Truthfully, I think it's one of the best game's ever made. All elements including the dialogue, soundtrack, narrative, and gameplay, are beautifully intertwined and cohesively work together to create a singular experience. The pacing is top-notch, and the variety of weapon's, gives a sense of individuality to each playthrough, while the adjustable difficulty that appears before every level allows for everyone to play; properly rewarding those who are willing to challenge themselves. This game feels so effortless in its delivery, it makes me wonder how we don't have 500 video games like this already, each great in their own right. Kid Icarus: Uprising is simply the perfect step-up in nearly every department a video game can have, and it knows exactly how far away it needs to be from the sun in order to be successful.

To top it all off, I think it looks flawless on the 3DS. Every piece of the environment assists in the obfuscating of hidden chests and secrets, Pit's model looks great and always stands out from everything else on the screen, while still being detailed and animated enough to capture the concept art drawn of him. The enemy design's contrast and interact with the environment well, and the green directional arrows that casually point you to where you need to go don't ruin the sense of progression. The ground combat, can seem shallow, but like I mentioned above, the variety of the weapon's, and the will to challenge yourself is the deciding factor here in your experience. It's amazing to me that this game manages to do all of this, and still casually progress the narrative of each character introduced by having God's banter about trivial and mundane things. Not a single joke feels out of place, and it's consistently enjoyable to listen to, even when you're replaying missions.

Hoping to see more Drakengard-likes in the future.

Those first few hours with the game were magical. Trying your best to find your solution rather than find the solution is such a powerful statement illustrated through gameplay, rather than trying to get that point across through a story where the bad guy loses to the good guy in a really lame and uninspired way. Visually, the game looks spectacular, it's at its best when the sun is going down and the Hylian Shield reflects the light, making the colors just pop. Everything from exploring caves and getting rewarded with useful gear and items, to exploring the sky islands and solving a puzzle in the most unconventional and inappropriate way was nothing short of intentional from the developers, and I absolutely loved that experience, and I appreciate even more that the game doesn't try to do anything more than that, because I saw what they did with the story, unfortunately.

Now allow me to tell you the story of my people during the Poo poo wars a very very long time ago. Like long enough for my stuff to be called ancient.

In the beginning of the game, it seems to open up with a promising and engaging thesis statement about how history never fixates on the rape, violence, or thoughtless cruelty present throughout war. While this is a topic of serious discussion, and one that should not be taken lightly, dialogue like this is actually used as a deception tactic to trick you into thinking both you and the writer's give a shit about any of it; The writing in this game is more like what a 9-5 employee thinks is good writing.

The Witcher 3 has a description for the succubus that is longer than any of the actually interesting monster designs. That really showed me where this game's priorities lied, all while showcasing shallow sex scenes, which really helped the game communicate what side it was on in the aforementioned thesis statement. Community discussion is no different-- revolving around fighting over a cardboard cutout and a silicone doll. It's also very self-contradictory to act like you care about rape when the camera will still frame a woman's breasts to be viewed as inherently sexual. I've seen tons of artwork and stories where a woman's breasts were just an extension of their body, but this game really knows how to get me going wowzers in my trousers! And if you don't see an inherent issue with that, you're a fucking idiot. Of course, this game is very immersive, using words like strumpet instead of whore, so its very mature and serious.

The gameplay pretty much entirely revolves around mashing. This is implying that the game would be better if I could go into the lab and learn dust loops.

Ichiban is such a great new main character that they already seem to be throwing away with the 8th game by putting Kiryu on the box art when he fucking died in that one Yakuza game.

Unfortunately, they decided to follow tradition with the inspiration from Dragon Quest by taking the combat system from the series too. And they couldn't even do it well. Despite the enemy variety, it will never reach the wonder of variety that Mother offered; they're trying too hard to make a cohesive design. I should be fighting abstract art, not a very specific list of machinery like a roomba and construction shit. Even if this sounds appealing, the novelty wears thin very quickly the second you are forced to do the dungeon crawling from Yakuza: Like a Dragon. I can appreciate the originality in the mini-game's but I question if it border's on addictive mobile gaming rather than an actual quality mini-game.

Did you know gaming? This is the 2nd Japanese game whose 7th mainline entry also indicated a huge reinvention of the series and also when they decided to fuse the Japanese name and English localized title into the same title. That other game is called Resident Evil: Biohazard 7

Reembarking on the journey through the original Shin Megami Tensei V, I found the character's to be unmemorable, unmotivated, uninteresting, and unequivocally dogshit. I played through the original game 2 times, and not once did a single character's name become etched into my mind. This is Shin Megami Tensei we're talking about, I could name over 100 demons just by looking at them. I remember running into a vampire demon and immediately identifying him as Kudlak, so this is inexcusable from Shin Megami Tensei V's standpoint. It was with this version though, that ATLUS seeks to come back with a Vengeance. b-because it's called Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance.

Let's just say that Vengeance makes due on the qualms I had with the original game. Tao, Yoko, Dazai, Jacob, and Luke, are just barely scratching by with their memorability this time. They have proper motivations, and hit you with the titular dialogue of ideology that continuously get rehashed with each game, and characters actually converse with one another. Its sparse but consistent. I won't elaborate on too much, so just know that the writing is better, but the bar was very low with this game. The whole Qadistu are basically Zero's sisters, with the exception of Four (the character). Do with this information what you will. I didn't want to mention Drakengard in this review (I'll try to do better in the future), but I really can't not mention the fact that people are out here being turned into salt.

