When looking at the lenses of remakes, remasters, re-imaginings, reboots, definitive editions, ports, and plenty by the library classifications. It is important to understand where and what kind of vision the original and new are undertaking. Are companies such as Bluepoint trying to faithfully rework a game 1:1 without specific egregious artistic or personal changes in the first's tone and music? Do the budget remakes of Front Mission create a definitive edition? Can both the initial version and separate remakes such as Resident Evil stand side by side with one another? These are difficult questions to ask and honestly, I've seen many arguments for, against and nuance takes in the middle. Depending on the experience of the individual and the context from which is given in claims. The evidence and therefore the response may vary. To this end, I would posit a question. What is Final Fantasy VII Remake(FFVIIR)? Sounds like a dumb question, albeit questioning sprouts and fans, the answer may surprise you. In my eyes, the question is only a part of the whole pie I've been struggling to eat since completing the 2nd installment of the 2024 title called Rebirth. And in pursuit of such answers, I decided to replay FFVII Remake once more. Marking this as my third finished playthrough. I will state beforehand I’m not skilled enough to determine a decisive reply. Rather I've submitted 7 mixed feelings along with 7 praises. To demonstrate why I’m struggling and dearly pray the information presented will help a soul in a similar position. Forgive me if I offend anyone who holds the title near and dear to their hearts. That is not my intent. My troublesome concerns in the following text are not meant to be scathing nor as a rant. And are simply my observations on what could be improved. Followed by what I believe the team does well. With no spoilers as much as possible. Failing that, if at any point I’ve resorted heavily negatively or failing the above. Then you have my express permission to summon a big meteor and channel your energy to land on me and thus yeet me into the lifestream.

First - Faithful to the original, yet evokes new material. Over simply designating it as a remake. The official name should've been called a re-imagining. From the playstation store the description states "... is a reimagining of the iconic original with unforgettable characters, a mind-blowing story, and epic battles." For those confused on the word 'reimagine,' the definition according to merriam webster says "to imagine again or anew, or recreate." A remake by definition is "make anew or in a different form. - Remade." To explain in simpler terms. I perceive the definition to be a higher quality recreating the foremost vision with higher fidelity and optimizing whatever is lacking to a certain extent. A reimagining of this caliber goes beyond the constraints the previous presented to offer something unique and old. Straightaway, please erase notions of 1:1 you will find semblances and fresh adjustments present everywhere. I admit I am poorly ignorant of what the definition in the landscape of video games entailed and expected a remake before a reimagining. A gentle reminder to keep your expectations in check. Funnily enough, If you had talked to my 2020 self he would've given you a frowning face with a "What you talkin bout fool!?" while explaining why this is faithful. Man. Believe me, it is another instance of me desiring to go back in time to slap my past self silly. Regardless, a vital question comes to mind for fresh souls and veterans. Do I need to know the pioneers or titles from the compilation? The short response is no. For unfamiliar dudes. Don't worry this isn't me trying to scare prospective souls for the 2020 JRPG. Context is important, and sure you can gain a great deal more from playing the premier and other connected mediums within the universe. However, leave that to the fans who want something different. As someone who isn't a fan of the earliest yet devoured everything in the compilation minus Dirge. I sound hypocritical. Although I hold the seventh entry in the series in my top ten for the franchise. Don't get me wrong, this isn't me being an arbiter of who and what you can play. Eventually, it is your decision to decide. I love to inform/educate others for those not in the know or out of the loop. The long retort is a 'yes' and 'maybe' for fans and those somewhat familiar with the FF7 universe. Why? Well in a 2020 VG247 interview with the producer Yoshinori Kitase(Who directed the initial version) stated "...all of the lore from the works created after the original, the Compilation of Final Fantasy 7, that's all very much in the base of the canon for the remake, and going forward it will be too." The response was due to a question on how significant the "compilation ideas," will be brought to the table. What does this mean for the modern FF7 project split three ways? Well. in my eyes. They're moving outside a 're-imagining'. delving into territories of the 'reboot' and 'sequel' combination. Smashing like playdoh three qualities to present exciting and bold overhauls with the aged guards in the developer team and fresh blood behind the 1997 release. And does it stick to the landing? Hmm, I don't think I can state it definitively did, but my 2020 aging self and multiple friends, peers, and others dearly enjoy the remake. In that sense, I must articulate that's perfectly valid. But 2024 me posits an uncomfortable realization upon replaying before arriving at my conclusion. And that is...

Second - The linear sections need to take a backseat. A conclusion I reached since I've taken the liberty of recording my whole replay. For transparency, this means I played on classic difficulty and solely focused on the main narrative. Excluding the side-content because I already completed them in 2020. Where I finished a hard mode replay upon polishing off normal mode. I found dissecting the gameplay bits. 10+ linear sections in eighteen total chapters. Meaning player agency to move in an environment usually in a guided manner. Not bad by either means, however, these segments offer a repetitive structure of mandatory fights with some leeway to run past. Instead of opting for a free-form combat encounter at your leisure at any time. A famous example is Chrono Trigger where you had a bunch of areas to opt out of required battles by fleeing and running around mobs. Here we don't get that unless we run a sufficient distance or until each enemies are wiped out. Thereby, stalling players and a focus on rinse-and-repeat combat engagements. To drive the claim deeper these sectors take up 'xx' minutes. Ranging in my experience 20-50 min. Varying depending on the length: short, medium, and long. Includes watching cutscenes interlaced as you progress further in a route. Not noticeable if you partake in the voluntary areas and stop to take a break. An un-fun endeavor in dealing with yet a familiar path to tread and battle. Cutscenes and voiced commentary can only do so much if I'm forced to brawl with mob #1 and mob #2. Taking out the surprise and inducing...

Third - A rampant formulaic structure in abundance on the far side of the spectacle and splendor of the dystopian cyberpunk metropolis of Midgar. The place where the bulk takes place. Before I slash on ahead I must enunciate you control a character initially. Cloud Strife. Mercenary & EX-Soldier. Armed with a hulking greatsword busting from his back, he embarks on a dangerous job with eco-terrorists to stop a megacorporation from harnessing the planet's precious finite resource mako. An eyebrow-raising premise and I'll detail more later. Continuing from my claim earlier. The former is true. And though I'm no expert designer I don't like predictable sequences. The first offered short linear zones capable of completing in achingly fewer occasions than what my results found. Sharing authentic surprises making full use of the shift into 3D. By contrast, I found the measure of guided linear padding districts a chore than a fun participation. To be fair this is looking through the eyes of a replayer, yet for those newcomers this is probably fine. Although coming from Rebirth, I found the developers didn't learn their lesson and continued the practice to disastrous effects. Sure there are moments interspersed where we deal with minor obstacles in the way: switches, pulleys, levers, buttons, time limits and split parties, stealth, and walking passages. Creating opportunities to diversify the run then face another foe formula. Realistic to the point of unnecessary for the sake of immersiveness. Doesn’t make sense to hold a button to stress the act of pushing stuff such as hard levers. Hence, still not sufficient to make me jump in joy saying "GUYS THIS IS AWESOME!" Reality isn't the same as the expectations as I failed earlier above in my 1st point. Cut these chunks 50% to 100% in my opinion. Don't delay my gratification further to catch the next plot scene. Apply enjoyable no obstacles in overcoming or keep them extremely short. And to be frank we do distinguish semblances of these later on: trains, grappling hooks, and controlling big o'l arms, but their exposure is still too long for my tastes. Even slicing extended verticality would've helped in the level designs, slapping a sidequest abruptly can provide benefits.

Fourth - Thus padding becomes a constant companion of mine. From the FFVII Remake Ultimania book. An interview revealed "...in the original game, it takes about 7 hours to go through the Midgar section. In the Remake, the map would need to be in 3D, so there would be much more information to account for as well as minutes pass. To go from one point to another, and all that adds up. Since we knew that we would have to add scenarios to the story too, I knew that the overall gameplay of the Remake would be well enough to cover a whole game." - Tetsuya Nomura(co-director) said. Expanding the JRPG from 7 hours into a AAA term is unprecedented. Can you imagine if Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was cut 1/3 and the 1/3 was blown into a full $70 price tag? The number of resources, man-hours, and sheer effort along with the Square Enix budget + marketing. Of one of the most recognized JRPG brands on Earth and selling millions to this day, with medals of commercial and critical success in the tail-end of 1997 is double eye-brow raising past my hairline. My times in 2020 were 76 hours to 100%, 45hr on a first playthrough plus completing the entire sidequests and 19 for my replay. Close to the submitted averages from How long to beat data. Therefore it is inconceivable for me to imagine entirely the work involved has non-existent padding. The opposite is true adding filler during unnecessary sections. Not bringing out various spoilers, but I dissected the chapters, discovering multiple instances of stretching the seven hours. I've already talked above about the linear pieces, but certain cutscenes need not be extended. I don't want to watch a mysterious guy with cat-like eyes gradually gazing at me, walking slowly and spontaneously whispering in my ear. Appearing as a ghost when you least expect it and serving as a major means to tease the audience. Extra examples inside. Such as a roach add forced skirmishes with a guy who isn't really a friend, but hold up maybe he is because we escaped? But the dude has no depth whatsoever beyond flamboyant actions and liberally using the word 'nakama' as if it's going out of style. Villain points of view in a corporate office were also forced, displayed no nuance, and hit the predictability counter. A single egregious instance is a bald disgusting filthy excuse of a being hungering for the female body was equally disturbing and felt excruciatingly too lengthy. I wanted to gag and run out of the room looking at the poor excuse of a 'man,' constantly as the camera shifted to him.

Fifth - Modifications aren't always better in the plot. Again no spoilers, but I can count on one hand some important moments I feel shouldn't have been revised. The absence of blood, replaced with a [redacted] trail takes out the fear and horror replaced with a sense of befuddlement. And this confusion is greatly enhanced immediately upon our [censored] shifts from their initial personality into apathy. Followed by a sense of bewilderment as continued plotbeats hammer our vision punching a sort of psychosis-like of what is real and unreal into our eyeballs. Lingering repeatedly as the camera oh so slowly focuses on them repeatedly. As a consequence, a major character's presence is overhauled due to the additional scenes pandering to their figure instead of using imagination, stories told by word of mouth to take hold of our party. I understand why these adjustments were made, and it is not horrible to the extent I'm moaning so loudly. Merely closing my eyelids and hmming while simultaneously imagining what is going on in the writer's head. Kazushige Nojima and Motomu Toriyama specifically. Because actively adding and revising these elements felt weaker. Teasing and baiting without explaining concretely. A more isn't always a better case.

Sixth - Extends to the unfamiliar content. Namely Whispers. No softly saying words to my ears kind. Rather, mysterious entities will show up occasionally. Not a spoiler because these are shown in the official trailer. Without stating too much, the entities follow an old, repetitive pattern. I'm sure you heard it already, but it is a formulaic response once again to obstruct our party. Why? points gently at the wide and above points I've said so far. In essence, these felt needless, fueling countless theory-crafting and driving discussions. Which by itself isn't bad. I love a good talk with possible outcomes and what-ifs. But after finishing Rebirth and replaying, I still cannot find solid reasons for their existence to entice freshbloods into a JRPG. I've come to note their existence as a red-stop light. Stopping my vehicle motion until a certain amount of minutes have passed before I can move forward. Their intervention in most aspects worsens instead of alluring the audience. Removing their presence entirely and organically adding an easier, less complicated-to-understand presence would've been a better solution in my honest opinion. The closest example I could consider is the film Arrival(2016). Again no major beats will be spoiled from the film. But within the cast is introduced to [blank]. We, both the cast and audience try to understand what this [blank] is. By the credits rolling, I came out with a pensive, but nodding my head action. As vaguely as I can put it. I understood the whole picture. Whispers don't give you the tools to understand. Merely dangling a carrot atop your head while you flop around illustrating a starving bunny failing to reach the juicy treat. And as someone who loves lore and connects it to the plot. The single aspect infuriated me and shot my suspension into a black hole.

