I played this game using an emulator and I'm not ashamed of it because I used the FF6 Relocalization project which I'll link:
https://sites.google.com/site/ff6relocalized/home

Basically nerd talk and explanation of what that means: It's basically a retranslation of the original SNES script using the GBA port as a base and mixing and matching some of the best parts so there you go. They have a way to mod the PC version to have the OG sprite work because sheesh is that thing ugly and they also have a way to resprite and resound the GBA version but this is the easiest and logical solution to get the best of all worlds. There's also "Anthology" which is the PS1 port that adds some CG custscenes which I just watched off of YouTube because it's only a few of the major scenes.

Anyways, yeah, I'm glad I emulated it especially because of the fast forward function. That first chunk would've been rough without it because you're left just waiting for one of your party's commands to be ready but it eases up as the game goes on because you get pretty busy with the combat.

I'm not a fan of turn-based RPGs which was the main reason I haven't touched a 2D FF game until now so this is my first and oh boy, what a first!

Could you just watch a playthrough or read the story then? I wouldn't recommend it. There are certain things that I feel are better experienced.

Gameplay actually wasn't all that gruesome, as I mentioned, it got better thoughout but I know for a fact that I didn't do everything it had to offer because I see other people doing it online and I just had no idea how. That's not to say it's not newcomer friendly though, I mean I beat the game, didn't I? I think it would've just gotten complicated and made me confused if I learned how to do everything in the game anyway.

I found myself liking some of the mechanics and recognizing some of the systems from games as late as today (I'm not sure if this is where they started but I wouldn't be surprised). The random encounters weren't all bad because of the emulator's speed up function but there were definitely times where it felt a little out of hand with the amount I was getting. (I'm looking at you Cave to the Sealed Gate!) So it's all pretty familiar, though there are "Relics" which are kind of like Materia but each member has 2 each where it gives you an ability, f.e. Reflect, every attack hits, extra power, auto cast protect, heal with every step, etc.

One of the drawbacks of using BSNES though was that there was no toggle for a L or R shoulder button, just turbo and while that's not a big problem, that is the button to Flee a battle, so I just never fled. There is an item that lets you escape any dungeon or battle but I didn't really use it, same with the permanent item that Mog has in the cave (pretty late in the game). I'd rather there be a repel than the warp stone, but I figured that if I just fought whenever the opp arrived then I wouldn't have to grind, which is another thing I hate about RPGs! Luckily, I didn't really feel the need to grind other than for the ending.

Difficulty wasn't really a grind but make sure once you get to the floating island, that you know what you're doing because that level was annoying and I felt a very stong spike in difficulty as soon as I landed on it. Another thing is that sometimes it'd glitch and an enemy would have infinite health so I'd just sit there on fast forward, watching and watching then finally use Libra and no damage was made, might be an emulator thing, might be a game thing and although rare, it still happened.

There are these sections called scenarios where the game branches off into multiple different paths and you can choose which order to follow the specific sets of characters. I really like that aspect and makes it seem less linear and interactive because it's letting you choose how to tell the story. I have a thing for games that let me interact with it (That opera scene is pretty interactive too).

For a 2D sprite game, it has quite a personality with its cutscenes. They can be very cinematic and defintely makes the characters just that more engaging with some of their mannerisms.

Ok, I get it now. The music is bomb. If anything, that would be worth doing a remake for, to get orchestral and updated versions of some of the themes. (I'd probably cry at that opera scene) But Celes' theme is probably my favorite. The PC port has pretty good remixes for the most part though.

Could this use a remake? It's a trivial matter because I think a good majority of fans want it to be remade and I understand why but at the same time I understand the other side of the argument as well. This was the last 2D FF game and that's special, in a way, the story kind of reflects that. And I think with all the personality comes a bit of caution because you might see something in these characters or scenes that may be misinterpreted or done differently in a remake, similar to how you read a book and just imagine how it's playing out. I think it lays enough ground so that you don't "have to interpret" like with most NES games (how the Super Mario Movie was born) from an outsider's point of view, it may first seem that way though. (myself included (yes, I know this was SNES era. Shut up!))

What would I want out of a remake? I would want the airship to return and be able to move around freely but keep the towns pretty faithful (which makes for more linear opportunities). I could see Edgar's tools being used similar to Barrett's but we have "First Soldier" now which is a 3PS Battle Royale, why not have his tools play similar to that? Then actually give him story opportunities to pick up his tools rather than "just because you bought them" It would be a nice natural progression. I would suggest the same with Sabin and Cyan, have them learn their Blitz and Bushido moves by being taught by Duncan, you do learn one move from Duncan in the vanilla game but I'd see it as more opportunity to build your characters and make it feel rewarded. So, in those aspects, I would like to see FF6 remade or improved but as for everything else, they should keep it a lot similar to the original than FF7R did. I think that's where a lot of the criticism with FF7R came from (as well as what I mentioned in the previous paragraph) While I'd prefer a gameplay overhaul similar to what they did with R, I'd rather keep the essence. There aren't sequels or spinoffs or anything of this game so this is all it has (unless you count the ports but that's minimal).

In the CHARACTERS section, I compliment the side-quest system but I would like there to be a better indication as to "what" you're doing, rather than just looking up the next steps or be left to travel around until the goal is clear. They have the quest completion menu as well as waypoints in FF7R, I could see that being put to good use in a game like this. It would also be cool to actually "visibly" wear the gear that you equip to your character but I understand why that isn't utilized in most of the games (probably makes for better character models) especially considering most of these characters' costumes could use an update. You didn't get to use the Magitek suits nearly as much as I thought you would from the marketing and even the dang cover and logo, so a remake could improve on that as well. Another small complaint is that it doesn't tell you what the items do WHILE you're in battle, only when you're in the menu, sorting them and while some are staples like Phoenix Down, I still don't remember what the heck a 'Gold Needle' does.

Overall I'd probably rate the FF games that I've played (but maybe not finished all of) as such: FF7 > FF13 > FF6 > CRISIS CORE > FF15 > FF12 but I think 6 and 13 are kind of interchangeable because if you said one over the other, I wouldn't really argue.

The game that critics have been raving about for years and I just haven't played. I heard a lot of people say "this needs a movie" but they say that about any game that dares to be a little bit cinematic because I personally disagree.

That first part is rough, the story seems so in your face, predictable and bland but I think the problem is that it didn't know how to put in its exposition. I think it naturally builds up as it goes on, getting bigger and broader, it's just those first experiences that can be a slog because you're pretty much learning what style you're going to play in.

I got more or less everything I expected, crafting, a skill tree, various weapons. What I didn't expect though are dialogue options. You can choose normally up to four paths, an intelligent one, a compassionate one, and a straightforward one. You don't have to worry about the stress of trying to reach a specific ending because there's really only one, the only thing that affects it is the amount of people that are in it. So does that make the choices irrelevant? Yes and no because there are different dialogue options and like I said, which means that you can get certain characters to like you more given the option you choose but not in the same way that relationship points work and I definitely felt the draw to do that whenever I came across my first side-quest.

Side-quests are interesting, I love tracking things in games, though it's rare that you actually get the chance to do it and here you have a good amount of opportunities. Is that all though? Far from it. I actually found myself searching for side-quests because the first two were so satisfying. It really only began to show its hand a bit more after those quests. As I mentioned, there are a lot more RPG elements than I first imagined but it starts to send you on scavenger hunts, especially that Dreamwillow one, that one I actually laughed out loud at every time I was turned away. It also starts to gatekeep to where it recommends that you be a certain level which is...odd? I mean at face value it looks like you could rock basically any combat situation that isn't context sensitive. Leveling up gives you abilities but they're more like Deus Ex on that front, where it's just for preference and upgrading, not necessarily strength. The only thing you improve on offense wise basically boils down to having the right materials or units to buy weapons then a matter of finding modifications. Other than that, leveling up seems to just increase your health. It really just depends on the quest too because I'll play one above my level and be fine then play another that's actually under my level and feel stuck.

Now I only played it on normal mode so something like "Ultra Hard" is bound to be more demanding but as far as actual side quest content, I feel like they have potential but just need tweaked, give me more stuff for major characters that affects their standing with me. Rather than having each quest be contained in its own story, have it affect you later in the game, let your actions be shown, give it rewards and consequences. There are some really great side-quests but there are also some crappy ones, it doesn't pass that threshold that most RPGs fall under or anything. However, I did find myself doing side-quests at my own free will and the ones that I didn't like or couldn't do at the time, I just skipped and focused on something else, I felt a lot more freedom with this game, like I didn't feel forced to grind or do a certain number of side-quests or really do anything. It encourages you to explore and play the way you want to play and I respect the heck out of that. Maybe it's different for other players though.

