Another comfort game. Much like all of Suda51’s games, I feel inspired whenever I play Flower, Sun, and Rain. Makes for a great summertime romp, at least for me. Its willingness to intentionally annoy the player will probably frustrate most people but I love it. It’s part of what makes it so interesting. I can’t think of many other examples where the gameplay and writing are this effective at putting the player on the same page as the player character. When you have to repeatedly walk through several large, empty areas, you understand why the protagonist is so grumpy all the time. One of the funniest games I’ve played too. The protagonist punches a child at one point. That alone is worth a perfect score.

Another comfort game. I love when a game is fully committed to making you engage in really mundane tasks. Walking down the hill from your home, passing all the other houses on your way into town, maybe trying your luck with the gacha along the way, making sure to grab some cat food on the way back home, slowly crossing things off your checklist. This shit is exciting to me. Shenmue nails all of that perfectly. Over the course of the game, I became intimately familiar with Yokosuka and its denizens. It almost felt like a second home. It’s one of my favourites. I love it.

Chulip quickly became one of my favourite games after I finished it. I live for these chill, small town Japan vibes. It’s a very slow, sometimes sadistic game that offers little guidance to the player. I can kinda see why it was so poorly received. But if you can get on its wavelength, you’re treated to one of the most relaxing and charming experiences you could have with a game. It features some surprisingly pointed social commentary too. It never gets too dark but it hits pretty hard as an adult.

I’m a big fan of the Japanese approach to open world design where the maps tend to be much smaller and far more dense than western open world games, and are focused on creating an experience that is closer to a simulation. Chulip achieves this perfectly and is its greatest strength. Its greatest weakness is that it does occasionally get a tad too obtuse, however, for the most part I don’t think it’s anywhere near as perplexing as people say it is. I 100%’d it and I’d say roughly 80% I did without a guide, maybe a little less. Anyway, game rules.

Nowadays, I have trouble maintaining interest in almost any game that’s over like 30+ hours, maybe even less than that. I don’t know how I could stomach it when I was younger. There are exceptions however, and Yakuza 0 is one of them. I was completely enamoured the whole way through at somewhere between 90-100 hours, and I still hadn’t come close to 100%. It’s Yakuza tradition to have a mind-boggling degree of variety, but 0 really kicks it up a notch.

Not much to say that hasn’t been said already, but something I do wanna touch on because I don’t hear it talked about much, is how immersive it is, and this applies to all Yakuza games, not just this one. The world is painstakingly detailed. Navigating Kamurocho and Sotenbori feels incredibly organic, especially if you take the time to learn street names and play without the minimap. After a certain point, it begins to feel like how a regular commute feels in real life. All the activities you can do just hammer this home even more. And the ambient audio during exploration is fucking amazing. Seriously, pay attention to that shit the next time you play one of these games.

Anyway yeah it’s one of my favourite games. It rocks.

It’s really fun until the guys with guns start showing up. The quality of the game dips pretty hard at that point. Additionally, as fun as it is, it’s very similar to 4, for better or worse. I find the writing to be disappointing after 4 as well. Gone is the goofiness of 4; it’s replaced by a much flatter script overall.

I wanna shout out how beautiful this game still is, though. I genuinely like the green filter. It adds a lot of character. It’s clearly made with it in mind. And I also think this has some of the best motion blur in a game. It looks awesome. Things like this draw a lot of ire from gamers, but they can be used well, and I think the implementation here is proof of that.

It’s a great romp, particularly with a friend. Definitely recommend.

This game rules.

Everything about the way this game looks and sounds is just perfect, and that’s saying a lot this side of PS1 town. All the 90s post FF7 Square pre-rendered goodness you could ever want, plus surprisingly sophisticated, moody 3D visuals during gameplay. The soundtrack—that is equal parts fusion, electronic and pop—combines with the visuals to create the perfect atmosphere.

The story is bonkers; I don’t wanna spoil anything, just play it.

The gameplay is what surprised me the most. It’s RPG mechanics are remarkably fleshed out for something that, on paper, reads like no more than a novel idea. Car handling feels really good, too—deceptively so for a game that, once again, sounds very gimmicky. The game also offers a diverse array of events, from street races, to rally races, to drag races, to chicken races, which might be my favourite.

It could use some refinement; for example, I got the impression from my playthrough that, despite the potential for many different builds, many didn’t seem too viable, so progression felt pretty linear. I’m also not a huge fan of having to relinquish a random part of your car upon losing a random race (and maybe the event races as well? I don’t remember). It’s such a harsh punishment, I would almost prefer a fail state. Additionally, the collision isn’t great; I never got used to the way you bounce off cars when you collide with them. It’s very jarring.

All of that is pretty minor when you consider what Racing Lagoon does achieve, however. The presentation is firing on all cylinders, and gameplay-wise, it’s far better than something with a premise this gimmicky should be.

And seriously, I cannot stress enough how stylish this game is. It’s unbelievable; worth playing just for that.

I think this is one of my most replayed games ever. I typically like my character action games a little more punishing than this one, but I would argue it’s a near-perfect gateway into the genre as a result. The skill ceiling is high enough to keep you coming back, and the skill floor is low enough that more casual players kinda can just mash their way through most of it. On top of that, you get all the Platinum hype that you expect. This probably still has the best parry in a game besides Third Strike, too.

It’s always saddened me that FFXII isn’t talked about very often. It’s one of my favourite FF games and maybe one of my favourite RPGs.

The zodiac job system offers a dizzying degree of customisation, greatly rewarding those willing to plunge into its depths. A lot of people seem to dislike the more passive combat, but when you finally figure out good builds and gambit loadouts to compliment those builds, watching your strategy succeed is so satisfying.

The Ivalice setting is as well realised as it always is. The writing is far more subdued than typical FFs and features another great localisation by Alexander O. Smith. I’ve seen a lot of people say it’s boring; I love it, personally. I can’t deny it does get much weaker towards the end; its development troubles end up being quite apparent. And I do agree that Vaan and Penelo are bad.

Love Hitoshi Sakimoto’s cinematic soundtrack. Love the detailed towns. Love the voice acting. Love the cutscene direction (much like Vagrant Story, a game developed by a lot of the same key players as FFXII, it has better cutscene direction than most FF games). Love this game.

One of my most favourite games. When I first finished Vagrant Story, I immediately replayed it. That’s a good sign. As much as I like the gameplay and how weird and layered and obtuse it is mechanically, the crushing atmosphere, as well as the still great cutscene direction (it’s funny to think that this game that came out in 2000 has better cutscene direction than a lot of games that would come out over the next 10+ years), my favourite thing about it is the writing. I’m a big fan of Yasumi Matsuno’s games and especially his writing. They’re often devoid of a lot of the melodrama/anime-ness that you expect in a JRPG. Vagrant Story’s script (brilliantly translated by Alexander O. Smith) features very little exposition. This is the key, I think. It’s saved for when the characters themselves need something to be explained to them. It helps it feel so much more immersive. You end up having to piece together a lot of the finer details yourself. As such, it probably has some of my favourite video game writing ever. Unfortunately, it’s not all so amazing. Menu navigation sucks, level design is pretty repetitive and it feels like there isn’t much flexibility in regards to builds given how vital it is to exploit enemy weaknesses. Maybe I just need to experiment more? Excellent otherwise, though.