Seventh - The sidequests offer little to decent value. Ultimately granting a reprieve in the narrative. Looking back on my notes I wondered why I didn't utter exceptional stuff on the optional matter. After reviewing the list and rewards from a guide I realized why. Serving as a means to take a break. And offer chore missions to perform. From my findings, plus five fetch objectives, 10+ extermination assignments, several minigames, missable missions if you fail to carry out preceding jobs beforehand, and requirements. For instance, completing a couple of them in full unlock a party member cutscene with our protagonist. Playing devil's advocate, these operations do serve a purpose. Helping the people in Midgar, specifically the individuals in the slums who are in dire need of their tasks. Not a bad thing. However, the design implementation of fetching materials, and items, and finding stuff becomes boring. fighting unique variants of creatures fought in the plot and never-seen monsters is a nice touch, but consummate rewards can be lacking. They consist of items and equipment of above-average quality with several weapons exclusively gained. To be fair, not all quests suck. I'd bark a handful off the top of my head is notable in the sense of me giving a single thumbs up. Wish they resonated far higher with deep lore connections and barely superficial relationships. Extending to the NPCs you meet as well. Remove missable errands, interject our party members asking Cloud for help, abrupt errands popping up, surprising injecting urgency, followed by relief. Simple tasks removing debris or gently carrying an injured person while slowly commentating juicy gossip would've elevated the non-essential areas into a must-play. Now I'm shaking my head, grimacing to speak anything nice.

Bonus for the Intermission DLC - I'll be blunt I don't enjoy the intermission Yuffie episode. Offered with a pricetag to consumers following the launch months down the line. The cost I paid was $20. I didn't feel it was worth to play. For those not in the know. Here's a description of what it entails in the store page.. "Play as Yuffie after she arrives in Midgar. There, she and another Wutaian operative are to rendezvous with Avalanche HQ, infiltrate the Shinra Building, and steal the conglomerate's most powerful materia. This DLC unfolds over two chapters that are separate from the main narrative, and also adds a combat simulator fight against Weiss to the PlayStation®5 version." I like Yuffie, she offers a naive optimistic view marred by her grudge in a harsh world ruled by a megacorporation. Has clear goals and her infectious go-to attitude hardly fails to bring a grin on my face. However, playing as her I realized the pitfalls specifically the linearity added nothing satisfying. Launching my big ninja shuriken to hit objects in the environment and climbing and overcoming obstacles from battling leaves me a bitter taste I find in wasabi. Outside of a handful of cutscenes with her Wutaian operative who is handsome and cool. Conveying the strange if not interesting dynamic the duo share. And that was easily the strongest aspect displayed along with a lesser extent a tower defense minigame called Fort Condor. What grinds my gears paying $20 is how little the main plot moves. Two plus chapters and a combat simulator I have no interest in. The former is heavily lacking despite trying to intersperse the duo's movements while the main story progresses back in the base FF7 crew. As a consequence, very little I enjoyed besides learning background about her once her mission finishes. A modicum of context for her soon-to-be joining with the main cast in Rebirth. And why she's acting in a certain manner. A lack of meaningful content I paid a substantial amount leaves me full of regret. I wish I had the foresight to travel in time and watch a Let's Play instead. There goes my five hours never returning. For those who adore the fullest extent granted I salute you.

Phew. With utterly nasty stuff out of the way. I can now focus on the best parts. And it's funny, I started my replay in search for validation of my troubled thoughts and came out picking spare facets I revel in.

I - Body gestures, facial expressions, and voice acting beautifully translate the 1997 3D era into the modern enriching our beloved party. The 2020 title wonderfully demonstrates this. The guy with a machine gun arm(Voiced by John Eric Bentley) is easily my favorite dude. Charismatic, body of action, gung-ho yet deep within his tough, gruff exterior lies a loving family dude. His speeches and comradery brighten my days whenever he's on screen. A female martial artist/bartender(Voiced by Britt Baron) is soft-spoken but belays a deep love for her friends. Giving a helping hand to whoever her companions are. Yet her eyeballs and facial expressions along with a fraction of timidness tell a deeper story. She doesn't display her emotions a lot, from her face, but generally her body motions. Baron's voice lends a hidden quality I found myself talking internally "Oh these cheeky buggers." That's the max I'll pass to stop myself from blurting a cool detail. Perhaps the most striking and given the maximum enhanced flair is the flower girl(played by Briana White) our merc meets later on. Wearing fully her emotions on her sleeve, she charges ahead, setting the stage yet doesn't outshine her fellow members. Trying different things and is unafraid to speak her mind with gestures and emoting so gracefully but not to the extent of over-dramatic illustrating Nicholas Cageness as some haters love to slap on him. She exudes a gentle, caring personality in contrast to the people you witness. Endearingly loveable. Complementing their physical presence is a flirty, but kind female, a not-Rambo-like dude, except very friendly and thinks with backups. An affectionate and true-to-heart guy who loves a tasty meal. And last but not least the guy with a huge buster sword on his back who I'll continue to give the benefit of the doubt behind his no-nonsense values but continues to help his comrades for a solid price. The villains to keep things short. I hate them substantially. Good job fellas.

II - Worldbuilding is satisfying to learn. The key to a decent to quality worldbuilding in my opinion is if the player connects to the lore, the relationships individuals have with NPCs, antagonists, and surrounding rules, laws, religion, beliefs, and values, presented in an effective way grabbing hold the audience, never breaking apart, fastening a desire to learn further. Here I had a deeper love for the universe entailed. Misinformation and propaganda became easily digestible and prevalent sifting through what is true and false information. I love the added depth in the NPCs. We behold how they act, their gripes given freely, their daily lives in the slums, what assistance they need, and who is perpetrating the evils nearby causing a disturbance. Adjusting their dialogue as the world moves forward. The cause and effect our colleagues undergo as beats pass. Witnessing the consequences of our actions. Enriching my proficiency. I grasped fear at the sheer scale of devastation. Helpless in my struggle to conjure meaningful methods of assistance. Warmly embraced the power of friendship. Lending a hand to those in need while meeting an angel. And helped a poor guy who seemed to have enough bad luck etched onto his soul.

III - Guided experience of linearity. Didn't mind the linearity at every opportunity. I mentioned before the linear sections needed to take a backseat and it's true. However, I appreciate the decent length and restraint of levels to hold being a maze-esque or overstaying their welcome. Grateful, exploration isn't filled to the brim with useless collectibles, an excess of loot, and a tedious length. Feels just right to be led to my next storybeat without a major hang-up stalling me. Consequently guiding me into a satisfactory mood. The commentary members' sprouts occasionally aid in removing the dullness permeating. Reminds me of FFXIII. This comes as no surprise since the director Motomu Toriyama resides with the FF7 crew. For what it's worth, it is an improvement from the hallway nature prior. Though to be frank I didn't mind them considering it was my official gateway into the franchise heh.

IV - Supplementary characterization made me smile a lot. I remember key specifics from FF7 and to behold my beloved characters now provides increased background, insight into their interpersonal relationships and human characteristics in expanded detail is one of the strongest I adore. Every person receives a modest to larger-than-life expansion for the better I reckon. A flirty armor girl surprised me. In her hidden motivations concerning family and her previous background. A splinter cell obtained considerable screentime that I previously forgot. Wedge endeared me for his loveable nature extending beyond his friends namely cats and tasty meals. Biggs worries a lot and is unable to stop overthinking things. Yet has a heart of gold. I can go on, but I believe the interesting conversations spoken out of fights and during walks heighten the sense of camaraderie and friendship blooming. Heartwarming to witness first impressions mellow out, distrust and suspicions thawing in the face of a common enemy. Giving out a helping hand, handshakes, high-fives with a motion to stand by fellow companions instead of walking away is a powerful show, don't tell. Precious bonds are forging and solidifying and it is awesome viewing these interactions.

V - The cinematography is breathtaking. I vividly remember iconic moments in the past. Thus perceiving them recreated in magnificent care is a sight to behold. Fluid animations, on-the-spot lip-sync, no out-of-character or sharp cuts. Action sequences offer an intense rush following combat during an encounter or moving along the plot. The camera is the star and I am on the edge of my seat looking forward to the next cutscene coming alive. I adore catching my beloved group shine. Panning the screen exhibits landscape shots to breathe in both the sheer beauty of the world and horror. Equally represented. I am thankful the camera doesn't move too fatal parading useless shots. I figure 90%+ of the whole work done by the cinematics is rendering shock and awe. From the biggest to smallest moments. I cannot for the life of me complain about the artistic vision. Pleased to note everything from monsters to humans, made with painstaking clarity and life. Conversations between allies are not too long or too short. Employing no waste. Made me appreciate discussions and commentary in and outside of battles. Body gestures, facial expressions, and voice acting coalesce achieving realism. Gluing on hidden peculiarities I may have missed. Antagonists also share a respectable amount of screen focus. Feeling far in tune with a darker nature behind fake placid expressions. Honestly, I'm clenching my teeth a bit whenever their presence is displayed. Seriously wish I could sockem into pancakes if I had One-Punch-Man's power. Ughhh.

VI - Combat runs optimally whereas before they staggered and walked tall. As Michael Higham first coined the term. Transforming two plus decades of the Active Time Battle(ATB) system for the 2020s is no small task. Has to be engaging, and tactical, delving into simple to complex maneuvers. FFVIIR succeeds in this aspect allowing gateways and fans a fresh, but familiar way to eliminate foes. FFXIII stagger mechanic is used, intensifying deadly blows on bosses by increasing their percentage. Spells, items, and abilities fluidly intersect. Defending, attacking, and retreating are viable options. Likewise activating a limit break. Ultimate moves by our members display a spectacle flourish as a coup de grace. A battle system worth revisiting and as someone who didn't tire of it on my 3rd run that says a lot on sheer robustness. Hard mode concentrates the finer aspects of fine-tuning equipment, materia(ability/passive modifiers during the flow of skirmishes), and proper item usage to etch a challenging win past a hard-fought match. Forming not an insurmountable cliff to climb. But a gradual incline passes the conventional rinse and repeat tactics of normal mode. Additionally, VR battles and completing optional objectives serve as a nice segway to learning the tricks of the trade. Granting a deeper fulfillment for those hungry for extended bloodthirsty encounters.

VII - New is cool and I don't care about the ancient material. And even if I did care, there is adequate 'new' content giving me a boatload of incentives to look forward to in the future. Hmph! I was imagining for a lengthy period of a scenario where I didn't play the compilation entries, or original and watched the extended media. Concluding, enough enjoyable parts to satisfy anyone(to varying degrees). In spite of my 7 mixed feelings affecting my overall experience. Yes, it is a remake, yes it is a re-imagining but it doesn't discount my mixed feelings and enjoyment. Instead, it brings perspective, reflection, and a culmination of everything I sought and gained in 2020. Everyone who loves it or almost the entire pie, is in for a tasty treat. My past self most certainly would agree. But my 2024 self I'm moving onwards over my honeymoon phase to realize the cracks forming. On the far side of splendor lies a troubled heart. I find myself beset with multiple questions on what constitutes a viable reimagining/remake/reboot. I'll probably ruminate for years to come constantly re-evaluating the ever-eluding dilemma. For now to answer what I said previously what is Final Fantasy VII Remake? It is a serviceable that could be improved remake striving to uphold, surpass, and capture new and youthful veterans. Regardless of reception, they move to the beat of their drum. Varying in results, what matters is what you think of the title. Feelings strong or minor are fair and valid. And it is as the 2015 E3 trailer prophesies.

"...there are now beginnings of a stir. The reunion at hand may bring joy; it may bring fear. But let us embrace whatever it brings..."

7/10


References and Additional Material:
DF’s 2020 Unpublished review + spoiler thoughts
2020 VG247 interview
2020 FFVII Remake Ultimania book. An interview
FF7R List and Rewards from a Guide
Original title by Michael Higham
FF7 Remake Official trailer
2015 Final Fantasy E3 trailer

As of this review I haven't finished Jenna's route but I've done the rest and... Oh boy.

I went into this expecting horror obviously but I was served way more than just that. I don't even know if I can really explain this game, dude. Doesn't matter if you aren't gay or a furry, I reccomend this in general.

However I can't stress enough that the order of the routes matters so much-
Carl->Leo->TJ->Flynn (Jenna can be anywhere you want but Flynn's route builds off of TJ's)

Update: DO JENNAS ROUTE LAST IT GIVES A SATISFYING ENDING

The first Gameboy game I ever bought for myself was this. My dad had passed down his OG gameboy along with Tetris and Kwirk, but Kirby's Dreamland was special in it was the first one I got of my own volition. I still remember buying it for $5 at the flea market back in the day. I still remember first discovering I could play original Gameboy games on my GBA because of this game. In fact, this might've been my first ever Kirby game period (it was either this or Return to Dreamland). I've played this game several times prior to this, and even now, it was still fun.

