Why don't I get it?

It's a question I asked myself again and again when I played Bloodborne. At this point, I was two thirds of the way done with the game, and was frustrated. Frustrated with the sneak attacks, lacklustre boss fights, long boss runs, and swarms of enemies.

For me, enjoying Bloodborne was hard.

For Sekiro, it was the same. I didn't get it for a long time, at least until owl father. Attempt after attempt, days of slamming my head against the wall. How could someone possibly enjoy this?? But then something clicked. The fun from the boss fight wasn’t obtained from beating it. It came from the fight itself. It came from the ballad of swords clashing, swift dodging, and the ever so satisfying mikiri counter. Mastering the move-set of bosses and flowing through each attack effortlessly was the greatest feeling, more so than seeing “shinobi execution” flashing on your screen.
I couldn't for the life of me understand what wasn’t clicking when I was playing Bloodborne.
The game is not perfect. Far from it. It's littered with so many flaws, so many features that make so little sense. Oftentimes, it's an infuriating experience that’s lacking in fun, fairness, and riddled with obnoxious obstacles.

From my initial impressions, It was by far the weakest souls entry in terms of boss design, difficulty scaling, and grind.

But at the same time, when you slow down your pace, when you're less focused on the objective at hand, you're sucked into the world of Yharnam. And the game is so, so, beautiful, with a solid foundation of gameplay to boot.

I think Bloodborne has a lot to offer. It's not difficult, if anything, it's the second easiest souls game I've played. Despite this, the streets of Yharnam still demand a lot of patience, more so than any other game in the series. But if you can sift through the dirt and grime, I think you’ll be able to see why so many find this to be fromsoft’s magnum opus.

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The Good

One thing I immediately noticed about bloodborne was the brilliant art design. Not to spoil anything, but the clash of colour palette later on in the game left me in awe at the wondrous skybox. The levels too, yharnam in particular, it feels infected, riddled with disease. The bleak, sinister atmosphere seeps into every crevasse, every brick, every pore in your skin. The horror of living in a decrepit, haunted city filled with grotesque creatures, their terse groans interrupting the eerie whistle of the wind. The haunting yet prepossessing feel of each environment changes ever so slightly, with each area more beguiling than the last.

Combat in this game is also impeccable. Dashing from left to right, sidestepping as a new movement mechanic feels buttery smooth, and the gun parry feels chunky. The weapons too. Snapping a saw, clicking the sheath onto Ludwig's blade. The trick weapons are probably the best in the entire series, with every weapon feeling unique and powerful.
The rally system allows for much more aggressive play. Unlike most souls games. It's not a dance anymore. It's a hunt. You're a predator with an unwieldy pizza cutter, feasting on the blood of your prey. It's messy. It's filthy. As the blood coats your clothing, it shines in the dim flaxen glow of deteriorating streetlights. You claw and maim each other until one of you is a bloody pulp.

It feels great!

Although I personally enjoy the more fluid battles of sekiro and dark souls, I can understand the appeal of the back and forth bloody brawls that take place in this game. It fits the theme, and though not as fun for me personally, it's a fantastic combat system that deserves all the praise it gets.

The sound design and animation in this game, as per usual, is immaculate. You really feel your weapon cleave through the flesh of your enemies. It's visceral and bloody, the chunk chunk chunk of your hefty tool depriving your victim of their blood has never felt this good. The Foley artists of Fromsoft have done an impeccable job.
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The Bad

By far my favourite part of the series is the boss design. I think the feel and rhythm of all the souls games' bosses feel phenomenal. It's what I look forward to for every fromsoft title. And it's in this feature that the game is anemic.
This is by far my biggest gripe. Good boss encounters are few and far between, with the majority of them being in the fantastic DLC. In sekiro, every clash of blades feels like a dance. In Bloodborne, most bosses feel like you're fighting either an epileptic old animal with awfully telegraphed attacks, a lump of flesh that barely moves or just a bunch of guys throwing shit at you. Rom is the worst offender, with awful enemy spam and a boring moveset. All the boss runs are pretty painful as well, with logarius being by far the worst. Not to mention that much of the difficulty from the bosses stem from fighting the camera instead of the boss.

