This is one I've been meaning to play for a long while... after absolutely LOVING Hades (seriously could not get enough of that game), I went back to the first game in Supergiant Game's backlog: Bastion.

This was a very solid first outing with a fantastic soundtrack, decent enough gameplay, awesome art style, and great voice acting/narration - I could easily see the building blocks that were first laid out here that were then improved and perfected in Hades.

The narrator kills it in his role and is one of the most enjoyable parts as he narrates everything that the "Kid" (player character) does.

A short, fun indie title I should have played a long time ago.

Some of my favorite tunes I've included below:
In Case Of Trouble
Slinger's Song
Build That Wall - Zia's Theme

Vanillaware has a habit of creating some of the most beautiful games out there, and Odin Sphere is no exception... it is absolutely gorgeous.

I have a weak spot for Norse mythology, so I enjoyed that aspect of the game's world/setting. Game is overall solid from a gameplay / combat standpoint with multiple characters and POVs. The only negative that brings this game down a fair bit for me, is that after a while of playing, it is prone to being a bit too repetitive.

Still worth playing though - for maximum enjoyment, I'd recommend cutting the game up in short playtime sessions to combat its repetitive nature.

I like to compare my experience with NieR: Automata to that of The Last Guardian... at least for me, they both followed a very similar path: very flawed games that didn't connect with me during the first two-thirds of their playtime, but that last third was incredibly special.

Seriously, that last route saved this game for me. It felt like the entire game built up to that route - I just wish the A/B routes were paced a bit better and were more dramatically different. My biggest complaint with the game was the frustration and boredom I felt set-in when being forced to essentially beat the same game twice with 9S.

From purely a gameplay perspective, I wasn't a huge fan of it either. I did appreciate all the different genres it tackled, but to me it felt like they were just throwing everything at the wall to see what would stick. Oh, and that fishing minigame might be the worst in any JRPG ever... small nitpick to be sure, but that shit is terrible. All in all, the gameplay was just serviceable...

However, story is where this game shines brightest! It is magnificent!

And the game's true ending (E) might be one of the greatest endings in any video game ever... it brought tears to my eyes. It is truly beautiful and thematically meaningful to its core message. I loved the philosophical topics it handles and have watched many analysis videos and breakdowns on it since completing it. For this, I understand where others come from in stating that the game is a masterpiece - I wouldn't argue with any of you.

And I couldn't end the review without bringing up the game's OST. It is on par with the game's story. It is hauntingly majestic and beautiful. It elevates much of the game to unforeseen heights. A transcendental score of which I'll highlight some of my favorite songs below:

-- Weight of the World
-- Amusement Park Theme
-- Grandma Destruction
-- Birth of a Wish
-- City Ruins Theme

Definitely a game I'd recommend as a Must Play regardless of its flaws... it is worth the journey just to experience that ending alone...

What made me play this? I didn't enjoy the first game (see my review for the first title here)... I guess I just wanted to give Level-5 the benefit of the doubt to see if they made a Dark Cloud 1 to Dark Cloud 2 leap in quality... well, they didn't... :(

While some things they did here are improvements to the first game, it is definitely a "2 steps forward/2 steps back" situation...

The battle system is more fun to play than the original, but it is far too easy... there is no challenge whatsoever in the combat which leads to the game becoming terribly boring before too long.

The story, music, and characters are pretty terrible - and one of the more egregious things is the lack of voice acting and music throughout... it kills any emotional resonance this game attempted to build. It all becomes rather laughable.

The opening is hilarious and sounds like a damn parody... like I just have to talk about it - so minor spoilers ahead, but this happens within the first 3 minutes of the game...

You play as the President of the United States as New York City literally gets nuked to oblivion... upon which you somehow awaken magically in a new world... finding yourself in the city of Ding Dong Dell, a city inhabited by talking animals, you come to befriend a cat-eared child prince(Evan Pettiwhisker Tildrum) and help him try to reclaim his kingdom... it is some real silly shit. Beyond surreal... like even describing it, I cannot believe it is a real premise to a game's story...

The game's sole saving grace was the kingdom building aspect, and its addictive quality... but at the same time, it disgusts me that this is the best part, as it is something you could find from the mobile game market...

Hard pass even for JRPG fans... hell, I don't even know if fans of the first game will like this.

It pains me to say this as a Metal Gear Solid fan... but I really didn't enjoy MGS V... like at all.

While the core gameplay is probably the best MGS has ever had... it just didn't work for me in this open world, base-building, soldier recruitment context... it didn't remotely feel like an MGS game to me.

I would much prefer a more cinematic, linear approach - with excellent boss battles, epic cutscenes, great Codec conversations, and the stealth gameplay we all know and love. That was what made Metal Gear different and stand out from the rest; it was an integral part of the MGS experience and part of its DNA. This just feels like more AAA open-world schlock...