Now let's talk about Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance as a video game. Absolute fucking banger. This is by far the best turn-based combat game ever produced. ATLUS has always exceeded at player agency and empowerment when it came to their gameplay. Knocking all the enemies down and performing an all out attack, creating a team composition that makes every aspect of a boss obsolete. Even with these ideas in mind, SMT V:V manages to create a strong middle-ground that is genuinely thought-provoking at every turn, giving the player proper incentives that make them want to play better and hit harder. This was true even in the original version of SMTV, and was made abundantly clear to the player when they are presented with the game's first boss, wherein, they were more than likely forced to use a Mermaid in order to defeat it. Mermaid is weak to fire, the bosses magic attack of choice, which forces the player to use dampener's or guard, as no other alternative other than overcompensating with grinding can over come this challenge.

Likewise, I praised Shin Megami Tensei V for its level design above all else. If there's one thing I haven't gotten tired of in my now 3 times playing this game, it's actually playing the fucking game. This is deeply impressive coming from an RPG. Most RPG's lack that replay value, and rely on a strong story to be engaging enough for a replay. I never get tired of exploring the sand-ridden city of Minato where every sand hill is just another attempt at obfuscating the environment, always leaving you peeking over and around corners to see what's ahead, and is designed in such a natural way to where you never feel like you're looking at a wall. The dilapidated Shinagawa, has fallen into disrepair yet remains lively with demon's populating every crevice, with a fairy village off to the west that hopes to usher in a new age of nature and life into the landscape. The new area, Shinjuku, always seems to expand in size yet never feels overwhelming. The tasteful enemy placement and complexity of Kabukicho made for an experience I'd gladly play again, knowing I'm not following the same linear and uninspired path that most games tend to falter with. Navigating the landscapes of Shin Megami Tensei V never feel's like a chore. There's a strong sense of verticality (scaling buildings to get a good view, sliding down a nice slide and/or hill), the game never sabotages its momentum, only punishing you if you run carelessly into an enemy and get fucked, so you're always on your toes, making it all the more satisfying when you make it to the end.

A similar thing can be said for the demon's. The original game led me into a rhythm of 3 demon's: Yoshitsune, Idun, and Alice. Literally an unstoppable team that never fails. My 2nd playthrough let me fuse an Alice that had +20 magic when fused due to an essence skill that gives exp and stat boosts to demon's when fusing. With Vengeance, however, I know I can't defeat the cock in a wheelbarrow if I have Yoshitsune, because Yoshitsune has physical skills. Even still, I keep the team as my focus because Shin Megami Tensei V just loves encouraging you to be creative and unique with your own team composition. There's truly nothing more satisfying in Megami Tensei games than having a demon you like. I was really worried about the balancing, because I noticed that Persona 3 Reload had homo-demons (everyone was using Siegfried), but the game chose to be easier on hard difficulty by minimizing grinding to the bare minimum in favor of pure strategy.

Lastly, I've already spoken praise about the art direction of the landscapes you roam, but the enemy designs are something to complain about. Doi doesn't design demons, he's just drawing women. When there are 2 female demon's that have unique skills exclusively built around sexualization, while Jack Frost remains assless and unviable, I begin throwing sharp objects at children playing at the park. The death of these children are on Doi's hands. The sexuality is fine. Being in a post-apocalyptic world ran by demons, I'm not exactly expecting puritanism to thrive here--fucking obviously. Hearing moans in the background of SMT IV's Tarvern theme, the Magatsuhi is obviously represented as some form of ecstasy akin to sexual pleasure that Demon's love to absorb, the sexuality is core to the atomsphere, but what Doi's doing here is just pure self-indulgent sexualization. Naamah is literally Five from Drakengard 3, which makes 2 nickels in my pockets for the amount of times a Japanese man has made a sexually promiscuous blonde haired white woman. Will update if more are made.

Beautiful environments that are teething with detail and are brought to life with a sincere passion for the beautiful world we live in. It's a game that feels like Studio Ghibli had their hands all over this project because I'm frothing at the mouth at the prospect of just looking at this game. Pikmin 3 has such a pristine art direction that I will always adore. I love it, but I feel its shortcomings are a result of uninteresting Dandori. The elements taken from Pikmin 2 are the least interesting to me, because I prefer that urgency from Pikmin 1. The level design is just barely interesting enough to be engaging without fully blossoming into something that evokes a more complex train of thought, instead, allowing for the bare minimum to be acceptable. Pikmin 4 does not have this issue for me, because there are so many great sub-levels, puzzles, and challenges that prod me to try my hardest, but I'm only trying my hardest in this game because I am Dandori Master. Still though, it's such a pleasant experience from start to end, that it only earns the spot as the worst Pikmin game. That's better than most games out there. Better than whatever game you like :P

Never played a game that made me go, "I love fire emblem!" until I played this one. Great map design, unlike 3Houses.
For context on what the story is like, there is a shot in the prologue of the castle below the Somniel that looks like one of the default title screens for an RPGMaker game. Thankfully, character interactions within supports are consistently entertaining, even though they lack the potential to illustrate a legitimate sense of growth through the means of a time skip like they did in 3Houses, that's obviously not what they're going for. I also really liked Mika Pikazo's illustrations for the overall art direction the game has. Just looks gorgeous when viewing in full.