A frustrating experience. Frustrating because what's good here is really great close to masterful even. But it's always marred by the issues the game has in design and execution that drags the experience into mediocrity.

The great:

- Combat and vocations. The combat is a lot of fun and the abilities are varied and all feel useful. I tried few vocations and they all were more fun than what I imagined them to be.

- The Pawn system. They legit felt like a party alongside you on the journey. using strangers or friends pawns was really cool to see what they are using. The pawns AI was mostly great as well. Catching you as you fall, offering hints to quest and fights.

- Some of the quests were brilliant. The quests were obtuse and vague but I felt in a good way. It lead to experimentation and once you figure things out, you feel pretty good about yourself. Some really creative quests that allowed multiple solutions. Many quests had choices that led to drastic results.

- Some of the game friction is actually great and unique. Missable quests for example. I liked a game having many quests that get missed either because you ignored them for too long or you progressed the main story. It makes the game more unique and choosing your time on the quests feels meaningful.

The bad:

- Enemy variety and density. There is a lot of talk about the friction this games offer, like the lack of easy fast travel. Itsuno said "if traveling is boring you would have to use fast ravel then your game is boring" Well Itsuno, you made the most boring game to travel in. Because the game lacks enemy variety you would have to go through the same enemies through the whole journey back and forth. Skipping and using easier fast travel option would have been less boring. The game doesn't have good traversal system either. Just walk on foot with stamina gauge all the time. Many games that offered fast travel I didn't use because traversing those world were fun. Not here..

-Many of the quests were just fetch quests going through the same locations over and over to grab flowers or some rocks.. Other quests were escort missions with the classic NPCs slower than the player. Just tedium designs really.

- Lack of location variety. Really mostly just two locations through the whole game.

- Terrible performance and frame pacing. The game looks great but horrible performance in cities that has most of the quests anyways.
- The game is quiet buggy. Many quests bugged, many enemies died in glitches, many of my pawns just died by getting stuck to the ground.
- The plot and story lol...

I came out feeling the game is undercooked and unfinished. From the quests, locales, enemy variety, and story. Even the great combat could have used extra abilities. Just another wasted potential game.

7/10

Great adventure. The game is one of the biggest jumps in a sequel I've seen.
There is a lot to love here.

Things I loved:
- The cast is a amazing and definitely the game's biggest strength. So many standout moments and they all got moments to shine.
- The combat has evolved and it remains super engaging through out most of the playthrough.
- The amount of gameplay mechanics here are astonishing. So many mini games and tailored segments. Not all of them work but they swung for the fences so I appreciate they tried.
- The maps feel hand crafted and they all have unique sense of presence.
- Many traversal options, combat style and nice battles and side quests in the world. Towns were a highlight especially missed in so many recent games.

Things I didn't like:
- Execution of the story. I felt it was clunky and not impactful. Most of the game didn't have a moving main arch for the story.
- Many side activities were filler like the rocks, chocobo sniffing, etc
- We didn't get many new Materia or cool ones. I feel that's because of Remake used most of them. Also wish summon fights were in the world.
- Chadley and MAI.

Score: 9/10

This is my first time with Persona 3 in any capacity. My only experience with the series is completing vanilla Persona 5.
P3R is great remake for first timers like me who don't want to go back to older combat systems and quality of life issues.
The persona calendar system is such a unique thing in gaming I enjoy diving into those game once a while. Each decision feels meaningful. Choosing your friends knowing there are some you won't be able to max -playing blindly- made me pick and choose who I want to know more of. The background music and stylish visuals made the whole 90 hours journey a treat.

Things I liked:
- Great cast of characters especially the party. I liked the entire party and everyone in the dorm I enjoyed spending time with.
- The combat is a lot of fun. Finding weaknesses, managing SP, Theurgy and all the systems didn't get old.
- Some of the the social links really stood out like Akinari. And I will remember some of those for a good time
- The music was great and I will listen to the OST for a long time.

Things I didn't like as much
- Tartarus was a bit long, I wish it was half its length. Many levels were just one corridor. Not sure what's the point.
- Some social links were forgettable.
- Night time became quickly boring cause it had only 2 social links and the stats were buffed by October. Wish they added more social links there.

Frustrating game. It had the ingredients of being a great game but fumbled it in a lot of ways. Most of all is the lack of polish in every corner. Everything in the game felt unpolished. Janky combat, animations, and getting stuck all the time. Janky cutscenes. Bugs, crashes, screen tearing and loads of performance issues. Can't have immersion in the game at all because some random glitch or issue would occur every few seconds. The combat had some nice stances and moves but the jank hurts a lot of it. The souls like bonfire harm the experience more than it adds. Most of the plot wasn't interesting until close to the end of the game. The characters were good and some setpieces and traversal were fun. The levels from art and design stand point was good and the highlight of the game alongside the platforming and puzzles.

