Out of all the WRPGs (western RPGs), I've played thus far. Pathfinder: Kingmaker(PK) is without a doubt the most complex and rich in nearly every category I long for in the genre. And to Owlcat’s credit, the Kickstarter backed CRPG almost achieved full marks. Multiplex of systems, deep mechanics, extensive kingdom-building, matched by a fascinating world-building and filled with memorable characters. A long story, featuring multiple endings. Real-time with pause combat. Dense fantasy single-player title in an isometric perspective. And yet I can’t help but find the whole experience of clearing everything possible in over 130 hours a double-edged sword. Full of sharp awesome content. Yet underneath lies a blunt edge full of troubling matters. Alexander Mishulin, Creative Director at Owlcat Games eloquently sums up the matter in an 2020 interview saying “...Huge Pathfinder system ruleset was left tricky and unclear in many ways for the new players unfamiliar with the tabletop game.”

The IP is incredibly different from what I dabbled in Baldur's Gate 1 last year. And the old Fallout titles. Feels a lot more in-depth not just in terms of pen-and-paper, but in different rules and how the mechanics are implemented by Owlcat on Paizo’s ruleset. I’ll run through the positives first before I dive into my mixed feelings. Full disclosure: I played 100 hours without mods before relying on them to end credits. I’ll denote a mod section properly later on, but if I don’t discuss it please assume I'm discussing vanilla.

Storywise I found to be a slow-burn. But ultimately an enjoyable affair. You start in a competition for the rights to become baron/baroness of the Stolen Lands. A large swath of unclaimed land with no leader. Think bandit territory except fantasied to the gills. Crypts and hidden tombs full of nocturnal creatures sinisterly lurk. Local settlements are plagued by monster attacks and the occasional banditry. Fill your wanderlust and discover ancient ruins and dungeons! Full of traps, puzzles, and of course great treasure awaits! But take care, whimsical fey beings roam here and there so beware! For better or worse, depending on your choices in dialogue you may come across interesting outcomes. Discover a key piece and be led to a hidden location out on the world map! Or used in a way to uncover another hidden check. Where the locals and monsters alike will be found in all manners of the noble to villainy spectrum. Take heart, for finding a true pure soul in such a hostile place may seem dangerous! Yet behold! Beyond the borders lie a people still living brightly and drinking merrily in taverns. Singing to their heart's content without end!

Before I sing on further, I must talk about the initial priorities after becoming Baron/Baroness. Consists of the gameplay overview without combat. A gentle reminder, to not go gallivanting off into the wilderness following the wanderlust compass. Rather, one must remember to research curses. Curses are something unexplainable and mysterious occurring within your lands. And it is up to you to research why. There are more than 13+ of these curse events that need to be resolved as you progress through the game's many acts. All of which contain a time limit to complete under “xxx’ day. Doing so is one of the key requirements to unlocking a secret ending and progressing through the main story conveniently. Refrain from doing so and the consequences will be severe. I didn’t have much issue with deadlines. Bona fide lenient as long as you prioritize what to do. A general loop emerges: Enter building management -> research curses, solve problems, assign advisors, resolve advisor concerns, construct structures in settlements, invest in building points(BP) or use them for erecting structures or helping pass a bill using BP. Finished? Good, we're not done. -> Check the journal to see any main quests. Usually, one or two pop-ups and its a number one priority to complete. -> Once finished then you're allowed to finish any sides and errands. Followed by companion quests -> If you have any days left on the clock. Explore the map, discover new dungeons, finish off random mobs trying to kill you while traveling, and unearthing loot by turning over rocks and crannies you see are all worthy endeavors. The priorities may seem daunting at first, but I assure you have ample weeks to months. In finishing any important tasks before moving on to the rest. Generally, Traveling around and researching will consume most of your precious days. However, there are certain ways to mitigate any losses later on. I’ll include some links later on for extra tips.

Plethora of classes to choose from and upgrade. More than fifteen main jobs. And several archetypes within. A barbarian, for instance, specializes in an armored hulk, mad dog, or invulnerable rager. A cleric branches off into a herald caller, ecclesitheurge, and crusader. All with their unique powers and skills offered. I stayed as a paladin and found it decent. My primary joy came from the multiple allies who joined my merry band. Swapping into a different profession if inclined, but I kept them as their base class to see how it feels to use them. At the end of the day, I concluded they’re fun to use. One serves as a tank such as my tower shield specialist while my inquisitor summons undead to serve as handy meatshields. My bard’s songs randomly stun my enemies. I and my barbarian cleaned up! Rinse and repeat and voila! Dead guys in the aftermath. Granted not all encounters will not go as smoothly as one would think. Plenty of surprises await in store for any curious adventurer.

Should be noted there are special prestige classes. Several are not selectable at the character creation. As you progress and meet certain requirements they become available as your second class. I’ll be honest with the exception of the Wildcard DLC. I was not able to use any of these prestige ones. As a result, I am unable to comment on them other than some being powerful and others meh from what I skimmed online. Overall essential in understanding classes, since comprehending their capabilities will mark triumph and despair concerning the combat portion.

I mainly used real-time with pause(RtwP) mode. For those unaware, in CRPG's this means each action your party makes is conducted at the same wavelength against the opposing enemy side. Casting spells takes seconds before casting but attacking is ongoing when not in cooldown. Trading blows until one side is gone. For those uninterested in RtwP. Owlcat implemented a turn-based(TB) method. Activatable anytime with a single press of a button. Initially, a mod early, the devs decided to add it for those not enthused in the RtwP approach. As someone who favors turn-based. I have to say the move was pretty based. But I couldn’t stand doing TB for every fight encounter. My entire playthrough would’ve easily doubled or tripled. But the inclusion of the mechanic later on after release I appreciate a great deal especially if I get tired of RtwP. Convenient when needed.

In my honest opinion, an enjoyable isometric gameplay emerges. Regarding the many systems at play. Battles are somewhat challenging relying on your crew's profession. For instance, if you improperly manage equipment, health items, and proper class understanding then you may be in for a life of hurt when confronting multiple foes in a large open area filled with scattered mobs. I struggled early on since I had zero Pathfinder exposure. Meaning I rushed into things without thinking, quick-saved like my life was about to expire. To make sure I gained a favorable outcome and spammed abilities like a madlad. Kindly erase those foolish ‘jump before thinking’ mentality and realize no one will hold your hand gently. Despite a wealth of options available to reduce difficulty which I will talk about later on. Look at my character and witness how one tab from the summary may induce information overload. What is AC? Fortitude? Reflex? Will? The difference between wisdom and intelligence. Knowledge arcana/world? lore/nature? Sounds rubbish, who needs these skills? Alignment? Bah, who cares. Well, my friend I do! A great deal since you must understand a sizable chunk to succeed. I won’t go into complete minute details, but suffice it to say each terminology is important to survive. Basic stereotypes do exist though, so no need to worry! A mage is squishy early on, but a glass cannon. Ranger and barbarian are viable builds and hybrid classes are available for those who wish to slot into a job outside of the standard ones.