Another issue I have are the NPC fights. Being so incredibly unbalanced, they're probably the most difficult part of the game. Infinite stamina, insanely high damage, bullet spam and bottomless health pools make every single NPC fight a chore. And there are so. many.

This may be more of a subjective complaint, but I don't find the level layout in Bloodborne particularly intuitive in some cases. People sing the praises of the game's level design, and sure, before you reach the church, it's pretty great. But once you reach the cathedral, some areas in yharnam becomes so labarynthine, so infuriating to navigate, it becomes a chore. It takes such an inordinate amount of time to run from one place to the next even with shortcuts. The lost woods is the worst offender, with shortcuts that don't even save that much time.

I think interconnected levels are a great idea, and are particularly well done in dark souls 1, because it led to a plethora of unforgettable moments. When you think you're stuck, in the thick of a horrifying area, you take an elevator, not knowing where you'll end up. Then you hear the oh so comforting theme of firelink shrine. A wave of relief crashes over you. It feels incredibly satisfying. There is no such thing in Bloodborne. There are just shortcuts for the sake of shortcuts, with no payoff like in dark souls, just a fewer number of checkpoints, and some of the longest runbacks in the series.

One problem I feel that most people would agree on are how unfun consumable healing items are. Making blood vials and bullets consumables was probably the worst decision Fromsoft made in this game. This is an objectively stupid choice, and I know for a fact nobody likes farming for bullets in the middle of their playthrough.

Another subjective gripe I had with the game was the sheer amount of surprise attacks and gang fights. Difficulty in enemy variety and move set is great. I think sekiro does it best by peppering in minibosses and enemies that are tough to deflect, providing a tough, but fair challenge. Exploration is quite enjoyable, and every time you enter a new area, you're excited to see what challenges you encounter next. In Bloodborne, Miyazaki made it his life's goal to make the most torturous, Kafkaesque experience imaginable. Every corner, every turn, there is a group of enemies there to jump you. Down a certain staircase, ten guys and an amygdala. Down an alleyway. Ten guys and a jailer. I think the intention is to keep you on wits end, but I didn’t particularly enjoy this feature. Thankfully it happens much less in the dlc.

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The base game of Bloodborne sometimes struggles to find a good midpoint between too easy and unfair, and often ends up being both at the same time. It has many confusing design choices that muddy the otherwise crystal clear waters that would have made for a great and memorable game. I think there was a lot missing, and left much to be desired. It felt like it laid a solid foundation for a great game, but made a few missteps in the process. Despite this, it was thoroughly enjoyable, which goes to show the strength of the core gameplay loop, as well as the art direction.

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DLC

I don't feel very strongly towards the base game of Bloodborne, and I don't think it's a particularly strong entry in the souls series either.

But the old hunters is a different story.

If I could find an analogy, bloodbornes base game is like a chunk of wagyu beef. It's alright on its own, but has the potential to be something fantastic.

The old hunters DLC is like if you drenched it in crack.

It manages to fix every single issue that I had with the base game, with three of the best bosses in the entire series. If the base game was a foundation, the old hunters built a whole condominium on top of it. It has some of the most memorable areas in the entire series, and oozes style from every orifice. Its by far the best expansion Fromsoft has ever made.

If the entire game was at this quality, it would probably be my favourite souls title. By a long shot.
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Despite bloodborne floundering in its first half, It finds its footing in the second and does a triple double in the DLC. I don’t know if its their best game, but I think its objectively a fantastic one.

There is a somber tone about this game that is persistent from the title screen to the end credits sequence. It depicts war in a manner that encourages the player to form their own opinion on the conflict and choose the factions they agree/believe in. I think that AC:4A is a beautiful depiction of a war torn setting. The only caveats about this game stem from it only being available to play on the PS3 where it suffers with some major performance issues. However if you do want to experience this gem of a game I recommend using RPCSX3 to emulate it.

“Millions Will Die, Exciting Don't You Think?”

Yakuza 5 is one the most ambitious experiences that RGG has cooked up for the franchise and while the journey isn't all smooth sailing it never feels dull or slow.

