Taiwanese developer Red Candle Games have already proven themselves as one of my favorite indie studios with Detention and Devotion (two horror games I hold in very high regard), and I was especially happy to see them still push forward with their next game despite the nonsense surrounding Devotion’s continued ban from storefronts. Branching out into making a Metroidvania with Sekiro inspired combat no less is quite a shift from their previous works though, and I was very curious to see how a team of their caliber would handle such a different project

Needless to say, very satisfied with it. Nine Sols is fantastic, certainly drawing from the likes of Sekiro’s brutally difficult “parry or die” gameplay but adopting it to a 2D style incredibly well. It stands out on its own by forgoing a direct posture system in favor of its talisman mechanic (where you instead quickly attach bombs earned with parries to enemies), which gets so fun once your skills open up and makes for some of the most entertaining combat I’ve played of these type of games. The bosses in particular are really cool to fight against, initially seeming like insurmountable walls that gradually get more and more manageable as you memorize their patterns, until you can somehow effortlessly flow against their relentless attacks without even thinking. The final boss for the true ending is especially awesome in this regard, honestly one of the most rewarding I’ve fought in recent memory

Beyond just the combat, it further impresses with its unique “Taopunk” world-building and heavier narrative focus that’s a cut above many others in the genre. There’s not many Metroidvanias where I was as invested in the dialogue and characters quite like this one, Yi in particular was endearing as the main protag, and the story surrounding his vengeful path against the “Nine Sols” he once worked with was really interesting to follow, getting surprisingly heartfelt even. The game’s hub, the Four Seasons Pavilion, is nice too in how it encourages you to keep up with the other characters and watch as it changes in appearance the more items you bring to Shuanshuan

The game’s music is great and the handdrawn 2D art/animations for characters and environments is lovely, mixing beautiful aesthetics with grungy underground sci-fi machinery, and using detailed manga style panels for story moments that further add to the excellent presentation

Map exploration was enjoyable too. It’s not really Hollow Knight level in that regard, but has solid variety and was fun to clear out areas looking for chests or optional bosses. Traversal is limited initially but also gets pretty good as you unlock stuff like air dash and double jump for platforming sections. The priority was definitely more towards its combat here, but still well done

Adding to the list of quality Metroidvanias lately, Animal Well is a largely vague game about a blob creature (?) that explores an atmospheric labyrinth with many secrets to find. There’s no combat save for avoiding occasional enemies and mainly focused on figuring out how to progress using the items you find throughout. The level design and platforming puzzles were well done and made clever use of all the mechanics, though were still straightforward enough that I wasn’t stuck on much for very long. The pixel art is really great too

Reaching credits took about 8 hours for me, but this also appears to be a game with a lot of hidden depth to it going off reviews and how much unexplained stuff I can still find (similar to Tunic it seems). Curious to see how much more you can get out of its postgame, but for the main content alone it’s well worth it

An interesting cross between a soulslike and a lighthearted 3D platformer. It’s clear where its influences lie and I kinda feel it rides the line between being inspired and just copying stuff (“The Sands Between” is not very subtle for instance), but for the most part it stands out as its own thing and enjoyable

It draws from many of FromSoft’s titles obviously (specifically Sekiro with the addition of parries and a stance meter which works well enough here), but the use of shells that give different stats and special abilities added a good amount of variety to combat despite being limited to just your fork. Can also make it into a hammer weapon by attaching shells to it which was cool

Aesthetically SpongeBob comes to mind along with Battle for Bikini Bottom in how it plays as a platformer, but that’s an easy comparison to make really (even has a Mr. Krabs costume you can wear). I thought Kril was a bit obnoxious past the whole playing as a crab novelty, but the sea world and dialogue were charming enough. It’s a surprisingly sizable game too, took about 20 hours to finish

