NieR Replicant offers a captivating and emotionally resonant experience, with its richly developed characters, engaging combat, and intriguing world lore. However, the game is not without its flaws, as repetitive elements, tedious mechanics, and a decline in side quest quality can detract from the overall enjoyment. Despite these shortcomings, NieR Replicant remains a worthwhile adventure for fans of the genre, offering a journey filled with memorable moments and thought-provoking storytelling.

I thoroughly enjoyed my 40 hours finally diving into the wild whacky Yoko Taro world, and cannot wait to go head first into my next.

Pros:

Captivating Characters and Interactions: The characters in NieR Replicant are richly developed, each with their own distinct personalities and backstories. Their interactions feel genuine and often emotionally resonant, drawing players deeper into the game's world. Kaine's foul-mouthed demeanor adds a refreshing authenticity, making her stand out as a particularly memorable character whose depth goes beyond mere shock value.

Fluid and Punchy Combat: NieR Replicant's combat system is a true highlight, blending fast-paced action with a satisfying sense of impact. As the protagonist grows stronger throughout the game, so too does their combat prowess, leading to dynamic and engaging encounters that keep players on their toes.

Intriguing World Lore: From the enigmatic mysteries of the Gestalts and Replicants to the hauntingly beautiful landscapes of the game world, NieR Replicant's lore is a tapestry of intricacies waiting to be unraveled. While initially obscure, the gradual revelation of lore elements adds layers of depth and intrigue, leaving players eager to uncover more about the world they inhabit.

Exquisite Music: Few games can match the emotional resonance of NieR Replicant's soundtrack. Composed by the legendary Keiichi Okabe, the music perfectly complements the game's atmosphere, evoking a wide range of emotions from melancholy to triumph. Each track is a masterpiece in its own right, enhancing every moment of the player's journey.

Engaging Side Quests in the First Half: Side quests in NieR Replicant aren't mere distractions; they're integral parts of the storytelling experience. In the first half of the game, these quests not only provide valuable insights into the lives of NPCs but also contribute to the overall world-building and character development.

Multiple Endings: NieR Replicant's multiple endings offer a tantalizing incentive for replayability, encouraging players to explore different narrative paths and discover new layers of the story. Each ending provides a fresh perspective on the events of the game, rewarding those willing to invest the time and effort to uncover them.

Cons:

Repetitive Grinding to Achieve the Endings: While the multiple endings add depth to the game's narrative, the process of unlocking them can feel needlessly repetitive. Players are required to replay significant portions of the game multiple times, often with only minor variations in content. This can lead to a sense of tedium and frustration, detracting from the overall enjoyment of the experience.

Tedious Weapon Upgrades: Upgrading weapons in NieR Replicant can be a grindy and time-consuming process. Despite investing significant hours into the game, players may find themselves lacking the necessary materials to fully upgrade their arsenal. This imbalance between effort and reward can diminish the sense of progression and satisfaction in gameplay. Luckily they are completely not needed, as even at base power you can find strong enough weapons to complete the entire game.

Limited Weapon Variety: Despite the game boasting a wide array of weapons, the lack of incentive to experiment with different options can result in players sticking to a select few throughout their playthrough. The dominance of certain powerful weapons reduces the diversity of playstyles and undermines the potential for strategic depth in combat encounters.

Decline in Side Quest Quality: While the side quests in the first half of the game are engaging and meaningful, those in the latter half often feel like filler content. The decline in quality and narrative significance can lead to a sense of disappointment for players expecting the same level of depth and immersion throughout their entire journey.

Perfect it may not be, but worthy of "must play" status it absolutely is.

Never Alone can be considered a puzzle platformer but it’s pretty light on both elements. It focuses on the Iñupiat tribe with tons of documentary videos that are found as collectibles. The game also has a full fledged co-op mode for the entire campaign including the DLC. None of what it does is really great but it still has enough to offer if you can get the game on sale.