Have no fear of the daunting Pathfinder homework ahead! I did only the bare minimum cause I wanted to get straight into the thick of things and still managed fairly well. Here’s a secret that has never failed me when playing any CRPG. Buffing/debuffing/summoning is honestly the bread and butter. And will undoubtedly your life easier. Without any of those above, I would not be able to win against my adversaries. Helped me so much to the point I spent over 100 hours buffing in less than a minute before engagements. In the blink of an eye. Yeah, I'm not kidding about those buffs. Crucial in starting up a massive advantage before striking any foe ahead. Summon any pets, skeletons, elementals, or animals at your side ahead of any battle so attackers will be dumb dumbs and attack them foolishly. As if they are the priority. Debuffing is equally important. Any Atlus JRPG fan should know from Megami Tensei how skills like reducing enemy power, missing an attack, freezing them, and whatever manner of debuffs to inflict. Will turn the tides in your favor. The same principle applies here. Min-maxers like myself who love adjusting little morsels of numbers are in for a real treat. Countless loot is around, as a result, I never had an issue strengthening my characters and applying any spells to their repertoire. No requirements to micromanage level-ups either. If checked in the menu. And since I started from beginning to end credits with the preference on. You are in good safe hands. An indispensable accessibility feature reduces the steep cliff into a more manageable one for newcomers to the series.

Do keep this in mind. It's inadvisable to spamming spells and abilities without a drawback. The consequence of using magical abilities means the 'charge' will be used up. Mana is unavailable. Instead, your party will have a certain amount of ‘charges’ so to speak on how many times to reuse a magick discipline. A basic 'fireball' for example may have one charge. In spite of that, within the magic system for some classes, possible to increase multiple slots. Consequently granting more amounts. Area of effect, cones, and single targets, bouncing are all attainable parameters, so watch out not to hurt your allies. Lest you need to revive them after the battle ends. After an engagement with an enemy, a non-combative status will occur for all. Any damages and spells used along with health will not return to their original condition. This means every skirmish with a mob will leave you bleeding. Continue fighting and sooner or later the effect of 'fatigue' will emerge. A debuff handicapping with horrible stats. Go further and you may become exhausted incurring further penalties. To counter a weakened state, one 'rest' is recommended, and rations to heal back to 100%. Be warned you may be ambushed by nearby hostiles. It's these little things that pile up later on when you expect a benefit there must always be a drawback in some form. Not much of an issue provided players remember to buy rations and set their PC to scavenge for rations out in the wild.

In the wilds and civilizations players will need to contend with the text and dialogue system. You will inevitably conduct a wide array of meaningful conversations. For instance, talking yields a host of options. Both are informative to educate, pushing to the next segment in a quest, moving the conversation forward with lore passages highlighting key information whenever you need, and taking a gamble in stat-oriented discourse to affect an outcome. Crucial to give context to the rich history in Pathfinder where putting the mouse cursor will describe any bolded phrase. Appropriately connecting any relevant lore with anyone. Where paragraphs on gods, nations, political figures, religion, etc. will be described when highlighted. Hearing a disgruntled futilist dwarf talk about the impending doom of the end of days from the god Grotis transforms otherwise static boring sentences into flavorful dynamic words to remember and an “Ahah!” moment arises. Stumble upon reading a book about certain dangerous religions only to learn later about a crazy cult related to said religion. You will inevitably come up with many of these examples. Nevertheless, conversations are susceptible to stats; you have to needle your way through unique text. Granting extra experience and new conversational topics to discuss with whomever you meet. Such a deeply intricate word system is only part of the whole gameplay pie to understand why I adore talking to my party to understand their backstory, relationships, and history and develop them further with their quest lines down the road.

Under these circumstances, the world-building is richly implemented and flourishes through meaningful lines as I meandered my way to talk to important NPCs whenever I traveled. Be it a villain, an unsuspecting stranger, or an upstanding citizen of the realm. All are not spared my inquisitive nature to converse! In my delight, speaking yields both favorable and unfavorable outcomes concerning a dice roll. Meet the stat check to enable the dialogue requirement, but plausible still failing the result. Meaning my goals for a peaceful resolution between two angry interracial groups could be thrown into the fire. Erupting a bloody feud betwixt two leaves me no choice but to eliminate both or take one side. Invigorating my soul and leaving me contemplative to carefully consider a circumspect approach. Take information with the grainiest of salts and don’t label everything in simple good or evil manners. Difficult to judge whether the NPC is acting in the best interest at your behest while secretly holding a dagger behind their back unknowingly to your eyes. As a result, Non-conflict encounters are unique here, where fights interrupted are an uncommon occurrence with a conversation box, hearing their plea and moving on from there. I’ve had the personal pleasure of converting evil dastards onto my side while subjecting good souls to betrayal. Interconnecting later on in a future side-mission or main narrative where your previous actions will have a consequence later on. I befuddled a group and investigated a murder or caused mayhem on the populace by lying to whomever. Offered a mysterious item I picked up just for this occasion. Bribed, persuaded, intimidated, or sought further lore knowledge. No one is spared from my decisions and I lived with the consequences of my actions.

If there is one notable strength here in PK then companions here are a breath of fresh air. Not the best, but certainly not the worst. Recruit all eleven comrades, plus two more from the Wildcards DLC. A wonderful motley crew full of contradictions and wild alignments from chaotic to lawful and those staying in the realm of neutrality. I adore my party's banter. Sharing wonderful stories and barbs anytime I rest. And their voice actors deserve only praise for going the distance. Seeing their background update during a loading screen is a small, but appreciative detail. As I progressed further in their questline. From the loveable optimistic bard who never fails to brighten the room, the tough barbarian exile who continues to thirst for a challenge, the curious explorer alchemist who underneath their arrogant exterior lies a heart of gold, the noble tower specialist who continues to make each stranger drop their jaw in awe at her beauty. The chaotic duo of eldritch scion and rogue wizard lent their bond to my group despite their horrible past. A stoic tragic ranger avenger, a dwarven futilist cleric, a goblin knife master, and others I could list but I'll save them for a surprise… Needless to say, all have a colorful history beyond simple tropes and evolve constantly throughout my journey. I won’t say any favorites since I like all of them equally, instead, I will remark my allies' goals are a must-play and some intertwine with the main story at length. Providing a nice integration into the story and commenting during side activities on their thoughts, feelings, and alignment. Your actions will favor or dislike you. Therefore, it's essential to think carefully about their beliefs, morals, and alignment to adjust your response accordingly relative to the situation. Complex and not one-sided, and not all that hard to keep with you by when the end credits rolled around. Heck, I operated a solid crew of five. With changes in the guard whenever any relative friend's objectives arrived. Some benefit from putting any relative members in a relatable matter for instance. Otherwise, serving an appropriate role in another area below.

Kingdom building surprised me a great deal. There are plenty of systems in place here to almost make me wish for a separate game to play exclusively. Heck, employing any of your companions as advisors who will approach you about a delicate matter related to any of the stats concerning your authority. Population, relation, military, culture, divine, loyalty, arcane, stability, espionage, and community. Accepting a new policy, rejecting or fashioning a unique dialogue choice conditional on the advisor’s characteristics. I was able to increase the guardsmen with more men and budget instead of leaving them to their whits. Fought espionage wars with another neighboring nation by honoring our dead spies than risking their status. Favored culture of the arts and freedom to use magic freely and threw away the bill restricting their passion. And so forth. Completing these requests and listening to my advisors leads to benefits and detriments. So take heed of your colleague's advice and choose the best course of action. In doing so you manage your domain from impending self-destruction. Be careless and your citizenry will revolt. Therefore, it is imperative for one to finish any dilemmas arising in priority rather than any opportunity points. Issues if not solved, worsen stats, so pray to RNGSUS you land on a good dice roll to resolve the conflict peacefully. Or quickload like me hehe. Opportunities are okay to ignore, but for those who decide to try them the rewards are equally as good as solving problems. Don’t worry about taking care of your vassals constantly, a timer will run on when resolved and a notification will pop up for any impending event.

