I really wish I'd written my thoughts down about this game closer to when I actually played it, but I suppose 2 and a bit years later on the verge of the DLC will have to be good enough.

Elden Ring is a marvel of a game, and probably one of the better Open World games I've played. But... I still think that's it's one major flaw. I don't think the Souls formula had to be an open world game. In fact I'd prefer if it went back to not being an open world game. The spaghetti-like structure of from software soulsborne games is ultimately my preferred world/level design and so Elden Ring ends up feeling like a step back as a result. There is a lot to like about it when it's used effectively though. For example I think having the Academy of Raya Lucaria surrounded on all sides by the lake and approaching it in that way was super cool! But ultimately I still prefer and like that Raya Lucaria itself is the more traditional level design. I think maybe I'd like the open world more if it wasn't just filled with a bunch of repetitive dungeons and caves. It's like making the chalice dungeons required if you want to get fully geared. I just don't really care for that kind of thing. It's made replaying the game feel more like a chore than something I want to do.

With that out of the way, I still LOVE a lot about this game. I think it's story and lore is really engaging and I had a lot of fun dissecting it with my friends when the game came out. I also think the legacy dungeons and major bosses were a lot of fun! The repertoire of spells and weapons feels better than ever. There are so many different ways to play this game with varying degrees of how easy you want the experience to be. I won't lie, I was a magic, moonveil, mimic tear user. I don't feel shame in that, I had a good time with the game. Going into NG+ I've mixed it up and even though I didn't play much because I was already so burnt out on the game by the end, I will carry my new experimental build into the DLC.

More than anything I think I just wish that I loved this game a bit more than I do. Thinking back on it just makes me feel... Tired? 2 years later I'm still not sure I'm actually ready to revisit it. It's a game that also feels so perfectly encapsulated in the moment it came out. It was kind of surprising to look back at and see that I functionally 100%'d the game in 2 weeks! That doesn't include the other endings of course, just all the dungeons, caves, spells, relic weapons, etc. I think this was probably a mistake, but those 2 weeks were certainly enrapturing.

I think more than anything I'd love to revisit Elden Ring as if it were fresh, but as life continues to happen I'm finding it harder and harder to justify the time. How I managed to put almost 90 hours into a game in 2 weeks is honestly some kind of miracle, I couldn't imagine getting 40 in 2 weeks now.

Well, here's to hoping the DLC improves on the issues I have. Usually I find that From Soft DLC has them firing on all cylinders, so I'm optimistic.

I love puzzle games, they're probably one of my favorite genres just in terms of the raw enjoyment I get out of playing them. So I won't be the first to say that Animal Well is pretty good! The art style, music, vfx, and visual design in general are honestly a masterclass and make the game exceptionally fun to look at and explore around in. The critical path for this game is also exceptionally good and fun and I did also go on to get the "true" ending.

All that being said... I can't say this game is perfect. It could be a case of too high of expectations, but when everyone lauded this game for it's "deep layers" and stuff... I was expecting something like Void Stranger, Tunic, or even The Witness, where your fundamental relationship with the game changes as you grow to understand things that were always true, you just didn't know them yet. Where Animal Well fails for me then, is that that moment never came. I kept expecting some shocking revelation, and yet no such revelation truly existed. Perhaps this is just a case of mismatched expectations.

Animal Well is a metroidvania more than metroidbrainia. Where the early game puzzles make clever use of the items you are given, the late game puzzles fall into one of two categories. Either you don't have the item yet or the only way you'll figure it out is if you're some kind of mad wizard or have a veritable army of puzzle solvers all working on the solution. I think the former puzzles aren't very good or interesting because it's mostly about hoping you remembered where items were useful, or retreading the map AGAIN to find them. I would say I was pretty lucky as all in all I managed to take pretty good notes about where things that looked out of place were, but if I didn't... Well. I just don't think it makes for very compelling design.

Now the latter of those two puzzle types I think are pretty interesting! some of the truly esoteric puzzles sound really cool and unconventional! I won't knock them for what they are, but I think if every puzzle game had puzzles like that I'd give up on the whole genre. The reason being is that there is hardly anything in the game itself to imply their solution at all. Tunic as a counter example has a handful of complex optional puzzles at the end, however the in game guidebook provides plenty of hints to imply their solving. A single person can go in and using only the resources provided by the game solve all of the puzzles within. I don't think I could say the same for Animal Well.

All that being said, the game is and will remain a standout hit from this year and I absolutely think it's worth playing. I would recommend it to any puzzle fan.

Lunacid is really really good if you're into the kind of game that's more an exercise in ambience and exploration than it is a game about action combat or difficulty. Which is to say, I think this game is maybe too easy, some of the spells especially are broken strong. That being said, I don't think that really detracts from what Lunacid does very well. This game is shockingly restrained. Through much of the early game I kept expecting to encounter a big boss or extremely scary threatening enemy, but it never really came, and honestly I very much think that's for the best. Running around with your arsenal of weapons and spells is a pretty good time and the world feels extremely good. I do think that some of the vibes fall off in the later game, especially as you get strong, but the way the maps weave in themselves and connect to each creates this perfect maze that feels both easy to get lost in and easy to visualize. There are also of course an absolute plethora of secrets. This game is very much designed for people who love searching for secrets and puzzles. There are times where I think the game could be a liiiiittle more giving with it's hints, but it's down to taste really.