The game is quite short, only taking around an hour or less to beat, but I think that's actually really nice with a game like this. It does not overstay its welcome and if it was way longer, idk if I'd like it much. This is the first Kirby game and so it's super simple. There's only 5 stages in the game, with a boss at the end of them. It's really not that hard of a game at all, that's what Kirby is known for and it applies to his first game as well. Copy abilities weren't a thing at all until Adventure, so the gameplay in this is super simplistic. But like I said, it's short so I don't really have much of an issue with it.

For a Gameboy game, this has a super nice soundtrack. Every single song is memorable, though maybe that's also because I've played this several times, but I think a big reason for that besides them being good is the fact they get reused a lot in later games. I think the only song I haven't heard in later games is the spicy curry theme, all the rest are iconic whether it's Green Greens or the invincibility lollipop theme or Dedede's theme. Kirby has been known to never have a bad soundtrack and yeah it applies here too.

Something I'm not really much of a fan of is extra mode. I tried it out a bit again here but I still can never get far. I've never beaten it before but it's because instead of being a bit harder, it goes full into bullshit mode and not only do I not find that fun, it doesn't feel fitting for Kirby. Kirby's known for easy main playthroughs but hard side content but it's too much in this game I feel.

I never found this game amazing at all but I have fond memories with this one. It's one of the better Gameboy games I've played for sure. I plan on going through every Kirby game eventually now so consider this the start of my Kirby reviews cuz yeah I'm gonna review most of them. Don't expect it to be like my Mario Kart marathon tho since there's way more Kirby games and I don't wanna get burnt out lol.

Edit: Bumped up to a 7

I’ve always wanted to get into the series since I was younger, but never really found a good way to start until World caught my attention. After one hundred and thirty hours of playing through the game by myself and with an incredibly important friend of mine, my thoughts on the game are as vast and in-depth as the game itself. For this particular review, I’m actually going to be splitting it in half by reviewing both the base game, and its DLC: Iceborne since I find the two different enough to warrant discussions on, as well as my thoughts being long enough to also justify doing two reviews. This will be the first part of the review, Iceborne’s will be soon after. With that out of the way, let’s jump into the world of Monster Hunter.

Monster Hunter World creates a strong impression right away with the beautiful graphics, the presentation, and the first few cutscenes. While graphical fidelity isn’t necessarily Monster Hunter’s selling point, I must admit this game looked rather gorgeous, though the colors are a bit muted which seems to be a departure from other Monster Hunter games, but Rise seems to have gone back to the original artstyle. You create your character, you create your loyal Palico comrade, and are treated to some cutscenes. This is where we run into our first problem with this game, is the unskippable cutscenes. While I don’t skip cutscenes for my first playthrough, if I were to play Monster Hunter World again, I’d also have to sit through these cutscenes again as well, and they’re not necessarily short ones either. This normally wouldn’t be a big issue for me if the story was good, which we’ll get to, but the fact you cannot skip cutscenes is a minor blemish all things considered, but still odd.

The story of Monster Hunter World has some promise at the beginning, but never really does much with it really. A lot of the “story” is just to give you a reason to be fighting a specific monster, which works, but since these cutscenes are unskippable and typically uninteresting and long, they certainly don’t do much to hook or captivate the player as far as the plot goes. With that said, the cutscenes do a phenomenal job at introducing us to a new monster, as well as tease some of their capabilities when you actually fight them, which I really liked. Had Monster Hunter World focused entirely on the monsters themselves, and not the reason why you’re fighting them, I think it'd have benefited greatly from it, because any cutscene not involving a Monster introduction I found little to no reason to fully pay attention to since all it’s really doing is stringing things together for another encounter. I suppose that’s the point, but characters and dialogue in general are just bland to me, I’d rather just skip them to play the game instead. Except for the Huntsman, the Huntsman was alright.

Monster Hunter World’s gameplay is incredibly complicated with tons of moving parts, I find it both great and bad in a lot of cases, let’s get into it. I’m going to address my positives with the gameplay first, and then the negatives.

Monster Hunter World has a fantastic selection of weapons that each have their own playstyle, strengths, weaknesses, and builds with tons of customization and flexibility that allow you to tailor yourself for a specific monster, or to compensate for a weak aspect of your weapon or playstyle. I found myself very drawn to the Long Sword for its design alongside its good range, great damage, and decent mobility. It’s by all means a universally good weapon with very few drawbacks, however it’s a very difficult weapon to master. I also dabbled in Dual Blades, and the Greatsword, but ended up using Long Sword exclusively for my whole playthrough. While I can’t comment much on other weapons, they each have unique purposes and quirks that give them just as much reason to use than any other weapon, they all feel viable and useful. Dual Blades for example have a lot of hits and DPS, so it’s good for applying status ailments, Insect Glaive is great for mounting, Great Sword is great at shattering monster parts, and bow is a ranged weapon that can keep you out of harm’s way with plenty of options to deal good damage. Learning your weapon however can be quite the endeavor, as you’ll have to put in time to become efficient with them and understand their limitations. Since this was my first Monster Hunter, I ended up spending a lot of time in the training area for the first twenty hours or so just trying to understand my weapon and everything about it, which can definitely be a difficult hurdle to get across, but it’s worth it in the long run. Not every weapon is complicated, Dual Blades are incredibly simple, as well as the Sword and Shield, both are also very solid weapons that don’t fall behind the others, which is important to stress, simply pick the weapon you like the most.

Most weapons have sharpness you will have to manage while hunting monsters as well. Sharpness is incredibly important because the sharper your weapon is, the better damage it will do, and the less likely it’ll bounce off a monster's tough hide or skin. There’s many different “levels” of sharpness, purple being the best, and red being the worst. You’ll always need to check your sharpness meter often to make sure it’s not getting too dull, usually yellow sharpness is around the best time to find a moment to sharpen, though I personally always sharpened after a monster ran away to ensure maximum damage and wouldn’t need to worry about my weapon becoming dull in the middle of a scrap. I think the game does a great job overall giving you plenty of opportunities and big openings to sharpen your weapon, even during encounters, but sharpness is a very committal action that’ll get you punished since it can take awhile to do, but there are ways around this issue, such as special sharpening tools and a skill called “speed sharpening” which is pretty self-explanatory. I liked the sharpness mechanic quite a bit because by being diligent with it, you’re rewarded with more damage and less risk overall of being in a tight spot, of course if you really needed to sharpen in the middle of a fight, despite how long it is to do, you can always roll out of the animation, which is nice, there’s also some special sharpening tools that make it much faster as well.

Armor, charms, and decorations are essential building blocks to a hunter’s survivability, there’s a lot to it, but a lot of it is quite good. You’ll start off with some rather meek armor, but once you overcome your first monster, you’ll be ready to upgrade your gear if you so choose. This decision-making of which monster to hunt for their gear is the majority of your monster hunting experience, and there’s plenty of options. I think the idea of both grinding a monster for drops, while also being able to re-fight your personal favorites makes for a very strong gameplay loop that keeps you engaged for a very long time, I very much enjoyed grinding Rathalos and Odagaron for my high rank gear that lasted me until I got to the DLC. On the flipside however, fighting a monster for a specific piece of gear you don’t enjoy fighting, or simply never getting the drop you need can be very unengaging and bloat game time quite a bit, but generally I think it’s a positive since fighting the monster a lot will let you gain mastery over it, letting you shave seconds each and every time, which is its own reward to many. Of course, if you don’t care about this and just wish to progress, most monsters only need to be fought once to progress the actual game, there’s also other methods to get more drops from monsters if you need. Charms is another piece of equipment crafted from monster parts that allow you to gain a specific skill you might want, or your armor might not provide, from attack boost, to critical eye, you name it. I opted to go for the Health Charm since it increases survivability a lot, which you’ll need if you don’t have stellar armor, but you can make anything work really. Decorations allow you to slot in even more skills if your armor has decoration slots, your weapons can also have some. Decorations really allow you to be flexible with your builds outside your armor, which lets you slot in what you want to have, which I really like because there’s so many skills to choose from, plus it helps make experimenting a bit easier without crafting an entire new set of armor. Overall, building your character up, the armor, and the grind for the materials are all fantastic and kept me playing Monster Hunter far longer than I would’ve normally, but that’s by no means a negative, I very much enjoyed the progression, it felt rewarding, significant, and not too slow to where it dragged much.

Mantles are another idea in Monster Hunter I really enjoyed because it gave even more customization, but also allowed you to handle certain fights and situations much easier. Mantles come in many forms, from the vitality mantle that gives you more health, temporal mantle that gives you invincibility for several attacks until it wears off, elemental mantles that lower specific elemental damage, like fire, and the rocksteady mantle which prevents your attacks from being interrupted by attacks while still taking reduced damage. While they’re not essential for hunts, they allow a lot more room for error, or simply make it easier, especially if you’re struggling with a monster, crafting a mantle can mean the difference between a win and a loss. I personally opted to use the Vitality and Temporal Mantle, and I couldn’t tell you the amount of times it saved me in a pinch, it does take a second to actually put on the mantle, so keep that in mind. The drawback of mantles is they’re on a timer, once you put it on, the mantle will slowly lose its energy until it blacks out entirely visually, this is when you need to take off the mantle to let it recharge. I like this idea of having to be diligent with the mantle, but in a tough battle, it’ll be hard to find a moment to take it off sometimes, even though it only takes a second to do so, but make sure to get everything you can out of them, because once they run out, they’ll be out of commission for a decent length of time. If you’re not particularly interested in using a mantle, there’s also “boosters” which create an area of effect that can increase your weapon affinity, heal you and your allies, and remove status ailments, I never personally used these since I found mantles infinitely more useful and versatile, but also because boosters have to be placed and have a small area of effect which can be difficult to utilize in fights where the monster is constantly repositioning, or you the hunter have to reposition due to the monster’s attacks.

The slinger and environmental hazards are two components of Monster Hunter World I very much enjoyed overall. The slinger is this arm mounted crossbow every hunter worth their salt uses and will utilize on hunts. In order to use the slinger, you need ammo, which can be stones, to moss, to any number of things really which can then be used to trip environmental hazards, as well as against monsters. Against monsters, there’s a few specific things you can do with it, like getting their attention, but most importantly it can allow you to stun or stagger a monster. Specific ammo types will allow you to interrupt a monster’s attack, granting you a big opening at your discretion which is pretty much an essential mechanic in later fights, but can be neglected early on. Not all ammo can stagger unfortunately, which is a small negative I think makes sense in theory, but would allow all ammo to be invaluable instead of only a select few. The slinger also allows you to shoot special crafted ammo you make yourself, such as flash pods to stun the enemy for a long period of time, as well as forcing flying monsters to crash back down to the Earth, providing a gigantic opening and is almost essential for monsters like Rathalos, to the more obscure screamer pods that create a high-pitched noise that’s particularly useful against the likes of Diablos. Flash pods are more universally useful though, and in base Monster Hunter World, they’re a tad overtuned, making certain fights an absolute joke, so I opted to not abuse them much but is something to be aware of. I think the slinger’s most important use however is triggering environmental hazards. There’s a few cutscenes in-game that showcase this idea which I really like, though they still give you a tutorial on it which is understandable, though I’d much prefer to have put two and two together. Environmental hazards are usually unstable formations above monsters you can hit to make them come crashing down, like rocks in the ancient forest, to giant crystals in later areas. Though not every environmental trap needs the slinger to activate, some of them work if you can attract the monster to where they are like vine traps, which entangle the monster for several seconds, allowing you to get a lot of damage in! It’s up to you to take advantage of these environmental traps however, and they’re not guaranteed as you need to get the monster in position and either stun them or knock them down to do it, or get very lucky where they just don’t happen to move. If you do successfully hit a monster with one of these hazards, they will take a large amount of damage and automatically topple, giving you an opening on top of the high damage, which is incredibly beneficial and can make hunts go way faster if utilized well. Traps can also help you break monster parts which we’ll get into in a bit, but overall environmental traps can turn the tide or snowball your advantage momentously, and I quite loved the interactive environmental aspects a lot, there’s other things you can trigger as well like swarms of flashbugs to flash a monster, water geysers and lava geyser that deal passive damage as the monster stands in them, and environmental destruction from rampaging monsters among other things, such as Rathalos attacking the rocks in his nest to cause the water behind it to rush out, potentially flinging him off the cliff along with you if you’re not careful. It’s truly an interactive world, which I really appreciate as it helps the immersion aspect a lot, and again just very helpful to gain an advantage if you’re paying attention.