An option to automate your kingdom exists, but I still suggest that folks embrace the system to get a feel of managing affairs in your nation while also investing your precious days. Pays dividends later on in the form of passives and supplementary items. The latter leads you to new objectives and random encounters providing free equipment through artisans(Specialists who join your nation, when you visit your new settlement when claiming a region), and investing in your crown pays dividends later on to grant permanent buffs like increased attack roll chances, immunity to fear, and faster movement when traveling and more. Constructing mage towers(unlockable once you level up an advisor's ranks) allows one to teleport with minimal downtime creating a genuine saver for those urgent investigations in your journal. Aside from leveling your partners in combat and dialogue, you advance their rank in their advisory role to have a better chance to resolve troubles and opportunities. Useful when RNGSUS will sway to your lucky side rather than the unlucky side.

Decent-to-quality sidequests and errands are plentiful and ultimately awesome to complete. Enhanced my experience during my adventures. Here is a small taste of what I encountered. Uncovering a dark mega villain through a long monster extermination hunt Mediated between fey beings on trees and preached to no end on civility, peace, and compromise during heated debates and mob pitchforks. Hunted weird cultics from weird satanic ones to disturbing groups with their nefarious agenda preying on helpless innocents like a pregnant woman in need delivering her baby for a price. Oh hell no. I saved her thankfully, but whether or not it was a good thing in the end leaves me still troubled. Engaged in a puzzle to resurrect a powerful, but evil ghost for sick armor and weapons. Participated in treasure hunts, fought bandits holding hostages, saved mythical creatures like dragons, and found a boy who cried wolf-like investigation whose outcome was vastly different from what I expected. Returned a Necronomicon-like book to a powerful hermit in the lands and traveled to other realms to investigate curses to reach and attain the absurdly difficult secret ending. Heck, I took advantage of alignment choices to brutally reach a good outcome. Nonetheless, I still time-traveled into alternate universes. By reloading to recruit horrible fellows into my cabinet. Yeah, I’m not proud of that at all…

Anyway, mod time. Earlier I mentioned I played vanilla for 100 hours. Once I reached that point I decided enough was enough and threw away the base content life. And subsequently enjoyed in greater detail the latter half to an insane degree with much-needed quality-of-life features. Below I’ll briefly outline some must-haves for anyone on PC.

Mod manager - Number one key ingredient for all kingmaker needs and easy to install any of the following to make your playthrough fun and eliminate the tedium.

Bag of Tricks - Solve 99% of any troubles you face. From side quests not occurring, to fixing a bug here and there. And to be fair I had very little bugs or crashes. I think outside of a handful of minor bugs my playthrough was nearly perfect. My convenient tricks were instant teleporting on the world map, instant rest + after fighting, instant auto-complete realm events, lock-picking unlimited attempts, force success/triumph on problems and opportunities, pass skill checks, and my personal favorite a romance counter which is crucial for the secret ending. Trust me. If you want the bonus act to activate I recommend it. These listed are my favorites from the mod, but there’s way more inside I never used.

Faster menu book zoom - When you launch the program, it takes a long eternity for the book which contains the standard menu options to proceed. Do yourself a favor and download them to save you extra. Adding in the command line ‘-skip intro’ from the program launcher when right-clicking the properties on Steam is beneficial too.

Buffbot - Takes less than a second to activate all the buffs you currently have. A necessary alternative than taking a minute to individually select each member and buff them to the nth degree I said previously. Use Buffbot once and be done.

Aside from the mods above. You have a wealth of selections to tune the difficulty to your liking. From the image I customized the normal settings, making encounters less of a chore and more on the easier side. Restricting to the confines of vanilla as much as possible. So I recommend tuning them to your preference.

Now then for my mixed feelings. Consider the following text as small to big red flags in varying degrees. I feel are worth noting down. I had to trim this a bit since this review is getting too long and I apologize for that.

Kingdom Building is a mixed bag. I love the aspect of erecting settlements and determining the kinds of architecture. However the ‘time-limit’ before the next act and what to do perhaps make newcomers feel pressured and quite honestly have no clue what to do. I had to frequently Google and ask my friends about priorities. Although frankly, I'm leaning towards being positive on the aspect. Sincerely cool having advisors and solving problems since you are a Baron. I found it more enjoyable than my playthrough with Ni No Kuni 2’s version. Which ultimately was all right with uninteresting sidequests. Here I kept coming back to my empire. Taking personal pleasure in being hands-on in my day-to-day. See how your settlements grow and flourish along with your subjects. It’s thrilling, satisfying, and most of all worth seeing all your efforts come to fruition. For general tips, I'll echo what before I play & walkthrough for advice. Was instrumental and made daunting tasks to fulfill become easier to manage.

However, tiredness will undoubtedly occur. I had to stop playing kingmaker constantly in 2023 due to fatigue. The sheer amount of content if you combine the DLC is a lot for anyone’s plate. Acts on average took me 20 hours give or take some change to complete considering there are a total of 8 acts. If you count the act-like DLC Varnhold and the roguelike beneath the stolen lands. You’re easily reaching 150+. This is a friendly reminder to stop and take a break in case you are feeling burned out. I played palette cleansers like indies and shifted into different genres from a CRPG in between chapters to refresh my willpower to keep going. The slow-burn narrative along with my mixed feelings on kingdom-building aspects among others leave me in doubt whether I unintentionally had resorted to sunk cost fallacy. However, I would say once you reach part 2 to part 3 then the plot beats start to heat up gradually into a snowball. Turning my interest from a “hmmm” to an “Oh now we're getting somewhere.”

I think some rules for Pathfinder in general are too restrictive and punishing. This isn’t a negative against Owlcat; rather they did a phenomenal job adapting the tabletop ruleset for the videogame audience. Paizo the company from my understanding created the IP and surrounding laws within. Here are notable head-scratchers. I am not allowed unlimited lockpicking? Once I fail an attempt it's impossible to try again. I had to resort to a mod to give me unlimited attempts. Moreover, no instant rest after skirmishes. Meaning in vanilla, if my heavily damaged party needs to rejuvenate I have to manually activate the button to heal where I am assailable randomly. And lord help my soul if I fail that encounter during the process. Thus my momentum of adventuring unimpeded is halted. Sure I soothe my comrade's health, but what happens when I run out of charges for each of my healers? Then I am incapable of reviving their vitality. Resulting in, busywork. Coupled with the majority of loading screens from entering my throne room -> kingdom management -> back to throne room -> going out to world map -> entering a new area on the map -> reverting a save if something awry occurs -> repeat. Granted not a major deal, but over the course of my long playthrough, it all adds up. As a consequence, I am forced to struggle whereas I could be enjoying. Maybe I'm spoiled by fast load speeds, but I did install this on a fast SSD. Maybe a faster M.2 drive would be better. Goodness, imagine playing this on an HDD…

Other miscellaneous stuff: Gameplay would hang. An uncommon occurrence during random battles. Perhaps an NVME is better? I played on a Samsung SSD with a decent PC that ran the highest graphics on max settings to optimal framerate. The hanging is like a split second. Usually, initializing textures and characters when starting and during loading screens to govern your principality or unpacking a file. Not something glaringly obvious since my overall experience is still positive. Nevertheless, it is something noteworthy. Moving on. Some portraits of enemies are not given a unique picture. We are faced with our characters' faces. Pretty jarring to witness as if any major enemy is well an imposter of us. Granted not all of them are like this, but the inconsistency is mildly weird to witness.

