I first played Quantum Break a couple years ago, but I recently replayed it this past week and loved it even more than before, definitely my 2nd favorite Remedy game after Control.

"The number one killer is time." How do you save the world when time itself is your enemy? From Remedy Entertainment, the masters of cinematic action games comes Quantum Break. A time shattering, reality bending, hard sci-fi superhero story all about fixing a fracture in time that will lead to the end of time itself.

The narrative primarily centers around protagonist and unlikely hero Jack Joyce and his childhood friend Paul Serene. After being gone from his hometown of Riverport, MA for years Jack returns to help his friend Paul with a presentation at the local college. Paul is primarily a businessman, not a scientist, but lately he's been expanding on the physics work of Jack's estranged brother, William, and has built a time machine. Naturally Jack is skeptical, but agrees to help Paul activate the machine and of course nothing can ever be simple, especially when dealing with theoretical physics. William appears and demands that Paul and Jack stop their actions or "time will break", but it's already too late. Something was off in the calculations and the machine becomes unstable dousing both Jack and Paul in Chronon radiation which gives them both time-manipulation based superpowers. Shortly after soldiers from the corporate juggernaut Monarch Solutions appear to steal the time machine's core...

After that? You'll have to play to find out what happens next. This is merely the first 15 minutes of the 10-15 hour complex yet easy to digest narrative fraught with plenty of mystery, drama and clever twists and turns along the way. This is easily one of the best stories involving time travel that I've experienced in fiction. Alongside taking inspiration from movies like Inception, Interstellar, Back to the Future and The Matrix I love how Sam Lake and the development team consulted actual real life scientists while creating the story for the game to make it feel believable and consistent with current real life theoretical physics and quantum physics.

The main cast of characters are all portrayed by a star studded cast of actors like Shawn Ashmore (Jack Joyce), Aiden Gillen (Paul Serene), Lance Reddick (Martin Hatch), Dominic Monaghan (William Joyce) and Courtney Hope (Beth Wilder) and all their performances are just top notch and make the characters feel that much more realistic and human. That said out of all of Remedy's protagonists I find Jack the least interesting, but all the other characters easily make up for him being a bit boring. I have to give a special shout-out to Aiden Gillen especially, his performance is one of the biggest reasons Paul Serene is one of my all time favorite characters.

Something that makes Quantum Break a very unique experience is how it's one part video game and one part interactive TV series. At the end of each Act of the game you'll reach a "Junction Point" where you'll play as Paul and choose one of two paths, this decision will have an impact on how certain events unfold in both the game itself and the TV series as well. Speaking of the TV series it's great, there's only 4 episodes of it and I honestly wish there were more because not only does it have some cool Jason Bourne styled action scenes, but it also really helps flesh out and humanize the antagonists Monarch Solutions more and while main characters like Jack and Paul rarely show up, the leads Liam Burke and Charlie Wincott do just as good and have interesting character arcs. While you can skip the TV series all together you would be doing yourself a major disservice because of how much it adds to the product as a whole.

Quantum Break is primarily a linear cinematic narrative driven experience and when you're not watching a cut-scene or live action segment you'll be doing a lot of reading via what are called "narrative items". These are various documents like e-mails between characters which further detail their motives and daily life or audio logs and video diaries where character's give their thoughts about a particular event that happened. Once again these can be skipped, but since it's a big part of the content of the game and helps you get more immersed in the world I wouldn't recommend it.

When not involved in the narrative the gameplay mostly revolves around 3D platforming time manipulation based puzzles which involve rewinding or slowing down time which give me some Prince of Persia vibes, utilizing your Time Vision to explore for secret Chronon Sources which act as skill points to upgrade Jack's various skills and most importantly the combat in the form of a cover based 3rd person shooter. Jack can find a variety of pistols, assault rifles and shotguns in the various levels of the game. However another factor to Quantum Break's uniqueness is the fact that it's a cover based shooter that actively encourages you to not be in cover due to the amount of powers Jack has at his disposal. You can stop time in a bubble around an enemy and stack bullets for massive damage, do a light-speed dash into an enemy to make them lose their balance or even pop open a time shield to protect from incoming damage in the middle of the battlefield. It takes a little to open up, but once you unlock all your powers you can create some truly devastating fast paced, stylish and fluid combos.

I can't state this enough, but the production values of Quantum Break are amazing. You can definitely tell this game was funded by Microsoft money. The set pieces are action packed, the environments are designed well and fit the story perfectly, the graphics are beautiful and make the character models look remarkably close to their real life actors and the sound design is some of the best I've heard in a video game with the guns having great impact and all the time related effects really capturing the sound of the distorted and warped fragmented time stutters.

Quantum Break is simply another masterpiece by Remedy with a complex narrative full of suspense, mystery, drama and many fascinating twists and turns, a fleshed out and detailed world and an engaging cast of characters. Quantum Break is a must play that will have you hooked all the way through its entire run time and long after that.

A strong contender for my favorite game of all time. Played it 2 years ago when it first came out, but playing it again was just as amazing, maybe even more so since this time since I played it on PS5 and not only did it run at a stable frame rate, but the ray-tracing graphics enhanced the experience even more. One of the best looking games I've ever played without a doubt.

What do you get when you mix the SCP Foundation with X-Files and Twin Peaks add some Lovecraftian Cosmic Horror, a whole hell of a lot of Jungian psychology (Archetypes, collective unconsciousness, synchronicity etc) and have David Lynch direct it? One of the most unique and ambitious games of not only last gen, but of all time AKA Control, that's what you get.

