It's the sequel to Danganronpa! Instead, now it's on a tropical island instead of a school and Nagito is there. Pretty solid follow up to the first game.

Biggest improvement over the original being the quality of the cases. Whilst the first Danganronpa's cases were a bit mixed in quality, Danganronpa 2's cases are all consistantly solid (except for the final one, unfortunately). The new cast are my personal favourites of the series and Nagito is a strong highlight. Only real downside with the game is that, yeah, the ending kinda sucks.

It's more Danganronpa but (mostly) Better!

A Pretty Nuts game. The first in a series of teen murder courtroom simulators and what a start to the series! I feel like the sequels improved on what this game did but I have to give it a lot credit for not only laying down the basics for the series but also pulling it off in really cool ways.

First of all, the aesthetic to this game is really impressive. The art style and character designs are unique, colorful and bursting with personality. Having them presented as cardboard cutouts is also pretty neat. The OST packs a punch to match the visuals, with infectious electro-pop and rave tunes that help push the personality of the game over the edge. The presentation and music of the game really shine with the courtroom scenes.

For those unfamiliar, the game is about a bunch of teenagers who are locked in a school and are forced to participate in a killing game by Monokuma, a black and white cuddly bear who manages to constantly steal the show in every game he's in. Shout out to the dub version of Monokuma...he's perfect. Anyways, when a student is killed, you investigate the scene to find evidence to try and pinpoint the killer which leads to the centerpieces of Danganronpa: the courtroom scenes.

All the surviving students are gathered in a circle and everybody must present evidence and argue over who the killer is. Sometimes these segments can last for several hours and as I said earlier, the presentation really shines with these. The camera pans, the expressive character potraits, the way speech is plastered as these imposing 3D words on the screen, the thumping rave music playing over the top and the voice acting preformances make these scenes absolute gaming highlights. Unfortunately, this game probably has the worst ratio of Good/Bad cases out of all three of the games but it does contain probably the two best cases in the series (Cases 2 and 6). Man, they're amazing.

And I guess that's the main problem with this game; the quality of the cases can be a bit of a mixed bag. The first case makes it all too obvious who the killer is early on. Some of the cases later on just feel complicated for the sake of being obtuse and lose a bit of impact because of.

But it's really hard to dislike this game because of the wonderful art, music, presentation, characters and world of Danganronpa. If you like the sound of a colourful, punk japanese detective game then boy do I have the game for you!

A breakthrough in picross video-game technology, the (pic)crossover of nonary puzzle and anime you've all been waiting for.

The picross itself is still as good as the previous S series games but the addition of Clip Picross changes the game. Suddenly now you have both a progression incentive through the main game mode AND a way to tackle unconventionally sized picross boards that help break the player away from the difficulty curve of the main mode. Also completing all the clip puzzles in a section create a larger picture, which is neat.

Whilst Picross S2 had these features first, Kemono Friends Picross beats it in pure objective video-game betterment by having a Kemono Friends skin over it, which Picross S2 does not.

An incredibly perculiar AAA game. Really appreciated my time with it. The real highlights of this game are the movement mechanics and the setting.

The basis of the gameplay in Death Stranding is movement. For the majority of the first part of the game, the game centres purely around walking and how to tackle the terrain. I applaud the idea of a large game trying to add a challenge and a full feature set towards something as simple as how you walk across a distance, it's kinda like an opposite Mario in that you have all this focus on movement mechanics but instead of making them feel smooth and tight it's all about making it feel challenging and slow. For someone who went into the game expecting a lot of tedium with the gameplay, I was surprised at how zen and rewarding they made it. Like, I'm not going to lie to you and say I didn't fully utilise a full zipline network by the end of the game because I didn't want to walk anywhere anymore but for the moments where the game makes you tackle the idea of traversal OUTSIDE of ziplines...it's actually really neat. Part of me kinda wishes ziplines weren't in the game, despite their great convenience for grinding the game out. Maybe I'd say the same for vehicles. Imagine a game that was maybe a bit more focused on smaller, more interesting environments where you could only tackle them on foot. Hmmmm....