Owlcat’s version of Pathfinder gamified is an incredibly ambitious undertaking. Took me nearly a year to finish in its entirety and while I did have some annoyances from the ruleset, scattered loading times, and mixed feelings. There’s quite a bit to enjoy among the many systems within. I liked overseeing my realm. Making tough decisions based on fair policies and having an immediate effect on my subjects whether good or bad. I delved deep to understand the deep mechanics in real time and pause. Yet at the end of the day, I think the amount of gratification here despite the herculean effort the devs have encompassed with a gigantic stuff to devour is dependent on the user's experience to get down in the trenches. If I never knew about skill checks and buffing, then I would have suffered early on because of my ignorance in taking advantage of magical resistances. If I didn’t read up on how to manage my provinces better, then possibly in a bad alternate universe I would’ve game over in my 100+ hour run due to my improper handling and neglect of the state of affairs. And that is NOT a feeling I want anyone to suffer with. Considering the reports I've read online of users having the same issues of neglecting their nation. Please make sure to check 'invincible kingdom' in the options. Speaks volumes how much you have to devote yourself to bring out something worthwhile. And for me? I think this is certainly one of the greats along with Baldur’s Gate. As long as you dedicate enough energy inside and mods installed. A deep & expansive CRPG that doesn’t hold your hand, but rewards the most invested of players. Sadly I find this incredibly difficult to recommend to everyone. Except only to fans of the genre. I believe Mandaloregaming said it best "... you play this game more for the systems than for the writing." And I can’t help but agree with their statement despite him saying the line in his story section. I would say it also accounts for the whole breadth of the game itself.

Base game without mods: 7.6/10
Base game with mods: 8/10

References & Additional Material:
Interview with the creative director on Pathfinder: Kingmaker
Pathfinder: Kingmaker Classes overview and archetypes
Example of information overload from my character
Long road to secret ending - heavy endgame spoilers within
PK Difficulty Settings - Pretty extensive options to tune the combat modifiers to your preference.
Before I play & Walkthrough

Mods:
Mod Manager - Bag of Tricks - Faster Menu - Buffbot

I have mixed thoughts, but mostly positive.

It's been called Yakuza 6-2 and it's obvious it was meant to be ANOTHER Kiryu sendoff since many were unhappy with 6's ending. I personally didn't mind 6's ending, but any excuse to play more Kiryu is good.

The story ties Kiryu from 6's epilogue, to his time during 7 leading into 8. I'll see how much it comes into play when I get to Infinite Wealth, but I think the story is fine even if there isn't too much when you cut through the game's padding. The Akame Network and accompanying substories come into play for the main story, so you'll likely need to take time doing super quick fetch quests or Akame's requests, which are much more like the substories you'd expect in this series. A few are pretty good, especially the orphanage substory. There is also a bigger emphasis on the coliseum this time around (also Amon is unlocked through finishing the coliseum substories, too bad I hated him this time around), and possibly the best version of the clan creator minigames thus far (actually being on the battle field and not controlling them from a distance made them feel much more fun).

The combat is paradoxical, it has the best Kiryu moveset in the Dragon Engine while having a few glaring flaws of its own. DE Dragon of Dojima (now called Yakuza style) doesn't get faster, unless you attack enemies on the floor, and feels weighty, which isn't bad in and of itself but there were plenty of situations where my combo got broken either by super armor, interruption, or an enemy being pushed away. It ended up using it for most of the game, with the new Agent style being a bit of a let down (I couldn't get it to work for me until after most upgrades, any other time bit me in the ass).

Bosses were mixed-decent, with the final boss (the finale in general, actually) being the highlight and arguably a top 5 boss fight for the series. Currently replaying the game with no damage upgrades to see how they are when extended (I don't like fun fights ending too quickly). Also don't want to dwell too much here, but the lack of a new game plus is absolutely absurd with how much you can unlock here.

The ending has been lauded by pretty much everyone, and I don't disagree it's a series highlight.

My thoughts might change after finishing IW, but as it stands it works as a fun sidestory despite its flaws.

Also, Akame is the best part of the game and she needs to be a recurring character. First Summer Uika is a queen.

7/10

All the way back in 2017, I played Persona 5. I picked it up on a whim the day after it released, because my friend loves the Persona series and recommended I get into it, and not too long after I was hooked. That same friend also gave me SMT4 around that same time and I didn't really get into at all. But it did get me more interested in Megaten as a whole. Fast forward to the Summer, I go to TooManyGames 2017. I remember seeing the Persona 5 collectors edition, man good times. Ah anyways, I also stumbled upon Persona 3 FES and Persona 4 inside a glass cabinet along with some other Megaten games. Naturally of them all, I was most interested in P3 and P4 seeing as I was a huge fan of 5. Knowing the price of the Raidou games, I wish I picked those up then since they were only $30 but in the end I bought both FES and P4. Oh, not at the convention btw. I bought them off eBay the day after cuz I realized you could get them for cheaper there. Anyways, to this day I still haven't touched vanilla P4 since I played Golden. But FES, I picked up and dropped several times over the years. I really don't know why it wasn't grabbing me but the furthest I ever until this most recent playthrough was the first full moon operation on the subway. Either way, I can say I've finally beaten Persona 3 FES and I'm happy to say I ended up enjoying it overall.

Let's start with the story. I think overall, it's good and has some really fantastic moments. The beginning scene where the MC awakens to his Persona, to the whole turning point in Junpei's arc near the end of the game (if you know you know) to the whole last hour or two. There's some super good moments throughout the game, I just wish the story's pacing was better. After the MC's awakening in the beginning, I found the story to be super slow up until the middle of the game where it starts picking up again. Then near the end before the grand finale I found it dragged a bit. Pacing-wise, I thought it was the worst of the nusona games but specific moment-wise it's some of the best in the series. I do think the whole theme of facing death head on and not being afraid of it and making the most of life is super strong though, especially in the end-game. They really hammer that theme into you by the end but it works really well.

The main cast is solid overall but it can be a mixed bag. I really liked Akihiko, Yukari, Junpei and Aigis by the end of the game. They all felt really fleshed out and I just liked them the most. Mitsuru is decent but I expected her to be better, idk why I found her somewhat bland. Fuuka and Ken are the definitely the weakest party members imo and a big part of that, besides just not caring about their characters as much, was their voice acting. This game has really solid voice acting (the 4 characters I listed at the beginning) and then it has some really awful voice acting (Fuuka, Ken, Shinjiro, the chairman). Fuuka especially man, she sounded more robotic than Aigis it's crazy. This no doubt took me out of the story a bit just cuz those 4 are so prominent. Oh and can't forget Koromaru, interesting that he's the only normal animal sidekick in which he doesnt actually speak but he's a good boy nonetheless.

Going into more of the game's characters, let's talk about the social links. They're a bit more hit or miss in this game compared to 4 and 5. Akinari may be the best social link in the entire series with how good it is. I was tearing up in literally every rank, no doubt due to the music that plays during it. Yukari, Maiko and Chihiro were probably my favorites then after Akinari. I didn't even think Gourmet King's was bad like some people say considering his whole backstory and everything making me sympathize with him. However, a lot of the others I just thought were decent, very meh or just straight up bad. The worst by far was Kenji's, one of the worst in the series imo and just such a nothing Social Link. Same with Bebe, just did absolutely nothing for me. I didn't love 4's social links either but I think overall they're better in that game, especially since there's no male party member SL in 3. Yeah that's a weird omission, along with being forced to romance all the school girl social links, just overall the weakest of the nusona social links imo. It's not a terrible first try at the social aspect tho, but it's clear it's the first game to try to tackle it. 5 definitely has the best social links I think even if there are a couple duds in that game as well.

Something I actually dissed on stupidly was the game's soundtrack. Idk what was wrong with me but I originally just thought it was out right bad (besides battle for everyone's souls) but have since realized it's actually a super great ost, liking it so much now I think I like it more than 4's soundtrack. 5 is still easily my favorite but never did I think I'd like 3's ost more than 4's. Some of my favorite songs were the aforementioned Battle For Everyone's Souls, Joy, Living With Determination, Memories of the City and many more. Honestly, absolutely insane how much my opinion on the OST changed but I'm super glad I can see now why people love it so much.