As it has been close to a decade since its release, maybe I should give it one more chance when I decide to undergo an MGS marathon... I'd opt for "The Definitive Experience" version to see if my opinion has changed... but as of now, I sadly didn't like it.

It is a single level...that's it...

Essentially a demo for MGS V, that can be beaten in under an hour. Sure, there are extra missions, but that is just filler content. Should have originally been part of MGS V: The Phantom Pain as part of the opening prologue.

I'm just glad I didn't pay money for this, as I got it for "free" as a PS+ member.

I will split these up into 3 mini-reviews: one for each title. I will dive into these in more detail in my Xbox 360 reviews, as that was where I first played each Mass Effect game.

Mass Effect
While the game is showing its age, especially in the gameplay department, this universe is one of the most detailed and fascinating ever created. There are so many incredible scenes, and from a storytelling, world building, and lore perspective, this IS the best Mass Effect game. It is my personal favorite of the trilogy...

They did an excellent job remastering this one and making it much more playable. The Mako controls were much improved from the original release. It was also my first time playing any of the DLC for these games - the one in ME1 was alright, but nothing special, especially in comparison to the others in ME2 & ME3.

Final Score: 4.5/5

Mass Effect 2
Characters, characters, characters... while the first game had a great cast as well, and has ME2 beat severely in its main plot, the cast of characters in ME2 are beyond fantastic. I love almost each and every one of them (there are always a couple exceptions)!

Playing through ME2's DLC for the first time...gave me mixed feelings. On one hand, it was fun and exciting to experience new Mass Effect stories and missions... but I am also angry at Bioware/EA for not including these in the main release. They are integral to the story and shouldn't have been optional. The Shadow Broker, Arrival, and Overlord missions were incredible and elevated my replay of the game immensely. I loved playing through them for the first time!

Final Score: 4.5/5

Mass Effect 3
I almost didn't play this one... I had such a negative impression of ME3 on release, I almost just stopped at ME2. The wounds of being utterly disappointed and despising this title still ringing in the back of my head from a decade prior...

So I never thought I'd say this...but I'm glad I decided to replay it. With a new perspective and understanding of what this game was going into it, along with the additional DLC components (Citadel DLC is hilarious and a great love letter to all Mass Effect fans), I came away from one of my most hated games of all time, with a new respect and appreciation for it.

This game has so many amazing payoffs to the entire series. And its emotionally impactful moments are powerful ("Someone else might have gotten it wrong"). These are the things I'm glad to have re-experienced as I didn't value or appreciate them during my first playthrough all those years ago.

I will say though... the DLC in this one, just like in ME2, should have been part of the base game... it is utterly reprehensible that the goddamn Prothean team member was Day 1 DLC back then! This was also my first time seeing the "improved" ending, as I beat it back on the Xbox 360 when it had a single ending: just different colors...red, blue, or green. It was horrendous back then... and while it still isn't great in my opinion, it is better at least.

Unfortunately, there are still more than a few major issues I have with ME3 that haven't gone away (Kai Leng, Deus Ex Crucible, Star Child, lack of party members, RPG elements stripped entirely away), but there is a lot of great stuff in this too, that I underappreciated at the time.

Final Score: 4/5

I was heavily invested in this one from the very beginning... this is the true pay-off to all of that sweet, sweet build-up in Cold Steel 1. I loved this game from beginning to end.

Picking up right where the first game left off, this experience was so much different from CS1. It was like taking that first game and unlocking its full potential: cranking it all up to 11! Now I understood this world, all of its characters, and I was fully engrossed in all of it. I loved revisiting each and every location and talking to all the characters/NPCs to see how much things had changed after the events of the first game's ending.

The only unfortunate thing, and this is purely a "ME" problem here, is that after playing and beating this game, I then had to turn back from Cold Steel III to play 5 other games, before I could fully appreciate and continue forward with the story. I'm making my way back, slowly but surely - beating the Sky trilogy... I'll get there eventually; I just wish I had more time to do so. :)

For my full thoughts on CS1, and the overall series, as it was my entry point, see my CS1 review.

Two major things right at the top:

1. This is NOT a Persona style game... get that out of your head immediately and forget anybody who recommended the game because "it is like Persona". It isn't!
2. If this is your first "Trails" game - STOP! Turn your ass around! And go play Trails in the Sky first! If you look at that game and figure it is "too old" or "not for you", then I'd just forget about it; this series probably isn't going to be your cup of tea anyway.

I mention this because I was sold on a false premise of what this game was. And it led me to nearly quitting it multiple times at the beginning due to sheer boredom. I went in completely blind outside of that, and within those first 3 chapters, the only thing that made me persevere through it all was the game's excellent battle system and its great soundtrack.