Definitely a strong recommend from me.

Happy to report that 25 years later this game is still good! I've never been the biggest fan of random encounters, and this game was not able to turn me around on that, but mechanically the game still feels pretty good to play. Obviously theres some cruft like the UI in and out of combat can be janky. I could list all of the specific jank, but I won't. None of it was bad enough to ruin my time with this game. It's obvious in a lot of ways where this game could be improved, but what it is still shines very brightly.

People weren't kidding about how little time you spend in Midgar though, it's really only like 4 hours. FF7 develops this complex city and then just goes "okay we're done." It feels almost like a complete waste, and yet it lends this almost ethereal quality to the rest of the game. It's difficult to describe, but it's very enthralling. I played Remake in 2020 before I played this in prepartion for Rebirth and it makes me feel like I've learned some secret from a longtime friend that makes me wonder if I ever actually knew them at all. At this point the Aerith stuff is no secret, but I was suprised by just how much stuff I didn't know about.

Long story short I'm really really glad I took the time to play this and I think it's worth checking out still in 2024.

The climbing in this game is great, lets get that out of the way real quick. Okay now that that's done how about that fucking soundscape huh? The audio team really went off in this one. Easily the most stand out part of the game for me. At any given point you can close your eyes and be taken away noticing usually at least 4 different layered, but unobtrusive, sounds. It was obvious that this was something the team cared a lot about.

Beyond that the game is quite enjoyable. Breezy runtime that doesn't overstay it's welcome. The last chapter did some pretty interesting things with the core mechanics that I really liked and wish the game had done more of, but it is what it is. Each chapter brings something unique to the table and they boast a lot of variety. The 4th chapter was probably my favorite. Definitely would recommend this to anyone looking for a quick game to occupy a night, or two, or three in my case.

Writing this review having finished the MSQ last night. (None of the post-game patch quests, Alliance Raids, Regular Raids, Dungeons, etc).

I spent 2 and a half years playing FFXIV with the one singular thought in my mind. "I have to see why everyone says Shadowbringers is so good." I played through the whole game with this thought in my mind. The patch quests leading up to it had me instantly hooked and intrigued and even going into it I had no real idea what the story would even be about. I can say now, having finished it, that it was worth the hype. I'll avoid spoilers here, but what followed was an instantly enthralling story that I found far more engaging and better paced than anything I'd experienced in FFXIV previously. It wasn't without it's slow points, and in my experience FFXIV has a lot of those, but on the whole the story kept me interested the whole time. The finale as well is one of if not the best one in the game so far.

It's probably fair to say to some degree that Shadowbringers succeeds both because of and in contrast to what proceeded it. It's story works because you know these characters, because you know this universe that has been crafted here. As a standalone work the game would already be very good, but it's the careful tower that has been constructed that makes the foundation for it to really work.

I'm looking forward to doing all the things I said I haven't done yet. Alliance Raids tend to be my favorite part of the game and I've been looking forward to this series for a while.

Onwards in my unending journey.

I liked the story, but I could take or leave the combat. I found it unwieldy and frustrating at close quarters. I bought a brand new NVMe SSD just to play this and still had issues in the back half of the game with pop in, which I wouldn't mind if the collision boxes spawned, but on three occasions I fell through the floor and had to reset the game. Remedy's world building is interesting enough to keep me coming back, but I've yet to find one of their games where I wasn't at least a little frustrated playing it by the end.

Man, I really really wanted to like this game more than I did. I'm a sucker for the the pure priestess forced to carry the burden of the world and slowly corrupted by it plotline, and the art is quite good, but actually playing it...

The rooms are huge, like way too big, just big open spaces filled with platforming and enemies. Except the platforming is just, y'know it's fine. Your dodge being more of a face first dive (to start) makes it pretty funny, but it's not really as interesting or smooth as it's contemporaries. Then the enemies... There were so many times I'd just fight through rooms and rooms of the same or a couple of big guys who were kind of a pain and would chip away my health and then it just seemed like they never ended. Runbacks became a huge slog to a point where I was just zipping past guys unless the rooms were locked because it hardly seemed to be worth the effort it took.

Bosses had the same issue. They were mostly Okay, but at the point I gave up I was fighting a guy who zipped around but I could only hit from behind. I could only get a few hits off and his health pool was so big it was just incredibly tedious only to get hit like a truck by an attack... It didn't feel great.

I appreciate what this game is doing, but it unfortunately just feels a bit too amateurish. There are a number of issues (like lever placement and the way they blend in against the dark background) and just the sizes of the rooms, that feel like they wouldn't have been an issue if the game had had proper playtesting and had been tuned accordingly. But I can't fault the game for not having the time and budget for such things.

To speak positively about the game, I think the spirit system is really fun and I enjoyed unlocking the spirits through the minibosses.

I think there is a good and enjoyable game in here, but as it stands I've played 11 hours and I don't think I will be finishing it.

