"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!

Re-played via NSO.

This game was the RPG/J-RPG that made me fall in love with the genre. Pokemon was the first I ever played, but I didn't play it because I loved RPGs. I played it because I loved the Pokemon anime. When I first saw Paper Mario as a dumb 6 year old kid I thought "Oh it's like Pokemon meets Mario, that's cool" and I initially got the game because I liked Mario, but the turn based gameplay and RPG mechanics in this game legit changed my life and perspective on the genre and gaming in general and I've played this game so many times across my life.

This is my "Super Mario RPG". and even though it doesn't have as good gameplay as Thousand Year Door, as over-the-top and wacky characters as Super Paper Mario or as funny writing as either of those games. Even though it has clear first game syndrome and was outdone by most in the series after it in many ways. I'll always have that nostalgic soft-spot for the game in my heart because it helped define such a core part of my personality and tastes.

In its own right, it is also still a super creative and charming adventure despite its simplistic narrative which is basically just a typical Mario plot in RPG form (However Bowser legit feels like an actual threat in this game unlike in most), it makes up for it with great world-building, an incredible artistic sense of style and a truly magical and iconic soundtrack that has lived rent free in my head for the past 23 years.

"We fight. We survive. We endure. We don't need a reason. We are imperfect creatures. When we stumble, we reach for a shoulder to lean on. When we fall, we stand back up. We see the horizon ever out of reach and still we march on...certain the answers lie just beyond it. Because that is our way."

Final Fantasy XVI is one of the most divisive games in the franchise to date, but is also one of the absolute best as well. A game that on the surface looks like it has almost nothing in common with Final Fantasy of old due to its "M" rating, graphic violence, Game of Thrones influenced dark fantasy setting and Devil May Cry styled action combat, but as you advance deeper into the game, peeling these layers away, you reach the heart of Final Fantasy XVI which is one of the purest Final Fantasy experiences in over 2 decades that in many ways captures the soul of the SNES era of Final Fantasy (Especially IV and VI) and feels like a massive love letter to the series roots while adding its own modern and mature flair to it as well.

Let's start with the narrative and while I can't go too in-depth because of spoilers, I'll just say there's a LOT here. FF XVI is arguably the most narrative driven and cinematic FF title yet (featuring over 20 hours of cut-scenes) and that says a lot when considering that narrative has been this series biggest strength for decades. XVI tells an epic, dark, mature and emotional tale of brotherhood and family bonds, of living up to and fulfilling a legacy, of betrayal and revenge, of love and loss and most importantly of the power of freewill and the insurmountable spirit of humanity and it's all drenched in philosophical, religious and sociopolitical commentary as well. One of the most thought-provoking games I've played in a good while and though many will consider the 3rd act lackluster, I personally love it because I'm the type who is just as big a fan of shounen anime as I am Game of Thrones styled dark fantasy. So I'll happily consider XVI's among one of the best narratives I've ever experienced while playing a video game.

The quality and scale of world-building in XVI is also not to be understated because it is insanely impressive. The world of Valisthea is so dense featuring two massive continents, one known as Ash to the east and one called Storm to the west. Valisthea has many nations and kingdoms with their own various cultures, histories, religious beliefs and governments and that isn't even mentioning all the fantastical elements of the world like the complex lore behind magick or the godlike beasts known as Eikons and the special people known as Dominants which are born with the power to host said Eikons or the ancient civilization known as the Fallen or the many secrets and mysteries this world has to uncover. One of the most detailed and immersive worlds I've experienced in years. Valisthea has so much more that there's even a loremaster character who's entire purpose is to keep track of all the lore of the world (which you can read key notes of at anytime). Hell, I would compare it to that of my fave video game series the Legend of Heroes: Trails series world of Zemuria and it's especially impressive FF XVI was able to achieve such a level of world-building with merely one game compared to Trails' 12 games.

