An incredible sequel to the original Silent Hill on all counts. The gameplay, narrative, and presentation in Silent Hill 3 was 100% for the fans of the original game, rather than the paradigm shift we saw in Silent Hill 2, which went for a more dreary, depressing atmosphere along with more relaxed gameplay when compared to the original game. Silent Hill 2 was still scary, but Silent Hill 3 REALLY goes for your senses with its grotesque imagery and panic-inducing scenarios that'll really trigger your "fight-or-flight" response.

Like Harry proving he can fight vicious threats better than your typical S.T.A.R.S agent, Heather evolves the survivor's way of fighting even further with more options, such as strafing and blocking. The monster designs are also a sight to behold, and the puzzles are even more brain-teasing than ever! Without explaining the entire puzzle, the number pad in the hospital (on hard mode) is one I'll never forget, it was simply genius!

The story itself is also heart-rending, especially for those that experienced and understood the events of the original game. It feels like a definitive end to the series, and the performances by all of the actors are some of the best of this generation!

I guess I'll end this review saying it's funny how the "Haunted Mansion" scenario that parodied typical jumpscare bullshit in the game is what it would end up becoming shortly after this series was hocked off to the likes of Climax and Double-Helix.

It's great, it's bad, it's enthralling, it's confusing, it's a goddamn Suda51 game. Granted, one that falls short in some aspects. No More Heroes III is a culmination of Suda51 emphasizing harder than ever what he was trying to say with the original No More Heroes. The idea that an endless life of slashing, killing, and achieving is nothing short of hell-on-earth. Which in turn, works in both the depiction of Travis' own character that's accumulated these past 15 years, and an ongoing video game franchise. This "hell-on-earth" is already a reality for once-beloved franchises.

You're asking why is a theme of absolute monotony being exhausted in a game directed by Suda51? I guess you didn't play a lot the games he actually directed. I guess you didn't walk for virtual miles just to be told to run back to where you came in Flower, Sun, and Rain. I guess you weren't demanded to climb through 10 huge towers and check each individual room for small clues in The Silver Case (not even including the similar tasks before that near-end chapter). I guess you weren't told to check-in on every single apartment door in a huge complex in Moonlight Syndrome.

I refrain from using the phrase "shitty on purpose" because I feel like that degrades the point a creator is trying to get across when their top priority of a game isn't pure enjoyment from beginning to end. Not that this game can't provide that for some folks (the score it has is honestly surprising here). I'm just interpreting some of the game's rather confusing design choices. I don't think it's just sheer incompetency, considering this company's output.

I loved deciphering the narrative, and was happy to see the final cleanse of the NMH sickness Suda has been dealing with, finally declaring his end of this relationship. I think a lot of it is very congruent if you take the time to dissect and analyze the scenes. Granted, there are aspects of the writing that feel short-sighted. As for the gameplay, it was pretty damn enthralling, and easily the most intricate the series has provided in regards to third-person hack-n-slash combat. It can be argued that it was designed more-so for the boss confrontations, which is also the best the series has ever been. The open world is charming in some ways, but also considerably rough.

I also appreciate Grasshopper refusing to conform to modern standards and accept its blotchy-ass textures in order to focus on the artistry. I won't deny how rickety some things look, but the game shines and glows at the points where it needs to, in my opinion. Music was aces too, but I am certainly sick and tired of listening to Beast Test.

All-in-all, there's things I love about this game, and things I question. But the heart I look for in a Grasshopper game is certainly still there and beating. And in the end, I also find it amusing that Travis Strikes Again ended up being the better and more worthwhile game.

It's 1999, and the developers behind Silent Hill were demanded to make a sequel. The parties involved apparently only had two options.
1. Leave the company.
2. Make it depressing as shit instead of scary.