What holds it back though is mainly a general lack of polish. Mechanically it doesn’t really match the refinement of its contemporaries, combat and platforming has an ever present feeling of jank to it that just gets more noticeable the longer you play. Numerous times I’ve gotten stuck on terrain, dodges or parries can be inconsistent to register, the camera tends to bug out especially when you’re often in enclosed areas, for some reason using the hammer would launch Kril into the air sometimes, occasionally the audio would cut out entirely unless I restarted the game, etc. I’ve heard performance is rough on console platforms also, but was mostly alright on Steam Deck for me so can’t really verify that. These are all things that can be improved with patches at least, so hopefully it gets more work there over time

Started this way back in August but it took me forever to finally finish it clearly. Over 100 hours poured in puts it among the longest games I’ve played, though I guess I’m kinda glad I went so slowly given Larian would add another new patch whenever I decided to turn it back on

It’s been a while since I’ve played through the Divinity games, but given how great Original Sin 2 was I’m not surprised that this is as highly acclaimed as it is also. BG3’s a very impressive RPG in design and presentation, managing to maintain the level of depth traditional to this style of top-down CRPGs, but with immense AAA production values to match which for the genre sets it apart from everything else in that regard. I’ll admit I’m not really familiar with tabletop D&D and its rules (nor have I played the first two Baldur’s Gate games yet), but as a standalone experience I wasn’t lost and it’s amazing what they pulled off here. The closest I guess I can compare it to is like a more ambitious Dragon Age: Origins, which is awesome

There is just so much here, you’ll probably spend dozens of hours in the first act and its opening areas alone cause of how dense with content it is. Basically all of it (while being mostly optional) is worth doing which made it very easy to sink a lot of time into, and given the game’s many different quest variations and choices you’d likely get a lot of replayability out of it too. Graphically it looks fantastic, but what Larian really shows off is how dialogue is done with unique cutscenes instead of text boxes, using full mocap for literally every single NPC you can talk to. Given how BG3 is no less massive in scale, that’s a pretty remarkable advancement from their previous games

The main story itself is good, and the stakes with trying to remove the tadpoles in your head keeps it compelling. But I will say narratively I think it peaks with Act 2, as Act 3 gets a bit less focused to me and wasn’t really a fan of how rushed parts of the ending felt. I did like the epilogue and how it wraps everything up but as far as I know, that part wasn’t even in the game at launch and had to be added with a patch

The characters and their performances are largely top notch though. Some of your companions are more fleshed out than others (Shadowheart and Astarion were my favorites), but for the most part they’re all memorable and their personal quests do a good job developing them throughout. Personalization for your main character is strong too, though will probably depend on whether you choose a custom background or an origin. I made the perhaps ill advised decision to do my first playthrough as “The Dark Urge” which is considered an evil path, but I found it really interesting to roleplay as someone trying to be good despite that. It adds a very cool amount of connection to your character and the story, and really liked how varied your dialogue options are so you can still shape how you respond to your own actions and past. It seemed to affect quite a lot especially in Act 3 too so can’t say how much is changed without it, but would recommend for sure. Whenever I decide to replay I’ll try going full evil next though >:)

Combat is of course turn based with the standard fantasy classes you’d expect to choose from, and since this is D&D based all actions and skill checks are done with dice rolls. The RNG tied to this can be annoying (will not deny I have a long list of quicksaves), but I enjoyed its usage in gameplay and decision making. Will say combat can get really slow at times though, why they never have a way to speed up turns in these games is beyond me, you’ll frequently fight numerous enemies at once and having to sit through every single move they make gets a bit tedious at times. I also felt like a lot of the loot/equipment you find was a bit unrewarding, I ended up using armor and weapons I found in Act 1 for most of the entire game cause I didn’t really have much reason to switch them out. But that may just be a D&D thing with progression, especially since the level cap is 12

Besides that the only notable problem for me was performance, which could be better… It’s definitely been improved with all the patches, but at release you could tell it still needed much more polish and even now it’s not exactly stable. I’ve actually played this both on PC (Steam Deck) and PS5, though both weren’t ideal for different reasons. On Steam Deck it ran fine for most of Act 1 and Act 2 at 30FPS, and with FSR 2.2 (this wasn’t added til later tbf) it looks pretty great now also. Act 3 really starts to push it though, it’s the most impressive part of the game on a technical level given how packed the area is with so many NPCs, but clearly the least optimized as I had near constant FPS drops and more noticeable bugs like frequent animation lags or quests being easier to sequence break. That said, those with much better hardware for PC probably won’t have as much of an issue

