Played the game for the first time 2 years ago with a fan patch, but since it is now officially out in the west (After 12 long years nonetheless!) I figured I'd post a review here again.

What a ride Trails from Zero was. It started off probably slower than any other Trails game, but when it picks up, it REALLY picks up.

The main story of this game is great and mostly grounded in reality and pretty unique for a J-RPG. You play as Lloyd Bannings, a young detective who's goal is to help improve the image of the Crossbell Police Department in the eyes of the public due to them losing faith in the police and becoming more reliant on a peace keeping, civilian protection agency known as the Bracer Guild, so Lloyd and his team do odd-jobs while also taking on the corruption of Crossbell's shady criminal underground world, which revolves around an Italian mafia like organization, an organization similar to the Chinese triad and the war for power going on between the two organizations plus a grand conspiracy that lurks in the shadows, there's also 2 minor delinquent gangs that you interact with as well. Crossbell basically has a lot of parallels to real world New York or Hong Kong, which is pretty cool. Plus there's some returning characters from the Sky trilogy and getting to see them again and how their story tied into this game has some major payoff if you played the Trails in the Sky trilogy beforehand.

I didn't mind the slower almost 'slice-of-life' parts at all though because it served to flesh out and immerse me into the setting of Crossbell since even the most seemingly pointless side quest or NPC interaction helps give more depth to Crossbell, its citizens and all their interpersonal relationships and this also gave me time to get to know the Special Support Section squad very well. I really came to love the SSS by the end of the game because the 4 main characters and their diverse personalities have such great synergy with one another from the flirty jokester playboy Randy to the sarcastic super genius Tio to the sweet, but serious Elie and Lloyd the hot-blooded and confident leader with a strong sense of justice and the glue that holds the whole team together. Trails from Zero is set in a span of 4 months and the SSS really become like a family by the end of those 4 months, it is really heartwarming

Gameplay is basically the unique turn-based tactical hybrid system of Trails which we have all come to know and love with a couple extra gimmicks (Like Team Rush attacks and Combo Crafts) and QoL improvements thrown in, while the soundtrack was nothing short of a masterwork that you would expect from Falcom JDK Band with plenty guitar driven battle tracks to hype you up alongside beautiful and peaceful themes to help set the atmosphere of all the various locations both in and surrounding Crossbell and the dungeon design was always enjoyable to explore as well.

In short Trails from Zero deserves every bit of praise it gets. From the detailed and immersive setting to the masterful character development and sprawling interconnected narrative that becomes crucial to the story of later entries in the series. This is a game that no J-RPG fan is going to want to miss.

One of the most influential games of all time. The quintessential metroidvania.

Many have tried to surpass it and none have even to this day (but Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night comes the closest we'll ever get, only IGA can top himself).

Peak level design, insane variety in weapons and powers, one of greatest video game OSTs ever composed (Bless you Michiru Yamane), incredible Victorian Gothic styled art done by Ayami Kojima and one of the most quotable and iconic scripts ever.

'What is a man? A miserable little pile of secrets!'

I am never touching this game, not because of the controversy surrounding it, but simply because I watched a friend play through most of it and it looks like one of the most bland, soulless and casualized open-world "RPG" experiences since fucking Skyrim and I know it'll be a waste of money and I'll hate it.

Slap one of the biggest names in fiction on something like Skyrim and it's just guaranteed to be a hit with the most casual, entry level gamers so no wonder it's selling like crazy, this wasn't made for people who actually enjoy gaming. It exudes nearly every trope in modern gaming that is simply popular because people who have never played a game before in their lives eat that shit up, bland open world, checklist collectathon, MMO elements like glam and gear level, the most barebone RPG elements "choices matter!", ffs you don't even get experience for fighting enemies, just from completing "challenges" Excuse me for coming across as a gatekeeper, but this is WHY RPGs weren't meant to be made for everyone. RPGs have always been meant for the most hardcore fantasy nerds since the earliest days of D&D so making it appeal to the casual market might make a best selling game due to appealing to more people, but it will also alienate your core demographic and make the final product just come off as corporate and soulless.

Also if that isn't bad enough the combat in this game is just as shallow as everything else, no matter what spells you use or what enemy you fight every encounter ends up feeling the same, there's no depth at all and you will get insanely bored of it because it just becomes repetitive after the initial awe wears off.

Legit the only redeeming quality of the game is that it captures the lore and setting of the Wizarding World™ very well and I'm sure for hardcore HP fans who aren't big gamers that'll be enough for them to think the game is amazing, but for the rest of us? There's really just nothing here you haven't seen done before over the past decade of gaming.

"We've had times over the years when our chances were all-but zero. But we're here now, aren't we? We defied the odds and came through every time. Because we weren't alone. Because we chose to support one another. That strength is why we can always persevere. And humanity will continue to bolster that strength for generations to come"

I would like to preface this review by saying I first got into the Trails series back in 2020 and binged through every game from Sky FC to Cold Steel IV in the span of about 6 months. The series has been my fave video game series ever since and even 3 years later that love has yet to fade in the slightest. Trails Into Reverie is a bit of a special game for me being the first Trails game I actually had to wait for to be localized and released and I'll just say that 3 year wait was more than worth it because Reverie truly reminded me why I love this series enough to call it my favorite in the first place and after putting 100+ hours into it and finishing both the main story and all the side content I'm pretty content on calling Reverie both my fave Trails game and possibly just my fave game in general.

