After initially beating the game back in December of 2020, I have found myself coming back to GoldenEye 007 whenever I couldn't think of much else to do, and because of that, the game has always been on my mind all this time. Granted, most of what I did for these past three-ish years was just replay the "Facility" level with at least one of the two cheat codes I'd unlocked turned on, but I still do really like the rest of the game, even if I won't pretend like some of its elements have aged all that gracefully. Although I have known about Perfect Dark for about as long as I'd known about GoldenEye 007, I was a bit hesitant to play it due to me not knowing if my emulator had any settings regarding the Expansion Pack that the game required, but once I found out that it worked just fine, I immediately sat down to play it and kept doing that for three days. I had pretty positive expectations for the game going into it, but I really wasn't expecting to love Perfect Dark as much as I did, and I'd honestly consider it to be my favorite game made by Rare so far.

Since this game was a spiritual successor to Rare's landmark first-person shooter, it would make sense for them to retain a lot of what made that game unique, but Perfect Dark went beyond that and vastly improved on everything that GoldenEye 007 had initially set out to accomplish. The maze-like level design and objective-based missions that increase alongside the difficulty are still here, but breaking said missions down into smaller levels that were linked made it so that it wasn't as easy to get lost while still giving you the opportunity to move around the game's environments freely in order to see where your next objective was. Speaking of which, the visuals in Perfect Dark were much more varied and detailed than in GoldenEye 007 (although that game was definitely limited by the fact that it had to stay true to the film that it was based on), as the cyberpunk artstyle made the shootouts and exploration go from taking place in sleek office buildings and grimy city streets to neon-lit alien spaceships and planets all while having the game retain its atmosphere of espionage and secrecy through its cool gadgets and wildly over-the-top storytelling. The gunplay here generally felt the same as it did in GoldenEye 007 (although this game features actual reload animations and some better aiming), but there were many more weapons this time around, and everything from the pistols to the laptop guns to the alien rifles feels great to use. Perfect Dark also fixed one of my biggest issues with Rare's previous shooter and drastically increased the draw distance, which made the game's outdoor snow level fun to explore due to the fact that I wasn't being gunned down by enemies that I couldn't even see this time around.

Like I mentioned earlier, Perfect Dark features a bizarre and unpredictable story that quickly kicks into high gear, and one of the elements that made it so entertaining for me would be the voice acting. Unlike the exclusive use of text boxes in GoldenEye 007, Perfect Dark is fully voice acted, and both the dialogue and performances had a level of cheesiness to them that both fit right at home with the game's spy theme and also made the characters more distinct and likable, with the grey alien named Elvis being my favorite of the cast. Despite how long I've been playing GoldenEye 007, I didn't get to experience the game's iconic multiplayer mode until just a few months ago when a flatmate and I decided to play it on a whim, but I got to play a lot more of it here in Perfect Dark. Not only was the multiplayer fun here, but it also featured more gamemodes than just different variations of deathmatch, and it even allowed for a lot of mode customization. I also really enjoyed exploring Carrington Institute in between missions and Combat Simulator matches, as I found it to be a compelling hub world with a lot of personality. Not only would I consider Perfect Dark to be one of the best games on the Nintendo 64, but I'd even go as far as to say that it's one of my favorite first-person shooters, and while I still think that GoldenEye 007 is worth playing, Perfect Dark was easily the far superior experience.

"And so you shunned the one thing that could made you stronger. Pushed away the hands that could raise you higher. And that's where we're different. I could not made it here on my own. I carry with me the hopes and dreams of my brothers, my sisters. And is it they who will give me the strength to end your reign."

Many people believed Final Fantasy XVI will be a far cry from the series’ origins based on all of the pre-release information. From the Devil May Cry-inspired action combat to the gritty, mature dark fantasy setting influenced by Game of Thrones. Fans of the series doubt the game’s integrity despite beloved Final Fantasy XIV director Yoshi-P serving as the producer of the game, but ultimately Final Fantasy XVI subverted all expectations and become the greatest love letter to the series’ roots in all of the best ways possible while still maintaining its’ own identity. Final Fantasy XVI is one of the greatest games that achieve its grand scope of blending cinematic narrative and gameplay to tell its tale of resisting the cruelty of the world with pure human willpower.