Perhaps my favorite actual side thing was the Cauldrons for those who actually played this, you'll know why. For those who didn't, just know that it's cool and let it be a surprise for when you go to one. You might expect these big set-pieces and bosses like Uncharted or GoW, but it's not really like that. I genuinely think that this is more video-gamey than it lets on which certainly takes up its runtime. One addition to side-quests that I would like to see is one where you don't know it's happening. For example, in this game, you'll come across random hunters who are attacking or being attacked by machines but rather than just going on about your day and them going on about their's, I want to fight off the machine and the person say "You saved my life, my name's Jara, I live in the town nearby and want to repay you." so you go there and there's trouble so it starts up a side-quest. Now don't get me wrong, there are PLENTY of instances of people getting attacked actually being a mission but most of the time someone in town will just tell you "I haven't seen this person in a while, can you go check on them for me?" It's the art of subtlety and also just doing a good deed and getting rewarded for it. It's a conscious choice and split decision rather than just another checkmark on your list to complete.

Now I won't bother listing the characters and rating them but there's a certain aspect that has me really enthused So, Aloy is an outcast and a lot of these side missions and scenarios reflect her, you'll see the way she can relate with other characters, making it almost poetic in a subliminal kind of way. Then they add this tribal and futuristic setting to it where Aloy acts as the medium, there are parts of the game where she questions the tribe because they cut themselves off from technology and just don't know any better and we as a viewer know that but having the main character view things in 'our' lens is pretty genius. To top that off, they give her enough personality to be her own character while giving us enough power to influence her so that we ourselves can REFLECT WITH HER. It's not her character that I'm impressed with, it's the layout of the story.

So, how is the main story? It's kind of like the Flood scenario in Halo if I'm being honest. I'm not going to spoil anything but it's passable, like I said, it's not like an Uncharted and it's not like a movie. The visuals just look good at times (I took all the pictures in this review myself and so much more!). I'd call it a futuristic/tribal mix between Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Skyrim but I see elements of a lot of things. (Also since it's post apoctalypic, you find items that we see in modern day, like how they call keys, "chimes"! They think they're windchimes because there are no more cars! I love that!)

It actually does a pretty good job at being an open world considering that there are tons of things to do on your routes as well as collect but it's not so much so that it seems unfeasible, as I said, I found myself doing a good chunk of the side stuff just because it was fun to do and I'm not even close to a completionist for any game. If you mess up, healing plants will still be there. As long as you save, enemy parts will still be there. A place can be cleared out and conquered so that enemies don't come back. The actual towns are peaceful so you can't get mangled by any bots outside of scripted instances.

The graphics are pretty good but I can see some error here and there, nothing necessarily game breaking but the animations and AI are definitely janky at times. It's pretty obvious from the get-go but I'll do my best to specify and give constructive criticism on what I found wrong with certain aspects of the game. Rost is slow, like slower than walking speed but that's not to speak for all NPCs, some run, some you don't need to follow, it was really just him. I've had NPCs who fight but miss every single time on simple enemies (that might not be a bug, that might just be a funny bit that someone decided to add in). Sabretooths have jumped through walls (granted the walls were kinda broken but I'm not sure if those big boys can fit when they can barely find the entrance) I found myself jumping to a ledge or on a rope but not land it and just drop (it really boils down to loosening the hit box for that). Which to add on to that, I would like more places to climb and jump to in general (other than stupid mountains). I felt like there wasn't really enough that I could climb and the places that I could, could've been a bit more obvious that I could, maybe even make it viewable with your focus if you don't want it to be visually outstanding. There's a day and night cycle and while I like that, I found some of the contrast to be annoying because I could be staring a ladder right in the face and not even know it sometimes because it would be so dark. I'm not going to complain too much about it because I didn't turn my brightness up, I just left it at default and I would assume the PS5 version fixes some of those little things.

Now, this one is kind of a gray area: Hiking up mountains. Skyrim, Fallout, and Death Stranding went too far and gave little to no barriers. They had you looking for sweet spots that weren't there in order to cheese your way through an area either on or off a beaten path. But I would compare this to something like GTA where it's not as bad and does have its limits but might need tightened up some more because I can certainly get to places that lead to nowhere.

I've made headshots that don't make contact or damage while using precision. Part of that problem was that they could be high up in a tower (which have spikes sticking out) and I would hit ABOVE the logs, to make a headshot but since it was in that vicinity, it registered that as the spikes' hitbox so it wouldn't cause any damage and just alert the enemy (same if I was in the tower, looking down). Input lag where I hit up button on the D-Pad to regain health and I have to keep pressing it. If I had to guess, you have to meet the requirements of not taking damage, staying still, etc in order for it to actually work but it doesn't really have a reason to do that and it doesn't "tell" you that those are the requirements (as far as I know).

During the final boss, one of the enemies hit me into a rock wall, trapping me inside of it and the boss was already half health so I really didn't want to have to restart (I also didn't know how far back the checkpoint was) so I kept shooting stuff and eventually the boss destroyed the wall, allowing me to get out (timed section, by the way). There have been a few times where a tree or leaf or something is obstructing a cutscene and sometimes there will be a mech in the background screaming over the NPC talking, which I'm sure is due to the cutscenes being real-time which is still pretty impressive. Now are these errors all the time? No, not at all, I'm just pointing out that some times these things happened and that I felt it needed ironed out but I wouldn't call this half baked or an unfinished product or anything, it's nowhere near that level. I get that there are so many NPCs that it's hard to account for them all with facial animations but whenever they're talking, it seems pretty static and sometimes the lips don't line up. There's this one guy who says that he got lost in a sandstorm but he's standing in snow. Again, little nitpicks in an otherwise great game.

Now, I got this game for free as a Playstation promotion but that doesn't necessarily mean it'll be great, I played a little bit of that Ratchet & Clank reboot that was offered and I wasn't impressed, I quit after the first few worlds and was glad I didn't buy it at launch, (despite being a classic PS2 R&C fan) but we're not here to review that. I also played Abzu and loved it but it was short so it was definitely worth a play but maybe not 60$ (I actually think it's 20$ at this point though). With this game, it's the whole complete edition with DLC and everything, it has the length, so it really just boils down to "Would I have spent money on it otherwise?"

I think I would've if I knew more about it because I think it just got better and better after that first part of the game. It's marketed a bit differently than what I ended up getting but I found myself pouring hours into this game and loving it for one reason or another. I actually bought Shadow of the Colossus along with it (which is considered a cult classic) but I liked Horizon so much better, definitely worth its full price in my opinion. (So your promotion worked on me Sony, congrats) It has its problems but the potential is there and I feel like a sequel would probably iron out a lot of my troubles with it, so it's definitely a franchise worth investing into.

(Non-Spoiler btw) I’m not going to compare this to any other game because every other review I saw said the same thing over and over, The only one I’ll mention is Kingdom Hearts because KH2 is my favorite game of all time so how can I not draw comparisons to it with everything I play. I also want to mention I’ve been playing on the base PS4 model not a Pro, I feel like I have to say that now with performance and graphical based opinions with big games such as this because you might not have the same problems.

I think they changed the way he got caught in the beginning from the trailer because it’s the same scene but different shots, it honestly made more sense because I was playing the game and didn’t even notice the droid watching them while it was much more noticeable in the trailer, maybe it’s meant to be that way so it isn’t obvious to Cal that he was caught.

Main villain is the “Second sister”, it’s based on lore from Rebels. You would think you’d fight all the other “sisters” considering this is the first place I’ve heard of them (I didn’t watch too much of Rebels but researched it for this reason) but you only fight a couple during the game.

The coats are glitchy in cutscenes, so you should probably wear the basic layer for most of the game, if you want to try and avoid that. You are vulnerable while opening chests so you can’t defend or attack during animations but enemies can attack you. It will introduce the abilities through flashbacks so this guy knew these powers but just cut himself off to hide from the Empire and has to relearn them. At one point it will say “you are now reconnected with the force” and all the abilities will be shown on the skill tree in order to unlock, around this part is the turning point of the game (Kashyyyk/second time at Zeffo) because the opening is fine but the next section gets kind of boring because you have scarce abilities but once you start actually getting into it, it’s fun! I know they showed Kashyyyk in the E3 demo presentation they did a while ago so that was to be expected but it was just a matter of if it was a fluke...it’s not.

I’m pretty sure you lose skill tree points every time you die to an enemy (not falling off an edge or something) which is odd and it’s not like “since the last checkpoint” or “since last death” it’s a bit more than you gain in that time period, I’m pretty sure this revolves around what difficulty you’re on which is also pretty odd but correct me if I’m wrong about that theory.

I knew I liked BD-1 already but I was a bit skeptical of Cal’s character when this was announced because he could’ve easily been generic but no, I kind of like his character, you can tell the actor went the extra mile partially through how he interacts with BD and everybody else. He’s better than Kanan in my opinion, who if you remember has a very similar backstory as “the Jedi padawan who survived order 66” but he blames himself for his master’s death which is a dead trope that I didn’t care too much to see.

I hate parrying, I absolutely hate it, not just this game, every game, even in Kingdom Hearts, I’ll barely use it because I don’t (usually) play on the super high difficulties where it’s necessary but this game has it as essential so you have to learn a little bit of timing...and wait until you can upgrade your dodge so you don’t have to parry as much. And they will punish you for missing a parry and just trying to slam them (only the more hefty enemies like the ones with shock sticks) because they have a shield meter and if you get hit by them then their shield will start to go back up.

