an actual video game, made for entertainment purposes.

is this good for the player? (no)

a nice collection. good to re-experience DDD even though it is far from my favorite in the series; great to have it brought forward and accessible to more players.

Loved 0.2, beautiful game; fully re-ignited my hype for KH3 again.

Back Cover -- actually came through positive for me. it looks great, adds some lore, and presents a very intriguing ending which also added steam to the KH3 hype train.

My long-drawn out series replay and KH3 preparation is finally complete. Kingdom Hearts III will be played in 2024!

stats:
January 2, 2024 - January 9, 2024
26h32m
27/69 achievements
975/2000 gamerscore

Aqua💙

Kingdom Hearts in unreal engine is beautiful. Feels awesome to play. The magic is incredible. Very wow indeed.

Short, sweet fragmentary passage, a beautiful little journey; loved it. 5 stars no prob gg is what I’m feeling at present. Might relax and take a step back from it later once the emotions have settled, but that was so cool, and the hype is, finally, now very real for KH3.

And..also…the very little flowmotion in this felt much, much better to me than in DDD. It is more deliberate here; I think that may be my issue with it in DDD— it’s too fast, says the olden timer.


Bonus nice feelings gained from this game: I switched the color theme on my Xbox to blue, so the achievement notifications were blue— a small, yet very satisfying little union with this beautiful game and with Aqua💙.

This review contains spoilers

while I appreciate it more now than when I played it on 3DS, it will remain second-to-last place in the series for me-- right above the undisputed basement dweller that is Re:Coded, of course. don't really like the dream eaters (for the love of Xion, please just give me Donald and Goofy), especially their tie to abilities and commands. also don't much care for flowmotion. and that's literally the two main facets of gameplay, so not enjoying them is going to make this game difficult to enjoy. took a bit of doing to get used to playing the way this game wants you to-- and you have to, cause playing it like 1 or 2 or even BBS is going to be a struggle. took about till the end of The Grid for things to click into place this time. and on that note, The Grid is awful and is one of the worst worlds in the series, if not the worst. just garbage. But I did find a good enough groove with the gameplay. And balloonra. I honestly don’t think I used balloon commands heavily or much at all when I played on 3DS and if that’s true I don’t know how I beat it, so maybe I did use balloon commands. Either way, I had fun wrecking everything with balloons in this game.

the story is confusing, but it is interesting and is the final-ish table setting for 3 and I don't dislike it. cool to have so much Riku time. and there are a lot of scenes I really like, even love. Sora shedding a tear at seeing Xion? yea that'll do it. every sighting of Terra, Aqua, Ventus, Roxas, Xion, et al. are wonderful. Lea is awesome. and Xigbar remains a great antagonist. and there is of course some real nice music, too. Feel like I’m talking myself into liking this more.

overall content to have re-experienced it, nice to get a refresher on the story. Like the story, the gameplay not so much.

and so my long drawn out series replay comes to an end. with 0.2 on the near horizon, I may finally actually finally play KH3 this year.

by the blood, that final cutscene-- a perfect union of writing and voice/line delivery.

And that is Bloodborne fully sorted. Wonderful, terrifying, lovely, weirdass game.

its like that who would have thought meme but its me looking in the mirror after beating (and getting the platinum for) Bloodborne, my first FromSoft game. and I can still hardly believe I've actually done it. incredible game, and quite a journey-- one that started all the way back in January, but faltered at old yharnam due to frustration, confusion, and anxiety. but with a renewed vigor and an exceptional guide (FightinCowboy on youtube), I picked it backed up last week, and well, here we are. I think I get it now, these games. everything they've said, it is all true. I couldn't get enough, through all the struggles and triumphs-- I just wanted to play more Bloodborne. and so we must continue, as the good blood guides us to The Old Hunters DLC. Also feels like a gateway to the rest of the games-- Elden Ring isn't the only other one I want to play now. Demon's Souls and Dark Souls also have my attention.

5-star collection, no prob gg. provided me with my first experiences of the final mixes of KH1, KH2, and BBS; also the first time I actually beat RE:COM. all remastered in HD-- what more could a boy ask for? one thing actually: full 358/2 game would have been great, but that would have also probably come with Re:Coded full game-- and we wouldn't want that would we?

will likely return at some point in my life due to my love of the franchise and the completionist in me wanting to 100% and get all achievements, but for now this chapter of my long drawn out series replay and journey to finally playing KH3 is complete. onto 2.8 (soon).

stats:
June 1, 2021 - December 13, 2023
238h29m
160/197 achievements
3035/4000 gamerscore