The game is quite charming with the designs and graphics. A lot of what’s shown in gameplay form (enemies, living beings etc) is part of the aforementioned tribe. The narrator also sounds appealing when speaking in their own language. The gameplay is pretty enjoyable and can feel relaxing when not a lot is required whether it’s thinking or platforming. There are checkpoints that also save your progress, you have chapter select and you can reload a checkpoint from the menu when needed. The achievements are the good kind. They are divided in level progression and finding all the 24 collectible owls. Single player and co-op offer distinct experiences since there are 2 characters. You either control both characters on your own with the AI taking over a few simple actions sometimes or you and a second player control the characters.

The game’s flaws are mainly bugs, pacing issues and not enough budget for the DLC characters. The bugs are not gamebreaking but it’s a shame to experience them with such an atmospheric game like this one. Reload from the last checkpoint will be your best friend. I’m mostly thinking of the last chapter of the main game when I’m talking about pacing issues. You’re dealing with a lot of moving elements, timing things right and dying easily. The controls are not the best but they work when the game doesn’t demand a lot from you but that’s not the case with the last level. The DLC helps with ending the game on a more positive note since it focuses on the puzzling aspect more. However, the DLC is a different story about 2 brothers. The main game is about a girl and a fox. And yet the same character models are used for the brothers. This felt pretty odd. This doesn’t ruin the game but I’m not sure how the developer/publisher thought this would fly. One last point about pacing issues, you find documentary videos constantly, especially at the beginning. You’re encouraged to play the videos right away for being linked with what you encounter in the game. The entire game (including DLC) is a little over 4 hours to 100%. I felt interrupted from playing the actual game too often. This could have been done better.

The PC version can be gotten for €1 including the DLC from the ‘Playing for the Planet’ Humble bundle (14 days left as of this writing). There is a 1 item tier where you pay for this one game only which is exactly what I did (I own most of the other games that interest me from that bundle). I’m glad to have experienced this game in preparation for Never Alone 2. But I’m also mostly glad for not paying much to play it. Never Alone 2 needs to improve significantly to warrant paying a higher price. I can recommend 1 while it can be gotten for cheap but not over €5.

finished this about a week ago but never got to writing my review until now but here we go

MGS1 is a game i found immense enjoyment in plot wise, gameplay wise not so much. gunplay and boss fights especially felt like a chore, mostly due to being a PS1 game. due to the jump to PS2, MGS2 improves on MGS1’s flaws and then some, using new innovative ways to fight enemies, and having actually good boss design this time around.

MGS2 starts with the tanker section, in which solid snake and otacon return after hearing word of a potential metal gear being held on a u.s. marine corps tanker. while snake goes to investigate things quickly go wrong as a group of russian mercenaries take over the ship in order to steal the metal gear. in this section snake must sneak by the mercenaries and sneak further into the tanker to verify the existence of this new metal gear. followed by the tanker section is the plant section, where one of the larger twists in the game is revealed, you don’t play as solid snake. you play as raiden, a vr trained soldier who’s mission is to save the president from a group labeling themselves as the sons of liberty. i’m going to choose not to write about the specific events of both of these sections because a game of this type of quality deserves to be experienced first hand rather than read about.

MGS2 is without a doubt a masterclass in storytelling. while at the surface i found the overarching plot to be convoluted and confusing, the further i went into the game the more astounded i found myself to be. the CODEC calls were a huge part of what made MGS1 unique, and in this game they’re even better. the calls between raiden and rose especially were absolutely amazing and learning about their backstory together was something truly special. the plot twist toward the end is something absolutely unpredictable that left me truly amazed at just how much kojima thought of while writing this game, once it was revealed thinking back on earlier sections of the game caused me to think differently of those sections in the best way possible as the new information was given to me.

gameplay in MGS2 is largely improved from MGS1, it’s much smoother and features new mechanics that make things like combat and traversal much easier and more fun. the addition of first person aiming makes stealth much more easier and fun to use, especially when you take advantage of being able to hold up enemies and making them shake off their belongings like dog tags or ammo. new stealth mechanics like being able to peak and shoot from cover make boss fights a lot more fun as it encourages the player to use their surroundings to avoid enemy gunfire. MGS2 also adds a new rolling mechanic which allows faster traversal across short areas, which can also be used to cross short paths without being spotted by enemies.

in short, MGS2 is an absolute all time masterpiece with truly wonderful themes all made possible by the genius of Hideo Kojima. this game has easily helped cement MGS as one of my all time favorite game franchises due to its wonderfully unique writing and stories. easily one of the greatest games i’ve ever played, and it truly helped me understand the genius of Kojima.