Some complaints, it takes a long time to respawn and the sliding is a bit off as well because you can control him while falling but he turns at such a slow rate that you might as well not even bother, it doesn’t matter most of the time any way but when it does then it’s annoying.There’s a lot of things that they just kind of brush past explaining, for example, there are these punching pistons that you have to run past and once you reach the end, there’s an opening above but you don’t know how to get there. I tried using force slow and jumping on top of the thing (logical way of doing it) but he doesn’t jump high enough (you don’t unlock double jump until later and it’s a life saver!). There’s a walkthrough for that simple one minute section on YouTube so I couldn’t have been the only one but you have to wall run and then jump off of it, I didn’t know you could wall run to get to higher ledges. Also with story, I wasn’t sure how they were figuring out where to go for some places, they just kind of said “go here!” but they end up explaining that kind of stuff later on which seems kind of pointless in saving it until that point, it would have been just as effective (if not, more) at the beginning. For those who’ve played it, I’ll give you a hint at what scene I’m talking about “Ilum”, if I was writing it, I would’ve made that scene towards the beginning.

Some little compliments are that BD-1 has a back panel that lights up, if your health is decent then it will be green, if it’s not then it turns red, that’s a nice detail “But what about Blue?” Well yeah there’s that too...that’s just for fun. There are also customization skins for BD-1 as well as your lightsaber and ponchos and guess what?! Your ship too! It’s no 13-13 or Project RagTag (there’s no gunplay though) but it’s still a pretty darn good game with some good music tracks (I mean it’s Star Wars though so...)

This game doesn’t have a dark or light ending so you don’t really have to worry about doing anything the wrong way, it’s fun to throw storm troopers off of ledges, not gonna lie, however I will say I feel bad at times. They added a bit of a grey area there because they’ll cower and say “Looks like I’m the last one” “No, stop!” “They’re all dead” “You killed them!” “Just...just leave me alone.” or something along those lines. BD even called me out for lashing out on them once and Cal just says “They just would’ve hurt somebody else.” I was like “Dang” there are some themes going on here that I think they would’ve made a light and dark ending if EA let them, however I’m fine with there not being one (even if it would make the game seem longer).

Even Second Sister has a bit of a thing going on where it’s questionable about her point of view, it’s almost a grey area.

Quick-fire round:
-Be careful, if you heal at a save point then it will also respawn enemies (you have to pick “rest” first before it does that).

-The creatures are harder than the troopers tbh.

-There’s a character called Mari Kosen on Kashyyyk which sounds a lot like “Ikari Gozen” which basically means ‘rageful female warrior’.

-I was worried about even buying this game because of EA’s track record (I almost bought Battlefront 2 before the whole debacle (Thank goodness I didn’t!)) and I didn’t want to chance they mess it up somehow after launch it getting good reviews, but I can confidently say that I don’t see any way they can do that now, should be no need to worry.

I’m not going to spoil it but the ending (though in line chronologically and could have messed with the timeline) seems kind of one sided, there are a bunch of things they could have done and while the decision they made makes sense, is it the best? I personally would have liked to see a bit more, it seemed a little short to me. I want to see what happens to these characters (which is a good thing) maybe there will be a sequel or extended universe book/comic (there’s already a prequel one with Cere) There are some really great moments in this game, I’m tempted to give it a solid 8 because of the high it ended on but I’m going to lower it a little due to the slow start being annoying. 7.5 / 10 Now EA better make more quality single player Star Wars products without stupid monetization schemes, this one was a success.

~Return of the Queen~

I've mentioned how I don't like being rushed or chased by things in video games, so I thought about skipping this one but then I heard that the EMMIs weren't as relentless as initially thought and EMMIs don't chase you the whole game, just narrow sections. I had played the demo when it came out but I wasn't very good at it but after playing Samus Returns. I wanted more. Fusion came and went. I wanted more of that too and this sort of combines the two so this was the obvious answer.

Really, if you liked Samus Returns then that prepares you for this and this just builds on that. It's a real treat and natural progression of the Metroid franchise. I've come to notice just how much this game was meaning to happen between being cancelled on the DS, having that stealth-like section at the end of Zero Mission and whatnot.

But this isn't really about stealth, you see, you have "muscle memory loss" but you're still powerful. But it just wouldn't be Metroid without a broken mechanic because we have the "crossfire bomb" which is an extension of the ball bomb, sporting a Bomberman type thing and then that's supposed to boost you past a stretch of pitfall blocks…except, you could've just given us the spider ball??? Or even use the new magnetic tracks in some way. And we have the power bomb to get rid of stuff all at once so I felt kind of dumb using the crossfire.

The map is back as well and you can even mark it, oh how I've missed the markers, it also does a better job at labeling that stuff, much more detailed.

Let's talk about EMMI though since they seem to be one of the main attractions used in marketing. Each one represents a different Aeion ability and color, you immediately know where an EMMI's territory is but you don't always know where the actual bot is, so trekking through these places is really just running blindly where ever you can then once you have the power to defeat it (which needs to be obtained and only lasts long enough to defeat one at a time) you can go back and properly explore that area.

One of the things I love most about some of the bosses in the series as a whole is when they're built up. This game has the most build-up to multiple bosses and that's through it's exquisite use of its backgrounds. Same with the movement, it's like if every jump in Mario was the long jump, so smooth.

Story is pretty strong, the ending is a bit strange though and by strange, I mean nothing out of the ordinary. Sakamoto said that this was the end of the five game arc and a new chapter would begin, which makes sense for the franchise since "Metroids" are technically extinct now but it's just strange to end it that way as "the end of an entire arc", there's a lot in there, I assure you but just not what I expected.

See You Next Mission.

REsident REvil 4 REmake REview

Attack of the games I've tried and didn't like then came back later to love.

I've played RE3 more times than I care to count because I had a lot of fun with it but fun doesn't always equal the perfect game, it has its flaws. I just run through it so much because it's easy and I've learned it, the actual game I gave a 6/10, all I ask is that this one beats that.

I don't know if I'm going to be the first person to say this but here are my honest thoughts…let me preface by saying this is the PS4 version. It ran fine, a few hitches but nothing unplayable, nothing intolerable, just small little stuff. Graphics are obviously downsized as the same with file size which I expected but judging from the PS5 footage I've seen, that mainly affects performance, the graphics remain similar enough.

When I first saw the trailers, the graphics looked obviously good, I was blown away with RE2 and I'm not a total graphic fidelity guy or anything, I still play old games but I can also appreciate a good graphics game as much as anyone and I'm sorry but that first chapter of the game is just bad. His hair glistens, which sounds pathetic to complain about but in a nighttime setting, especially that opening scene, it just doesn't make sense when Leon's hair lights up the room more than his flashlight. In the light, it looks real good but aside from the environment, it renders the photo mode almost pointless because Leon's face is so stock it's not even funny. It wouldn't be a problem because you're looking at his back anyway but photo mode allows it, so you see it. There aren't filters or poses either, maybe I was just spoiled by Horizon Zero Dawn. But that's not even all.

This game is a remake of something from 2005 and it reflects that, there are a lot of narrow linear passages to get from point A to point B, it feels like you're heading from town setting to town setting to wipe out waves of zombies. I know this was more action based than that of the previous entries but still, do you beat enemies or outrun them, do you save ammo or not? It's a gamble.

One of the things that turned me off initially from the 2005 version was that everything seemed very samey, like I was shooting these villagers that were copies of each other and they just kept reappearing. Now there are some zombies that you'll see copied but now it's not so glaringly obvious due to the upglow. But it can get really irritating hearing them say the same voice lines over and over, I missed when they didn't talk. But what that first chapter covers is when I sold the original game back, heck it's what they based the demo off of. When I played the RE2 and 3 remake demos, I was blown away but had I played this one, I might not have picked it up. But! It kind of gets better and better as it goes on so you're clear :)

There are certain parts where it hit that whimsy because I would be like "I'm actually doing this." I don't really wanna spoil those moments for you (if you don't know them already from the original) but even knowing some of them were coming, I was reminded of how cool some of the gameplay context moments were in Jedi Outcast and how rare it's been since then to feel that.

Leon is very reactive, whether it be his grunts and breathing or when he's hurt to when there's poop and flies and he waves his hands and puts his hands up to his face. There were some points that I knew what was going on just based on his reactions alone. I mean the controller itself is used quite effectively too with voices coming on it and such.

Leon's whole personality has shifted, he was a dork in the last game (RE2) but he's become hardened, something that I've always found the contrast of as a little too much, too uncomfortable for me but hearing his voice lines, he's still a dork at heart, just has a lot more going on and is better prepared for it…mostly. In RE2, he'd say "What the-" whenever he saw something unnatural like a zombie now he says it when he sees something common like a bodybag. I mean, what happened between 2 and 4 is really up to a few second recap so a whole game could've filled that period but whatever. If you get confused, apparently Darkside Chronicles has some of that information but you probably know that's not an easy one to find.

