When a specific part of Majima's story started, and that one character appeared, I knew this is different. I knew it was special. Never have i cared about a character in video game more, and sometimes i wonder why this character managed to connect with me so much - and i cant answer that for sure, but i suspect its bc she's telling the story of many, many women out there, many girls that are forgotten and almost never talked about. In a way, that section is very realistic and painful depiction and take on what its trying to tell, and i don't know how many people, while playing this game, realized that and actually thought about that. But i know i did.

I often consider myself forgetful and having a bad memory, having hard time recalling the vast majority of stuff i seen in video games, but for that story in the game, which isn't even the main story, i remember almost every part of, and if i think about it too hard, i want to cry with her, just like the first time i experienced it - and this is the biggest compliment i can give a story.

So, Yakuza 0 is a great game, for many many different reasons, but for me it will always be that one game that made me cry for the first time from a game <3

Refers to sonic and amy path only

Tldr: Few great stages, few mediocre ones, weak boss battles and generally too easy makes SDAX a decent enough experience that makes me believe i can actually really enjoy Sonic 3D, but this is not enough just yet.

SADX feels like a solid proof of concept of a sonic 3d game; Some stages manages to have superb platforming (Sky deck stands out) and good on-rails section (Emerald Coast) that looks visually impressive enough to be fun even if you are obviously not doing much.
However, While some stages stand out, quite a few are forgettable (Windy Valley) or just not good enough, like Twinkle Park which has a solid enough idea and presentation but just lack something to make it actually great stage. Also, The boss battles and enemies in general are so easy, but also not really interesting, mechanically or visually. they are just there, and i think something dont sit right with me and the homing attack - it just makes the game way too easy when it comes to enemies.
The weird airplane sequences also dont really help and just add to the feeling of the game being mixed bag.

This game also made me realize im just not a big fan of sonic as character conceptually. the attitude and the music dont really do much for me, so this probably takes away from the potential of me enjoying it.

Even when UDG manages to be interesting with the oppressiveness and horrific world and story its trying to portray, It never escapes its rotten, misguided core that starts with; The bizarre concept and writing are just always apparent and sours the experience.
It's almost sad how with some relatively minor changes, at least the story it's trying to tell would have been able to stand out from the mediocrity that is the gameplay. For now, UDG manages to be weird and disgusting, and its villains are definitely dislikable - but for all the wrong reasons.

I can recommend UDG only to hardcore Danganronpa Fans that aren't sensitive and might be able salvage some of the legit good story bits and character grwoth of toko and Komaru, because the game does have that intriguing mystery that you want to find out more about (and in some way, very few ones, it even manages to exceed the previous titles stories) as with the previous games, its just warped around with some incredibly annoying characters (the kids in particular - being annoying doesn't make a good villain), gross sexualization and mediocre gameplay.

Tldr: Danganronpa 2’s new cast is strong enough to overcome the game’s problems, and the last chapter is intriguing enough for it to be a worthwhile sequel and a game that i enjoyed overall and can wholeheartly recommend to those who enjoyed the first, but the gameplay changes make SDR2 a chore to go through in times, and more than all it made me realize why i liked the first title so much.

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Spoilers ahead

Are the characters in the Danganronpa series the best part of it?

Thats what i thought about when i went through the first chapters of SDR2. The characters were, for the most part, more interesting to me than the first game, and while the writing got weirder and weirder, I could understand what they were going for and quite frankly, I was happy to see how the most important part of the game was improved so much from the first game. Yes, the first cast is pretty great too, but on the second title there was almost no character that i didn't want to learn more about, unlike the first game which had some i truly didn't care about….. Except for one. Nagito is interesting, and to me he represents the bad in the side of hope, and in retrospect i do like how he kind of represents how the future foundation see the cast - something to get rid of, something to look down upon rather than try to give hope to, HOWEVER the idea that he exists solely to be annoying for the 80% of the game isn't something i can just brush off, no matter how much the payoff is good, and i don't think it's even THAT good in his case

More importantly however, the more i played the game, the more the gameplay felt just flat-out bad. Even simple stuff such as moving the camera on the open areas (NOT effected by reticle) speed were so slow, and the game on the switch felt like its hogging along, with simple stuff like opening the menus taking few seconds at times. for a game whose one of its goals is to make me go explore and talk to everyone and see new stuff, especially thanks to the new XP system, that was a real problem.
The changes don't end here, and the trials which were spoon-fed to you, with Makoto literally telling you the answers after each debate were butchered in a way that i didn't believe was quite possible. After all, i was annoyed by how easy the first game’s trial was, so i should be thankful the second game makes them noticeably harder, right?

No more spoon-feeding. instead, the trials have new mini-games and modified mini-games that just drag on and are so annoying to go through, or just bombard you with options to confuse you. Maybe i was jaded already by the new sword minigame, the much-worsened hangman and logic dive but i actually started to dislike how many truths bullets the game throws at you. It was so confusing, and i don't really even understand why that choice was made. The biggest problem the first game had was literally giving you to answers, and i think getting rid of that was enough to make the trials more interesting. There were no needs to make the trials uber complex, gameplay wise, that was never the issue with them. But, at the very least, the mysteries gotten harder to solve even without the gameplay parts, so that a positive already.