It's very rare, but every once in awhile comes an artistic vision so grand, so deep and so unique that it just leaves a massive impact on me months, even years later after I first experienced it. Control is one of those times. I played this game back on PS4 when it was first released, beat it multiple times and then when the first expansion was released I came back to it and played through it again and still it was just as amazing as the first time. Hell, I love the game so much that I bought it on Steam just so I could post a review of it and also bought multiple copies for friends as gifts.

The characters are great and super memorable especially the protagonist Jesse Faden (Serious gf material) which has that kind of sarcastic wit and weirdness that reminds me of a cross between Fox Mulder and Dale Cooper with some Buffy Summers in there as well or the eccentric mad scientist type that Casper Darling is or the quirky Finnish janitor Ahti (Without going into spoilers Ahti is much more than meets the eye). The voice acting performances by Courtney Hope, Matthew Porretta and Martti Suosalo among others are all top notch and really help bring these characters to life.

While the core story itself is fairly simple, the themes, concepts and world around it is anything but and truly unlike anything else out there in video games. The world that Sam Lake and Remedy crafted with this game is just so genuinely fascinating I was always excited when I found another document or piece of flavor text that expanded upon it. It's rare I read all those documents in games, but I always find myself doing so with Remedy games because their worlds and characters are so interesting and well written they always leave me awestruck. Another fact to note is that Control is in a shared universe with Remedy's other classic Alan Wake (And there are many hints to it being in the same universe as Max Payne and Quantum Break as well) Remedy have basically made their own interconnected universe akin to Marvel and I'm all for it.

Also something I have to point out and I don't see many people mention is how Control is a pretty big love letter to H.P. Lovecraft and cosmic horror (however not in the conventional sense), due to it being modern and having its own unique lore and characters instead of using his I feel like most people don't pick up on this, but if you pay attention to the story, world and all the lore (Especially the videologs) it's easy to see this is a Lovecraftian game in every sense of the word and It's also got a very abstract, artsy vibe to the cut-scenes and special effects, not too far off from what you'd see David Lynch do and these two major components meld very well together I must say.

Despite being one of my fave games of all time, I won't say it's 100% perfect. Yeah the game has its fair share of technical problems on older hardware (Runs perfect on PS5 though) and there are minor design issues like not much enemy variety, annoying RNG weapon mod drops etc, but I enjoy everything else so much that these flaws are completely insignificant to me.

The combat system is incredible and lots of fun, especially when you get into a nice rhythm with it and start chaining together all your different powers for cool combos using all these awesome psychic powers from telekinesis, mind control, creating shields out of debris around you, levitation and air dashes and the gunplay is also quite different, seeing as how you only have one real weapon, but it can shapeshift into different forms. Even just exploring every inch of the FBC to uncover more of its history and unravel the mysteries it holds was always thrilling. I'm a sucker for that metroidvania style sense of progression, being able to backtrack when you get a new power that unlocks a new secret area or a whole new section of the map never gets old to me.

Even though the game itself is very short taking the average player about 15 hours to finish, I got more enjoyment out of those 15 hours I spent with Control than most games I spend 30-40 hours in. Also it's pretty rare I decide to replay a game right after beating it, but I always find myself doing this with Remedy's masterpieces, Control being no exception. I played through this game 5 times in full and never got bored of it.

Oh and I could gush about the scenery and art design for hours, it takes a LOT of artistic creativity to make a story take place entirely in one setting and do it well, but due to 'The Oldest House' being a building in constant quantum flux and shifting between different dimensional planes of reality Remedy really utilized that concept well.

All in all I highly recommend Control to anyone looking for a very interesting more modern take on the surreal, psychological, cosmic horror style with an incredibly well built world or for anyone who has always wanted to live out their fantasies as being an ESPer who fights extra-dimensional beings, you won't be disappointed.

It's the Alan Wake you know and love with a shiny graphical update.

Still one of my fave stories in all of video games.

We follow bestselling author Alan Wake and his wife Alice to the fictional small town of Bright Falls, Washington where they go to take a vacation. One thing leads to another and Alan's wife goes missing, soon after Alan wakes up at a crashed car with no recollection of what's happened for a week. He finds pages from a manuscript (these double as a collectible you find in game and they typically describe a scene that happens later on in the game, using spoilers as a storytelling device like that is very creative) of a novel he wrote but can't remember and suddenly the events on these pages are coming to life before his eyes. A supernatural mystery drenched in so much symbolism and metaphors even Stephen King would be impressed.

As always Sam Lake is a master of storytelling and world-building and the town of Bright Falls is very well fleshed out with signs that tell the town's history and plenty of memorable, colorful characters you meet throughout the story. Re-playing this game after Control definitely hits different because you can see many foreshadowed references to the FBC.

From a gameplay point of view Alan Wake isn't quite the masterpiece that Control is, Remedy hadn't refined their gameplay to a perfectly polished sheen at this point. The combat is fairly typical Resident Evil 4 styled over the shoulder camera, third person shooter, you mostly find various guns like shotguns, revolvers and hunting rifles as you go through Bright Falls and these will be your main weapons against the enemies of darkness known as The Taken, however if one gets too close you can also do a slow motion cinematic dodge to avoid being hit, admittedly this isn't very useful when swarmed with enemies though. Something else worth mentioning is Alan can't sprint far before running out of breath, while this is a problem for a lot of people it doesn't bother me and I think it adds to the intense atmosphere the game.

