Absolute masterpiece of a puzzle game, standing alongside the first as one of my favorite games ever. The story+setting are a compelling and logical followup to the first, and the new group/community dynamic is an interesting contrast with the first game's sense of alienation/solipsism (I get why this puts some people off but I loved Yaqut, Byron, Alcatraz, and Melville). All the philosophical text and audio logs were interesting and emotionally charged, well spread-out between puzzles as well. I especially love the "true" ending one gets after doing all the gold puzzles, so beautiful man

Minor nitpicks I could make are the Prometheus spark chase stars were rather pointless and easy, and each level was maybe a little too massive - leads to sooo much running (although I didn't mind on the more beautiful islands like West 2).

Also probably the dumbest nitpick but if you're a completionist you have to play the game three times if you want to get all three mayor trophies/achieves, kind of rough when there's little replay value

Very glad to have finally beat one of these "impossible" games. At least I think. I'll ask my carpal tunnel about it later. Definitely lite/almost anti(?)-Bennett Foddy because it is fun/satisfying to play (for the most part), possible to control (again, for the most part), and I would love to play another map from this guy (actually! but maybe that defeats the point of this? Whatever.). Hits a good amount of Foddy's musings though maybe not with the same impact and that's okay because I didn't want to kill everyone within a seven mile radius while playing this (or at least not as much) as I did in my few miserable hours of playing and healthily not completing Getting Over It. Wouldn't say that I'm done with this "impossible" genre being I plan on getting Foddy and company's Baby Steps when it comes out (assuming it'll be part of the genre) but this has definitely given me the strength to close the door on all those low-tier, rage bait games that I always have too much interest in.

Katamari Damacy might be the pinnacle of video games. It is all things that are complex while also being extremely simple.

Thanks to Sony, early 2000s analog controls are phenomenal, and Katamari Damacy is atop of the mountain of them. I haven’t enjoyed controls in a game this much since the first Ape Escape (for real this time.) A plethora of moves you can pull off all at the movement of two sticks, immaculate.

An unbelievably, beautifully sounding game. From the text sound effects to the final credits song, there is no piece of music in this game that wasn’t crafted with love. Intimate love. Straight up sex to the ears brother.

Probably the funniest story in any game, rivaled by only Undertale, with a heartwarming message to wrap things up at the end. After every level you complete you're interrupted by cutscenes of a family talking about outer space slowly being pieced back together, by you. The young girl constantly says, “Oh! I feel it! I feel the cosmos!” and it’s both the cutest and funniest thing ever. I love it. I just love it.

The king has some of the best dialogue in gaming history, too. Namco should hold their fists high in celebration of what I think might be the best game ever made.

There’s so much to say about this game, but I want you to go play it yourself. Let this review be a guide into another dimension of gaming. Writing this review made my eyes water, because you just don’t play games like this anymore. Games aren’t made with the same kind of passion and creativity, and it’s really something to behold.

During my play through, my PS2 crashed at “Make a Star 7” and I hadn’t saved since the first level. So I immediately went back and did all that shit again, no hesitation, and enjoyed every second of it. If that’s not enough to get a perfect score, then I don’t know what is. 10/10.

̶I̶ ̶a̶m̶ ̶b̶e̶g̶g̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶w̶e̶e̶b̶s̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶d̶ ̶a̶n̶ ̶a̶c̶t̶u̶a̶l̶ ̶b̶o̶o̶k̶ ̶i̶n̶s̶t̶e̶a̶d̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶c̶a̶l̶l̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶s̶t̶u̶f̶f̶ ̶p̶e̶a̶k̶ ̶f̶i̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶
Honestly, I don't get the hype.
The story on paper had some cool ideas and twists, but it is told in the most long-winded and slowest way possible. Even beyond the 20 hour long "prologue", the rest of it has atrocious pacing, every time the story gets going it has to reset and start a new vignette and delete any momentum that existed, I just could not stand that. The prose was supposed to be beautiful and evocative, but honestly it reads like an average novel, when it's not bogged down by repetitive and saccarine dialogues, at least. The translation's amazing tho. I couldn't connect to most of the characters personally, in the end it all turned out to be one giant trauma porn interconnected blob and that's just not my vibe.
The art and music slap so hard though, only part of the game I really enjoyed. I'm just kind of sad I can't connect positive memories with that beatiful soundtrack.
So yeah, get the writer an editor, shave off like 40% of this game's useless dialogues and maybe you get a decent story.