Final Fantasy XV is a conundrum for me and I am struggling to put the right sequence of words together to properly describe my thoughts and feelings about this game. The reason I say this is because the first time I played the game I got bored of it after 5-10 hours and dropped it. The second time I played it I can honestly say that on at least 5 occasions I really didn't want to keep playing it and had to essentially force myself to continue through sheer determination and stubbornness. This sounds like the beginning of a scathing review but on the contrary, after completing the game all the development decisions that while playing through seemed rushed, tacked on, or unpolished now all suddenly came together thematically and form a very emotionally compelling coming of age story told not just with the narrative but with the level design itself.

The most common complaint I hear about FFXV is the pacing of the story and how after brief introduction period you are thrust forth into this massive open world full of possibilities only to have the game totally bottleneck on you for the last third of the runtime finishing up with essentially a series of extremely linear hallways. This complaint is totally valid and I felt the same disjointed feeling when hitting said bottleneck. However once completing the game It all began making sense thematically. At the beginning of the story Noctis is a reluctant hero with big shoes to fill though he is clearly not ready or eager to fill them. This section of the game has really strong road trip vibes, Noctis and the gang hitting the road stopping along the way to hunt down some goblins, go on a few fishing trips, and snap some selfies at all the landmarks. There is no sense of urgency here which is probably what led me to dropping the game on my first attempt. While playing through this section, which took me roughly 20 hours or so, it felt quite aimless and unfocused. Sure some quests involve finding a few ancestral weapon or fighting the Nifs but for the most part this large chunk of the game is delaying the inevitable and essentially shirking your responsibilities or as Joseph Campbell would put it, the refusal of the call to adventure.

Once you finally go to see the Hydrean (the bottleneck) the game tightens up and becomes extremely linear. Again, during my playthrough I really disliked this as it was totally jarring, I kept waiting for another large open area to take a break and go on some hunts. It felt like two separate puzzle pieces that didn't fit together forced into place crudely with duct tape and chewing gum. However after completion I understand that confronting the Hydrean and all the events that transpire during this section is essentially where the rubber meets the road. To quote Campbell again, to me this is the belly of the whale (interesting how this section also involves a large sea creature wink wink), Noctis is now committed to grow up and carry out his duty and the game thematically mirrors this by tightening and becoming linear. No more fishing, no more bumbling around a pretty open world like you are on vacation, peoples lives are at stake and your choices have serious consequences as we have already seen a number of characters pay a heavy price.

The final chapter of the story is without a doubt one of the best few hours of an RPG I've played in recent memory. Everything here is laid out almost perfectly in line with the rest of the standard hero's journey and executed exquisitely. After Noctis reaches the crystal he meets with Bahamut and goes through his metamorphosis, then returns home to see it in ruins overcome by the darkness. Shocked by the state of the world but resolved to do whatever needs to be done to save it he reunites with his friends one last time before the final showdown. During the climax each member of the group goes through their own trial in which they show they are willing to sacrifice their own life in pursuit of Noctis' goal which really cements just how strong their bond is. The final showdown with Ardyn is epic, after fighting through hordes of demons, a Cerberus, and a gauntlet of guardians of old with your group you are suddenly left alone to battle with Ardyn one on one for the fate of the world. Everything about this chapter just works, the cinematics are great, there are tons of genuinely emotionally compelling moments throughout, and the Astrals lending us a hand when in need gives such a sense of scale of the sheer gravity of this showdown... I simply cannot say enough how well this final chapter brings the whole game together.

This isn't to say the game is without it's flaws though, there are definitely quite a few. At times I felt like the world and associated lore was not explained well enough until hours after an event had transpired. This made me feel like I was always on the back foot trying to catch up to the story, though that has been a common problem in pretty much every Final Fantasy game since FFXII to be honest so maybe it's intentional, who knows. I also felt that besides the 4 main characters and Ardyn, pretty much every other character was underdeveloped or not given enough screen time for the player to develop an emotional connection. The chief culprit here is Luna, besides flashbacks of their childhood and knowledge of the fact that her and Noctis are to be wed there is barely any time spent developing their bond. The events during the Hydrean section should have been a flying dragon kick in the feels but it simply didn't live up to it's potential. I logically understand that it is sad, and I empathize with Noctis as he grieves his lost love, but the player doesn't feel what Noctis is feeling, not even close... How could they, literally the first time we see her in person she is killed. To me this is one of the biggest failures of the game and represents a massive missed opportunity to sprinkle the world with weeb tears. Another element that is lacking is the combat. Nothing egregious here, it is just a little simplistic but it seems like that is by design. Not every game has to be Dark Souls and there are plenty of flashy maneuvers and combos you can pull off to break up the monotony of holding down the attack button so not too big of a deal here. I do wish that there was more diversity of gameplay though, maybe by having enemies that required using different tactics because honestly what is the point of having all these cool ancestral weapons, spell crafting system, and ability to switch to other characters when in practice 99% of the time simply charging an enemy with Noctis and then holding the attack button will kill them faster?