Just a couple of random things I liked before I get into the combat. I really like that in part with the theme of death, every single party member experiences the loss of a friend or relative throughout the story. It really makes the dorm's friendship more believable since they can all relate to each other. The 2nd awakenings are easily the best in the nusona games simply because they aren't tied to the social links and are apart of the main story. Really felt impactful, especially Junpei's goddamn man. Also really enjoyed the atmosphere, mostly in the Dark Hour and Tartarus. Seeing how each Tartarus block would look was fun.

Speaking of Tartarus, it's one of the most contentious aspects of the game (along with tactics of course). Some people really love it and some people despise it. Me? It's not terrible but it's definitely the worse of the Nusona dungeons imo (yes I like 4's more) and probably the worst of the PS2 megaten games in terms of its dungeons. Absolutely does not touch DDS1's dungeons for example, but I didn't hate it overall. At first, I was just not getting into it but after a while you get used to the flow of doing a bunch of floors, then social link stuff then Tartarus and repeat. Near the middle of the game is where I was sort of getting burnt out on it a bit, especially since you do have to grind in this game and around that point I feel like enemies weren't giving great exp. Maybe I was over leveled then, idk but near the end game I was getting loads more exp and my personas were actually good so I got over my burn out near the middle of the game. Either way, Tartarus is just meh imo. Thematically it works but gameplay wise it leaves a lot to be desired.

Funnily enough, I ended up thinking more positively on tactics this time around. I still definitely prefer controlling your party members, but tactics works really well for the most part. You just have to not be dumb and engage in the mechanic. If you simply set your party to act freely all the time, then yeah they're gonna do whatever and are more prone to do stupid shit. But if you set them accordingly then I don't see the issue at all really. In fact I found it fun the more tactics you got as you progressed. Though, one issue I personally had is when I want a group heal from Yukari. Someone is super low on health, while the others aren't as low but are still missing a chunk of their health. If only one party member has less than 50% of their health, then she'll single target them and that's it. In that case, I'd want to be able to control my party members but that was about it really. One more still doesn't touch press turn imo, and I'd take controllable party members over tactics I'd say but this game clearly is built around tactics and it works really well.

Honestly, super glad I ended up enjoying FES, even if it's my least favorite nusona and my least favorite PS2 Megaten game. I was expecting to actually dislike this one cuz that's how I felt the few times I tried to get into it. It has its faults but it also has its highs and yeah I recommend playing this even with Reload out now. It may fix some of this games issues idk, but this is still a good time I'd say. Going onto almost 7 years since I got into Persona and Megaten as a whole and I'm just happy to say I've beaten all the nusona games now!

Art is highly subjective. Different things will resonate with different people for different reasons: our aesthetic sensibilities, nostalgia, the sum total of our experiences that shape our inclinations over the course of our lives. I often find it difficult to put into words why something speaks to me. The term “debcore” has found a place in my vocabulary as a useful shorthand for “this is my thing, though I may not be able to articulate why.” Signalis may be the most debcore game I’ve played yet.

There's a lot I can point to that I like about this game. The animesque cassette futurist aesthetic; the thick atmosphere; the powerful, open-ended romantic tragedy; the lived-in feel to the environment; the music. All of these are related to its greatest strength: its presentation. Signalis is a master class in doing more with less. rose-engine has achieved so much more with quality writing, direction and a handful of simple assets than lesser studios have with hundreds of millions of dollars.

There are plenty of games out there that share some of these qualities, but few have tickled my brain the way this one has. Work shifts, showers and late nights spent contemplating what actually happened in this surreal, tender, cruel work of robot yuri. Maybe I’ll be closer to understanding it if I go for the other endings. For days now, I’ve been thinking on why exactly I love this game so much. Ultimately, Signalis as a whole feels laser-targeted at the things I like in video games and storytelling. I think I now have a clearer picture of what debcore actually looks like.

The fifth console generation and the golden age of survival horror were before my time. I grew up in the era of the annual or biennial military shooter, and came of age at the onset of that disease called “games as a service.” In an industry landscape where each AAA release just wants all of your spending money and free time, this relatively short but impactful single player experience has reminded me that, maybe, video games are alright.

So much to unpack, it's impossible to give this a proper breakdown. Especially with an emotionally complicated ending that's bound to stir discourse like Remake did, with the scale of this ambitious three-part project either failing or succeeding being the highest it's ever been, yet I don't think I could have it any other way. While I don't believe Final Fantasy VII Rebirth proves this trilogy succeeds as a self-contained narrative for newcomers to fully enjoy alongside the old, I think this does a remarkable job of pulling interest in a way I rarely see games do anymore for me.

Now, I don't care for remakes the same way I don't normally care for many adaptations. Because ultimately, no matter how well-made they are in their own right, they are unnecessary so long as the original exists in some capacity. I recognize remakes, remasters, and revivals have, especially in recent years, become an industry of themselves. So, it's all just a matter of personal preference here, and personally I prefer having new experiences than reliving old ones that's often repackaged at current MSRP. I've also seen a lot of the arguments in favor of remakes; that they're necessary to gauge consumer interest in reviving a dormant franchise, they're a compromise for the original's lack of availability, or that it's an opportunity to take a broken concept and do it proper justice -- I don't buy into much of these. I find it more worthwhile to spend creative talent and labor on a direct sequel (or spiritual one) than waste it on retreading old ground. One-to-one remakes don't interest me whatsoever because I see missed opportunities. I understand availability being an issue, but that lands more on companies making excuses for not porting the original to modern platforms. While I believe there are games that fall into the camp of "needs a remake because this just didn't work at all based on the circumstances it was developed within" (Epic Mickey is a golden example here, but I'll save that for another time), too often I find the ones pushed for one feel like whitewashing the past for little gain. Also, I emulate and pirate when necessary because have you seen the economy we live in nowadays so remakes mean nothing to me.

Final Fantasy VII Remake changed that. I still hold the opinion that it's flawed in design, not helped at all by what Rebirth massively improved in direct comparison, but I respect the ambition Squeenix aimed at pushing the boundaries of what a remake can accomplish. This wasn't made to correct or overwrite the original Final Fantasy VII and the statement it proudly made in 1997, one that stood the test of time like a monolith. No, it was made to re-examine the impact of its characters, setting, story and ideas left on the medium. To peel back decades of cultural osmosis, which ironically speaking, clouded everyone's memories and perception about what the game is. But this was simply the promise Remake's controversial ending made for the sequel to test. To see if this three-part project, as a completed whole, can not necessarily "surpass" the original, but stand beside it as though it's the missing other half we never knew we needed.

