This will probably sound very silly to MMO fans who are used to expansions of this scale, but to me this felt much more like a sequel than a DLC. New areas, new jobs, entirely new story, new dungeons, new everything, it's all a pretty incredible scale. It's almost a running joke in the FFXIV community that Heavensward is where the game finally "gets good," but having finalyl experienced it for myself I have to say I agree! This is a significant step up from A Realm Reborn in every way.

The story is probably the most staggering improvement. ARR was a slow build that was more focused on developing Eorzea than it was any of its characters, a move that I personally feel was the right one given the live service nature of XIV in general. You're going to be spending LOTS of time in this world regardless, so having that early space to really flesh it out and make it believable worked for me, even if that plot was largely lacking in stakes.

By the time we arrive in Heavensward though, all of the core worldbuilding is out of the way and so we finally start seeing legitimately interesting developments. Characters are challenged in new ways, stakes are high, and on top of it all we're still seeing more and more of this beautiful world they've created.

The new areas in this expansion sweep everything I've come to know from ARR. They're significantly bigger, not split up into loading zones, and just generally way more interesting from both a design and visual standpoint. Dungeons now all feel important as they are smartly tied into key points of the main narrative. Bosses are a huge step up as well in terms of spectacle and mechanics.

Even as I have yet to tackle the patch quests that were added post release, I've really enjoyed my time with Heavensward, I'm really starting to understand why this game is as acclaimed as it is and I look forward to seeing where the story takes me next. I'm not sure this will ever be peak FF to me like it is to so many others, but I can absolutely appreciate what the game is going for and I have tons of respect for it.

Took me entirely too long to get around to this, but honestly I’m so glad I finally did! Not only is this easily my favorite of the Halo games I’ve played, but it’s just flat out one of the best shooters I’ve played in my admittedly limited experience.

What really makes this game so much better than the first two to me is the mission design. Where the first game was mostly inoffensive and the second was extremely mixed, 3 makes up for its relatively short mission list with consistently high quality, I had a great time in every single one of these. Most of this game feels like the climax of the story set up in Halo 2, and it leads to an incredibly gripping experience with fantastic set pieces. I’d love to revisit any one of these missions which I’d never have said for the first two games.

I’m tempted to say that story takes a backseat compared to 2, but that’s not entirely true, it’s just not as dense with information and new story beats. 2 got most of the development out of the way so 3 could fire on all cylinders with its action moments and really make that final stretch hit as hard as possible, and they succeeded in my opinion. Made me quite happy as I remember being super unsatisfied with 2’s cliffhanger ending.

It also just made the game work so well for me on a moment to moment level because the stakes are constantly so high. Every mission feels important, you’re constantly on the cusp of something big happening, and most importantly it never feels like it drags so it keeps a fantastic momentum that does a great job of locking you in.

Very glad to have finally experienced this legendary monument of the 360 era, it lived up to all the hype for me. Just wish MCC kept the credits because man that cut-off to the menu was awkward, but I’m not counting that against the game itself obviously.

Unquestionably my favorite 2D platformer of all time and the gold standard I will hold the genre to forever. Each time I play this is better than the last, but now that I have a much better understanding of game design and mechanics it’s even crazier to appreciate.

The controls of this game, just like its predecessor, are perfect. It’s so easy to get into a flow state and feels so good to seamlessly weave between different speeds depending on the situation. The invasion levels and devilishly addicting Challenges mode only further encourage you to master controlling your momentum in this game, and so you do, and the entire playthrough experience turns into this incredible wave of motion that’s impossible to put down. It’s enrapturing.

The level design is the best I’ve ever seen from the genre and I don’t say that lightly. It’s been years since I last played and I still remembered every single one of these vividly. They start simple enough but still provide you with fantastic opportunities to get a good flow going, while also tempting your curiosity in a very natural way with very well placed Teensies. But as the game evolves, the levels become more and more involved, stages become so chaotic here with the amount of stuff happening on screen, and clearly the designers knew how fun it is to go fast in this game because there are so many sections where you’re made to gun it through an obstacle course at top speed, it’s always exhilarating.

