Samus returns easily sports the best combat of any metroid I’ve played so far with smooth movement and added depth, aswell as a vast world to explore,to the point where it’s actually somewhat overwhelming,the traversal especially with the space jump is extremely fun and the puzzles are far better than previous entries even if some were clear as to what to do, this is wall without mention that Samus is probably cooler here than shes ever been before with the help of cinematics. All these amazing things being said this is probably still my least favourite metroid and that is because it is repetitive to no end,essentially all the enemies are reskins of one another,you do the same bosses so many times it becomes more of a chore than a challenge and there are really only 3 bosses with varying movesets that are interesting to fight (ily riddley),however, even with these flaws it is still nothing short of great

This game is basically everything I’ve praised other metroidvanias for and more(and also quite possibly my goat metroidvania). the way its story unfolds is great,the exploration is plentiful,the combat and movement the smoothest ive experienced in a metroidvania along with challenging and engaging boss fights that are well thought-out and can allow easy victory as long as you’re sharp about how you use your abilities,this is all without mentioning the emmis which are probably my favourite unstoppable force in the series above sa-x and zero missions space pirates. i genuinely cannot think of a single problem in this game besides the fact that at the end of the day Soma Cruz>

Beginning with what i didn’t like, the encounter rate was far too high, it got kind of obnoxious at times and it probably would’ve been a much less enjoyable experience without estoma. The way status effects changed whether or not you were able to use items wasn’t something that left a good taste in my mouth especially while i had to backtrack to the start of the dungeon because there was no way to cure my ailments, and the exploration is definitely not a strong suit (although it has helped me get used to first person dungeon crawling a lot) a lot of the dungeons are pretty large and the relatively slow pace your character moves at doesn’t help with the amount of enemies you’ll be encountering,this was definitely a much bigger issue in the final dungeon which was so unbelievably vast you’d spend a good chunk of time just walking and the game could be pretty confusing, in the last dungeon especially considering its never really (to my knowledge) hinted you had to enter the heart of the cathedral from a certain side, not even a slight mention inna dialogue box or something.

The combat is pretty standard for the most part, nothing very offensive, bosses in this game are relatively standard,my only complaint being that none of them really ever felt too special to me and were far too easy(95% of them could be beaten with simply stun locking with zionga and stacking buffs), even the final boss. The dungeons aren’t very special to me but they definitely didn’t upset me bar the final one and how tedious it could be. Now with what i actually do like, this game boasts a pretty interesting plot (although with an ending that left me unsatisfied),a vast world that changes as your story progresses and amazing art work but what stands out the most to me is its music and how it sets atmosphere/tone, whether it be the intenseness of the ginza track, the tranquility of the mansion theme or the feeling of impending doom given by the chaos theme,also this ending theme rules

(This review is written from the perspective as someone whos only played this games story mode)

I actually really like this game, i thought that it'd be much less of a product than i was getting when i first bought it. The first seven missions are some of the least fun ive had in my entire life, with weird enemies that arent to fight and a zone control game mode that turns it from an action game to a strategy game which i wasnt a fan of, although after the first seven missions it doesnt make another appearance except for another mission where its a much more enjoyable time,

The controls are similar to the dmc games in how you lock on and then use simple directional inputs like back or forward to determine what moves you use, the combat can be very fun and for the most part it is, but, the combat is too clunky, a lot of moves dont flow together very well (atleast on sol who you play as most of the story), the worst case of the clunky combat is how long you arent really able to move after you input some moves, you do the move and then youre left sitting there for much longer than you should be, although i think if this game were made today my issues listed might not even exist.

This games music is phenomenal and of the entries that i've played (strive,xrd2 and +r) it is very easily my favourite soundtrack and the designs are top notch at virtually every corner (ky's sucks), sol, sin, izuna, paradigm, valentine its banger after banger after banger with these things and the art style is amazing especially of the sprites with sol and sin's being my favourites.

I actually ended up liking the story quite a bit, the characters have some very fun interactions and even some well written scenes i feel, Sol and That Man's interactions making for some of the best, Valentine falls flat for me but makes up with it for her significance to sol.

The most surprising thing to me when playing this game was the voice acting, i think that just about every character is given great voice actors (especially sin and that man with yuri lowenthal) that deliver amazing performances.

This game also houses some amazing boss fights with amazing scores, the three best being Sin,That Man and Valentine's second boss fight, withh Valentine mark 2 being one of my favourite fights not just in its music but in spectacle aswell, truly a great game and i would love to see a game like this return as a future (spinoff) title

This game features a standard story with troupey villains that had potential but didnt fulfill it, with fun sometimes challenging boss fights and fun exploration, a good overall soundtrack and it has systems that i think it executes pretty well, the weapon crafting line system made getting your weapons feel even more rewarding and left you with a nice feeling when you did finish a crafting line, the souls system is just as amazing as it was in aria of sorrow although i feel that the games art style lacks in comparison to pretty much every single entry

This is a great game but it is very flawed, there is far too much backtracking and walking to the point its very tedious, it tries to do what sotn does with two castles except sotn's two castles concept worked because you didnt have to fucking backtrack between the castles to reach different areas, causing (often) tedious and unnecessary walking and backtracking.

The game itself is also much more confusing when compared to other entries, the most confused i ever was in game was in Dawn of Sorrow but i was never stuck for long and it always still flowed really nicely but hod just doesnt feel like that, it can be confusing and not in the way that you have a lot to explore and thats cool and as you explore you open up more to the games story and progress, its just confusing.

The environments arent much to look at either and pale in comparison to previous entries, along with the fact the music while good at times is still lacking, although the game like all castlevanias has amazing art direction with beautiful sprite work on items, portraits, enemies, Juste himself, weapons, spells, etc

This game may have some of the most boring boss fights of any metroidvania possibly even game ive played, so much of the bosses in this game just feel sort of the same or boring, whether it be their simple easy to dodge moveset or the designs themselves the bosses leave a lot to be desired. The bosses' being as lackluster as they are is unfortunate when taken into consideration the one thing about this game that stands out, the combat, the dodges are changed from only having a backdash to a forward and backdash, which in my opinion is pretty good addition since i used to run in the wrong direction and dodge into the boss. The second part of this game's combat which i am a fan of is spell books, elemental types that create different spells for each subweapon (can be toggled on and off) it makes for a pretty good addition and is probably my favourite castlevania subweapon system behind souls. Theres also different types of whips, like elemental whips although i dont think they do much, theres also a weapon that lets you charge an atteck a whip that adds a material on its tip flatly increasing the damage its nothing special.

Unfortunately the story in this game isnt very good, although i've never LOVED these stories (besides Aria of Sorrow and a little bit of Dawn), theyve always had great dialogue and cool interactions (especially sotn) but this game's story is just bland, its pretty predictable and just doesnt leave a good taste in my mouth.

Overall Harmony of Dissonance is a good game albeit very flawed and it brings down the experience a decent chunk

This is one of the funniest games ive ever played, its "gameplay" is very simply drag and drop giving you enough freedom to do whatever and net you a multitude of different endings but thats no where it shines the most.

This game shines the most in its character interactions and flawless spritework, there are mountains of loveable characters with all their own fun interactions, whether that be with some of the other characters or just you the player and the comedy is handled with an air of silliness sometimes and while it is a very funny game it does take itself seriously when it needs to, having a very heartfelt ending about regret, moving on and mending mistakes.

I ran out of things to say broken heart emoji

Overall its a pretty good vn, great sprite work, fun characters, great ending blah blahh blah