I could barely finish this game. Performance is really bad, people aren't exaggerating. This is probably one of the buggiest games I've played since Skyrim. Beyond that, the open world and story of the game just isn't very fun. It feels like a very lifeless map with items and trainers just tossed onto it haphazardly. The scale is weird, the textures look awful, storming villain bases is a painful chore, hunting Titans and battling gyms offered no challenge. There are some pretty good Pokemon designs in this generation though to be fair. Unfortunately, I think this will be the last new Pokemon game I play unless there are drastic improvements to the series.

"'It's peak,' as they say" - Aigis, probably.
This might sound cheesy, but every time I play a new Persona game I feel like I learn something new about myself. This time around we tackle themes of death, nihilism, the impermanence of everything, and what it means to truly live. Nothing lasts forever, people die and they're gone for good, this is absolute.
I'm at the point in my life now where loved ones dying is starting to become more of a common thing. As goofy as it sounds, stories like P3 help you recenter and contemplate on this concept.
Philosophy aside, the game is pretty solid. I'm a bit torn on how I feel about their faithfulness to the originals, but I think ultimately they made great choices to improve the QoL and overall experience of the game. I say this as someone who never played any original version of P3, but am familiar with that era of Persona via playing P4G. If anything I wish they had been maybe a little less faithful and tried something new.
It's hard for me to say, but I think P3 has my favorite cast....? Regardless, it's very close to P4 in that area. Interacting with Koromaru is definitely more enjoyable than interacting with Teddy or Morgana at least. The other party members also feel more grounded and mature. I'll also cautiously say that I think P3 has some of the best music out of any Persona game overall, especially when it comes to battle music. Sorry P5 fans, the jazz is great and all but I prefer Mass Destruction and It's Going Down Now. Colour Your Night absolutely slaps, Changing Seasons slaps, When the Moon's Reaching Out Stars is bubbly and upbeat to contrast the melancholy and nihilism. And when the music and tone shift in the last month... that whole month was a gut punch.
Pacing at the beginning of the game is a little strange, but in hindsight I understand why it has to be that way for story purposes. I liked the way P4 handled broaching the main subject of the story with all of the mystique surrounding Personas and the world inside of the TV. P3 felt a little weird in contrast because you move to a new school and suddenly everyone's like, "Sup? we fight Shadows in Tartarus during the Dark Hour with our Personas. You start Monday, welcome to the team." It made the first couple areas of Tartarus feel much less impactful than the dungeons and palaces in other Persona games which were obviously specifically tailored around the relevant character.
Even knowing how the game would end, it still wrecked me. Memories of You hits really hard, it's the kind of shit that makes you want to call your mom or some close friends.
Now do this, but with P4G.

If I could sum Okami up in one phrase it would be: "overstays its welcome." This is a game that could really use some modernization. I don't think the game is inherently bad, because I see all the pieces of a great Zeldalike game here. It just doesn't come together very well at all. The artstyle and soundtrack are about the only thing this game has going for it. The Celestial Brush is a cool idea, and there were times where I thought it was a fun mechanic, but it quickly got old.
Also there is way. Too. Much. Fucking. Dialogue in this game. This game would probably be better with like 90% less dialogue. The writing has a bit of charm to it from time to time but most NPC interactions are so tedious. I don't think I need to elaborate on Issun either, but I think most of my frustrations stem from that character's existence.
Combat is also pretty boring as you can faceroll most enemies in the game by just spamming the Rosaries.
I really wanted to like this game, as I've heard it's a good game from many people, but I am just not motivated to continue playing. It might not help that there are loads of other high profile games releasing this year that make playing an already dated game more difficult.
I think this game as a concept; its setting, characters, and story, would absolutely clean house in today's Indie scene if it were modernized. However, Okami in its current form is more of a chore than a game.

I really enjoyed this game for what it was. It felt kind of like a Metroid Primeish Roguelite with really great art direction and atmosphere. Not to mention the sound design is incredible. The mid game twist was really clever and I had an audible wtf moment with how well the story beat played into the core gameplay element. I think my only gripe would be that some enemies felt kinda of cheap, namely enemies that had giant tracking melee attacks from really long range as well as the enemies that would shoot constant purple lasers. Though I guess that's what gives the game its bullet hell feel.
Also, I feel like this game is the best example of using the Dualsense controller tech to its max potential. Alt firing with the haptic triggers felt so good and the HD rumble was so detailed.

Hi-Fi Rush never misses a beat. From start to finish this colorful, rhythmic world will pull you in and keep you there. I don't think there was ever a span of more than 5 minutes where I wasn't head bobbing or toe tapping to the beat. The combat is really tight and rewarding when you string together combos, parries, and dodges. It's a technical marvel too, almost all animations in the game sync up to the beat of whatever is currently playing, regardless of what you are doing. Even Chai's idle and run animations will follow the beat. As a game developer who works with sound, it's just a really impressive game. It's incredibly polished and well paced, has genuinely good writing and humor, and even weaves in some fun pop culture references along the way. I would call this GotY if it weren't for the absolute stacked year we're about to have with games. This game is still a banger and a must play, it's short and sweet and constant fun. One of the best games I've played in the last 5 years easily.