The first thing that can be noticed about Final Fantasy XVI is the game’s visuals. Square Enix has always been a game developer that pushes visual fidelity in the Final Fantasy series with each installment and Final Fantasy XVI is no expectation. From the detailed NPC models to the elemental special effects to the grandiose Eikon battles. Final Fantasy XVI felt like it was truly the first PlayStation 5 game that utilized the system’s capabilities to the fullest’s extent. There are the occasional slowdowns that dip below 30FPS even with the performance mode during the most intense moments of the game. However, Final Fantasy XVI is an incredible and beautiful game with gorgeous set pieces and a stunning art direction that is visualized.

Final Fantasy is also a series known for its iconic score and music with its talented composers and XVI follows the series’ tradition of having a range of soft emotional ballads to bombastic operatic orchestrated pieces during boss battles to ambient soundscapes that serve well as overworld background music. And of course, there are rearrangements to the series’ staples such as the prelude and main theme. The music within FFXVI elevates and heightens the impact of each scene and composer Masayoshi Soken captures the dark fantasy tonality of Final Fantasy XVI. Resulting in some of the best themes in the series’ collection that can rival classic songs.

Final Fantasy has always been a series that evolves and changes its gameplay. From the early action time-based combat to more experimental approaches to gameplay in the later titles. XVI is no different by introducing a new combat system within Final Fantasy. XVI has the typical elements of action RPG combat such as a standard melee and magic attack, precise dodging, and jumping. However, the most unique element with XVI’s combat compared to other Final Fantasy games and even other action RPGs is the Eikon system. Each Eikon is based on the series’ summons such as Ifrit, Garuda, and Titan. By equipping these Eikon, the playable character, Clive, gains a different element to use in battle according to the Eikon such as fire, aero, and stone.

The full potential of XVI’s combat system can be unlocked within the skill tree. By gaining ability points such as defeating enemies and completing side content, there can be different Eikon movesets to unlock, upgrade them to increase their attack potency, and eventually master them so the player can assign the ability to any Eikon, even if the element isn’t matching. As the story progress, more Eikons will be unlocked, giving the player a wider toolset to use to customize their Eikon loadout and experiment with different combos for optimized stagger and damage output. Not to mention, at some point in the game, the player gains a limit break gauge as well that makes Clive immune to death and increases his attack power and speed.

Beyond the combat, the only other gameplay aspect to XVI is stat increases every time Clive level ups as well as gaining new equipment such as swords and accessories to increase strength, defense, and stagger. The equipment can also be crafted and redefined for increased stats as well. While it’s quite shallow compared to other RPGs, it’s effective and easy to understand and does not overly complicate an already refined battle system that can be satisfying to play.

Final Fantasy is always evolving in gameplay for better or for worse, however, the gameplay does not define the series, but rather it’s the stories it tells in each entry. While at the start of Final Fantasy XVI, the tone is a far cry from the rest since the series’ first M rating in a mainline entry allows the game to be very violent, gritty, and mature to match the typical properties of the dark fantasy genre. XVI paints a grim view of the world of Valisthea, divided between six nations that have a magic system that uses crystals to perform magical abilities. And those that do not require crystals are enslaved as Bearers and treated as sub-human, As well as those that can transform into an Eikon, are referred to as Dominants.

Final Fantasy XVI starts off with the main protagonist, Clive Rosfield, that loses everything he once knew and his home of Rosaria due to a coup d'etat performed by the Holy Empire and spends the next 13 years of his life as a Bearer soldier for the Empire and filled with rage and hatred. And this is just the first 2 hours of a 35-hour main adventure with its unexpected twists and turns in every direction. The start of the game is very reminisced of Game of Thrones, but as the story progresses, it naturally evolves into a tale that is more than worthy of the title of “Final Fantasy”.

Final Fantasy tales is about warriors of lights defeating evil and darkness plaguing thier worlds to bring dawn for a better tomorrow and XVI is no different from the rest. Final Fantasy XVI becomes a beautiful tale about the sheer willpower of the human spirit even in a dying corrupted world and breaking the cycle of inhumane treatment and the burdens of magic, even if that means tearing down everything the people of Valisthea knew. Thus it marks the final cycle of a cruel, miserable fantasy. Between the subtle references from past Final Fantasy titles throughout Clive’s adventure and XVI sharing many themes from classic games, Final Fantasy XVI is a dear love letter for the series’ fans on what it means to be Final Fantasy while still having its own unique, modern spin.

Going from the hopeless despair found in dark fantasy at the start to themes of hope, change, and resistance is a massive leap in tonality and one could wonder how to achieve such a drastic change without being jarring and Final Fantasy XVI achieves this very naturally and organic thanks to the expansive world building and character development Cilve and his allies gain. They struggle and fight onwards through even the most daunting challenges. With each threat more sinister than the last, Clive and his allies continue to build strength to resist.