Trails Into Reverie is many things. It's both Trails of Cold Steel V and also Trails to Azure II and even on top of that it is its own new story which introduces many new characters and exciting concepts to the world of Zemuria, but most importantly Trails Into Reverie is the culmination of nearly 15 years worth of storytelling, a stunning love letter to the Trails series up to this point and an incredible finale for the Western Zemurian Arc as a whole while setting up the beginning of the Eastern Zemurian Arc starting with the Calvard Republic. There's simply nothing else in the medium of video games like the payoff that Reverie gives you after experiencing all 9 other games before it. Truly made the hundreds of hours I spent on the series worth it.

Trails as a series has always been one of the most ambitious across the entire medium of video games, most known for holding the record for telling the longest running interconnected story across 12 separate games and the span of (so far) 7 in-game years (And almost 20 real world years) and the series world renown masterclass, novel-esque world-building focusing on the sociopolitical issues of the massive continent of Zemuria which has multiple fleshed out countries featuring their own unique governments, militaries and political relationships and struggles. Zemuria has an impressively detailed history, including its own version of the real world industrial revolution, modern technological advances, its own religion and a version of the Vatican and so much more. Alongside all this there's a more mysterious, darker and occultic side of Zemurian history few are aware of involving secret societies, magical artifacts and ancient civilizations.

So when I say that Trails Into Reverie might very well be the most ambitious Trails game to date, you know how bold of a claim that is for a series as ambitious as this, but I promise you it is true. Trails Into Reverie is the first game in the series to tell not one, but three narratives across three individual story routes with each focusing on a different protagonist and featuring their own unique casts of characters, boss fights, locations and even music, but if that wasn't ambitious enough already after the prologue Reverie let's the player experience these three routes in any way of their choosing (Aside from certain points in the story that lock you into a specific route) this is all made possible by the cleverly titled "Trails to Walk" menu system that lets you instantaneously swap between all three routes at any given time.

All three narratives are quite diverse from one another in tone and themes and being able to swap between them at will really helps keep Reverie constantly fresh and very well paced (And Trails games are notorious for being quite slow burns) making this arguably the best paced and most exciting game in the whole series and a big part of that is thanks to it being the one with the most mystery right from the very first act all the way to the end. Who's this mysterious masked man C? What's up with this lifelike doll and why does she have amnesia? What is the "Reborn Imperial Liberation Front? What's going on with Rean and why does he still have inner turmoil? What does fate have in-store for Crossbell and the SSS? These and so many more questions will be running through your mind and the answers will most likely not be as simple as you think they are because all the twists and turns in the plot are easily the best the series has to offer as far as I'm concerned and even the finale is the best in the series as well. It's rare a game tries to pull something so grandiose off and actually manages to accomplish it without feeling rushed, but once again Reverie shows why its the best in the series hands down.

The routes by themselves are all fantastic. C's route and its themes of existentialism and learning to find a purpose in life was the biggest standout for me (Crazy how this game has over 50 characters and the new ones still manage to steal the show), but both Rean and Lloyd's routes truly help give satisfying conclusions to their character arcs as well. However what impresses me more is how all these individual complex narrative threads flawlessly weave and intersect with one another slowly becoming entangled at the core and what was once three separate narratives eventually becomes one singular narrative that comes full circle. It's like hyperlink cinema, but in game format and it's just as impressive.

Despite having three separate story paths Trails Into Reverie is a surprisingly linear game especially after coming off of the almost semi-open world Trails of Cold Steel IV, but I think it was for the best and only helps tighten the pacing. There's surprisingly very few side quests, but the game more than makes up for that with the True Reverie Corridor and all the side content it holds. The True Reverie Corridor is a sort of special mystical dimensional space where all our heroes can go and train by tackling a procedural generated dungeon to earn Phantasmal Shards which allow for the purchase of many special upgrades which can be transferred to their combat prowess in Zemuria. It is separated by Stratums and only the first 2 are mandatory to complete for the main narrative, everything else is side content that you could very well ignore (However I wouldn't recommend it though because of how much you'd miss out on)

In this dimensional space you can also participate in unique combat trials, unlock captivating side stories (If you've played Sky the 3rd, think of the Star/Moon Doors in Phantasma) which much like the Doors in Phantasma help to build the world even further with stories that complete certain character's arcs, show untold pasts, fill in the blanks to things that happened in between or before the main narrative of Reverie and some that might give hints to come about the future alongside some more fun filler slice-of-life events. Besides the side stories the TRC also lets us partake in plenty of mini-games from fishing to the CS card game Vantage Masters, the Puyo-Puyo like Pom-Party or a new Magical Girl themed Bullet Hell game, but that's not all because in the TRC you can also recruit special characters that don't appear in the main story just to use while dungeon crawling in the TRC by the means of a gacha system. By the end of the game you'll have over 50 characters to choose from and experiment making your dream parties, it is easy to spend hours upon hours in the TRC alone because there's such a wealth of optional content available, it's staggering honestly.