Although in Alan Wake there is an incredibly unique mechanic where you use light as a weapon against darkness, so aside from your guns, you'll also find flashlights, batteries, flare guns and flashbang grenades and these are your greatest assets against The Taken and for me this adds an interesting layer to the gameplay that made it more intense and fun despite being slightly repetitive at times.

Another aspect to mention is the atmosphere, Alan Wake just oozes atmosphere due to its killer unsettling, mysterious, ambient OST and its fantastic nature filled and rural set pieces (The scene on the stage at the farm is easily up there with the coolest scenes I've seen in a video game, not going to lie)

The graphical updates and new character models are very nice looking, it's hard to believe the game is over 10 years old, but even without the updates the base game still holds up well graphically and we all know the real reason this was released is to make Alan Wake available to more people before Alan Wake 2 comes out because playing the first game is obviously going to be mandatory to play the 2nd.

While the combat can be a bit rough at times, everything else in the game easily makes up for it with one of the most interesting and fleshed out worlds and settings in video games, an enthralling mystery with as much psychological and philosophical depth as Cauldron Lake itself, it will truly make you think, likable and realistic characters and some of the best atmosphere in a game since Silent Hill 2, Alan Wake is a true timeless classic that deserves to be experienced by everyone at least once in their life and here's hoping Remedy refine the gameplay in Alan Wake 2 because they could have a real masterpiece on their hands if they do.

"It's not a lake, it's an ocean"

This is it, this is peak RGG Studios and serves as a bittersweet swan-song for Nagoshi before leaving SEGA, who could've imagined his last game with the company would also be his best? This game took everything that made the first Judgment amazing and improved upon it in almost every way possible. This is peak fiction and easily one of my new all time favorite games. Also easily GOTY for me.

Lost Judgment is one of the best detective mystery, courtroom dramas I've ever seen in all of fiction. The way the main plot starts out with what seems to be a cut and dry case of sexual battery and just slowly builds into some crazy grand conspiracy as more details are gradually revealed is excellently written and cohesive. Also the central theming around bullying and its consequences is both relatable and realistic, it hits hard and is emotional as hell and the way the game tackles corruption in the justice system is also just as realistic and relatable as the bullying themes. Lost Judgment is a shining example of moral greyness and clashing ideals where even the 'villains' have well thought out sympathetic motives.

While Lost Judgment has no direct connection to the first in plot, it does have it in characters. This game expects you've played the first Judgment because it constantly brings back past characters and most main characters like Yagami, Kaito, Sugiura and Tsukumo already had their main arcs in the first game and don't get much development in this one, so I would implore anyone reading this to play the first Judgment before this one if you haven't already. With that said Takayuki Yagami is easily one of my new favorite protagonists in video games, I already liked him a lot in the first Judgment, but this game made me love him even more. A Former defense attorney turned detective, charismatic, witty, honorable with a strong sense of justice and desire to always search for the truth also an adept in kung-fu? Maybe I'm biased because I love detectives so much, but how can you not love him? On a side note new characters like Kuwana, Soma, and Sawa among others get efficient character arcs instead and Kuwana especially has become one of my all time favorite characters.

RGG games are known for having enormous amounts of side content and Lost Judgment is no different. Naturally you have all the classics RGG games are known for, your underground gambling halls, your batting cages and arcades (At the arcade you can plays darts, and games like Virtua Figther 5, Space Harrier and Super Hang-On among others) you also have the drone racing and VR board game introduced in the first Judgment, but one ​big new feature which adds a lot of side content and mini-games is the addition of School Stories. Since a big portion of the game takes place at a high school Yagami goes undercover as an outside advisor and counselor for the school, infiltrating various clubs, building bonds with the students and helping solve their problems, all the while Yagami is trying to investigate a grand mystery plaguing the halls of the school. A couple examples of these School Stories are the Dance Club where you play a DDR-like mini-game and try to coach the dance team to nationals or the Robotics Club where you build mini-robots and fight them on a grid training to win the robotics championship.

The smaller side cases are also very well written and memorable. Since a big portion of the game takes place at a high school many of the side cases involve problems the students and teachers are going through and this really made these stories stand out much more than a lot of previous RGG games side stories, nothing ever felt like filler or fluff and was always worth experiencing. Whether it be helping past grads find their time capsule or chasing UFO sightings all over town for the Supernatural Research Club there's tons of compelling stories that range from comedic to tragic waiting to be explored at Seriyo High. That said not every side case involves students and even the ones that don't are still great, like trying to stop a robber in a Metal Gear Solid like homage or hunting down bugged electronics all over town in an effort to stop a corrupt detective.

The combat is fast paced, fluid and stylish. You still get SP from fights and activities around town and use it to unlock new skills which help in battle. Yagami still has his Tiger stance , a power focused stance for one-on-one fights and his Crane stance, a speed focused stance utilized for fighting groups of enemies introduced in the first Judgment, but now he has a third stance known as the Snake stance which is primarily used for disarming opponents and scaring them to make them surrender. The addition of the third style gives it even more complexity than the first game. Also there's no more mortal wounds, but instead a mechanic called Mortal Reversal where enemies glow red and you have a chance to dodge and parry their attack with a QTE and another thing worth noting is no more constant, tedious gang boss fights anymore either. Overall this is the best the Dragon Engine has ever felt.

All the boss fights are just as epic and over-the-top as you'd expect from RGG and the ending fights left such an impact on me I know I'll remember them years to come, some of my fave boss fights of all time no doubt.