And what would a compelling narrative and world be without equally compelling characters? Well, luckily XVI has one of the strongest casts in the series entire history from our protagonist Clive Rosfield who we watch slowly and subtly change, grow and develop as he goes on a life-changing journey that spans decades of his life. However Clive is far from the only incredible character because there's also the likes of the charming, roguish outlaw leader Cid to the leaders of various nations like prince Dion Lesage of the Holy Empire of Sanbreque or Barnabas Tharmr the king of Waloed. Even Clive's trusty wolf companion Torgal has amazing characterization. However I'd say the one character that felt much less developed was Clive's childhood friend Jill Warrick mostly due to her character arc ending much earlier in the game than everyone else's and her character stagnating a bit because of it. However even if Jill by herself is a bit lackluster, I adore every single interaction with Clive and Jill together.

I also have to mention another reason the cast of characters is so strong in my opinion is thanks to the incredible voice acting from both the main and supporting characters alike which all have such strong performances and truly breathe even more life into them. English was surprisingly the original language for the game and the one that the game was lip synced to as well and it shows because I think this game has some of the best voice acting performances both of legitimately any game I've ever played. Clive, Cid and Barnabas were the ones that stole every single scene they were in, but there wasn't a single week or lackluster voice to be found.

That's just some of the main cast too which isn't even mentioning the supporting cast like Byron, Mid, Gav or even the blacksmith Blackthorne, the shop keeper Charon, the physician Tarja and the tactician Vivian have so much realistic depth to the characters thanks to both interactions with them in the main story and completely optional side quests that help flesh their characters out even more.

Speaking of side quests XVI is the type of game that reminds why I am such a strong advocate for doing every single piece of side content and side quest that a game offers because the side quests in XVI add so much depth to both the world as a whole, but both the main and supporting characters revealing many details about their personalities, backstories and struggles which you would never learn otherwise. On top of that you can get valuable crafting materials to make better equipment and items to increase the capacity or potency of your potions. Even unlocking the ability to ride a Chocobo is tied to a side quest so while most side quests are typical "go here and fight x thing" or "go here and collect x item", the stories they tell and the rewards they offer are more than worth it.

So for the past 1000 words of this review I've just been going on about the story elements of this game and while I could easily do so for another 1000 words if I wanted to I figured it is time to talk about the gameplay now.

Combat of XVI can effectively be described as Devil May Cry V-lite which isn't a bad thing because even a more simplified version of the DMC V combat is still leagues beyond most action combat systems, but I would still call it the weakest part of the game. It's flashy, it's fast, it's fluid and most importantly it is fun and never gets boring. While Clive's basic sword combat is very limited with only a couple combos you can do the variation and diversity in the combat comes from all the different Eikon powers you slowly unlock (Nearly 40) and there's all kinds of combinations you can try with them since the game allows you the ability to refund any skill you purchase at any given time and you can have a total of 3 Eikons with 2 powers each equipped, even being able to master said powers and equip them to other Eikons besides the main Eikon they are originally attached to adding even more versatility and variety to the combat. The combat might not have the depth of DMC V, but it still kept me fully entertained for over 70 hours.

However as fun as the base combat system of XVI is, where the combat truly shines is in the Eikon fights. These fights have so much build-up behind them and there's only a handful of them across the whole game, but when they happen they're heavens shattering battles between two godlike titans and they're some of the most grandiose spectacles I've seen in any game ever basically being the equivalent to if something like Asura's Wrath or God of War III came out nowadays. These Eikon fights are more than just cut-scenes and QTEs as well. There is always a legitimate boss fight alongside the over-the-top cinematics and it's all so perfectly executed and somehow every single one of these fights and their set-pieces just manage to get even more insane being more grandiose and bigger spectacles than the last even when you think there's no way that could possibly happen, it somehow does. I would happily consider at least 3 of these fights among some of my all time favorite boss fights now.

As a matter of fact all the production values of FF XVI are just phenomenal from the crisp, beautiful graphics to the remarkable sound design just adds so much more to the sheer godlike scale of the game making all the environments that much more vibrant and detailed and the battles even more intense and epic. Speaking of the environments it's so nice to have legitimate towns with NPCs and shops back in Final Fantasy again.