Overall Final Fantasy XV is definitely not a perfect game... How could it be? It is designed in a way that feels disjointed and unfocussed until after you finish it. The game is akin to one of those claw machine games where you keep pushing in quarters hoping to eventually get the reward even though your brain is telling you to cut your losses and bail. I can say for certain that the reward is there and you will eventually get it if you keep going, the juice is worth the squeeze! But some people (myself included) didn't like pumping in those quarters on my way to the climax and I imagine many people dropped it before getting to the epic conclusion that brings it all together, though I'm not sure how you would fix this without effecting the level design thematically reflecting Noctis' current state of mind. I guess that's why I don't write games... I just write about them.

What a lovely surprise this game was. I've gotten lucky a few times this year randomly stumbling upon an awesome gem that has gone under the radar. I've been looking for a new turn based, squad management game like this for a while and this game is that and so... so much more. The amount of depth in this game in simply amazing, there are a multitude of professions to develop, a rich combat system with challenging strategic fights that never get old, interesting quest lines and lore, and a level of freedom you just don't see that often in games like this. Honestly, I can't say enough how awesome this game is. I highly recommend to anyone who likes the genre.

Besides an undeniably cool retro soundtrack I really don't get all the praise this game gets. The gameplay is essentially Pokémon but instead of actually battling during the way too frequent random encounters you instead tickle the enemies or compliment them then play an asteroid-esque mini game to avoid taking damage. I get that it's subversive and uses common video game tropes to create these "I see what you did there" moments, but just being subversive doesn't make something good by default. There needs to be a good game supporting the subversion and I just don't see it here.

Not sure if a game has been so polarizing to me before. There are a lot of aspects of Sea of Stars that I truly loved like the story, the combat, the constant introduction of new interesting characters, and the perspective altering hook that occurs about two-thirds of the way through the story. On the other hand, I also absolutely detested some of the design decisions in this game like the underutilization of it's core mechanics, the lame tumblr art cutscenes, lots of empty and long backtracking sections, and the tedious busy-work they ask you to do to unlock the "true ending" which in my opinion is worse narratively than the default ending.

In Sea of Stars you play as Zale and Valere, two young kids born on the solstice dropped off by an eagle to an island in which they will be groomed into magical fighters known as solstice warriors who's purpose is to fight off a terrible evil that threatens their world. Zale and Valere are being mentored by Headmaster Moraine who runs the Zenith Academy which exists to prepare solstice warriors for the dangers they will face. Standard JRPG open here, you are the chosen one (um.. or two), big bad to go fight, the world lies in the balance, good stuff overall. What makes the story interesting is all the characters you meet along the way as you inch closer to the confrontation with the big bad of the game. There is an innocence and naïveté to the writing which might sound like a negative, but I totally loved it. Humanizing the villain is becoming an overplayed trope in stories lately so it's refreshing to see a simple good guys vs. bad guys story. When I say good guys, I mean really good too, they are so squeaky clean perfect that it's almost painful at first but the characters really grow on you eventually. This happy go lucky attitude that encompasses most of the story forces your guard down so when the sad moments happen (and they do happen) it really hits you hard.

The combat is typical turn based JRPG fare but with a few additional elements added. For starters there is a timing element in which you can do additional damage on attacks if you time a button push perfectly with the impact of the attack. They also added a mechanic where most enemies will periodically wind up for a big attack which will give you some number of turns in order to pair the right combination of damage types together in order to cancel their attack. For example you may have 2 turns to hit an enemy with sharp, blunt, and moon damage or they will do a large AoE attack. These mechanics keep the gameplay fresh as you will be solving puzzles of how to stop enemies from performing their most dangerous attacks pretty much all fight and having to time your attacks perfectly to do maximum damager per attack. No real complaints here, though I would have liked to see more progression of spells and attacks like a FF Fire/Fira/Firaga system for example.

Exploration is mostly fine but I find it lacking in a few areas. For one the world is open, but has virtually no reason for being that way except in the last act of the game. You can roam around on your ship all day but can't explore most areas until you have the appropriate key item to unlock the entrance so it's slightly pointless. Returning back to previously explored places doesn't reward you with anything new except in a exceedingly small number of circumstances and yet you are asked to do just that a number of times towards the end of the game. These hollow backtracking sections are awful and are just screaming for some sort of enemy evolution or previously inaccessible areas made explorable with a newly acquired skill. Being able to free roam in a boat is great if handled appropriately, sailing around the ocean isn't fun unless there are some hidden things to find like an island with a secret boss hiding some cool loot or something and sadly that is nowhere to be found in this game... Again, until the last act of the game. The dungeon puzzles are so simple that usually you see what needs to be done as soon as you enter the area making the process of solving the puzzle seem more like busy work than actually solving a problem. I also feel like the designers totally underutilized time of day manipulation mechanics. It would have been nice to see maybe stronger or different enemies at night, maybe some environments that are only accessible at certain times of the day, or even a buff to Zale's damage during the day and Valere's damage at night. These are just the first few things that pop into my head, I imagine a lot more could have been done with this mechanic than the rather dull prism light puzzles that are scattered throughout the game.

