Really good, most peoples issues with this expansion is from not having the reading comprehension or attention span of an adult. like idk man expansions about poltical drama, rebellion, imperialism, how a systems flaws may not get better before or after occupation, and how broken systems raise broken families and broken people, and how evil is not born, but made as a product of its surroundings. All wrapped up in the tale of a man who lives for the thrill of facing someone who could give him a worthy fight, a fight for reclaiming ones homeland from occupation and raising a nation from slavery to freedom. To find ones culture and ways of life when its been removed from those people during occupation, and also to go fight an ancient superweapon and a powerful primal. Shits good!

Beauty and self reflection in darkness

Shadowbringers is a very unique and an emotionally tugging expansion for Final Fantasy XIV for which I put an ungodly amount of hours on during its run and now that Endwalker is on the horizon that I wanted to put my thoughts into words during the last 2 years playing this game. An overall great expansion with good content, amazing soundtrack by Soken, job changes that feel great and last but not least an amazing story that really rivals other Final Fantasy games that sadly comes with a huge price on your time.

The biggest reason this expansion is as beloved as it is the story, the characters and the soundtrack that comes as an culmination of everything that FFXIV was before. A new realm that brings along brand new and distinct areas make each trip to them feel unique compared to the contrast of Stormblood areas being half the areas looking the same with the same rock formations down to the color scheme of it all. The gorgeous pink flora of one area down to the whimsical and magical aura another area brings in this expansion. The story itself doesn't pull any punches compared to its predecessors and unfortunate pacing issues that the format of an MMO brings but the payoffs and some of them years in the making all the worthwhile here. A noticeable change is Soken having more free rein here as he mixes multiple genres in the soundtrack including rock, jazz, waltz and even electronic to an extent and manages to mesh well and really enhance some of the best moments this game has to offer. Jobs feel their most complete in this expansion and each of them manages to still something unique to the table as I leveled each one to 80. The post patch content is more varied this time around with the only noticeable sacrifice being no Palace of the Dead alternative but more it's combined with the relic/eureka system so you can work on your relics while leveling your 70+ classes as well.

Not much to say in terms of flaws other than the unfortunate circumstances that might not register as flaws to some people that enjoy the genre in general. To even get to this point in the game is a huge time investment if you really want what the story wants to offer and that's a big ask for some people. The game does also suffer from some pacing issues but they're rarely present and still important to the overall plot.

A lot of the flaws itself are pretty subjective in what you're into. The story is definitely worth it but it's a mountain to climb and that's only if you want to climb it. There is a reason this expansion is beloved as it is across the community and rightly so. The climb might be perilous but the peak is worth every second. There's a reason almost every friend you might have recommended this MMO to you if you're a fan of FF or japanese role playing games in general.

Become what you must.

At its most fundamental the narrative of Shadowbringers feels alienating, removing us from Eorzea and placing us in a situation that’s seemingly so backwards. A world corrupted by a blinding light so strong it abolished the night, and it’s with this ambiguity of your role as the “Warrior of Light” where Shadowbringers starts to cook all of it’s mastery. Calling into question the unending battle between light and dark that plagues both the series and typical RPG’s, and using the opportunity to instead muse upon the true beating heart of conflict, heroism.

Unlike a work such as AoT which directly criticizes heroism as a shackle which forever catalyzes the endless cycle of violence, Shadowbringers endeavors to celebrate its roots and the righteousness which defines it. By reflecting upon itself through the multi-layered conflict that the lands of Norvrandt contain, we don’t only see the wide and equally personal impact of heroes, but also their necessity. Not only to protect, persevere, and save, but to inspire for our future as the ultimate symbols of both will and humanity at large.

Yet heroism isn’t reserved for just the light, just as Hydaelyn has her champion, so does Zodiark. Each with its own legacy to carry forward, its own right to fight, its own desire for happiness, its own claim to exist. Through this climactic battle of wills and morals is where XIV finds not only it’s strongest emotional beats, but a commentary that will shake anyone cognizant of modern society to their very core.