One of the things I enjoyed about RE3RE was that it had the quick dodge. Some people thought this mechanic was too broken because once you got a rhythm down, you could parry. Well you don't have the quick dodge this time (THANKS A LOT!) but you have an evade which is a quick time that appears whenever it feels like it. But you can also stealth kill if you have the knife and if they have a knife then you can parry that and I say if you have the knife because it now breaks and you can either repair it or find a new one but eventually it wasn't really a problem because I found them so frequently. You also have a melee which after getting a zombie stunned you can kick for a wide effect (hitting multiple targets) and or depending on the situation, strike them with your knife. It's especially helpful when they've hit the ground because you're not awkwardly standing over them to try and aim your reticle to make sure they stay down while they're rising up again, instead, you just give it a finishing move. But what's that? You have no room for a knife in your inventory because it's packed with grenades? Just use the item box. What's that? You can't store just anything? Mainly weapons? Well, that sucks. So it gives, it takes.

In fact, I feel like what I liked about RE3 wasn't really present here but what I disliked about RE3 wasn't really an issue here either, leaving room for new things to like, perhaps even more. With that said, there are parts reminiscent of RE3RE like how the Hospital plays out, having Jill out of commission and you play as Carlos to go around the place, getting key cards and such, running into pale heads, giving her a cure. That's basically done the same way with Ashley and Leon, it's not a tired trope because it's only happened once before as far as I know but that's the only pass I'll give it for that. This is also a much longer game than the previous ones so it's not as detrimental.

There are traps now, stuff to slow you down and hurt you just a little but enough that it may hurt more in the long run (not like poison but if a zombie gets you or something, you're down that much more) but you can eat chicken eggs now, so you're good! Speaking of zombies, they are indeed zombies but more like people with a spell put on them sort of. Necromanced or whatever. You can jump through windows, the world is bigger to explore but not so big that you're getting (totally) lost (I mentioned linear passages after all). This allows for more collectible opportunities.

Money, there's a money system which is obviously used for the merchant, this allows for challenges you can complete for dough, similar to that of the ones that are usually in the menu. Most of your weapons come from this but that's the thing, I feel like everything is a soft introduction and I in no way mean that in a bad way, I mean it in the best way. You're not forced to use the merchant if you don't want to but it's definitely helpful and you can still pick up some of the weapons and items here and there like any other game if you wanted.

There's a treasure system which you can collect stuff and then apply gems to make them more valuable to sell. It'd be cool if the treasures were collectibles in the menu and you in turn put gems in them to unlock the models and concept art they already have in there but still cool. Use that money to get upgrades and repairs and stuff.

It's split into chapters for whatever reason, which I don't really care for, it doesn't exactly hurt the experience but it does add to a series of other problems I had, making it feel like each chapter was something new but at the same time disjointing it overall. Sometimes like a tv show. Revelations did that as well. At one point I remember thinking "Did that happen in the actual game?" referring to the original, as if I wasn't already playing a game, it was kind of like an adaptation to me, where these scenes that I felt like I should know were being brought to a new screen kind of like HBO's The Last of Us. I feel like this was probably made for fans of the original. One thing I already know I prefer in the original is Ramon's design. He was a creepy little kid before, almost like a puppet but now he's just a little old man that acts like he's at the opera.

It ended up ranking about where I expected with me preferring RE2 just a little more for being a bit tighter around the edges but this game does improve on a lot from the ones previous, putting it above RE3 overall, we'll see how the memories of this game hold up though. I may even visit the original (is it that different?) now that it gave me interest. I was a little disappointed by that ending though. Not by the final boss or cutscenes but more that Ashley was pushed aside "We're a team, right?"

It seems appropriate to update the party system as Haseo grows more akin to working within a party instead of being a lone wolf. That includes the morale system. Not only is the duration starting to lengthen but you no longer have to wait for it to fill up to use it, you can use it pretty much whenever but the longer you wait, the longer it'll last. New weapon too, you're pretty much where you were when you were the Terror of Death which is really saying something. You can even switch weapons in battle albeit it's through the menu or special. But having a good relationship via email with your party helps because it unlocks new attacks. Because of these improvements, the gameplay is slowly shaping up to be really enjoyable at times. I did actually manage to crash it from button mashing though…

The Versus card game is open now which means you can collect cards to play in the form of some really cool art. Same with the forum which you can in turn make your wallpaper in the desktop (which was a feature from IMOQ but done in a different way). The bike turns out that it was bland on purpose last time so they added an upgrade system where you can buy parts and mix and match to make it run how YOU want (really you just buy the best parts but it markets as how you want).

So now we're properly into spoiler territory and with that we're properly into SAO now with the players being stuck within the game. You can no longer head to the desktop to check your email. And with that, Atoli can't speak, can only send mail. But here's where it gets tricky because that's not the game's plot, in fact, the whole scenario is over pretty early, it just introduces that possibility and what it could possibly mean as well as the consequences it created.

It started becoming clear to me how much of a reinvention/reimagining GU really is to IMOQ because it's using a lot of the same elements just differently, like the Data cores (instead of virus cores). Donald Duck even returns!

wait... But as far as structure, it also takes after the first volume taking place with a tournament…again. Nowhere near as long though. But just know that once you've set your difficulty, you've done it for all the vols so…yeah.

The side-quests aren't nearly as meaningful but I'd have to say that the overall story jumped to being pretty good, there are some lines in there where I was very well shocked at how impactful they were. The only real complaint I have about it is the villains and I got spoiled about them but the way it's done (so far) is pretty cheesy, but I imagine it will be expanded upon and will actually make sense later. But yeah, this makes the first .hack that I actually properly enjoyed, thoroughly and genuinely, there was always bits and pieces but this one finally seemed worth it.

Poppin' bottles in the ice, like a blizzard.

The health bar changes everything, it gives me nightmares. This is the first Sly game flipped on its head. So rather than a one-hit KO (unless you gained a horseshoe) you now have a health bar, a lot of enemies had a one hit ratio in the last game but this one, they're less like Crash villains and actually fight back. This sets off your health bar as "alerted" or spotted which is later a feature in Assassin's Creed, there are even trailing and chasing missions.

There are no longer lives because of this meter and makes it so the levels aren't built the same way to where you need checkpoints. This can be both a good thing and a bad thing because I feel like the jumps are more responsive (that could also just be me with more experience now) but sometimes the controls are too responsive so if there's a wire underneath another or something then sometimes it picks the one that you're not aiming for which has blown my cover before. It would've been a lot simpler to just auto-death from that than to have to try to reset it myself by taking damage.

The levels are no longer portals, they're set up inside the hub world so that you enter whatever building it's leading you to or even take place in the hub itself. There are waypoints activated from your binocucom, mostly easy to find. I can't tell if this is a good thing or a bad thing though because on one hand it fleshes out the area that you're in but on the other hand, it diminishes the amount of variety that was allowed in the last game so one level may look like an extension to the last. But once again, each level acts towards a grander mission, except rather than just collecting keys (unless it's a mission on its own), you collect intel and sabotage the enemy's plans, it's more in depth and makes for some wacky shenanigans.

Making up for that lost variety, one of the big selling points of this game is that there are now multiple playable characters which means separate levels for each. Bentley excels in tech and long range Murray in destruction and Sly in stealth, so it is indeed like I remember it. Basically, (when playing as Sly) unless Bentley says otherwise, you shouldn't fight or you'll fail the mission. You can get away, in fact, you have a run button now since your walk speed is more sneaky but it's a little bit louder so it's really only for getaways. With each character, I feel a slight disadvantage for traversal but it's not too overbearing. (Only Sly can tightrope walk and such)

Without horseshoes, you now have all these leftover coins and I've mentioned this in other games and this one actually follows through, it lets the coins act as currency to buy useful items, in this case the stuff that you would've unlocked from the bottles in the first game.

So, now the levels no longer hold the bottles but the hub worlds do. This makes it a bit harder because like I said with "unless Bentley says so", if you've started something to do with a level, go too far away from the area you've chosen and Bentley might make you abandon it. So only collect at certain times because it's easier when there's less to keep track of. (That's a good euphemism for this game overall tbh, it's a flip flop whether it's better or worse than its predecessor)

The vault is held in one of the levels but since it could be any of them, you do have the chance to go back to that level once you find it if you haven't had the chance to collect them all the first time around. The bottles still give you abilities, exclusive ones that the coins won't net you, so you actually have more abilities than the first game.

I've complained enough about the differences.

One of the games that I want more of is Beyond Good and Evil and I just haven't found anything like it...until I played this game, I mean you even get to take pictures (not like you would on PS4) but it's nice to see it implemented into the gameplay, especially seeing as BGAE came out just a year before this. And as much as I loved the first game, this one actually actively gave me ideas for how good that supposed movie could've been, it's just a shame we lost it (though maybe a blessing as well?)

I enjoy the story of this game more and while there are some things better, there are some things worse and I think my favoritism of the overall picture would be ratioed to Thievius Raccoonus.

This game has been out for years now so if you haven't played it, you either don't have a Switch or don't have enough interest in it. So I will try and give you reasons why to play this game and spoil some gameplay details along the way but will save what the bosses are.

This game doesn't appeal to me, "Mario and Rabbids: Battle Kingdom", I mean Rabbids are basically the original Minions. I've heard it called a "Baby's first XCOM" and I, for one, am not about strategy or turn based combat. So, then why is it that when I got my Switch, this was the first thing that came to mind that I wanted to get?