…But that just made me realize how unimportant the induvial cases were to me on the first game. Yes, the cases were super easy, but there was a bigger mystery throughout the game, of Why is the killing game happening that defines the first game more than everything. I dont know if the same level of mystery can continue in a sequel, considering we already had some understanding of the world after the first game, but i think how the same mystery was handheld in the second game is quite poor in some many ways.
The game already drops strong hints about whats actually going on way earlier than the last chapter, but on the last chapter it just flat out tell you Everything you need to know before the final trial for… reasons? Info dump after info dump is given to the player and in one short chapter most of the mysteries are just given to you, without any effort, without any lead up in my opinion, and thats even ignoring how weak the solution is with a simple “its a computer-generated world so everything is possible!” as an answer.

as you go to the final trial, before even a second started, you pretty much can see how the game ends. I was wishing i was wrong. I was wishing so much they could surprise me even a bit, to not go so full generic and predictable. Something must be left up in the air… right?
The first game ends up with the main cast beating Monokuma and Junko by themselves. Monokuma challenges them to discover and understand the mysteries and they manage to do it. Sure, the “Ultimate hope” superpower helps them to really defeat her by the end, but it was truly them using their brains. Seeing the mastermind finally getting punished was so rewarding - and i couldn’t feel it a tiny bit as i was going through the ending of the second game. The themes of hope and despair were in the first game, and they were always a bit annoying in how they simplify the world and basically are a magic solution to everything, but here they are quite literally, a magic to solve everything by the end. Barely anything to really discover or to, just wait for the ultimate hope to save you.
The last chapter manages to be epic and interesting on its own right, and it does provide a lot of lore that i loved reading about, but it just misses the mark big time in making the entire experience rewarding in my opinion. I liked the second cast for who they were, and in the end the “real cast” just comes in and solves the day in such a simple way. Yes, you can argue they survived the game, so they did do something but this leads to my final point.

What is the best part of Danganronpa? what makes me keep playing it?
After playing SDR2, the answer to me is obvious: The world of Danganronpa is, whatever its the history, why the killing games are happening, the themes of hope and despair but most importantly, the REAL mystery of why all of this happening. this is the driving force behind it to me. The characters and style are major part of it too and at the end there's the actual concept of finding out “whodunit” - and the problem for me is that SDR2 improves on that aspect and fails on so much else.

tldr:Pikmin 4 takes the charming pikmin and the addictive gameplay loop of the series, makes it really accessible and fill the game with tons of content. Its not perfect, nor theres not a lot of wow moments in Pikmin 4, but what there is is tens of hours of fun gameplay in a visually gorgeous world that is filled with charm and small details, with only the occasional annoyance.

Despite the countless systems that are in play, including plenty of upgrades and skills, the game dont feel overbearing, parts thanks to the how its designed and parts to how much info you can learn if you take advantage of the extensive data found in the game UI and world. It manages to answer both those who want a casual experience and those who want to discover and master every aspect of it.
Each area of the game truly feels like a world of its own, with plenty of stuff to do and see, and they manage to be so lively - there seems to be a new, (often unique) creatures on almost every corner. on top of that, each area feature few caves at least, all of which are fun to explore, though there's rarely ones that feel too special.
The game also manages to keep a sense of progression really well - theres a lot of different upgrades and items to be bought throughout it, and really you arent going to unlock all of them easily, even towards the end of the game. that, alongside getting new pikmin, always gives you a new goal to go through.

Overall, Pikmin 4 is just pure fun - it suprisingly easy to pick up and play, despite the complexity you might see in the end-game. Thats primarily bc the game lasts a while too and really manges to pace itself well, starting slow in a small simple area, and ends up in a huge maps that even with maxed out pikmin count you might be afraid to explore due to all the dangers outside. and thats before talking about the two side-stories that arent related to the main story, both of which can give you a couple more hours of gameplay.

Pikmin 3 has certain magic to it that few other games has on its core. The pikmin themselves and the unique simple yet addictive gameloop caught my attention from the very first moment i started playing it. seeing your pikmin carry stuff as you grow and grow your army, as they defeat much larger enemies than themselves is almost never boring.

However, beyond that initial magic, Pikmin 3 does quite little to uphold it. The environments are quite lacking - they just dont feel impressive or interesting a lot of the times. the pre-bosses areas are often the most impressive, but even then they end too quickly to care about
the UI feels a bit clucky and the 3 captain mechanic is just not flashed out enough to feel really good to play around with it. Stuff like automatic commands like in pikmin 4 are sorely missed, as currently switching to a different captain for a reason that isnt a puzzle usually takes too much time to justify it. However, the game still forces this mechanic down your throat and it just doesnt feel very good.

Overall, pikmin 3 is a fun game, and but it fails to elevate itself to something that is very memorable beyond the charming concept itself. The enemies and environments are often times forgettable, but they are enjoyable as you are going through them, and the final sections in particular stand out. the lack of progression or difficulty doesn't really help and perhaps the postgame content could address that, but it didnt grab me enough to grab.

Very much like Persona 4, Persona 5 got the highest highs and the lowest lows:

Some of the most thrilling and intriguing moments and story-telling that i ever seen in a video game on the start and the end, accompanied by sluggish and slow mid-game, where the motivation of the group itself are questionable. the main motive of the group is not really clear a lot of times, and a lot of times it just seems like its driven by ego, which makes it less fun to actually go through the game where you don't feel like there's big enough payoff (Which isn't the case on the beginning and end, which are very emotionally driven)

As usual, The game got a speculator sense of style, with amazing and unique boss and enemy designs (visually) which makes it so much fun. It's quite hard to put into words how much the presentation of P5 attributes to it being a fun journey overall, but the persona series still stand for me as the series with the best presentation in the video game world. The only downside on that aspect is rather boring and simplistic battle animations that makes battles feel underwhelming.