If you've played a Trails game you already know what to expect in the gameplay department, the combat is fundamentally the same from Cold Steel IV with a couple new mechanics and additions such as United Fronts which are basically upgraded Burst attacks that let your entire party even the reserve characters off screen do a group attack on an enemy, the Dis-Orders which were introduced in CS IV are back and more prominently used as well. Aside from that it's more of the same tactical/turn-based hybrid gameplay we know and love where we can move and position our characters on a grid, attack with special skills known as Crafts, use magic known as Arts, link up with team-mates for co-op attacks, boost our abilities with Orders and find the right combination of Quartz and Master Quartz to set in our Orbments and make the most game breaking, broken build possible. Simply put, Reverie is Trails' combat style perfected including every single miniscule detail that makes the combat in this series so enjoyable and introducing a spin or two of its own on the combat. Reverie having the largest cast of playable characters in the series (And possibly in all of J-RPGs as well) to date (Over 50 btw) gives so much room for diverse parties and builds to experiment with if that's your thing as well.

I'll also mention that despite Trails being a low budget series and Falcom in general being such a low budget company, Reverie is without a doubt their best looking game to date (Keep in mind, I haven't played Kuro yet) and there is one particular scene that was a sort of "test" for the new engine that Kuro apparently runs on and both the graphical and animation qualities have such a vast improvement over anything else Falcom have done to this point that it is crazy. However even the base game looks very impressive for such a low budget company and the animation quality has seen great improvements making the action scenes better than they've ever been, it definitely makes me excited for Kuro to experience the full power of the new engine though.

Another important thing I have to mention is the OST. What would a Trails game...No, scratch that, what would a Falcom game in general be without their music? A company that has always given music such an important role in their games that they have their own touring band that does live shows. Whenever a new Falcom game comes out it also comes with one hell of an album attached to it and I can promise you that Trails Into Reverie is no different. From its anime-esque opening theme "No End No World" which blends J-Pop, prog rock and jazz all together flawlessly all the way to the final boss theme "The Perfect Steel of Zero" and its powerful, bombastic and grandiose orchestral arrangements and choir vocals and that's just two out of eighty one tracks featured in this masterpiece of an album (Err I mean game, who am I kidding? I mean both) not even mentioning neoclassical guitar shredding furious boss battle themes like "Heavy Violent Match" or "Sword of Sword" and if that isn't enough for you, there's somber and melancholic piano pieces like "Lapis" or atmospheric violin laden tracks like "Hide and Seek with Myself" I could honestly write a review about how great the soundtrack itself is alone so I'll just cut it off here saying not only is the OST incredibly diverse and musically impressive, but every single track only helps to enhance the scene it is played in, every boss battle is more intense and exciting, every mystery feels more mysterious, every emotional moment more heart-wrenching. The OST itself is so intrinsicly linked to the game that I simply couldn't picture any other music alongside these scenes because it is the perfect companion.

Trails Into Reverie is Trails at its absolute best featuring all the strengths of the series and none of its weaknesses, providing not only the best writing (And best pacing) the series has to offer and an incredibly satisfying conclusion to a story that has been ongoing for the past 15 years, but also one of Falcom's best OSTs, some of the best turn-based gameplay of the past decade, Falcom's most impressive game from a technical perspective and over 100 hours of content including a lengthy main story and nearly just as much optional side content. Trails Into Reverie is simply put, no less than a true masterwork of an RPG and storytelling in general and one hell of a sendoff for some of my favorite characters of all time. If there was ever an "Endgame" of video games, Trails Into Reverie would be it, but as far as I'm concerned, Reverie is even better. However this isn't the end for Trails, but merely the beginning because as they say, where one trail ends another begins so onward to Calvard!

Dragon's Dogma II is basically just more of the first game, but with a bigger budget and more polish and in some ways it's better than the first, but in others it simply is not. If you're a Dragon's Dogma fan you know what you're getting, but if this is your first experience with the series here's a little bit of a run-down.

You play as a chosen one known as the Arisen, you've been marked by a great dragon and it has stolen your heart, now you're on a hunt to fell the beast and reclaim what was stolen from you. The actual story is pretty simplistic and barebones but where the game makes up for that is in the world-building and lore that is fascinatingly detailed and in-depth alongside some solid optional quests that help flesh out the side characters more.

A unique thing Dragon's Dogma is known for is the Pawn system. Pawns are other-worldly beings that only the Arisen can summon and command, Pawns are AI controlled, but function like player controlled avatars and act as your travel companions and party members. Players get to create both their Arisen player avatar and their main Pawn which other players can summon thanks to a shared in-game lobby. While Dragon's Dogma is a completely single-player game, the Pawn system gives a sense of camaraderie comparable to that of a legit co-op game in a way no other game does knowing that the Pawns you're summoning were create by other real people.