Final Fantasy XVI is also a very heartfelt and emotional tale about the love of Clive for his dearest companions and learning to accept himself for who he is and what he can do. Throughout XVI’s story, the player witness the strong bonds Clive forms and how he will do just about anything for them. Such love is so precious and tender, I’ve personally cried and shed tears in a handful of scenes and I almost never do that when I’m experiencing a story.

What can serve as the peak and cumulation of Final Fantasy XVI is the dramatic and cinematic Eikon battles that occur often in the main story and it blends together its gameplay and story into one interactive, immersive battle. With its intense visuals that push the PlayStation 5 to its limit and grandiose, triumph soundtrack. These battles create a powerful jaw-dropping impressive display of action and momentum that just manages to outdo itself every single time especially when the high stakes of the main story just increase more and more.

On top of its thrilling and epic main story, one of the greatest aspects of Final Fantasy XVI is the side quests. Each side quest expands on Valisthea and its six nations with details not found in the main story as well as personal quests with your allies that create a chance to bond with them stronger and get to know their history and motivations. The side quests can range from getting a clearer idea of the manmade horrors of Bearer treatment to giving children hope to pursue thier dreams to protecting a village from monsters.

However, as the game progress, the side quests become more involved and feature characters in the main story with their own trials and tribulations, they have their own mini-story in the span of a side quest chain. These stories match the overall grim state of the world and sometimes they can end tragically but they also reinforced the theme of unity and bringing people of all life of walks together to stand strong against the most immediate threats that will affect everyone. Not to mention the side quests flesh out and builds upon lore and world-building found across the game.

Final Fantasy XVI is a very dense and intricate tale with various terminology, characters and locations to follow through and sometimes it can be quite difficult to comprehend every detail the game throws at you. However one of the most brilliant inventions for narrative-heavy games is the active time lore system. Holding down the touchpad at almost any given moment will present the player with the most relevant information currently happening on screen. It’s a great way to refresh on certain topics and it’s always updating based on the events that occur and even lists small details that weren’t directly explained on screen. The ATL entries are also stored within an NPC in the hub location, so lore explanations are never missable and could be easily reviewed as well.

Another brilliant and excellent way Final Fantasy XVI hammers on with its complex world-building is The State of the Realm. By accessing this NPC, the player can view current relations with every major character across Clive’s allies and those that are under the six nations as well as the relations for each major story event that has occurred in the past. There is also a map that visualizes the movements of each major party across the continent and the events that occur at a certain location. Between the ATL and The State of the Realm, Final Fantasy XVI is one of the best games to educate and reinforce lore and world-building in a story with its dynamic tools to help the player understand the narrative from different angles and approaches.

Hunts are another side activity the player can eventually engage with by going to the hunt board and speaking to the Moogle next to it. These monsters rank from C to S based on strength and difficulty and the hunts test and challenge the player’s combat skill and how well they understand the fundamentals of the Eikon system. While it’s fairly easy to understand, the hunts prove it’s a hard system to master since it is very dependent on knowing what each Eikon ability you are equipped with what can the player exactly do, and how to chain them together in a specific way for optimization. The hunts are a great way to get the most out of Final Fantasy XVI’s gameplay. However, it would be ideal to access the hunt board on the main menu rather than just at the hub location since it can be difficult to memorize where each monster is approximately located.

For all of the greatness and amazingness Final Fantasy XVI achieves with its story, gameplay, and presentation, it is not free of flaws. Towards the end of the game, there are a number of plot holes that is unexplained or contradicts the game’s established logic. They are minor but notable enough. Also, quite a few main characters do not develop as much in comparison to others or had their character arc ended too soon and just stagnated as a character afterward. Not to mention the aforementioned occasional performance hiccups and the hunt board's lack of accessibility. However, for every flaw the game has, it’s easily overshadowed by how much Final Fantasy XVI does amazingly well with its theming and story execution.

Between the emotional, heartfelt main story about fighting for a better tomorrow in a harsh, violent dark fantasy by experiencing Clive’s journey, the well-executed and smooth battle system, and its deep lore and world-building expanded with its side quests. All while having some of the series' best scores and utilizing everything the PS5 is capable of to create these cinematic over- the-top Eikon battles that really capture the energy and spirit of Final Fantasy XVI. It just as well be one of the greatest games of all time and Square Enix’s best effort of displaying what it means to be a Final Fantasy game down to the core. Final Fantasy XVI is a generation-defining game that will have the same renowned legacy as Final Fantasy VII and X over time. Final Fantasy XVI is the reason why anyone should pick up a PS5 and experience such an epic and legendary tale of hopes and dreams that only Square Enix can visualize.