Finally what would a Final Fantasy title be without its music? I've never played FF XIV so I had no real opinion on Masayoshi Soken until playing this game, but after experiencing his musical talents in XVI I'll say this man is a genius. XVI's music has so much variety to it which really enhances every single scene just as much as the visuals and voice acting does. Each individual Eikon fight has their own unique theme from bombastic choral music or heroic swashbuckling adventurous themes to industrial electronic music, there's plenty of calming ambient music as you're exploring the forests and caves of Valisathea alongside some more folky music in towns and somber piano music during more emotional scenes, among many other musical styles as well and plenty of nods to classic Final Fantasy music pieces including a bombastic chanting version of the iconic FF Fanfare when beating a tough battle which is perfectly composed to fit the setting. With the score of FF XVI Soken proved to me that he deserves to be heralded right up there with the greats of J-RPG composers like Uematsu, Sakuraba and Falcom Sound Team JDK.

I essentially just typed up an essay on why this game is a masterpiece however I won't pretend like it is flawless because I do have some (minor) problems with it, granted they're all very minor nitpicks that don't detract from the overall experience, but they do still exist and maybe they'll bother other people more than they bother me personally.

First and foremost the game is kind of a technical mess right now having trouble keeping stable frame rates and resolutions on PS5 even on performance mode. I'm far from a framerate guy and that usually doesn't bother me, but even I noticed it in certain areas. Thankfully it is mostly stable during combat though. The game is also apparently making PS5s overheat and shutdown especially during the Eikon boss fights, but I personally never had that experience (Remember to clean your PS5 regularly and you too won't have this problem)

Now maybe I'm just too old fashioned, but the itemization in XVI is just very limited. I miss when it was common in J-RPGs for you to find new equipment like weapons or armor in chests in dungeons and on the over-world because in Final Fantasy XVI (and many other modern games as well) you can only obtain new gear by crafting and 99% of the chests you find in the world just contain crafting materials. So the loop is basically "do main story mission, go back to hub area, unlock new crafting recipe and make new sword and armor, use said equipment for a few hours. Rinse and repeat" and there's really no other way to obtain new gear aside from a couple special side quests.

When all is said and done Final Fantasy XVI is truly an epic journey from start to finish in every sense of the word, excelling in every single possible element the game has to offer providing one of the best narratives I've ever experienced in a video game with an incredibly detailed and immersive world to learn about starring a rich cast of well written and realistic characters in no small part thanks to its incredible side quests and masterclass voice acting performances. All topped off with an enjoyable combat system and mind-blowing boss fights which is all only enhanced thanks to the truly next-gen visuals, sound and production values overall alongside a masterfully composed OST too. Some people say XVI isn't a true Final Fantasy and to that I will just say that Final Fantasy XVI reminded me what a mainline Final Fantasy at its best has always been about. A mind-blowing, generation defining experience that will stick with you for life.

Imagine Sekiro but with Dark Souls II hitboxes and every time you parry you're off by 2 seconds because the animations are so low budget, janky, slow and simply not fluid enough for the combat. That's basically the Thymesia experience summed up.

I could go on to explain more of the mechanics and intricacies of the combat, but what's the point when it's not even enjoyable? That opening statement alone describes the experience pretty well and despite there being some cool ideas here and there and great design aesthetic (Though the level design itself leaves a bit to be desired), the gameplay mechanics just don't feel good and if the game wasn't so short (I beat it in 10 hours) I would've just dropped it all together so that should tell you all you really need to know about whether it's worth playing or not. It certainly doesn't help that the world and lore is so generic and boring and just feels like every other Souls-style game. The OST and art design are easily the two best things about this game and both are pretty solid, but too bad everything else is just a mess.

There's simply nothing in this game that you probably haven't seen done before and most things are just done much better elsewhere, so there's nothing here worth suffering through the janky combat even if the game is super short.

"My honor... my dreams...they're yours now."

Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII serves as a prequel to the events of the original Final Fantasy VII following the story of Zack Fair a rookie SOLDIER operative with a dream of becoming a hero and tasked with the mission to find the missing SOLDIER Genesis Rhapsodos with the help of his mentor Angeal Hewley. Zack also meets many other iconic Final Fantasy VII characters along his journey like Aerith, Cloud and Sephiroth among others and it really helps to give them all even more depth and development (Especially Sephiroth) than they already had in the OG Final Fantasy VII.