I haven't played many games on the Switch yet but I can tell that there are games that are best played on the TV, best played on tablet, and best played with the Joycons loose, some fall under all of the above such as Super Mario Odyssey. This falls under the best kind of tablet game, it's like it was meant to be played port-ably and is something you can play a level here and there, casually, or seriously and play a whole chapter's worth.

This is pretty much as clever as it gets, it's no wonder they got Grant Kirkhope to compose it, it has the humor of Banjo Kazooie, it's not even Minions-like humor, it's charming to the max.

There are times where you'll play a stage and just go guns blazing but you need to be careful because sometimes there will be a gauntlet of levels and you will either have to find a mushroom or just go straight to another level before it heals you again. Of course later in the game you can switch up the characters (that have more health) but you shouldn't always assume it as a fail-safe, especially for a boss, so if you're low on health and haven't found a mushroom, change BEFORE you get to the level, that is if you keep your other character's stats and weapons, good and balanced.

Ok, I hear this and that about how everybody loves Rabbid Peach and while her gameplay has a lot of perks, Rabbid Luigi was instantly my favorite and I tried to use him for every battle, I mean he has a Yo-Yo and his hat is on sideways, how can you not love him? I made him a beast with his 'Vampire' ability which allows you to slide into enemies and take some of their health to add it to yours. There is a Fridge boss that it's strongly recommended not to use him but I sure as heck tried. So you will more than likely get attached to a certain character but it's up to you who it will be towards and remember that you might not be able to use them EVERY time. You can choose to have 3 different characters at a time but one of them has to be Mario, he's a default and you can't exchange him. There have been multiple times where all my other characters have died and all I have left is Rabbid Luigi and I pull a clutch with that Vampire ability, making a clean sweep and finishing the level alone, I wasn't really able to do that with any other characters (though I valued Rabbid Luigi more so maybe I didn't try hard enough). And don't worry, even if you don't have a character in your current party, they still obtain skill points for the skill tree so you won't have to grind for a character once you unlock them or anything.

So, how do you make your character stronger if every level is right in front of you and not really an RPG style of sidequests? Well, there are little puzzles you can go around, collect coins, hidden chests, some cannons that you can shoot out of that take you to a Red Coin type level (except blue coins) and you get a new weapon out of it. Also you can go back to worlds you've completed and complete challenges, I usually hate doing stuff like that but it's all good in this game. And it's not required, this game is pretty balanced, it's not too hard but not too easy either, there's no difficulty setting so that's good to hear. Sometimes I would play a boss just to kind of test them out and see what they did and then adjust for my second playthrough for them when I inevitably failed. There are definitely some levels I would spend a few days on, usually those bosses and I would lay in bed thinking of different strategies to beat them, some of those were the most satisfying after beating. Now that may sound like a lot of thinking and seem repetitive but it doesn't force you to come up with a strategy, do you think I actually did stuff intentionally? Not really, I used trial and error and it never even got tired, I usually fail the same level of a game just a few times before putting it down and say "I can't do this." because yeah, I am kind of a baby when it comes to some of these games but I feel accomplished when I beat stuff like this. This is where the 'Baby's first XCOM' comes into play, if you're not into that genre, this is the right game for you but if you are into the genre, you're experienced and it may seem a bit more tame but it's still a good play, Win-Win.

Given that topic, if you feel "too challenged" then it will offer you extra health for a level so it will heal your party up and add some extra, but I like to think of it as the chicken hat in MGS5, only use it if you need it, and even if you do need it, it's not ridiculously easy once you have it. I HAVE failed using the extra health before, sometimes you're just not using the right characters or weapons or need something from the skill tree, it's not a bail out free card, it's just a boost. I've played the ending gauntlet many times and each time it was different, some times I would do great until the third wave, sometimes it's just left up to chance whether your shot hits or not because if they're hiding behind a wall, it may not hit and are you hitting the enemy with the right character? Maybe you need a different order for maximum damage. It's a lot to process but you're not forced to think about it too hard, you have time, that's why it's turn based, I am describing it in a lot of detail but don't think that it's overly complicated or anything, if it was, as I mentioned, I wouldn't play it, it wouldn't seem so darn good of a game to me if it was.

And before you think that enemies get too easy or anything because you just upgraded everyone, they're constantly introducing new ones so it's always even with where you are in the game. Some of these enemies need to be handled differently because of how they attack such as the big ones without guns, they usually have a big stone or log or something and if they get close to you then they'll do a hefty amount of damage so it's always entertaining, keeps you on your toes, and brings me to my next topic.

I suppose it's easy to think that they all just have similar blasters but that's wrong. Most weapons come with a status effect such as honey which prevents them from moving on the next turn, ink which does the opposite and prevents weapons from being used, flame which catches them on fire and and makes them run around until they are extinguished, this ability is especially cool because if they hit another enemy, he will also be on fire, that doubles for you though so be careful with placement. There are also some other abilities but I'll get back to this topic in a minute. Not only are there different variations, which really just fit your preference, but there are also shotgun types which only have a short range but a higher amount of damage, rubber-duck grenades, yes you heard me right, and they're even decorated, there's even a Sam (King)Fisher one from Splinter Cell, not even joking. There are hammers which can get multiple enemies at once if you're within range, and these things that are called sentries but don't shoot anything, they're more like rolling bombs, they can be used to divert an enemy's attention away or can be used similar to a grenade but with more power, and then there are rocket launchers which can fire farther and machine guns which are a bit of an odd ball because you shoot a bunch of weaker bullets vs one big blast but you have more of a chance of hitting due to it's ability to instantly break a wall that an enemy may be hiding behind, leaving them open for the next person. I also wanted to mention that before you attack, aiming at an enemy shows you how much damage you'll do, I guess that's easy to look past or expect but given I haven't played a tactical game of this nature, I want to be thorough.

It tosses it up with a few different types of missions, rather than just walking from area to area to fight the next battle, you actually get some landscape to look at, some puzzles which are actually quite fun, I like a good puzzle and it makes me want to try Captain Toad, but there are also escort missions. Most players dread escort missions in games because they take forever to follow you, this is in a different genre though. It will give you a goal and all you have to do is get that character (most of the time it's Toad) to the goal, sure they can't attack or anything and you have to rely on your other characters to defend but you don't have to defeat all the enemies like most stages, just get to the goal and you control the escort just like you would any other character so they don't drag behind. My only slight complaint with this is that Toad or whoever, isn't be able to use a teammate to bounce like everyone else but it's still fine. Same with the bosses, the only requirement is to just beat the boss, there will be other enemies too though. Before you think you can cheese it that way, most bosses have multiple health bars so you may take out their first form tanking hits with guns blazing but will you have enough to last the second and third form? Probably not so you need to take out those side enemies first because for one, they make it harder, and two, once the second form comes, the boss will bring a second wave of enemies and if you don't have the first wave beat yet then it will stack.

Ok, so easily the best thing about this game is the atmosphere, every little detail feels so good to just walk around in, they didn't have to make the world so good but they did, this accompanied with Grant Kirkhope's music is splendid even the different versions of classic Mario tracks. My favorite one would have to be "Exploring the Mine". With that, the designs for characters, enemies, and such will be added as collectible models throughout the worlds, it's a fun little thing to look for if you're into that sort of thing, I made sure to get a few for the bosses I liked the most. This goes double for the music tracks, you can collect them and go back and play them in the museum. But back to the way it looks, it looks so good that there will be points where Beep-O (who is kind of the guide and serves as a reason this tactical map exists) will have a magnifying glass option and if you press it, he will bring attention to certain landscapes and sights such as a Rabbid in a hot tub burning himself or a Bullet Bill with Underpants on his head, it's all in good fun and really makes you see the vibe they're going for with this fusion between worlds. The landscape for battles includes these pipes that you can travel between to slide kick enemies easier and get a better piece of ground to defend, it's really cool when you get a chain of attacks for example: With Mario, you can stomp on top of enemies, so you slide kick an enemy, bounce off of a teammate to get farther, land by stomping on another enemy then finally make your destination where you want to shoot, so much damage can come from just one turn if you really know what you're doing. And about those effects like flame, there will be different boxes around the stage where if an enemy is stationed behind them and you can't see them good enough to get a hit in, you can fire anyway and hit the box, making the effect hit the enemy so it wasn't a wasted shot and may even make them vulnerable enough for another character to shoot.

Some characters have something like "Hero-Sight" or "Steely-Stare", this is amazing, it's up there with the Vampire ability for me. This comes in handy for those bulkier enemies with the stones and if you have a weapon that has "bounce" it's so freaking satisfying because you can use the ability, fire at the enemy and if they make an attempt to get closer then your character will shoot a few more times.

There is a bit of a problem when you don't properly close the game however because sometimes I would just leave it open on the home screen then shut the console off and come back to it later. Yeah only do that once or twice, don't leave it on standby every time because what will start happening is that the models for some of the items and characters will glitch and turn into blocks, it's not a performance based issue, just visual but it was my fault in the first place for not closing the game for so long so I can't really complain.