Rebirth doesn't even come close to outclassing the original, if we'rereally going there, but it eclipses Remake in how it complements yet alternates. While Remake was reimagining the opening 5 hours of a 60-hour-long game into a 10-hour-long game that for some reason got ballooned to at least 30 hours, it was very restrictive in its design and had to work within limitations. This lends to some opportunities in fleshing out Midgar to unreal (engine) possibilities, including the crux of the plot that'll get rolling, but you can see the cracks in how difficult this was to make into its own full-fledged game. The side quests are frankly terrible and don't even do an interesting job fleshing out Midgar. The attempt at a semi-open world Midgar really doesn't work when it's limited to just a few hub areas that's laid out linearly to progress. It's a good proof of concept for things like the core gameplay and combat, but it leaves so much needed room to breathe. I was surprised how much Rebirth took my major criticisms with Remake seriously and flipped it around. Due to it covering the middle stretch of the original, where the overworld opened up, and the plot takes the characters through so many locations, this is a very side content driven game. I have no problem with this! It's a remarkable achievement in how they took a PS1 overworld map and reimagined it in high graphical fidelity that feels like it geographically makes sense! The gang defeated the manifestation of destiny itself, and now they’re free on this unknown journey that’ll take them to who knows where, other than reliving trauma, burdens, unresolved memories, and minigames galore where they can goof off. It was a no-brainer, but still a clever choice to use a Xenoblade approach when reimagining FFVII’s overworld to follow an open-world format. Almost every major location has been expanded into its own open-world map, with 8th Gen towers and side content to fill it up. I’d have a problem sticking with… less than ideal open-world tropes, but Rebirth makes it mostly work exceedingly well. Some maps, I think, are strangely reimagined to become a large pool for exploration and content grinding, but this is mainly by comparison to other maps in the game that I think are handled perfectly. The combat is fantastically done, thanks to having a larger cast to experiment with, finally proving itself to be an excellent compromise between real-time action gameplay and the strategic ATB turn-based combat from the original.

What really brings everything together as my certified GOTY, and a personal favorite, is the focus on the characters. It’s not just main story stuff, though the ones who get spotlighted throughout are elevated and faithfully to the spirit of their characterization from the original, but even small stuff like exploring environments and having party banter, or taking surprising charge in a random side quest that develops Cloud’s relationship with everyone and why they’ll stick together to the end. Final Fantasy VII isn’t really my favorite entry in the franchise, it’s still close up there as a runner-up but not number one, but Rebirth spends so much time reminding me how at one point it really still could’ve. The thing it undeniably proved to me, however, was this is still hands down the most well-rounded Final Fantasy party. Anyone who I wasn’t super strong on before has now risen in the character rankings thanks to what Rebirth achieved. I can’t really speak more on the ending other than I know for sure it’s causing discourse, but minor spoiler territory gripes aside, it made me incredibly excited about how Part 3 is going to pay off everything Kitase, Nomura, Nojima, and Hamaguchi have been cooking. It’s going to either be a beautifully reflective counterpart to the original FFVII that makes its own powerful statement to shake the medium, or it’s going to completely collapse and fail in honoring its legacy. No video game has made me this conflicted on which way it’ll go, and I adore not knowing what unknown fate is ahead here.

First and foremost, I should be thanking my friend QuentTheSlayer for gifting Pseudoregalia to me a few months back during the Steam Winter Sale, go check him out, and thank you very much, Quent. I had heard about this game a little before that through a quick "check out these games!" sorta video, I thought the art looked pretty nice and I was intrigued by the concepts I had heard and the gameplay I had seen. It wasn't until another friend of mine also played through it recently and started singing its praises that I had finally decided to devote myself to it and boot it up.

It's a 3D Metroidvania type of deal, with a huge emphasis on its range of movement options that you will unlock throughout the game. That's easily its most notable aspect, the movement in Pseudoregalia can be absolutely stellar, with every ability having all the right tools to make platforming fun, as well as allowing you to challenge yourself upon coming across an obstacle that might seem impossible. Chances are, with the right amount of experimentation, you'll find a way through. I've always been a sucker for strong movement in any game that allows it, so naturally I'm gonna like what I'm given here.

I have a hard time praising much else, though. While yes, the platforming is fun when the opportunity arises, the actual world you will be exploring with your techniques can get very tedious to walk through. I even played this game after the map update, so, while I'm sure I didn't have it as bad as I could have, it still wasn't the best. The map does a somewhat poor job with its sense of direction, given that it's just a map, giving no details on your actual location. Very often would I find myself entering a room, only to immediately back out of it once I realized I was on the wrong path to my destination. Some rooms can also just prove relentlessly large in scale, with exits spanning multiple different walls and corners, as well as elevations.

To add even more, exploration can start to feel a bit aimless after enough time. There's not much of a story being told here, outside of the very beginning and the very end. There are a few pieces of lore strewn about with tombstones and bookshelves, I suppose. I just never felt I had a very clear goal the entire time I was playing, the number one collectible, being the Major Keys, aren't locked behind anything besides some quick platforming challenges, and collecting them still doesn't feel all too grand.

Maybe that's for the best though, since combat seems to be the least centric component of the game. The most you will ever gain to your weapon is the ability to charge an attack, and a projectile (which, even then, is still used more for hitting far-off switches than actually fighting). I guess you also have the option to toss your sword, but I can't recall any instances of it being necessary, nor can I think of any reason I would actually want to do that.
In combat, basic enemies will usually fall to a few slashes, and sometimes you'll come across an enemy that requires a few more. There is little impact to your hits, with the complete lack of animation on contact or upon death. They will instead shake a bit, and then slowly fade out once they've taken too much damage.
I do think I was also a little overhyped on the final boss. I definitely enjoyed it (and it was definitely the most fun I had while fighting anything in this game), but it's very simple to learn and adapt to, and by the time you've figured that out, it'll be over just a few moments later. The boss falls, you get a quick little conversation over a white background, and are swiftly sent back to the title screen to no fanfare. Just feels really abrupt and anticlimactic.

I can still remember having fun from time to time with Pseudoregalia, it's just that those times were always in rather short bursts, before I had to return to my clueless wandering around the map. I'd still recommend it, of course, but I think I went into it a little overly enthusiastic, and came out just a bit worn out and disappointed. I will still look forward to the dev's next project, Electrokinetic, though.



i think Sybil mighta awoken a little something in me

The textbook definition of a flawed masterpiece.

It's no secret that the original Final Fantasy VII is a legendary game that changed the gaming landscape forever - would a remake ever be able to live up to it? Well, I'd say it depends on what you're looking for. I've only played the original FF7 up until the Shinra Building, so I can't really answer this question more in detail, but I can tell you the remake (and possibly the rest of the trilogy) is an exceptional experience, IF you're willing to accept something different. This might sound weird, so let me explain.

Final Fantasy VII Remake is not an 1:1 remake of the iconic original game. Without spoiling anything, it's trying something new in the already established world of Midgar in the hope of pleasing both fans of the original game and newcomers entirely new to the franchise or Final Fantasy VII in general. I'm not trying to give too much away, but basically, there are those new mysterious entities, and a common complaint is them being too involved in the plot. I wasn't a fan of those either for a long time, but after finishing the game and understanding their purpose, I reflected on their inclusion for a bit and then thought they were integrated fairly well actually. To sum things up, FF7R doesn't replace FF7 at all; they both have the same major plot beats, characters and everything, but are heading into different directions. This way there are new surprises in store for returning players, but it also brought out frustrations in others, since now will never be a "true" remake of the original game - and I can totally understand that sentiment.

The identity of 7R however wasn't the reason why I called it a flawed masterpiece in the opening sentence, instead it's some things that still could have been better. Even though I had a fantastic time with the game as a whole, I feel the need to still address those problems, as I'm not only writing those reviews for myself, but also to help others. With that out of the way, the most apparent flaw is the amount of filler content every now and then. A good example of this is near the end of the game, where the party backtracks to a previous dungeon as part of the story to retrieve an important item for another character. The issue at hand: a monster has stolen this key item! This results in a 30-minute segment of tracking down the monster by backtracking through the exact same segments of this dungeon used previously in the game. At least you get a sweet resolution for that character at the end, so it's not all for naught. But coming back to the dungeon/level design, that's a point I have mixed thoughts on. On one hand, Midgar in the original game was incredibly linear and the world only really opened up later, on the other hand, the remake could have fixed this - but this is where they decided to stay faithful! The Hallway Simulator™ complaints are entirely justified, however it never was that much of a problem for me, since those dungeons look pretty atleast and you get many fun conversations with your party members along the way, so it doesn't feel like the game is trying to waste your time.

