Six years was worth the wait.

Granblue Fantasy: Relink helps scratch an itch for both fluid action combat mechanic and MMO-style boss mechanics. This is the perfect game for the era of live-service schlock- a flawlessly integrated online co-op ecosystem, with all its substantive content able to be fully enjoyed offline as well. The only way it could be fundamentally improved (outside of the crossplay issue) is allowing for LAN play- but that's sadly something of a dinosaur in today's AAA releases. Otherwise PlatinumGames, well known for its ability to translate beloved IPs to quality action games, has stuck the landing here.

Any Cygames veteran can attest to the quality that goes into each of their productions, but they somewhat fail to transcend their mobage framework. Granblue Fantasy (2014) proper is a ridiculously tedious grind, such that even spending tons of money doesn't fully circumvent it. Hidden deep within Granblue's stigma as a gacha game is actually an extremely in-depth JRPG storyline, to speak nothing of its combat mechanics and boss design. After several years, I couldn't be bothered to enjoy it anymore underneath the crushing daily grind- but there was so much to love about it. There was incredible art direction by the CyDesignation team (which also did similar fantastic work on Final Fantasy Brave Exvius: War of the Visions) and wonderful music by the likes of Nobuo Uematsu and Tsutomu Narita. A vast, well-established world and characters whom the team truly cared about, meticulously developing their stories and updating units. That is what makes Relink that much more special- seeing these characters and their various skillsets rendered beautifully and allowed to escape the small aspect ratio of the phone screen. Each respective character was brought to life here with a stunning attention to detail by PlatinumGames. And that's not to discount the wonderful job Arcsys did with Granblue Fantasy Versus, but the game is far more accessible to a wider audience. This is what helps bring this game from fan service to a niche base to something capable of engendering an entirely new audience to its universe.

Cygames was actually no stranger to highly-polished action combat either, with Dragalia Lost (2018) offering some of the best co-op boss raids for its respective platform. The gameplay loop in Dragalia was a cut above what most gacha shovelware was offering, and it had a similarly well-respected single player campaign to Granblue as well. Dragalia's end of service was a stinging loss to many people, but PlatinumGames has managed to deliver them from janky private servers. The boss mechanics are highly reminiscent of Dragalia's and serve as a worthy successor. It is pretty easy to pick up and play too. The only real hurdle Relink players will have getting started is wrangling the camera and targeting system, something Dragalia didn't really have to contend with due to its top-down perspective. I did get kind of frustrated with this at first, but it mostly boils down to a couple hours of experience to resolve. Kind of a Super Mario 64 situation, but a lot less egregious.

Everything in Relink just manages to feel right, and feel good. Surely it won't hit as hard with people who aren't interested with things like incremental mastery of the different characters' mechanics, or people who don't like seeing numbers go up. But there is a market for that, and its a big market if Monster Hunter's meteoric rise was any indication. Action game fans with no knowledge of the source material won't really find any of this too daunting either. The 10-15 hour initial campaign can be played and enjoyed standalone, and the combat itself is self-explanatory. I do recommend getting acquainted with the basic Granblue lore through the Lyria's note section (as well as the Fate Episodes) as it will help contextualize a lot of what people love about these characters and their world. The writing might be a little flowery in some parts, a little nekketsu in others, but overall its pretty good. I would consider Relink's story basically akin to a movie adaptation of an anime- with dubious implications as to the canon and basically non-consequential to the overall plot. It is thus pretty easy to just enjoy as its own thing.

Notably, it's kind of hilarious how Cygames integrated the source gacha's DNA into the UI, sometimes seemingly for the sake of it. It's never too intrusive and its really only there for the hardcore players, but it is still very funny to see cursed Granblue mechanics like Plus Marks, Over Mastery Bonuses, and Spellbooks in an action RPG title. They all work well enough though, and the difference-maker here is the pacing. Take the Treasure Trade and material system they transplanted from the gacha. The grind in OG Granblue for certain materials can take weeks, even months. In here, its just going to be a few hours at worst. Allowing one to enjoy all the aesthetics of Granblue without having to devote enough time for it to being a second job? I would have stuck out ten years for this.

