been done more often and with more variety in honesty.

Which brings me to the story, the highlight and driving force behind everything in this gameā€™s world, something cd prokect clearly put a ton of time and resources into, even hiring two a-list celebrities (keanu & idris) to work with and help promote the title and its expansion. All that work does pay off because when weā€™re talking the main story beats, the game at its finest moments, yeah its pretty fuckinā€™ preem alright. Not very gonk at all. Without going off on a complete tangent, what I will say is Jackie Welles is in this game for what, 2 hours? I love him so much, he is my choom for life, an absolute king and his death hit me like a truck and actually made me shed a tear. Not only that, while knowing my V was going to be a street punk with dreams of becoming a boss in the crime business, I never expected my ideal path would be so strongly swayed by Jackieā€™s irreplaceable friendship and shared dream of the ā€˜major leaguesā€™ we were both reaching for. I never forgot my roots and wanted to fulfil our dream which I ended up getting, bittersweet as it felt without him by side. But just as important is Johnny, your ride or die partner, love him or hate him Johnny is not going anywhere and as a result, the game teeters on an edge narratively, wherein if Johnny does not work, the game does not work, he is purely that important. I had my doubts, I like Keanu as much as the next person but I never understood the worship of the man, but then after seeing him in stuff like the matrix, john wick and point break, I have a feeling this might be the best performance of his career and shows how he has honed his talent. Sure Johnny is just an asshole stuck on you like a leech, a professional cynic bitter and angry at the world, but Keanu and the writers make him so much more, they make you understand him. Johnny is a killer but so are you, he fucks people over and inevitably, so do you, V will have something in common with him whether you like it or not. He will question you, berate you, stare you down during ordinary encounters and judge your every move because heā€™s sharing the same body but has little control over the choices you make. But then, when you get down to it, I donā€™t think he even knows what choices heā€™d make in the same position, part of him just enjoys the chaos and he practically says so himself. While heā€™s a cliche in part as the anti-establishment rockerboy, Johnny actually breaks a lot of stereotypes and preconceptions as the story humanises him and forces you to see from his perspective. Aspects of his come off as childish and immature, but then he comes out with lines that make me question myself if im doing the right thing or being played and he demonstrates a far deeper understanding of the world and how it works than I once thought. Just seeing Johnny appear mid-conversation or mid-cutscene, knowing nobody else can see him, is so good, thereā€™s something special about knowing youā€™re not alone at any time, even at your lowest, in your most humiliating defeats, Johnny is there with you and most of all, he will come around to genuinely want to help you. In the beginning he wants you gone but canā€™t get rid of you, so he too comes to understand you and it forms a bond, an unusual and one of a kind bond that nobody else could ever truly understand, its awesome stuff.
The relationship between V and Johnny is so good infact, that it feels almost like so many eggs in one basket that the other baskets become nearly empty, side quests and side characters like the fixers youā€™ll run into and folk you do gigs for wonā€™t scratch the same itch, they are often hollow quest givers and faces, which is a shame. But there are exceptions, and like all of cyberpunk, at their best, they are outstanding. Judy, Rogue, Reed, Songbird and of course my man Jackie all won me over completely, showing emotional richness, flaw and vulnerability that build character and form deep connections and personal relationships. The strongest of Vā€™s relationships form with some of the lowest or most hard up of society because V is going through the same shit and I think thatā€™s great. In its main story beats there is tons of payoff, political intrigue and moral choices to be made and almost all of them hit. But they feel somewhat hindered by a relatively lifeless free-roam world, overly familiar looting & checklist formulas and an overload of random side jobs, gigs and errands that bloat the game out while you wait for the good stuff and rarely feel worth the reward. In my opinion, cyberpunk didnā€™t actually need to be open world, in a way, I think iā€™d like it even more if it was just a linear action rpg with a hub saferoom or something from which you can start missions, but what we got is far from bad, I just think you could save on all that time and double down your dev team on the already great story missions.