The evolution of level themes is also pretty outstanding, it’s a far cry from the more generic level themes of most platformers. It starts with relatively simple yet still unique feeling medieval forests and fantastical swamps before catapulting you into a wildly over the top celebration of Mexican culture, an underwater high-tech spy operation, and a trip through Olympus that eventually takes you into the depths of hell. It’s fascinating to let the game take you on a ride, and that’s ignoring how memorable all of the individual levels are!

Enough people have gushed about how incredible The Mysterious Floating Island is, but that same level design philosophy of guiding you through the world in an interesting and wordless way is present from the first level all the way through the final world. It is mildly annoying that the devs opted for a Mario 64-esque painting level select screen as opposed to a more connected world map, but it’s hard to care too much when the level design itself connects each area better than a dotted line on a map ever could.

All of this without even mentioning the music levels, the fact that a large chunk of stages from Origins are unlockable in game, and the genuinely absurd final optional world that has some of the craziest levels in the history of games as a medium… yeah it’s peak

In some fairness to the game, it’s probably more fun when you’re not under a massive time crunch to finish before the servers shut down forever. Fuck Nintendo!

This one is tough bc stylistically I kinda love this game honestly, Hytopia’s obsession with fashion is so dumb but in the cutest way and it leads to some really silly moments that are perfectly self aware and charming. But actually playing it… wow this is so much worse than I remember.

The structure is an immediate red flag, instead of full on dungeons the game is split into 128 mini-levels, 16 per area. They can be fun, but just like the shrines in BotW, their extremely short length makes it impossible to get any real substance out of them, ideas come and go way too quickly to be worthwhile and the game never really has any good moments where you really have to think.

I think this was intentional bc of the way that you’re incentivized to grind these levels over and over for materials to make all the extra costumes in this game, so they make the challenge more about execution instead of figuring out tricky solutions. Fair enough I guess but… wow these levels suck!

They’re either boring or frustrating with very few being genuinely fun. They also get super repetitive before long, making this game a nightmare to marathon for long sessions (again, fuck Nintendo!). There were plenty of moments where me and the friends I was playing with all asked each other how some of these levels could’ve possible been approved.

The most memorable examples include a minecart chase that’s hectic in the worst way and a room with a redead, an enemy you can only damage with fire, despite the fact that only one team member has the fire item, and then when you kill it it spawns four more, despite the fact that they all have an AOE attacks that takes up half the room. It’s not all this bad, but there is some baffling game design at points. Also who tf decided to implement limited lives in a Zelda game??

I played this as a kid but never had anyone to play with so I never made it far, I thought now that I was playing with friends I’d enjoy it properly this time but no this game is just flat out not good. Makes me really want to try out Four Swords Adventure though!

I have lots and lots of thoughts on this game, so many that it’s tough to know where to start. I will say this though: while this is a far from perfect game in every area, I feel pretty confident in saying that the full scope of this journey is significantly more competent than you might expect looking at its individual elements.

FFVII Remake is a game that I have relentlessly defended since I first played it in 2020. Where many criticized its admittedly overbearing padding and certain choices regarding the ending, I fell head over heels for its combat system and expansion of its world and characters. It’s not without its issues, but I’ve always believed it deserves to stand head and shoulders alongside the greatest action RPGs.

So it was extremely strange for me to start playing FFVII Rebirth and immediately get struck with the feeling that everything on offer was an immediate downgrade. The presentation is noticeably weaker than the last game, the opening chapter is quite poor in my opinion with lots of unnecessary dragging moments, and the open world was seeming to be far too big and generic for its own good. My first 10ish hours with the game were a fairly large disappointment.

And I want to hone in on that open world now, because it’s one of the strangest I’ve ever seen in the sense that the whole thing isn’t actually an open world at all. Regions are distinctly separated, the map feels like it’s tricking you into thinking each area is far larger than it is, and the first region is by far the largest in the game. The whole thing almost feels like it’s begging you to believe it’s a big open world that can compete with the expectations of AAA games today, when in reality its scope is much more controlled.