The other thing I really wanna point out is the world of Death Stranding. It's by far the most unique and interesting part of the game and I have to give Kojima credit for making a very unique apocalypse, since it would have been so easy to just go for something a bit more generic and drab. Instead he decided to give us baby technology, upside down rainbows, rain that makes time go faster and lore on how drugs are used by people who are addicted to likes. Thanks Kojima.

The thing that ultimately brings the entire thing down though is the story. Everything with Amelie sucks. There was something kinda interesting in the idea of a grim reaper with a heart but it doesn't explore it enough and honestly I can't remember enough to tell you even what Amelie's whole thing was. I just remember being pretty unenfused about her and her whole story...which sucks because she's pretty much the main focus of the entire game and the payoff with her just isn't great. Actually, that Princess Beach scene was amazing. Nevermind, she was worth it after all. Also Higgs sucks. Troy Baker needs to stay away from cool rival characters because whenever he plays one they suck.

Saying that I didn't mind the other characters. The stuff with Cliff and Die Hardman was kinda cool, just a shame they don't get more stuff. BB is precious. I guess I have a problem overall with the writing of the characters. The more I think about it, the more there really isn't a stand out winner for me. They're just kinda around.

But oh man honestly, genuinely, the one thing that kepts the characters completely back for me was the use of real actors. Why? What did doing any of this add? I don't know if it's just me but I found them to be INCREDIBLY distracting. Like, why not just use a character design...y'know? Like, why not just have a unique face for the character that matches them and let the character design be as expressive as they wanted without having to worry about fitting a real person onto it. Why is Amelie based on Lindsey Wagner out of the six million dollar man? How is that not just a terrible thing for your character who is also the main point of the game and a death god? God it annoys me.

Overall though, I'd say Death Stranding is a pretty good game based on how unique of a project it is. Shortcomings with the main plot and characters aside, I enjoyed my time with it and I hope Kojima continues sticking to making games like this, now that he's freed from the chains of Metal Gear. Maybe get another dude in to help write next time though.

What a bizarre game. It's bad. Like REALLY bad...and this is the follow up to the standard setter of action games? What the fuck?

The complete lack of a story, the terrible enemy A.I., the fact that Dante's moveset somehow got WORSE since the last game...also wow that one track that keeps playing over battles is so bad.

The moment I fell to disbelief with this game was the Infected Tanks and Infected Chopper sequence. What the fuck were they thinking! Oh my god why am I giving this game so much of my time, I could die tommorow!

An incredibly charming game. Goddddddddd this game has so much character.

I love how the "anti-rpg" gimmick of the game is actually a positive one, in which instead of leveling up and progressing through killing you do it through gaining and spreading love. I love the different presentation styles the game uses, in perticular the claymation of its monsters and the soft drawing style of the world in general. I loved how the OST for this game is mostly made up of independant musicians from the local tokyo scene of the 90s and you can play their "modern" tunes through an in-game music player any time. I really appreciate the playful and punchy writing and just how much there is to do in the world.

For a game about love I guess it's not too weird to say there is a lot to love in it. There are some negatives to it, one of them being how obtuse some of the puzzle solutions can be and knowing how or when to progress, which can unfortunately lead to some frustrating walking around for hours that can dampen the pacing.

But the one thing that's most unfortunate about it is how this game never came over to the west in 1997. So many of its features and presentation may seem a little bit trite by todays standards, especially within the indie scene, and whilst that didn't effect my feelings towards them whilst playing, I do also have to wonder how mindblowing playing this game might have been back in the 90s. Who knows how influential this game could've been. Ahh well.

Either way, I love this game and I recommend it to anyone who likes playing different, cute games.

Damn cool game! Despite being the first of its type, it managed to nail so much right. Like first of all the style meter is such a genius idea and adds to the action way more than you'd think. In my case it lead to me wanting to do a lot more riskier and cooler looking shit just so I could show off to myself despite it just being a letter on the UI.