Toyama--the original game's director--took the first option, while everyone else stuck around, excited to make a new experience on the next-gen hardware. While Silent Hill 2 still has scares, the inner-turmoil inside the mind of James Sunderland and the people he interacts with are what truly makes this a memorable experience. A harrowing tale of a desperate man allured by the calling of his late wife, and anyone with half a brain won't even question why this lonely man continues to fight otherworldly creatures for a chance to see his wife. "I guess I really don't care if it's dangerous or not. I'm going into town either way."

It's funny seeing old reviews of this game on magazines back in the day, as they disparaged the story for being "confusing, vague, and never explaining itself." because the story itself is why people love this game so much, and why it's revered as a classic today!

The gameplay isn't groundbreaking in any way, but it's serviceable, and easy-going for a survival horror. Everything else is what makes this game an incredible experience, including the demented sound design, emphasis on exploring the town's amazing atmosphere, solving brain-teasing puzzles, well thought-out scares, and (mostly) great voice-acting!

I can't wait for a dogshit remake to come out in my 40s.

EDIT: Looks like the dogshit remake is coming out much sooner than that. Whoopee.

Man, it's been years since i've last played a single-player Star Wars game. In fact, the last one i played was another action game called The Force Unleashed 2, back when it came out (maybe one day i'll revisit that series and see how my opinion has held up). So when i finally got a PS4 after all this time, i knew that Fallen Order was a game i was going to play at some point and thankfully, it delivered.

As far as the narrative itself goes, it's a pretty standard Star Wars story. Most of the game is a McGuffin hunt that has you flying back and forth between planets and the planets visited are pretty neat. You have classics like Kashyyk and Dathomir and then you have new planets like Bogano and Zeffo, which introduce the long-gone Zeffo civilization to the franchise. That's one of Star Wars' strengths, that you could tell quite literally any kind of story here because of it's sandbox nature. And since i could take my time exploring these planets, this meant i was allowed to take in some impressive sights.

The characters are nothing i'd right home about. Cal Kestis is a fairly standard protagonist. The writing for him works well and i was invested but there are other Star Wars characters i'd say i liked more. Same goes for the rest of the Mantis crew, they were fine and serviced the story but again, nothing i'd write home about. Likable but standard.

The gameplay is the real treat of this game because obviously. The dungeons made good use of your abilities and there were some neat setpieces. Combat is satisfying and builds up as you go. That being said, there is one aspect of the combat that fundamentally clashed with how i like to play games. See, i'm bad at parrying. Not deflecting, deflecting is fine, it was very satisfying to deflect blaster fire. No, parrying is what i've always been bad at and as a result, i've always been more of a "dodge -> counterattack" sort of guy. And while that is something you can do in this game, it's not really as effective as parrying, which is what the game encourages way more. As a result, i always took more damage from melee enemies and bosses than i should've. I got by on the standard difficulty though i did have to switch to Story Mode towards the end because my ability to brute force and dodge my way through was no longer carrying me. It's not the game's fault, it's a well-designed game. Just don't ever ask me to parry stuff lmao.

The main problems of this game come from some weird performance issues. Even on my PS4 Pro, there'd be occasional pop-in, lag, one time i even glitched through the floor and died instantly. Switching to performance mode seemed to alleviate some issues but it was overall presence that kept occurring here and there, not enough to completely hinder the game but enough to where it's very noticeable. I must also mention that while the climax of the game is good, the ending itself is....a tad bit underwhelming.

Jedi: Fallen Order is a game i would recommend to anyone who likes action games, Star Wars or both. It's a good game and the length it has is perfect for this sort of game, as nothing ever feels like it drags for too long.

Xenoblade Chronicles X is not only my favorite Xenoblade game, but my favorite entry in the entire “Xeno franchise”.

One of my favorite elements of the game is its playful, experimental and serene soundtrack composed by Hiroyuki Sawano, also known for the soundtrack of Attack on Titan. It’s a bliss listening to it while exploring X’s massive open world afoot or in a mech, doing engaging side quests, defeating tyrants and following the thrilling story of the game and its lovely characters.