The detective aspects of the game are still very much on rails, but they amplified and enhanced them giving Yagami some new gadgets such as a bug detector, a sound amplifier and even a detective dog to help sniff out clues. There's far less tailing missions and they're more fairly balanced this time around as well. If I had one minor complaint (and it's far from a big one), just the smallest nitpick it would be there's a few too many chase sequences and they can drag on a bit at times, but the addition of pseudo MGS stealth sequences and parkour moments definitely made up for that and added some fresh and unique ideas for a RGG game.

When all is said and done Lost Judgment is not only the best RGG game I've played, but also just one of the best games I've played in general. From the compelling and well crafted detective narrative to the stylish and fluid combat and the massive amounts of side content, Lost Judgment is a true masterpiece in every sense of the word and if you're even somewhat a fan of detective mystery stories you'd be a fool to miss out on this one.

Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights is easily right up there with Hollow Knight and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night as one of the best modern metroidvanias that I've personally played. It's about half the length of those games only clocking in at 21 hours for my 100% run, but even with its relatively short completion time it still hits the mark on everything that makes a metroidvania enjoyable.

Starting with the premise of the story, you play as Lily, the last and youngest White Priestess, your mission is to purify the kingdom of Land's End from the Blight, a rain which corrupts and drives anything it touches (aside from Lily herself) to madness while simultaneously granting immortality. The previous Priestess bound the spirit of her faithful knight companion to Lily for protection seeing as how Lily herself is young and defenseless. The Umbral Knight is your faithful companion who follows Lily on her journey and will occasional speak exposition as you reach new areas. The bulk of the narrative is told in a Dark Souls-like manner by giving the player bits and pieces of lore at a time in the form of diary entries you have to find and read and memories in the form of cut-scenes you witness from felling boss enemies. At the end of the day it's not a very complex plot, but there are a few twists and revelations and some moments that will definitely pull at your heartstrings and I found it compelling all the way through, it gave me a very dark fantasy fairytale vibe which I liked a lot.

Aside from Lily and the Umbral Knight there are many characters you'll meet along the way in the form of main story bosses and mini bosses, to avoid spoilers I won't name any specifics, but in true Souls-like fashion they all have their own tragic histories and stories, the game can be very dark and sad at times, but I feel like that is part of what makes it so memorable and even if you never talk to any of these characters you really feel for them with how well their backstories are written, especially if you take the time to read all the lore entries.

Next I want to mention the OST because it's just simply incredible. It was composed by the Japanese art pop/classical crossover group Mili, I've been a big fan of Mili for a couple years now so as soon as I heard the Cliffside Hamlet theme and heard the ethereal whisper humming of Cassie Wei I recognized it was Mili and knew immediately this OST would be a classic. There's tons of variety with plenty of mystical fairytale like medieval folk music to fit the fairytale vibe of the game, but there's also suspenseful and unsettling atmospheric songs and orchestral bombastic themes as well, I also have to mention that I love how the music slowly builds up during boss fights and as the boss loses more and more health it swells with more bombast. The ending/credits theme is also just gorgeous.

Gameplay as with every metroidvania is evenly divided into two major aspects, combat and exploration.

1) The combat. It starts out basic as you only have the Umbral Knight at your behest in the beginning. Being a frail little girl Lily herself doesn't fight, but summons spirits to attack for her and the game has a great sense of progression as you truly feel Lilly getting stronger the longer you play the game as you level up and collect new spirits to help fight for you. Spirits act as skill attacks and once you have enough you can bind 6 total, 3 to your primary set and 3 to your secondary set. These each correspond to the buttons square, triangle and circle, you can switch between sets with R1, normal spirits have cooldowns and limited uses while boss spirits don't, so it's good to swap between a set of each to chain together combos and do great damage. This is a Souls-like aside from a metroidvania so of course you have a dodge as well and I really want to mention the nice detail of how the animation for Lily's dodge is her throwing her entire body out of the way while landing on the ground, it really shows how weak and defenseless she is and another show of progression is eventually you'll unlock a dash and that changes Lily's default dodge animation to a graceful slide across the ground. Overall there's tons of variety in the combat and many cool spirit attacks to try out and utilize for different types of play-styles and builds.

2) The exploration. The map in Ender Lilies is a very decent size and packed to the brim with secret walls, hidden pathways and items galore to find. These will come in the shape of lore entries, Relics which you equip to increase various stats, Amulet fragments and gems which permanently increase your health and Blight which is used to enhance your spirits. A big portion of these items and secrets you can't reach at first, but as you progress further into the game you'll slowly unlock your metroidvania staple power-ups. Double jump, wall climb, air dash, breathing underwater etc. You name it, it's there, can never go wrong with the classics and these power-ups will make those backtracking trips just as fresh as the first run through the area. Which brings me to my next point...

The level design. Every time I got a new power-up I couldn't wait to backtrack through the map to find new secrets I couldn't reach prior and that's mostly due to the fantastic level design (Well and the fact that there's ample bonfire/fast travel locations to move between) level design is vibrantly colorful with tons of scenic variety, you have everything from a ruined castle to a witch's hamlet that's been flooded and a poisonous fog filled abyss. There were a couple areas that had some poor enemy placement, but they're few and far between and easy to look past, aside from that exploring each level numerous times was a joy.

The art direction and the actual background art itself is simply beautiful, reminds me of Vanillaware's style, especially Odin Sphere and it definitely helps accentuate the whole fairytale vibe the game has going for it. The animations are all high quality as well, everything from simple movements to the attacks look charming and feel very smooth and fluid.

