Being a kid was pretty rad, huh?

This game portrays the feeling of navigating a new world with the language barrier inherent to being a child.

It almost perfectly replicated the feeling I had of playing Ocarina of Time for the first time before I knew how to read, forcing me to use other clues, means of progression, and sometimes just fucking around until something works.

But with Tunic, this is by design.

This was a fantastic game, but what really pushed it into masterpiece territory was the final puzzle, which really brings the game's intentions full circle and is one of the most impressive and creative puzzles I have ever seen in a game.

It's a magical little experience, the likes of which I have never encountered in my adult life.

Am I already so deeply engrossed and fascinated with the Alan Wake lore and plot to the point where I feel this game is sometimes treated a little too harshly by some people? Oh, absolutely. Despite initial expectations, I find myself wholeheartedly invested in Alan's journey and the expansive universe surrounding him. Don't get me wrong, this game isn't all that great, but there are still redeeming qualities within it.

While Alan Wake's American Nightmare offers a somewhat familiar gameplay experience, it tends to feel dull quite often. Despite some refinements, it still falls short, and despite the game's short length it tends to drag on longer than the original game did. However, what truly stands out once again is the unique plot and storytelling.

I understand not everyone might vibe with the story as much as the original, but after experiecing The Signal and The Writer, I actually really appreciate that this game delves more into the wackiness of Alan's mind and introduces us to Mr. Scratch. The dialog may venture into weird territory, but I believe this quirkiness adds to the game's undeniable charm.

Another fantastic game by Vanillaware. I fun tactics game with a story similar to Fire Emblem. Really loved the world they built. Even with so many characters, most of them felt fleshed out. OST was great. Combat is predetermined so I found myself skipping battles instead of watching the amazing animations.

So many lovable characters with unique dialogue towards others, you could completely miss out on recruiting people just because you didn’t recruit another one. I was definitely elf pilled lmao. Alain and crew are definitely gonna be remembered, all 60 or so of them.

Cuphead’s relentless difficulty and classic cartoon art-design is a recipe to really captivate an audience. The type of audience that hates themselves.

When a truly difficult game comes my way, I often go in with caution. I don’t need everything to be braindead easy, but I do much prefer a relaxed experience over constant enemy placement, boss attack, confusing platform fuckery. Where Cuphead is able to separate itself from the games we know today as “bullshit,” is its fast-paced cutesy style of play.

Too many times in a game like the first Dark Souls, Sekiro, or the hardest modes on most FPS games, enemies are delay merchants, or there’s too many brutal, high damage attacks. Cuphead throws all of this out of the window and says, “Yo, check out this exploding bomb okay now look at this bullet wait actually blue and red bullet okay pink balloon you can parry this hold on pal I wasn’t done it’s time for my ultimate move, a floating head that follows you around. Checkmate, bitch.”

Cuphead’s ability to keep a lighthearted environment while also murdering you in broad daylight is what makes it stand out from its competition. Similar genres like shmups often fail to give you a break, it’s just a constant hellfire for 2+ hours. Cuphead’s boss difficulty can vary, and it isn’t all required to be done in a linear fashion. It’s really like an open world game where you have the freedom of saying fuck this, I’ll come back later.

A few things can really hold Cuphead back for me, though. Hit boxes on certain enemies, like the spaceships in Dr. Kahl, never seem to be all that close to them. Sometimes I’m standing around in what I think is a safe spot, only for a random attack to fly above my head but actually hit me in the process, even though it didn’t look like it did at all. There’s also some awful attacks. Again, Dr. Kahl is a huge blame here. The exploding bombs that follow you around are just ridiculous. I know Cuphead’s whole shtick is that retro feel of NES bullshit design, but when the majority of the game doesn’t feel that way, it’s hard to excuse this one instance.

My absolute biggest gripe with Cuphead, is the fact that the easier difficulty is just there for practice. I have no idea who thought this was a good idea; to add in an easier option but just deem it obsolete in the endgame. It’s not even like it just slows it down, they are completely different attacks with different patterns. What’s the point of adding a “practice mode” if that mode isn’t practice for “Regular” at all?

Also, fuck King Dice. Too long, no heals after levels unless you land on hearts, dumb. Lame.

I think what makes Cuphead so special is the fact that it’s just boss after boss after boss, with killer soundtracks and a great visual design. The difficulty is for the people who love masochism, while the rest of the game is for the people who love good overall game design. 8/10.

Captivating and horrifying, worth playing for the story and atmosphere alone given that it's not a massive time commitment. That being said, I found the actual gameplay segments to be the weakest part of the game beyond the first 90 minutes, as fighting waves of the same handful of enemies and repeating variations of the same awkward visual puzzles became super repetitive. It works in some cases, but I found the set pieces and narrative to be hands down the best aspects of the game.