Unfortunately, the story progression is locked behind side quests which is the only reason this game does not get the full score. Since Xenoblade Chronicles X is more gameplay-driven than story-driven, this isn’t too big of a negative.

Oh man, Devil May Cry 5 is a banger game and it lets you know this right from the start. The opening cutscene features Nero cutting down demons in style while "Devil Trigger" plays in the background and it did such a good job of showing me what i'm in for. This is my first DMC game and the game did a damn good first impression for the series. It helps that this game fully embraces all the dumb shit that happens and treats it in such a cool manner. Every character had great chemistry with each other and it was enhanced by the amazing performances of the voice actors. As far as the presentation goes, it's pretty perfect.

On the side of gameplay, i love how similar yet how different both Nero and Dante feel. It's hard for me to say exactly which one i liked playing as more, both have their own little quirks that make them standout. Like i guess if you held a gun to my head and asked me to chose, i'd say Nero because he has the grapple and everybody knows that putting a grapple in your action game automatically makes it good. On the flip side, Dante has more weapons to play around with and combined with his different Styles, you can do some pretty sweet combos. That said, i mainly used Trickster because of the funny dash. Yeah, i can't decide, both characters are fun to play as.

Meanwhile, V is probably the weakest part of the entire game. Both on the gameplay side and on the character side. Gameplay-wise, i generally don't like playing "summon" characters which is very much what V is. Any mission where i was forced to play as V, i kinda just wanted to get it over with. His character didn't really do much for me either. Thankfully, you do play as him the least. I'll also say that i think the game could've been a bit, just a bit, longer. Missions 17-20 just go by pretty fast and while i wouldn't say the game ended abruptly (especially since the final battle is very hype), it does feel like there should've been a bit more. But you know, i can't really complain to much here. Devil May Cry 5 is very based and i definitely want to play the older games in the future.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions was one the two Wii U games i wanted a Switch port of, the other obviously being Xenoblade Chronicles X. I didn't expect TMS to be the one getting the port before X but that was a welcome surprise. It definetly felt like an underrated gem that nobody gave credit to because "lol idols" and i'll admit, i'm not really a fan of idols. I purchased TMS Encore a few days after released and spent the next three months playing it.

I know it's not the Fire Emblem x SMT crossover that everyone expected but let me start off by saying that the character designs in this game are pretty dope. The "SMT'ified" versions of Fire Emblem characters are pretty cool (especially some of the promotions) but what i really liked the most was the Carnage Forms of each character. They manage to maintain that Fire Emblem look while at the same time managing to have a unique feel not found in any other Fire Emblem game. The characters themselves are good enough (not you Barry). I wouldn't call them amazing but they serve their purpose and i liked the cast overall. The side stories definitely help flesh out the characters more since the story kinda isn't good at doing that. In fact, i'd say that just like Xenoblade X, this is a game where the side stories are better than the main story. On the subject of the characters, Kiria is best girl, Touma is best boy. As for the actual Fire Emblem characters themselves, the Mirages that are allied with the party stay in character to their original counterparts but i have to give extra props to Tharja for actually not being a bad character. Crazy how Tharja is a better character in TMS than in Awakening.

The gameplay was actually pretty good. It's simple yet rewarding and those Session attacks can get addicting. I will say that it does feel like TMS gets easier as you progress. Once you start unlocking the Open Session passives for everyone, you'll have an overall easier time dealing with enemies than in the early game, where you could only do two Session attacks. I also appreicate the very generous amounts of EP the characters have, since you're almost never going to use the normal attack. Ad-lib and Duo attacks were pretty cool to see and this does tie back into the idol influence that i mentioned earlier. While i don't like the idol genre, the reason this game worked for me is because it actually did something unique with the idol genre, not to mention there were other elements of the entertainment industry. Most things in the idol genre are just reskins of Love Live. Also, i really like the theming of everything in this game. The party members were refered to as "cast members", locations were "scenes" and the characters were "artists". I also think it's pretty cool that the "magic circle" thing that shows up whenever a character uses magic is actually just their signature. It's pretty cool.

