Here we are at the very first Pokemon game I ever played, so of course I’d have some nostalgia blindness going into the game. My first copy of this game was one I accidentally kept when an old friend of mine let me borrow it, which I then proceeded to lose after a while. I legit had dreams of the game that were very vague, until I got a new copy for my birthday when I turned 14 I believe. I’ve had a wild journey with this game for some reason, and I love the fact that it’s over something as dumb as a DS Pokemon game. Honestly, I still love the layout of the Sinnoh region. I didn’t really have any problems outside of Mount Cornett, as going through those sections of the game did feel a little aimless on where you needed to go. My biggest problem with the game is of course the HMs. There were a lot of HMs in HeartGold when I played that, but at least two of them were optional ones that weren’t needed for the game. This game has 8 HM moves that are needed, meaning you’d need two HM Slaves. While you could just alternate between the two you need, it’s still frustrating that this is a problem in general. I’m glad that after these games they started to cut back on them immensely, as I recall Black and White only having 5 HMs. Like was the HM Flash really necessary, I only used it once through the entire game. I didn’t like being forced to pull along just one HM slave, so adding on even more felt like the game was personally messing with me by doing so.

I once again tried to keep to Pokemon that were introduced in the Sinnoh region, so here’s what I ended up with. I’d love to see what anyone thinks of this team since there was quite a bit of overlap in terms of typing.

Ifrit the Infernape (Final Fantasy)
Livewire the Shiny Luxray (DC/Superman)
Evangelion the Togekiss (Angels in Evangelion)
Garchomp the Sharknado (Sharknado)
Zero the Shiny Gallade (Mega Man)
Lucario the Cerberus (Greek Mythology)
Featuring Dirty Dan 2 the Bibarel HM Slave (Plya you get this one)

Yeah, somehow in just one run I managed to find two shiny Pokemon for my team. I ended up grinding against wild Pokemon more than normal as I had gotten far ahead of Plya (shoutout to them btw, they're on Backloggd too) at one point, so that’s probably why I was able to find two in just one run. It obviously doesn’t impact the game much, I just thought it was really cool, especially since the Luxray was almost max IV after figuring it out with some friends. Cynthia as a champion was a massive step up from Lance and Wallace, as her team was a fun challenge to get through, which is what all people who played this game totally agree with and don’t think she’s one of the most terrifying menaces in Pokemon history. Her team is just so dynamic, and was basically the basis of trying to form my team while also keeping ones I loved. Every single Pokemon on my team ended up playing a key role in putting her team at bay.

Overall, playing through Platinum was a nice trip through memory lane that I got to drag someone through (I do not apologize for said trip, if you’re reading this Plya). I don’t think I’ll play through another run for a long while, which is something I do a lot with the DS Pokemon games, but I’ll probably spend some time doing post-game work as well for no other reason than I just want to. Maybe I’ll even try to finish the Battle Frontier, or even worse, try to finish the in-game Villa. It’s been a long time since I’ve checked out the post-game ever since I was little, and I’m genuinely kind of excited to check out what it’s like as it’s been somewhat of a mystery to my memory.

I started to feel like this was gonna be another unreal engine copycat slop game, like the endless amount of unoriginal backrooms games and FNAF knockoffs.

But as I got further in this felt more like a love letter to security breach that also has its own personality.

I can actually say I'm somewhat excited to play the next chapter, and the bird section was by far scarier than any part of FNAF security breach (not including dlc, which I think was better than the main game)

With Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance around the corner I decided to see what rating I gave the original version of the game. It somewhat surprised me that I gave it a 3/5, which is to say, I guess it's grown on me. This game has a fundamental flaw that prevents it from being anywhere close to 5-stars (I'll get to this later), but there's a lot about this game that works very well.

The music is not only top-tier, but is quite unique and catchy. I haven't touched the game in two years and I can hear the battle music and level-up theme clear as day in my head. And they're absolute bops. The textures they layered into the the guitar tone and the overall mix really makes the OST stand out from its contemporaries.

The press-turn battle system is delightfully crunchy, but not too hard. This was my first exposure to the press-turn battle system, and while I had to knock the difficulty down a bit to learn the mechanics, I really enjoyed how you could battle out of pretty dire situations by playing cleverly.

Nahobino's character design rules. I loved running around with my flowing locks of neon blue hair, and surfing down long hills and sand dunes. That all ruled. Additionally the design of the demons new to this game were excellent.