There is a bit of DLC that I'm actually considering getting (if it wasn't as much as the base game, crimeny!)because it expands off the story and revolves around Donkey Kong, so that's cool. Speaking of after the game, there is end game content. Throughout you unlock puzzle abilities such as moving crates, picking up totems to put them on pedestals so you can unlock new areas, break blocks, and drill a hole. You can go back to each of the worlds and finish some puzzles you weren't able to before because you didn't have one of those unlocked, if you're going for 100% that is or even if you're just trying to make some extra moolah during the game.

I played the original 2 back to back so I took some time between 2 and 3 because I knew it was the last one clears throat but it puts me in a unique situation because I can view it fresh rather than trying to compare it oh so much.

So in terms of aging, it starts out very linear. There were a lot of things added with the Legendary Edition to the other games but this one, being the more recent one, didn't seem to get all the glow ups I think it should have. Controls can seem janky like trying to target what you're trying to select/interact/melee with. Running forces your perspective to whatever direction it requires. It carries over some of that darkness from before where I can barely see where I'm going at times, I've explained it before. I had a few bugs and glitches where something gets in the way or Shep will start floating, audio like a broken record, prompts that don't do what they say. PC might not have those same problems though.

I've heard it criticized as either the best or worst in the trilogy and now I see why. It focuses more on "action over RPG" as they describe it but there's a lot of welcome additions like the pummel. It just seems like it's trying to show you this spectacle yet it's PS3 Era explosions and kind of lame ones at that. The sky boxes can be gorgeous as well as busy though, so I guess it evens out a little bit.

I got to where I hit the Citadel DLC and decided that was a good time to break. I came back and my opinion of this game was changed. The writing was great, the action was tight, the moments were cool, it really brought it back for halftime.

In terms of story, a lot happened off screen but it's not too much of a hamper because you get the gist that it's just trying to get the band back together (again). The characters are a bit even, we don't seem to have as many new characters but most of the old ones return, some get good treatment, some don't, it's a toss up. Even the villains I feel could've got a bit more with Kai Leng being introduced kind of late.

With the impending doom of everywhere, there comes some interesting choices you can make just off hand with random strangers to try to make them make peace rather than wasting what precious moments they have left, so you'll hear a lot of arguments that you can take a side on. Interesting dialogue too, someone asking for a refund and the clerk refusing, an immigration refusal, a wife leaving.

The Mako...I miss it. I get that it was complained about but now we have no vehicles, its a shame. That was some of the the best fun I've had with the games and is most of why I hold ME1 higher than the rest, it just seemed like something you'd do in space. The world setup is different too, in 2 you could go around and inspect systems and planets and find weird side missions by doing so and complete the index. Some had materials worth using for the ship. And you can look at these worlds but they might as well be ornaments. Outside of already set up side mission waypoints, the remaining ones serve no purpose. It's almost like they planned to include that system from 2 but ran out of time. Instead the reapers chase you if you scan an area, which is cool and makes sense in context but that's it. They catch you and you just start over, no battle, no cutscene, nothing.
As far as the DLC, it's not really DLC anymore because it's just part of the game with the remastered edition but if you were curious...

From Ashes just adds Javik and guns, stuff that was originally cut so worth it. Leviathan was kind of annoying but gives you more insight and explanation as to the Reapers and their origin rather than just shoving it all at the end, still some cool moments though. Omega was disappointing because it dragged on and on and was dark in little corridors, the story was weaker than it could've been but at least we had Aria...As I mentioned Citadel kind of became essential for me and the most worthy out of this list, really cool stuff that added naturally to the game. Even with these though, I spent about the same amount of time with it as the second one, but where I felt a lot of tedious stuff with ME2, I felt more mainline (aside from Omega) with this one. So same score but better than 2, lesser than 1. 3.5/5

Oh...that ending thing...so a lot of people don't like the ending and I can kind of see why but it's not really the worst ending or anything. As I mentioned, some inclusion of the DLC made the ending worthwhile so vanilla might seem salty. By this point, I was already satisfied with the game and really the ending is kind of bittersweet no matter which route you go. They all have similar cutscenes (or rather, paintings) just with different colors and meanings and stuff. I suppose Green is probably the happiest, Red probably being something you'd expect, Blue being a somewhat middle ground and Empty being more bittersweet than any of them. It's really only questionable because it tries to redefine the game for you at the very end. What do you fight for?

Trailers now and days spoil a lot when it comes to the finished product, something you wait years to release and even if the trailer doesn't spoil it, then the online community will. I seemed to have missed that childlike whimsy of picking up a game that had already been released or was about to release and know close to nothing about. So, I tried to replicate that experience and it worked. But this one I played a little differently because I came up with the bright idea to deprive myself of a whole genre. I say "genre" but really it's a franchise and clones like it, that franchise ended up being Zelda.

I chose Zelda because I had already unintentionally spent a good amount of time without it, so no new games and no old games in that time period. I purposely avoided anything that was labelled to be like Zelda (such as Genshin, Sonic Frontiers, etc). I was already a fan of Zelda so a new game was a sure win but I never played Breath of the Wild because by the time I got a Switch, Tears of the Kingdom (unnamed at the time) was already announced. So, this won't just be my experience with the game, it'll be my experience with Breath of the Wild and not just that but where the franchise has gone for over five years and boy has it changed.

Now I can climb (pretty much everything) and cook and run and jump! I have to pay attention to what I'm wearing because the environment might be too cold or hot. A time cycle. The storyline starts like a Ghibli movie, Zelda's voice is like a deadpan Lara Croft and on the first day of playing it, I realized that there's a lot more adventure than I thought. I barely played that first day because it was all so much to take in. So, I won't be describing the game, I'll be describing my experience.

In a world like this, why complain? Well...The frame-rate drops in trees but does pretty good elsewhere. There's no way to deselect while in the hand mode, you have to jump out then back in. You can't roll. The adventure is more about exploring and the puzzles are more about tinkering.

The horse can be annoying because you have to train its bond and get it a stable and get it to stay with you and they can be hard to control because "sometimes they don't want to go that way" or it's too precise with invisible barricades that it decides it can't jump over (i.e. a stone block in a ruin of stone blocks). And in a game ridden with mountains, you find yourself abandoning it half the time. If only it was a ghost like the companions...There was a bike in BOTW (hard not to know) but it's not in this one. Which all that would be fine if you could handle it in a timely manner but there were a lot of points where I regretted going in blind because while I was playing it, I felt like I was playing it wrong, it seemed like forever before I actually started getting anywhere once I touched down from the sky islands. I was so relieved the first time I found a stable because I didn't have to worry about losing it or anything, I could finally register him. Then I started the Rito Village quest and fell back into enjoying it but then the Eldin stuff drug me back down. It was a toss up.

All in all, it's a lot more RPG but in a world of prexisting RPGs, it almost doesn't feel like I was waiting for anything new, it has all these features that I've already seen before just not in Zelda and I'm not sure whether I prefer it that way either.

Open World specifically is the one I'm a little half and half on because it felt like I could spend days doing nothing, trying to find a way into somewhere to make some progress which in some cases just goes to show how good the game is, if you're willing to spend time doing side stuff and explore not only its environment but its gameplay but I don't know, this one felt a little too empty to me, like there were long stretches where I was just climbing or trying to go places. There are indeed wheels and different contraptions like I've pointed out to get moving but the threshold to get them is a decent length, especially if you don't know where you're looking for this stuff. You can't just pick them up and put them in your inventory either, you either have to find them out and about or already have them in your inventory from a rare drop or a capsule machine. Which wouldn't be so bad but those inventions you spend all that time building despawn (which makes sense for the hardware this is running on). But at the same time, there's a function that keeps a recipe in stock, you just need to have built it and...ok, it doesn't make sense, whatever. But even once you pass the threshold of finding a bounty of these "zonite" powered objects, you need that "zonite" to power them. Can be easy to fix but it would be just so much simpler without needing a battery change every five seconds and the more devices you run in tandem, the faster it depletes.

When I saw all these mechanics that people were pulling off with BOTW, I was thinking that the system was just that ingenious, that it just threw you into a playground and to some extent it does but I think it would've been better suited some other way. The surface is wet? Makes sense that you'd slip but sure as heck annoying. It chose accuracy over fun. If you're one of those people that hordes potions and items (like me) then this probably isn't the game for you. Especially since it takes forever to find what you're looking for, especially when you're scrolling to attach something to an arrow. It doesn't tell you what stuff does in that menu (Flashback to FF6), an easy fix would be a favorites list, Nintendo. Your weapons break very easily, I could be fighting an enemy and use my whole inventory, at least with Animal Crossing, it still lasted a while, I didn't have to worry about it breaking after my first tree.

And that blind feeling wasn't helpful because there were things that were really truly great and helpful like being able to use waypoints and having a tracker that you can use on pretty much anything that you've come into contact with already so long as you logged it in your compendium. But you wouldn't know that stuff if you didn't do the side-quests or rather the progression of them, because they started as something entirely different to get to that point. I was already past half way before I got all this helpful material that I could've used when I started and I didn't even see in any beginners guides when I checked. You can upgrade armor?? So I think that "not enough" of the game is set up on the main path, completely messing up the theory on how to make a good burger.

