This review is about FF1. I had actually started the psp version before I chose to play the gba version, but I dropped it since I found the game to be boring and overall just a slog. Nothing in the game really interested me and I was really annoyed by the encounter rate.

Still, after a while I decided to give the game another chance through a different version, and the game really grew on me. I still didnt really like the intro but after finally figuring out where I was supposed to go on the ship I got the appeal. The game is just really charming, from the varied playstyles you can get from the various party combinations, to the cool little sprites of enemies, to really just how simplistic it is in both its gameplay and its story and world, though I think what really won me over was the bonus dungeons this version introduced, or to be more precise, the bonus bosses in these dungeons.

The actual dungeons themselves were whatever. I actually did some of the bosses way earlier than I was supposed to and it was exhilerating clutching victory from them despite all the odds. Even the later bosses for when I was appropriately leveled still put up a good fight, though this lead me to realize the big problem with this version... its way too easy. The reason the bosses were challenging was because they were balanced around the changes to the stat scaling and spell use system. Aside from the beginning of the game, everything got steamrolled by my party since I didnt need to bother conserving spells or healing items since I had an abundance of mp to get me through the dungeons. Even the warmech/death machine, said to be the hardest encounter in the original versions of the game, fell to me with a couple of turns without ever posing a threat to my party.

I think I'll play the ps1 or nes versions of the game someday, to experience the challenge they offered, since while I still liked the game, it felt like it really shined when I actually needed to think about it beyond "press a to win". Either way, I'm glad it really wasn't the FINAL fantasy like the game's title says lol.

I come back to the game properly after all these years and now 40 boxing is a cinch. Took me a couple hours of attentive grinding every day for a week straight in the past, and now it took me a few hours of pressing one button. God bless powercreep.

Granblue IP has been winning too hard lately for me to ignore, between Relink standing tall after 7 years of tumultuous development, and Rising commanding the accursed FGC's respect. Eased myself back into it during the 10th (that's right, 10 years) anniversary festivities, read some dissertations that would make an FF11 player tremble to get myself caught up, and then boom, it was like I never left. Hit 1b honors of my first GW back, gave a gold ring to Sakura Kinomoto, and I still have every version of Narmaya. There is great peace to be found in doing the same thing over and over and over again.

Time to physically and emotionally prepare myself for the next Guild Wars. This one will be a doozy.

This was a game that haunted me for years since I was about 10 or 11. I was (well now I know I was) really bad at platformers at the time, and would get stuck in the ice world.

At the time I just thought it was because the game was really jank but damn those are just fucking excuses. So I booted up the game last night with one goal. Finish it, no save states. Didn't really try 100% or anything but maybe another day I'll take a crack at it.

Honestly? The game is pretty great, that's no surprise, but I thought the strangest was: this game... isn't that hard tbh? Like the gauntlet in the ice world is still pretty rough and some of the levels in World 6 are tricky, but overall the game is pretty easy if you can take your time. I lost probably around 50 lives in the playthrough, and about 10 of those were to K. Rool alone because his fight takes a little bit of time to master.

The game is great, packed with charm and great music and really satisfying parts where you're honestly not sure if you'll make it to the end or not so you get super spooked in those last couple stretches of enemies. The game is hard but mostly fair.

My only real issues with the game is that I felt like the hitboxes could be a bit jank, especially with stuff like tires on tiny platforms, very easy to just slip off, or enemies which can just kind of have really wack ass boxes. I mostly forgive it though since it's a very early game messing with pre-rendered graphics, but it is there albeit not common.

While a personal preference, I also felt the end game lacked a little bit of what I usually get satisfaction of. When I got to the final level platforming level of the game, it was hard. a Tough level of moving platforms, grabbing barrels and killing otherwise unkillable enemies leads to some really tight moments. Then you fight Necky II which is a complete joke really.

Then you reach Gang Plank Galleon, I was expecting a couple fun pirate themed levels, like crossing boats to get to K Rool proper, but nah, it's just him. It's not this absolute MASSIVE failure on the game, but I did feel a little "wait, that's it?" by the end. At least the final fight was fun.

Overall this is a pretty damn solid game I can recommend to anyone with a good chunk of patience and the willingness to get a little stressed while playing. It's well designed and has great environments and especially music, and while the graphics are dated somewhat they still look pretty nice to me, even if not as much compared to sprite based games at the time.

Rating: 4 Times Cranky Walking Across The Screen in the Credits Until His Turn/5