Generally the setpieces are more lively than ever before, the little details everywhere and the new third-person camera make for a so much more immersive experience than the top-down view of the original game. My favorite example is the Wall Market chapter in the remake, the lighting and bustling streets really sold me on the festive vibe the devs were going for. The entire segment was a real joy to play through and it is a prime example of extending the overall playtime in a meaningful way. This also applies for the Collapsed Expressway and Train Graveyard in the remake for me, for fans of the original game those areas might be too long (as they were only one to two screens long in the original game), but I loved how the devs expanded on those already established locations, it adds to the sense of scale in the massive dystopian city of Midgar. In general, I believe this "sense of scale" is exceptionally well done throughout the game, there are several occasions where you can just gaze in awe upon the towering buildings of the city from below or some other parts where you can look from a high point into the far distance and see all the detailed infrastructure on the horizon, it's genuinely impressive how they handled it.

You know what else is genuinely impressive? The combat in 7R. It still follows the same rules as the original ATB system, but with more player agency. Instead of just waiting for some bar to fill, you can block and dodge enemy attacks (ironically, blocking is better 90% of the time, as the dodge has no i-frames!) or deal some physical damage by yourself. All of this is accompanied by intuitive switching between characters in the middle of a fight in order to exploit enemy weakness with certain Materia or gain access to different skills and movesets. With the return of the Materia system, every party member can be individually built to one's likings - you may turn someone into an Electric AoE damage dealer or give everyone in the group an Ice Materia for some reason, there's a lot of different combinations! Summons are also back and they look just as cool here as you would expect. Unfortunately they're not available too often, but on the flip side this means their appearances against hard bosses are even more satisfying.

Now, I don't think anything has to be said about the soundtrack. It's a Final Fantasy game, so obviously it's near perfection. Uematsu and the crew put a lot of heart into the new songs and remixes and it shows. There are so many good tracks and it's hard to choose favorites, but one overworld song that particularly stands out to me for being surprisingly captivating is the theme of the Collapsed Expressway. In terms of battle themes, the Ghoul fight is an incredible new composition and if we're talking about remixed songs, [this video contains spoilers!] the iconic One-Winged Angel got an utterly fantastic orchestral rendition in the remake. They really went all out in remaking an already superb soundtrack and certainly didn't miss.

So yeah, I'm definitely looking forward to playing Rebirth eventually, but I'll probably play through the original FF7 first (hopefully in the near future). I love those characters and this world so much and I can't wait to see where their adventure is going next!

I'm really surprised that I didn't like this more. Hitman 3 is far from a bad game, but I find it to be very disappointing. All the levels either feel too small and restrictive or way too big and a pain to get around. Replaying these levels is just something I don't enjoy doing. Hitman 3 is by far the worst game in the World of Assassination trilogy in my eyes.

It's got everything that makes Hitman 1 and 2 so fantastic, but the level design sucks, so it's not fun to play. Hitman 3 also goes harder on the story, which I liked at first, but I feel that it impacts the gameplay negatively, as it feel like they sometimes prioritize tying the mission into the story over just giving it actually fun objectives. The level in Berlin is so cool, but the targets are soooooo boring. I wish I enjoyed this game more.

FF7 is just as good people hype it up to be. It starts off in the iconic Midgar with what is probably the most action packed opening of any JRPG, and after a few hours it's already opening up its world. It gets even better the more mysteries are unconvered, the more materia and limit breaks you acquire. The forced minigames are really the only complaint I have with it. It's not hard to understand why this was such a massive deal in the early 3D era with how cinematic and spectacular it is. Even to this day the seamless transitions between gameplay and FMVs with uninterrupted music are mindblowing, and the pre rendered backgrounds have an untouchable aesthetic.

No matter how hard Square Enix try with countless spinoffs and retellings in the same universe with all the advanced technology of today, they aren't able to replicate the magic that was achieved on a PS1 and only make its story retroactively worse. It's not nostalgia talking - this is coming from a person who first played it 23 years after release. There is a great subtlety to the original and its characters that the remakes miss completely. Sephiroth, one of the coolest villains of all time, is basically an entirely different character in every media released after this and his cryptic terrifying aura is lost for the sake of fanservice. I choose to think of this game as existing in a vacuum and will always recommend it over anything else as the most complete consistent work.

Genuinely one of if not the most frustrating action game i have ever played. I will just say now that i am fucking ass at this game so take what i am gonna say with a massive chunk of salt. But, this game is just filled with shit that feels like its designed to piss you off while having both not enough tools to feel like you can deal with them easily or the guidance to teach a struggling player if the tools are actually there. Sorry man i can't recreate evo moment 37 while fighting 100 enemies on a 2d plain so they all stack on top of each other so its not easy to see incoming attacks while an off screen sniper is shooting at me creating a massive blinking red reticle which obscures more of the immediate enemies i am fighting. Only to then introduce enemies with super armor.

This game feels like it has an incomplete movelist and certain moves and movement are weirdly stiff and don't flow into each other. Ex: Up+Y. Jumping feels like ass in this game and there are tons of situations where enemies are falling in the air but i can't catch them to juggle for some reason and the game has no made a clear distinction why. Sorry i am too stupid to break down the finer intricacies of the game and its mechanics and its too niche to have other people explain it because the game does a terrible job at this itself. I got to the final boss by just spamming devil trigger EX moves and then gold burst when my meter was empty to instantly refill. Rinse and repeat, this is the dominant strategy which i would usually try to avoid if i actually found the game fun to play

Incredible art direction that is truly inspired but i wish it was tied to a game that i enjoyed playing

Will try again when they inevitably make more patches to tone down some of the shit that is a massive turn off. If they don't do this then I really respect the developer for sticking to their vision of the game they wanted to make even if i hate it and will likely never play again. I truly hope they are proud of what they achieved here, its not easy making a game let alone one this stylish

Let’s get this out of the way. GTFO is a very brutal game. If you are averse to failing in games or don’t have a full squad of 4 to play with I honestly don’t recommend this game at all. This is 100% an acquired taste. That being said, if this is a taste you like then the flavor is exquisite. GTFO is now one of my favorite co-op experiences and I think will go down as an all time favorite for me.

TLDR at the end

What is GTFO

GTFO is a hardcore horror tactical FPS game. You work together to complete missions in the Complex, aka Garganta. These missions are predetermined and not procedurally generated. So these are hand made missions. They’re separated by different numbered Rundowns. Each rundown contains a variety of different missions. Some have more than others and are graded by a letter difficulty. A being the easiest and E being the hardest. The rundowns themselves are numbered and generally the numbers are indicative of what order to start them in. However an A level in say rundown 3 will be easier than R1D1. So it’s not directly the case that all missions on the next rundown are harder than all missions in the previous rundown.

You start each mission in a weapon loadout screen where you can see what all your teammates are bringing. There’s a wide variety of weapons from firearms to melee weapons. Each weapon has its own pros and cons. Some are better for dealing massive damage to tough targets while others are better for clearing our hordes of enemies. Some are quick, some are slow. It really comes down to you and your team bringing what weapons you feel are right for the occasion.

There are also tools which range from a c(ryo) foam launcher, sentry turrets, a bio tracker, and more. All of these tools serve a purpose. Some are more general than others. It’s always a good idea to have 1 sentry and have someone with a biotracker. Those aren’t explicitly necessities but they will 100% help you. There are also artifacts you can collect in runs that give you various bonuses from damage resistance to increased damage dealt.

