Ace Combat back in excellent form with the exciting arcadey gameplay, phenomenal music, and cheesy writing you've come to expect with some outstanding visuals. The multiplayer is pretty nuts too. I'd have to say I enjoyed the story of Zero more and there were some annoying parts in the missions but overall it was an outstanding experience with tons of heart-pounding moments like the dogfights with mikhaly, uniting the osean and erusian forces, dropping the shield on the arsenal bird, launching as the independent 3 Strikes squadron, and flying out through the space elevator. A brilliant return to form for one of the best video game series.

By far the most soulful game ever created. The soundtrack resonates with me and the world genuinely feels better realized than most high budget games these days. Visiting Tomato convenience store and taking daily walks to the You Arcade to play Hang On offers an experience you just can't get in other games. Walking around the streets during Christmas time is pure unadulterated comfy. Surprisingly the voice acting isn't grating at all, maybe just because of the nostalgia but I feel Ryo's voice fits very well. A lot of people these days say there's no need for Shenmue in the current industry because Yakuza is just better but in my eyes they offer completely different experiences. It's refreshing how nearly everyone in town knows Ryo and can have casual conversations with him.
While the story does start on a strong note, it does drag a bit in the first half as you investigate and just go around asking questions to random NPCs. It becomes more compelling in the second half with confronting the mad angels and rescuing Nozomi as well as being littered with nice events like becoming bros with Goro and saying an emotional farewell to Tom. Having Ryo finally decide to just take a break and eat a hot dog right before Tom leaves was a great touch. Working at the docks is surprisingly comfy but I feel having to do it for 5 days (more if you miss something they want you to do on those days) in a row is a tad much. The amount of waiting around you have to do and some annoying combat encounters do drag the game down a bit but in the grand scheme of things the amount of soul poured into the game makes up for it in spades.

Extremely comfy cowboy sim that looks and sounds great. I had a very nice time just riding around from mission to mission in the open world. Arthur is one of the most sympathetic video game characters I've ever played as and I felt worse about him catching tuberculosis than I feel about most characters' deaths. His voice acting was phenomenal and the progression of his feelings regarding Dutch was perfectly executed. I felt his pain when Dutch tried to leave him to his death at the oil field and when he stepped on the gun in the final scene. He also singlehandedly raised my opinion of realistic graphics in video games because I doubt the best scenes would have had as much of an impact if I couldn't see the subtle expressiveness of his face. Aside from Arthur, the game is just riddled with excellent highlights like the assault on the Braithwaite manor, Arthur's last conversation with Reverend Swanson, and the whole epilogue which retroactively improved the already great RDR1. The soundtrack was also stellar, which is a very rare thing to bring up when talking about a western AAA game I feel. The only cons I could raise against the game would be the Guarma chapter was kinda lackluster, the gameplay is satisfying but can get tiring in long sessions especially with rockstar's typical railroading, holding X so much hurt my thumb, and Sadie got annoying sometimes, but overall it was a great journey.

Great game. The struggle between the stars army and Highland was very enjoyable to follow and collecting the 108 stars of destiny was a satisfying experience (aside from Gordon who I would like to personally fire spear through the gut). Luca Blight was delightfully evil and the final duel with Jowy was pretty kino. I really liked being able to recruit my Suikoden 1 hero and having a neat little section act like an epilogue for the first game but having to go to gregminster to recruit him EVERY TIME when the game likes to clear your party between plot events was a huge pain. It also sucked having a large chunk of the cities unavailable due to plot reasons when I'm just trying to collect stars but I understand why they did it. The strategy battles are also kinda lame with the damage being so inconsistent but I appreciate the novel concept. For the most part though, the game was a step up from its predecessor in how the story manages to come together so well despite the increase in scope as well as the more interesting cast and polished gameplay.

True to the first game it presents a compelling mystery, natural dialogue and a cast of characters that all serve a purpose throughout the story. I would have to say I enjoyed the first game more, mostly due to its novelty but also because I prefer the first game's cast. Wil and Betty feel underused while Marie and Rex feel like they bowed out of the spotlight a bit too soon. Last Window has a lot to love as well, however. Tony was a bro just like Louis and had a surprisingly emotional scene where he revealed his own insecurities. Dylan was a well-executed character you should hate and the folks at Lucky Cafe did a great job at making you feel at home. Also the Christmas Eve section was just pure good vibes all around. I also appreciated the writers delving into the subject of Kyle's family and I felt like Kyle's attitude toward it was very mature and realistic. His goal is to discover what happened to his dad but he doesn't become uncharacteristically emotional over it, even when he's looking at the same view his dad had when he took a bullet. Overall it was a very enjoyable experience and a very solid followup to one of the best games on the DS. Too bad the dev's dead RIP.