As for the art design and aesthetic, its all executed beatifully and many of the visual and action-packed setpieces it will throw at you are works of art. From konpeki plaza to the arasaka parade and the many gorgeous sequences in phantom liberty, there are some hugely impressive sequences that play out throughout the game. Phantom Liberty in particular involves a few moments of covert espionage and deception that rival some of the best movie scenes in just how intense and beautifully, intentionally crafted they feel. While the cyberpunk aesthetic and its key facets play an important role in gameplay from scanning your environment to hacking on the move to literally implanting cyberware into your body, the actual relative story & in-world implications of the advanced tech and dystopian ramifications of corporate greed are surprisingly few and far between. This is a story helped along by its timeline & setting, but not one that is hugely driven by it and while it can appear complex what with its own in world jargon / slang and detailed environments jam-packed with repressive imagery and corpo ad spaces, its honestly not that conceptually deep overall. The characters, their motivations and your own player choices are the driving force behind cyberpunk narratively, not so much the world you find yourself in, much as the game tries to drive the nail in with dialogue, journal entries and text logs that kind of hamfist the notion of ā€˜this place is a shithole and weā€™re all bad peopleā€™. Like alright, I get it!
Cyberpunk is actually very depressing huh! Whereā€™s the hover skateboards mate? (kidding).

All in all I really enjoyed my time in night city and would come back for more, which is mainly because of the characters and the playstyles over wanting to spend much more time in the world, nice as it can be to soak in the incredible architecture & environments. This is a beautifully designed experience artistically and its dlc expands on it even more with phantom liberty offering some of the deepest and most intense final moments and personal decisions iā€™ve seen in a game to date, featuring a complicated moral dilemma and a gripping tale of loyalty and doing the right thing. There is one thing reed said in this dlc that stuck with me, mentioning Welles and the choice I made and it really made me think - infact, a lot of lines in this game make me stop and think and thatā€™s rare because most of the time I just want to blow shit up. Infact, sometimes I want to be done with blowing shit up so that I can get back to the story, because its that fucking good!!

Cheers for reading this one was a bit of a ramble lol.

Replay & re-review:

Metroid Dread is probably the best 2D metroid and a crowning jewel in the metroidvania genre, upon replaying pretty much all of the 2D games in the series I feel like I now appreciate this one so much more. MercurySteamā€™s take on metroid is quite distinct from the old school nintendo approach but I think its awesome, the heavier action focus and smoother traversal fit metroid like a glove, plus dread in particular is just so fast and lean in how it plays that it makes most other metroidvanias feel sluggish by comparison, at least in their general movement.

I think what has boosted my appreciation of this most of all is how it is a labour of love and it really understands what made the original games (especially super, fusion & zero mission) so good. There was a long hiatus between the official 2D metroid entries and samus returns, while still a good game, was still a remake, so its great to have a full-scale new entry, one that concludes this arc of samusā€™ story and delivers everything that fans wanted. There are so many neat little references to old metroid games and iā€™ve come to love the horror and isolation of these games more and more, which dread brings out in full force. One of my major complaints originally was a lack of identity in its areas which, upon a replay, I have come to disagree with, thereā€™s tons of neat details in its areas and they are much more distinct than I gave them credit for. You have the bubbling lava caverns & geothermal plant stationed on cataris, the ancient and sprawling jungle of ghavoran and the clean, futuristic sanctuary of the chozo in ferenia. Not only this, thereā€™s tons of little details like the biological research and construction of EMMIs being undertaken in the background of Dairon, you can even see the machinery operating on Experiment No. Z-57 which is a great moment. This kind of foreshadowing reminded me of fusion a lot, which this game (being a sequel to fusion) seems to take more than a few notes from, since later in the game you must exterminate experiment no. Z-57 after it awakens and disturbs the geothermal facility on cataris. The moment youā€™re told about this and guided to the boss is an excellent little detour that is reminiscent of the leadup to nightmare-x in metroid fusion, its those kinds of moments that I love most and dread has plenty of them.