I really could’ve done without all the Ubisoft-esque World Intel… some of it like the protorelics and combat challenges were worthwhile and fun, but most of it just felt like checking off a checklist just because it was there. This was the biggest factor of my initial disappointment. Compared to Remake which is a linear rollercoaster without many chances to break off the main path, Rebirth has a significantly more open structure with way more side activities. And during that first section, I felt like I wasn’t making any progress and just wasting time filling out a meaningless checklist, and I hated that feeling.

However, the further into the game I got, the more this feeling disappeared. Call it Stockholm syndrome I guess, or maybe just bc I was so engrossed with the world and characters being presented, but I began to slowly cherish every moment I spent with the game. Exploration never did much for me but I loved seeing the enemies, doing the side quests (which are MUCH better than Remake’s I have to say), even all the minigames, there’s something really special about just soaking in everything this game has to offer.

And I have to stress that this is the game’s single biggest strength. There is SO much to do, and most of it is a ton of fun. It’s so varied, it rarely dips into copy/paste territory, and it really goes a long way into injecting this world with a palpable sense of life that I haven’t felt from a single-player entry in this series since Final Fantasy X… and I really mean that. Combine all that with the gorgeously expanded towns and in its best moments, FFVII Rebirth brought me back to the magic I experienced on my initial run throughs of all those classic FF games, a feeling that I thought the modern industry just wasn’t able to deliver.

As for the parts of this game that are an actual adaptation of the original game… it’s a mixed bag. Some sections are pretty incredible and I couldn’t stop smiling the entire time I was playing them out, such as the Upper Junon parade, the Gold Saucer visits, and the climactic trek through the Temple of the Ancients. The game excels when it’s cranking up the fun, the charm, and the spectacle, and all of these sequences are loaded with those.

Other parts left me disappointed and feeling like they were missing lots of the weight of the original game, like the opening sequence in Nibelheim, the scene with Barret and Dyne, and most unfortunately of all, Aerith’s iconic scene in the game’s finale. It’s not even that any of these are bad sequences on their own, they just feel sanitized and lacking compared to the hefty impact they all left in the original, and that’s pretty disappointing to me as the story of the original Final Fantasy VII is one that means a lot to me.

So even as a straight adaptation of this story, this game doesn’t quite match the original where it really counts. But as anyone who’s played this game or its predecessor would know by now… this isn’t a straight adaptation. And initially I found that exciting! It wasn’t what I wanted, but I was intrigued by the new direction and excited to see where things went. And that’s exactly why the direction of the original parts of Rebirth’s story confuse me so much…

I won’t get into specifics, but Rebirth has a significantly less ambitious story than I expected. The ending of Remake made it seem like they were gearing up for Part 2 to have loads of changes and spin off into an entirely new thing by the end of it, but that’s just not the case at all. Rebirth plays it very safe in terms of its overall structure. If you’ve played the original game, it’s going to hit every beat you expect and outside of a few brief moments that honestly don’t affect the outcome of things very much, there aren’t many surprises.

I won’t spoil the ending, but I will say that it leaves the game in a position where Part 3 is likely to take an extremely similar approach and stick to the original game beat for beat until the very last chapter where it goes completely off the rails in a way that ultimately pretends to have way more of an impact than it actually does. It leaves me in a position where I can’t understand what the point is because it feels like the new story adds absolutely nothing to the experience and just alienates the parts of the fanbase that would’ve preferred a faithful remake.

So story wise… yeah the direction of this entire trilogy is a mess and I sincerely doubt the third game will save it for me. But I know without a doubt that I will be there day 1 when Part 3 comes out because I do still LOVE these games despite not liking how they handle the story. It’s carried by everything surrounding it, the characters and their countless interactions, the incredible combat which has only been further refined here, and above all else the unbelievable scale and life of this world.

Although I was initially disappointed, ultimately I came around to like this game even more than Remake which surprised me. I went out of my way to do everything I could, it took me comfortably over 100 hours, and the grand scope of my whole adventure was a seriously entrancing experience. It helps that it has some really strong post-game legs too, I was immediately beckoned to come back for more once I hit credits, and now that I’m just one hard mode playthrough away from reaching the platinum trophy, I can very confidently say I don’t regret any of the time I put into this.