It like Yakuza 4 starts of on its best foot with Kiryu's campaign which sets a much more mature tone as compared to the games that came before it. All of this is then undermined when the story comes grinding to a halt as the game moves onto Saejima's storyline which takes place in a prison (again) and involves him breaking out of it (again) which makes it feel like a slightly better executed version of his section in Yakuza 4 with better characters and higher stakes. The rest of the three playable characters have a much tighter campaign as compared to Saejima, A highlight being Tatsuo Shinada who is a masterfully well written character with story sections that I still well up over when quoted, His whole campaign feels really heartfelt (and also heartbreaking) with insanely human feeling side characters (Shoutout Milky and Takasugi THE GOATS) that have performances that will surely touch your soul.

Even though Yakuza 5 manages to have these really real heartfelt moments the story as a whole feels very cobbled together with even the main villain admitting to the fact that he does not understand how he ended up as the final antagonist. This accompanied with the weirdly paced story just undercuts all these beautiful story and gameplay moments that the game spends so much time constructing.

“Well, Back To It...Reality. It's...It's Too Late To Run Away.”

Ryukishi is a hack and a fraud, I can’t believe I spent 60+ hours on this nonsense of a VN just for it to tell me that life is worth living and trust my friends and not some deep methodical pretentious mumbo jumbo. I hate this game.
That being said I love this game. Ryukishi you madman, how did you do it. I started this all the way back in late July and I’ve consistently been hooked on where the story was going to go next. I really love the characters, the uncanny atmosphere, all that jazz. This review is mostly focused on the answer arcs of the series but the question arcs are undeniably just as important to the overall experience.
The contrast of Meakashi to its successors makes for a really damn engaging opener for the answer arcs. The complete brutality of it all while also forming one of the most morally gray characters so far makes for possibly my favorite chapter in the whole series. It can get unbearably brutal at points, but that just means that it is accomplishing its purpose. It’s a story of how the abused becomes the abuser, and the things people will do for love. It’s a story that shows the real horrors aren’t the demons or curses, it’s ourselves. Easily the most tragic chapter of the VN, and I have to admit I got a little emotional towards the end despite what terrible things our MC did along the way.
Tsumihoroboshi comparatively starts an upwards trajectory of hope after the extremely bleak first five chapters, Rena and Keiichi shine their brightest here, making for some of the most hype moments in the entire story, and ultimately the message that this chapter establishes is rather inspiring, it’s about breaking “fate”.
Minagoroshi is….. complicated. I always see the highest praise for this one but honestly I didn’t really get it? It does wrap up a lot of the remaining questions for the audience which is cool and all, but I found this chapter overall to be a bit of a slog for me to go through. Maybe it was burnout? Not sure. The bigger moments still really hit hard but in the end I still can’t put my finger on why I’m not too hot on this chapter. Still good though.
Matsuribayashi is the last main arc of the series, although I still have Rei to go through to properly cap things off. However, this is still a great finale on its own. A liiiiiitle drawn out, sure, but overall pretty earned? We get insight on the core perpetrator, one last section to gather all our clues together for one final showdown, and… a very good showdown at that! The actual ending itself was a tad underwhelming but maybe I’m an entitled ace attorney brat who wants flashier finales or something. Most of what happened I sort of predicted, which isn’t a bad thing, moreso me not imagining the story could organically end any other way, which isn’t a bad thing.
Woah woah woah, okay we’re not done here, because I still have some things to say before signing off. Despite what that star rating will tell you, I must say that Higurashi is NOT a flawless masterpiece!!!! Sorry Ryukishibros but I still got some choice words to say about this man and his stories. The fanservice sucks!!!! Nothing will ever excuse this and I just need to get this out of the way because it is EASILY the most frustrating thing about this VN and it makes me hesitate to call it near perfect. Also yadda yadda yadda the prose can be repetitive and annoying, it’s a dice roll on if you get a raw line or not etc etc etc. I’ve talked to people who consider Higurashi like, high art, and while I can respect their passion, this is far from the best story ever told. It’s just a really really good one that’s impressive, especially considering the context it was released in. Dunno, can’t look at the maid cafe scenes and be like “yooo this is flawless peak that no other writer can achieve!!!” If anything Higurashi is very derivative of works by other writers (the quirky tsukihime inspired visual novel!!!!), it’s a celebration of stories as a whole, while still being unique in it’s own right. Anyway I hope that didn’t come off as hate, because I genuinely love this game so much, it’s one of my favorite long term video game experiences ever, and I love being apart of this community (seriously WTC shitposting is funny af) but I do NOT think it is free from criticism, not even close.