The crowning jewel of Dragon's Dogma has always been its combat and much like the first game, combat is what carries Dragon's Dogma II as well. There's 10 different Vocations which act as your various classes that range from a sword and shield user known as a fighter to an archer, a dagger wielding thief or a spell-slinging mage among others making for tons of variety to suit nearly every playstyle. The combat in Dragon's Dogma II is more streamlined thanks to making each vocation only able to utilize one type of weapon and only 4 skills at a time, (I lament the loss of my Mystic Knight vocation and magic classes having far less spells as well) but the game makes up for the lack of complexity with polish because combat feels more weighty and satisfying than ever before and since each vocation only has one weapon type (Other than the newly added Warefarer) that allows for them to feel more fleshed out with deeper move-sets.

Exploration is the other major focus of Dragon's Dogma and it does so in the least handholdy way possible akin to a Souls-like, so much so that I would say roughly 70% of the game is entirely missable from side quests to entire portions of the map especially if you were to just do the main story missions because the game incentivizes you to go out into its world, explore and create your own adventures. The level of freedom the game gives you even extends to quests making for a more authentic RPG experience allowing the player to complete most objectives in more than one way. Exploration itself was a double-edged sword for me because while it was one of my favorite things about the game because when it was good, it was GOOD and finding cool new areas like the Ancient Battleground, Misty Marshes, Mountain Shrine or Dragon's Breath Tower were some highlights of my playthrough but, it was also my least favorite seeing as how the map is 4X bigger than that of the OG Dragon's Dogma, but the amount of actual content in both is roughly the same and it certainly doesn't help that the map doesn't have enough variety and most of what you're going to be exploring is mountain sides and forests. Having such a massive map and limited fast travel just feels like unnecessary padding as far as I'm concerned and I would've preferred a smaller, more condensed map like the first game.

The actual locations and unique dungeons are spread so far and between that a huge part of the map is just empty space to be filled with tedious combat encounters and sometimes they just get too repetitive especially when most of what you're going to be fighting is just goblins and wolves. Even fighting massive creatures like the griffin or cyclops starts to lose its luster later in the game when you've fought them 50 times each, I just think the game could've done with more enemy variety to spice things up and it's disappointing neither the Hydra nor the Cocatrice made a comeback from the first game and special enemies like Medusa or the Sphinx can only be found in one location in the entire game.

I also want to make a special mention to the endgame/post-game content being very lackluster basically turning the game into a pseudo rogue-lite and doing the Majora's Mask 'If you don't compete this in so many days, the game ends' thing. There's only a couple optional bosses and there's not really anything new to explore either despite some new parts of the map opening up, it's just more empty space. The 'Unmoored World' is a cool concept and works well with the lore and narrative, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired and the fact once you finish the game you just immediately get thrown into NG+ kinda sucks too.

Despite it's lack of enemy variety, slightly empty world at times and rushed 3rd act, Dragon's Dogma II more than makes up for its flaws by being a game with a fun and polished combat system that has plenty of variety and depth to suit all kinds of playstyles, tons of small details to really immerse you into its world, a fantastic sense of freedom that let's you play however you want and a truly top notch sense of adventure and exploration at times. Dragon's Dogma II much like its predecessor is a very flawed game, but it's also a great one with tons of undeniable heart and soul behind it and is easily one of the best open-world RPGs in years right alongside Elden Ring and the Witcher 3.

Engage is one of the best anniversary projects I've ever seen and a truly beautifully passionate love letter to Fire Emblem. Engage feels like a modern take on a game I would've played on the GBA back in the day and I mean that in the best way possible.

Sure I could talk about how it is a return to form for the series with the combat system being much more of the focus instead of the social elements, but so many people have talked about that so there's no point, but don't get me wrong though, the combat is incredible (Arguably the best it has ever been thanks to the additions of the Emblems, the Break mechanic and the triumphant return of the iconic Weapons Triangle) I could also talk in depth about how much more enjoyable the map designs are compared to other recent entries. However those are not the reasons I love the game as much as I do, no that is because of the story which seems to be an unpopular opinion, but I thought the story was thoroughly incredible despite what people say.

Engage's story is best described as a Tokusatu styled 90s shounen anime all about how nothing is impossible with the power of your friends and family by your side. Yeah it's simplistic and dated and more 'childish' and nowhere near as dark or mature (Though there certainly are some dark and emotional moments), but not every story has to be a gritty war epic about the nature of morality so Redditors can have 200+ comment chain political arguments about who is 'right' just to validate their own personal beliefs to be a good story. Honestly sometimes you just want a feel good, wholesome story about the unbreakable bonds of friendship and family and that's exactly what Engage excels at and the fact the cast of characters are just a bunch of eccentric goofballs and they have fantastic chemistry with each other certainly helps as well.

Engage is so ridiculously cheesy, but genuinely earnest and passionate about its message that it is just as endearing as it is cheesy. I cried multiple times and I teared up even more, not even because I was sad most of the times, but because I was just so happy and constantly smiling ear to ear while playing.

