Ok, I love this game. For reference, I have no nostalgia for this game as my first Sonic game was Unleashed on the PS2, but on my quest to play all these Sonic games, I knew I was bound to cross this one off eventually. I had only heard negative things going in, mostly about graphics and glitches, but despite both of these issues showing themselves in my time with this game, the positives outshine those negatives immensely! Each character plays so different that I didn't mind seeing different plot points over again a few times just to see each of their perspectives, and the whole concept of having different characters with subplots really turns this game from "Sonic saves the world" to "These animals are fighting to stop the flood" (Call that Noah's Ark)

I loved this game growing up because it was the first pokemon game I ever beat of my own merit. No action Replay, no hacked mons, just my team and I. While I loved this game for many reasons growing up, I noticed a lot of cracks in the presentation upon my recent replay. The dialogue leaves a lot to be desired, and the Team Flare storyline ended so suddenly that I kind of assumed it wasn't over until an NPC told me that I "saved the region". Either way, I enjoyed the experience, just not as much as I did with Pokemon Violet (As blasphemous as that sounds). But I will always love the memories I have of this game growing up and getting to beat the champion one day and lose to my IRL childhood best friend the next!

After beating Xenoblade 2 a while back, I figured Torna would just be some sort of of "bonus level" for the players that desperately wanted more of the gameplay. Then, I saw the effort put into connecting the dots presented in the main game to the story beats and characters of this expansion and knew that there was effort and love put in. Yes, the forced side-quest sections can feel like padding, but the end of the game/expansion tells you exactly why that was necessary (Can I just call this a game? Even though it's technically DLC, it feels a lot like the RPG fan's version of Halo 3 ODST, where the game uses the same engine as its predecessor, but feels different). While I don't think this game is necessary to play while taking the overall plot into account, I'm so very happy I did play it and do not regret getting to meet this party of characters!

Writing this in tears from the ending, I'm finding myself in love with just about everything this game did in its short time in my hands. The new allies are on par with the allies from Y6, the combat is so unique (I used the agent style for practically the whole game), the fan-service and ties to Y:LAD (Y7) are executed near-flawlessly, the substories are as good as ever, and the ending... well, the ending will speak for itself. Just bought the next game in the series (Infinite Wealth) on the day of beating this entry, so I'll see y'all in Hawaii!!!

Nearly everything this game does is done so masterfully. Never have I enjoyed a game's whole soundtrack as much as this one's. The battle mechanics were so unique and engaging, and each character was fun to interact with. This game had a major impact on my childhood (It came out right as I was exiting middle school), yet I never had the skill and drive to beat it myself until my college years. Every part of this game is amazing, except one concept: The true ending. It is literally impossible to get the true ending on your first run of the game, even if you spare every boss and every random encounter. The ending I got was still good, but I wanted to experience the happiest ending, so I suppose youtube will help with that aspect. Otherwise, phenomenal game!