Breath of the Wild is a very special game to me. Not only was it the first 3D title of one of my favorite Nintendo series in about six years; it was also the crucial point I rediscovered my love for Nintendo and, thus, my love for video games in 2017.

Breath of the Wild was Nintendo’s first real debut in the open world genre and left the homogeneous style of previous 3D entries behind. At the same time, Breath of the Wild is Nintendo through and through: an uncompromisingly original and fun adventure that proved to me, after a long time as a PS3 and PS4 player, that games can still be playful and colorful. A magical world filled with lots of known places, small puzzles, interesting secrets, more or less dangerous enemies, useful items and shrines (mini dungeons).

Unfortunately, Breath of the Wild has a lot of minor problems. In particular: weapon durability, enemy variety, some shrines have no puzzles or tests of strength, bosses are too easy, the hard mode is locked behind DLC, you can’t climb when it’s raining, …

For me, however, the four disappointing dungeons are at the top the list. In my opinion, dungeons are one of the most important things of the series. The overworld of Breath of the Wild enchanted me more than any other Zelda or open world game; however, the aspect I was hyped for the most, left me hungry.

So why does this game get my full score? The loose and and non-linear storytelling is why I loved Breath of the Wild so much. It finally focused on exploring the world and solving puzzles again, instead of chasing you from one unnecessary cutscene to the next like in Twilight Princess or Skyward Sword. You independently learn how the world’s mechanics work, internalize its physics and do the craziest things possible. Breath of the Wild is the epitome of a video game and being a video game is precisely the most important thing to a video game. That is something many video games have forgotten.

Finally, I want to quote Girlfriend Reviews:

“I didn’t know video games had me in chains until Breath of the Wild set me free.”

Yakuza 0 was my entry point in this series. After the first slow-paced chapters, things got suddenly better. The gripping story escalates more and more — for more than 20 hours. Even the substories, despite their enormous absurdity, are perfectly entangled with the tonality of the overall narrative. Yakuza 0’s great story is topped off by the authentic designs of the Japanese city districts you can freely explore. The exorbitantly exaggerated fight scenes, reminiscent of classics like Streets of Rage, wonderfully sync with the rest of this masterpiece.

Every time I think about Astral Chain, I think of how this game manages to be mid and great at the same time.

This game’s story is not too impressive, the main character is unnecessarily silent, too many story information are just poorly presented text files and stealth sequences are horrible. And yet, Platinum Games created a new and innovative action combat system with the legions. Satoshi Igarashi composed one of the most impressing soundtracks I’ve ever listened to, the art style and graphics are beautiful, the character and legion designs are absolutely fantastic, the premise is really interesting, the lore is incredibly deep (if you read through the text files) and I’m an absolute fan of the change of pace and the investigation sequences in this game!

Astral Chain does so many things right and so many things wrong. It’s mid and great at the same time. It has a lot of unused potential and I hope Astral Chain 2 will fix a lot of my complaints. Oh yeah, give us a dedicated jump button. It truly has the potential to become one of the best games of all time and I really want to see that happen!

I highly recommend to play this game if you want to experience something you have never seen before!

I played this game / demo for an hour and I’m not convinced to play any further, let alone to buy the full version.

The controls are way too slow and basic and the jumps slow down your movement. It’s not fun. You can find different costumes to obtain different abilities, but you can’t interact with the world. There are many objects, but they’re only decorative. You can’t throw them, you can’t destroy them and you cant whirl them all over the place. The world is static.

I don’t expect a brilliant narrative in a game like this, but even for a collect-a-thon, it lacks some oomph.

The CGI cutscenes are very beautiful, the soundtrack is neat and I think this game has a strong sense of decoration, but that’s not enough to truly impress me.

I recommend playing the demo before you buy this game with your hard earned money.

Edit: I need to lower the score a smidge (from 1.5 to 1.0), because Balan Wonderworld producer Noriyoshi Fujimoto “addressed” the demo feedback and instead of delaying the game to fix all or at least most of the problems, he plans on giving us a day one patch. That’s not how feedback demos work. The only way to address this game is with a flamethrower and I hope Balan Wonderworld is his last game.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door improves on absolutely everything the first game did, really. I see why people put TTYD on such a high pedestal. TTYD is definitely one of the best GameCube games and I’m glad I got myself to play it. It’s a shame this game is stuck on the Nintendo GameCube... at least officially.

TTYD impressed me with charming and unique (re-)designed characters, funny and delightful dialogues, a playful and powerful soundtrack, beautiful environments, creative and genius puzzles fitting to the paper aesthetics, exciting bosses and tons of fun mob enemies.

Is this the peak of Mario RPGs?
At least we all know for sure that Intelligent Systems is not going to create a Paper Mario like TTYD again and stick to the Sticker Star franchise.

I never thought I’d like this game so much!

Steins;Gate 0 is a brilliantly written sequel to the original Steins;Gate without breaking any rules of its predecessor and tells the story of the future Okabe that sent the video message to his past self to reach the Steins;Gate world line. Therefore, in terms of the events, it’s a prequel to Steins;Gate and according to the calendar, a sequel to it. That is Steins;Gate 0’s premise.

