This was a mixed bag for me. When you're clicking with the controls, it's riveting to fly across the stage, but then there is a drawback. The controls can be slippery and sometimes you don't end up where you thought you would go or bug into a wall and have to restart from a checkpoint. The level design had variety and didn't overstay its welcome when it came to their gimmicks. The boss battles were hit and miss. The OST was great and I'll probably listen to that outside of the game in the future.

I only beat the main story. There are more levels, but after attempting one and the slippery controls, I was finding myself frustrated, which is something that happened quite often. I didn't realize until I beat the story there was an item shop which would have mitigated a few other issues I had, so perhaps I'll come back to this at some point. This was an honest effort that just needs a bit more tweaking, but has the potential to be great.

There's a rule I've imposed upon myself in the past few years: "If you're not enjoying it, stop playing it". This unfortunately falls under that category. I think the pixel art and music are spectacular. I thoroughly enjoy the writing as well. It got a few chuckles out of me, but also knew when to take itself seriously. I'll probably watch a walkthrough just to see how it plays out.

The biggest barricade was the gameplay. Even when a dash was added, movement never felt right for me. It was fluid, no doubt, but just didn't click with me. I got a little over halfway through it and I got this on sale, so not a huge loss for me.

I knew from the demo this would be my GOTY. I don't think it's perfect. The story is simple and perhaps a tiny bit bloated at the end, but the major hook was the gameplay. The amount of customization that can be done with units is incredible and it felt on my first playthrough I only scratched the surface. I really want to do another playthrough, but I should probably get through the backlog first. I can say with confidence this is in my top 10 Switch games that I own and I'm looking forward to playing it again.

I knew what I was getting into and it still ended up being a mixed bag for me, and I think a lot of that comes down to personal preferences. I prefer mostly what the original had to offer in terms of combat, but this was a pleasant spin. Having weapons come with unique skills to unlock was great as it felt like I was making some strides of progression. I can't wait to see how the other party members will be treated with this style of combat.

The visuals and soundtrack are on point. It's visually stunning and the remixes of older themes are fantastic. I think those were the best parts of this remake. Where it falters for me mostly, is the story. I feel there are other avenues it could have gone with trying to expand Midgar, but it felt constrained and the pacing was bloated beyond belief. I was losing interest fast in terms of investment and even the combat felt like it was dragging in certain ways.

At the end of the day, I'm glad I played it, but it confirms to me that I shouldn't touch Rebirth. Oddly enough, it makes me want to do another playthrough of the original and I only played it for the first time a couple of years ago.

For every cool aspect of this game, there's something that takes it away. The djinn and the combinations of spells can be cool in theory, but it seems it's optimal to just have one element tied to a corresponding character.

The set up for the narrative and the world is cool in theory, but then there's a lot of events that don't seem to tie in to the overall story and are just there to pad out the game.

Even with the virtual console rewind feature, random encounters are such a pain to work around. I hit walls multiple times and I was just losing my enjoyment of it as I tried to press on. I knew recently I wouldn't do the sequel because I feel that aside from the story, the gameplay experience seems to be relatively the same. I wanted to like this, and I think if I had played this when I was younger, I would have loved it and I totally get why this is a beloved and underrated game in the GBA's library for some, but ultimately it shows its age.

This game takes a lot of elements from recent metroidvanias and makes it a thing of its own. Movement in this games feels great, especially once you get all the abilities. The combat also has some flexibility that allows you to make some cool combos. I did find the parrying window to be a bit too narrow for my liking. I appreciated customization with the difficulty as it made for an enjoyable experience, aside from a few strange bugs.

I honestly wanted to 100% this game, but it only tells you how much you collected and it's not indicated on the map what rooms have items that you're missing. So I was circling back a lot and then felt like I needed to consult guides and at that point, it wasn't fun anymore. I still very much enjoyed this overall!

Also, fuck Ubisoft for locking an item finding amulet behind a deluxe edition and also trying to require users to connect to their service for a SINGLE PLAYER experience. Luckily, you can avoid that in the switch version, but I always rolled my eyes when I had to keep skipping over that every time I booted the game.

Context for this review: I played 4 Golden before this one. It's clear that this game had a great foundation and 4 refined so many aspects of it to make it a more enjoyable experience for the player. Not being able to choose skills in fusions is a big deterrent. I'm also not a huge fan of how social links are handled for your party members, particularly for the male protagonist. The ability to break links is neat in theory, but it is frustrating for optimization.

Those issues aside, I thoroughly enjoyed this game. Coming from 4, I did miss being able to explore the world in 3D, but the story I found to be quite gripping and I enjoyed the themes it explored. The social links varied in depth, but there was one that very much shook me and I found myself tearing up at the end.

From what I've heard, the female protagonist has some significant differences and I think that will make for a great second playthrough down the line, or maybe Reload will get the 5R or 4 Golden treatment. I don't know why I skipped over this game initially, probably because 4 was just more popular. Regardless, I'm glad I played this and I can't wait to play it again, whether that be in this version or if I decide to get Reload.

This is very impressive for such a small team. The pixel art and soundtrack are nice. The gameplay feels nice for the most part and the combat is pretty unique for all the RPGs that I've played. The world is rich with lore and is well thought out. The character writing is also solid.

I think where it stumbles a little bit for me is in how it has a lot of systems, but I don't feel particularly invested in optimizing them aside from the main party. Changing crystals was such a tedious thing. Traversal in the world is a bit awkward and despite how it shows you where to go, it's not always clear how to get there. To specify, it would usually be climbing surfaces blending in with the background. I only sought out a couple of party members and despite their unique roles, they join way too late.

Despite my gripes, I'm glad I played this. I totally understand why many were saying this was an overlooked and underrated game last year, and I'd agree it's a solid RPG experience.

This is the second time I've tried getting into this game and it is just not working for me. GF animations, even with the speed up function, take way too long (And are a visual and audio mess due to the speed up) and are pretty much the best way to deal damage because the bosses have so much HP. I'm sure there's a better way to optimize the systems, which seem incredibly complex and I imagine provide a lot of customization for how to play. I honestly prefer the simplicity of the materia system from FFVII. At least I got this on sale.

I played the first game when I got my switch over 5 years ago. I remember enjoying for what it was, but felt that despite the multiple endings, I was never that interested in doing repeat playthroughs to get them. That's basically how I feel with this game.

It takes a lot longer to hook you in, and it finally becomes interesting in the back half of the game, especially if you've played the first one. It doesn't really take advantage of the "tear" mechanic which made for some interesting puzzles. I also felt like I wasn't ever conflicted on what choices to make. It felt pretty straightforward, despite what the game was trying to make me feel. It was fine.

This had a bit of a rough start and there are a bit too many city tracks from Tour for my liking, but it breathes life into a game that needed a refresh. I'm surprised this wasn't done closer to it's initial launch. It's now made MK8D into the most Mario Kart and packed to the brim with content. I got introduced to some great tracks that I never played (Mostly on Wii). I do wish there was more Double Dash (My personal fave), but I think the choices made were solid. New characters and mii costumes was a nice surprise too! I had a good time with this overall.