I’m purely discussing macro here though, because when observing the micro Shadowbringers has a lot of nagging issues consistent with XIV and even of its own design. Yet it’s in the aggregate where you really see the true beauty and elegance of what it was able to accomplish. Ultimately the sin eaters are no different than the Garleans or Dravanias, they are oppressors all the same, but through Norvrandt’s crisis is where XIV is finally able to illuminate its soul, You. The hero who never buckled to your oppressors and continued to keep moving forward, above man and god, towards hell and past it, only to find the answer at the end of the infinite, a glimmer of hope, everlasting.

“Fate can be cruel, but a smile better suits a hero.”

Has it ever happened to you that you're working on a sequel to your 2D handheld platformer for a beloved and iconic IP, and everything is going great because you're fixing a bunch of problems the first game had and designing really cool movement tech and levels that are fun to play, but this guy you don't know keeps sneaking in at night and programming the most dogshit bosses imaginable and adding bottomless pits to ruin all of your levels? What do you mean you gotta collect seven rings in a zone to unlock the special stage AND it's the worst one in the whole entire series!? Somebody needs to stop this guy!!

It’s really a shame that reactions to Stellar Blade are more focused on the fanservice or the coomer reactions. You got one group of people who just focus on the fanservice and hail the game to be the savior of sexualized women in gaming, and then you got the other group who view the game in a negative light because of the first group. And you know what? I can’t even blame them because the first group is really insufferable.

I don't care in the slightest about Stellar Blade having a "sexy" protagonist. I saw a trailer for it once and was immediately interested, because of how fun and unique it looked.

But coomers saw the female Protagonist’s butt and were obnoxious about it ever since. Like come on, it’s bottom of the barrel fanservice you’re going all crazy for. Literally everything I've seen about this game online is people with underaged anime character avatars cream their pants over how this game is "destroying wokeness" or whatever. Nothing against Eve, because she is really pretty and I actually really like her, but she looks like every female character in every korean MMO ever made. It's like people going to war over white bread. Apparently, these guys are now whining about censorship, signing petitions, and making videos of themselves (they look about as you'd expect) about why their cause matters lmao. These pathetic gamerbros will never not be incredibly annoying and cringe to me.

Because Stellar Blade is just so much more. Picture all those apocalyptic gachas and their really great world-building, fantastic atmosphere but really cheap and dull (chibi) gameplay, then amp it up to AAA levels – that's the magic of Stellar Blade.

The environments are beautifully crafted and the atmospheric soundtrack is another aspect I deeply appreciate and thoroughly enjoyed in this game. There's nothing quite like losing yourself in a captivating melody as you journey through vast, lonely landscapes and cities. Just like Nier, Stellar Blade really nailed its soundtrack.

The gameplay is just so much fun and showcases an exceptional level of refinement and polish. Every movement, dodge and parry hit the mark perfectly. The more skills you unlock, the cooler and more fun the combat gets. There's never a dull moment - the gameplay remains consistently exciting and stylish from start to finish.

I found the plot to be really intriguing, and I really enjoyed uncovering plenty of secrets and snippets of lore. But what really surprised me were the sidequests. Sure, some were usual filler content, but most served to make the world feel alive and deepened the lore. Completing them was enjoyable, they never felt like a chore. So good job there.

Oh, and I'm pleasantly surprised by Eve! Initially, I expected her to be the typical "waifu" (ugh, I hate that word), merely there for visual appeal with little personality beyond conforming to generic “anime girl” tropes. Most of these tropes revolve around being “innocent”, "naive" or a "sweet flower girl." But Eve defies those expectations, and I couldn't be happier about it.

Even though Stellar Blade took huge inspiration from Nier and other apocalyptic gacha games, it's still an extremely unique and fun game that everyone should give a chance. Don't listen to the manchildren throwing tantrums or all the buzz about the “fanservice," which is honestly vastly overexaggerated due to some optional skins. Honestly, aside from the optional skins, there are absolutely no horny aspects present in the game.