Similarly another of dreadā€™s biggest runaway successes is the perfect pacing and finely tuned staggering of upgrades. Dread will push you and push you before it rewards you with that one upgrade youā€™ve been desperate for, be it the morph ball, the gravity suit or the space jump. But it does this with some excellent game design that sees you explore all kinds of areas more quickly than you might expect, but with restricted access to each that slowly but surely opens up as you make progress. The leadup to the gravity suit is one of the most interesting since it somehow feels like youā€™ve gone too far and you should have it by now, when infact youā€™re doing all the right things and then bam, you destroy the supports sending a platform cascading down which literally smashes through the map and allows access to the gravity suit at long last, awesome stuff. Dread does this a lot and as I touched on in my previous review, iā€™ve never felt simultaneously so guided by an invisible dotted line, yet so in control of my own discoveries and progression, thereā€™s finely tuned intentionality in its design, but it feels so natural and organic in how you as a player make that happen, I love it so much. But, with this being said, one gripe with that design approach is that if you miss one single step on that invisible line, it can send you wildly off course into an area far from where youā€™re supposed to be, meaning finding your way back to said ā€˜lineā€™ and backtracking through multiple areas can and probably will cause you some annoyance, but it doesnā€™t take long to get back on track since dread is such a fast-paced game.

The other runaway success of this game is its presentation and flavour in its visual storytelling, animation and even its writing. Thereā€™s a good story here too which neatly wraps things up and introduces a genuinely great villain, probably the best the franchise has seen in Raven Beak, a chozo and leader of the ā€˜mawkinā€™, a chozo warrior tribe. Raven Beakā€™s relation to Samus, the fact he spares her on her first encounter to see her realise her full power as a metroid and his final confrontation with samus all add to his character and personality as a power-hungry menace who wouldnā€™t be out of place in star wars. The guy has a throne on his ship and is willing to kill & clone his ā€˜daughterā€™ to create an unstoppable army, what a dick, but heā€™s so great and that final boss fight is incredible, even better than I remember.
Other standout moments include every time samus stands still and looks like a badass while a boss fucking dies brutally and samusā€™ first encounter with quiet robe, also the first time we hear her speak outside of other m if im not mistaken and the moment is SO earned. In some ways it feels like they wanted to channel doomguy in samus for dread but instead of hate, samusā€™ oozes confidence and determination, she is such a badass. The one line she is given + the screaming at the end give just enough extra flavour to heighten the emotion and the drive behind samus and the former feels earned because of samusā€™ history with the chozo.

Ontop of this, all of the animations, ui elements and effects in this game are absolutely spot on, thereā€™s an almost perfectionist tendency to them, theyā€™re that good. The slightest bit of film grain or dramatic lighting or use of interesting framing in cutscenes can add so much to the vibe and drama of a piece of visual media and dread does this constantly. All of the cutscenes, though short, quickly establish the scene and tell you all you need to know in a matter of seconds. The general control and fluidity of everything you do in this game just feels right and though I havenā€™t gone for the 100%, the game clearly puts all of it to good use. Even though the most casual of players could still beat this game thereā€™s such a high skill-cap since youā€™re given plenty of moves to work with and are rewarded for well-timed plays like counters and flash-shift dodges, the pace and satisfaction in the action is unlike anything else that iā€™ve seen in the series except maybe samus returns but then, that almost felt like the somewhat weaker precursor to this. By the late game, dread basically becomes a fully fledged action-packed romp and it is peak.

This review contains spoilers

I like this one but I donā€™t love it, its a good 2D metroid and a very solid remake from what iā€™ve seen (not going to play the original gameboy one) but it didnā€™t give me the same thrills as most of the other games in the series. Its not groundbreaking and timeless like super metroid, not looming and atmospheric like fusion and certainly not as polished & perfected in basically all areas as dread (my opinion of dread has shot up massively). There is no real story in this one besides samus commiting genocide and killing all of the metroids and then an infant hatches and thinks samus is its mum and she takes it away for research, thatā€™s the entire story basically. Metroid games arenā€™t story-heavy games but thereā€™s not much drive or subtle gameplay storytelling in this one.