It's a really good time to be a Final Fantasy fan. I'm a bit torn between giving this a 4 and a 4.5, but I think it stands out enough to warrant the higher marks. While it does stumble a bit with pacing and lack of characterization for side characters, it still delivers a powerful story from start to finish. This game also pulls a lot of inspiration from my favorite FF, FFIV, in its tone and setting so it really felt like playing a modern take on that aesthetic. I was a bit disappointed that none of the Bahamut skills involved Dragoon type attacks, and I just found myself wishing I could play a FF action game as a Dragoon with similar combat.
This game is a spectacle, the soundtrack, graphics, and combat all come together to make some truly unforgettable moments. There were so many times during boss fights where the music would sync absolutely perfectly with what was happening on screen. It aligned so perfectly during the Bahamut fight that my jaw genuinely dropped in shock. I don't usually physically react to games like that, so it was pretty noteworthy.
The game does have a few pacing issues though, notably during the Dhalmekia arc. I also feel like it didn't help that many of the side quests just felt lackluster in comparison to the main scenario. Seriously, these side quests never stood a chance. You'll go from these epic, cinematic fights with demigods one minute, to collecting soil samples the next. Thankfully the game marks side quests that are worth doing with a plus mark, I really appreciated that.
The combat was at it's best when stumbling across new powerful enemies in the early game. I definitely feel like you get a little too powerful in the second half of the game, but those fights when you only have Phoenix and Garuda were so thrilling.
Crafting also feels oddly... pointless? By the end of the game I had thousands of materials, but the most powerful gear. It feels like maybe they planned for you to be able to kit out party members or have more options for Eikon specific gear, but cut it leaving hundreds of chests with useless crafting materials in the world.
Not sure what else to say. I feel like this game unfortunately got overshadowed by a lot of the other insane releases last year. I grabbed it on sale for $35 only about 5 months after release, felt a bit wrong to me as I thought it was well worth full price. Remarkable game though, despite its shortcomings. The ending also absolutely WRECKED me and I WAS NOT expecting it to. Something about the flashback scenes and the music, maybe it's because I also have a brother about the same age gap as Clive and Joshua.

Dandori today... Dandori tomorrow...
I didn't play Pikmin for the first time until 2020, but I feel like it's a very underrated Nintendo series. It feels very unique in its identity with not a lot of similar games out there.

Pikmin 4 feels like the ultimate Pikmin game. Caves return to give a bit more depth to the game, there are tons of areas and interesting situations to navigate using your silly little guys. Dandori battles and time challenges were a good way to add some difficulty because the game is quite easy.

My only gripes with the game were that the soundtrack didn't go as hard as past Pikmin games and that it was a bit long to the point of feeling repetitive. I didn't quite 100% it, but was very close, and I just couldn't be bothered to go back in and get the 4 treasures I was missing.

Also I'm very happy that this game is currently sitting at 4.4.

This game really didn't click with me. I've played a couple other Yakuza games and enjoyed them, but nothing seems to be working well in Yakuza 7. The first couple chapters are kind of intriguing as you meet your party members and get your bearings in the new city, but soon after I felt like I was just going from cutscene to cutscene with some random fights mixed in. It also seems like the characters talk in circles sometimes, stating the same thing a couple times over in different ways. The underground dungeon was an absolute slog, and seemed to be the turning point where I started losing interest. It took quite literally an hour and a half of just running through identical looking hallways fighting bland enemies to clear.
I don't really know how this game is sitting at 4.3 on this site and mid to high 80s on review aggregates. I guess it just isn't for me, which is a shame because I typically like Yakuza games.

This is a really solid remaster of an already great game, however it could have used some QoL updates like placeable map markers. Too many times the way forward involved backtracking to an area where there was a spider ball track or grapple hook tucked away somewhere. Also, maybe I missed something, but there were 4 Chozo Artifacts that you weren't given hints for and I didn't even attempt to find them on my own. Other than that, it's a great game with some nice QoL improvements like modern FPS controls among other things.

This was my second Monster Hunter game and I enjoyed it a lot, probably due to the fact that it had crossplay allowing me to play with my friends. It's like the bare minimum considering it's only the Windows Store and Xbox versions, but it's still more than most games can say they have.
The wirebugs and silkbind attacks add a lot of mobility to the weighty Monster Hunter gameplay. I think it strikes a good balance between needing to think about your movements, while also letting you become an anime hero.
Overall great game

Such a blast. The combat is weighty and satisfying. Blowing up bugs with different weapons and gear is made all the more satisfying with the sound design and visuals of guts exploding everywhere. Bugs and bots play completely different too, it almost feels like two separate games. Running through a dark, dense jungle as lasers from the automatons zip all around you makes for some tense, really atmospheric moments. Honestly, as you slowly get better at the game and slowly crank up the difficulty, they manage to maintain this really nice balance of tension and power fantasy. Can't wait to see how updates evolve the game over time. Definitely an Evergreen title that I'll keep coming back to over the years.