To say this game has a slow start, is the understatement of the century. For a new player who has no background or introduction to this world, it crawled for me... it just felt like all it was doing was building, building, building... but not going anywhere! This is why I recommend starting with Trails in the Sky - that game has a relatively slow start too, but I feel it did a much better job with pacing and setting the stage for what is to come for newer players, without being so dry and tedious. If you play through those lead-up games, you will already have a good understanding of this game's world, its politics, and history - that you will be in a much better position to appreciate and love the beginning of this title. You just have to realize that this is the 5th game in a long running series! I was unaware of that fact, and thought it was meant to be a good "jumping in" point...

But I digress - this was MY starting point anyway, and I'm just glad this didn't kill my interest in the series... it was on the precipice of being dropped and never picked up again, which in turn, would have meant I would never have played any of the other Trails games in the series... I am so very thankful that didn't happen...

I would have missed out on one of gaming's greatest journeys and truly one of the most unique and longstanding gaming epics of all time. And you can take that statement to the bank, as I am now 6 games into the series and loving every one of them: having played and completed the Sky trilogy, Cold Steel 1 & 2, and now undertaking Trails in Zero, with Azure up next, before going back to Cold Steel 3 & 4.

To speak to Cold Steel 1, itself - I already mentioned that the battle system was fantastic, and it truly is! The combat is fun and engaging with the perfect amount of challenge. It is one of my favorites in a JRPG... and looking back on it after playing the others in the series, I have an even greater appreciation in how this series has evolved its combat system throughout the years, while keeping the same core identity, with only minor tweaks.

The world building in these games is second to none! Every place you visit, feels alive, and much of this can be attributed to the insane amount of detail and work that went into each and every NPC. It is unbelievable how after each story event, all of their dialogue changes... each and every time! And these aren't major, life shattering events or major story beats either... the number of times their dialogue changes is borderline unreasonable for people like me who just have to talk to every NPC to get the full game experience!

I seriously cannot stress it enough - I don't know how much dialogue is in this game, but it must be enormous, as the creators go all out in fleshing out each and every side character... in what I consider to be unheard of in any RPG, it isn't just your main cast that have character arcs, but all the NPCs have their own separate journeys and conclusions as well... but only if you want to follow them as the game progresses, as they are easily missable (or intentionally skippable - this is purely optional content that many players will likely never see).

This is by far the Trails series' greatest element - its amazing attention to detail! It contributes so much to making it feel like a living and breathing world. You can just feel that this place has a rich history: from its diverse locations, the political landscape, and even its many mystical mysteries that are presented... it truly is unprecendented in scope and scale.

Lastly, I just want to briefly touch upon this game's ending (no spoilers). This is a very long game, and as its story begins picking up midway through, once it reaches its climax, all that previous story/character/world building finally pays off in such a dramatic way. Once I was rolling credits, I did something once unthinkable just weeks prior... I changed my plans on what I was to play next, and immediately ordered Cold Steel 2... I was fully bought in and absolutely had to find out what happened next! I could NOT stop playing after that crazy cliffhanger...

I guess this version is pretty much obsolete now that Naughty Dog has decided to just continuously update their games that aren't even a decade old... games that absolutely do not require updates...

Still, if this is the only version you can get your hands on and play, it is still an improvement over the original PS3 release and worth picking up if you've never undertaken this journey with Joel and Ellie before.

For more of my thoughts, see my original PS3 - The Last of Us review.

A game that was stuck in development hell for years. It was a miracle that this was ever actually released... and wow, is it ever noticeable as you play it... The game felt incredibly dated even when it released in 2016, as if it was a new PS2 title being released on the PS4.

Buggy gameplay, poor AI which can be BEYOND FRUSTRATING (I was cussing out the game multiple times - Trico pissed me off so much) repetitive, annoying puzzles, etc. I struggled with this game because of all of its flaws...it just wasn't fun to play, and it took a lot of effort for me to push through it, almost dropping it multiple times. If you would have asked me 2/3 of the way through the game, I'd have given it a 1/5 star rating... I honestly HATED my experience playing it.

So, why the relatively high score, you ask? It is all due to the great experience I had with the last third of the game... that is when the game's incredible heart and beauty shine through brilliantly. The world building, lore, story/ending, relationship between man & beast, and its gorgeous music come together perfectly, and it all culminates in an amazingly emotional final act. It ended on such a good note with me, that I left it happy and was glad I stuck with it to see its conclusion.

Would I ever replay it? Hell no! But it is worth a single playthrough if you enjoyed their previous titles (ICO & Shadow of the Colossus), if you can stomach it.