When you’re all ready you’ll drop down into your run to complete the various missions by trying to stealth around the enemies, scavenging for supplies like medkits, ammo packs and more. When shit inevitably hits the fan that’s when the guns are busted out. The game is all about having a back up plan for your plan. As one mistake that you aren’t ready for can lead to a run ending. One wrong move, one friendly fire incident is all it takes to fuck up run. Which is why I opened up with if you aren’t able to fail at games this game isn’t for you.


Enemies and Hazards

At first the game will seem like there’s not a lot of enemy variety. The game is very slow and intentional about dishing out the new enemies. The main enemy you’ll be seeing are called sleepers. Basically they’re your zombies. They’re scattered across the areas and if you walk fast, shine flashlights or make noise it will alert them. If they wake up they can alert the whole room then you’ve got a fire fight on your hands. Which if you aren’t prepared for can go bad super quick. All the enemies are called sleepers but the primary ones you’ll see are the strikers, which are the melee boys with teeth, shooters, which are the lumpy girls that shoot out projectiles, then there’s the giants. There’s sub categories of giants too. Those are the primary enemies you’ll find in the first few rundowns. There are additional ones but I’ll not spoil the surprise of those enemies. But even then the beginning combination of those is really intense at first. It takes a coordinated team to take down one giant in stealth. And if you kill things too close to each other it can alert others in the room. So it’s a matter of assessing what targets to prioritize and when to team up or spread out to clear out multiple at once.

There are also a variety of hazards in the game. Alarm doors that you need to do scans for while alerting hoards, infection fog that lowers your max health, non stop alarms, and so much more. The game loves throwing new hazards and combinations of enemies at you. All of this factored in with length of missions and many missions are a battle of attrition. In a good way though. The pressure that summounts from being so deep into a run, everyone is low and health and ammo, half of your squad are infected and you’ve got a class 4 alarm to go through to extract is what makes this game so incredible. Using your combined skill and resources to squeak out a win in GTFO is one of the most satisfying experiences I’ve had in gaming. It truly is one of the most tactical FPS games I’ve ever played. My group and I will spend so much time plotting out what doors to seal, where enemies will come from, where to place sentries and mines and what choke points to hold only to have a plan go to shit and we have to revert to the back up plan of running out of a room or doing our absolute best to survive.

The Difficulty

This brings me to the difficulty of this game. I’ve mentioned it but it's worth reiterating that this game is brutal. I remember seeing a stat that the devs shared on steam saying that there was a failure rate of missions at around 90%. It’s rough but it’s honestly so much fun. And to be 100% honest as long as you are willing to learn, take your time, and are open to trial and error, this game is not as hard as it makes itself out to be. Once me and my group got adjusted in how to play, things were relatively smooth. We’re easily able to clear all A and B levels on the first try. Or at least most. There’s some crazy A3 levels. But I put this part in to say that I think if the game sounds even remotely interesting to you that you should take the risk if you can find a group to play it with. Maybe grab it on a sale despite it being well worth that full price. I think it’s somewhat of a niche game and sometimes $40 is a steep price for a niche game that might make you rage quit. But it’s honestly such an incredible experience.

The Lore

I don’t have the time in the world nor the full knowledge of the lore to explain it or break it down here. But know that the lore is actually really fucking cool. It’s just so dense and truthfully convoluted but in a good way (I love convoluted plots I’m a Metal Gear fan). On the first page of the wiki it drops “According to the ‘Dual Reality Theory’ there are two different worldlines or variants of the story set in parallel universe” and that should be enough to tell you what kind of insane ass scifi horror plot this game has.

Issues

There are some issues with the game that I’ve encountered in my 100+ hours of gameplay. Sometimes enemy detection can be finicky and you’ll be detected by enemies that feel like they were way too far away. There’s some issues with the game crashing from time to time as well. My friend often would have to do hard restarts to fix the crashing upon loading in. There were also some connection issues and some desync issues but they’d generally fix themselves and it was usually due to a blip in internet performance for the host. But overall nothing really that took my enjoyment out of the game. But it’s always worth noting some technical issues. It’s still an easy recommendation but it can depend on your tolerance for that kind of stuff.

TLDR

GTFO is one of my favorite co-op experiences I’ve had in gaming. The strategy and tactics and butt clenching tension of running these missions is unmatched by anything I’ve played and tbh I think anything the market has to offer at the moment. Its atmosphere and lore are top notch and I think if you’ve got a group of friends to play it with and like tactical shooters or scifi horror this is a must play. However do note that the game starts slow and you will fuck up a lot. There’s a reason the game's tagline is “Work together or die together”. I personally say it’s well worth full price but I do always advocate for getting games cheaper when you can. And considering it’s a niche game and you ideally want a full group to play, it’s probably best to recommend waiting for a sale on this game. But it’s so worth it regardless.

I must have had my opinion on this game shift a dozen times while playing it, but now that I'm finally achieved the platinum trophy (a demanding one, for sure) I think I can safely say I liked it.

I don't have the history with OG7 the way most people going into this had, so I was and am intrigued with the direction of the 7 remake project, it's definitely looking more like a reimaging than anything else.

Being that this is expanding the Midgar sequence to a full game, there is a lot more added that ranges from good to not so much. The extended sequence in Wall Market and Corneo's trio was a delight and lots of fun, the part early on where Cloud gets kicked out of Avalanche before the next chapter added a lot to character the interactions (also super effective at making me feel really bad, lmao). Jessie, Wedge, and Biggs in particular became fully fleshed out and I ended up becoming very attached to them.

The game has pacing issues, this has certainly been discussed many times but I can't disagree. There are many forced walking sequences, along a few moments where you won't be be able to spring for some reason, the camera often forces focus on specific setpieces, there are conversations where you can skip lines but not the scene itself, and certain context sensitive traversal (such as ceiling/rail climbing) is pretty slow. These moments can be used to make scenes memorable, but here they add up really quickly and make the game feel padded out. My first playthrough was pretty rough, though the long cutscenes didn't really bother me (I'm a Metal Gear fan from back in the day, I'm immune to "long cutscenes" being a criticism).

Thankfully the combat is more than enough to make up for shortcomings. While I felt limited and underpowered during my first playthrough, once you lock materia slots and level up said materia, you have a pretty damn deep combat system. The transition from turn-based to ARPG while bringing over the ATB system makes combat interactions very strategic and meaningful. It has a bit of a learning curve, but after learning weapon skills and opening up materia slots there are tons of options for all characters, and the combat is pretty great. Boss fights were mostly good or great (I still dislike Rufus though), hard mode bosses often required specific strategies (plus you learn to appreciate character skills that take for granted on earlier difficulties).

Going for completion was super demanding. I noticed lots of people hate going for the dresses, but I needed to get the side quests done anyway so it didn't feel particularly like extra busywork. There weren't too many minigames and the ones that were here were mostly harmless (I don't even think Tifa's lifting was as bad as people said it was, it was just a matter of trial and error). The VR missions also required specific playing during the later stages, and the final one with the summons was visious and I needed all of the hard mode manuscripts to pull it off. It was a test of patience and it almost broke me multiple times, but taking some strategies and tweaking them slightly ended up working in my favor.

The PS5 Intergrade expansion comes with two Yuffie-centric chapters that take place alongside the main story. It's not too much, but Yuffie is pretty fun to play, and works with the AI partner's moveset. Definitely looking forward to playing more of her in Rebirth.

So I do love this game very much, in spite of what annoys me about it. I had a rollercoaster of conflicting feelings, the story takes directions that deviate from the OG in interesting ways that we will have to wait and see how they play out, but there is lots of fun to be had here and I kinda loved it. Definitely excited for my copy of Rebirth to come in.

9/10