PS5 in comparison runs as it should, even Act 3 mostly holds 60 FPS in performance mode from what I’ve played which is great. This would be the obvious way to play BG3, if not for the insane amount of crashes I’ve had on it that crippled the port for me. I haven’t played something that crashed this often since Cyberpunk at launch, past a point I couldn’t even open my saves anymore without getting kicked off and some of them even started saying they were corrupted somehow, rendering it basically unplayable on there (thankfully there’s cross save support). This is still not fixed in my case and not sure if it’s just my PS5 or something to do with the game on console, but regardless wouldn’t advise buying it on there. Some don’t seem to have as much of a struggle with it though so YMMV on that I suppose

Despite the gripes (and extreme annoyance at the PS5 version), I really enjoyed BG3 and was sad to see it end after all the time I spent on it. More than anything though I’m glad it’s such a massive success for Larian, despite their positives isometric CRPGs are usually seen as having niche appeal so it’s cool to finally have one break out into mainstream like this has. Hopefully bodes well for the genre going forward

A murder mystery VN set in a 1482 monastary (kinda reminds me of Pentiment actually but more of a direct kinetic novel than that was). As a “Volume One” entry the central mystery it’s building toward is sadly left incomplete for now, but I would highly recommend it on its own anyway as its character writing and presentation really set it apart

While the cast overall is pretty compelling, it’s the protagonist that really makes this for me. Centered on Hedwig, an Anchoress who lived most of her life in total isolation, who’s suddenly forced out her cell by her Superior and given the goal of secretly trying to solve the murder of one of the convent’s Sisters. What makes Misericorde really interesting so far is not exactly the mystery itself (though the potential is definitely there), but seeing how completely unprepared Hedwig is for such a task and having to overcome her poor social skills as a result. Her internal dialogue is really well written and descriptive, watching her clash so heavily with trying to interact with the other Sisters while also playing a “detective” really makes her compelling to follow

This VN also looks and sounds really cool. The use of a monochrome aesthetic for the sprites and (I’m assuming) real photos as the backgrounds works really well in giving the monastery an unsettling gothic atmosphere. And while there’s no voice acting the music is excellent too, kind of hard to describe but it’s like lo-fi or trip hop sounding which seems like an odd mix but it’s actually very fitting

My feelings on it may change when I can think on it as a whole, but as is it’s really good and I’m very excited to see how it continues for Volume Two. Shows a lot of promise if it can pay off from all the build up

This is a 30+ hour RPG that was mostly developed entirely by one person, which is very impressive for the amount of content it has. Though I wouldn’t say I loved it quite as much as some other RPGMaker games I’ve played as I felt the combat brought it down a bit. An interesting system with the numerous forms Jimmy can turn into and clearly meant to be more difficult than the norm, but the frequent enemy encounters literally every few seconds and heavy grinding needed for bosses was excessive, it dragged the game on longer than it probably needed to be. The characters (Jimmy’s family and occasional others that join the party temporarily) were all pretty bland to me also which was an issue when the game’s so heavily focused on them in the story

But aside for those issues it’s still quite good and clearly made with a lot of heart. Has a creative world with plenty of varied islands/continents and a meaningful amount of optional areas to explore. Given the kind of games this is obviously inspired by, its mix of light hearted and horror aspects was well done, and while the characters were a weak point for me the story it tells was intriguing nonetheless. The music’s great too! Lot of unique tracks all over the place and I never got tired of listening to the overworld theme

While they’re all talking dinosaurs, Goodbye Volcano High’s characters felt more like genuine teenagers just trying to figure themselves out as high school comes to a close, before tragically having to come to terms with their futures being cut short. In the face of their inevitable end (in this case a looming asteroid), what matters to them is making the most of their lives in the moment and appreciating their loved ones and passions. It’s a bleak premise from the outset but largely a sweet and heartfelt game, enjoyed it a lot

