I played this over 15 years ago and didn't think much of it. Now that I've got more life on me, i see that this is one of the mostwe've ever seen stuffed in a game. This game feels more alive, more real, more sincere than what has come before or after.

At any given second, you can make a long and arduous trip back to a town you've previously visited. It might take an honest-to-god 30 minute walk back to said town. There's a good chance that there will be new dialogue or a new item waiting for you when you get there. Getting Aerith's "Great Gospel" feels such a cheat -- something that should only exist as a rumor. I didn't get it in my initial playthrough all those years ago. This time I did. I used a guide. I did the ridiculous sequence of events to get her final Over Limit. It's thrilling. I imagine there are maybe 10 people who have gotten the Great Gospel without a guide of some sort. Final Fantasy VII is stuffed to the brim with these goodies. Cutscenes that are absolutely vital to understanding the plot are locked behind extremely strange diversions. The best items require you to really hang out with the game and find a Chocobo. It is a game that is inexplicably bigger than itself.

The reason any of that matters is its blend of perfect music, deep characters, strong visual design, and an overwhelming combination of ideas befitting a great novel. The story expands out like never-ending fractals in scope. A lot of people on the internet will get hung on a mere fraction of the game. They will think of it as a vehicle for romance and shipping cute boys. And yes, it's great for that. Some will weigh it as a biting critique of capitalism. Yes, that's in there too. But you, my dear reader, you need to know that the beauty of FF7 is that it is a 100-sided dye with at 10 faces visible at any given second. It is blossoming romance and shattered dreams and involuntary loneliness and crippling double-think and love for technology and fear of the void. Never once does it stop being cool. That's the staying power.

I love this game, and you owe it to yourself to try it one day. And don't let anyone shame you for using those 3x speed, random encounter off, or god mode buttons. Lets mosey.

A game so good that it will inspire you to pick Apollo Justice back up (don't you !@#$ing dare)

While not on the level of the magnum opus that is 13 Sentinels, Ghost Trick is a reminder of how good this medium can be for story telling. It's charming and unique and weird. The animations were apparently hand-drawn. Incredible work here. There should be more kinds of games out there, and Ghost Trick is a kind of game I'd love to see of more.

let's all love lynne

Layton 4 was released in 2011 in the West, right before the smartphone and internet memes and gatcha games change the landscape for creating relatively inexpensive games such as Layton 4. Layton 4 is in many ways the best Layton so far. The puzzles are tight, the music is solid, the animation is joyful, and a new protagonist joins the ranks to make things more interesting.

If you only care about puzzles, Layton 4 has you covered. As for the overall experience, this may be my least favorite Layton. While other games always had something to make the town and story compelling to think about, this one doesn't excite the imagination. The mystery of the giant monster is outclassed by Luke being a weird little dude for the majority of the game. When it's time to focus on the monster for the ending, none of the big revelations feel impactful. The puzzles are a great time, but you might be better off replaying Layton 3.

Final Fantasy 5 -- the unreleased SNES titan beloved by the likes of FF16 director Hiroshi Takai -- is now available in a nifty translation with this pixel remaster.

The first 8 hours of FF5 are pure joy. There's a great sense of adventure and experimentation lovingly stitched into this beautful game. Four motley friends embark on a directionless adventure to save Lenna Tycoon's father from Something. You are given a wonderful combat system that is designed explicitly for creating White Mage Monks with every character. The music, combat, and narrative impart the feeling of a limitless adventure. You are undefeatable. You can do anything. You will get to hang out with Galuf because he is the best one. You will have a good time watching Bartz and Galuf fall in love with Faris. You will think "I'm glad that Sakaguchi got to remake Faris with Seth Balmore in Lost Odyssey." You will enjoy every encounter with Gilgamesh because he understands that Galuf is the best one.

Then something terrible occurs. You will meet a character named Mid. The game will, for some reason, lose all faith in your ability to do things for yourself and will force you to talk to Mid every half-hour to progress the story. Gone is the experience of FF 1 through The First 25% of 5 where you are trusted to explore and take notes for yourself in order to progress. You must talk to Mid to explore the places you have found on your travels. You must talk to Mid so he can tell you its ok to go exploring. The consequences of creating this character have had an unfathomably negative impact on the future of this franchise and perhaps society at large.

Eventually, Mid will go away, and the game will be very fun again. However, the cohesion of the first 8 hours is gone. The pacing will begin to slow, and it never returns. The more time you put into it, the less the world feels less like a living environment to explore. You should finish it though. The questions "why are the first 8 hours of FF5 so good" and "why are the last 20 hours of FF5 so sleep-inducing" are both worth exploring. This title borrows a lot from FF3. While the job system is very fun, I found myself having more fun with FF3's job system. FF3's story is simple, but it's paced like a roller coaster and leaves you feeling satisfied. FF5 will try to make you care about Bartz, but no matter how many times he reminds you that his dad is gone or he is scared of heights, your heart will harbor no affection for him because he talks too much like an 8-year-old's conception of how Sonic the Hedgehog would talk if he was their friend in real life.

You could play the pixel remasters for Final Fantasy 1 through 3 in the time it takes to play 5. You should play this one though. The first quarter of the game is truly spectacular. However, as great as the battle system is, I'm not sure if the latter portion of the game is thoughtful enough to warrant several replays. After all, Dragon Quest 5 was released a few months earlier.

barely a video game. there are many things that are very good (atmosphere, weird characters, great music). preys on your need to see numbers go up by trapping you in uninteresting gameplay loops (e.g., (1) spin this RNG to collect enough items from the overworld so you can unlock a blob on an affinity chart so you can (2) search the internet for an enemy called odious jim and (3) kill ten of them so you can then (4) spam the same move 80 times, etc., etc.)

there are good and beautiful things to be found here. not sure if i can recommend it to anyone or myself though. xenoblade 2 approaches Being Good, but doesn't quite make it. you will play for several 10s of hours hoping that the nonsense spreadsheet filling game mechanics will liquify into An Extremely Great Time. it almost does. you will hope that the sequel will be good.