For reference, at the time of writing I’m nearly 130 hours in, and by this point in my Tears of the Kingdom playthrough I was starting to get pretty tired of the game and only continued to trudge through because I was so close to the end. I’ll surpass that mark pretty soon and I have no signs of fatigue or even wanting to slow down. Not saying this to dog on that game, just to show that this one has serious staying power for me.

It’s not as well realized or polished as something like FFXVI, but I still ended up preferring this in the end because of the massive beating heart at its core. FFVII Rebirth is deeply flawed in execution, even more so than its predecessor, yet it’s an unforgettable experience underneath it all.

Fun time, had no idea what to expect as a friend had me play this blind but pleasantly surprised by what ended up being a relatively unique experience.

The use of roguelike elements surprised me most, but the most impressive part of this game I think is the way that each choice you make ends up branching off so drastically and so naturally. And there’s lots of branches too! Honestly a bit overwhelming just how many different paths there are, but I guess that’s where the replay value comes from.

Very creative “endings” here, and the game as a whole is quite well written, especially as you get to the end. Gorgeous artstyle as well.

Despite being from Harmonix themselves, this first Rock Band installment can’t help but come off as a bit of a diet Guitar Hero. The whole thing feels incredibly low budget in a way that the same year’s Guitar Hero 3 just doesn’t, there’s a distinct lack of the crazy events that make GH careers so memorable, the solo tour mode is incredibly lame and underwhelming in comparison. Some of the hit detection feels pretty off too, and that’s not helped by the noticeably more low quality instruments.

Yet despite that, it’s so obvious that they were onto something special with this game. The Guitar Hero games at this point had dabbled in multiplayer, but Rock Band takes the full dive into making it a core part of the experience. Guitar was already pretty well established, nothing much to change there (though the solo markers are fun), and vocals were a decently obvious addition considering some of the semi-popular PS2 karaoke game.

Drums are the area where they really nailed it here… the intense focus on tight timing made drums a very natural addition to a rhythm game, and I think the translation to a plastic kit was handled pretty well. The sensitivity on the original kits isn’t where it should be to reliably pull off some of those fast sixteenth note run (Run to the Hills is far and away the most difficult song in the game bc of this), but calibration settings are strong enough to get reliably good timing the majority of the time.

The setlist overall is very solid, albeit with a few oddball picks, but it’s really lacking those standout challenging songs. Nothing here should give you too much trouble on any instrument, the guitar stuff feels especially tame given what GH3 asks of you at points. Although maybe that’s a blessing in disguise thanks to RB1’s noticeably strict hit engine.

It’s definitely easier going back to this than the original Guitar Hero despite the cheapness of it all, and shifting the focus to multiplayer was absolutely the right call… that’s where Rock Band shines most. Drums were a genius addition that expanded the longevity of the game so much, and utilizing multiple instruments to complete the sound of a song while synchronizing overdrive points is a multiplayer high that almost no other game can touch for me.

I still really enjoy playing the original Rock Band, although it is unfortunately a pretty tough recommendation at this point. The plastic instruments required to play this have gotten obnoxiously expensive, which has made the game pretty inaccessible. But more important than that… it’s hard to justify spending too much time on this one when its successors are much better in every way.

Been playing this on and off for months now whenever I have a chance to use my DS and only just now finished it… really enjoyed my time overall! Mechanically this game is perfect to me, it’s like a 2D Sonic Unleashed (despite predating that game) and this was one of the first to really make Sonic FEEL as fast as he is.

Unfortunately, level design ended up being a mixed bag for me. About two thirds of the levels were incredibly fun and I loved every second in them, but the rest I found to have frequent and obnoxious pace breakers through level gimmicks or one of the countless bottomless pits. It’s especially bad in a game with limited screen space because in many cases I assumed I was just progressing the level and then all of a sudden I had died because there was no way of predicting the pit beneath me.