Almost all the bosses were incredibly fun to fight, each boss has multiple phases as their health bar decreases and that changes up their moveset just when you think you've memorized it. The difficulty was perfectly adjusted to be just challenging enough to take a few tries to beat, but not so hard that the difficulty felt artificial, the only exceptions to this were a couple late game bosses which didn't rely on the boss themselves being challenging and just threw infinite mobs of enemies at you while fighting the boss, that felt pretty cheap to me, but once again I love everything else so much that it's easy to look past this.

All in all Ender Lilies: Quietus of the Knights is a masterfully crafted modern classic in the metroidvania genre, managing to tell a compelling narrative with plenty of interesting world-building and well written characters, feature a combat system that is enjoyable and has good depth to it, bosses which are both challenging and fun to fight and a world that is always a joy to explore with an OST that is truly a magical composition which perfectly captures the atmosphere of the beautiful art aesthetics. If you're a fan of games like Hollow Knight, Salt and Sanctuary or Castlevania: Symphony of the Night you certainly don't want to miss out on this gem of a game.

One of the best and most fun fighting games I've ever played, insane depth and variety to the combat and cast of characters, incredibly detailed sprite work, stylish attack animations and absolutely banging OST. I really don't know what more you could want from a fighting game. Even if you know very little about Tsukihime or aren't the best at fighting games, it's still more than worth a play simply due to the sheer amount of depth and detail within the game which is worthy of appreciation alone and who knows, maybe you'll end up liking it enough that you want to dive down the Tsukihime/Nasuverse rabbit hole.

Dark Devotion is the debut game from French developers Hibernian Studios. It is a Souls-like, Metroidvania, Roguelike with strong religious themes much like Blasphemous. You play as a female Templar exploring a fallen temple in search for answers about the truth of her religion and the god she worships.

I'm a big fan of the Metroidvania, Souls-like and Roguelike genres of games so I figured this would be up my alley, but it's just not a good game, I wish it was, but it isn't.

I played all the way through the 10 hour story and honestly didn't have much fun with the game at all. The religious themed lore is pretty cool and interesting and the way it tackles theology is unique, the praying/using faith as a currency to heal, open locked areas, remove curses etc is also cool and there's a few well designed bosses, but those are pretty much the only positives I can give the game.

The negatives far outweigh the positives because the controls and combat feel very clunky, the hitboxes are incredibly inconsistent, there's an RPG-like attack miss % mechanic and it's so infuriating (Who the hell thought that was a good idea in a Souls-like?), the way the dialog appears is weird and slow (Even when you hold the interact button to make it scroll faster), there's a lot of artificial difficulty and poorly placed traps in the level design (Which is very forgettable by the way), the roguelike elements are very barebones and hinder the gameplay more than anything else, tons of the weapons that provide "build variety" are just downright useless, so are most of the skills you unlock, there's no leveling or stat increases aside from with equipment. Every time you die going back to the blacksmith to get equipment you previously unlocked was also tedious and annoying.

Overall there's just so many design choices that clash with others in this game and I feel like it tries to blend too many elements of different genres together and the team just didn't know how to do it in a good way, it's unfortunate because there is potential here for something good, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired.

It's like Golden Axe, but with slightly more in-depth combat, a D&D campaign style narrative and a Diablo loot system and skills. Fun game overall, but a bit too repetitive after awhile.

The art is very unique and beautifully drawn, the narration is killer and never gets old, the story is basically just playing a D&D campaign, it's not the greatest thing ever, but it manages to be interesting enough, the score is very orchestral and bombastic and fits the high fantasy style of the game. The actual gameplay while fun enough, but can get very repetitive due to the combat despite having a few combo inputs just not being deep enough, also wasn't a huge fan of the rehashed level designs and having to go through every level twice for the main story. All the bosses were pretty cool at least though.

I just spent the past 2 days playing only this game, I platinumed it and now I honestly doubt I'm ever going to play it again because it's fundamentally a broken game that subscribes to a pay to win mind-set as well. Which is a shame because there's a lot of cool ideas in this game.

It's basically a battle royale with focus on martial arts attacks in a cross between a Souls-like syle combat and a fighting game with combos and heavy emphasis on juggling your opponents, there's even MOBA like elements where you fight normal AI mobs and bosses to level up while you're looking for real human players, but the animations are super slow and clunky and the hitboxes coupled with the online latency makes Dark Souls 2 seem fair, plus many characters are just downright useless and completely outclassed by others, even if you have better gear and are a higher level if you go against a Wu Kong, Dalgi, Sandy or Momo (Funny enough all characters you have to 'unlock' and don't start with from the start) you're probably going to lose simply because their abilities are just so broken, the game can even be heavily exploited by getting enemies into an infinite juggle combo where once they are in the air they can't break free.

Needless to say the game is horribly balanced and the fact almost everyone online plays just these characters can make most matches like 20% skill and 80% luck and who can be the cheapest quicker than everyone else. Sad because I did have a lot of fun when I first started playing, but the longer I played the more I realized it's a mess of a game

Let me start out by saying the only reason I don't give this a 5/5 is simply because the remaster is very barebones cutting out tons of cosmetic items and aside from arcade mode there isn't much in the way of single player options, sadly quest mode from the original VF 5 does not return. However the graphical overhaul and new OST are really do help breathe new life into this classic.

Easily one of the greatest fighting games of all time to me. Incredible depth to the combat with an insane amount of moves and combos to do plus every character has multiple styles to master and they all play very differently from each other. It's an easy game to pick up, play and have fun with even for beginners and people who don't play fighting games, but it has the depth fighting game fanatics crave and will take hours upon hours to truly master. Plus it has Sarah Bryant what more could you want?