More engaging and intuitive puzzles with more enemy and combat variety will guarantee the sequel to be a home run, assuming it can match this game's narrative strengths.

I knew this was a good game when I drew a mustache on that one family’s portrait in the farmhouse, and in response, my friend erased it. This action created a tug of war, which resulted in me adding and him erasing the mustache repeatedly throughout the course of the level.

That was until finally, I trapped him in the middle of a co-op platforming puzzle and made him watch as I slowly walked back to the portrait to draw the mustache on before returning to finish the co-op puzzle, causing the level to end and emerging from the mustache war victorious as he wallowed in a pool of agonizing defeat.

I also got to beat his ass at connect four and fucking kill him at the end of the game.

How a remake should be made. Fixing issues from the original and adding new content while retaining the heart and soul of the game it's remaking.

Persona 3 was already one of my favorite games of all time when I played FES years ago, flaws and all. So when rumors were floating about a potential P3 remake was in the works, I couldn't help but be excited as Atlus could fix the problems I had with FES on the PS2.

Reload quickly became my most anticipated release for 2024 and when it was released in February, I enjoyed every minute of it. It felt like I was playing P3 for the first time all over again.

The new voice cast is absolutely fantastic and is on par with the OG cast, even if I slightly prefer the OGs due to my nostalgia. The gameplay improvements were greatly needed if Persona 3 was going to be brought up to modern standards and Atlus didn't disappoint. Adding Baton Pass from P5 + Theurgys and a party member rebalance was much appreciated even if Akihiko took a massive hit in Reload.

Even with all of the fancy graphics, new voice cast, QOL and gameplay improvements, at its core, it's still Persona 3, that same incredible game back on the PS2. It holds to today's modern standards beautifully and will continue to do so for years to come.

