Origin is an interesting entry in the Ys series, as it drops many qualities that I would generally expect from one. The biggest one is that instead of an adventure, we get a straight-up dungeon crawl exploring the tower from the first game. There are various biomes, although I still ended up missing some variety. The game also has to be completed 2-3 times to get to the canon ending with most of the layouts remaining the same - something I am also not a big fan of. It is quite short as is and I feel like making the paths more unique would have added a lot to the experience. The saving grace here is that the combat is damn solid. Very similar to Felghana, but just a tiny bit tighter. It just feels really good to play. It was nice learning more about the lore of Ys as well and getting to beat different incarnations of all the bosses from the original game was very fun. Not fun enough to be in contention for my favorites in the series, but a damn good game regardless.

I knew I would love NEO as soon as my first battle started. And I was double sure of that because it was the exact same feeling I had during my first battle in the first game. This series just clicks perfectly for me.

With charming designs, a kick-ass soundtrack and a rollercoaster of events that have no breaks in sight, this was one of the best titles I've enjoyed in the last few years. Too bad it didn't had the marketing it deserved, because more people just HAVE to experience it.

Battles are like a rhythm game in disguise, and it does get grindy at the end if you want to witness all of the extra content. I'd say it's worth the effort and, besides, you're always listening to banger after banger during each battle, so things never get boring.

yes I am indeed the greatest "Tunnel Rat" in all of southern Underrail, Born2Kill like any true Rocket-Propelled Game enthusiast. my locked&loaded 'N16' and break-action 'Thumper' should speak4themselves, but actual ACTIONS speak louder than "Persuasion"!!!! Iam now going on a date with a pretty bitty with a dazzling smile I met at JKK and it will be a more memorable occasion than anything in Your favorite Romantically Propensive Game, just you watch..! 😻 gonna tell her all about what I did to em freedomdrones.

The thing about playing this after other Fallouts is that you easily notice certain flaws; the map having little places to explore, skills like hacking and repair relying on rolls meaning you don't have to level them up and can just re-attempt infinitely, etc. But what you get in exchange is genuinely one of the hardest atmospheres I've seen in any game period, it is such an extreme feeling of desolation and loneliness even for Fallout standards, combined with the story and timer giving you anxiety just for existing. It's an imperfect but really unique experience and I'm glad I finally played it.

I believe it was Boyarsky that came up with the whole "What would the 1950's idea of the future be like" concept that would go on to define for me, the best aesthetic in video games.

I played this game first time a little over a year after it released in 1998 and I never beat it but I remember being floored by the concepts / ideas and around this time, I used to play DnD with friends but this game would go on to define what a computer role-playing game is for me. You suddenly had a influx of CRPGs and many of which were set in DnD worlds with DnD rulesets and man, Fallout was still better because it was defined by its own in-house system.

Many of those DnD crpgs of that era are games I adore. Hell, Planescape: Torment very well may be the greatest RPG ever made -- I still prefer Fallout (and Arcanum).

I eventually beat this a few years later after that first time and yeah, Fallout reigns supreme for me. Extremely happy to see the series getting so much love this week thanks to the TV series (I like it).

Definitivamente um alívio escrever sobre esse jogo depois de jogar a merda que é as piores fases do Thief Gold (pretendo rejogar ele), e assim como isso também o próprio.

A gameplay... Primeiro quero falar do objetivo do jogo, escalar o Pinto Pico do Gavião, o jogo em si você consegue zerar bem rapidinho, mas a graça do jogo não está só nisso, e sim em todo o resto. Enfim, ele é um jogo de aventura com elementos de um collectathon(?) junto. Como falei logo agora, seu objetivo é escalar o Pênis Pico do Gavião, mas é claro que tenho que falar de como controlar A protagonista (Claire) é divertido pra caramba, no início até que é simples, basicamente o feijão com arroz (ugh) de um jogo de plataforma, exceto que você pode planar, porém, conforme você joga você também libera penas douradas que permite pular mais uma vez no ar por pena dourada, percebe como falei sobre penas douradas no plural? É porque tem um monte pelo mapa, e quando você libera penas douradas o suficiente você pode simplesmente skipar todo o percurso do Pico do Gavião, só que é claro, você não recebe tudo de bandeja, alguns você ganha comprando, e outros você ganha EXPLORANDO... E falando em explorar, é depois de chegar ao topo que você realmente percebe o que o jogo realmente oferece, facilmente a melhor parte do jogo é o conteúdo extra e explorar o mapa, o mapa apesar de pequeno tem vários baús para coletar, digo vários mesmo, alguns com dinheiro, outros com PENAS DOURADAS e outros com coisas diferentes, mas é claro, não é ó isso que o jogo tem a oferecer, tem também inúmeras atividades extras a la Animal Crossing, eu nem quero falar aqui pois eu recomendo que VOCÊ JOGUE para descobrir o que eu estou falando, eu só adianto, são mais divertidos ainda do que só o "objetivo" do jogo, e a verdadeira experiência do jogo é descobrir isso tudo por conta própria. Só resumindo, jogo perfeito para relaxar depois de uma experiência difícil tipo Celeste (ou Thief Gold mas aí já seria demais), que ironicamente também é sobre escalar uma montanha.