I love the 3ds so much, its an amazing bit of kit, but even I admit its not the most ergonomic of handhelds and games like this and kid icarus uprising really are rsi inducing, especially since this is probably the most stressful and challenging 2D metroid iā€™ve played in general anyway so iā€™m constantly mashing buttons like iā€™m playing a fake game in a sitcom. The new powerups and quality of life changes feel really good and the counter system is a great new addition to add new flavour to combat and some great little cinematics during boss fights, but they really perfect that in dread. Exploration is more linear in a stricter sense and feels less satisfying than iā€™m used to with this franchise, not entirely sure why but I think the somewhat dull areas, enemies and graphics contribute to it, - again, dread does it so much better, its cool seeing this game as a dev experimenting and honing their craft, but the end result of this one is a just a little unremarkable.

Even so! It has excellent moments particularly during its boss fights which are totally awesome, though the metroid fights get somewhat repetitive I like how they get increasingly difficult and intense as the metroids evolve, seeing their biology gradually transform between encounters is very cool. The best boss fights in the game are the diggernaught (which is really nicely built up, the chase sequences are really stressful and its attacks feel fair but challenging to deal with) and proteus ridley, who has a great design and a lengthy, blood pumping battle that demands focus and reminded me a lot of raven beak, which is a very good thing because the raven beak fight is one of the best ever. So despite the areas, exploration and general vibe feeling a bit lesser here, you do get some excellent payoff with badass cinematics, excellent new abilities and enjoyable, challenging boss fights. In the chronology of metroid its also really fascinating seeing the birth of the metroid that ends up saving samusā€™ life and I liked the neat little post-credits scene with the X, foreshadowing the events of fusion & dread. Good game, just shines a little less than iā€™m used to, I mean even as the weakest entry iā€™ve played so far its still a 7/10 and that says a lot about how brilliant metroid is.

This review contains spoilers

My good pal goodchicken wrote a pretty extensive review of Final Fantasy XVI that I think covers many if not all of my major gripes with the story since I largely just agree with him.

https://backloggd.com/u/goodchicken/review/990179/

As an action game I think this game is like an 8/10, but the story is probably a 5 or a 6 out of 10, so I think it lands somewhere in the middle when you consider everything else. It took me ages to finish because I took a big break from it. When this game is good, it is absolutely fantastic and a breath of fresh air for the franchise, but what's funny is, simultaneously, it falls victim to some of the lamest, underdeveloped, half-baked anime tropes that do it no justice whatsoever. This is an evolutionary jrpg that transforms what a final fantasy can be into something new and exciting, so it should have and could have been better than the end result actually is which frustrates me, because I really wanted to love this one and instead I just think its a good game let down by a lot of things.

Creating a jrpg with a heavy action focus and fewer rpg elements than the rest of the series is not a bad thing at all, I don't resent this game for what it tries to be and I actually had a lot of fun with it. FFXVI is so clearly influenced by game of thrones and what is funny to me is that the holes it falls into aren't that dissimilar to it when you consider the similarities between ultima and the night king as big bads that take away all intrigue and drama from the characters, or when you consider how character arcs seemingly resolve themselves without really earning it, leaving a sour taste in my mouth (goodchicken covers this part far better than I could).
I love game of thrones seasons 1- 4, I grew up with it, its some of the finest television ever in recent years full of complex characters with mixed motivations and overlapping relationships with each other. Final Fantasy XVI clearly tries to replicate this with its world centred around noble families, warring nations and the inherent flaws of human beings, all carried along by a dark and gritty fantasy setting. There is even a very well implemented active time lore system you can access in and out of cutscenes and there's a 'lay of the land' encyclopedia & family tree type menu that presents you with waves of ever-updating information about the world and its inhabitants - which also shows character's bonds and opinions on each other, not unlike the interconnected web of characters and relationships found in GoT. But where this falls flat can be attributed to a couple of things but they boil down to - clive is the centre of attention at all times, a vast majority of characters with some notable exceptions like Cid are wholly secondary to Clive and the other thing is that Ultima's inclusion and constant puppeteering of the story and characters makes everything he touches less interesting as a result. I hate Ultima with a passion, he is such a lazy villain that never shuts the fuck up and yaps and yaps about making the 'perfect vessel' out of clive and creating a perfect new world. The nature of him pulling all of the strings and wanting Clive to destroy the mothercrystals, combined with the fact that his motivations are so flimsy cause him to be a complete wet flannel of a villain. There are better villains in daytime kids tv shows for real, I mean that 100%, he is a farcical, pointless, boring, uninteresting cunt and after he is introduced in the story it noticably declines. Also, why cast an actor as talented and brilliant as Harry Lloyd only to have him do his best salad fingers impression and talk in the most one-note boring ass voice for almost the entire game, he puts his all into it at the very very end when fighting clive but at that point I was just ready to be done with him. Ultima and his thralls like Barnabas are so uncompelling and make an otherwise fun and interesting game experience feel utterly nonsensical and dull. Anyway....