Wow.
I played Persona 3 FES in early 2023, soon after wrapping up my playthrough of the incredible Persona 4 Golden. What I found was a game with a lot of wonderful qualities, including but not limited to the story and characters, which was held back by many factors.
The gameplay, while far from bad, didn’t quite hook me. Tartarus was great at first but it quickly lost its flair. The daytime activities were decent, though it felt like something was missing. It was their first attempt at the new calendar system, so I get it, but the qualities I enjoyed were certainly weighed down. I wasn’t able to connect with the game the way so many others did. So, for me, Persona 3 was a game that I liked, one that I had a profound level of respect for, but not much more.
Fast forward a few months later and Persona 3 Reload was announced during Microsoft’s showcase for Summer Games Fest, and to say I lost my shit would be an understatement. I was hyped for this game, and each subsequent infodump only skyrocketed my excitement even further. This game had the potential to smooth P3’s rough edges so its highs could shine even brighter than before.
And for the most part? It really did.
I want to start on something I didn’t like before gushing about how much I do like. One part about vanilla P3 that I had a deep adoration for was its art direction. It had this surreal, dreamy and eerie vibe that the others didn’t. From the Dark Hour music (I’m a big fan of how vanilla P3 utilised reversed kicks) to the cutscene direction (which sorta reminded me of Evangelion, actually), it was a part of the game that I loved start-to-finish. I can pretty safely say that it has my favourite opening cutscene out of any game I’ve played, it set the tone perfectly.
Unfortunately, this is one aspect where Reload falters. That opening cutscene? Completely nerfed. Everything that made it great was gone. I would genuinely call it horrible. The direction for Reload’s cutscenes in general is inferior to vanilla. It doesn’t ruin the experience, but its definitely disappointing. I will say, however, that the UI design and how it brought in a new water motif was great.
And on that note, this game is PRETTY. Like, actual eye candy. The environments are detailed, the character models for this game are the best in the series, etc etc etc. Don’t get me started on how Tartarus looks in this game. For me, it’s Reload at its very best visually. The environmental design of each block is perfect, the lighting is BEAUTIFUL, the team did an incredible job adapting it into modern technology.
But visuals aren’t the only thing Reload’s rendition of Tartarus excels at. It’s actually everything. I would go as far as to say it’s my favourite dungeon in modern Persona, even including P5’s palaces. It’s so endlessly fun to just run through, fighting enemies and collecting items while basking at how good everything looks. There is something comforting about just grinding through blocks of Tartarus, I don’t fully know how to explain it. I loved P5R’s Mementos, and this is just everything good about that dungeon but elevated even further. I was enjoying the dungeon crawling from the very beginning, but it truly became something special when Monad doors and passages were introduced. Anything that gives me an excuse to engage in combat is a plus for me.
Speaking of combat…
Persona 3 Reload carries over P5’s additions to the One More system. This battle system was pretty barebones in vanilla P3 and P4/P4G but it truly came into its own as something that could stand alongside mainline SMT’s Press Turn system with P5. Reload’s combat is just as satisfying as P5’s, with the added benefit of not being as piss-easy as the latter. I mean, it’s still a lot easier than it should be but I’m glad to say there were a lot more game over screens and boss battles that made me break a real sweat. The new addition, which replaces Showtimes from P5R is Theurgy. Theurgy attacks are pretty similar, but this system is a lot more developed. For starters, each party member fills their Theurgy meter through actions that match their personality (for example, Yukari charges her meter through using healing spells), and that is the greatest possible way to handle it, ties the characters to the gameplay mechanics so well. The actual Theurgies are a lot more varied than Showtimes too, rather than exclusively being big damage moves (which does still apply to most of them), they can also provide huge stat boosts. It adds to the strategy of battle. Overall, the combat mechanics complement each other quite well and are very satisfying to use, the only thing I’d change is the game’s difficulty. Though I would say that is a balancing issue rather than a problem in the mechanics themselves. I will say the early game bosses had a really satisfying level of challenge, even with Theurgy, though the game quickly became a cakewalk. I did spend a lot of time grinding in Tartarus and fusing personas, however, so I’m sure a part of that difficulty drop was my fault.
That’s enough about the dungeon crawling, though. I now want to focus on the other half of the game, that being the social sim. Fully voiced Social Links are one of Reload’s greatest additions, I found myself enjoying and looking forward to them a lot more. Characters I already liked, such as Yuko and Akinari were only made better, especially because their respective voice actors absolutely killed their roles. Even people like Nozomi were more enjoyable due to the voice work. No complaints here, Social Links in Reload are great. Aside from that, there is a lot more to do in general, particularly at night, which made me really happy to see. New restaurants provide more opportunities for levelling up social stats, and you can work part time jobs for some quick cash (I can’t say I’m a big fan of the related achievement, though). Being able to use software bought at the net café on the dorm computer is a good addition too. Upgrading Makoto’s ambush ability in Tartarus through software in particular was a great use of this mechanic, and I’m glad it’s more balanced than Royal’s Ryuji’s instant-kill. I think I prefer this method of upgrading and gaining abilities compared to tying them to Social Links, as I felt as though P5’s approach trivialised a lot of confidants for me. Fusion bonuses are more than good enough.
I’d also like to highlight the new Linked Episodes. I’m a big fan. I’d go as far as to say party members shouldn’t have social links, I prefer this approach. The main reason is that it allows their stories to intertwine with the main plot, rather than being a self-contained arc that doesn’t impact their character in the main story. They give player opportunities to really delve into how a character is feeling regarding current events, it’s awesome. The greater focus on interacting with your fellow SEES members, through Linked Episodes and the new dorm hangouts actually made the main story hit even harder for me.
It’s been about a week since I beat Reload now. I’ve given myself time to sit on it, and let the initial hype wear off before I give a concrete opinion.
I liked Persona 3. But now? I adore it. At the time of writing this review, I’d say it’s my second favourite in the series.
This remake certainly isn’t perfect, it does miss deliberate design decisions and smooths the rough edges of P3 a bit too much, even the edges that were designed to be rough (does that make sense?). It’s not a definitive version of P3. But I don’t think wanting remakes to be 100% definitive is a good way to look at them. This is simply another interpretation of the Persona 3 experience. And it’s a damn good one. It improves in some areas, falters in others, but it adds its own identity, nonetheless. Just like any other remake.
I fully understand people who still view FES as their favourite version, though for me, this is the game I’ll replay when I want to experience this story. The Royal team cooked yet again, and now I’m even more excited to see what they do with Persona 6. Thank you for reading my review.

Before the game came out I said it looked like the "MGS4 of RGG" and for the most part, that held up. It does much more than that though, and it stands on its own delivering a message about redemption and perseverance. This game tells you YOU HAVE TO LIVE. Both the mainline story and the side adventures had me emotional, many times. This might be my favorite cast in any JRPG, ever, it just happens to be a cap-off of one of my favorite series ever.

Game-wise: This is basically a 2:1 improvement of the first turn-based game. The way the combat unfolds in every battle is just SUPERB. I didn't even really expand myself on the job system either. It allows for so much diversity and creativity while also posing quite a challenge sometimes. Fantastic stuff.

Side content wise this is also the best the series has ever been, between the substories, minigames, and the incredible Dondoko island (which could be charged as a full game honestly), and the Sujimon game that runs along side everything had me hooked the whole way through.

I never played an RGG game that had its hooks in me this hard before which says a lot because I love every game in this series hard. This was a masterpiece through and through.