Wow. I gotta say, I was expecting this game to be pretty great, but Insomniac have truly impressed me with Spider-Man 2. It feels like they've improved every possible aspect of the previous games, or at the very least, improved everything around it to rid it of any tedium.

While they've definitely exceeded expectations on the gameplay front, I had no doubt they'd be able to do so. What did surprise me here, however, was its story. Spider-Man 2 has a lot to juggle with, between Miles and Peter as well as Kraven and Venom. It's unquestionably difficult to create a story that balances all of them equally without some arcs inevitably falling by the wayside. However, Insomniac has done the improbable and crafted a story that pays equal dividends to all of them, tying them together with compelling individual arcs and a thrilling central plot that never lets its foot off the gas.

I realize many will take umbrage with the story not being entirely original or merely borrowing elements from other existing Spider-Man storylines, but for my money, this is probably one of the better, if not the best, Spider-Man stories ever told. Like I said, it juggles a lot, but does so with a deft hand and manages to weave a deeply emotional tale of grief, friendship, and finding your place in the world without ever feeling corny or ham-fisted, and doing so with excellent pacing throughout.

They definitely also listened to the complaints about side content in the previous games, delivering some truly S-tier side missions here that each have something different to say or show off. Without spoiling, the particular ones to look out for are the Howard, Graffiti, and Museum missions, as, in my view, these were far and away the best of an already great bunch.

In terms of the core gameplay, there's not all that much new here—at least anything that radically changes the formula from the previous games. Instead, all the existing elements are fine-tuned and enhanced thanks to the PS5's SSD, which makes it feel faster and more fluid than it ever has. Traversal, in particular, is incredibly fast and dynamic thanks to the new web wings, a much faster swing speed, and new acrobatic animations that never stop being fun to play around with.

Again, I could go on all day about what a triumph Spider-Man 2 is, but suffice it to say, it's probably Insomniac's best game and certainly an all-time contender for best superhero game overall. Outside of the odd glitch and a touch of tedium in some of the repeatable side content in the open world, there's really nothing I have a qualm with when it comes to this.

If you're even marginally interested in Spider-Man as a character, you owe it to yourself to give this game a shot.

10/10

This game feels like it really gets what *I* want from the Cozy subcategory of game genres. First and foremost it's just extremely fun to play. The shield surfing especially is just Instantly fun. But as the game progresses and you gain access to more goofy movement tools, like the ragdoll, the bubblegum, and even the sticky arm, the game just continues to decide to do the most fun thing it can.

On top of that, the game is funny, and it very much earns the heartfelt story it's trying to tell. Almost every joke lands for me, and the overarching story feels incredibly personal and relatable, without being cheap or hamfisted.

9/10, would sticky hand spin around a tree and launch myself into infinite stamina bubblegum flight again.

Outer Wilds effortlessly kindles the player’s curiosity to solve the mysteries around them without having to directly tell them to. The player is never explicitly instructed to do anything or go anywhere; all choice comes from what catches their interest. In due time, the player will find themselves solving the mysteries of the universe with nothing but fragmented journal records from several planets. Piecing together knowledge gained from every corner of the solar system to solve the puzzles set before them is impressively organic and makes the player feel truly intelligent. The info to solve every puzzle is out there, but the player needs to understand--not just be able to recall--what they’ve learned to find the solutions. Titles like Outer Wilds are few and far between, and experiencing this game is a one-time event; there's a reason the only thing a beginner should know is that they shouldn't know anything before playing.

God of War Ragnarök is an improvement in every way possible, it's the sequel we deserved and after over 40 hours I finally finished this Masterpiece. The set pieces are mindblowing, I think half of my storage capacity is now occupied by screenshots of this game. I also absolutely adore the soundtrack, I can't praise it enough, I got goosebumps every time I heared it. The narrative is amazing and the fact that the whole game is a one-shot elevates the whole experience, the cutscenes are exceptional.
I wasn't a big fan of Atreus in the first game because of his god complex. But they really did a 180 with him, I enjoyed his arc and gameplay a lot. The chemestry between Atreus and Kratos is great but also between him and Angrboda. I like her a lot and she's my favorite new character. I never cried so many times in a video game and thb. I Iost count. When a simple hug between two characters can make me tear up then there is no other way than to call this one of the best games of the last few years.

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