Many games try to capture that cool and cute charm of Pokémon, but this has got to be the one that's gotten the closest to that sun. Most battles are two-on-two with yourself and a swappable companion turning into the various beasts they record on their cassette tapes that inhabit the strange island. The game manages to balance the cute and vibrant setting with moments of unnerving oddities. It can be a bit confusing to get your head around the elemental balance of combat, but it's easy enough to overcome with a chart found online. The story isn't anything fancy, but it has enough charm to make the time spent playing an enjoyable one, especially if you are a fan of monster-catching games.

This has got to be one of the best Star Wars games I've ever played. It improves on the first game in almost every way. There are fewer planets overall, but the ones that are there are packed with a lot more to explore and do. The extra stances mean you can tailor Cal Kestis to fit your preferred playstyle. The combat and story are both fantastic, along with all the traversal skills you are constantly unlocking throughout the campaign. With so many options available, I could spend hours changing the appearance of my lightsaber. The only thing I would have liked, which kept it from a 10, is the ability to save anywhere rather than at specific save points.

It feels like this was made by fans of JRPGs for fans of JRPGs. The sprite work is fantastic, along with the combat, characters and story. With your party's HP and TP fully restored after every battle, you can constantly fight at your best. The only thing that annoyed me was every time you are separated and reunited with your party, which happens often, it forgets your party formation. This wouldn't be an issue, but there are a total of 12 playable characters to spread over eight slots, so these resets can be quite cumbersome. After a while, you'll get access to mechs you can use to battle with. These are fun to use, and especially great for reaching earlier inaccessible areas. However, when you are required to use them in a boss fight, it can be more of a struggle because you can't use your well-constructed party members.

Pulling the combat of Chrono Trigger and the plot of Final Fantasy X, this game should be fantastic. However, it only pulls from these games in a very half-hearted manner. The combination techniques do make an appearance but they are based on which moves you have slotted into your characters. So depending on the way you've built your team, you might not have any, going against the premise of mimicking Chrono Trigger's combat. The story has so many shades of Final Fantasy X that it could be considered its Heartless, as there are a lot of similarities but due to the short runtime, the bonds feel underdeveloped and lack any soul. Its biggest sin though is that it doesn't properly explain what its fundamental mechanics are or how to use them, requiring research online. On the artistic side. characters have no feet, just stubs on the bottom of their legs. While it shouldn't bother me, I found myself negatively fixated on them, especially during cutscenes.

I have to say, I wasn't sure what to expect from a Rhythm-based action game from a studio that typically makes survival horror games. Overall, I was pleasantly surprised, it was light-hearted, funny and very stylish. Even though the combat suggests that you have to time everything to the beat, it's very forgiving with this and even those with no rhythm can still have a good time. It was quite soothing to see everything in the game, from the environment, enemies and cutscenes match to the beat. It does require a fair amount of platforming, but these aren't too difficult. Even if you do fail, it takes you back where left off. with no loading screen, so you don't waste any time getting back into it. The main reason it doesn't score higher is that the numerous QTE sequences can be punishing, with no way to get around them until you get them right all the way through.

So much better than the previous two games in the trilogy. The combat felt a lot more satisfying and visceral, while the platforming was a lot more forgiving. My biggest gripe though was someone deciding to have the QTE prompts show on the far edge of the screen for each corresponding face button on the PlayStation controller. While I'm sure that's not a problem for smaller screens, on a big screen it makes it difficult to sometimes see which one is being prompted. Especially when trying to keep your eyes on the action and brutality unfolding on screen.

Of the three Persona games I've played (3, 4 and 5) this has my favourite cast and story. The gameplay doesn't reach the heights and presentation of its successor but I will look back on this fondly. There are moments, however, where the game does spout some questionable dialogue that didn't age well but I don't personally hold that against it. It has been added to the very small list of games that nearly made me cry, which could be counted on one hand. If you got into the series with Persona 5 as I did, I would heavily recommend playing Persona 4 Golden too.

Feels like a Yakuza all-stars game, but Samurais. While there's certainly nothing wrong with that, it was a little tricky to remember who some of the cameos were because they were a secondary villain in one Yakuza game. It does take a while for the game to get going, but that's normal at this point. Once it gets into the real meat of the game, it's fantastic, with compelling characters and story. Sometimes you want to ignore the great side stories and bonds just to find out what happens next. The combat is fun and fluid, with you using a Katana and Gun, switching style to best suit the situation.

I didn't think it would be possible for Atlus to make me fall in love with another cast of characters as it did with Persona 5, especially for an earlier game, but here we are, they achieved it. At first, the game felt aimless as you were just going through the motions without a central plot tying it together. However, it didn't last long for the threat to be established. The game largely revolves around ascending the mysterious tower known as Tartarus, with segments blocked off until you've progressed in the main story. Tartarus itself is very mundane, as it's the same process of walking through procedurally generated hallways, fighting enemies and collecting loot for over 200 floors. As with the other games, the characters and your interactions with them are where it excels. Spending time with the various NPCs and understanding what drives them never gets old. These games are always very long but at the same time, you never want them to end as it means giving a bittersweet farewell to those you've come to know and love.

On paper I should love this, a turn-based RPG with the One Piece crew in the style of Dragon Quest. However, something didn't quite feel right during my playthrough and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what was making it fall short of the mark. My conclusion was everything just takes a little too long; the combat animations, changing characters in the overworld and even getting from place to place. Everything takes just one or two clicks more than it needed to, which doesn't sound like a lot but does add up over time. The game also relies heavily on the crew revisiting the memories of their past adventures. The original story that is there is rather mundane and very predictable. Despite that though, I'm glad it exists because it's always fun to hang out with the Straw Hat Pirates and they've never looked so good.

I played this as part of the LEGO Harry Potter Collection. The game takes a different approach to characters where instead of using different ones to solve puzzles, you learn new spells throughout the years from your classes. Some characters have specific powers but they'll usually be short-lived as you go back to your main Wizard of choice. However, this does have the drawback of the roster being filled with many pointless characters, like Boy, Girl and the unforgettable Bassist. The game was enjoyable overall but game-breaking bugs and glitches meant I was forever stuck on 98.3%, which for this kind of game is devastating. You'd like to think there would have been some effort to fix these bugs when they were repackaged and resold.

While it was great to see the origins of Kratos, this was a product of its time that aged poorly. I found I died more to the fixed cameras and the god-awful and punishing platforming. There is a part of me that wonders whether it would have been better to watch the cutscenes instead, but things like this are better experienced to completely appreciate just how far the series has come and why the recent games are so revered. This was my first time using the PlayStation streaming service, and I've tried to not hold it against the game itself.

Aside from the massive graphical improvement, it's the same as the original PSP game that came out in 2007. That's not a bad thing though, revisiting the events leading into Final Fantasy VII is always a blast. While there have been minor improvements to combat, it feels largely the same as before. It's not quite at the same level as FFVII Remake, but still good in its own right. The random slots of the DMW giving random buffs, limit breaks and summons are a nice boost, even though they aren't largely required to get through the main content. The hype for FFVII Rebirth is higher than ever now the events of Crisis Core have been refreshed in my mind.