And though it’s mainly narrative focused with dialogue choices, the rhythm game sections where your band play on stage were nice and connected me more with Fang and their dream to be a successful musician. The soundtrack in general is nice too

I’ll readily admit I’m biased when it comes to Persona 3. FES is a game I hold very dearly, still remember first playing it a decade ago now and having no idea about Atlus games at the time. In a way it was even transformative for me in how much it helped grow my interest for anime/JRPGs in general, and one of the rare few games I feel leaves an emotional impact. So Persona 3 Reload, a genuine from the ground up remake for it and not just a basic port (like Portable’s recent release), is like a dream game I didn’t think we’d ever actually get until it was really announced last year. It’s not perfect of course, but the nostalgia and how strongly it still hit me is the same as ever

What it does well

- The most immediately striking improvement from the PS2 original is the presentation overhaul to Persona 5’s standards, bringing with it full scale character models with the very stylish art and UI that made P5 so dazzling. Here P3’s aesthetics have been beautifully updated and the menus are especially immaculate, never getting tiring to look at and browse through. While it can be argued the original’s moody atmosphere is diminished a bit with the new vibrant style, it still wholly fits the game’s somber tone to me

- A big change with Reload that I appreciated actually has to do with the English voice acting, as compared to FES and Portable there’s been an entire recast for the characters (barring one exception with Elizabeth). It’s fair to be apprehensive over this after being used to the original voices for so long, but I felt Reload’s cast did a fantastic job bringing new life to the characters and really making them their own. I’d even go so far as to say this is one of the best dubs Atlus has done, as not only are pretty much all the performances consistently excellent, this is also the first Persona game where every single side character and their Social Link events are fully voice acted! Something that really made a huge difference in how invested I’ve always been on spending time with them. It’s an impressive effort and I hope that’ll be the case for future Atlus games also

- As far as story goes, it’s faithful to the original with the major beats being unchanged, but there’s many new scenes added with better opportunities to bond with the characters now. The dorm feels more like a true home in Reload where you can just hang out and it helps attach you to them in a way that wasn’t quite as fleshed out before. A big omission in FES (the lack of any Social Links for male party members) was also addressed with Link Episodes, which are similar in that it gives them further development but instead ties their events to the story as you progress. They’re not quite the same as full Social Links like with Portable, but it’s a very appreciated change that felt natural and added a lot to their growth

- Tartarus has always been a divisive like it or hate it kind of thing with P3, and it’s more or less the same dungeon with literally over 200 generated floors to climb in Reload. That said it’s been improved with much larger scaled floors and QoL additions, it looks a lot better design wise, and they did add some nice improvements that made it less of a bore to get through like Monad doors (challenges to fight stronger enemies throughout). Combat now also takes directly from P5’s battle system and is basically identical, which gets no complaints from me. There’s party control with new mechanics like Shift (similar to Baton Pass) and Theurgy, it’s really stylish, and it’s much breezier to fight shadows and fly through floors than before which is pretty much all I wanted there. Merciless difficulty was pretty fun too, not very hard but not a joke either which is better than how they had it for P5 Royal, would recommend trying it if used to the combat in these games

- The music is fairly different having been fully remixed with Lotus Juice and a new singer Azumi Takahashi doing vocals, while also adding some original tracks as well. I’ve seen mixed opinions about the OST changes, but personally I got used to it quickly and still think it’s an incredible soundtrack. The new songs “Full Moon, Full Life”, “It’s Going Down Now” and “Color Your Night” are easily among my favorites in the series now too

What could be better

- Obviously Atlus made it clear with Reload they were only focused on remaking P3’s main game with the male protagonist, which means it doesn’t include both The Answer (an expanded epilogue introduced in FES) and the extensive route for the female protagonist that Portable introduced. It does still include smaller additions from both those versions such as Aigis’s Social Link or missing persons to save in Tartarus, but I can understand why people are let down by the major exclusions especially for the price, as without them you might as well say P3 still doesn’t have a true edition that brings all its content together. However as of now The Answer’s currently rumored to be made for Reload as DLC at a later date, so have to see how that pans out I suppose