My absolute favorite aspect of Monster Hunter World are the monsters themselves. If you actually decide to not attack them and watch them from a safe distance, you can observe them, how they interact with the environment, other monsters, and themselves. For example, you can watch a Rathian hunt for food, you can watch Barroth try to cool itself off in the mud, and you can see even more intimidating monsters like Nergigante ( my personal favorite monster) groom himself and just walk around peacefully. These dynamics make these monsters feel real in an actual environment, not just boss fights that net you rewards. I think they absolutely nailed this aspect, since while even fighting monsters, they’ll often retreat to their nests to rest and restore their health, and if you take too long you’ll be at a further disadvantage. Turf Wars help emphasize these monsters are territorial not only to you, but other invading monsters, and will fend them off best they can. Mechanically speaking, Turf Wars always end in a tie as both monsters deal a massive amount of damage to each other alongside a unique animation. After this is over, the monsters can still fight each other with their normal attacks, which can drag on sometimes depending on the monsters, but you can sling a dung pod to drive off any monsters you don’t want to deal with. Usually the monster who invaded the territory of another monster will leave, feeling threatened, which thematically makes a lot of sense in some cases. In other cases, it makes less sense depending on the match-up, but I think the idea that every monster has a chance to beat another monster that is stronger than it is definitely possible. All of these monsters have specific routes, nests, and interactions that give them consistency to feel very real, and I absolutely love it. It was always a highlight to watch, and undoubtedly my favorite part of the game besides actually fighting the monsters.

Fighting monsters is one of the biggest selling points of Monster Hunter, so is it any good? Yes, very much so. When you’re fighting a monster, they have specific weak points you can take advantage of to deal higher damage than normal, and not every monster has the same weak points, which not only makes a lot of sense, but ensures not every fight feels the same. Some monsters might have weak arms, some might have soft tails etc. It’s up to you to figure out where the weak points are, though there are resources in-game to figure this out as well without guess-work, which I appreciate not having to look up a wiki to do so. There are some universal weaknesses though, monsters with large legs can be attacked to stagger them, if you damage their leg enough though, they might just topple over, completely at your mercy. This allows for a consistent strategy against monsters, especially new monsters you haven’t fought yet, but it’s not always guaranteed or ideal, since some monsters have very strong legs. One of my favorite parts of the combat though is part breaking. If you attack a specific part of the monster long enough, it’ll eventually break, which not only severely lowers their defense in that specific area, but it can also drastically weaken the monster. Let’s take Rathian as an example, Rathian has a tail flip attack that deals severe damage and can poison you, so this incentivizes you going for her tail, since if you cut her tail off, it’ll make her arguably strongest move much weaker. Not only does this give you a huge advantage to sever her tail, but it’s so satisfying watching the tail get cut off and go flying, you even get an extra carve from it, which basically means you get another drop from the monster, which can net you really valuable materials. Tail cutting isn’t the only part you can go for though, as monsters all have specific body parts they rely on for attacking that breaking will cause their moves to become far less dangerous, and in some cases, slow them down, or cause them to have much larger windows of opportunity to attack them. On top of all of these advantages, part breaking can topple the monster as well, which gives you even more opportunities to break parts which will eventually snowball you to breaking multiple parts in a row, which is so much fun to do and really rewards you as well. Each broken part will also give you an extra material after the hunt is over, further emphasizing part breaks, you can also destroy highly resistant parts of a monster to make them take solid damage in that area for the remainder of the battle. Part breaking is an essential component of hunts, and a very fun mechanic as well, once you figure out what part of their body the monster uses the most to attack with, or what its most dangerous attacks utilize, it becomes a glaring target for you to go for, which I love a lot, and was just another aspect of this game that made me put in so much time playing it.

As far as the monster’s attacks themselves, well it’s a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, there’s a lot of attacks in this game that feel well telegraphed and fair, allowing you to anticipate what the monster will do, and react accordingly by dodging or moving out of the way. On other occasions, some moves have some wild hitboxes that felt very deceptive in their size and range. One thing I need to stress about Monster Hunter World is how a monster’s attack pattern is entirely random. A monster may just use their worst attack three or four times in a row, and there’s not much you can do about that besides using slinger to stun them, avoiding it, or just getting hit. I think this randomness factor works since these are monsters, and just like animals, their behavior will be unpredictable, so thematically it all checks out, but mechanically it can feel utterly unfair at times. If a monster decides to just not give you many openings, or keeps moving around and you have to chase them down a lot, it can become rather annoying and hurt the pacing of the battle. Let’s not forget every hunt outside expeditions have a time limit, so the less time you’re attacking, the more that clock is ticking down. I will say in base game, the clock usually never played a factor in victory or success for me, but it’s definitely something that became an issue later on. I didn’t really notice these issues until the endgame, since most of Monster Hunter world is actually rather easy once you get the hang of it, but in the endgame it starts getting a little ridiculous. Some moves have barely any start-up at all, so reacting to them is a nightmare, insta-kill moves, ridiculously sized attacks etc. This definitely bogged my experience down somewhat, though it wasn’t super consistent enough for me to feel like it was a pressing issue a lot of the time, but it’s definitely there. Some monsters are better than others in this regard, though like any game, some monsters are incredibly well designed, some are incredibly poorly designed. Some of my least favorite monsters were definitely Black Diablos, Uragaan, and Kirin for reference. My favorite fights include Nergigante, Teostra, and Odagaron. My biggest issue with the combat really just boils down to some moves either being too strong, too fast, or just having weird hitboxes, everything else is either fine or manageable, especially in a multiplayer environment, I’d even argue some of these criticisms disappear if you’re playing with one other person like I was, but when playing by myself, these flaws became much more apparent.

Monster hunter world was one of the best multiplayer experiences I’ve ever had. Even though I only played with one other person, being able to share this experience with them and fighting giant monsters together was always fun. Even in the more difficult fights, having someone to rely on is comforting, but always keeps the fight engaging since teamwork becomes essential in multiplayer. Monster’s gain much more HP the more people are in a hunt, so everyone needs to usually pull their weight for a hunt to be a success. Having an ally to split aggro can help ease pressure and give you a moment to heal or buff up if you need, but makes the monster a bit more chaotic to predict, which I honestly preferred, made things more interesting, plus the trade-off of being able to take a breather was very welcome. Allies can hit you out of stun and other nasty aliments as well, heavily rewarding teamwork as you’ll both be keeping an eye on each other if you’re ever in a bind, which is pretty much essential in the endgame. There’s plenty of multiplayer support skills like wide range that allow you to support your team further by allowing you to heal some of your allies’ hp by drinking a potion which also heals you, as well as buffing items like might and adamant seeds. Of course, multiplayer has drawbacks as well, hitting your allies with your weapon will flinch them, interrupting their action for a second, in which case they’ll need to do it again, though the flinch animation actually has some i-frames on it, so it can have incredibly niche use in that regard. You can run flinch free to prevent this, and if you’re with a LongSword player like myself, I’d recommend it, ‘cause LongSword is very well-known for flinching allies, which can be frustrating for sure. I have to admit though, I vastly preferred my Multiplayer experience compared to my Single Player experience, which we’ll get into, but I was thoroughly impressed with how thoughtful and fun the Multiplayer was speaking strictly mechanically, because Multiplayer has its own specific issues we’ll also get into in a bit. Overall though, a must-play with friends if you can get them together for it, because it’s incredibly fun. I'd argue half of my enjoyment was just from reacting and making callouts in call to my teammate. Truly a one-of-a-kind experience.

For singleplayer, you have your trusty Palico friend to help you against monsters. The Palico, much like another hunter, can split aggro for you, heal you, and help deal damage to the monster. I very much liked the Palico not only for this, but because they’re just a very loyal and charming companion that has a lot of cute dialogue and interactions with your hunter. They really made it feel like you were a team with quite a bit of history before the game began. You can also craft gear and weapons for your Palico, which helps them scale up with you as monsters get tougher, and honestly my Palico was absolutely invaluable, even in Multiplayer. I decided to give my Palico a paralysis weapon, which gave me so many openings to attack the monster with, even if it was uncommon, over the playthrough it saved me so many times, and helped me clutch victory. Unfortunately, the Palico isn’t all positives, as if you’re by yourself, you have to rely on the Palico to get you out of specific status ailments. Stun and sleep are the two big ones that you really need your Palico to get you out of. Stun and sleep leave you wide open to be killed, but you can ping your Palico to hit you out of these… unfortunately the Palico is not consistent with doing this. Sometimes they’ll be on top of it and hit you every single time, other times they’ll ignore your cry for help and watch as you die. Because of this, relying on your Palico for these situations is incredibly risky, and I personally ensured this never happened because I didn’t trust my luck. Otherwise, the Palico is incredibly useful, especially for a support role. I gave my Palico vigor wasp spray the entire playthrough alongside a status weapon, and they were an invaluable part of my team and strategy, so overall Palico was an awesome and welcome addition to the game, and my team.

Now that I’ve gone over most of the positives, let’s go into some of the negatives.

My largest negative with Monster hunter world is the single-player experience. Now don’t get me wrong here, you can absolutely play and enjoy this game by yourself, and I have tons of admiration and respect for those who can solo the hardest monsters in the game, but to me, this was the epitome of my bad experiences with this game. A lot of the mechanics and design of this game seemed very geared towards multiplayer in a lot of ways, one aspect of it to me that screams this more than any other is stun. Stun is an overly punishing mechanic that, when hit too many times in quick succession by a monster, you lose all control of your hunter as they stand there like a sitting duck to get killed. Now yes, your Palico can hit you out of it like I mentioned, but it’s inconsistent, and while you can run Stun Resist to completely remove the mechanic altogether, I found it incredibly unfair and not fun to deal with. The game tells you that you can get out of stun faster by wiggling the left stick, however this does not impact much as far as how long you’re in stun for. On top of this, monsters with no split aggro can kill you in a matter of seconds, all it takes is a few swipes, and you’re as good as gone. A game like this, positioning and finding openings is crucial for success, but in my experience a lot of this never mattered when I was by myself because the monster would always be on me and I couldn’t do much about it. Now you do have your Palico friend to split the aggro up for you a bit, but I found it to not be enough to feel comfortable or even confident to go in and fight the monster, most of the time I just ran away and hung around waiting for a move I felt I could punish before going in. This, on top of insane hitboxes, stun, and slow recoveries with items and get-ups, ruined any semblance of pacing during battles and often found myself running the clock out on these hunts. Just as well, I failed many quests where I was assured victory just so long as I had enough time to capture the monster because I played too safe since I deemed the risk too high. Again, this is just my personal experience, and I know a lot of people stand by this game as a single-player experience, but for me, I vastly prefer playing in Multiplayer. Single-Player was just incredibly frustrating and unfun and often soiled my enjoyment of the game in sessions where I had to play by myself. I will say, once I had a competent build with the quality of life skills I wanted, Single-Player was less arduous and annoying, but I still didn’t find it nearly as engaging or rewarding as sharing my victories with my friend, or with other randoms after defeating a powerful monster together.

The roll, or more specifically, the lack of i-frames on the roll. I come from a very Fromsoft background, so a lot of my experience with these kinds of games are the likes of Dark Souls. Bloodborne, and Sekiro. While those and Monster Hunter play very differently, they both share one thing in common, and that’s a roll. In Monster Hunter, the roll allows you to reposition and dodge attacks from the monster, however the amount of i-frames it has does not always allow this. Some attacks are so long or have such giant hitboxes, your roll simply cannot dodge it and you will get hit. Just like Stun Resist, you can use skills like Evade Window to increase the amount of i-frames the roll has, and jumping to increase how far it goes. With that said however, the base roll should be good enough to dodge most quick attacks, because if it did, it’d tremendously help with the pacing and flow of fights once again. Now there is a more committal roll option called a “dive” where you run away from the monster, run, then roll, and you will dive. The dive has plenty of i-frames to dodge pretty much any attack, and there’s specific attacks monsters use with the dive in mind I actually really like. Nergigante’s dive-bomb move being a good example of one of these moves. The issue with dive is it takes forever to recover from, and getting your hunter to dive is too finicky for me. If you have your weapon drawn, forget about diving, it will not happen, and I’ve suffered many deaths from not being able to sheathe fast enough to dive, which very much annoyed me. I understand both this and stun are things you can alleviate or outright remove with certain skills, however skills have their own issues.