It's one of the most stylish and fun fighting games around even to this day, there's a lot of depth to the moves and combos and it's the best game to nail that comic book aesthetic. The Marvel side of the roster may be inferior to MVC2 (There's still plenty of great characters and new additions though like Doctor Strange, Ghost Rider and Dormammu to name some), but the Capcom side more than makes up for it. They really didn't have to go as hard as they did on the Capcom side of the roster, but I'm sure glad they did. You can't go wrong adding Phoenix Wright, Dante, Vergil, Trish, Wesker, Chris Redfield, Amaterasu, Viewtiful Joe, Zero and Frank West to name some, such a stacked cast of iconic characters. What else is there to say other than IT'S MAHVEL BABY.

Alright, so Xenoblade Chronicles, where do I even start? What a journey and an absolute joy to play through. Throughout my damn near 100 hours of playtime I was never bored.

First let's start with the setting and world because it's so unique, creative and one of my fave things about the game. In the beginning there was nothing but endless ocean until two titans, the Bionis and the Mechonis came into existence and battled each other until nothing but their frozen corpses remained. In the eons following their battle they became home to multiple forms of life. The Bionis is home to organic life most notably the humanoid Homs race, but also the furry Nopon who kinda remind me of Ewoks from Star Wars and the avian High Entia who live for centuries much like Elves. While the Mechonis is home to a machine race known as Mechon. The Homs of the Bionis and the machines of the Mechonis are locked in a perpetual war with each other, much like the two titans were eons ago.

Now that we've established the setting we can get into the story (Relatively spoiler free of course) the story starts out with our hero the 18 year-old Homs scientist Shulk tasked with learning the secrets of the Monado, legend has it the sword was wielded by the very Bionis itself and the sword could be a major key to the Homs' effort in fighting the Mechon. Well of course nothing can ever be that simple in a J-RPG, right? During a Mechon attack on Shulk's colony, Shulk discovers he has the ability to wield the Monado without suffering from the side effects past hero of the Homs Dunban felt which gave him his arm injury. When Shulk wields the Monado it also starts showing him visions of the future, but even Shulk's visions can't prevent a tragedy that occurs, it's this tragedy which spurs Shulk to go out on a quest for vengeance against the Mechon alongside his best friend Reyn with others joining as the game progresses.

Oh yeah and that's just the first couple chapters of the game. If that doesn't hook you I don't know what will. What starts out as a simple journey of revenge evolves into so much more than you could ever imagine, the sheer scope of the plot is insane by the end of the game, but the twists and turns are foreshadowed well and everything makes sense when it all finally comes together and it's one hell of a ride getting to that point.

Story is great and all, but what would a J-RPG be without a great cast of characters? Well Xenoblade is no exception. I loved every main character in the game, from your immediate party members to the antagonists and even side characters, they all get plenty of time to shine with reasonable well fleshed out depth and realistic personalities which slowly develop more as the game progresses. Shulk himself is far from your typical J-RPG protagonist. It's nice having a main character who is more smart and scientific for once and not the least bit naive or dense. Reyn is more the hardheaded and dense one who wants to solve things by just rushing in and it makes a good juxtaposition to Shulk's personality, especially in the early parts of the game when it's just those two in the party. Sharla is your caring, passionate, bleeding heart Tifa type character, Dunban is the calm and collected badass mentor type, Melia is the elegant and more reserved one at first due to her upbringing but slowly opens up and begins to view every one as true friends and Riki is your comedic relief goofball, but also has some wisdom to him and is a much deeper character than you'd think. A well rounded cast with great synergy.

So that's all great and all, but this is a game, storytelling and characters mean very little of the game itself isn't fun, so how is the gameplay? Well once again Xenoblade excels in this field as well (with only a couple of problems) let's start with the combat first. The combat is very different for a J-RPG, it's not turn-based, but instead an auto battle style with a hotbar you assign skills to that have cooldowns, think something similar to Dragon Age Origins or Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic. A very cool feature about this battle system though is during the auto attacks you can move the characters you're currently controlling around (You can only control one character at a time and you have to chose before getting into a fight by making them the party leader) the significance of being able to move your character comes from special skills you have which deal more damage if you are attacking from the side or behind, so a good strategy is to have one character draw aggro (Via commands you give them despite not being able to control them) and then have your character go in for that critical side or back attack. It's a really cool system with lots of strategy involved and as previously mentioned, very unique for a J-RPG. I also love the MMO like glam system to where once you find a piece of armor or weapon you unlock the cosmetic piece for it and can dress your characters with it even while wearing something else with better stats.

Combat is marvelous, but that's only one half of the gameplay. What about everything else? Well exploration is incredible too, so we'll talk about that now. Very few games have given me the same feeling of adventure as Xenoblade Chronicles did. I was always looking forward to entering a new area and seeing that first panoramic view of it with the title card text popping up and saying where I was because the world and level design is just so colorful, beautiful and creative which made exploring it a constant joy. I also love how the map isn't charted and you have to go to a location or landmark first to chart it, this gave me major Ys VIII vibes (Or I should say Ys VIII technically gives me Xenoblade vibes now since Xenoblade came first) there's plenty of secret areas to uncover if you wander of the beaten path which may provide you with some collectible items or a challenging optional boss, so there's always an incentive to explore and you're rewarded for it when you do, truly instilling that sense of adventure.

As I mentioned briefly above the level design is just phenomenal, this is where the day and night cycle is utilized the best too since so many levels look completely different at night, from the vast green plains of the Bionis' Leg to the ethereal glow of the mystical Satorl Marsh or the gorgeous meteor showers of Eryth Sea at night or the whimsical winter wonderland of Valak Mountain there's just so much creativity and beauty to awe at in every inch of the world in Xenoblade and it's easily the most graphically impressive looking Switch game I've played to date.