However, there is a fundamental flaw with this game. No, its not the story. While the story isn't ground breaking, it at least uses multiple endings interestingly and has it's highs as well as its lows. It's the performance of the game. It really chugs on the Switch hardware, which would be ostensibly fine for a turn-based RPG, but there's required platforming sections. When the game is struggling to hit mid-20's and you have to time your jumps precisely, its just a terrible time.

Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance will be out later this month, and while I don't typically like Atlus re-releasing games, I am excited to see what the game can be like on a platform that can actually deliver the visuals it was going for. Apparently it also adds a new 90 hour alternative main story, so hopefully it addresses my story complaints as well.

Fun, has a good ability learning system called mantras that let you swap out and use different skills whenever you want

Really good music as usual

I have to wait to judge the story because obviously this is a 2 part game, but so far it's pretty good and I have no complaints

Just a very cool game overall

Beat all superbosses (except Demi-Fiend, not doin that shit!)

Oh but fuck this game's encounter rate it's really bad

Okay, I have way more problems with this game than I thought I would, though it's not because of the content itself, it's how it's handled. Before I get into my main problem with the game, I'll go over my team. When playing an older Pokemon game (Usually Gens 1-5), I try to stick with Pokemon that were introduced in the region that I'm playing. It helps let me try out new Pokemon so I'm not just using the same team over and over. I also played this back-to-back while playing Platinum with Plya, where I started to finally try nicknaming Pokemon (something I've never really messed with in the past), so the names aren't too incredible. I am curious what you guys thought of the team though lol.

Ozai the Typhlosion (Avatar the Last Airbender)
Alucard the Crobat (Castlevania)
Aperture the Ampharos (Portal)
Not a clod the Quagsire (He's stupid I love him)
Tatsumaki the Espeon (One Punch Man)
Pinhead the HM Slave Furret (A reference only one person on this website will get)

Anyways back to our regularly scheduled review. The level curve in this game starts off really easy, to the point it's kind of mind numbing. With the exception of Whitney's Miltank (yeah yeah the memes I know), it's a super straight forward level curve up to the Elite Four and the Johto Champion. Lance is a complete pushover of a dragon type user, and while you could excuse that for him in the original games due to there being only two fully evolved dragon types, but there are just so many options you could toss in that isn't three Dragonites. All you need is an ice type move and this guy is toast. They could've at least given him a Kingdra since it's a dragon type, but they didn't even give that to the dragon type champion. Tyranitar, while not being a dragon type, can definitely fit in with his team if Gyarados and Charizard can fit there. After the champion, there's the post game, which while being the coolest part of the game, is also the worst part of the game. I love the idea of going back to a previous region after going through a newer region and I wish it was done more outside of the Johto games. However, my problem comes from the fact that leveling your Pokemon is literal hell. If you had leveled decently enough from taking on the Elite Four, you'd probably be okay getting through the Kanto gyms, but it would've been real nice if the wild Pokemon from Kanto had leveled up to where you were at in the game, but instead they keep the same leveling from FRLG. I know this is something people always complain about with this game, but it's by far the most frustrating part of the whole experience. I do not want to spend hours upon hours grinding up a Kanto region-only Pokemon that I want to use just so it can catch up to the 50-60 region, and then up to the 80-90 region for the final boss of the game.

There are great things about the game though, especially the overworld Pokemon following. That stuff should've stayed around, it might not seem like much but I loved it.

"You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?"

Majora's Mask is a game which I consider to be a genuine masterpiece, one last hurrah for the N64-era of Zelda games.
It is a game where the mechanics tell the bulk of its story and themes, accompanied with a haunting soundtrack that has never left my frontal temporal lobe ever since I first played this game in the year 2000.
It's jam-packed with interesting story ideas bringing forth a vibe that is like nothing I've ever experienced before or probably will ever experience again. It's evidently a depressing game with a profound tinge of melancholy and deep, almost neverending sadness. And I'm still debating myself whether all of this was intentional or just the result of a string of random circumstances.

So let me unpack all of this just to get a sense of what I'm talking about.

BE WARNED THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask is the direct sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, widely considered to be one of the best games of all time, if not the best game of all time. It is a seminal piece of work, one of the biggest adventure games in 3D-gaming at the time. It set the standard of what an adventure game should be and how things like exploration and combat should work in a 3D-space. It inspired a lot of games for decades to come and it's still revered to this day.