Decorations being random drops is something I’ll never understand. I’ve recently learned from a good friend of mine, Lemonstrade whom I’ve been talking to about my experience with Monster Hunter World, that previous Monster Hunter games did not have random decorations, but were simply craftable from specific monster parts. Not only would this have helped make more monsters useful to hunt in my playthrough, because I had so many monster parts just collecting dust, but would also allow you to focus in on decorations you really needed. Decorations are what give you those skills I’ve been mentioning in this review a lot. In order to get these decorations, you get them as rewards from pretty much every activity in the game. The big issue is: what decorations you get are entirely random. This to me is flat-out padding and a really bad idea overall. If I was struggling with stun or my roll being a bit too hard to use effectively, I should in theory, be able to grind for the decorations to help with me, not random chance. So instead, I have to grind monsters for potentially hours, and maybe never get what I’m looking for, which will make these issues much more consistent and noticeable throughout my experience, and surprise, they were. It’s especially bad in endgame when you want to optimize builds, or go for a luxurious build that makes the game more forgiving to play, good luck getting the decorations you need in a reasonable amount of time, though you may get lucky. What’s worse is you don’t even need to fight especially hard monsters to get decent gems, you can fight a special event called Greatest Jagras that’s always available now to grind gems, so it’s not even a matter of skill, it’s a matter of time. Gem farming takes too long, less monsters become useful to get their materials for, makes certain issues way harder to solve, and overall doesn’t feel rewarding, it’s all luck. I was able to get all the gems I needed through dedicated work, but I’m hoping the upcoming Monster Hunter game: Wilds fixes this issue and reverts back to the old way Monster Hunter games did it, by allowing you to craft gems you want, not a slot machine.

Last complaint I really have with Monster Hunter World is how jank it felt to play at first. A lot of things in this game did not come very naturally for me, such as sheathing and unsheathing my weapon, which thankfully running auto-sheathes for you. A lot of the animations in Monster Hunter are long and very committal, so you can’t just mash attack and get away with it, or cancel out of it like roll, at least with LongSword this was the case. I often got too greedy and got hit a lot, which led to some frustration, but I began to understand Monster Hunter is a slower-paced game, so playing it slower helps, but that’s not the case with certain quests only giving you 30 minutes or so, which puts the pressure on. Odd hitboxes and strong attacks were the least of my issues when it came to traversing areas, specifically the Ancient forest. Visually, it gets across how nature-focused this game is, but on the other hand, what an absolutely terribly designed area overall, and a nightmare to traverse. This really shouldn’t have been the first area, since later areas don’t suffer this labyrinthian design like Ancient Forest does, but have their own fair share of issues. While the game is called “Monster Hunter” actually hunting The monsters felt like a chore a lot of the time. Having to find footprints and markings, collecting them, gaining research, and then the scout flies tell you where to go. Not only do the Scout Flies sometimes just don’t tell you the right way to go, but it feels very hand-holding at the same time, I’d much prefer finding the monsters on my own without all these extra steps. Of course, you obviously can ignore the Scout Flies and the track-hunting most of the time, but some missions require you do it, and it bogs the game down so much. Much later on, you’ll have to find tracks for some particularly special monsters by revisiting older regions, and only once you fulfill the research requirement can you locate them and fight them to progress the game. Once again this feels like padding, since no other Monster Hunter game does this, so it’s an odd choice World would decide to do it. Though I’ve been informed many times that World is an “outlier” when it comes to Monster Hunter, these criticisms will likely only apply to this entry. A lot of the actual controls for the game felt fine enough, but as I mentioned before, diving was sometimes inconsistent, odd hitboxes, bad roll, stun, the entirety of the Ancient Forest, sheathing, it all felt janky for a game made in 2018. Now I will concede a lot of this stuff I adapted to overtime and got used to it, but initially these things turned me off from the game, but I really wanted to get into this series, and my friend helped me a lot along the way, so I’m very thankful those first handful of hours were easier because of that. I wouldn’t say even World as accessible as it might be for the series, is still quite intimidating and very hard to get a grasp of, but once you do and it clicks, it becomes a very addicting and satisfying experience.

Sieges, more specifically Zorah Magdaros. Every mission involving this oversized lava cake I did not enjoy whatsoever. The scale is quite amazing, and can be quite exhilarating when you first begin one of these giant monster sieges, but you quickly realize just how shallow it is. You use some special weapons like the cannon and the ballista to deal damage, you wait around for an eternity, you get a cutscene, then you do it again until the quest ends. It’s not engaging, it’s mechanically shallow, and it’s unnecessary. I love the idea on paper, but the execution is just so bad, I couldn’t wait for them to be over with, and I never went back to grind these missions either because they were so dull to me. Zorah Magdaros has an excellent introduction at the start of the game and presents tons of interesting questions and ideas about where the plot might go, which unfortunately is rather… mediocre. Gameplay wise? It’s just disappointing.

Last, but certainly not least, The Handler. Now The Handler has a notorious reputation for being annoying and constantly getting into trouble, and yeah I see where people are coming from. To be completely blunt, I did not care about her in the slightest, nor any character in this game. They all feel so shallow with little character besides a few quirks that helps them at least not meld into the same NPC’s, but there’s not enough there for me. With the Handler, she’s certainly annoying, but I don’t hate her as much as others. My issue is, with a character so paramount to you as a hunter, she should have far more caution and experience in the field, but she comes across aloof, and a liability, which is irksome. The game literally gives my hunter the background of being an A-list hunter from the Old world, a seasoned veteran, but then my Handler acts like a complete new blood? That doesn’t add up to me. Missions where you have to follow her are even worse, because her corny dialogue doesn't help her case I’m afraid, on top of gameplay slowing to a crawl so I’ll care about what she’s saying, or her well-being when the character isn’t well-written enough for that to be a possibility. Honestly, most story sequences I did not care for, all I really wanted to do was hunt monsters and become stronger, which is both good and bad. Good because the gameplay is good enough for me to want to get back to it, bad because the story is so boring and inconsequential to me it’s getting in the way of what I truly enjoy. Add unskippable cutscenes and friends not being able to join each other until everyone has seen the cutscene within a mission, and you have the recipe for disaster and a lot of annoyance. I digress, the handler, let me reiterate, I do not hate as much as others, but she is the golden example of one of my big issues this game has, emphasizing boring characters and a boring story I do not care about, I just want to hunt monsters.

Since we’re nearing the end of this review, I’ll quickly go over the music. Monster Hunter World has a surprisingly good soundtrack with plenty of memorable tracks, though it also balances it out with just allowing the nature of the World to speak for itself without music. There wasn’t too many songs that caught my ear while playing, but generally most songs were pretty good! My favorites were: Pride of a Nameless Hunter, Nergigante Theme, and Bazelgeuse Theme.

Monster Hunter World was a monumental, refreshing yet equally frustrating experience that I already look back on quite fondly. As a Multiplayer game? It’s top-notch, and one I’d highly recommend if you can find people to play with, there is nothing quite like that rush of taking down a new monster, or mastering the patterns of older foes. Satisfying gameplay loop with even more satisfying progression, great combat with a bit of jank in level design, mechanics, and hitboxes, a lackluster story with even more lackluster characters, and quite a bit of padding that you’ll either tolerate or dislike. Incredibly immersive monster designs and behaviors, excellent interactions, fantastic environmental interactivity, slow-paced yet fast, methodical and savage in tandem, it’s truly remarkable. I have to say, I loved Monster Hunter World, and cannot wait to dive into other games in the series, like 4U, Rise, and Wilds in the near future! Thank you all for reading this review, this is by far my longest review, and I’m still not done talking about this game! The Iceborne review will be out sometime soon, but I hope this review can tide you all over until then. As I’ve mentioned in other reviews, I'm still going to wrap up FFIV soon, and start Va11-Halla very soon as well. I also just want to say thank you all for the exponential growth lately! You all only continue to inspire and drive me forward with writing these, so please look forward to more as I continue to put more and more into this. Truly, thank you all so much! I’ll see you all in the next review, until next time.

Ever since the Black Parade released to marvelous acclaim hitting Moddb’s mod of the year for 2023. I couldn’t help but ask myself “Is Thief good?” In an effort to see if the game holds up, I decided to start with the first installment before I inevitably reach the mod down the road. And I must say after 28 hours on expert difficulty. Thief Gold(Thief 1/T1) by Looking Glass Studio. Is a dark, thrilling, and fulfilling experience in reigniting all the checkmarks I like and love in the stealth realm. And I am glad to be back in the genre once again. From my days in Metal Gear, Syphon Filter & Old Assassin’s Creed.

Originally called Thief: The Dark Project. The gold edition adds three new missions to deepen the plot and five new enemies. Edited original missions with a slew of bug fixes. So this feels like a definitive edition. Although I did have to use several mods I’ll detail later on to bring the game up to modern standards.

The premise is simple and you control a single character Garret who is a master thief. With no special powers whatsoever. His days from being a homeless orphan were discarded long ago since he joined a secret order. Years later he leaves and decides to make it on his own. Delving into the path of thievery without remorse to fulfill his greed for money. He is ambitious, selfish, cynical, and an untraditional protagonist. All qualities I don’t like at all for a main character and yet by the time the end credits are rolling, I am very tempted to head right into the sequel to see what’s next in store for him.

Worldbuilding is subtle, dark, and strangely yet fittingly humorous at times. A mix of middle ages, dark fantasy, and on the cusp of an industrial revolution. With lore dropping from scrolls and conversations between guards during their breaks. Offering vital gossip on the citizenry, complaints of co-workers, and my personal favorite lore stories and convenient tips/hints that may connect to the main cast. A method to reach a previously unassailable location. Secrets will be revealed unintentionally and a good eavesdropper should without hesitation use it to their advantage to maximum effect. G-man will also monologue amongst himself and will at times drop interesting commentary during work. Usually comments like being dumbfounded or witty responses to abrupt changes in objectives. A nice change of pace from the otherwise silence permeating while you lurk in the shadows. Parchment readings and books offer insightful lessons and teachings from the factions of Hammerites and the Pagans. Both believe in their gods in a way bordering unhealthy zealotry and are at odds with one another. The supernatural elements took me by surprise many times. Spells, incantations, and rituals are fitting. Inducing a mystical wonder beyond the medieval. Zombies, ghosts, and malformed supernatural creatures are here to stay. Oh, and bugs like mutated spiders I didn’t think were a threat had me running away once I caught sight of them. Seriously, how can they jump so high and shoot acid!? Machinery such as factories, smelting tools, and items with a steady supply of lava provide their citizenry with new forms of artificial light instead of the traditional natural fire to illuminate surroundings. Creating an interesting level design throughout, a blend of medieval housing full of conventional bricks, wooden planks, and pavement with the power of adopting steel into the surroundings.

Quite ingenious for a stealth-based gameplay approach back in the old days. Erase approaches such as shooting from afar with guns or tasing anyone to oblivion. The game operates on a mission structure. Before a mission starts you are given a briefing of the events prior, a chance to buy equipment using gold earned from a prior mission, and a handy, but vague map. Embarking on a new place in the City at various times. Always looking forward to a new place to see the sights and steal whatever I can of course. Sometimes your goals will change during an operation. Good o’l no plan survives contact with the enemy is important to keep in mind. Therefore, caution is advised when conducting skullduggery. But hey Garrett has immensely useful tools to help. No stamina gauge when swinging weapons. Innate ability knocking a bow and arrows. The blackjack is easily the #1 most useful weapon. Capable of one-shotting nearly every enemy into blissful unconsciousness. They never get back up despite hours passing by too! You can move them into shadowed areas preventing patrols from encountering them and thus initiating an alarm at a whole base. Arrows dipped in fire, water, gas, and rope are likewise vital in completing a task. Blasting creatures with fire is like launching a missile capable of damaging multiple enemies. Water aids in dousing torches causing the light in room/s to darken and therefore allowing one mistah G to conduct his activities in better stealth mode than dressing up like an orange ninja from a shinobi world. Gas is powerful. No not fart ones, these kinds if launched correctly can take out groups of enemies into dreamland. Vital when being chased by a horde of angry guards…

Additionally, the rope arrow single-handedly changed my whole experience. Making me think outside the box. Reminds me of using the GLOO gun from Prey and applying the weapon to reach places I wouldn’t otherwise be allowed to exploit regular means. The cable, by comparison, allows one to hit any wooden surface dropping a decent length of string. Becoming instantly available for climbing. As a result, you can traverse higher elevations. Furthermore, one can retrieve their shaft if applicable to re-use once again making the tool highly versatile in nearly any sticky situation he’s subjected to. Trust me you’ll need it when you're at a rock and hard place with nearby zombies closing in on your position with nowhere to run except upon checking your surroundings a wooden beam is above. Maybe a handy tool would surely be useful now.