Boss fights could actually be quite challenging but I mostly found these pretty fun and fair aside from a few questionable hit boxes. The game is definitely one of the harder Sonic games overall, but that’s usually not a bad thing.

The good levels here are pretty consistently great and replayable, I definitely wasn’t bored at all during the Blaze playthrough. It’s pretty easy to recommend Sonic Rush, although mildly frustrating that the level design holds it back a bit from its full potential. This could’ve stood shoulder to shoulder with the classic games, but what we have is still great.

Just to rip the band-aid off here I really don’t think this game would have much of a legacy at all if it weren’t for the admittedly well executed ending.

The gameplay is generally pretty fun but is not exactly the best thought out at points, there’s a lot more randomness than I would like and some mechanics are flat out useless (SP). I appreciate the reworking of the Materia system though and I imagine that going after all the missions would encourage you to engage with those mechanics on an appropriately deep level.

The game is very clearly a relic of the PSP era, but honestly? Nothing wrong with that! If anything playing this just made me miss when there was a dedicated space for weird experimental spin-off titles like this designed around short but fun play sessions rather than constantly chasing immersion to rope you in for multi-hour play sessions. Definitely enjoyed my time playing this even if it wasn’t blowing me away in any capacity.

Story-wise…. man. This is really rough. I will say they won me over on Zack, even with his awful recasting I understand why he’s such a beloved character now. But everything surrounding him is, without mincing words, pretty bad. Playing this served as such a stark reminder of how bad the Compilation of FFVII idea was, there is such a strong disconnect between the tone, themes, and writing style of the original game and Crisis Core. That’s not to say that a spin-off shouldn’t have its own distinct identity, but it just feels like the writers room here had never played the original game.

On top of confusing and ridiculous Nomura-isms in both plot and dialogue, I just didn’t buy the connections between Zack and anyone else. Zack and Aerith like each other because the plot demands it. Zack and Cloud are friends because the plot demands it. There is absolutely no understanding of what made any of these characters compelling originally and they come off as caricatures of themselves.

The Nibelheim incident is expectedly reconstructed here, but feels hastily shoved in last minute because they suddenly remembered they had to, they even shoved in an original character for seemingly no reason. Even the ending, as praised as it is, is dramatized to the point of completely undermining the chilling brevity of the same scene as shown in the original game. These direct connections to the original come off as forced, and I honestly would’ve rather they just told an original side story about Zack that predated all of that entirely.

But the original stuff here sucks too!! The original characters weren’t compelling in the slightest to me, and the plot they followed felt like an absurd fanfiction. I mentioned the dialogue earlier but it’s especially bad here, there’s so many unintentionally hilarious moments that are only made worse by Zack’s awful voice actor.

What could’ve been a simple but fun handheld footnote to FFVII’s legacy ended up being just another example of why the Compilation of FFVII was such a big mistake from the start. The original game never needed any of this expansion, and to this day it’s still best enjoyed while completely ignoring all supplemental material. If anything it made me appreciate Remake even more for nailing the tone and representation of the world/characters, despite all the fate ghost stuff.

I know I’m in the minority here as most fans seem to really enjoy this one but I just can’t connect with the story on any level and it drags the whole package down for me.

Just to get this out of the way - the rating is for the experience as a game itself. I have some gripes with it as the third rerelease of this game, but on its own this has some of the strongest gameplay and story I’ve ever seen in a video game. This is a new all time favorite for me.

Persona 3 is a game I’ve had a very complicated relationship with over time. The first time I played it years ago, I was honestly quite disappointed with it. I felt the pacing was terrible, the gameplay mechanics were counterintuitive, and the story was underwhelming compared to 4 and 5 which had recently become two of my favorite games of all time. For years after my first playthrough I championed it as my dream remake, something with amazing ideas that needed the further refinement that would come in its sequels.

Over time, something strange has started to happen. As I’ve gotten older, my perspective on games has changed a lot. Aspects that I previously wrote off, such as the tactics system or Tartarus in general, I grew to appreciate as unique design decisions instead of just artifacts of the game’s age like I had initially assumed. In short, I realized that during my first playthrough, I wanted the game to be more like its successors and less like itself.