Steins;Gate 0 takes place in the Beta Attractor Field and everything will lead to World War III. While being in this depressing dilemma, you’ll encounter a bunch of new charming characters and characters you already know. This visual novel has a lot of powerful and touching character moments. It’s filled with interesting plot twists and its endings are more than just picking your favorite girl or boy; they are much more essential to the actual plot and the true ending. Speaking of endings, Steins;Gate 0’s flow chart is shaped like a zero!

I absolutely love 0’s soundtrack. Re-Awake might be my favorite Steins;Gate soundtrack of all time, including openings and endings from all the visual novels and anime. On top of all that, the beautiful artworks, the detailed backgrounds and the astonishing CGs are out of this world. The Steins;Gate VNs never disappoint me when it comes to visuals.

I had high expectations for Paper Mario since many people praised it, but it failed to truly impress me when it came to the writing or some annoying enemies like Crazee Dayzees, purple Koopas, Lakitus and the Bats in Bowser’s castle.

It’s a comfy and charming game, nonetheless. Its art style and humor made me smile a lot of times and the soundtrack is fantastic! The OST contains tons of original tracks and beautiful remixes of the classic Mario themes.

Not too spectacular, but still a good game.

Fire Emblem: Awakening is decent, albeit disappointing in terms of writing and gameplay.

The maps are boringly designed, lunatic mode arranges enemies’ skills randomly unfair, the second arc is horribly written and the time travel aspect doesn’t make any sense and has no rules to follow. Most of the time the characters are one-dimensional, two-dimensional at best.

The twist with Grima and Robin is pretty neat, the final boss battle is one of the best in the entire series and the soundtrack is butt kicking.

Naughty Dog’s best creation.

While this game’s gameplay structure remained formulaic as always, the entire writing blew me away. It’s a well-paced story with beautifully written characters played by very experienced actors. The voice acting is phenomenally authentic.

The soundtrack of The Last of Us is nothing but an absolute master class of musical proficiency that accompanies beautiful visuals in cutscenes and gameplay and the melancholic main theme is one of the most recognizable video game themes, it’s purely iconic.

The Last of Us Part II is a technical wonder. Naughty Dog made full use of the PlayStation 4’s and Pro’s power!

The voice acting is incredibly strong, the motion capture is pure quality, the graphics and animations are on top and the soundtrack is bombastic.

Most importantly, the story didn’t completely resonate with me, personally. Some directions felt like they were forced and a few characters were written out of character. Sometimes, when they brought up some topics like Lev being a transgender, they didn’t even scratch the surface and I think that is wasted potential.

The gameplay was rather simple and easy, not exactly my cup of tea, but it’s still fun.

One of the best things of this game is its accessibility. It was possible for a blind player to platinum this game and I think that is something each and every single game should at least TRY to accomplish.

EDIT after a replay:
The story resonated with me a lot more, so I’ll give this game 1.5 extra stars.

I’m a big fan of how Tales of Berseria’s story played out. This game’s world building is incredibly deep and convincingly authentic and the main and side characters are colorful and beautifully written. Velvet Crowe became one of my favorite video game protagonists, because of one of her decisions! The villains and their motives are wonderfully portrayed and I really felt a lot of empathy for them. This game’s dark tone was rather refreshing, I loved it.

Unfortunately, the combat system is a no brainer and very tedious, but it has some fun mechanics, nonetheless.

An overlooked and underrated visual novel of Steins;Gate that wonderfully expands the backgrounds and personalities of the characters we love so much.

The artworks are fascinating as ever and the soundtracks are either very playful or atmospheric.

Other than Steins;Gate, Steins;Gate 0 or Steins;Gate: My Darling’s Embrace, Linear Bounded Phenogram is totally linear and you unlock the character’s stories one after another.

It’s included with Steins;Gate ELITE on PlayStation 4 or Steam, so don’t miss this one. It’s worth it.

The Witness fold my brain and subsequently rearranged it. I can’t describe this master class of lateral thinking and bustling exploration in any other way. Knowledge is everything.

The progression depends on how many secrets of this island you have discovered. The Witness could’ve scattered its hints scantily. Instead, hundreds of exciting puzzles are lined up in every corner.

The minimalism of many line puzzles should be a matter of taste, but I am beguiled by the elegance with which The Witness rebuilds such a simple scaffolding every minute — in shapes that surprise for many hours of gameplay.

A short and unnecessary sequel to the already completed story that was Xenoblade Chronicles.

The plot is shockingly uninspired, which is unusual for Monolith Soft, and the two new characters are boringly written. Their move sets are literally copy-pasted from Reyn and Sharla. I appreciate Tyrea’s appearance and how they fleshed out Shulk and Melia a little bit more.

Bionis’ Shoulder is a very beautiful region and it is fun to explore its various areas, but it lacks interactivity and it is filled with tedious fetch quests. The frame rate when all Ponspectors are found is incredibly low and it almost made me drop the new epilogue. The Quiet Moments (equivalent to the Heart-to-Hearts) are fully voiced and that’s an improvement in terms of presentation. I want to see that in future games as well!

Nintendo promoted this game with a brand-new combat system, but they just swapped the chain attacks with an all-out attack. Everything else remained the same, so it was a bit deceiving.

They could’ve used the time and money to improve the main game even more, instead of giving us an unnecessary epilogue.