Finally, hiding the "true ending" behind a fetch quest which requires going on an easter egg hunt backtracking through the whole game with no direction or knowledge of where to look when we've already discussed that backtracking in this game is terribly dull was a total dick move. "Why don't you just look up a guide" I hear you say, well a) because I shouldn't have to do that to get the "true ending", and b) because I had already found about 40/60 of the rainbow conches on my initial trek through the map so this would still require me to go through a list of all 60 to make sure I got them all, and sorry but I'm just not going to do that. If you design your game to require immense tedium OR going on the internet to find the solution to get true ending, I'm going to use the internet in a more efficient way and simply go on YouTube to watch the true ending and save a bunch of hassle. All the other hidden quests to unlock the true ending were totally fine with me and I actually did 5 of the 7 without even knowing there was a true ending that had these missions as a prerequisite.

Overall I really enjoyed most of my time with Sea of Stars and it scratched that nostalgic SNES JRPG itch I've been having for a while. I thought it had one of the most interesting worlds and stories I've seen in an indie RPG. And it could have been an all-timer if they fixed the issues I mentioned previously. Another plus is with the way the story unfolds it opens the door to all kinds of possibilities sequel-wise which in this case I think is pretty cool and I look forward to seeing what they do next.

On paper Ghost Song is another in a growing list of reasonably enjoyable metroidvanias that doesn't do much to drive the genre forward in a meaningful way. However what stood out to me is the mood. Even on this dead world full of dangerous creatures there's this uncanny calmness to the atmosphere. This is portrayed perfectly through the beautifully gentle voice acting of the player character. The world is full of deep lore and shrouded in mystery. Our protagonist has no memories and we don't even know if she's human, an artificial intelligence, or something else. Just that she is inherently a caring and considerate being that feels the need to help others. I'll stop there as to avoid spoilers but the interesting world, tone, and story give extra weight to what is otherwise a fun but unspectacular game.

A surprisingly good under the radar game that even in it's early access form, has dozens of hours of engaging gameplay to digest. Enshrouded combines robust base building and survival mechanics with deeper RPG elements than you wouldn't expect in a survival game like this. The combat is comparable to the original Dark Souls only with less polish and impact. With that said, the combat feels to be a clear step up when compared to it's contemporaries. Besides a couple non-game-breaking bugs, I've really enjoyed my time with Enshrouded - give it a try if you enjoyed games like Valheim and V Rising.

There is a series of dialogue early on in NFS: Unbound in which right after weaving in and out of traffic at 160 mph and putting hundreds of virtual civilians lives in danger on my way to winning an illegal street race and then forcing a cop to smash into concrete barrier at high speeds to escape his pursuit, a radio host comments on government corruption by noting that the mayor recently got a speeding ticket for going 45 in a school zone to which my protagonist responds by calling the mayor a hypocrite for trying to crack down on illegal street racing while speeding herself. This clumsy attempt at social awareness clashes severely with the fact that we are playing a game centered around illegal street racing and if you try to bring in any real sense of ethics or morality into the game, we are the clearly the bad guys as we endanger many a civilian for nothing more than money and a quick thrill. Social commentary is fine in gaming, but it's hard to make comments about the criminal justice system while the protagonist is doing blatantly reprehensible things. This is no Robin Hood-esque tale, we are not stealing bread to feed our family - we are just racing for money and because we like it - and being an orphan doesn't give you carte blanche to break the law. Sadly a large chunk of the dialogue in this game suffers from this same dissonance which prompted me to turn the dialogue volume down to where it wouldn't distract me from the main attraction which is the racing. And just as it should be, this is where the game shines. I'd also like to add that the street art style effects that burst out of your car when you drift, use nitrous, or generally do anything cool are surprisingly effective and add a kineticism and punchiness to the already action packed gameplay. The truth is though that the racing game market is pretty saturated and while this game is fun, it doesn't hold a candle to Forza Horizon 4 which came out 4 years earlier.

I'll start by saying the art direction in this game is simply stunning and is accompanied by a beautiful musical score that comes in and out at the perfect time. The video game-ification of the 5 stages of grief was pretty interesting and I applaud the creativity.

However mechanically this game doesn't really do anything new and uses a lot of the well established design tropes that have been used for years to create emotional feelings through level design and gameplay, specifically present in this game is the steep ascents and sharp descents to create feelings of overcoming obstacles and hope, or despair and sadness respectively.

The gameplay is minimalist and somewhat uninspired which ends up hurting the final product significantly. While playing I kept hoping in the back of my mind that it would end soon because I just knew that the gorgeous style could only hide the lacking substance for so long and I didn't want to start disliking it. Thankfully the game is only 2-3 hours long so it doesn't overstay its welcome and the finale is rather powerful and ends on an optimistic note which I appreciated.

Diablo IV's second go round with the "Loot Reborn" overhaul as well as a bunch of other progression related changes have made a marked increase in quality of the game. I still probably won't play it for more than a couple of weeks as even in it's improved state it doesn't hold a candle to D2 or PoE, but it's definitely much improved from the initial release. Another compliment I can levy at the updated version of the game is that during this playthrough I haven't been constantly hounded to spend money on stupid crap every five minutes. The microtransactions are sectioned off in areas where you don't have to engage with them unless you choose to.