Crisis Core back on the PSP was already a great game, but Reunion is without a doubt the definitive version. Not only giving massive graphical updates using assets from Final Fantasy VII Remake, but also adding major quality of life improvements to the combat making it fast and more fluid and fixing the "Digital Mind Wave" slot machine mechanic so it's nowhere near as tedious as it was in the original and even including fully voiced dialogue. However there are some aspects of Crisis Core Reunion that still feel a bit outdated and PSP-like such as the smaller scale areas and reused assets for the (tedious) side missions (There's 300 of them by the way which is a bit excessive and it's not worth doing them all IMO)

To me most of the time prequels feel unnecessary, but Crisis Core is one of those rare exceptions which only help to add more depth and detail to the world and characters of Final Fantasy VII and Reunion truly blurs the line between remake and remaster in the best way possible only enhancing an already great experience with more fluid combat, fully voice acted dialogue and massive graphical updates among other things making Reunion the definitive way to experience this iconic PSP classic.

Valkyrie Elysium is one of the most 6/10 games I've played in awhile. I wanted to find an underrated hidden gem, future cult classic of a game something like NieR was back in the 360 days, but Valkyrie Elysium just isn't one to me. It is perfectly ok in almost every regard (and less than ok in some), but nothing more. No part of the game stands out to make it exceptional, almost everything it tries to do you've probably seen other games do much better already and that's fine, it's far from a bad game. It's just the definition of mid to me.

The plot starts out very slow and pretty uninteresting for almost 75% of the game. It's just "Go here, fight undead and purify souls because Odin said we have to do this to save the world" and while there is a lot more than meets the eye to this world and its lore, almost all of it is crammed into the final 3 hours of the game to where it just feels tacked on, convoluted and rushed. Reminds me of how Kingdom Hearts III was. I like most of the concepts and ideas presented, but think the execution left a lot to desire. Gotta say I'm not a fan of how the writers take so many creative liberties with Norse mythology and butcher some of its characters and concepts though mixing it with OC anime bullshit because at that point you're better off just making your own mythology.

During the journey Valkyrie slowly meets companions in the form of spirits who she turns into her chosen warriors known as Einherjar and all the Einherjar have stereotypical archetypes we've seen in J-RPGs before, the cunning rogue pretty boy, the gallant knight, the headstrong girl, the shy girl etc. However while they're quite stereotypical, all the characters are still quite charming and their interactions with Valkyrie provide some good character development as they help Valkyrie to appreciate and value humans more.

The combat is definitely the best thing about the game. It's like DMC, but with a much heavier emphasis on magical attacks and support from summoning your Einherjar to exploit the enemy's elemental weakness. My only problem is the actual weapon switching isn't nearly as fluid as DMC and you can't do it mid attack so it breaks up the pacing of combat and almost makes switching weapons pointless a lot of times to me. Also maybe this is just because I was playing on a harder difficulty (Normal was too easy when I started the game on it) but a lot of enemy's just felt overly damage spongy.

Boss fights were another highlight because while they were also overly spongy for my liking, the designs were cool and the fights were well choreographed and provided a decent challenge. Motoi Sakuraba's OST was also pretty good. The ethereal and atmospheric style of music really complimented the dreary and lifeless world.

Speaking of lifeless world, Valkyrie Elysium definitely shows its budget because the world really is lifeless. There's barely any side NPCs, all the side quests you do get feel relatively pointless and tacked on plus they reuse previous areas of the game, all the level design is essentially completely linear and corridor like with barely anything to explore or find off the beaten path besides a handful of treasure chests with potions in them and that's not even mentioning the outdated textures and lip-synching problems.

Valkyrie Elysium is at this weird crossroads where it doesn't know if it wants to be a character action game or an action RPG and a lot of the design choices clash with each other because of that. It has the foundations for a solid combat system, some good bosses and nice atmosphere and music too, but when the narrative and characters are underdeveloped for 75% of the game and then overly rushed and convoluted in the last 25% and the game is so short as it is with little to offer outside of the main story aside from a handful of fetch quests which reuse locations you've already been to...I just can't really recommend this game to anyone when you'd just be better off spending that time playing DMC or NieR instead.