The music is just as good as you'd expect from a game that excels in almost every single aspect and with two legendary composers like Yasunori Mitsuda of Chrono Trigger fame and Yoko Shimomura of Kingdom Hearts fame, it's no surprise the compositions are straight bangers, from the bombastic orchestral pieces to the rocking metal laced battle themes, Xenoblade has it all and they're composed as masterfully as one might expect.

So at this point you might be thinking "Damn Xenoblade Chronicles sounds absolutely amazing, is this game perfect or what?" and you would be half right. Yes, it is amazing, but no it is not perfect. I've had nothing but glowing reception up to this point, but I've been saving this for last. My two major problems I have with the game which keep it from being a truly perfect game.

1) The side quests. They're very mindless and just feel like a massive waste of time to me. I did hundreds of them and they just bleed together with almost nothing memorable about them. Your typical MMO fetch quests. Get X item for me, kill X amount of this enemy etc. There were a handful that stood out, especially near the end game, but overall they just felt like padding and to make matters worse they feel almost endless, constantly popping up at all times of the day and night. If I wouldn't have done those I probably could've finished the game a good 30 hours sooner and the pacing would've felt better too. The actual pacing of the story is great, but doing hours of side quests in between chapters definitely ruins that pacing.

2) The affinity system, I get what they're trying to do, but it's executed very poorly. This is the single worst mechanic of the game and is insanely tedious. It's a Fire Emblem like mechanic where as your party members battle more with each other they grow closer, sounds cool, but the problem lies in the bonding events known as "Heart to Hearts" everyone in your party has multiple events with each other and they have to be at certain affinity to see these events spread throughout the world, these events are very crucial to character development and learning more about character's personalities so hiding them behind a wall like that is just a really horrible idea. It's extremely tedious to raise affinity with all your party members without using an exploit and would require hours of grinding with all different party combinations. It's not worth it. By the end of the game just look up the events you're missing up on YouTube or something because that is worth it.
If that wasn't bad enough the Affinity system also plagues the NPCs of every town and effects what side quests are available to you. You have to get every town to 5 star Affinity to unlock certain quests that will give certain characters access to more skills and abilities, so you have to look up a guide and do the tedious act of talking to NPCs at all times of the day and night to raise affinity with your towns and a lot of these NPCs aren't even named so it just feels very pointless to me and I gave up halfway through it because it was the only time while playing the game I just wasn't having fun.

With all that said I can easily look past these two flaws because I love everything else about the game. Xenoblade Chronicles tells a compelling story with plenty of twists and turns to keep you wanting more, has a very unique setting with a likeable fleshed out cast of characters, with engaging combat, adventurous exploration, creative level design, gorgeous graphics and masterfully composed music. It's a journey that I thoroughly enjoyed for my almost 100 hours of gameplay, that will stick with me for years to come and I can't recommend it enough to J-RPG fans and even just those who are looking for a marvelous narrative to sink their teeth into.

Since I wasn't a huge fan of RE 7 I'm still surprised I ended up loving 8 as much as I do, but it's easily the best mainline RE since 4 for me and it honestly feels like 4 through a modern lens.

Let's start with a small spoiler free synopsis of the story. It picks up a few years after the events of RE 7, Ethan and Mia Winters have now moved to a remote location in Europe, have a new 6 month old daughter Rose and are finally starting to rebuild their lives after their traumatic encounter with the Bakers, but that all changes when the very man who saved them years ago, Chris Redfield, attacks their home, killing Mia and kidnapping both Rose and Ethan in the process, however the transport Ethan was in gets destroyed, Ethan is now stranded in an unknown village seemingly overrun by monsters and is on a quest for vengeance to rescue his daughter and get answers from Chris. All this happens in just the first 20 minutes of the 10-15 hour journey. Avoiding major spoilers I'll just say there are plenty of twists and turns which marvelously play on the world-building set up by both the entire over-arching story of Resident Evil and especially RE 7, alongside a charismatic main cast of characters which will compel you to reach the end of this mysterious journey.

Speaking of characters, they're all great. This game did something I didn't think was possible, it actually made me like Ethan, so I have to dedicate a whole paragraph to that alone. I am admittedly a sucker for the trope of a father who will do anything and go through hell and back to protect his family so that alone makes me like Ethan more here and sure Ethan is still nowhere close to classic RE action heroes like Leon Kennedy, Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine, but he now feels more experienced and confident after the events in RE 7 which makes sense especially considering in the lore it states he took military combat training courses before the events of Village to better be able to protect his family. It feels like Capcom also tried to give him more of a personality both by giving him more dialogue and even some one-liners, his one liners don't feel like cheesy action hero one-liners like Leon, they feel more like a normal dad trying to be cooler than he actually is so he makes stupid jokes and it's just so fitting for his character.

Aside from Ethan, all the other characters are quite interesting and I strongly believe they will become just as iconic as some of RE's past characters. Chris Redfield of course has a big part and this game helps expand his character in many ways, but aside from that the main villains are especially fantastic. Everyone knows the elegant, yet sadistic vampire mistress lady Dimitrescu, but there's also the deranged and childlike Donna Beneviento and her doll Angie, the grotesque, hunchback fishman Moreau, the theatrical and cheesy mad genius Karl Heisenberg (My personal fave, who is basically like Nicolas Cage with Magneto's powers), the cold and calculating religious cult leader Mother Miranda and last but not least, the merchant, the Duke who is the ultimate bro and helps Ethan at every turn of his journey, which leads to the next segment of my review.