Visualmente o jogo é bem bonito e combina muito bem com o estilo pixelizado dele, e ver a ilha de longe é lindo demais, eu sempre adoro quando jogos são visualmente coloridos e "otimistas", apesar de ser bizarro quando desativa os pixels e fica bizarrão kkk. Trilha sonoramente é perfeito para o que jogo faz, bem calma e relaxante, e algumas músicas são lindíssimas tipo... Seila não sei o nome de nenhuma, mas ainda é muito boa.

Enfim, eu definitivamente recomendo esse jogo se, como falado antes, você quer uma pausa de um jogo mais difícil, e por si só o jogo é muito bom também, bem que eu queria muito ter jogado isso depois de (tabom chega né?!).

8.5/10

This is the game I've been waiting for ever since I really started to understand the mechanics of Super Mario Sunshine as a kid. The 3D Mario games have always been more or less unmatched in terms of movement in a 3D platformer; right from Mario 64, you have what, seven different types of jumps? Plus the slide? Other 3D platformers didn't even deign to try for that kind of complexity in their movement. Even Nintendo stepped away from that complexity for Super Mario Galaxy, and didn't really return to it until Odyssey. And as much as I love those Mario games, I've always wondered what could be if you took that movement into a different place. I wanted to see a game that really demanded you understand everything you can do with that movement, instead of just letting you play with it as a little treat. A game that builds that movement into its very being.

Pseudoregalia is basically that. Or at least, it's the first version of that I've seen; for all this game's successes, it's also a game that really opens my eyes as to what could be. And given that this is developer rittzler's first "major" release (defining "major" as "it's on Steam", I guess), I'll bet that this game opened their eyes as well. (I'm very much keeping my eyes on their next game, Electrokinetic.) But right out the gate, they got the movement—what I imagine to be the hardest part—right. Every type of jump feels good to use, the options feel intuitive, and understood exactly how I could use each option to get where I wanted to be. A few of the options are basically lifted right out of Mario 64, and they feel just as good here. The one that I really love is this game's wall jump, which is actually a mid-air kick that gives you momentum in a direction you choose, which results in a jump if you hit a wall. This lets you aim back at a wall, giving you a little more control over how you want to use it. This is the realization from Mario I'd been waiting for; countless times in Mario I would wall jump off of a wall that was slightly too tall for me to scale, trying to fade back to get that little bit of extra height to get me over the edge. Or I would try to wall jump in a corner, even though the angles weren't really in my favour. There's creativity all over Mario's movement, and sometimes the exact situation I described would actually work. But usually it didn't, because the levels weren't built for you to be able to do that. Pseduoregalia's are, and so the mechanics give you that particular kind of freedom to match.

Which brings us to the second-hardest part that this game succeeds at: making levels that enourage players to use those movement options. It's tricky; to make a Metroidvania—a 3D Metroidvania, no less—based around movement means that there are inevitably going to be opportunities where it looks like a player can do something, but they actually need a powerup. But you also want that ambiguity, because otherwise the movement's not actually any fun; it's just lock-and-key stuff without any opportunity to actually be creative. I won't say that Pseudoregalia always gets the balance right, but I think the general approach here is correct: err on the side of ambiguity. There are a few sections where I tried, without success, to get past an area I simply didn't have the tools for. But that's okay, because this game is structured in such a way that I didn't even know if something I needed was beyond there. And the game is not so punishing that I felt like I was supposed to do insane feats to complete the game, so I knew there was probably something somewhere else I could use. By the same token, there was an entire somewhat difficult area that would've been a lot easier to traverse if I had an ability I missed earlier in the game, but I still made it through by just being clever with the abilities I had. I thought that was pretty cool.

The game's lack of clear direction is a fair point of contention with some; you're never explicitly told what you're even supposed to be doing in this world, much less where to go. There's no map, and the (well-realized, non-trivially Undertale-esque) low-poly art direction results in a lot of rooms lacking distinctive features. It's very easy to get lost. But I liked that approach for this game. For one, the game's movement options make it so that it's quite easy to navigate the world (especially later in the game), so trying to get back to a familiar location to reorient yourself isn't a huge deal. It's also a relatively small world for a small game (I beat it in a little under 6 hours), so there's not that much to actually learn. With the difficulties mitigated, I liked spending the time to learn where I was and try to figure where I could go and where I hadn't been. Eventually you can start to figure out what you're actually supposed to be doing, and from there things click into place pretty easily.