Everything about Engage from the cheesy opening anime theme song to the literal Super Sentai roll call in preparation for the final boss battle just gave me this massive nostalgic feeling like I was a kid again watching Power Rangers before school or 4Kids anime on Saturdays. As a game by itself it is still very good, but as an anniversary title and celebration of the series as a whole, it is truly a work of art.

"He was a boy who accepted everything, but had nothing"

"She was a girl who threw it all away, but never lost a thing"

Me: 😭

Mahoutsukai no Yoru also known as A Magician's Night or Mahoyo for short and officially translated as "Witch on the Holy Night" is a visual novel by Type Moon written by Kinoko Nasu and set in his "Nasuverse" alongside other creations such as Fate, Tsukihime and Kara no Kyoukai. Originally released on April 12th (Coincidentally my birthday) in 2012 now over 10 years later remastered in HD with full voice acting and a remixed score, this particular re-release of Mahoyo is a landmark title for Type Moon and Nasu being the very first of Nasu's VNs to ever receive an official localization and translation in the west (Here's hoping Tsukihime and Fate will follow one day)

Mahoyo is at its heart a conflict between mages set in an urban environment, a battle for land, status and power and all the mind-games that come with it. However that is merely a fraction of this tale because it is also a story of duty vs purpose of fate vs destiny, of the insatiable human thirst for knowledge of the unknown and most importantly it is an introspective coming-of-age story of reflection and self-discovery.

Far from the grandiose stakes of Fate, this is a much more grounded and personal narrative that has no grand contests or life changing prizes, no, Mahoyo primarily focuses on the day to day lives of the main trio of characters the firey mage's apprentice and student council president Aoko Aozaki who has to learn how to balance her double life alongside her calm, stoic and mysterious mentor Alice Kuonji and Soujyuro Sizuki a kind and naive boy who grew up in the mountains far away from the wonders of modern society who finds the concept of electricity just as magical as seeing someone shoot a laser beam from their fingertips. These three are polar opposites with vastly different backgrounds, personalities, moral values and motivations and through Mahoyo's 13 chapters we get to see how they develop and change based on their interactions with one another (and an eclectic cast of side characters) and all the drama that comes with it. It was a thoroughly enchanting tale that kept my full attention for its entire 30 hour run time.

Aside from the the narrative and characters being top notch, Mahoyo also feature truly incredible world-building because Misaki Town itself almost feels like another character in this story as it both plays an important role in the main plot, but also we just learn so much about its history and the places in the town and see all the main characters interact with the town itself so much and that just adds so much more to the immersive feeling the story gives. Also that's not even mentioning how much Mahoyo goes in-depth into the rules and systems of the universe between the differences of magecraft and true magic itself or the concept of The Root or Mystic Eyes, so many fundamental building blocks of the Nasuverse get explained in great depth here and it's just a treasure trove of knowledge for nerds who dig fascinating fantasy lore and world-building (It's me, I'm that nerd)

Another thing that's worth mentioning is the sheer quality of the production values. Between the stunning artwork, backgrounds and character designs plus the more cinematic third-person approach to the visuals and the sheer amount of detail in every panel including subtle facial expression changes and the attacks almost feeling animated, Mahoyo might very well be the most visually stunning VN I've ever read.

The incredible OST which varies from mystical symphonic pieces with Latin choirs to jazzy lounge music and even a bit of industrial rock perfectly compliments the story and adds so much more impactful emotion and immersive atmosphere to every individual scene whether it be an epic fight or just a character walking home from work and the fantastic voice acting performances make all the characters feel so vibrant and alive.

Honestly the only minor flaw I can even find in Mahoyo is the localization itself having many spacing errors, typos and just coming off as kind of weirdly direct at times. However considering this is the first VN of Nasu's to get an official English translation and according to the credits it was done entirely by one guy (Shout out to Norimitsu Kaiho, he's a real one) I can cut them a bit of slack in that regard, I'm honestly just happy I was even able to experience such a masterwork in general.

All in all Mahoyo is one of the best stories I've had the pleasure of experiencing in quite some time and I can certainly see why it gets the praise it does. Between its fascinating characters, immersive world, breathtaking artwork and visuals and masterfully composed OST if you're looking for an enchantingly beautiful tale full of magic and mysticism then look no further than Witch on the Holy Night.

The TL;DR of it is, the game is a masterpiece and my new fave in the series surpassing even Ys VIII.

Now for my full detailed review.

Story: Ys VIII laid the groundwork for a more story driven Ys and Monstrum Nox just amplified it by 11. This is the most detailed and narrative driven Ys game to date and it's a fantastic one at that. It has a much darker, oppressive and mature tone than any other Ys game and it works incredibly well with the setting.

The basic premise is Adol and Dogi arrive in the prison city of Balduq, Adol immediately gets detained for suspicious activity due to his past adventures, Adol escapes the prison and on his way out he meets a mysterious woman name Aprilis who shoots him with a magical bullet turning him into a Monstrum. A cursed superhuman being with paranormal powers who is bound to fight demons in a parallel dimension called the Grimwald Nox, oh and they can't leave the city. So now Adol must break his curse to escape the city and be able to set off on his next adventure.