EDIT: I quit this game yesterday in a rage and came back and now I've quit it a second time. It's so frustrating because there's different s good game in here, but man these bosses can eat rocks. I made it all the way to the final boss in the end but I don't think I have the strength in me to finish it, which is agonizing because the ending is So Close, but for real FUCK that boss.

I'm leaving this review having only done one ending (Ending A) and the Easy difficult.

This game is really something else. The intro and early game is soaked through with incredible vibes. I think the mid and late game suffer (at least for me on easy) where I got so powerful that nothing felt particularly threatening and I was able to fundamentally clean most areas of any threats, but I can't knock the game here because I was playing on the lower than intended difficulty setting. The experience overall to be found though is chilling. My first couple attempts ended in failure, but that feeling of making my way into the city, being surrounded by horrors I didn't understand and fighting tooth and nail for every inch felt so raw and visceral.

There's so many little microdecisions you make in this game without even realizing it. The day system especially (though again kind of spoiled on easy by it's abundance of available free saves) is incredibly well thought out. The way the characters move around and the world state changing is incredible. I don't want to get too much into spoilers, but the things that happen to the characters are so cool and interesting.

I probably won't dive into another playthrough immediately, but I'm definitely very interested in exploring another character (I played Marina) and seeing how things shift and change.

This game rocks. It takes a little bit of getting use to at first, but once you get the hand of the perfect blocks it starts to feel really satisfying. I played a combination Advance/Motivity build so I avoided dodging and focused mostly on blocking and following up with strong attacks. There's some cruft for sure, like some of the bosses have unblockable and not uniquely telegraphed grabs which suck, and some of the bosses despite my heavy resistance stats still hit like a freight truck. Actually, in general the Bosses are crushingly difficult. The late game has, outside of maybe one boss that I beat my second time, several bosses that took me more than 5, and in some cases up to 15 tries to beat. All in all though, I don't think the bosses are poorly designed, they're learnable for sure, and their attacks are for the most part, telegraphed well.

It's obvious though that this game gets something other souls-likes don't, which is that the level design is just as important as the combat. Every zone twists and turns and loops back on itself and is full of traps and ambushes that make most engagements feel interesting and unique. Unlike souls as well the game will give you little icons to let you know when you have items to advance questlines. That's not to say that the game will hand you the questlines on a silver platter. I finished the game and missed the achievements for completing more than a few.

Despite only having 3 real enemy classes, this game still manages to boast a lot of variety of enemy design, and the enemies look novel. I think the puppet/machine designs do a lot here because the ball joints and cylindrical plating make them distinctly mechanized, but not overly complicated. You'll end up fighting a lot of the same enemies over and over again, but they have access to new weapons, and are usually supplemented with more unique enemies that break it up such that the simpler enemies are mostly there for ambushes and traps. It's genuinely very well thought out and feels like every encounter was designed intentionally.

I definitely would play another game by this team and I hope that Lies of P is successful and leads to a greater budget because I think with a bigger budget their next game could be even better.

My time with Stormblood (MSQ) wasn't bad. There's a lot of good stuff in there, but I also can't help but feel like the game is afraid to actually let you get invested in the story. It feels like every time there's something new or fun going on the game's like "Now wait just a minute, I need you to go and do fuck-off boring task for a while, just in case you were starting to get invested in the story" (fuck-off boring things include but aren't limited to: run around this town to find a captain who will take you somewhere and at one point literally collecting actual shit). I suppose that stuff is in there so that the game doesn't Skip over anything or to break up the pacing, but the pacing already feels pretty glacial so including it feels like the Square Enix team just wanted to waste my time.

All things considered though I liked the Doman part of this expansion, especially it's areas, and I had a good time with it's dungeons and overarching story. Looking forward to what comes next.

Slide Jump, Air Kick, Ground Slam, High Jump, Air Kick, Wall Jump, Wall Jump, Ledge Grab.

In all seriousness, this game is pretty cool and interesting. It's indie charm comes through a lot in it's confusing level design, and it's chunky physics, but none of it really enough to pull me away from how interesting I find this game. The strange surreal castle environment, the music, the shmoovement.

I found myself extremely lost very early into this game, almost as soon as you leave the starter area it becomes a confusing maze of interconnected rooms with no real defining features. But after an hour and one restart due to moving from my steam deck to pc, I got a grip on the basic layout of the main hub area and I was on my way. It's a bit chunky at first, the air kick/wall jump is both intuitive and not at the same time. It's simple really, you jump at a wall and then bounce back at an angle relative, but in these early stages I was constantly relying on it to get more height,. However, attacking walls head on isn't the answer, you really have to come at them at an angle. But also being at ledge grab height and bouncing back because you closed the distance with a kick that connected doesn't feel great. All that being said, once you get the core three powers, this game feels very good to move around in. I honestly can't wait to see how a speed run of this game looks. I clocked in at around 4 hours playtime but I feel like if I took a good run at it now I could do it in an hour and a half, maybe less if I actually plotted my route.

I hope the rough edges don't put anyone off trying, or finishing this game. It's got a breezy run time and an extremely affordable price point (honestly the dev should probably be charging more for this.)