A massive upgrade and step up from the first Battle Network in genuinely every single conceivable way. Everything that makes Mega Man (and especially Battle Network) so great is just better here from the narrative which is better written and more gripping right from the start and also pretty damn dark at times for a kid's game, I mean we literally fight the netmafia and eco-terrorists who are much more willing to kill innocents, there's still that 'monster of the week' formula, but with more emphasis on over-arching storytelling now too and the boss fights being more fun and having more than two attacks, to the chips and builds having even more variety and the combat getting extra added depth due to style changes and of course huge shoutout to whoever decided to add sub-chips especially the SneakRun repel-like item so now the encounter rate (Which is already much more balanced than in the first game) is nowhere near as annoying, the fact you can actually run from fights without having to use the escape chip is also nice. Finally even the level design is much less labyrinthine as well, however that doesn't stop the FreezeMan scenario from still sucking hardcore due to how cryptic it is and the absurd amount of backtracking. Overall still a very solid game which was vastly more enjoyable than the first and a good prelude before the perfection that is Battle Network 3.

Let me start off by saying I did the thing I promised myself I wouldn't do anymore and that is play through a game I wasn't enjoying all the way until the end, but Afterimage was a game I was looking forward to quite a bit and I really wanted to like it so it saddens me to say this, but it was massively disappointing to me and one of the worst metroidvania games I've played in recent memory. With that said, it's not an abysmal game and has some redeeming qualities, but it's also just not really that good as a whole either.

Afterimage takes place in a world called Engardin and you play as an amnesiac girl named Renee who is the lone survivor from her village and on a mission to recover her memories and find her lost mentor. That's honestly all I can say about the story because and it is rare I say this, but I can't even begin to tell you what happened in this game's story because the game just conveys it so poorly and the translation from Chinese is honestly just as poor too. Which sucks because this game is VERY narrative heavy, so much so that they voiced (and even dubbed) every line of NPC and main story dialogue and while the voice acting isn't bad, a lot of the script just comes across as convoluted, confusing jargon which isn't interesting to listen to in the slightest and when some of the dialogue is paragraphs of text, it really ruins the pacing.

The gameplay is a mix of Igavania and Soulsvania. Like Symphony of the Night mixed with Hollow Knight almost to the degree of plagiarism at times. The game just feels like it has no identity of its own and I've played it before, but a much better version. So many of the game mechanics just feel like they exist just to exist and add nothing to the gameplay so you'll barely ever use them much like the cooking system or magic abilities which do almost no damage. Afterimage also gives the illusion of build variety by having tons of different weapons and skills but half the skill tree feels useless and so do most weapons whereas others are just clearly much better and it makes no sense to not use them so why would you bother making an inferior build?

From copying the combat of SOTN to the bosses (Which there's tons of btw, but 95% of them are completely forgettable and super easy too) of Hollow Knight and the FromSoft style of cryptic, nihilistic storytelling, you've seen everything this game has to offer in other games already and that wouldn't even be a huge problem if only the game was fun, but it just isn't and a big part of why that is the case is simply because the level design is legitimately awful and the worst thing about the game (which is one of the most important things in a metroidvania) this might very well be one of the biggest metroidvania maps I've ever seen (The game took me 35 hours to finish and I rushed the end because I just wanted it to be done, probably could've gotten another 10-15 out of it if I really wanted to), but Afterimage is a game that proves bigger isn't always better since so much space is just empty and feels like it was added just to pad the game out. All the areas are connected, but when they're so big that even when you teleport to the nearest teleporter (Which you can only do if you buy/find Resting Potions which use the same currency you use to upgrade weapons) you still have to waste 5 minutes running through half an area to get where you want and I just think that's poor design. The fact all the areas feel so similar (Take a shot every time you see horizontal platforms and spike traps) certainly didn't help either. You could easily compress most areas by 50% and barely miss anything, there's a reason SOTN and Hollow Knight are as big as they are and not bigger because it just doesn't make for cohesive level design.

I can tell the developers and creator put effort and care into the game, it's evident by how detailed even the smallest animations are, how beautifully illustrated the hand drawn art is and how well the OST is composed and with blatant homages and references to SOTN and Hollow Knight it's obvious the creator really likes the metroidvania genre and I respect that, but I can't in good faith recommend this game to anyone other than the most hardcore metroidvania fans who will play any metroidvania just because it is one due to how it completely misunderstands the whole design philosophy of the genre on a fundamental level, has awful level design, tells a confusing story and at the end of the day offers the player nothing they could just get from the games that Afterimage so desperately wants to be instead.