The story honestly blew me away in this game. I see people say it's inferior to VIII, but while Ys VIII had a solid story it wasn't the story that made that game incredible, it was that feeling of adventure. Ys IX doesn't have as much of that feeling because the whole point of the game is Adol is trapped from going on his next big adventure, he has to break this curse so he can be free to go on another adventure basically, but what it lacks in that tone and feeling it makes up for with a much more personal story with some incredible plot-twists and mysteries to unravel and the underlying themes of self-discovery and embracing the future while not letting your past define you felt more like something you'd see explored in the Persona or Trails series than it did Ys, but it was executed incredibly well and told a story just as captivating, emotional and memorable as those series are known for.

World-building: It's no secret Falcom are masters of world-building and Ys IX proves that once again. All throughout my playthrough I never got tired of learning about the massive history of Balduq. Between the legends of the ancient Hundred Years War and Saint Rosvita, the Nors mythology and gods (Even if it is just basically Norse mythology lol) to the political struggles of the Romun Empire or something as simple as the business practices of the Pendleton Trading Company, the city of Balduq always felt lively and realistic and easy to be immersed in. Another thing to note is the many mentions and references of Adol's previous adventures by various characters really enhances enjoyment if you've witnessed those older games for yourself.

Characters: I loved every single character in this game. From all 6 major party members to every single NPC that joins as a collaborator for your home base at the Dandelion Bar. They were all fantastically written, with so much depth, detail and development that when I finished the game and played the epilogue saying my goodbyes to every one made me cry because how much I came to love everyone. Even minor NPCs you talk to around the world like Jeannette and Reno have so much personality I know I'll fondly look back on my memories of the people I met in Balduq for years to come. I also have to mention I love the formula of the first 6 chapters being dedicated to learning all about a character of the main party, while slowly unravelling the greater mystery at hand as well.

Combat: This is what Ys has always been known for and Ys IX, simply put, has the best and most fluid combat in the series yet. It takes the same system Ys VIII had with the 3 character party member swapping system, each character having their own attack type of slash, strike or pierce due to different enemies being weak to different types and learning new skills as you level up to assign to various button combinations and execute combos, but polishes and refines to absolute perfection. Also bringing back the Boost gauge from the old Ys games like Origin/Felghana was a really nice touch.

Side Note: Raid battles from Ys VIII are also back, but this time their entire purpose ties into the actual plotline of the game and work much better for it.

Level Design/Exploration: It takes some real balls to have your game take place in 90% one area and it takes even more to actually be able to pull it off. Ys IX most definitely pulls it off. The prison city of Balduq and the outskirts surrounding it are both packed to the brim with secret areas and collectibles to find by utilizing all of the Monstrum's Gift abilities like a wall run, a glide or grapple hook which made the movement and exploration of Ys IX some of the most enjoyable and satisfying of any game I've ever played. All the dungeons were very well designed and fun to explore as well. Yes the visual representation is much more subdued compared to VIII or most other Ys games, but I really couldn't picture this story being told any other way, it wouldn't have kept the same kind of oppressive and claustrophobic tone if you enjoyed being imprisoned in the city because it looks beautiful, not to mention I think the grey, dark and dreary color scheme and gothic scenery helps to contrast the vibrantly colorful and almost visual-kei looking designs of the Monstrums and make them stick out that much more.

Bosses: All the bosses were excellently designed with a lot of later bosses even implementing the use of the various Monstrum gifts in battle in clever ways. The final boss was one of the most epic I've fought in both the whole Ys series and just any video game in general.

Music: Ys is known for having OSTs that are equally as amazing and heart racing as it's fast paced gameplay and Monstrum Nox continues this trend. Sure there's some more variety than usual with more orchestral tracks and melancholic piano pieces for mood setting, but the intense, shreddy neo-classical metal tracks are just as prevalent and you'll hear not only some jaw dropping guitar work, but lots of baroque instruments like harpsichord as well which fit perfectly with the gothic aesthetics.

All in all Ys IX: Monstrum Nox was everything I could've ever wanted and more. Taking all the best things Ys VIII laid the groundwork for and amplifying them to 11, adding an even greater emphasis on story, world-building and character development while staying true to the series lightning fast gameplay and infectiously catchy music along with incredible metroidvania-like exploration makes Ys IX not only the strongest entry in the Ys series to me, but an instant classic, an all time favorite and even a strong contender for Game of the Year, despite the Year just starting. The time I spent in the prison city of Balduq with Adol and friends is not something I'll be forgetting any time soon and I'm already greatly anticipating Adol's next big adventure.

"Kamurocho, it's a city of dreams where even from the gutters you can shoot for the stars"

Judgment (Judge Eyes in Japan) is a 3rd person beat 'em up/action RPG spin-off of Ryu Ga Gotoku's mainline Yakuza series, but other than taking place in the same city of Kamurocho there's almost no ties to Yakuza and Judgment stands alone as a self contained story separate from the Yakuza series so don't worry about having to play them before Judgment.