Level design in every assignment is intricate, maze-like, and deep. Displaying an awesome sleight of hand in the dev’s works to craft initially simple environments then suddenly catching me off-guard by transforming into a large several corridors and passageways leading a lost one into a room full of secrets. It is deep and chock full of hidden areas that can be unlocked from levers, switches, and cleverly tucked away corners. Intrinsically linked in the environment. Delivering a cool verticality and thorough ‘puzzle-like’ solving when applicable. The start of any new venture won’t be the same to some extent in the end portion upon completing all your objectives. You will see sprawling organized streets and then hit unfamiliar ruined suburbs and towns. Dive underwater and emerge in desolate gray caves emerging into a facility of machinery mixed with stone masonry. Similar, but different to how dungeons are made from a certain Zelda series. Full of traps, few floors, and twisting passages that can be confusing to any newcomer unused to the design. One of my favorites is encountering an awesome Pixar-like ‘room’ essentially allowing me to venture inside and somehow escape replicating a [T$%] Story-like design. Someone at Looking Glass has good taste being inspired by the 1995 film huh. And to think this was an optional target I could’ve missed. I. Am. Amazed. Sure the rest of the content isn’t filled to the brim with cool sets like those, but to a degree, they offer a unique hodgepodge of interesting locales to wonder and gawk at least. As a newcomer coming into the series I did not expect at all to admire the sheer size of these levels. Some are more subtle in ways before a certain fire nation attacked delving into the mysticism of earth, wind, and water extending the dev’s creativity to their utmost limit. The elements become more profound and are used intricately as I delve deeper into the endgame. Changing the propensity of manmade structures into natural habitats. Surfaces of the earth and elevating platforms in one section demonstrate the move from traditional simple human paths to complex passageways. Can be confusing at times, but hey remember! You have a handy compass and a map too! So all is not lost. A master thief enjoys establishing their path forward through balanced platforming and embracing the wonders of being lost in the thrill of discovery.

Hell the power to jump provides excellent mobility in areas and the level design pays off in spades demonstrating to great effect. For example, Imagine facing a fort with no possible entryway. Ok well, let me go around to see for any wooden roofs or beams. Voila, there is! Shooting a rope arrow then. I climb and then acrobat onto the rampart. But wait, the door is locked inside! Hmm. The new plan is to head to another rooftop and get inside from there. I climb to the nearest rampart point then give myself a boost and ledge grab my way onto my destination. Successfully entering with no one aware. The ledge grab is super satisfying to enact every time. Although I quickly save before I launch myself just in case I fail. Yet holding the jump button is easy to maneuver and painless to execute.

Almost delving into the point of frustration at times, yet never truly becoming mad to the nth degree I wanted to throw my controller. Perhaps due to the save at anytime system in place making retries quick and painless. It is a relief to operate an easy system to retry failed attempts since most levels are so large. Not an open world at all. Garrett conducts most of his missions at different new locations within the metropolis, which we can explore without a time limit. And there’s always something new to look forward to. I ventured into a manor to steal a scepter. Dived into the pits below to enter hidden caverns and reach a prison facility. Sought treasure in abandoned ruins, boldly stole a precious item between two thieves' guilds, and enacted revenge on a rich dude who tried to assassinate me. Seriously the gall of that guy.

Sound design is brilliant, harsh, intense, and fair. And this is weird. Usually, I praise the heck out of the soundtrack, and while it is good. In Thief I found it more enjoyable to analyze how the gameplay and level design work in tandem with the soundscape. Each step you take and every breath you make is calculated. Go on the steel floor versus carpet and rugs and you can see the clear difference upon nearby patrols. Rugs and carpets muffle your steps while treading on steel produces loud noises capable of making any close enemy's senses go on alert. Any action like swinging your sword, launching an arrow, or even bringing out blackjack to play whack a guard heightens an enemy's awareness. G-dude will exhale after an action and it's gotten to a point where I hold my breath whenever I have a close encounter. Exhaling once the coast is clear. Sights and sounds are interconnected. If you’re in a very dark area, chances are you become neigh invisible compared to a brightly lit room. Staying in the shadows like a sneaky fella pays off. And thankfully, you can stay in a crouched position than a normal pose to conduct your sneaky endeavors. Harsh, but I kid you not I repeatedly felt it was balanced throughout at no point during my time did I feel it was brutally unfair at all times. Rather the usage of noise in this instance facilitates between easy to hard and complex as you dive deeper into the latter stages. As if the devs are saying “Hey, we are increasing the difficulty gradually, no steep cliffs or curveballs.” And I like it. Keeps things fresh and exciting to uncover new hurdles. Supernatural entities like zombies and spirits have this ghastly voice. I found myself with chills crawling up my back. And goodness the regular harmless citizen will shout for help to call attention to your current position. Tension is alive. Stress remains an ever-constant companion when pursued, and patience is needed every day for every hour.

Lastly, I also want to praise the main objectives of missions and AI. The latter for being smart and dumb. Patrols once memorize their route and what their limit is. Abusing their ai becomes rinse and repeat and oh so satisfying. Never waking up after becoming unconscious. Some enemies of different classifications will vary in their sight and danger capability. I.E. Seeing farther and more acutely aware of their surroundings than the usual shmuck of a guard with base intelligence. Think of them as elite guards who have an intruder radar built in updated to version 2.0 than the base version. Hearing better on how loud footsteps are near along with acute 20/20 vision if close in line in sight. This is fascinating and as I progressed deeper into the game, proved once again the devs are challenging me to be better. Goals likewise increase in complexity. You have standard, hard, and expert. Differs from traditional modifiers of upping the enemy's health I usually see in other games. Their parameters increase meaning more tasks to do. A 'normal' setting would indicate one or two retrieve an item and escape. 'Hard' adds a couple more like finding another item in conjunction with the main goal. Expert unleashes a full page of tasks to do. From not killing anyone, finding multiple items, checking with a friend of yours, and attaining a set amount of money all while completing the main quest and escaping to boot. Here are several examples of differences in difficulty. Insane. Furthermore, as I continued with 'expert' on all missions, they largely increased my time in a level due to how large they can be. I usually spent an hour or two depending on the size. Only occurred on max settings. If you try the standard option you can breeze through levels much faster. The addition of higher parameters causes an interesting shift to occur for the player. Thus I had to explore as much as possible, find hidden secrets, embrace the longer plans, being meticulous to survive and not incur any of the killings. The game is much easier killing anyone you come across. But a master thief should never kill. Only retrieve what was ordered and then get out without a fuss.

Time for my mixed feelings. Not a positive or a negative. Just some points from the game I think could be improved, tweaked for the better, and concerns I had. Didn’t affect my overall experience in a major manner.

First, same old, same old textures - Once I saw gray walls, gray bricks, stone pavement, same dirt in more than half of the missions, and frequent density in the latter stages it all became blurred together. Brought up with the maze-like corridors. I felt myself seeing the familiar paths without end. You don’t have a minimap either except a paper map that will vaguely pinpoint where you are. Therefore I had major deja vu. “Haven’t I been here before?” Thankfully, this isn’t egregious and the level variety for what it’s worth elevates everything else. Making it not so noticeable to see constantly. Makes me wonder if the sequel shakes things up a bit with colorful terrain when appropriate. I’m not asking for a rainbow from the color spectrum, merely suggesting slightly distinct patterns.

Second, Some objectives can be a bit vague to find. Like Mission 3. To retrieve the soul of the mystic required me to check everywhere and refer to my papyrus notes for hints and clues. Further, targets or items are not given exact instructions sometimes. Up to you to piece things together. Granted I personally like the non-approach to hand-holding, but some of these goals can be a real head scratcher. If you don’t come across hints and clues, eavesdropping a guard or finding a key to unlock another passageway or door is often the right path forward. Gentle reminder to explore thoroughly. Or use a guide when needed.

Third, May need a tool like a fire, water, or rope arrow to progress. While not required for every assignment. The wire is invaluable and shouldn't be utilized every so often at every opportunity. Elementals to a lesser degree, but still keep them in stock. Most of your inventory is consumables. And while you can find new ammo during a heist, it is best to at least save a decent amount. For situations when you require them. Sucks to use up all of your stock for minor loot grabbed when they may be needed for a critical venture.

Fourth, Wish some missions had health potions available close by. They’re pretty scarce in a job. Some later missions they in my opinion feel needed to help progress rather than me forcing a quicksave and quickload. Saving my health. Enemies can swarm you if you’re not careful and having more health is better than being one-shot. G-guy isn’t some deadliest warrior. So don’t think you can expertly assassinate any bloke. Keep in mind, I played on expert which usually required no bloodshed. Lowering settings offers no restrictions to eliminating anyone.

Fifth, Controls can take some getting used to. I tried keyboard and mouse and found the initial impression cumbersome so I switched to a controller setup and found it far better. Only had to input a couple more keybinds manually and I was fit as a fiddle to steal! Borrow items. I suggest changing them if you feel weird handling your main character.

Sixth, due to the title being more than two decades old I highly recommend some of these mods I installed to grant an enhanced vanilla experience. Most you can find via a respective PC gaming wiki article. I did use a faithful texture pack. Not the popular one. Feel they change the original textures too much. I’ll leave the choice of what pack to choose up to you. I prefer Enhancement Pack 2.0 alpha.

Mods:

Unofficial patch for Thief 1/Gold - “improves compatibility with new pcs significantly, fixes graphic issues, adds support for widescreen resolutions and much more.”

Texture pack - “Replace all the old, low-quality objects and textures from Thief 1 and 2 with versions that have higher polygon counts and texture resolutions, while keeping as close to the originals as possible.” - This is the hardest mod to install. For some reason, the directions given resulted in half of the textures being improperly replaced. Displaying half high quality and half low quality. Inside you need to edit an ini file to put in the correct mod_path. Here is what I had that finally got everything to work. Hope it works for everyone else. If not, your mileage might vary.

mod_path usermods+mods\packfix+mods\candles+mods\EP\Thief1+NecroAge\Thief1+NecroAge+EP2\Thief1+EP2+mods+mods\t2skies+mods\EP+FMdml

Take a screenshot before the mod is installed and after to see if everything worked out. The rest of the mods I didn't have any trouble inputting.

Subtitles - Self-explanatory. In-game there is no option for subs. With this mod, you can read the spoken dialogue instead of straining your ears.

Sound Enhancement Pack - Makes all sound enhanced and not muddled. Providing clearer audio in both speech and sfx.

60 FPS Video Pack - Original videos are in a low resolution. With the video pack, all the videos are replaced with higher framerate and resolution.

Aside from minor tinkering to get the game up to speed and my barely noticeable mixed feelings. Thief shines when unconventional level design meets strong simple foundations in the gameplay to accentuate and enhance both categories. At its worst players(maybe newbies) may have difficulty in grasping the maze-like paths to reaching their objectives along with vague to almost obscure hints to their solutions(not always, uncommon I think). More so on increasing levels of difficulty than normal I feel. The central narrative I expected to be boring. And in turn I was mentally preparing myself for underwhelming. So to my delight, I was extremely glad to be wrong and found myself beset with a decent narrative and ultimately a likable protagonist.