Honkai Star Rail feels like if Trails of Cold Steel and Persona had a child and that child was raised on nothing but Genshin Impact (The UI and gear systems are all almost identical to Genshin's) and Star Ocean. Star Rail features one of the most barebones and basic turn based systems I've experienced in awhile and I can only attribute that to the game being an over-glorified mobile game because I mean the combat is literally simplified to having only 2 attacks/techniques (alongside an ultimate attack which builds up overtime and is basically this game's version of Trails' S-Crafts) for each character lmao. It has a fraction of the depth as Trails combat system where you can move and reposition your team on a grid and constantly learn new skills and magic abilities thanks to the customizable orbment system. It doesn't even have as much depth as Persona 5s combat system with the Baton Pass and follow up attacks, but I'll give credit where credit is due, the animations look very stylish and pretty at least.

The characters and narrative are actually the most interesting thing about the game (which is kinda the opposite of Genshin because while I liked some characters well enough, the gameplay and exploration was mainly why I played it) the story starts slow in the opening hours, but quickly picks up as your player avatar the "Trailblazer" and their gang of friends March 7th and Dan Heng among others start going on interplanetary expeditions to find mysterious artifacts known as "Stellarons" which are corrupting the planets they inhabit all the while the gang keeps getting tangled up in the sociopolitical affairs of these various planets. Each individual planet feels incredibly fleshed out with impressive depth to the world-building and that's not even including the Space Station main hub area as well.

Too bad to experience the compelling narrative you have to suffer through every typical gacha and mobile game element you can think of from replenishing energy to do the smallest activities, daily login missions and awards and of course locking the best and most powerful characters behind a gambling gacha paywall which really hinders the experience, but I'll give Star Rail this, it is pretty fair to new players and F2P users, it's a grind, but you can definitely still get some good characters and equipment just for naturally playing through the game. I've gotten well over 100+ summons after about 35 or so hours and haven't spent a dime on the game, also new players are guaranteed a free 5 star character after 50 summons when using the starter banner, but the fact you have to grind the game that much to get those characters is ridiculous.

All in all even though Star Rail provides a compelling narrative, fascinating detailed world-building and characters with a decent amount of depth all while looking gorgeous to boot, the combat is just far too barebones and repetitive and the mobile game elements are too prominent that I could only ever recommend this game to people who actually enjoy needlessly grindy games or have a high tolerance for bullshit mobile game mechanics. Shame too because it would make a hell of a great game if it was just a normal J-RPG and had a bit more depth to the combat.

Replayed for the first time in over 15 years thanks to the Legacy Collection and I gotta say, this game has aged not the best. It's not awful, but it has a LOT of rough edges and suffers majorly from "First game syndrome" and due to the ridiculously high random encounter rate (Boy oh boy I love walking 5 steps and getting into a battle and rinsing and repeating that cycle for 13 hours) I think it would damn near be unplayable without the Legacy Collection's Buster Max Mode. The fact 90% of the dungeon design is labyrinthine as fuck and using a guide is practically mandatory was a big hindrance in my enjoyment as well.

The narrative is nothing to write home about being a typical Saturday morning cartoon "monster of the week" (Almost all the boss fights are very bare-bones with 1 or 2 moves as well which don't make for very exciting fights) episodic formula with a massive world ending threat in the background and both the plot and characters are very bare-bones until the very end when a major twist is revealed, but even so it's still entertaining at the very least. Still the creative, fast paced and addictive card based grid combat almost singlehandedly carries the game and even in its most primitive form it is still highly enjoyable and without a doubt is the reason the Battle Network series became as big a hit as it did because everything else about this game is merely ok at best.

"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.

Resident Evil 4 is one of my all time favorite games. I've played it more times than I can count on multiple platforms, playing the game for the first time as a kid holds some of my fondest gaming memories and it just never gets old no matter how many times I experience it. So when I heard there was going to be a remake you can imagine I was very cautiously optimistic of it. I hoped for the best, but part of me also wondered "how can you even improve upon such an incredible game"? Well after clocking in over 24 hours on the Remake over the course of the past few days, I can confirm they did the impossible and made an already amazing game even better in just about every way imaginable.