In Judgment you play as Takayuki Yagami, a disgraced former defense attorney that got a client he believed to be innocent an acquittal, but they ended up murdering their girlfriend shortly after so believing his "judgement" wasn't sound enough he left the lawyering profession behind. Three years later, still living with the guilt of his failure as a lawyer, Yagami is now a private detective based in the city of Kamurocho, alongside his best friend the ex-yakuza Masaharu Kaito the two run the Yagami Detective Agency and get wrapped up in the mystery of a serial killer known as "the Mole" who kills Yakuza by gouging their eyes out.

Judgment is a murder mystery and what good is a mystery without twists? Thankfully there's plenty of twists and turns in Judgment that will have you guessing all the way until the end and with each new reveal the plot gets even more complex introducing more characters and slowly pulling at the threads of a grand conspiracy until everything is finally unraveled for one of the most climactic finales I've ever experienced in a video game. The way everything comes together in the end and how all the plot threads and characters connect is just absolutely masterful writing and gives such major payoffs in the end.

Another thing worth mentioning is the incredible voice performances both in sub and dub which really help bring this cast of characters to life. I especially have to commend Takuya Kimura and Greg Chun for both making Yagami one of my all time favorite characters.

As with most Yakuza games when not tackling the main story there's a wealth of side content to complete as well. From the 50 "Side Cases" which act as Judgment's form of Yakuza's sub stories and could be anything from helping someone find their lost cat to getting proof of infidelity these smaller cases are how Yagami makes his living paying in both money and experience and they help flesh out the world of Kamurocho better. I will say that one of the side cases which revolves around rival gangs and spans the length of the whole game is cool and one of the best side cases, but the mechanic it introduces with the "Threat Meter" and how the gangs become more aggressive and increase the random encounter rate a lot until you go out of your way to beat the gang leaders becomes tedious and breaks the flow of the story at times.

Along with the side cases there's also a friendship system that allows Yagami to become friends with almost everyone in Kamurocho by helping them with their smaller matters, all these characters have their own minor arcs and also give benefits once they're your friend from giving a discount at a shop to helping in battle or even unlocking new side cases, there's always incentive to befriend everyone you see. There are also plenty of mini-games in Judgement with everything from darts and poker to Mahjong and Shogi or Virtua Fighter 5, Outrun and even a Kamurocho themed rail shooter called "Kamuro of the Dead", plus my personal favorite a VR Mario Party-esque board game called "Dice and Cube" you could spend hours of your time on the mini-games of Judgment alone.

Gameplay of Judgment can be broken down into two types. The first being Yakuza-like beat 'em up combat. During combat Yagami has two different combat styles based on kung-fu, the "Tiger" style which is primarily used for 1v1 fights and the "Crane" style which is used for crowd control against multiple enemies. Yagami can also perform special cinematic finishing attacks known as "EX actions" and even after seeing them for 50+ hours I never get tired of how over-the-top and stylish they are, the martial arts choreography (especially in the boss battles) is just action packed and top notch. A new addition to Judgment that the Yakuza series didn't have is a mechanic known as "mortal wounds" and this happens when a boss or powerful enemy does a charge attack or uses a weapon like a gun or sword on Yagami. It'll permanently shave off a piece of your health bar until you go to the doctor or use a med kit and honestly this is one of my biggest complaints about the game and I don't understand why this was even added because it just breaks the flow of combat and becomes tedious at times.

The second type of gameplay revolves around Yagami being a detective and outside of combat you'll engage in Ace Attorney-like investigation segments where you have to search your surroundings for clues and evidence in a first person mode and when not searching for evidence you'll also have to use disguises and tail suspects in stealth missions and that brings me to my next biggest complaint about the game. There are WAY too many tailing missions and some near the end of the game or during specific side quests get very tedious and felt poorly balanced. I like the concept of tailing and giving the game more of a detective feel and I understand wanting to show off a new mechanic, but they went a bit too overboard with it as far as I'm concerned.

Graphically Judgment is a beautiful game and replaying it on PS5 really helped enhance the realism which really fits the gritty tone of the world and story and the OST is great too with jazzy noir sounding pieces that enhance the detective atmosphere to triumphant and bombastic orchestral tracks that have a very law-and-order feel or crunchy heavy guitar centric tracks for intense boss fights, there's plenty of variety to the OST and it all fits the themes and enhances the atmosphere of the game.

Overall Judgment is an incredible game with a murder mystery narrative full of crazy twists and turns that will keep you guessing and plenty of compelling characters including a fantastic lead protagonist with tons of depth and development further enhanced by great voice acting performances. Featuring hours upon hours of enjoyable side content, fluid and stylish combat full of top notch martial arts choreography and intense boss fights, beautiful graphics and an OST full of memorable tracks and while it's true there's a few flaws and tedious new mechanics such as mortal wounds, tailing missions and the over abundance of random encounters thanks to the threat meter, these are very minor problems that only slightly detract from my over all enjoyment of the game and both the story and combat of the game are so good that I've thought about the game non-stop since the first time I played it 5 years ago and that's ultimately the reason I decided to replay the game and if a game made that strong of an impact on me you can bet I also strongly recommend it and think everyone deserves to have that kind of experience as well and take it from me, Judgment will give you an experience you will not soon forget.