Recommended by Dusty Vita on this list.

While Marvel vs. Capcom was an enchanting concoction of two disparate corners of pop culture that created a fighting game experience you couldn’t find anywhere else, Capcom vs. SNK 2 leans in the opposite direction and sets out to create the perfect mechanical marriage of the two without sacrificing any element that made them special to begin with. In fact, I’d argue that it does a more interesting job in combining the gameplay of the source material than any other crossover fighter I’ve played.

Like any good crossover, the roster is sure to satisfy basically every fan of the genre, but CVS2’s true claim to fame is it’s brilliant Groove System. By selecting one of six presets styled after Capcom and SNK respectively, the player is able to tweak the game’s feel to their liking by essentially adding and subtracting mechanics depending on the Groove. Do you like Third Strike and the exhilaration that parrying gave? Pick P-Groove! Do you yearn for MAX mode and the dizzying movement options that made King of Fighters so interesting? Try N-Groove! Are you someone like me who really enjoys the custom combo system of Street Fighter Alpha? A-Groove is the one for you. Each style also completely changes how your meter works, so in essence, you basically have 6 versions of every character in the roster that aren’t insignificantly different. With an insane number of options and even some amount of mechanical overlap between certain Grooves (for example, 3 of the 6 Grooves feature rolling as an option) There’s basically no chance the player can’t find something they’ll like.

Here’s the catch: for each team, you only get ONE Groove choice. This isn’t like MVC where each character gets their own assist that changes the composition of your team, you just get one. They could have easily opened the floodgates and let the player customize every single character to their liking, but this little restriction makes the act of building a team way more interesting to me. It’s a small yet significant way to nudge the player towards experimentation and makes the construction of each team feel meaningful. Without it, it’d be too easy to pick what feels comfortable and just assign each character a Groove that fits in with their original design.

Another small wrinkle in the team building process is the Ratio system, though this is something that works in the background compared to the immediate changes Grooves make. Before the start of the game you have the choice to customize the size of the team, with sizes ranging from 1 to 3 team members. In an effort to balance this, you’re also tasked with assigning the strength of each team member using 4 points, with each point making the character way stronger and tankier than before. As someone pretty new to the game, I can’t speak on the competitive viability of picking a small team size over a larger one, but like the Groove system, I suspect it just depends on the characters in question and the taste of the player.

The aesthetic of the game is probably the one element to the game that deserves the most “objective” scrutiny. It’s no secret that Capcom liked to reuse sprites from older arcade games for their insane crossover titles (not surprising given the size of these rosters) and while at it’s best some of the sprite styles blend together and help make the aesthetic cohesive, a lot of times it makes certain sides of the roster feel really out of place.

Outside of a few characters that clearly needed a graphical facelift, the whole vibe of the game is so cohesive that a few blemishes tend to fall by the wayside for me. Being a post-Y2K game, it’s no surprise that the whole package feels like an exercise of friendly competition more than a battle for glory. The televised tournament setting present throughout every aspect of the package ties the mood of the game together for me and calls back to the setup of The King of Fighters Tournaments present in that series very nicely.

While Capcom vs. SNK 2 is a game that admittedly doesn’t scratch all of the competitive itches I may be looking for in a fighting game, it feels so complete and confident in it’s execution that I can’t help but love everything that its going for. I think I’d go as far as to say that it's one of the best casual fighting games for this very reason. If it feels like this writeup feels more like a surface-level examination of the game’s features more than anything, it's because it nails everything a first timer would probably cling to upon trying the game, and that's why I find it so endearing.

It may not have the craziest combos of any crossover or the most consistent sprite work of the era, but it makes up for all of this by being one of the most accessible, inviting, and overall jovial packages in fighting games. It has something for everyone, and that might just be the trick to get more people into the genre I love so much. You don’t need to dumb down the mechanical breadth to appeal to a casual demographic, you just need to make a game that can make someone go “Wow, that game looks cool as hell, I should play that”.