And so by the time Persona 3 Reload was finally announced, I found myself oddly unenthused, especially considering it had been a dream project of mine for years. The absence of the FeMC from Portable and the noticeably budgeted visuals only added to my lack of enthusiasm. Future trailers definitely started to look better, but I had finally arrived at a position internally that I would have scoffed at years ago: “why bother remaking Persona 3? FES is fine as is, it just needs a remaster.”

Actually playing the game for myself though, while I was originally pessimistic, I was won over extremely quickly, sucked into the inescapable gameplay loop of Persona once again. I was loving the new combat, the more refined social mechanics, everything about it really. Jump to 80 hours later, and I’m staring at the credits through my tear stained glasses, realizing I’ve just experienced what is now one of my favorite games of all time.

And so my position on this project has changed one last time: Yes, Persona 3 was fine as is. But this is better.

But unfortunately, some parts of Reload are almost inarguably NOT better than the original, specifically regarding the game’s presentation. For some reason I will never understand, the entire soundtrack was re-recorded, and every single song is quite easily worse than the original. Atlus is clearly aware of how much these soundtracks mean to their fans, so their decision to overwrite it without an option to use the original is pretty baffling to me. The new songs are pretty great though!

In terms of visuals, nearly everything is overbrightened for seemingly no reason. Turning the in game brightness down definitely helps quite a bit, but it also makes certain sections that take place in dark areas nearly impossible to navigate. On top of that, the anime cutscenes are all noticeably less creatively directed than the original, some having been replaced entirely with in game cutscenes.

By far the two worst offenders come right at the start of the game, with the first Apathy Syndrome victim and Awakening being so much less striking that it’s impossible to ignore, and generally leaving a horrible first impression. The game is never this bad again, but it only makes the presentation of these scenes more perplexing.

For what it’s worth though, I found the key emotional moments of the game to hit harder here than they did in FES (I went back to rewatch to confirm I’m not misremembering, and I still feel this way). Specifically, the events on October 4th, November 22nd, and March 5th were all rendered with the game’s 3D assets, but despite this I found the overhauled presentation of these scenes to be quite effective and made the emotional punch hit harder for me personally.

In general, I found it pretty easy to ignore the presentation issues the further I got into the game. Partially because I just got used to them, but I think mostly because I was so engaged in everything else to care.

The gameplay here is a staggering improvement over the original. I feel like this remake generally strikes a great balance of keeping the mechanics that made the original P3 unique (split physical skills, three social stats, etc) while also cutting the fat in certain areas that were more annoying than anything (fatigue). It hasn’t been homogenized to play like 5 is basically what I’m trying to get at which I think was the right call, but it still takes some of the best cues from 5 (baton pass!!!).

Tartarus has been expanded a lot in a very good way, I love how different each block feels now, I love the monad doors, I love the reworked shuffle time mechanics, I love managing Twilight Fragments, basically everything. It all felt so much less monotonous than before and even by the very end of the game I was never bored of it.

The story is recreated extremely faithfully, beat by beat there will be no surprises here if you’re familiar with the original. Very refreshing seeing as how lots of recent remakes, even some of the best, don’t stick to the original script nearly as much as they should imo. That’s not to say the story hasn’t been altered at all though, as the new additions in the forms of link episodes are extremely strong and suit the story in a very natural way. Shinjiro’s was especially powerful to me.

But honestly, most of the reason I found myself so much more engrossed in the story this time around just comes down to me being a different person now than I was all those years ago. I think being in college now has helped me to connect with a story about dorming students with time in their hands and no overbearing parental figures. I think my revised expectations helped a lot, when I wasn’t expecting an episodic structure I didn’t find the pacing nearly as glacial. And I think the maturity and nuance of these characters appeals to me now a lot more than it used to, everyone here is exceptionally well written.

Another thing I came to appreciate much more this time is how Persona 3 has by far the most developed main theme in the series. As often as people make out P3 as the edgy one obsessed with death, it’s really all about life and appreciating the time that you have. For as sad as this game can be at points it’s so much more hopeful than anything else. When framed this way, it’s so obvious that this was the game in the series that invented the social link structure. Every day matters, and you won’t get to do everything you want to, but that only makes the time that you do spend with everyone all the more important and meaningful. Life can end at any moment, so don’t waste it.