And so my journey into the odd world of Visual Novels begins. Feel free to block me if I become a pretentious VN elitist because of it. There's so much to see, not just from 07th, but from KEY Visual Arts, Type Moon, Leaf, etc. Words cannot describe how excited I am to further dip my toes into the medium.

Do I recommend this? Well….. I suppose? The first chapter is free on steam so there really is nothing to lose trying this. There are poor aspects of the writing you’ll just have to bear with, moments that will make you go “Ryukishi what the fuck is wrong with you,” but I think if you can brute force those aspects, you have a wonderful story that has earned it’s place in the visual novel industry. I don’t care that the OG artwork is corny, I don’t care if the story gets silly, it’s HIGURASHI: WHEN THEY CRY. It's a genuinely passionately created piece of media. I eagerly await to try Ryukishi’s other works in the future, for When They Cry once more.

Fourth chapter in the Higurashi novel series.
This is a little different from the other chapters, we don't play as Keiichi and the story is set 7 years before the event of the other three.
It's kind of a bonus chapter where we learn lots of new stuff including some info on the (younger) mysterious Rika Furude and how the village of Hinamizawa works.
Incredible writing and music as always (Dawn almost broke me).
This is also the last chapter of the question arcs, so from chapter 5 onwards we should get some answers about everything that happened in Hinamizawa.
nipah☆

We all have to get to know ourselves, Sleeper. To know what it is that drives us. I'm sure you'll decide to act in the manner you know. But you also have to ask yourself why it is so. Don't neglect that.

If you take one thing away from this review let it be this: If you enjoy connecting with a wonderfully diverse set of characters, learning how their experiences shaped them to be who they are and what motivates them to keep going as the world deals them a bad hand, then I can not recommend this to you enough.

As with many games I've tried through Game Pass, I knew very little about Citizen Sleeper. A couple hours in I wasn't sure if I was enjoying it. The gameplay loop was odd, the writing felt a bit verbose, I couldn't exactly keep track of what was happening in the world.

But I stuck with it because it was just giving this vibe, something that was keeping me drawn into this world, and as I kept playing, I became more and more appreciative of everything the game had to offer.

Most of the credit for keeping me entranced probably goes to the music and sound design, which is certainly one of the most immersive I've ever experienced. I would feel a sort of whiplash whenever I took my headphones off to take a break, and be genuinely stunned at the silence of my own room and the sudden realisation that all I was doing was staring at a screen. The ambience here is just mwah.

Eventually I really started to get into the gameplay loop, and at times where it was appropriate, I enjoyed the occasional strategy of trying to finish the routes for characters I was most interested in, but also trying to survive, it was engaging and satisfying! Not to mention the little details describing all the tasks you carry out, which helped those tasks feel just a bit more immersive.

As I mentioned before, the writing could feel a bit verbose for my tastes and sometimes I couldn't tell what exactly was going on, this actually persisted throughout the playthrough to some degree, I didn't fully get it all, and maybe that's due to my own literacy, I don't know.

What I do know is that despite all this, every conversation felt so deeply personal and every character was so different and brimming with individuality. When it needed to, the writing and the music would perfectly synchronise with the impact of surviving and carrying out tasks for so long, to beautifully craft moments that would move me emotionally. It didn't matter in the slightest that I wasn't fully grasping everything, I felt for everyone, for their past, for their present, and their future.

That is why I love Citizen Sleeper, and that to me is games as an art form.

(Also, Citizen Sleeper is a banger title, knocked it out of the park with that one.)

Edit: NEVERMIND I HAD A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP THIS IS THE BEST SETUP GAME BESIDES UTAWARERUMONO 2, HOLY SHIT SOME OF THE MOMENTS IN THIS WERE EMOTIONAL AND HIT HARD, AND WE EVEN HAVE BETTER DOROTHY

I had no complaints with Zero until the last chapter, which was a bit of an underwhelming payoff, but until that point it was basically a perfect "setup game" with no dull moments. None of my issues from Sky FC are in this.