Despite FFXVI being a total zig-zag of quality, its highs are really high, notably its eikon battles, huge and beautiful setpieces, extremely well-animated cutscenes, powerful performances across its main cast and outstanding soundtrack, full of triumphant orchestral pieces and cozy serenades. The art design of FFXVI's world is phenomenal, taking you to all sorts of fantastical cities, dense forrests, sandy plains, blackened wastelands devoid of life and beautifully cozy little settlements dotted around the land. Its character designs and europpean influences in things like the architecture, costume designs and castles are perfection and there is a lot of complexity established in the games' main warring houses and nations to begin with, it is largely just thrown away later on and doesn't amount to much. Many characters have a short time to shine only to be cast aside when they're no longer relevant to Clive and its honestly crazy how little Clive interacts with Dion or frankly anyone from Sanbreque, y'know, the people that ransacked his homeland and killed most of his loved ones. As for Clive himself, I do really like him, I think he is one of the most interesting and genuinely human protagonists final fantasy has ever seen but they really work for that to happen since he undergoes a lot of trauma. Although, its trauma that isn't really explored that much, never is it really brought up how Clive spent 13 years as a slave having to kill innocent people because he's told to, nor do I feel like Clive's realisation that Joshua is alive and that he did not kill him after all is strong enough. Ben Starr's performance is totally killer and absolutely blew me away with how passionate and authentic his screams could feel, seriously best screams in the business, but it felt like the writing held him back. Similarly the writing hugely holds back its female characters and seems to refuse to allow them to shine, giving far too little screen time or development. Every female character exists on a surface level with maybe the exception of Annabella who is mostly only interesting because of her clear parallels with Cersei Lannister, but again, she lacks the development and complexity of Cersei in a big way and is far too underutilsed - oh she hates Clive, ok, is that going to amount to anything? Is Clive going to confront her about this? Is she going to try and stop him? Nope, because the game refuses to allow women to play any major part.

With this being said though, FFXVI puts a lot of time into humanising and developing Clive & Cid and it does this very well. Cid in particular won me over completely, I love him, many consider him the best incarnation of cid in final fantasy ever and for good reason, he is amazing, such a compelling character that gives purpose to Clive and Jill and drives the story in a big way for the time he is alive. He keeps the entire message of FFXVI alive and without him it would be an actively worse game, plus he's hot, has the best voice ever and points things out and acts with rationale in a way so many other characters don't for some reason? God I was so miffed when he died even though it was clearly telegraphed from the beginning, love that fucking guy, gonna frame his picture on my wall.