So Nintendo had big shoes to fill for the eventual sequel. And what they came up with was lightning in a bottle, a sequel that retained a lot of elements from Ocarina but deviated rather drastically in terms of structure, scale and atmosphere.

In the beginning of the game Link gets ambushed by a creature known as Skull Kid wearing the eponymous Majora's Mask. They are accompanied by two fairies, Tatl and Tael. They steal Epona, the horse we rode on and our precious ocarina of time. As Link gives chase, he falls into a hole. Skull Kid is waiting for Link and he changes him into a Deku Scrub. Skull Kid flees, Tael follows them but Tatl gets left behind with Link.

Together they venture forth and they come across an odd tree-like figure with a face.

It looks like the lifeless corpse of a Deku Scrub. The creature looks sad, almost as if it's been through a great deal of pain and agony. As a sidenote, this becomes really important later. It also sets the tone right away and the game doesn't shy away from injecting a lot of heavy themes and messages into the story.

After a while they come across The Happy Masked Salesman, an individual who will be familiar if you've played Ocarina of Time and this is where he will utter the game's most recognized quote:

"You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?"

He's now a central character to the plot of this game and acts drastically different than in Ocarina of Time.
Now he's a tad unhinged and a bit menacing. He begs Link to retrieve Majora's Mask, the mask that Skull Kid is wearing. Skull Kid stole the mask from him and he warns Link that the mask is incredibly dangerous and is capable of inflicting a lot of damage to the world and its people. He can also help Link get rid of his transformation if he retrieves his ocarina. But Link only has three days time. After that, the moon crashes into the world killing everything and everyone. The game ends.

And thus Link sets foot in Clock Town, the largest city in Termina and the game finally begins.

Link can't use his sword, people are kinda racist against him and he cannot leave town because the guards view him as a defenseless child.

You as the player know that that's not true, you've proven yourself in the previous game to be more than capable of defending yourself. But the people only look at the mask. Not what's behind it.

Eventually Link retrieves the ocarina of time just before the moon crashes. You reset the timeline and everything goes back to the way it was, right before you enter Clock Town. The Happy Mask Salesman teaches Link the Song of Healing and he turns back to his human self. You obtain the Deku Mask and you can turn back into a Deku Scrub whenever you want. From there you're tasked to travel to the four corners of the earth to find the Gods to help you put a stop to Skull Kid. Or more fittingly, put a stop to Majora's Mask.

That's the basic plot of the story. But everything gets much deeper than that.

From what I remember when this game came out, I get the feeling that it was liked by some but hated by others. For some it deviated too far from the established formula and forced players to play by pretty stringent rules. There is a three day time limit and everything in the game unfolds by a strict schedule. Things happen or don't happen depending on your actions. People move and according to set schedule and you can interact with NPC's in certain ways to influence their actions thus changing the flow of time. When three days have passed according to the in-game clock, your time is up and you have to "reset the timeline", bringing you back to square one. Everything you did will be undone. It is like you were never there to begin with. Everything and everyone lives on borrowed time in this world.

Saving the game is now a rather elaborate affair. What was once a quick and painless push of a button to save your game is now a game mechanic. You can only, truly, save your game when you play "The Song of Time" and resetting the timeline, basically undoing all your progress. You can, however, save at certain Owl Statues but be warned that this is only a temporary quicksave. If you quit after you've saved at said owl statue, the game starts right after your last time reset.

There are also only four real mainline dungeons, probably the fewest in any Zelda game although I'd argue there are a few mini-dungeons sprinkled in. Some people also took issue with the fact that you're playing as Kid Link and not his adult counterpart.

In some sense, you can view these rules and restrictions as a detriment to the game. Every problem you fixed gets undone.

In truth, they are the game's biggest strength. Every action you take or don't take has its varying degrees of consequences. Almost every character has a name, a story to tell and have relations to other characters in the game. With this the game can differentiate its numerous NPC's and give them real purpose. You really start to feel for these people. The focus of the game isn't to save the princess like the game's predecessors. It is to save the world and its people. This is also where the masks come into focus.

A new set of collectable items in this game are the masks. There were masks in Ocarina of Time but they were only there for a short sidequest. There are three (technically four but I'm not opening the can of worms called "Fierce Deity Mask") that allow you to turn into other characters. There's the aforementioned "Deku Mask" but we also have the "Zora Mask" and "Goron Mask".