There are just so many little touches to the point where you can tell the developers really cared about making this game great, and they succeeded. Stellar Blade is simply a beautiful game.

Skyward Sword is often the punching bag for a lot of criticism. Set as a prequel to the series, it tells a strong story much like the other games, but it isn't really the focus. The motion controls are what most people find faults with, yet I never really had any problems, even around 8 years ago when I first played it. It is quite fun to strategise how to defeat enemies by altering the direction of the controller (except for some fights), but I can see how it would affect the experience if the sensor wasn't working properly. It also introduced a lot of creative ideas like the stamina wheel which was later utilised in Breath of the Wild (in a much better way I might add), upgrading your own weapons is also a really nice touch and its fun to try to gather materials.

But, where Skyward Sword really shines for me though, is in its dungeons and soundtrack. The dungeons are some of the best you will find in the series, every single one is distinct from one another, and wonderfully designed. The ones that stand out to me though, are the time-ship and Ancient Cistern. Both have some incredible ideas to them, whether it be gameplay or narrative wise, and their atmosphere is transcendent. The soundtrack would definitely be near the top as well, some of the songs on here are gorgeous and a lot of them fit dungeons and individual areas perfectly.

My main gripes with this game are some of the bossfights, while Koloktos may be the best ever in the franchise, and the final fight is amazing as always, a lot of the rest are mediocre or overly frustrating. Fighting The Imprisoned 3 times is the dumbest fucking idea ever. Another problem is the spirit trials, while they are tense when you first start them, they quickly form a steep difficulty curve and are again, tedious. But the biggest problem here is the Sky, much like Wind Waker with it's vast open sea, it forms the backbone of the game, you are traversing through here a lot, yet, its empty. There is absolutely nothing to do, and it wastes a lot of potential on what could have been a joy to explore. And of course, Fi, but I don't really need to elaborate on that it is probably the most noticeable flaw. I think a lot of my praise for this game is underpinned my nostalgia bias, but I also find a lot of the ideas it presents here are creative and a few of them would be the building-blocks for the next, massive entry.
8/10

Substantial improvement over Trigger Happy Havoc in nearly every way. The cast is so endearing and lovable, and much more consistently written. Even people who I disliked or didn't care for at the beginning ending up completely changing my perspective of them. When the murders eventually start happening, it genuinely hurts to see a character you've gotten to know so well either die or be found out as the culprit - there's some real emotional gut-punches to be found that just aren't there in the prequel. The gimmicks within investigation periods are also brilliant; the separate game to find out the culprit, the funhouse, the main idea of Case 5, it all feels really experimental and it definitely paid off, every case (excluding 3) is superbly written and so damn engaging. The trials are much more involving as well; attacking with the correct piece of evidence and figuring out the culprit is actually more challenging since you don't have someone like Kyoko giving away all the hints, the addition of agreeing with someone in Nonstop Debate is also a clever addition. The Run-2/3-esque Logic Dive is fun as hell to navigate. The truth blades... kind of fucking suck and feel redundant, I would much rather just play another Nonstop Debate, and well Hangman's Gambit will just always be complete shit - but somehow they made it worse here. Really the only other aspect that THH does better in, is the setting and atmopshere. For what it's worth, Goodbye Despair is a near perfect sequel.

This one hit me totally out of left field. What started as a cute-looking little fairytaleish "brother searching for his sister" plot, turns out to be one of the most atmospheric and intriguing games I played in recent years.

The tension is tight; there is a lot of gore and disturbing images; a beautifully designed world with a huge amount of nice little and scary details, packed in a coat of Norse fables.

But what impresses me the most are the boss fights. It's not just the design of the actual boss, but it's its staging. The camera work, juggling with depth of field, and the brilliant use of exposure result in a stunning audiovisual experience.

I highly recommend to check this one out, especially because it's part of the microsoft game pass (as of 04/26/2024), so its more or less free to play if you have a subscription.