Action feels great, the move set on both the weapons feel good, bosses are a lot of fun (especially on Dante Must Die), enemies are well designed (Shadows are one of my favourite enemies in games), the locations are likeable, the OST fits the appropriate mood effectively wether is be spooky mansion or intense hell battle and don't forget that cheesy dub and sometimes unintentionally hilarious writing! It's all about the charm, man!

Only negatives I would give this game is that you fight the same bosses too many times and that I wish there was a middleground between Hard and DMD mode, so that you could play with the intensity of DMD mode without having to also worry about enemy devil triggers and insane boss health.

That's it though. Game rocks.

A Suda51 banger. You play as an otaku who becomes an assassin and murders dudes so he can bang a hot babe. Don't be fooled by the premise and fourth wall breaking gags, the game may seem shallow and purposely zany, and whilst it does definitly lean into it's dumb elements, the game is more than that.

The hyperviolence , the way the characters potray the assassination gig/ killing and the game making you do menial jobs so you can afford to keep living out your otaku murder fantasy, plus the way Suda51 likes to play with the narrative and player expectations give No More Heroes a punk edge that makes it special.

In general, the game is awesome. The motion controls are implemented in a fun way, boss fights are GREAT and the world of No More Heroes is enjoyable thanks to its cast of slightly off dudes.

After the build up of the two previous games and the insanity of VLR's ending, it feels hard to blame ZTD for not being able to neatly wrap up the series in a satisfying way but even considering all that...this game is still a big disappointment.

Lemme start with the good. Character designs are fantastic. The key art for this game is awesome. The stuff with the alien Phi's parents is great. There's some pretty cool puzzle rooms, like the pantry and the alien transporter room.

Now with the stuff I don't like. Characters keep forgetting what they did after the end of each puzzle so there's no real character advancement until the very end. Akane acts like an idiot in this game which goes against her character in the first two games. The animations look...really bad. I understand this game existing in the first place is a miracle but....man. Eric is one of the worst video-game character ever. And the ending! Oh my god! I can't believe the ending for this entire series is a bad guy being like "i did it all so you would be motivated!" and then they all go off into the sunset being like "yeah! i'm motivated! let's save the world!" and that's it. It's terrible! As well as the note about Mira post-game! Also, the fact that so many threads were left untouched from VLR's ending is so disappointing because it makes that whole ending feel totally pointless now. Like not even going into the indeitity of Kyle? Come on now.

Whatever, this game has some moments in it and it's not all terrible but in the end it's a complete let down.

Zero Escape is back and this time they cranked the bullshit up to 110%. An equally good game to 999. Always love the idea of a sequel that takes place somewhere completely different, with a different cast of characters and style that also carries on the story and themes of the original game. Story is pretty nuts but rewarding, giving an ending that leaves a tonne of excitement to the imagination. Only downside to this over 999 is that I feel like 999 nailed the relationship and emotional stuff better than VLR but it's a minor gripe with how strong the rest of the narrative is.

Games don't get as fascinating as this one. An escape room puzzle game that is just FILLED with pseudo science, conspiracy theories and wikidiving that Uchikoshi went on at 3am on a tuesday night. 999 is a world that brings up outrageous theories and plays with the idea of them all being real, creating this seemlingly fascinating and fun adventure that throws curveballs on you at every turn. The greatest strength of this game though, and Uchikoshi's writing, is writing the absurd whilst also anchoring it down in humanity and this is the reason why 999 peaks above all else in its genre. It's a perfect blend of the out of ordinary with just the ordinary, a fantastic mystery that ends on a high note. Love it.

A return to form for Uchikoshi! Writing is top notch and delivers just the right amount of normal detective intrigue balanced with a good amount of pseudo science, nanomachine technology, conspiracy theory junk. Characters are fun and the focus on some of the human stories behind them in certain routes can be get emotional. Story is fantastic and having a clean slate for Uchikoshi to write from feels to have done him a world of good.

If you love a good investigation mystery novel and don't mind/love some weird stuff thrown in as well, then this game bars no entry.