Ruining the entire balanced meta for the sake of adding more characters is a bold controversial move, but still a respectable one nonetheless. Most players who give fighting games a shot will always be casuals, and from their perspective the game with the most content will always be more interesting, even if the dedicated minority pro scene hates it. Hell, if you are reading this you're most likely a casual, like me, who gets entertained by what's available but likely won't be spending much time with the game after a few matches with your friend, and that's completely okay in the end. That's why, even tho it's by no means by favorite, I still respect the devs decision to make Street Fighter Alpha 3.

Oops wrong review.

For this one, Capcom can just go fuck themselves, they only put Joe and Dan and called it a day.

What stands out most is the writing and RPG mechanics.

There's a lot of reading and complimentary voice acting to introduce characters or scripted segments. The writing describes the fantasy world in Disco Elysium, the characters you talk to, and a lot of dialogue. I think this is why there were some negative reviews of DE, so know what you're signing up for. The game is conversations and dice-rolling to determine if you're achieving an action or dialogue option, then walking to another area to do the same with an invisible timer.

The fantasy world of DE is fantasy. There are some parallels to our real world geopolitically and there is some conversation between the two worlds definitely, but they're not all direct. Non-spoiler example is the reference to a political philosopher in the world of DE, Kras Mazov, who is almost a direct reference to Karl Marx. However these are not always direct references or placeholders and stand-ins our world and it shouldn't be read as such. So, DE can be accessible without knowledge of our own social or political histories here on Earth, which is a benefit for a non-history buff who wants to play a detective RPG. The story and the world feel complete and lived in, which also makes me excited for more stories in the Disco Elysium universe.

The characters are defined as such that you can fit the role of someone who admires or detests them, as well as the player's feelings towards them. You'll talk to people a lot, and that is the game, and where the writing is forefront. You can learn about your character and play their role, with just a little continuity errors - as events happen or you take on a persona, so do the conversations. It's the first option, but I really recommend Encyclopedia as a first character so you learn more about the world as you discover your character.

The gameplay is a bit of running around, figuring out places to go, more people to talk to, trying to resolve an issue, hitting a wall, gaining experience and trying again. It is almost a "bottle episode" where you're on the same coastline town between a few buildings for the entirety of the game, but there is so much happening, with many subplots and metaphorical (and actual) doors opening that every day or level-up you gain will feel like a new place. When the story resolves, it's absolutely possible to replay the game and discover or complete quests you didn't have access to, play in the new Hardcore Mode, and role play as an absolutely different person.

The artwork is a watercolour expressionist that is beautiful to look at, which you'll be looking at a lot of the same landscape. Watch a bit to see if you like and understand what you're looking at. There's also a helpful highlights over objects and people can be interacted with, and some animated sequences to add variation to the flow of the game. There is minor tearing when zooming out or changing animations, which is barely noticeable and doesn't impact the gameplay. The music is also very well done to be both interesting and ambient, so that the loop doesn't become annoying or frustrating. You feel when you're in a dance-y or lounge-y spot, or you feel like you're on coastline because of the ambience sounds.

I really felt DE was an emotional roller coaster with humorous bits deriving from situations or dialogue, frustrating because you're dealing with someone or something you want to respond to outside of your role, sad because of how awful and sad everyone and the world can be, and satisfying when you start to check-off in-game goals. I'm not very experienced in detective games and plan on diving into them now after playing through DE, so I'm not sure if this is an introductory game in the genre, but as a stand-alone game it is absolutely worth the play through.

I played this game on MAME on my PC, after I heard about the announcement of the Breakers Collection announced for release sometime in 2020. Breakers Revenge and its prequel are somewhat forgotten Neo Geo arcade games that feature a pretty awesome but small roster of some cool characters. I did a few playthroughs as Rila and I really enjoyed her moveset. Shes a charge character like Blanka or Balrog from Street Fighter so it was a very comfortable experience. The games controls are very typical for games like this and I found them very responsive, I felt the experience overall was smoother than the Fatal Fury titles of its time. Graphically the game is standard, the maps are very easy on the eyes and the animations are a bit stiff, but the moves have really cool particle effects, making landing a special move feel really cool. The mechanics for this game are pretty par for the course as well, but it includes a feature called "breakering", which allows you to perform certain moves in the later frames of hitstun in certain combos. I wasn't really able to do this to my knowledge, perhaps by mistake, but its likely very important for high level play. Of course this game is a coin guzzler and is a very difficult game to finish, but thankfully with emulation I am only limited by my own patience. I think this game is really underrated, even though it was developed by Visco it feels very on par with Capcom/SNK fighters and it was really a good time. Im highly anticipating the coming collection, hopefully with some sort of difficulty toggle. Definitely give this game a shot if you find the means.