Finally reaching the end of my trail I found Thief Gold impressed me to a degree I can’t stop thinking constantly about the missions inside. I adore it so much I had to hold off on playing the rest of the series so I won’t get burned out if I continue to run-non-stop at every entry. Filled with lengthy missions depending on difficulty and fair gameplay mechanics to tackle in whatever and however manner you so choose. A freedom in gameplay philosophy I love! And honestly its given me more thought to level design in general and the approach of AI to objectives. I encourage anyone to give it a shot. Especially those who love Stealth or dipping their toes into the genre. For those curious about this old title, it still holds up quite well. Especially if you installed mods to bring it up to modern standards. And hey here’s one tidbit I found fascinating. Turns out Ken Levine worked on Thief along with Warren Spector. These guys would ultimately father some well-known titles down the road. Pretty insightful stuff. I bet we're in for Shocking Examples down the road.

8.5/10

References & Additional Material:
Thief Black Parade Mod
Different Examples of Difficulty
Thief 1 Credits
Mods - Thief PC gaming wiki - Thief 1/Gold Unofficial patch - Sound Enhancement Pack - 60 FPS Video Pack - Texture pack
Subtitles

Edited: 4-3-24 - Small correction on Blackjack use. From human to nearly every enemy. Thanks to @blackcat for the correction! After the small edit. 99% of review still intact.

While in the middle of my Cult of the Lamb playthrough, my power went out for 4 hours. In that time, I had nothing to do except go on my phone but eventually it died. I remembered my 3DS was fully charged and so I decided to look through my DS/3DS games to see if I can be productive and replay something I hadn't in a while. Decided on the original New Super Mario Bros, since I hadn't played the series in years. After playing through the first world, my power came back on not long after. Decided to continue replaying this even with the power back on so here we are.

The New Super Mario Bros games were not games I ever truly loved. Yes, by the time 2 and U came out, the series became super stale. But even with DS and Wii, I never found them amazing at all. Replaying DS, this seems to still be true for me. In fact, this may be my least favorite of the bunch, at least next to 2 for several different reasons. Even despite that however, it's still a fun time overall and worth coming back to for a certain addition I'll talk about later.

First thing you'll notice when playing the game, would be its graphics. Personally, I always thought the NSMB games had a fine enough artstyle tho I much prefer how the sprite-based games looked in the past. DS though is sadly the ugliest in the series now. It was certainly a marvel back then but nowadays, just looks kinda ugly a lot of the time compared to the other titles.

Level design-wise, the game has plenty of levels that actually are pretty memorable. The sewers level, the giant wiggler level, the pipe maze level, the fucking brutal 8-1 level with the birds. I wish more of the levels were memorable like these, since a large chunk can be forgettable but I was surprised just how many I ended up remembering. This game also added the star coin collectable and honestly, they can be a tremendous pain in this game. They don't hide them behind invisible walls like future game but some of them require a powerup from other levels or toad houses and it can be frustrating. Same with the secret exits (which came back from Mario World). Like a third of those require the aforementioned outside powerup and they're a pain. I do recommend going for 100% tho cuz once you beat the game, you can actually buy bottom screen skins with any star coins you have and I never knew this and it's awesome. Such a great reward for going out of your way to get them.

One more aspect of the gameplay I wanted to get into were the powerups. 80% of the game you'll be seeing the fire flower which is a good powerup of course. The other 20%, you'll see the three new ones (and the classic star I guess) and I gotta say they're not that great. The mega mushroom is a great concept and is fun to use but is barely in any levels naturally. The mini mushroom is also not used that much and I honestly never liked much just because it's so floaty. And the shell is just obnoxious since you start moving on your own the moment you hit top speed and you have to manually stop to get out of your shell. I'm sure it's super fun when speed running but alas, it just annoyed me more than anything. This is another thing I think future games did better, especially WIi, that one has a great selection of powerups.

I really don't have much to say about the soundtrack. It's alright at best I think and it doesn't help the 1-1 theme gets reused in Wii. I did actually like the map theme for world 7 though, something about that feels so nostalgic. This game is somewhat nostalgic to me since I remember seeing a classmate play this on field trip bus ride when I was 8 and thinking it looked so cool. Never ended up playing the main campaign until after I played the other 3 NSMB games but my memory of that bus ride is engrained in my memory, and part of me thinks that classmate was on world 7 that day which might explain why the song feels so nostalgic. Either way, besides that one song I really like, never cared for the game's ost sadly.

This is all fine and dandy, but the real reason I think someone should come back to this one is its multiplayer modes. Minigames are a blast to play, even if most of them are ported straight from 64 DS, but there are a couple new ones which is nice. I probably played these more than the actual game back in the day. The Mario vs Luigi mode was also a lot of fun back in the day too. The goal was to get the most stars and you could steal them from the opposite Mario brother. Was just really fun constantly screwing the other person over. Though I guess since (most of) the minigames are in 64 DS and future games had multiplayer in it's campaigns, these aren't amazing reasons to come back to NSMB DS specifically, but it's still a nice little package of multiplayer goodness overall.

Like I said, was never a huge fan of the New Super Mario Bros games, and while this still rings true...I'd say this was still a fun time overall. Would be fun to replay them all but I'd have to spread them out considering how samey they are lol.

Sure, there are aspects of Zero Mission I'd take ever so slightly over their Super counterparts, namely slight tweaks to the control scheme's shortcuts and some basic quality-of-life updates to the map system... but man, even if I've called Zero Mission my favorite Metroid for a long time there really is just no topping Super on most other levels this series operates on.

The soundtrack is one of the most impressive aspects of this game - it may not be the first game to do ambient and almost new age-ish music the way it does, but Super Metroid has such a distinct sound within the Super Nintendo's library that it's beyond impressive. Tracks like "Upper Brinstar", "Maridia - Swamp Caverns". and "Tourian" are pretty singular within the realm of 16-bit music, and you'd need to look to something like EarthBound to find sounds operating on the same level of experimentation within the console's library.

These sounds compliment a well-established atmosphere that's been discussed to death elsewhere, but for good reason. Super Metroid often toes the line from adventure game into action-thriller, and even horror thanks to its mood, colors, sprite artwork, and direction. One of the best things Super Metroid does with its color language is break its own rules, and early on: where much of the game paints Planet Zebes in naturalistic greens, browns, reds and greys, some of the areas depicted that the player should recognize on cue from the original Metroid title retain their spacey blues and blacks. Mother Brain's lair is kept more or less intact from its 8-bit depiction. Indeed, this leans into the minimal but effective story too - you really don't get the full weight of Super Metroid and all the impressions it sets to leave without the full trilogy under your belt.

Samus' arsenal is at some of its most balanced and effective here. The endgame combo of upgrades feels really fun to use, also I do feel the Screw Attack saw better and less finnicky days down the line on the Game Boy Advance. I'm actually a big fan of the X-ray Scope, except for the few times it doesn't work consistently - a few fake walls in Tourian spring to mind.

Still, for a trailblazer like Super Metroid, it would be excusable should time have worn down its gold sheen into ragged glory, but this isn't the case. I'm not the first nor the hundredth to tell you this, but this game remains one of the all-time greats. The small nitpicks I have here would be more or less cleaned up by the time Fusion and Zero Mission come around, and it should speak to how minimal these complaints are that even after having just replayed the game with my best friend, I'm already getting the itch to land down on Planet Zebes again.

"Beasts all over the shop... You'll be one of them, sooner or later..."

There are many reason to love bloodborne. The viscerally engaging combat system that is simple yet satisfying, the brilliant level design that is complex and rewarding, the raw-ass enemy and boss design, the stellar art direction that perfectly encaptulates the victorian gothic feel(seriously the graphics of this game simply cannot age, I'll be looking 50 years from now at this game and I would still say it's jaw-dropping), the fucking banger soundtrack, the general story and its characters. This game just has it all. But I want now to focus on one aspect of this game, the one that I consider the best thing this game does, the lovecraftian horror

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"In case you've failed to realize...
The things you hunt, they're not beasts. They're people."

The game starts off as just a gothic horror game and does a good job hiding its true intentions and themes for the first half of the game or so. Heck even the trailers didn't capitalise on the cosmic horror aspect which makes the reveal all the more compelling. But it's not random. The game gives you small breadcrumbs that can be easily spotted by people who know the game well but for new players it will go right over them still creating a sense of surprise in them when it is revealed.
To change subject a bit, this game has a phenomenal roaster of npcs. From the terribly kind chapel dweller, to the maniacal but understandable suspicious begger, to the misterious Eileen the Crow it has plenty of unique and interesting characters to talk and interact with. But the best of them has to be Djura. A powder keg hunter that was once just like the player but came to the odd realization that the things he killed were more than just mindles beasts. And it isn't just pulled out of the games ass for some cheap symphathy, oh no. If you just stop and listen in Old Yharnam whenever you want, you can softly hear the beasts cry and weep while hinding in corners. You can perfectly understand why he feels this way and why he has to protect them to make up for killing so many of them in the past. Games are at their best when they combine gameplay and narrative into one and this game does this flawlessly

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"We are born of the blood, made men by the blood, undone by the blood. Our eyes are yet to open..."

Now to cut back to the aspect I like the most about this game. Video games and cosmic horror have a quite rough relationship. Some attempts have been made but almost none were very successful. Mostly due to them just ripping HP Lovecrafts mythos with no though or deeper understanding of the source material. Also if you remove the lovecraftian aspect, they are pretty shit games on their own. Bloodborne is still an excellent game without them and a true masterpiece with. It does a couple of things to differentiate itself from the rest, mostly by actually putting the work to create its own mythos and abominations. It's cosmic horror, unarguably, but it's still feels fresh and unique. On a surface-level, it seems like the game is a contradiction, you kill the things that are supposed to be eldrich, unreachable, horrors? But then you realize, are the things I kill truly great ones, or just mere rejects? Lesser great ones or literally "left behinds"? The NIGHTMARE SLAIN title appears only in 3 distinct locations. One is after Mergo's Wet Nurse is defeated and Mergo stops crying, another after hitting the spirit of the Orphan of Kos and the last after the Moon Presence. Are these the true great ones or are they just puppets controlled by them? This game fundamentally understands cosmic horror and takes full advantage of it.
The enviromental horror isn't far behind either. One of the scariest moments in bloodborne for me is seeing the corpses in yarha'gul and realizing they are just men, women and children trying to run away from.........something. The game doesn't say anything more about this. It just lets you imagine what happened. It goes hand in hand with the brief storytelling of the game by creating a real sense of unknown and mistery. Or how as the night goes on the citizens start to go mad the simply vanish with no trace whatsoever when the blood moon falls. Or how when you say to the gatekeeper the pasword to access the forbidden woods but when you open the door he is long dead. This doesn't make the game scary, it makes it fucking terrifying.
The funny thing is that before this game I never really cared about lovecraftian horror all that much but after completing it, it's BY FAR my favorite kind of horror. I even bought a book with the entire fiction Lovecraft made lol.

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"As you once did for the Vacuous Rom... Grant us eyes, Grant us eyes! Plant eyes on our brains to cleanse our beastly idiocy!"

Bloodborne has a lot of excellent areas, and I mean A LOT, everybody knows that, but my favorite one has to be Nightmare of Mensis. A couple of reasons why:

Fantastic level design
Solid enemy variety
Thick atmosphere
The best enviromental hazard in the series
Intriguing lore

There are so many more things about this area. The Brain of Mensis, Mergo itself, the winter lanters which have my vote for most terrifying enemy in the souls series, both mechanically and design-wise, Micolash and his fascinating dialogue. The fact that Mergo's Wet Nurse ost is a fucking lullaby and it works so wonderfully is outstanding. One of my absolute favorite moments in all of gaming is just simply looking at the giant pale moon in the sky in the area. Just blindly starring and thinking about this whole game and what it means to me

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"Ah, sweet child of Kos, returned to the ocean. A bottomless curse, a bottomless sea. Accepting of all that there is, and can be."

Will try to keep it brief here since I aready made a separate review for the dlc but safe to say this is one of the best dlcs ever, if not the best. It has 3 incredibly well designed areas, 4 of the best bosses in the game, fixed the weapon variety issue from the main game, new interesting lore and some of the best music fromsoftware ever composed. Legendary.


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"Tonight, Gehrman joins the hunt..."

