What an absolutely unique experience this game was. From the button-specific combat, to the unique exploration of the overworld, to the sharply poignant character vignettes, this game felt like something truly special to play. The story also felt unique, as you don't often see Nordic themes expressed so heavily in an RPG. The dungeon design was pretty terrible, and it practically required a guide to find your way around and take full advantage of the gameplay, but I kept feeling excited to jump back into this one every time until I beat it. Very, very good game with some minor quibbles that I would absolutely recommend anyone to at least give a try.

Thirty-first GOTW finished for 2023. It was interesting to play a fighting game that's arguably considered a piece of history for weapon-based 3D fighting games. The bones of games to come can easily be seen here, in a "Toshinden crawled so Soul Blade could run" sort of way. I didn't really have a handle on the special moves, but the dodge mechanic was mostly good, and each character felt pretty unique to play. Opponents being able to super out of lying down with basically no frames was hella annoying, as were some unclear hitboxes and wildly differing damage values between player and CPU. This one also suffers from a crazily overpowered final boss that is at least mercifully very slow. Fighting games aren't really my jam, but it was fun to visit this piece of it's history.

Third GOTM finished for August 2023. Beat with the Unworked Designs patch to avoid the usual "Working Designs increased the difficulty for no reason" problem. The gameplay itself wasn't much to call home about, as it's mostly a slippery and clunky action-platformer with a good amount of unnecessary backtracking and bad level design. Movement in the game suffers from a head-scratching move to have two-thirds of the screen behind you, and the other one-third of the screen in front of you, often leading to running into enemies and potentially being hit from off-screen (though you can turn that around in your favor with some bosses). A later level in the game makes this particularly infuriating. The bosses were interesting, but once you got a certain party member in the group they primarily handled all of them, so they didn't feel all that cleverly designed or executed. In some cases, they were downright laughable. The schlocky 90's anime dialogue, while often given through terrible voice acting, was pretty funny and honestly felt like a strength of the game. One of the regular NPCs had me chortling on multiple occasions. It's not a great game, but it does have some charm in its characters and dialogue and the gameplay is serviceable enough to package that all up as an overall fun experience.

Second GOTM finished for August 2023. This one felt like an improvement in every facet over the first iteration, except for unfortunately the fishing. Where you only had to bring the fish to the surface in the first game, you have to reel them all the way across to the top-right of the screen in this one. Wouldn't be so bad, if the game didn't assign an arbitrary distance each time regardless of where you cast. Catching the big ones later in the game can become a 10-minute ordeal for each fish. Otherwise, the graphics, sound, rod and tackle system, and maps have all been improved. You can even catch bugs, pick flowers, and dive for sea creatures. Very fun, just wish they hadn't changed the underwater fishing gameplay.

First GOTM finished for August 2023. The amount of head nodding and emotion bubbles in this game is awful. I know it was developed by Camelot, and those were Golden Sun staples, but good grief. The dialogue also often felt completely unnecessary, but at least it was over with quickly. The actual tennis gameplay was pretty fun, and the power shots helped spice up otherwise tedious shot-making. I liked that there was both doubles and singles routes, and either one could take you to the end credits, but I actually thought it felt a little short if only playing one. The RPG mechanics in here aren't very deep, but the minigames were mostly fun and it was nice picking up and enhancing skills. Could've fleshed that part out a little more though. Overall, had a pretty good time with this one.

Thirtieth GOTW finished for 2023. Absolutely felt like a Bomberman knockoff. Use of items was not explained nor indicated in the least. While it was easy enough to identify which blocks could be bombed, it didn't really feel like any of the levels were very creative. More often than not, it was just traps and dangers that you didn't know how to tackle due to aforementioned lack of item explanation, or even worse, it was a completely dark room. Some of the bosses were straight-up awful, either due to painfully unforgiving mechanics, phantom hit boxes, or being damage sponges. It had the heart of a Bomberman game, but none of the soul.

Let's start with the obvious, and mention that the music in this game is top notch. I can't remember the last time I was literally bumping in my seat listening to a game's audio tracks. This game practically oozes style, and the art style they chose helped the game age surprisingly well. If the gameplay were as great as the audio and visuals, this would be an absolute must-play (and honestly, probably still should be). The momentum of the game can actually be detrimental to your movement and placement in some areas, and the camera controls were often frustrating. Certainly not the best feeling in a game about exploration and finding specific spots. While Jet Grind Radio certainly feels propped up by it's awesome music and visuals, the package as a whole was still enjoyable, and one I would absolutely recommend!

Third GOTM finished for July 2023. Absolutely stunning remake of a classic collectathon. Graphics and environments were gorgeous as expected, music was fun and upbeat, and the overall gameplay was enjoyable minus a few irritating jump sections. Boss design was by far the weakest aspect of the game, culminating in a final boss sequence that took arguably one of the worst parts of the gameplay and extended it with no check points. A bit of a sour end to an otherwise sweet game.

Some minor bugs on PC (solved by reducing FPS from unlimited to 120) that didn't detract from the overall gameplay once solved. Completely avoided the flying levels (as they were not very fun) because they were thankfully optional.

Sure, the characters and story are both pretty uninteresting, and the battles can take forever with all the unnecessary title cards and entrances. However, it was just fun to play. Learning abilities through weapons actually made it interesting and worthwhile to take an otherwise uninteresting mission for the rewards, location placement gave the sense that you were building the world around you, the class system and equipment trees were fun, and the overall tactical gameplay was enjoyable. It's not a short game, and it could certainly do with some QOL changes, but I had a blast with this one!