Sure the combat could be better but if you think its bad clearly you've never impulse mega flare permafrost dancing steel into stagger will-o-the-wykes lightning rod gigaflare zantetsuken level 5-ed before and it shows :/

I struggled a good bit throughout my playthroughs of Final Fantasy XVI. It is now the third mainline game in the series I've beaten but at the time I started it I had intended it to be my first. Its a series I've always known i needed to try to get into, and the demo of this game was absolutely amazing, it completely blew me away. I was very unexpectedly hyped for this. And playing it I was like oh yeah this is def 5/5 material, after the Garuda fight I was so sold on the game. The music is fucking fantastic and I've never seen such awesome boss fights. But then after that the game felt like it had already peaked. There are still great boss fights through the rest of the game but they never were as impactful as the first 10 or so hours were for me. I felt myself increasingly disinterested in the plot and all the lore and by extension - the game itself.

All that changed near the end when I finally actually started doing side missions. I surprisingly ended up becoming quite fond of all the side characters in the Hideaway and to a much lesser extent the different characters out in the various towns and villages. The game has a pretty damn good cast. It was around that point that I was pretty hype for the end. And for the most part the finale delivers. Its plenty epic, and I was having a great time. But in the end, I was a bit disappointed in how everything wrapped up. That's not to say that there's really anything wrong with the ending, it just wasn't what I was wanting. How i feel about that is how I feel about Final Fantasy XVI as a whole. Plenty of great moments, but in the end still just a little disappointing.

Now that I've explained that I still think FFXVI is great, I have a lot more to complain about. Mostly minor things but it all added up over my 90 hours spent with the game. Some minor annoyances like enemy phases being tied to health bars so sometimes when you set up a stagger and start unleashing, the game just lets them sit there and recover without taking damage and you being unable to do anything for like 20 seconds before the next phase begins. There's also some battles in the wild where if the fight naturally goes a little further than where it started, enemies may just become immune and run back to their spawn point at full health. There's also without fail after every big boss, a main quest that's meant to let things settle but it just kills the pacing and feels like the game is wasting your time by dishing out forced side quests, sometimes several in a row. In the more dungeon-y areas the game is also pretty bad at leading the player along, there were several times I ran completely in the wrong direction because it doesn't make it clear what doors you can open unless you're right next to them. My final complaint is that Final Fantasy mode, the supposed hard mode for NG+, is a complete joke. Now I'm sort of glad it wasn't hard because it made the platinum obtainable for me and now that i have one for a mainline game in the series I don't ever have to bother again. But like, the games idea of hard is give every enemy 50x as much HP. For normal enemies it ain't nothin a level 5 Zantetsuken can't solve but any enemy with a stagger bar doesn't actually feel harder to fight, they just take ages to fucking kill. Even though i skipped every cutscene and did minimal side content, my FF playthrough felt longer than my first where I did basically everything. It just isn't very fun.

So that's about all of my thoughts with Final Fantasy XVI. But to end on a more positive note: Jill is hot and Titanic Block + Counter is one of the most satisfying moves of all time.

Thanks for reading <3

-----TLDR----
+ Great cast
+ Amazing soundtrack
+ Awesome boss fights throughout
- Story quality and pacing is wildly inconsistent
- Didn't like the way it ended
- Too many little gameplay grievances that add up

Nancymeter - 85/100
Trophy Completion - 100% (Platinum #278)
Time Played: 92 hours
Completion #6 of November
Completion #210 of 2023

Boom, boom, boom, boom
I want you in my room
Let's spend the night together
From now until forever
Boom, boom, boom, boom
I wanna go boom, boom
Let's spend the night together
Together in my room

I would bet it all to smoke weed with Fang and Vanille in their dimly-lit bedroom full of empty takeout bags: I have never seen a burnout codependent lesbian couple depicted this plausibly. XIII is probably the first Final Fantasy to make intra-party dynamics a narrative priority, and the most successful in this. Good dub casting supports this, and it's the series title from which I came away most fond of the characters. Pretty much the gold standard of seventh generation console visuals, and the best version of the ATB system.