I’m so happy to say that I unquestionably LOVE Persona 3 now. It was always an outlier in quality in my head but that couldn’t be further from the truth at this point, and while Reload is absolutely my favorite version, I really don’t think it would be all that different if I went back and replayed FES, which I intend to do someday. Absolute must play of a JRPG if you have the time to commit to it.

Mixing two genres like horror and RPG probably didn’t sound as strange back when this game first released, as playing Parasite Eve made me realize that the two genres, specifically in the PS1 era, used to share a lot more commonalities than they do now. The pre-rendered backgrounds, the heavy focus on music, the amount of times spent in menus managing inventory, the constant scavenging of every last room to find items, there’s a surprising amount of similarities I wouldn’t have expected. SquareSoft in the 90s was probably the perfect company to take a crack at the idea, and what they came up with is definitely good, but I can’t help but feel like there was potential for a lot more.

The strongest points of the game are without a doubt its horror elements. Super intriguing atmosphere, cool story, awesome creature design, checks all the boxes there. The FMVs are especially grotesque and the aged animation only adds to the horror in my opinion, can’t imagine these working as well or feeling nearly as dreadful with hyper realistic graphics like we see in the modern Resident Evil remakes. Special shout-out to the final day of the game which was very exciting.

The RPG mechanics, while leaning on the simpler side, generally work well for a game as short as this. There’s no real character building so these mainly revolve around the weapons, but being able to consistently upgrade and swap traits between them is interesting enough to hold my attention.

Where the game tries to implement those survival horror gameplay elements though… that’s where I start wishing more had been done to flesh this concept out further. You’ve got some genre staples like inventory management, limited ammo, etc, but none are nearly as effective as they usually are. Ammo is so abundant you will never run out, and the inventory is large enough that you’ll probably never have to really consider what you’re carrying, but it’s just small enough that you’ll probably be cramming it with countless potions that just go unused until the endgame difficulty spike.

Combat is generally fine, but never really had me engaged. It’s mainly focused on avoiding any attacks while waiting for your ATB bar to charge, fitting considering the emphasis on avoiding damage in horror games of the era. However, unlike those games, Parasite Eve has a strict encounter system where you’re forced into killing those enemies. This isn’t a problem in and of itself, but it places a higher emphasis on enemy attack patterns which are usually not very interesting or fun to avoid. Some are flat out unavoidable (yes I checked online to confirm this, it’s not a skill issue), which makes sense for an RPG but doesn’t feel great in a game that feels like it encourages you to avoid everything that you can.

All in all, there’s really not much to dislike about Parasite Eve. I certainly enjoyed my time with it and it’s a pretty easy recommendation, the presentation alone makes this worth playing. But I just feel like there’s so much more to explore with this concept that holds it back from being something that really clicked with me. A more skill focused combat system with more consistently tense encounters and less materials scattered everywhere (or dropped from enemies) could’ve made this something really special.

So glad I got to squeeze one last banger in the year

This game is SO much fun, seriously regret putting this off for as long as I did. Never played any of the Jet Set Radio games but this game makes me want to, movement feels insanely good and there’s such a strong addictive quality that led me to fucking around way more than I needed to, probably could’ve rushed through the game in almost half the time it took me to beat it. The sense of style is pretty insane, this thing has sixth gen written all over it and I love it. Pretty amazing soundtrack too I was really surprised to find out it’s almost all licensed music. One of the most slept on games of the year for sure

Just about the most “classic” you can get from this era, this game finally strikes that golden formula that makes for a good balance of story and gameplay. The customization from III is lost but battles are now way more involved which is cool, and the story/gameplay play into each other way more than was ever possible before. The story is not that good tbh but it’s got some really good moments. The whole thing is just so comfortable to slip into and get absorbed in, very accessible and fun. Pales in comparison to what comes later but it’s still a game I like a lot, more than I should honestly, it’s equal to III for me.