The World Ends With You is truly a one-of-a-kind masterpiece. I wish I would've played this game years ago on the DS, but better late than never. I've been playing RPGs for over 2 decades now and I was just blown away by the sheer amount of creativity this game has to offer, I've never played anything else quite like it and I loved absolutely everything about it.

In The World Ends With You we follow the narrative of an anti-social teenager named Neku Sakuraba who finds himself in the Shibuya shopping district in Tokyo, but it isn't the Shibuya he knows, no, this is an alternate plane of existence ran by mysterious beings known as Reapers who are forcing everyone here to play a deadly death game known as the Reapers Game where your only means of survival is to work together with a partner and clear daily missions set by the Reapers themselves, those who fail face the threat of being erased from existence itself. There's one major problem though, Neku has what I call 'J-RPG protagonist syndrome' meaning that he's come down with a bad case of amnesia and is about as clueless as to what's going on as we the player are ourselves. How did Neku end up in this plane of existence? Just who are the Reapers and what is their end game? This and many more questions will be answered as you progress through the 25 hour main narrative and what a narrative it is too! I'm a sucker for a great mystery and that is exactly what TWEWY is, a compelling mystery with many unexpected twists and turns and I was thoroughly captivated from start to finish.

Aside from the plot itself, one of the most important things about a great J-RPG is equally great characters and thankfully TWEWY excels on this level as well. Neku meets many colorful characters during his journey and though he is reluctant to open up to them at first, he has incredible development and slowly learns to trust and work alongside his new friends and partners. All the main characters are complex with fleshed out personalities and relatable human struggles.

Combat can be experienced in two ways, 1) playing the Switch in handheld mode which uses the touch screen or 2) playing docked which utilizes the Switch's motion control features and though it has a bit of a learning curve and takes some time to get used to I really ended up loving it. Neku and friends engage in combat by using abilities called 'psychs' which come from collectible pins that can be activated in various ways like tapping, scratching, slashing and pressing the screen, the enemies on the screen and sometimes Neku himself. The sheer variety in the abilities and how you can fastly chain them together made the combat system continuously fresh and fun. I also liked how all the pins have brands attached to them and attacking with different brands in different areas of the map will increase their power.

Another major thing that defines TWEWY is the art direction and music. TWEWY has a very big urban/street aesthetic to it in everything from the character designs to the backgrounds, hell even all the fashion brands the characters wear in game and the OST as well which is full of hip hop and R&B tracks (Which are bangers btw). All of this combined gives TWEWY a very distinct and one-of-a-kind style that stands out from all its other J-RPG counterparts.

When all is said and done I never got to play TWEWY back on the DS so I have no nostalgia for this game and everything I'm typing right now are 100% my honest thoughts and those thoughts say that this game is simply an incredible J-RPG unlike anything else I've ever played before that is just dripping in distinctive style, utilizing a super fun combat system, featuring a compelling narrative full of mystery and suspense alongside a well written cast of eclectic characters and an absolutely banging OST making it a must play for any J-RPG fan.

The first Souls clone and unfortunately one of the worst ones too.

In the words of Iron Pineapple

It has "All of the Dark, none of the Soul"

For as much shit as I give RE 7 I at least had fun playing that game, RE 0 was just a chore to get through.

Positives:
+Atmosphere is just as intense as any of the first 3 classic RE games
+The story was interesting and builds upon the pre-established RE lore of the classic games in a cool way and overall has that B-film camp that I want from RE.
+The main antagonist is absolutely ridiculous in the best possible way and he looks like a Final Fantasy character (Some people would call this a negative, but I loved it)
+Rebecca and Billy are very likable protagonists
+The level design was good and I enjoyed exploring it, especially the Umbrella Training Facility which felt very reminiscent to the Spencer Mansion of the original Resident Evil. Also the puzzles were good too.

Negatives:
-One of the worst game design choices in all of history is this game having no item boxes. That one simple design choice almost makes the whole damn game unplayable. Having to completely empty your inventory in a room and then backtrack to that room later to pick all those items up again is absolutely NOT FUN and just obnoxious padding and a waste of time.
-Partner A.I. can be pretty inconsistent at times not attacking when they should or getting in the way when you're trying to move objects
-Constantly switching between the 2 different characters gets super tedious
-Most enemy design is very bland aside from a couple like the leech humanoid or the Proto-Tyrant

Overall the game has a lot of good things about it that I like and has a lot of unique ideas for its time, but it fails to execute them in an enjoyable way and it results in an experience that just isn't fun. If someone told me they quit playing partially through the game or that they just skipped it altogether I really couldn't blame them.

Besides DMC 3/5 this is my favorite hack n slash/character action game. The plot is ridiculous think of the most cheesy 80s b-action movie ever and this will somehow still be more over-the-top and I just fucking love it. The characters are so insanely edgy, the combat is so damn stylish and fun, the OST is godly and the dialogue is some of the most quotable in any video game ever.

Free will is a myth. Religion is a joke. We are all pawns, controlled by something greater: Memes, the DNA of the soul.