This is a game that for some reason is completely eluding me when I try writing up something more structured on it, but I will say that I really liked a lot about this and wanted to say SOMETHING in regards to it, so here:

This is the one kind of remake that I won't be an annoying hater about, it really sets itself apart from the original game in a ton of ways and feels like its own experience that just uses the same foundation as another game, rather than trying to just be a smoother rehash that removes a lot of the weirdness of said game.

Making Midgar an entire game was a choice that I feel didn't fully work out in all aspects because there is just a bit too much time in between the big story beats, slowing the pacing to an absolute crawl at times.

The "filler" chapters are cool for the way that they try expanding upon the insignificant aspects of the city to reinforce the player's connection with the location as a whole.

The sheer amount of gay energy exuded every time Cloud and Sephiroth exist on screen together is insane.

35 hours of Midgar unfortunately means around 30 hours of seeing very similar rundown urban environments or factories, and that gets super tiring.

I love how good basically every attack feels to use, and the ATB system here is a great way to try encouraging switching between characters constantly.

Unfortunately combat is also easy to the point where I never really felt the need to properly strategise outside of a couple specific encounters, which ended up being my favourite as a result of making me properly interact with the game's systems. It doesn't help that Cloud just feels by far the strongest in a lot of cases.

More of the game should've involved Cloud wearing a dress

I love the way NPC flavour text is handled here, it adds a ton of life to the world when you just hear snippets of these random conversations as you're running through a crowd.

The side quests suck for the most part, especially in chapter 14 where there's a downright egregious amount of backtracking to be done.

I adore the main cast and do think it's the one aspect of this game that I like considerably more than in the original, even though I liked them all a lot there too.

I wish Cloud was real and that I could make out with him.

I am so glad that they kept in the Shinra Building emergency stairs and made the ascent EVEN LONGER, all while letting you listen to Barret complain the entire time you ran up.

The last stretch of the game had so many batshit plot revelations one after the other and it makes me really interested to see the direction that Rebirth will take.

I've played a lot of FF7 related stuff in preparation for Rebirth and I think it's driven me a bit insane, almost feels like purgatory, still looking forward to it though!!!

If Y7 was the passing of the torch to the next generation then Y8 is the last spark of the old guard.
Feels kinda bad when Gaiden was made only after most of 8's development was done because it hurts seeing how Hanawa and Daidoji were handled.
Don't want to beat a dead horse but the story is kinda meh (the first part is pretty good and interesting but after the ending of chapter 9 iirc the story fluctuated too much in quality akin to a sinusoidal wave) but gotta appreciate the whole messianic theme they did with one of the villains and the MCs.
The beloved characters from Y7 are back in business (even though some were kinda shoehorned in there cough cough Zhao and Joongi Han cough cough) and the new characters are pretty good most of the time ("This hoodlum wanted money and he pointed a gun right at me!" Tomizawa, Cutiepie Chitose not Buster Holmes, Fangirl Suengee, Cold-blooded Yamai) but some of them like the villains or some minor characters are kinda shitty.
The gameplay received an overall improvement and it’s so enjoyable that I’ve grinded dungeons just to juggle enemies between the team members (don't even get me started how I creamed my pants when Dragon's Resurgence was introduced).
For the love of God just leave Kiryu alone so he can live his last days in peace and not bait us with another battle on the Millennium Tower in the future.
I wanted more Yamai but he was too good for this game and left too early (hope he'll become a playable character in Y9 somehow).
My first impression was a 6/10 but in retrospect I've enjoyed the game too much so yeah fuck it 7/10.