As for the combat and gameplay of FFXVI, although its more restricted and doesn't allow for a huge amount of exploration compared to previous entries and most traditional jrpgs, I do think its good, at least for an action game. Everything feels good and that's a really hard thing to do, because even when you're dodging or charging attacks it is a very active combat system especially since you also control torgal (which can make things a bit more hectic than they need to). But attacking and dodging both feel spot on and switching between targets and using your eikons is smooth and seamless, you can keep up the pressure constantly without getting punished too hard for it but you also get rewarded for paying attention to enemy tells, aoes and projectiles which feels hugely satisfying. You can also get a huge power fantasy literally just by mashing square and occasionally r1, its really beginner friendly. There definitely is some exploration in playstyle and how you build your eikons and special moves too so there's a level of replay value there, I particularly loved using odin who you unfortunately do not get until right near the end of the game, odin's quick slash attacks which build up a meter allowing you to perform an invincible combo with massive burst damage hits so hard for me, I ended up finishing the game using almost entirely odin. Getting new eikons and using them in battle works very well and is a ton of fun, it honestly makes this game more than worth it because the combat and action setpieces alone are so extra. You fight in the form of a giant fire god in space (twice) and tear giant kaiju monsters to pieces and it rips, the titan eikon fight in particular is peak action gameplay, that shit was utterly insane and felt like it went on for ages but I was never bored, it made me go silly.

Completely inconsistent and convoluted story that establishes a very cool world and then turns it into something completely contrived and one dimensional, Final Fantasy XVI deserves its praise but not in the narrative in my opinion. Its action gameplay, phenomenal art and audio direction and stellar performances carry it very hard, without Ultima it automatically becomes a better game. Its one that is worth playing and does a lot right for the series with its darker tone, grittier characters and dynamic, very involved combat that involves little to no menus, but its also hugely held back and stagnant because of the insistence of its lame BBEG and lack of development in its cast. I want to like this more, I really do!

Aria of Sorrow doesn't suffer with the inconsistency or repetition that I think can sometimes plague this genre, it is fun, straight up! Strictly speaking I don't really think this game actually has many if any glaring issues, in terms of raw game design and fulfilling its purpose, I think its awesome, it is a really well balanced and fulfilling 2D action rpg which fixes many of symphony of the night's issues and trims the fat so to speak. The music and vibe are stellar and the theming set in the distant future compared to previous entries is very interesting and cool.

Playing symphony made me appreciate this one more, because it takes that formula and refines it in the right ways, since weapons all feel distinct and fun (though big weapons that lock you into an animation feel objectively weaker) and menuing is much simpler and more accessible than before. The central gimmick around consuming monster souls and using their abilities is so good that its been copied and rightfully so, it is a borderline genius idea. It makes fighting every enemy feel worthwhile and every ability you can get from them feels unique, some actively changing how the game is played with brilliant new movement options, powerful ranged attacks and excellent utility, it allows for expressiveness in your gameplay as we had not seen before and inevitably makes the game very replayable - because its hard to get the most out of every soul and finding them all is not easy, like, at all, I ain't got time for that! There's lots of quality of life changes here and I like how well paced it feels, since you get access to abilities quite early and are able to explore the castle in a way that is just more enjoyable for a longer length of time - metroidvanias that let you double jump and stuff early just get it right imo. Though some of those abilities being accessible exclusively through monster souls can make the constant menuing feel a bit awkward, OOT water temple vibes.

While the vibe and music are off the charts and ooze atmosphere, the story itself is a little barebones despite the interesting theming and premise. I find it funny just how badass and cool the gothic inspirations are but the characters themselves are these silly one-dimensional children's show characters, with interactions between characters reading like im watching an episode of power rangers or speed racer, its at odds with the vibe but somehow works too, the overall campiness and simplicity of dialogue is just charming in its own way. POV you go into the menacing gothic castle and meet 'Graham'. This being said, I really like Julius and got a good vibe from him immediately and I was right to because once you get to fight him, it is fucking awesome. The soundtrack and drama in that section utterly rips. But then I do think the chaos realm and the final boss of the true ending are kinda weak, the way you get there by using the souls related to Dracula is great but then its a bit of an anticlimatic ending against a very awkward bullet hell boss - 'Chaos' is a good name for it because that's exactly what that fight is, if Julius was the final boss and had more hp I would not complain!

This is one I will definitely come back to and try a different playstyle, i've even heard it has guns which sounds great, I like the sound of that a lot. With some time and a replay and I feel like I might even rank this one higher. I've also heard aria of sorrow sets the stage for more games in a similar vein so that's exciting, plenty to sink my teeth into (pun intended).