Why I think I liked Rito so much and not Eldin is because Rito (almost) resembled a dungeon of sorts and it was the first one I did but Eldin had a lot of empty space yet its scope seemed massive. I think open world is great if only taken in bites, not all at once. The Goron in Eldin (which he pronounces gore-own? But everyone else says gore-on?) is just uninteresting and so is his story then the cutscenes come into play where I started wishing we were without them again because I would move a little bit only to initiate another cutscene of him spouting obvious mousedung like "I think it's this way, oh I wonder where Zelda is, what do you think Link?" and it's the same silent answer every time, it's just stupid. There's no room for subtlety or guessing if he just tells you everything. (unlocks a door with five locks, sees one of the locks drop, Goron: "Just four more locks left!") Math!

His AI is pretty dumb too, his hitbox was inconsistent, not being able to be used as a shield but would get in my way whenever I needed to hit something. He wouldn't always be there when I did need him though, he'd kind of just stick around another platform (I assume since he can't fly and he's so big that he needs room?). Then this was just downright lazy, with the Wind Temple, you needed to find a way to undo four locks. Okay, worked well enough but then the Fire Temple has you do the EXACT same thing. It's bad from a story and a gameplay pov, it's just copy and paste in a different environment, different place, but same context. And GUESS WHAT? They're ALL like that.

Now let me talk about the underground. The overworld has these shrines that serve as little mechanic introducers and teleporting waypoints, you also get these lights from them that can net you a heart or addition to stam. The underworld has similar shrines too but it's horrible getting there, you spend it with the screen looking like this 90% of the time.

It's dark and these shrines light the place up except it fills the entire world. Even looking up shrine locations gives you coordinates but for one, there's no way to look at specific coordinates on the map, just your own and two, just because you have coordinates, doesn't mean you can take that path. Just like the overworld, there are mountains in your way, mountains that you can't see! Enemies riddle the area and blah blah, it seemed optional at the time so I noped out of there and stayed with overworld stuff but then I found out that a lot of what actually unlocks the stuff that I want is underground so it's best to get a good chunk of that out early. No reward for lighting these either so getting them all seems more like a hindering job so you can see the game than actual fun.

Now cosmetics are actually quite exemplary, there are a ton of costumes you can mix and match and collect, both new and old. With most games, this stuff can be picked up as drops, treated as achievements or set up in a shop for moolah. This is a mixture because some are indeed like that but the ones that you want, you're going to have to work for. By work, I don't mean difficulty though, I mean time. That underground holds a lot of these costumes, a lot of ones that you'll want and they're contained in chests, these chests will either be in the form of a coliseum where you fight an onslaught of enemies, including bosses...that you've already fought...I'll explain my problem with that in a minute but the other ones...those are scattered in chests and like I said, easy to find coordinates, tough as nails to actually trek to. I could spend an hour just cycling this environment, trying to get to where I need to be because there isn't a waypoint near it then after I get it, guess what, there's two more to the set. That's right, you've collected one third of the costume, now you need to get the other two pieces somewhere. I could spend 3 hours on just one costume. And you can upgrade these costumes to give you better stats but you need certain materials to do so.

Now the problem I have with the coliseums is that they're challenging but those types of things should be challenging, it's when it makes everything a chore that I begin to feel useless. I played for over 50 hours and only had 1/2 of the possible heart containers (which is still a good amount) but I never felt ready for any of the boss level characters because they'd always one-shot me and I'd understand if I was way ahead of where I was supposed to be, but I unlocked all but one section of the map at this point and with it being an open world game, these types of bosses are everywhere. My weapons had decent value but I was doing chip damage. There are foods and elixirs you can use to higher defense and attack but those only go so far and should only be additives, not mandatory, it nerfs your base health. If I can play 50 hours in a game and still feel weak then that's a problem with padding because I wasn't progressing fast enough or with the right stuff, I never really felt stronger. With Metroid, I always feel like I'm doing something, every single ability I unlock, every weapon, every door but this game makes it all feel null. Fuse as much as possible. Use as much as possible. Sleep as much as possible. Get as much as possible. Cook as much as possible. It's all very demanding of your time to actually try and have the time that you wish to have with this game, it sucks when you make time for it but it sucks it right out like it was nothing.

As far as story, there's a very weird origin and lore of the series that I'm still up in the air about. With franchises like this, I've started wondering whether they "should" cover the origin of everything this far in, that's what has me worried for Star Wars. But other lore is good because we have little things like Gerudos trying to run out of the rain because they don't like it and just that there are Gerudos running around in the first place is a step up because I always thought it weird that each kingdom had its own race but you only saw them there, nowhere else. You could argue that it makes the level design that much more unique but with an open world game like this, I kind of like seeing a mixed world with Avians, Gerudos, and Elves alike everywhere.

My guess the domains all act the same is because you "can" do them in any order but in doing that, even the cutscenes are reiterative, explaining the same event over and over after you defeat their boss. This nulls and dulls most of the story when it very easily could've been fixed with replacement scenes for whichever region you're in, it actually had potential when it started.

But let me let you in on a tidbit, not too much of a spoiler, just something so you know not to get your hopes up. When it was first revealed, they showed Zelda and Link together and the fans started thinking "What if you could play as Zelda?" this would've been an instant selling point but admittedly a better one to keep secret, well the sad news is that it didn't follow along with the fans. Normally I wouldn't dock it because of this because the only games that have done this were done so on a technicality but with this one in particular, they set up Zelda as "a mystery" and you're given pieces of what's happened to her throughout but I think it would've served everything better had they made these cutscenes, playable sections.

All in all, high highs but really low lows. The wait wasn't worth it. The hype wasn't worth it. Being blind was a mistake. The expectations were indeed impossible but I still think I grounded myself pretty well compared to many other titles I've waited just as long. Now was the 70$ price tag worth it? I can already tell you that it was a meaty game but that doesn't mean fulfilling. It really depends what you "want" out of a higher price game. I wouldn't charge that again for anything but I do understand that it must've taken some programming genius to get it to run on Switch (though Nier and Dark Souls are on there and Genshin runs on a phone!)

But I feel really bad and sad to say that every game that I played around this...I liked more. Now everything labelled as a "Of the Wild" style, I'm not going to be as interested in. I actually think I disliked it at times and it's been a while since I've truly disliked a game. In fact, Zelda is such a successful series that I've liked every game I've played ...except this one, making it by default, the worst.

The story is the best so far but the gameplay was slightly better before.

I didn't play the original GameCube or PS2 versions of the first two games so I expected going into this system was going to be different for me, but other than some quality of life changes, I found that this game carries over a lot more elements than I thought.

There's no sprint but honestly it's not that bad, he does a brisk jog most of the time. You can't save whenever but there are relatively frequent places as long as you're not engaged in something. You can't pause cutscenes but you can enable to skip them in the menu. You can't just change difficulty for some reason. Which is especially weird because if you fail an amount of times, it asks you if you want to lower it "temporarily" (if you're on normal). In fact, I'll just tell you what part I used it for.

There's a part where the police chase you and it tells you to tap X if you get caught but tapping it doesn't do anything, I let it go and it had the exact same results. That's the thing, it doesn't matter how many times you press a prompt, sometimes you'll just fail anyway and I think that's stupid especially when it's a boss holding you in a chokehold or something. Same with quick time events, sometimes the timing is crazy fast, it's not fatal if you miss it but really annoying when you're trying to do a combo.

Chasing in general isn't done as actively or relentlessly. In Kiwami, you could see them on the map but here they just kind of pop up and surprise you which isn't all that bad most of the time but it can get annoying if you just did one and then another comes straight after.

As far as the actual remaster aspects, Heat mode is activated by rapidly tapping R2 but R2 isn't an easily tappable button, it's a trigger. It loads before the menu and then loads again afterwards (not a load screen, the save data) then when you go to save it always saves twice, no matter what button you push, it saves and then saves again. Those aren't necessarily that bad but minor inconveniences.

Holding R1 in a fight lets you play it more like a fighting game by having the camera swivel. Combat is really very similar, almost where we left off so you don't have to worry too much about downgrading. You still have to upgrade individual aspects but you don't have to do the skill tree of abilities, they're luckily just unlocked through level, it feels a lot more organized that way to me.

As for story, it starts out with a flash forward revealing the catalyst of this game, the thing is, it backtracks. It doesn't need to have that flash forward, it could just be told linearly and probably have a greater effect. You don't even reach the same part from the beginning until you're already hours in. It's not like an out of context, only able to be understood at the ending thing and it's not even playable, it's just there.

But after that we get some of the stuff I was waiting for. Now some people will be turned off by this but just wait and see. Kiryu moves to Okinawa to take care of an orphanage and you actually interact with these kids and help solve their problems. Sometimes it's the little slice of life stuff like that, that makes this series special for me.

And because of that, I feel like we have some good characters. I've felt most of the Yakuza characters have just been mid in the last 2 games but this game has a good amount of good characters and I actually came to care about these kids. I think Nagoshi was finally out of the practice stage and the series fully started to blossom here. 🌸 There're problems that carry over from the past games but I'm not going to bother reiterating.

It definitely has some of the best moments so far but there's a butcher scene...he may be a bad guy but I'm still not a fan of it and the graphics really didn't age well for the scene in particular, everything else isn't too much of a downgrade in my opinion though.