My main issues with the game is that there are times when the combat does feel a tad bit too repetitive. Dark and Light skills are also pretty useless since they can't Session into anything and Almighty is almost as useless except it has one use in breaking through Tetra/Makara skills. Some dungeons have puzzle elements but they weren't doing that well. The puzzles themselves weren't hard but a lot of the times, it was just impossible to see what it is you're actually trying to solve, so it results in undeeded trial and error. Also, the inability to swap out Itsuki from the party (i know you can in NG+) is a problem since it kinda limits you at times. In battle, characters can swap out at any time during their turn for no penalty (and it can be done as many times as needed) except Itsuki. He must always be there, even when it isn't beneficial at all.

The music is.....pretty forgettable actually, which is strange to say in a Modern FE world and in a game about music, because every Fire Emblem game since Awakening has had solid OSTs (before Awakening, most Fire Emblem games had like five memorable songs at most). The vocal songs themselves are pretty good but other than that, the soundtrack is just there. Good in the moment but nothing to really write home about.

Overall, the game isn't amazing but it's a solid addition to the Switch's library. It gets the Armagon seal of approval. I do recommend this game.

Unfortunately, for a long time, i did not have a Wii U. I've played some Wii U games and even beaten them thanks to my good friends but one game i've wanted to play most on the system was Xenoblade Chronicles X. None of my friends had it and i eventually resigned myself to accepting i'll probably not get to play it. Then comes the Switch, which starts getting port after port of Wii U games that sold well and didn't sell well. Mario Kart 8, Tropical Freeze, Tokyo Mirage Sessions, etc. But despite all these ports, Xenoblade Chronicles X was nowhere in sight and with Tetsuya Takahashi admitting it'd be kinda hard to port, as much as i wanted it, it did feel like it wasn't gonna happen. So i bought a Wii U in 2020.

Xenoblade Chronicles X wasn't the only reason i bought a Wii U. Nintendo's strange decision to not put Super Mario Galaxy 2, the best 3D platformer of all time, in Super Mario 3D All-Stars was pretty baffling so me buying a Wii U served as both a way to play Xenoblade X and Mario Galaxy 2. But the primary reason was to play Xenoblade X. And after 88 hours of gameplay and one month of real time (the Wii U arrived on October 2nd), i am now ready to release my full thoughts on the game.

I'm gonna start with arguably the biggest selling point of this game: Planet Mira. The Xenoblade games all have very open areas but Xenoblade X is the only game in the series that's truly open world. Though a few parts aren't explorable until later, the rest of Planet Mira is always within reach from the moment the game sets you free from the tutorial. This game has the second least number of regions out of the Xenoblade games, at only five, six if you count NLA. Torna ~ The Golden Country only has two but that is excusable and if you don't consider Torna to be it's own game, then yeah, Xenoblade X has the least amount of explorable regions. And yet, that was never an issue because Monolith Soft is king of world design. Each region is distinct, teeming with wildlife and you have everything to gain and nothing to lose by exploring. No fall damage means you're able to explore to your hearts content and virtually no loading screens outside of fast travel means travelling the world is seamless. But you are quite literally an invasive species on this planet which means everything is out to get you. Before playing the game, i would always say that Xenoblade X is the most hostile game in the series and now that i've actually played it, i can say that for certain. Which is what made the exploration all the more satisfying. Planning out your jumps to climb steep paths and such to avoid dangerous enemies is so good and adds an extra layer of exploration. The enemies in this game really don't follow level rules and while that is common in Xenoblade games, in the other games, all the high-level enemies usually stay off the beaten path, with the exception of the occasional Unique Monster. In Xenoblade X, there can be Lv.60 enemies roaming outside of the gates of NLA at night. The game does everything right to drive home the point that you don't belong on this planet and i love it. This world is so good that after i got my Skell and later the Flight Module, i would choose to get to my destinations the long way by zooming around in vehicle mode for flying there instead of fast travelling.