Aside from the mildly underwhelming finale, the "BRO WE'RE A CINEMATIC UNIVERSE BROOOOO" issue that I've been fearing with this series rears its head. In some aspects, it's really cool, what with the payoff for a character's arc in SC and 3rd (I started crying from it, it was so emotional). In others, you have the corny MCU thing of "heh, looks like I got here just in time!" and "wow [Crossbell character], you remind me of [Sky character]!" happening multiple times. I expect it to get both better with the payoffs, and worse with the corniness. But you take the good with the bad, I guess.

Otherwise, this is definitely one of the best JRPGs and videogames I've played. The combat system, characters, music, improved visuals from Sky, the Crossbell atmosphere, all of these contributed to a very fun experience. Can't wait for what Azure has in store.

Bon Voyage!

For being a fan of this franchise for fucking years and finally seeing Kiryu story finally finally being concluded puts me in so much ease and satisfaction, 5-Gaiden have made me burst like a baby but with the ending of Infinite Wealth I kept my composure and it’s was perfect in my eyes how they ended this character that has been in writing for almost 20 years, and it’s amazing to see they have come to acknowledge all those years of this character within and it’s beautiful to see the Dragon i’ve been following for so long finally rest. Now I can’t wait to continue seeing how the goofy Hero with a pure heart of gold moves forward with the future of yakuza if they plan on it but hey i would fine with the franchise ending here.

Ichiban is just even more perfect than he was before I love him so much him and Kiryu, both of them were tied for my favorite character and that game might have changed that, He is always the type of character i adore and he moves me like nothing else I love what he represents and I love that Kiryu has been influenced by Ichiban and realized he doesn’t have to suffer alone during the game.

This game was everything i hoped it to be, I loved the story, the amount of side content to do was just so much fun that i spent a good 3 days on Dondoko Island and Sujimon content alone, and the party interactions always put a smile on my face, and the new cast of characters are pretty cool. This the most fun I had with a game in so long I had a grin reaching up to my ears every time I got onto the game and after finishing it i already want to replay it all which i plan onto soon alongside doing the big swell content as it looks so fun.

As for the story I won’t be talking about anything indirectly just how I felt with it, and It had a beautiful story to me at least but it is little bit messy, the pacing of the game was a bit off after Kiryu began to have his own parts I felt that Ichibans parts fell off a bit but is still great and some story elements and characters are lacking in some areas but this game is still amazing and is definitely one of the best stories and a personal favorite out of all the games in the franchise and hell out of every game i’ve played despite some of these little problems I have, regardless this is one of RGGs important stories and game as a whole and I can’t wait to see how they go on with the franchise and other games after this one .

Onto some characters that aren’t Ichiban and Kiryu, Absolutely loved Yamai, Chitose, and Tomizawa and are some great additions to the franchise i pray we get to see them again , I also appreciated characters like Akane, Ebina, Eiji, and even Wong (cus i thought he was a chill dude) but i wish were expanded on a tad bit more during the game. Seonhee despite not being a new character I just love her and she’s pretty silly and i liked her in 7 and now love her in this game def a favorite, a character I was hoping they were going to use a bit more was Sawashiro as I loved him in 7 but that didn’t seem to be the case but who knows maybe they would work on him more in the next one. The previous party I already adore I have nothing to say about them as I love them all and seeing more from them through the main story, the bingo, table talks, and the overworld conversation is always a pleasure and i’ll forever love all of them and they are solidified as my favorite rpg party ever including the newcomers.

The soundtrack for this game is just absolutely amazing and i’ve been listening to it a lot recently even when i was playing the game I would go back to tracks and just enjoy them especially the karaoke tracks. And the ending song man oh my god been listening to the whole time

This game is about the past, the future, and how to live. As that is what both Ichiban and Kiryu are fighting for (at least that’s how i see it). The positives outweigh the minor negatives so much in Infinite Wealth and RGG sticked with what they wanted the core of this game to be and made an absolutely incredible game. This game was one hell of an experience and everything in this game reminds me why this is my favorite franchise ever and why it’s every inch of it is so special to me and this game is special, this series has always inspired me to keep moving forward and gives me hope especially after playing this game. Nothing will ever top this franchise for me. Thank you Kiryu Kazuma, Thank You Ichiban Kasuga, Thank You RGG Studios

"That means you can make amends. Without a doubt"

"All of us, we have to keep going"

" I’ll tell you why, value inheres in life, See there, your riches overflow "