The rest of the game's aspects—combat, story, whatever—didn't really impress me, but they're also not given much priority in this game. I certainly didn't come here for them, and as it stands they most exist to break up the rest of the action. Fine by me! This game succeeds at something we should have gotten literal decades ago, and it does so in a way that doesn't feel perfunctory. It's not so simple as "Mario 64 Metroidvania", and you can feel dozens of very specific design choices that went into this. I'm so happy I got to play this, and I can't wait to see where rittzler goes from here.

I'm so glad we have a fourth version of Persona 3, meaning there's an even greater likelihood that OG Persona 3 fans will tell me I played an inferior version! Hooray!

Where do I even fucking begin with this one? It's difficult to summarize my thoughts on a short game, let alone a massive RPG I spent over 100 hours in. Once again I must preface this by stating I'm still coming into this as a relatively new fan of the series. I was introduced to Persona (and SMT at large) through P5 and after falling in love with both it and later its enhanced version, I quickly jumped at the opportunity to play P4G once it was released on modern platforms. And like 5 before it, 4 became another all-timer for me. So I can't really speak in regards to how Persona 3 Reload operates as a remake since I have no prior experience with this title. I held off on even playing P3P since I knew this was coming anyways. All I really know is that in both the original release and FES you couldn't control your teammates' actions in combat. I understand the artistic decision in this case, but playing an extensive JPRG in that fashion just sounds like a huge hassle. But I'm happy to report that Persona 3 Reload had me hooked from beginning to end.

The aspect of P3 that immediately stood out to me the most was the team dynamic. Both P4 and P5 have very similar structures; you face a series of challenges where you help people in need, who are each gradually added to the team as the game progresses. Slowly but surely you build up a close-knit group of friends over the course of each game. P3 is quite different, in the sense that you, the protagonist, step into an already ongoing plot. The SEES organization was formed and has been battling shadows in Tartarus long before the game even began. Your character just happens to be the missing piece of the puzzle in order for them to make real progress. And from then on new teammates kind of show up with basically zero fanfare and join the team just...because they have personas. Not saying that's necessarily a bad thing, just that it's different. It's a refreshing turn of events considering 4 and 5 unravelled in very similar ways. It certainly made the story more unpredictable. And as for that story, I often hear it described as the best in the series. I'm inclined to agree...at the very least it has easily the best ending of the three I've experienced. From a purely thematic standpoint, there's so much to chew on. It didn't quite make me cry like one particular moment in 4, but I was definitely starting to well up during the final cutscene. The level of bittersweet pathos is pitch perfect. I think I still prefer the overall experience of playing through P5, but P3's script undeniably shines the brightest.

Gameplay wise, this is about as good as turn-based RPGs get. If you ask me, P5 set a gold standard for both stylish UI designs and moment-to-moment JRPG combat. P3 Reload meets that gold standard and then some; bringing with it vibrant blues that wash over you at every moment and the battle shift mechanic that I sorely missed in P4. As for the collection of social links, I'd call it a mixed bag. Some are incredibly memorable and really touched me (Kamiki, Maiko, Yukari, etc.) while others left something to be desired (looking at you, Tomochika). And some, like Suemitsu, started off deceptively unpleasant but soon revealed strong emotional resonance by their endpoint. However due to my experience with 4 and 5, I was very surprised to find that none of your male teammates are social links. Which in turn made me feel less connected to Junpei and Akihiko in particular. The team does have those charming, optional hangouts in the dorm which can unlock special abilities, but it does leave something to be desired. I suppose this is just a case of the developers trying to remain true to the original. They weren't S-links then so they aren't S-links now. At least they fixed it so that you don't have to date every girl you max out to 10.

So what's there left to say? I guess I didn't touch on the soundtrack, which absolutely meets the S+++ tier standard set by this series as a whole. A wonderful collection of tracks that is sure to stick with me for years to come. Climbing and fighting my way through Tartarus, despite the monotony, never became boring for me. As for small problems, I do wish there was more to do at night, particularly during the final months of the game. Most of the S-links are during the afternoon and I had maxed out my social stats by around mid-September, so my evenings were fairly uneventful leading up the conclusion. And while I think the cast overall did a fantastic job, Koromaru was very clearly a person making dog sounds, which was a little distracting. Sadly not every VA can be Frank Welker. Also the lack of weather effects left me scratching my head. Again, this could just be a case of remaining true to the original, but after 4 and 5 implemented weather systems and the changing of seasons, the eternal sunshine of Tatsumi Port Island felt...somewhat off. January brings with it a slightly new colour palette, but very rarely do the characters even mention the colder temperatures. That's more of a nitpick and not a real issue, but finding things wrong with this game is really difficult for me. I'm basically splitting hairs here.

What a game. What an ending. What an experience. Now I sadly must continue the long and arduous wait for the inevitable release of Persona 6.