It's really hard to pinpoint where I stand on rating this game from a scoring perspective because it's generally so bizarre and outlandish in a lot of ways that I can't pinpoint where it really stands in comparison to other games I've played at least on a quality level. A score would feel reductive as despite feeling very positively on the experience overall, it really wouldn't fit to knock this game down some since it doesn't click in the same way an upper echelon game would for me. But I'm not kidding saying this might just be one of the most unhinged, bizarre games I have ever played.

The very basic outline of the game almost sounds like something I really wouldn't come out of thinking all that positively about, or at least come off more annoyed with more things about it. Characters saying "fuck" every other sentence usually annoys me when it's a shitty Seth Rogan movie trying to prove that it can handle big-boy adult themes or in anything that seems to believe it understands how the "kids these days" talk; and Class of '09 is full of fucks (both literally and figuratively) everywhere. Yet here it feels like 100% natural since the dialogue is written so, authentically? Like of course a bunch of edgy teens would overuse that word when talking amongst themselves. The dialogue as a whole just felt very natural in a way that I could almost see this word-for-word coming from some 16-year-old's blog on MySpace.

Now it's important to note that Class of '09 does not shy away from edgy themes, and while I'm fine with edgy humor, I admit that too much of it can come off as sort of try-hard and drain any sort of comedy or meaning from the rest of the experience. The is probably the biggest paradox with the Class of '09 since this game is almost exclusively written off shock-value and completely unhinged handling of serious themes. Yet in a way, the game's willingness to feel a sort of apathy towards everything that happens kind of works in its favor. Every single person in this game is honestly a terrible person to an extent and that includes the MC who very blatantly uses everyone else for her own gain. This creates a sort of detachment from the events that don't necessarily give you deep emotional connection to the events but really pique your interest to see what happens when you go with different choices. Whether intentional or not it feels like a meta-commentary on players deciding to choose every ending in a VN just out of curiosity to see where different choices lead, and how easy it is to do when you attach yourself to no one and don't care about their fates outside of amusement. I know meta-commentary is pretty overdone in a lot of media now, but I feel it was at least subtle enough here to go beyond "hey look fuckass, it's all just a video game" and feel like a meaningful part of playing the role as a sociopathic teenager.

Idek what I've been rambling about. I stayed up until like 7 am playing this. This game is genuinely wild and I feel almost everyone who is fine with any admittedly edgy, shock-based humor should at least experience once. At least to see what the fuck this game even is at the end of the day.

Maybe one of the first examples of a risk-vs-reward mechanic in a video game. Fuel canisters serve two purposes. You can either fly over them to gain more fuel which you'll need to continue playing. Or you can blow them up for extra points, though this prevents you from getting fuel. Do you risk destroying the fuel to gather up more points and hop you can fill up when the next rounds come along? Or do you play it safe and try to keep your fuel as high as possible at all times? I'm amazed because this is the most I've thought about anything when playing these old ass Atari games

No idea how this ended up being the first Kojima game I actually played despite being familiar with his works for nearly a decade and this being one of them I knew the least about prior to playing.

Zone of the Enders might be the most standard cheesy mech game to ever cheesy mech game. The controls and camera are definitely a product of their time and fights can become a bit samey with standard enemies constantly being reused throughout the game's runtime. Variety still manages to at least present itself in interesting boss fights that were pretty fun to figure out the different timings/rhythms to and the different upgrades that can be applied to your mech. The balance was a bit silly with some items being blatantly better than others while some were nearly useless, but just having the option of a large arsenal combined with the fun movement made combat all the more fun than it had any right to be.

I'd go far as to say that this would objectively be a very average to mediocre game, but it was good to me. Something about the early-2000s cheesy sci-fi atmosphere and combat that didn't try to be deeper than it was made this one really fun despite some minor frustrating moments.

Perhaps taking an offshoot route to play Nayuta in my not-for-the-faint-of-heart journey through the Kiseki series when I was and am admittedly dying to reach Cold Steel/Reverie/Kuro was a bizarre decision to make. End of thought.

Nayuta is a strange little game that, as someone who hasn't progressed past Azure and has only heard of things from this game's story loosely tying into the main Trails canon, there's really no set time or need to play it to understand the main Trails story. More of an "aha" moment if you see something in a future game that calls back to Nayuta, but doesn't feel like a major gap in the Trails experience if you miss out on it. I only really know this as many of my friends who are caught up with Trails skipped Nayuta and didn't enjoy the story of the games any less.

There's something interesting about how it's chronologically the next game in the series after Azure and before Cold Steel if you go based on release date, but that doesn't detract from the fact that Nayuta is largely its own thing and can be experienced anytime, whether that be before Sky FC or after Reverie if you really wanted to. I really had no clue what I was getting into other than a friend of mine (shoutout to @Stormowl0 for this recommendation and for drawing god tier Rixia Mao art) telling me it was really good.

Rather than being turn-based strategy on a grid, this is a full-blown action RPG with sword combos, magic spam, dodge rolls, and blocking galore! I could understand this as it is what Ys seems to be like (author's note: still need to play Ys), but what I was not expecting for it to be just as much of a platformer as it is an action JRPG. Turns out innovating the series by adding a jump button was done for more than show as enemies are often fought in a linear level-by-level format with precarious jump, traps, and pits you have to make your way around in the environments. I can't remember where I've heard this but I remember someone comparing it to Kirby 64 strangely enough, and I honestly find it very fitting for both games have a similarly whimsical worlds, a balance of combat and platforming in their level designs, and a silly little fairy girl that follows the protagonist.

Nayuta definitely isn't as easy as Kirby however and this is where I think some of its greatest gameplay strength lies: in how fast and frantic combat can get when you're in a pinch. It's not necessarily the most deep or thought provoking combat out there, you can spam magic quite a lot of the time to negate some challenges and swinging your sword mindlessly doesn't heavily punish you and is even encouraged at times. But playing on hard mode still required me to respect what enemies could do and at least know how to position myself and pull off timely dodges/blocks to not get obliterated by the high damage. Bosses were some of the most demanding parts of the game where magic spam was largely ineffective and you have to rely on playing aggressively to open up a weak point you can slash. The bosses in general were fantastic. While it may sound like average good video game stuff based on what I described, let me put it like this. Remember Twilight Fossil Stallord from the Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess and how, despite being another use-the-dungeon-item boss, the second phase had his head come off and you chased him down on your spinner in a thrilling, high-speed encounter? Imagine if nearly every boss had a cool twist like that, but was never gimmicky to the point where the base combat you know first and foremost isn't shafted (except in one boss which was the worst in the game because of this lmao).

The story while not connecting to the rest of a series as is often seen as a strength of the Trails series above other JRPGs, Nayuta has a similar general structure to its plot going from very, very, humble beginnings and then turning into Xenogears by the very end. It's much faster paced than even the shortest individual Trails game, so the characters don't quite the same level of screentime they would in Trails, but it was still enough to tug at my heartstrings and even get me misty eyed in some of the later scenes.

I'm very well aware at how disorganized and all-over the place these thoughts are, but it's honestly just kind of hard to sum up what kind of game Nayuta is. It takes so many elements from other games as it creates this fascinating JRPG-platformer hybrid with wild creativity and endearing characters and storytelling. It's something that, while not blowing me away quite to the extent that the Trails games all have so far with their jaw-dropping narratives at times, really clicked with me and carried the experience.

Never looking back. The SSS are my family 😭





P.S. Rixy Mixy is my pookie wookie