Starting with the story, while the basic premise is still the same as we follow Leon S. Kennedy 6 years after the events of Raccoon City when he is tasked with the top secret mission of rescuing Ashley Graham, the daughter of the president of the United States from a remote village somewhere in Spain, but that's where the similarities end because so many of the main story beats and locations are re-imagined and changed around and after playing through this game as far as I'm concerned, it was for the better.

All the main characters and their personalities, their backgrounds and motivations, they are all fleshed out so much more compared to the original whether it be Leon who still retains his action hero personality and has tons of campy one-liners (both old and new), but now the narrative also explores how the aftermath of Raccoon City effected Leon and why he's so determined to not let a crisis like that happen again or Ashley who feels much less like just a damsel in distress for Leon to save and actually interacts with Leon more building up the chemistry and partner like bond between them and two of my fave characters Luis and Krauser have so much more depth as well also expanding in Leon's interactions with them and how it helps change him as a person. That's not even to mention how iconic villains like Mendez, Salazar, Verdugo and Saddler even feel fleshed out more thanks to notes you can find around the world which give a peek into their past life before the discovery of Las Plagas and it also helps that the voice acting work is all fantastic and really sells the performances even more too. Overall the writing is just top notch and without a doubt the best it has ever been in Resident Evil and while it is undeniably darker and more serious than the original game, there is also still plenty of the campy over-the-top charm from the original in tact too.

However it doesn't stop there because the gameplay has just as much improvement and refinement as well whether it be due to the new knife parrying mechanics and the resource crafting system which both add an extra level of strategy to combat encounters or the expanded treasure collecting and new Merchant requests which act as side quests to where the game encourages exploration in an almost metroidvania backtracking sense to pick up some things you can't get right away. Hell even the boss fights have been severely modified in the best way possible making them both more grandiose and over-the-top than the original and plenty challenging as well (The new Krauser fight gets my vote for the best fight in the whole series)

From the story to the gameplay, boss fights and everything in between there's just so much detail and clear passion that went into keeping the game true and loyal to the spirit of the original, but also very fresh and different at the same time and while some people will lament about a handful of iconic lines of dialogue being removed (However they're all still referenced in the names of achievements) or a few areas being reworked and a couple being removed entirely there's just as many cool new ideas implemented that I love as much in different ways so it all balances out for me in the end and while RE4 Remake will never have the revolutionary, iconic status as the original it will still certainly go down as just as much of a masterpiece as the original and arguably the greatest remake of all time.

It's just Mega Man 2 again, but worse. Worse boss fights (There's a couple cool ones like Gemini Man and Shadow Man, but most of them are pretty forgettable), worse stage design and the Doc Robot fights are the most unfun fights and unnecessary padding just to make the game longer for the sake of it plus the final fight was super lackluster.

However just because everything about this game is inferior to Mega Man 2 doesn't mean it's a bad game, it's not awful or great, it's just kind of ok. I will say I respect how this game was the first to add the slide feature and Mega Man's dog Rush which certainly help with platforming, but other than that there's not much here to care about.

Mega Man 2 basically took everything good about the first game, polished it and improved it in every way imaginable with more refined controls, less slippery platforming, much better stage design, iconic boss fights that provide decent challenge, more variety in the obtainable powers and improved difficulty balancing alongside another incredible banger of a soundtrack. I can totally see why this game gets the (well-deserved) praise that it gets. A legitimately fun game that I could totally see myself playing more in the future whereas I never want to touch the first Mega Man ever again.

People who say Dark Souls is the hardest game ever don't know true pain. This game would be damn near unplayable without the Legacy Collection's 'rewind' feature honestly.

The very first Mega Man game and it features some ridiculously tedious platforming and insanely slippery controls. Pretty awful stage design that has some serious artificial difficulty as well, but there are still a lot of good ideas spread throughout and it has the core mechanics of the series, the game is just very unbalanced and not polished enough to utilize those mechanics properly. Certainly a rough beginning for such an iconic franchise, but at least the music is still sick and the boss fights are charming.