The gameplay, it's so damn good. A good way to describe Village is the smooth and fluid first person combat of RE 7 mixed with a lot of DNA and core mechanics that haven't been present in the series since RE 4. The inventory Tetris system is back, there's also plenty of treasures to find all over the village and what do you do with those treasures? Why sell them to our good friend the Duke of course! The Duke acts much like the iconic Merchant from RE 4. Providing inventory suitcase upgrades, crafting recipes, weapons modifications for the various guns you'll find throughout the Village and more. I also have to mention how great the crafting menu is, it might be a bit more casualized, but it's so much more efficient not having crafting materials take up inventory space. Oh and puzzles are slowly making a comeback to the series, it's nothing super complex, but there are some riddles and classic switch based puzzles and it's certainly a start.

Good level design is mandatory in RE and from the Spencer Mansion to the Raccoon City Police Department there's no short of iconic locations and Village's well...Village is just as memorable. From Dimitrescu's Victorian gothic castle to Moreau's Lovecraftian swamp and Heisenberg's industrial factory along with the main Village hub, there's so much variety to the design, it has a strong metroidvania feel with lots of backtracking and shortcuts that open up later after getting a key item, plus finding all the treasures gives players extra incentive to explore.

Enemies and boss fights are just as well designed as the levels, the lycans are much more wild and aggressive than zombies or ganados of the past so you in turn need to have quick reflexes and while all the bosses (except for one) are "hit the weak point for massive damage" in typical RE fashion, all their designs are killer and the locations you fight them are very memorable.

Graphics and sound design are even more spectacular than RE 7 and that was already the best RE had ever been on those fronts so you can just imagine how beautiful this game looks and sounds.

Village manages to be both one of the most legitimately terrifying and action packed entries in the series, but does it in such a natural way. One minute you might be defenseless, being chased down by Dimitrescu and her daughters and the next you could be mowing down hordes of enemies and fighting a boss controlling a literal DOOM like tank machine, but you never have an over abundance of ammo on your first playthrough, even if you thoroughly explore, you'll have just enough to make it from location to location and this is why Village has such a tense atmosphere. It's a perfect marriage of survival horror and Hollywood blockbuster action that the series hasn't had since RE 4.

Anyone in the RE community will tell you all the best RE games are some of the most replayable games ever made and Village is no exception. Once you beat the game you'll unlock an extra content shop where you can purchase some special weapons and infinite ammo mods using currency you make from challenges you complete in game which can range from killing so many enemies with a certain gun to beating the game in a certain timeframe or on a specific difficulty, so it'll make a lot of players adapt their play style and try many things they wouldn't prior, especially if you're going for the 100%/platnium trophy.

Mercenaries mode which hasn't been in RE since 6 also makes a comeback and while it's kinda undercooked with only a couple stages, it does incorporate a lot of elements Raid Mode from the Revelations games introduced, like abilities, enemies having health bars, seeing damage counters, being able to purchase weapons and not just having a set loadout and I really like this new Raid Mode/Mercenaries hybrid. It's just unfortunate there's so few stages and you can only play as 1 character.

I honestly have almost no complaints about this game. Resident Evil Village is a modern classic that hits the mark at every turn, it tells a compelling story, manages to flesh out a protagonist who really needed it, has an interesting cast of characters, the combat, exploration and crafting are all some of the best the series has ever had, level design is well crafted with plenty of variety, enemies and bosses are both designed well and fun to fight, the game also looks and sounds better than ever and has hours worth of replay value, this truly is peak RE and it's more than worthy of being released as a celebration of RE's 25th anniversary.

It's not a bad game (Unlike RE 6), but aside from the Baker House, it's just bland and boring to me, I can see why people enjoy it though.

I typically don't do this review format, but I don't want to type out a 7 paragraph essay. So here are the pros and cons for me.

Pros:
+Compelling narrative with memorable and charismatic antagonists that have more depth than you'd expect
+The game can be very terrifying at times and has a very tense atmosphere in the first half
+A true love letter to the horror movie genre with tons of references and influences from Evil Dead to Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Blair Witch, Saw and everything in between
+The Baker House is designed really well and is super fun to explore, the doors that unlock with specific keys really give RE 1/RE 2 vibes
+Gameplay feels more like classic RE and has stronger emphasis on managing your ammo and materials properly
+Gunplay is just as smooth in first person, blocking is a cool mechanic that add more depth to the combat system
+Jack's boss fights are cool, even the scripted one
+Sound design is incredible, all guns sound realistic and the effects are very disturbing
+Graphics look incredible and the character models look more realistic than ever

Cons:
-While the narrative is compelling, it takes itself a bit too serious and is really lacking in the B-movie action cheese RE has become so iconic for, also it has almost nothing to do with any of the classic RE characters and their story arcs
-The main character is very bland and has no memorable dialogue at all
-The game peaks in the first half at the Baker House and both the ship and underground mine segments are nowhere near as memorable aside from the story revelations that happen there
-The boat and mine segments are also too action oriented (but not action enough to be in a classic over-the-top RE way) and ruin the atmosphere and pacing of the game after the purely survival Baker House
-Every boss fight that wasn't with Jack is nothing special
-Enemy design is extremely boring, all the Mold look the same and there's basically only 3 different variants

All in all I think the game has some really great things I love about it and the entire first half of the game is a huge highlight for not only the game, but the entire series. It's just a shame the rest after doesn't do much for me.