As alluded to before, these masks contain the spirits of people who lived and died in the land of Termina. Darmani was a Goron who lived in Snowhead, revered as a hero but died prematurely when he tried to save his people from a calamity. Mikau was a Zora, a guitarist for a music group who died while trying to rescue the eggs of the group's singer Lulu. You play the "Healing Song" to ease their burden and heal their sorrow.

But their work is not done. It is sad to say but they failed in their mission. And now it is your turn to carry on their legacy. The people from their respective habitats look at you as if you are Mikau or Darmani. But you're not. You're just masquerading as them.

Who's the Deku Scrub you might ask? Well we never learn his name. But later in the game there are clues to his identity if you're willing to commit to one of the many sidequests the game has to offer.

To me, this Majora's Mask bread and butter. The ability to tie its story into the gameplay. We can find various themes in this game like identity, dealing with mortality, existentialism. What would you do when faced with the end of the world? Would you help other people? Would you run? Cower? Every character deals with this in a certain way. And it's all tied to their distinct personalities.

These aforementioned masks are not the only ones you can collect. There are a plethora of other masks, each with their varying functionality. There's the returning "Bunny Hood" that lets you run faster, there's the "Bomb Mask" which detonates basically used as a standard bomb and thus blowing yourself up. Some masks are just used once just to collect a Heart Piece. With the exception of the transformation masks, the other masks are a bit underutilized. In some instances you have to do a lot of sidequesting to obtain them and after that, most of them only have a one time use, in most cases to collect a Heart Piece.

So I've extensively written about the story and what makes it so good, what about the gameplay?

It's about the same as Ocarina of Time, you travel the land, collect a key item at the end of the dungeon that you will need to complete the game. It's that typical satisfying Zelda formula of collecting items in order to progress to the next area or unlock upgrades from previously visited areas. To be honest, there is not a lot to talk about here.

The game has some interesting dungeons, most of them will rack your brain more than in Ocarina of Time. Take the second dungeon for example, Snowhead. You have to progress vertically via several rooms all situated around a giant ice pillar. You have to increase or decrease the size of the pillar to progress. The bosses are mostly fought with the masks you use to transform yourself into the other species. It's a unique deviation of the Zelda formula where you would normally fight a boss with the item you obtained in the dungeon.

There are four unique areas ranging from a swamp, a snowy mountain, an oceanside and an area that's filled with ghosts, mummies and zombies. It's all very intriguing and unique.

Let us not forget about the music. The music sets the tone for every location and situation perfectly. Take for example, Clock Town's theme. On the first day, the music encapsulates the mood of a large bustling town with a lot of things to do. People are getting ready for a festival, it's upbeat and lively. As the days go by however, the music gets more frantic, there's a sense of foreboding, the atmosphere gets more dark and gloomy as the moon inches closer and closer to the world. The Song of Healing is maybe one of the most haunting melodies ever composed, an achievement considering it's such a simple melody. The Deku Palace theme is also one of my favorites, perfectly encapsulating the mood of a kingdom in disarray.

If you get the sense that I'm gushing more about this game than critiqueing it then I guess your right. I love this game. Are there flaws? Yes plenty. Most of which are a product of their time, wonky camera-controls, low framerate. But I can't help myself. I just love this game so much.

If you want to play Majora's Mask, you can't fail with the original of course, playable on the Switch NSO. You can play the remake on 3DS, but it changes a lot about the game and I would personally not recommend to play the remake as your first playthrough. I would recommend that excellent Recompilation. It runs at 60FPS, looks incredible, there's widescreen support and there is a fully functioning 3D-camera. It's an incredible achievement.

I played a couple of hours of this and found it an edgy, mean, and awful experience. Atmospheric, with excellent music and compelling visual design as well as what I am given to understand are some jolly interesting mechanics. However, for all its rampant misery, grossness, pain, and rape, there was no contrasting humanity that made it in any way affecting to me.

That's why 'Berserk', for instance, needs its Golden Age. I care about its characters' pain because they are driven by human emotions that I understand, and that makes the horrors they go through all the more affecting. Retrieving Some Rando, Esq. is too flimsy of a goal for me to push through the awfulness. When I was 15, I probably would've appreciated the pure spectacle of its crass grotesquerie, but not anymore.