This review contains spoilers

enjoyed a fair bit more than my original, non-FM outing on PSP, mostly due to playing it on not the PSP. Love the overarching story of Terra, Ventus, and Aqua and all the connections that are revealed to the rest of the games; some real crazy, near mind-blowing stuff at times. that being said, I do not enjoy the Disney worlds and they’re contained stories very much. The first three worlds may be the worst in the franchise as I can recollect (except for the abomination that is KH2 Atlantica). so re-doing them on the second and third characters is a slog; but things get a lot better and move along quicker once you get to Radiant Garden. overall I enjoy the overlapping story and the blanks getting filled in. The combat did grow on me again, and it is fun getting powerful commands and going nuts with a full deck, but I still prefer the simpler combat of KH1 and KH2. The secret episode is great, very cool to have a new piece I haven't experienced before, thanks to the final mix. so it is another step on the long replay journey building up to eventually finally playing KH3. only a KH: 3D replay stands in my way of new KH gaming.

Unlike 1 and 2, really have no desire to 100% this game (and not just because I fucked up real bad and saved over my terra file…[still was able to get the final and secret eps without having to replay tho]). Just seems like more of a chore even tho it probably actually isn’t. didn’t beat any secret bosses either; grinded to get the secret episode on standard, so was a much higher level and thought I’d give it a go, but vanitas remnant killed me in on hit so like yea no.

I believe I will still have to leave BBS in 4th place behind 1, 2, and 358/2 — https://www.backloggd.com/u/MrSacamano/list/kingdom-hearts-rankings/

pretty good. nice to play a new, linear, non-bloated gears story. and I like the characters; Lahni, Hana, Keegan, Hoffman-- even Mac grew on my by the end. hadn't touched gears 5 since acquiring the series x-- pretty sharp.

wonderful game. my first experience with Vice City and I love it. the vibes are just immaculate. feels so much better than III. Ray Liotta leading the superb voice cast helps with that, but the soundtrack, the bright lights, the sun, the beach, the characters, the story. it all just fits together as a package much better than III did for me, which I played for the first time recently as well. And I actually wanted to do some of the side content as well, partly because I just wanted to hang out in Vice City and drive around--- but also because, unlike in GTA III, I didn't feel like the game was trying to fuck me over just for playing it. This is my favorite of the three from that era, by far.

More bad not good DLC. Played via the PS4 Mafia II: DE. The first mission tricks you into thinking it will be kind of a real DLC but it’s just more of the same jimmys vendetta bullshit

terrible. played via the PS4 Mafia II: Definitive Edition. who the fuck is jimmy, what's the point of this? its just a bunch of little side missions that could have been in the base game--but glad they weren't, because they weren't fun to play and the base game did not need to be bogged down by this sort of content.

Wanted to give Rogue another shot, as I only rushed through the story in the original version. I do remember why now. it is a very short story, and it is minuscule compared to the amount of side content in this game. it is not too bad of a story, really, and the ending is still cool/was half mind blowing having played Unity first.

the problem is this game just doesn't feel as fun to play, for some reason. you could make the case that the naval combat is better than in black flag but for some reason I just didn't want to do it. none of the side content feels good to play really. perhaps its just the sentiment that this would have made a great DLC if they had not bloated it with side content to make it a full game release. I think the parkour might be the worst in the series, as far as going where you want/should/expect to go. it almost feels as if they dumbed down the parkour to make the game "longer"-- which doesn't make any sense, but that's a thought I had while playing..

all that being said, halfway through the story and having done my usual AC quantity of side content by that point, I was thinking that I would just plow through the rest of the story and be done with it...but little did I know I would end up doing a lot of the side content..and not totally hating it.. part of it comes from the achievement hunter part of me (which I am trying to stamp out) and the other was just wanting to get the Morrigan upgraded, cause it looks fuckin awesome when its fully upgraded and with the templar sails.

Other positives:
- the treasure maps are more accurate than black flag; the coordinates take you directly to the dig site, not just the location on the map, where you then have to find the picture on the map. so that was nice.

- got some real good outfits, James Gunn being my favorite.

- James Cook and Hope favorite characters.

- Penguins.

And with that, the proverbial, dumb, self-imposed weight of my assassins creed backlog is off my proverbial shoulders. No longer will I look upon my backlog and see remnants of an assassins creed fire sale, full of games I’ve played before. No longer will I see an Assman creed game releasing and say no I cannot purchase you, for I still have assman creed games in my backlog. I have played all the assman creeds prior to Valhalla, and if they were released twice, I’ve played them twice (and how). But those days are over, all the old titles are now laid to rest. I now have only Valhalla and Mirage on the horizon. Though they may be fended off by my overall backlog, it will no longer be assman on assman crime.