But it's not just the main regions that make the world of Xenoblade X so great. The hub area of New Los Angeles is quite possibly my favorite hub area in any game. Seeing it slowly grow from being just a city of humans to a city of all sorts of races was very nice to see. As more races come into NLA, more quests open up, exploring more parts about each race and how they interact with the other races. And even when you aren't doing quests, simply walking around NLA can show just how lived-in it feels. I'm legitimately reminded of Star Wars with how all these vastly different races can gather together in one place and feel normal. Even the Ma-non ship that's hovering over the city fits in so well. What sets it apart from Star Wars is the context of humanity. In Star Wars, humans are just another race. The main characters in the movies and shows tend to be humans mostly but in an alternate timeline, Luke Skywalker could be an alien and it wouldn't have changed anything. In Xenoblade X, the humans are from not that far in the future. The game takes place in 2054, which means that most of the characters could be the kids and grandkids of millennials and zoomers. Hell, a few of the characters are millenials and zoomers.

All of this is thanks to Xenoblade X being a God at sidequest writing. Early on, it may not seem to impressive but as you play through the game, pretty much every sidequest is part of a chain. A good chunk of these sidequests also have different outcomes depending on what you did during them and some sidequests can even affect whether a later one or not would trigger. There's one sidequest where i'm tasked to kill a group of indigens hiding in a cave and when i get there, i find out they are just kids and i'm given the option to take them out or to spare them. I chose the latter. Later on, i get another quest from the same client who gave me that first quest with the piglets and it's revealed that the piglets have grown into wild boars that are attacking everyone in sight and now you have to go take down those same boars and the client mentions how kindness can get you killed before he dies of his wounds. There's another sidequest that's basically just Alien meets The Waters of Mars where the people running the water purification plant outside the city walls are attacked by a parasitic creature that takes control of it's host when the host comes into contact with water. The sole survivor of that quest will either live or die depending on if you let her take a shower before finding out the secret of the parasite. And that's the thing with some of these quests. For some of them, you don't know if the people you're trying to help will make it out alive.

Of course, not every sidequest results in someone dying. In a general sense, a lot of them are exploring the daily lives of the various residents of NLA and not once does a sidequest feel the same as one you did before. Some of the sidequests can be pretty funny. There's one where a Zaruboggan, aliens that can absorb pollution, willingly gives his supply of toxic material to a criminal who intended to poison the water supply. The criminal releases the toxic material into the water only for that same Zaruboggan to comes along, goes "ooh, free pollution", absorbs it all and leaves the criminal completely dumbfounded.

And since we're still on the subject of sidequests, i'm gonna talk about Affinity Missions. Affinity Missions are the main source of character development and interactions for anyone not named Elma or Lin. Each character has a set of three, sometimes two characters can share an Affinity Mission. Some non-playables also have an Affinity Mission. I always love it when characters get their own little stories devoted to them and while i won't say that every Affinity Mission sticks the landing, they are all worth it in the end. Heart-to-Hearts are also still around but they don't matter and it's great that Affinity builds up a lot faster.

All of this is helped by Xenoblade X having a very decent quest tracking system. XenoblaDE still probably has the best one in principle but lol, imagine doing XenoblaDE sidequests. Anyways, Xenoblade X tells you what locations you need to go to and if you ever get lost, you can always turn on the Follow Ball, an orb of light that guides you to your destination. When it comes to collecting items, the game can tell you what enemy to kill or what region it's in but you're on your own there.