A lot of the bosses were almost good except for the cutscenes, QTEs, and setpieces interruptions and then you would have to redo those on reattempts. Lack of polish in these fights add to the frustrations. Do the devil trigger move that obscure most of the screen and the boss initiated a setpiece move? you gonna be blurred through that thing. if the game had an extra year in the oven it could have been really good but sadly it's only ok.

One of my favorite Metroidvanina of all time. It had bar none the best combat in any one of them. The platforming was amazing. The boss fights were some of the best in 2D gaming. The combat came together perfectly together and each ability added to the moveset to become something really special in the genre. The game was challenging but in a fun and satisfying way. Sargon was a good character, the story was alright but not really looking for story in those games. My one gripe is I wish the artstyle was more of standout than it was but the game had clear visibility which is appreciated.

I didn't expect to like this game as much as I did. Souls likes are often a miss and I wasn't impressed with the game beta. Well this is ended up to be a major surprise.

The game begining was very friendly and it felt the game was more concerned of being enjoyable than hard. The game often gave many mini shortcuts and checkpoints. The initial bosses were on the easy side as well. That was a great way to keep me hooked. The game does many good things despite it carrying its inspiration proudly. The parry mechanic is tighter than most games. The healing back system was interesting twist on the Bloodborne one. Weapon assembly lead to some cool weapon creations. For the first time in one of those games that I played and leveled many weapons. The legion arm and fable arts were good additions. The game might have had too many systems but I think that keep the playthrough fun.

The levels was a highlight for me. Both from aesthetic and level design. Each place felt unique and lived in. The city of Krat felt like an actual place with reasonable locales. The enemy placement was genuinely fun and each time you felt there was a need for checkpoint there was either a stargazer or a checkpoint.

The bosses were another highlight here. Most of them felt fair and their moves were easily telegraphed. Some of the bosses are gonna end up among the highest in the genre for me.

Finally, the story and characters was another pleasant surprised. I liked these characters and felt for them. Which is not something I normally care about in these games. The plot had some nice twists and turns.

My major con is the game often feels like an imitation and veered too close on being a copycat like some level layouts and some boss designs. Another slight nitpick for me is the lack of major optional areas to explore. The levels had some secret paths and hidden items but there was no major area to explore with a boss and unique enemies.

One of the worst games in the series.
Padded, pointless, and just mediocre all around.
The game didn't have a good villain, plot, or side activities.
The combat starts good but it doesn't evolve. The levels are the same places repeated. The new trick is making encounters be like a mouso game, with a lot of enemies. I guess that's a fine change but it's probably here to hide how limited the combat is.
The game was utterly pointless and a waste of time. Probably would recommend someone watching 10 minutes recap of whatever doesn't even happen in this game.

- Great combat and boss fights
- Amazing artstyle and soundtrack
- From Soft best story yet
- New Game + modes adds more missions and changes to the structure and plot in an interesting way.

only con is some missions are not good or the game way of making encounters harder is by not giving checkpoints.

Memorable characters and cast with a lot of quirks to them. The main plot was on the weaker side but it had nice twists and turns to keep players hooked. the lore is pretty interesting as well.


Combat is a bit chaotic but in a good way. some fights are too messy though.
The locations were varied and had a lot of secrets to discover. The towns and city felt lively.
The RPG elements in this game were exceedingly good. A lot of impactful and hard choices and decisions had to be mad.

My TOTK thought:
Pros:
- New tools are great, a lot to do with them and so much better than older tools.
- Sky to land to depths is really awesome idea and works seamlessly.
- A lot of the world feel less empty and has more content in it to do stuff in.
- The towers made exploration much more enjoyable especially since the map was already familiar.
- The main story quests are 10/10. There is an actual campaign and story here with multiple things to do.
- The story is actually good and had a lot of great moments. it was easier to find the memories and it weaved well into main quest.
- Almost every single one of the 92 shrines I did was enjoyable. The puzzles were fun the combat ones were neatly designed.
- Music was great and more felt through out the game.
- Great enemy variety, some really good and unique bosses even if too easy.

Cons:
- Combat mechanics. After150 hours between this and BOTW and I still don't like it and avoid many combat encounters.
- Weapons still shouldn't break. Fuse helped but the fused mat should break and keep the base. Literally no reason.
- Side quests are mostly MMO fetch quests. Some good ones the exceptions.
- Repeated quests, encounters, and the sky islands being repeated was a shame.

Would give 9.5/10 right now.