- While I adore the presentation, there are a few odd quirks to its visuals. Most areas look nice and it even supports 4K/60 with ray tracing on PS5 which was a surprise to say the least, but some areas look sorta… off. Either with its strangely flat lighting (the dorm being an example) or being static to the point of seeming unintentional honestly (calling out Club Escapade in particular). Perhaps it’s due to budget or just cause it’s using Unreal Engine instead of P5’s proprietary one, but feel there could’ve been a bit more polish there

- I’m a bit mixed on cutscenes compared to FES. As rough as they were, the anime scenes did have a very cool grungy 2000s direction to them that made up for the graphics at the time. Instead Reload uses both new anime and in-engine cutscenes throughout similar to P5, which for the most part are fine (I actually like the in-engine ones quite a bit with how nice the 3D visuals are now), but the quality of the anime scenes take a hit in my opinion, more up to date with them being done by Wit Studio but also looking kinda bland in comparison. How they decided between one or the other for story moments is inconsistent also, why is the awakening scene done in-engine and not as anime for instance

- For Social Links the writing is one thing I wish was touched up on more. There’s some notable differences here and there (and thankfully made it so you aren’t forced to romance every girl to complete them), but overall it’s mostly the same and you can easily tell they’re the earliest iteration on the formula with the weaker Social Links still sticking out (Kenji for one). But as mentioned the voice acting elevates them nonetheless, and I still love particular ones like Akinari’s

- You’ll easily max out your social stats and unlock all the extra skills for party members with plenty of time to spare, which means you’ll probably be lost on stuff to do at night in the late months with still only 2 social links available the whole game. There’s a new computer with software to use, but eventually you’ll make full use of that also which basically just leaves Tartarus or stat building for Personas at the arcade. This was an issue with the other versions too and was hoping they would try to adjust it, but guess not

Overall

Some aspects could’ve been improved upon further overall, but really couldn’t be happier this remake was made. As someone who’s played FES, Portable, and watched all the movies (even owning the box set lol), Reload genuinely felt like I was able to experience P3 for the first time again. It doesn’t try to change the original experience at its core and can be said it’s faithful to a fault, but it still develops into a story that remains the most emotionally resonant among the Persona games for me. Where it succeeds is how well it carries over that story to current standards for both new and old fans, doing just enough to expand on it and modernize the gameplay while maintaining why it’s so beloved. Even knowing how it comes together after all these years I was still greatly affected, and given that it remains one of the most meaningful I’ve played

It’s better than whatever Silent Hill: Ascension was at least (as low a bar as that could be), but still just… exists I guess. Another short “PT” style thing but focused on mental health and bullying through social media. It’s a genuine topic to explore for SH to its credit, but the execution is extremely heavy handed, and its poor dialogue and voice acting let it down further. From a gameplay standpoint the chase sequences were more annoying than anything also, especially the last one. While it’s free and takes just about 2 hours, I’d still hesitate to say it’s worth the time

Ubisoft’s best game in years! I had hopes I’d enjoy it a lot given this is by the team that made the exceptional Rayman Legends (a decade ago now oof), but this managed to surpass expectations even and as a Metroidvania it genuinely stands next to Hollow Knight and Ori as my favorites in the genre. Having fantastic combat and boss fights with strong focus on combos/parrying attacks, very fluid platforming controls and traversal powers with razor sharp challenges throughout, and great level design as you explore the large and varied map of Mount Qaf

There’s some minor gripes, had a few crashes and felt like the story it was telling was fine but nothing very noteworthy either aside for the characters just making for cool bosses. Also since backtracking could be frequent, I kinda wish fast travel was a bit less limited and let you move between save trees. But otherwise this was a joy to play and the 25 hours it took me to finish flew by (still have plenty leftover for 100% too)