But what about the rest of the game. How's the combat. Well, the combat is basically perfect. It is the combat system of Xenoblade 1 taken to the next level and made far more engaging. This is the game where Monolith Soft began to weave healing into the combat itself without interrupting the flow of combat. Soul Voices are pretty fun to trigger, probably because they add a bit of a rhythmic feel to the combat. It's also the main way to heal as actual healing Arts are very rare though i will say that healing via Soul Voice isn't as reliable as i'd hoped, at least not on-foot. I would like for the sequel to at least give one healing AoE for every character. Or maybe that's too much haha. At least buff the amount of HP restored from Soul Voices. At any rate, there's never any downtime during the combat. Skell combat is really fun too although i do wish Overdrive wasn't as RNG reliant. There should be guaranteed conditions that you can meet like the Alrest games' Chain Attacks. And speaking of Alrest, i will say that in the end, i do prefer the combat of Xenoblade 2 and Torna, due to hit-based auto-attacks, auto-attack cancelling and Art cancelling but it's basically preference at this point. I absolutely see why many fans do consider X to have the best combat in the series.

The soundtrack bangs. It's very different from the rest of the series and i can sorta get why some people got turned off but trust me, if you play the game, you'll like it. I used to hate the NLA theme but after playing the game, the NLA theme has rightfully earned it's spot in my mind......NLA Night still sucks tho. Honestly, there's a very few amount of songs i don't like but Xenoblade X's soundtrack is still a certified banger by all accounts. Thank you Sawano.

All that said, there are a few things in Xenoblade X i'm not a fan. For starters, sometimes the game can be unintuitive. Whether it be the requirements for Heart-to-Hearts, some secret objective in a quest that can help you save a life, the fact that probes are not single use, or the fact that Augments don't show up in the terminal at all unless you got the first required item on the list, which you won't know what it is unless you look it up because there's no way of seeing in-game before you find it. None of this plagues the game, it's just inconvenient.

I'm also not a fan of how gear and EXP is handled. Thankfully, there's no level penalties like in Xenoblade 1 but your level does determine what gear you're able to equip. This is made more of a problem by the fact that inactive party members do not gain EXP so characters you don't use will fall behind and, at least for a good while, it can be a pain to catch them up. There are easy EXP strats but that doesn't come until later. Level-restricted gear would've been fine if inactive party members gained EXP.

Skell Insurance is stinky. Some things just don't belong in a video game and insurance is one of them. I hope the sequel treats Skells like the pre-Blade Xeno games treated their mechs: if a Skell's HP drops to zero, you just can't use it for the rest of the battle.

And let's get to the elephant in the room: the main story. It's.....there, i guess. The end of Ch.7, all of Ch.8, Ch.10, 11 and 12 all range from decent to good but honestly, the story is basically one glorified prologue. The character relevancy is weird in this game because if your name isn't Elma or Lin, you basically don't exist in the plot but with the way everything is structured, it's not as big of a deal. It's still not as bad as the character relevancy problems in Xenogears and Xenoblade 1. I'm not mentioning Cross here because Cross is an avatar and unlike in some games (cough Modern Fire Emblem cough), Cross is literally just a person. There's nothing special about them and whenever they get praised, it's because they've earned it.

Anyways, easily the worst part of the plot is the villains. There's five main ones, only one of them is actually decent, three of them are killed off so unceremoniously and the big bad honestly has like no presence. They aren't the worst Xeno villains but they are definitely down there.

At the end of the day though, the story is not that important. This is a JRPG that purposefully puts the main story in the backseat because the side content is the real main content. If you play this game and you only do the minimal side content needed to advance the mains story, you will be left disappointed.

Ultimately, despite the problems it has, i find them to be overall not that much of an issue in the long run. The good of this game extremely outweighs the bad and the amount of fun this game brought to me makes me confident in saying it's a masterpiece. It's not my favorite game of all time, that title still belongs to Xenoblade Chronicles 2, but i'm glad to say that my favorite video game series of all time put out two masterpieces in a row.