You can use your phone camera for certain quick time events to capture little memes to put on your blog, I ended up doing those the most because I wasn't all that impressed by the side missions. I believe that's where certain special attacks come from.

There isn't a funeral chase sequence, luckily, but there are returning things like the Colosseum, which I personally don't care to see keep returning over and over. I've more or less accepted that Kamurocho is going to be a main stay but this series rhymes a little too much. I'd like to see something actually done with the Purgatory because you get there and what? Walk a hallway with all these buildings you can't interact with to get to one set location? When you have the potential for all these side quests? When I first saw it, I thought of Wall Market from FF7 and it has the potential to be like that but it just isn't.

Sometimes there will be a big heavy duty guy holding a chair or something in your way and unless you have a weapon or special move handy, you're pretty much screwed and even then, you drop the weapon if he hits you and it takes more time to pick it up than it does for him to hit you again so it can get stuck at his feet so you're limited to just little punches here and there and more or less tanking his hits.

I found Kiwami 2 to be the longest but this one was on par with my Kiwami 1 length, clocking in at 17 hours. There's also "premium adventure" which unlocks after you finish the game, adding more minigames, modes and costumes. A good game for sure, probably a 7 or 7.5/10, if it wasn't for some gameplay aspects, I'd say this was the best one so far.

I really dislike writing these together but I wanted to be able to say everything for certain in terms of how you should go about playing it and comparisons between the two.

I'm not going to really talk about story too much because the story is the game and the game is the story but imagine a kid who's gotten into some trouble but a detective takes him under his wing. This is his first proper mission without his teacher. (He's still there but he's doing a different case).

This is an Ace Attorney style game from before Ace Attorney was even born. This visual novel has the added bonus of gorgeous graphics, designs and animations. Sometimes there are even little things in the background to catch your attention like a kid messing around in his shoe locker, it's pretty funny.

This even has Smash history. Yep. Ayumi was a Smash trophy in Melee and I believe even a spirit in Ultimate.

If I've hooked you, then let's proceed.

So which game should you play first? Originally, the games released with the Missing Heir and then the Girl Who Stands Behind released after as a prequel. I feel like it wouldn't be a wrong answer to play it either way because you learn more about these characters. Playing this The Missing Heir will give you insight to the main character because it's an amnesia story. It can add context to certain scenes in TGWSB, if you want to already have those scenes in mind, you should start with TGWSB. If you want to get the context first then play TMH. It's nothing major in terms of plot points. Neither is mandatory to enjoy the other. I personally played TGWSB first but I think I'd have rather went with TMH. But I'm also the kind of person that likes playing sequels and then going back to the ones before it, it doesn't cause me as much issue as some other might have.

There's also a naming system that allows you to carry over your chosen name (as long as you have the save data) from one game to the next (doesn't matter which order). You don't have to do that though, it's just a fun little continuity thing. As far as length goes, my Switch says "Played for 5 hours or more" for each but it matters how you play visual novels. The text boxes are voiced but you can just skip those if you want, I kind of do half and half.

There are some points where it feels like you will need to ask the same questions over again even to the same answer because there are only so many options. I don't think it runs the same way as Ace though where you have to ask in a specific order to get the desired answer or penalizes you for guessing wrong. In fact, I didn't look anything up until Chapter 11 where you have 4 places you can visit around the school, I did every option for every area but how it works is that you have done that option already but it wasn't triggered yet because you had to do something else so I guess something I did triggered the Old School Building's surroundings because ended up being the solution. It also had a mysterious "Open" option. I've noticed that sometimes it'll have an option already available that can't be used yet (like checking the trash can) but that Open option was never relevant to that area.

There are no romance options or alternate endings but there is a "personality test" and "compatibility" with Ayumi at the ending of TGWSB but that's actually gained by what order you ask things (when interacting with her specifically), as well as looking at other girls too many times but it doesn't affect anything, just what sentences you get at the ending to say "what kind of person you are" but I feel it could've benefitted by giving you actual choices to determine those things especially with a game as trial and error as this. It's just not as clear cut as I'd like it to be and the reward seems lacking.

What I will say is that The Missing Heir seems like a proper sequel graphically. I mentioned the animations with the last game being good but this improves upon it even further, which is odd considering these remakes released at the same time and I suppose were developed at the same time.

I liked TMH more than TGWSB but as a report card for both games, I think that the story is decent, Ayumi is great, the animations are exquisite, but the gameplay is sort of lacking. I've played a few visual novels so I know that sometimes you can get lost with options and have to test the grounds but sometimes you do everything and then need to do it again and don't even know why you're doing it. Sometimes they correlate to what the character is saying, and you can pick up on it but that's only sometimes. I think that's part of the reason I liked The Missing Heir more, is that I played it with a walkthrough and I played TGWSB blind.

Now you might be thinking: "Why review Toy Story 3? That's a trivial game to review." Well for those who've played Toy Story 2 for PlayStation and N64 will know that that game holds a firm standing in platforming history, it's a darn fine game and stands as (probably the best) licensed game there is. So, surely a successor wouldn't live up to it but here we go anyway.

When I was a kid, I played the Toy Story 3 DS version before I even saw the movie and beat it the first day. To this day, it's probably the game that I've beat the most times and even speedran. Had I recorded it, I might hold the world record (the WR is currently 46 min!) but I am pretty rusty now and days and am kinda scared it won't live up to those memories because while I loved that game, it was too short.

"So, if I already played Toy Story 3, why am I playing it again but on Wii?" Because the Wii version is probably the most different of them all. You see, there's the PS2 version which is basically just the PSP version which just doesn't look as good as what I played. But the higher gen consoles at the time (PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii versions) might as well be a different story, this plays completely different from the one I remember on DS but that's not really a bad thing.

DS followed its story pretty much beat for beat the movie with some added mini games (particularly tower defense) but this one plays it with the Toy Box, which is what they really pushed in the marketing and I thought the DS version had when I bought it but then learned it didn't. The story DOES play out like the movie but it's a retelling. Hamm and friends are telling Bonnie's toys about how they got to where they are using- yep, you guessed it, toys. And that is the excuse for the Toy Box.

You can play as Woody, Buzz, Jessie and even ride Bullseye, which I don't believe the latter two were an option for the DS version.

You can even play the Buzz game from TS2, or at least their version of it. So, you can use Buzz's laser which can seem finicky with cough motion controls. Which as a kid, I wouldn't have minded but being older has gotten me to look at it differently. I think maybe I had it set up with the prime distance as a kid but now and days, I'm limited, because I have a different TV, different house, which equals different space.

Cutscenes are rendered pretty well and no they're not just FMVs of the movie! You can play the levels separately to get stuff that you missed. They did care about what they were putting into this game.

The thing the DS version has over this one is environments and Buzz. With Buzz, you could glide. That's half of what I remember about that game, is just gliding around as Buzz, without even having a place to go, just to feel the sensation of being able to do it. There's a glide in the Buzz videogame but he doesn't extend his wings, it's the not same glide and it's nowhere near as long, even the N64 TS2 had a better glide.

The camera drives me nuts with this game and it's really apparent in the Toy Box, trying to figure out where to go. The unreliable camera is actually what's keeping this back as a good speed-running game, so yes, it is another short one (WR: 32 min, about 8 levels + Toy Box). I'm sure it was made under a tight budget with an even tighter deadline though.

Now it does have some other issues like lag but that's also part of the Wii, but then there some cutscenes where music plays too loud over voices. Music cutting out with a sudden interruption of a cutscene then return where the music stopped right after.

How exactly is that Toy Box? It's good to have collectibles and to be able to customize buildings and villagers but it is experimental. It worked its way up to Disney Infinity, which the Toy Box mode in that is great but TS3 is the better game overall, at least from what I've played of Infinity. There are other collectibles and cards that you can view in Al's Toy Barn (not a level, not explorable) They're literally just pictures, hardly considered concept art, I've seen much better examples.

It's not a hard game but not so easy that it's baby stuff. They have hints that you can choose to use and sometimes I did actually use them. It's a good balanced kids game even if I do prefer TS2. Speaking of which, let me talk about licensed games in general. There are quite a few that I like, contrary to popular opinion but what I like most about them is to visit places that were in the show/movie. That's it! Make a fully explorable, 1x1 creation of that world and I will be happy. Toy Story 2 was the closest that I've found to that. The Kingdom Hearts series does pretty good with it too. I appreciate getting levels and stuff that are brand new never before seen content that feels like it fits right in with the movie (even this game does that) but I think most of us play them to feel like we're in the world that we're already familiar with.

The fact that licensed games have more or less gone away is a little sad to me but going back to some of them, I see why. Many of them were very similar, made on shoestring budgets with a tight schedule to coincide with the movie. I get that but then I look at stuff like Spider-Man 2, Battle for Bikini Bottom, and even Shrek has a few cool games. There's a demand for a niche part of those games, even now, and I would be happy to see them back in a new way, one that doesn't have to rely on a release schedule and can just come out like any normal game. Many of them are cultural icons anyway. Tell me you wouldn't play a Danny Phantom game or a Moana game or something of the sort even being that old. I get striking while the iron is hot but that seems close-minded in my opinion.