When I first played the game, Gehrman was underwhelming to me for some reason. Maybe he was too easy, or I didn't understand the lore but now I want to take it all back, he's one of bloodborne's best bosses. The emotions, the music, the gorgeous arena, the fight itself, it's all majestic.
In conclusion, bloodborne is my favorite game of all time and my favorite piece of media I've ever had the pleasure of consuming. It's an artistically rich, superbly designed game and I am forever grateful for playing it. This doesn't mean it's perfect(chalice dungeons are a complete waste of time, the build variety is kinda shallow, the healing system is good but inferior to estus and some technical issues that could be fixed in a pc remaster port that will probably never happen) but I don't care honestly, it's very dear and close to my heart and soul.

I love you, Bloodborne

Final Fantasy VI is absolutely amazing. After a recent playthrough just ending, I'm ready to tackle this gem.

Final Fantasy VI's story is personal, lighthearted, fun, and serious, all balanced intrinsically well. What makes the game shine is obviously the characters and how the game doesn't necessarily choose one among the cast whom is the focus of the narrative or perspective. Going over every character would be difficult, as they all have their own backgrounds, development, and character arcs that's an easy contender for best RPG cast. I will at least highlight the characters I do enjoy however. First up is Terra, she is a very confused person seeking purpose and where she belongs. Locke, a loveable treasure hunter who is plagued by the ghosts of his past which skew him to making promises and decisions he might not be able to keep. Celes, a general of the empire who yearns for compassion and understanding of others. Last but not least, Shadow, a coldhearted ninja shrouded in mystery with his trusty dog companion, Interceptor. These characters were by far my favorite, while I love every character in FFVI, these characters captivated me the most and I became especially invested in their stories and outcomes. From a gameplay perspective I immensely enjoyed Sabin the most, as his Blitzes required common fighting game button combinations and half-circles, making him very rewarding to play, not to mention his stellar damage and versatility also make him a favorite of mine.

Going into gameplay, good gracious does Final Fantasy knock it out of the park. Every character has a unique ability that justifies using them in your team compositions. While they're not all winners, they each have their time in the sun at some point in the game where they're very useful. Dungeons and dungeon design still amazes me to this day. They're not incredibly cryptic or large, but the puzzles and loot to be found is very satisfying, some dungeons also provide that much needed difficulty spike, nothing crazy, just enough to get you to optimize your characters a bit more as you continue to progress, which is perfect. Fighting enemies and the sheer variety found in the boss fights is also a treat, as not only are the monster designs in this game absolutely stellar, but boss fights all feel energetic and intense as you whittle their HP down and buff your party up. Grinding in this game is really only necessary at the start, mostly for GP, otherwise I never had to grind until endgame because I wanted my characters to be at least level 50 and have most of my magic users know all the decent spells. Even if you do grind, there's some amazing spots later in the game that does not make grinding a chore at all, you do have to know where they are, but actually grinding is quick and easy, which I really appreciate. Last thing I'll touch on is the magic system, which I do enjoy. It's easy to manage and level as you're playing, you really don't need to sit and grind for new magic if you stay on top of it, even then there's plenty of spots early and mid game to get spells relatively quick without much grinding. I love the animations of the spells, there's great variety, all the staples from previous entries and more, and a ton of summons you can play around with this time around, which I loved.

Graphically speaking, such a delight to look at. Easily one of the best looking SNES games visually. Colors are both bright and grim, dirty and also whimsical. Monster designs can be cute, off-putting, intimidating, detailed, and grand. Character models took a huge step up in this entry as well, having far more emotes and unique poses and expressions that make these characters come to life so much more outside their storylines. Textures are clean, battle backgrounds are awesome and full of details, and the much more exotic areas make full use of the visuals, presenting some amazing set pieces you'd never find anywhere else that really pushes the envelope further on just how damn good this game looks.

I'm well aware of the many glitches plaguing this game as well. While it is a shame some glitches make certain stats and statuses not work as intended, none are worse than the glitches that can corrupt your save and make the game unplayable. Replaying this game, and playing it for the first time a long time ago, I was well aware of all these glitches and could avoid them, so I'm dedicating a small portion of this review to warn those interested in playing this game for the first time. Please look into the game breaking glitches within this game before starting it!

Another specific section of this review I want to use is for Kefka. Kefka just might be one of my favorite antagonists, he's not so simply just an insane individual, there's a lot of subtleties to his character that are hard to catch the first time. There's actually plenty of very interesting character studies on Kefka you can look into yourself that will do a far better job than I can. With that said, I love Kefka, he has amazingly witty dialogue that aligns surprisingly perfectly with the heinous acts he commits without even hesitating. I am well aware a lot of what Kefka says is thanks to the translator of FFVI, Ted Woolsey, but I really do think Kefka benefitted substantially from it. It painted him on the surface as just some clown with some screws loose, but you delve deeper into Kefka and find an intriguing character with a lot of complexity you can find when you analyze him as a character, his dialogue, and even his physical appearance has meaning behind it all, truly an amazing character that was very well written.

Music is absolutely classic, character themes I especially love in this game. Outside of those, FFVI has my favorite battle theme in all of Final Fantasy, and has some of my favorite Boss music as well in video games period. Normally I go on about how emotionally charged the music is, or how profound it is and how it enhances the setting and story. FFVI does this, to a masterful degree, but I'd honestly just suggest you listen to the soundtrack yourself, it's that good.

FFVI is another JRPG masterpiece I adore with all my heart and will always slot in another playthrough every few years. Replaying this game again, it made me realize that I really should finish this series at some point, as I've only played a few entries in Final Fantasy so far. It's not that I have no interest, I just simply put it off too long I suppose. I digress, Final Fantasy VI is an essential experience for JRPG fans, it takes it a bit of time to get going, but once it starts, there's no brakes, it's full throttle. You can get Final Fantasy VI on PlayStation via the Final Fantasy Anthology, which I want to recommend for the FMV's alone, however load times can be pretty long. I'd honestly recommend the SNES or GBA version personally. GBA version has a better translation and extra content, and fixes some of the glitches present in the original, at the expense of worse graphics and sound. SNES version, despite all its flaws, is my personal recommendation, if only because it's the original experience and is still an amazing game. You can also get the pixel remaster on Steam, I don't know much about the pixel remasters, so I can't really say anything for or against it. You can also play FFVI via the SNES mini if you were in the market for one.

Put this down as one I've got to sit with in order to give stronger, more detailed thoughts on. In the same way that revisiting CLANNAD was important as a piece of self-reflection and an analysis on my own growth and changes over the decade-plus since I'd first played it, Little Busters! served to embolden my understanding of how important my friend group has been every step of the way through those changes. One of the most tightly-organized Key games, with every route offering something to the grander narrative, and while After Story from CLANNAD remains the personal peak of their output for me, you'd be hard-pressed to find a true ending route with the sheer payoff and emotional conviction of Refrain elsewhere in the medium.

I'm going to take a break from finishing the Ecstasy routes, having completed Saya's, and go back for Kud Wafter in the same stretch of time. I'd like to let the original game sit a little longer, Refrain given time to wash over me a little more, and hell - maybe I'll even watch the anime, because I really do love this cast and their stories. The Little Busters are eternal, forever and ever.

Author’s note I — I am considering the possibility of opening a YouTube channel and using this script as the basis for a video on Tsui no Sora. If that becomes a reality, I intend to leave this original essay up as long as my Backloggd account is active. Should this interest you as a possibility, please feel free to let me know in the comments. This is my longest work on this site by far, and I sincerely appreciate anyone who reads any length of my work. Thank you so much.

Author’s note II — During the process of writing this piece on Tsui no Sora, which took me over a month of drafting, rewrites, and rearrangement, it has come to pass that mangaka and artist Akira Toriyama has passed away. You will see immediately that Toriyama-sensei’s work has had a profound impact on my art to this day within this very piece as Dragon Quest IV, my favorite video game that he was involved with, is a major talking point within this essay. I simply wish to express my grief and sorrow for the loss of such an incredible force of good and artistic passion in the world, and to thank him for contributing what he did to the greater tapestry of artistry during his active years. Thank you for everything, sensei, and may you rest in paradise.

Author's note III — Of course, a day after releasing this piece I come to notice some errors and additions I wish to make. Thanks to my friends in the small but tight-knit Tsui no Sora community in the West for their feedback and insight. Changes made within will be inserted seamlessly, so no worries to new readers about inaccuracies or loose ends.

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Die Geburt der Tragödie.
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Of course, in order to start talking about Tsui no Sora, I need to talk about a completely different game. Last month, one of my favorite role-playing games celebrated its thirty-fourth anniversary. Released for the Famicom on February 11, 1990, Enix’s Dragon Quest IV is deservedly considered one of the most influential and tide-turning games of the 8-bit era. While Dragon Quest III no doubt defined the shape of turn-based role-playing games to come, I would argue that the narrative influences that its sequel planted within not just its genre sphere, but the medium of video games as a whole, is equally as important.

For those unfamiliar with the structure of Dragon Quest IV, the game is told across five chapters, and each of the first four chapters follows the perspective of a different character inhabiting its world. Chapter One sees soldier Ragnar McRyan return abducted children to their parents by slaying a nearby monster, Chapter Three is an entirely removed story about the portly Torneko and his journey to become the world’s greatest merchant, so on and so forth. When the fifth and final chapter begins, the player is finally put in control of Solo, the protagonist featured on the game’s box art. While this chapter too starts off isolated as the others, an amazing development occurs partway through - each of the cast members the player followed in the preceding chapters resolves to join the hero’s party and with them their stories align, turning this fantasy anthology into a cohesively structured narrative, simply taken in across a handful of perspectives before culminating in the climax, in which the “main story” unfurls.

Now, I’m not going to claim that Dragon Quest IV is the first within the gaming medium to tell a story across multiple protagonists’ perspectives like it does - my knowledge of gaming history isn’t so strong - but it’s certainly one of the most important early adopters of the narrative device. Its influence can be felt all across the medium, both in role-playing games like LIVE A LIVE and MOTHER3 and beyond the genre’s confines. The idea of multiple protagonists experiencing their own stories in a revue-style suite of plot points before assimilating into the key narrative has, in the wake of Dragon Quest IV, become a well-trodden and beloved template with which to tell stories in video games… and that’s why I think it’s so interesting that a game like Tsui no Sora breaks that formula down and turns it on its head the way it does.

First, a little context.

Tsui no Sora, also known as Endsky, is the debut title by Japanese doujinsoft studio KeroQ. The entire story was written and directed by the enigmatic co-founder of the circle, SCA-Ji. To discuss any of SCA-Ji’s work properly necessitates two points of knowledge about the guy. The first is that he is incredibly well read - Tsui no Sora and his later work never shies away from directly referencing, analyzing, and arguably providing a narrative adaptation of high-octane writings on philosophy, psychology, mathematics, and meta-physics, as well as a plethora of international fictional literature ranging from children’s stories to thought-provoking and oft-debated works of literary high art. And we’re not talking simple name-drops - SCA-Ji clearly displays an academic understanding and digestion of the topics he chooses to reference in his writing, and one of his greatest gifts as an author lies in his ability to weave these stories, essays, theories and ideologies into his work - not by turning his characters into walking vessels for these concepts, but allowing the themes to embolden his characters, giving further depth to the lives they lead, the feelings they go through, and the ideals they arrive at and clutch onto. The second point of necessary understanding is, as fans and detractors alike will be happy to inform you, that SCA-Ji is unabashedly insane. I don’t mean in the same sort of quirky, “oh, you!” way that people look at Hideo Kojima or Kotaro Uchikoshi - the guy is a true looney. Following SCA-Ji on social media is a game of Russian roulette; sometimes, you get analytical posts about the things he’s reading, thinking about, and playing, sometimes he’s sharing fan art of his characters with huge dicks, sometimes he’s talking about how it’s perfectly normal to do the deed with raw chicken in Japanese supermarkets and vouching for the legitimacy of incest. He’s a gem, and I wouldn’t have the guy any other way. No, like seriously - I think the most compelling thing about SCA-Ji’s presence is the fact that even in the current era of the eroge landscape, he’s still acting like the same perverted weirdo he no doubt was when it was normal to be that type of person in the amateur scene around the time of Tsui no Sora’s release. No matter how one feels about SCA-Ji’s viewpoints and opinions, it’s undeniable that his work is endlessly earnest and entirely his. You can’t fake that, and plenty in the wake of his debut on the scene have tried and failed.

So, back to KeroQ themselves - if you’re looking for a more detailed look at their history, I can’t overlook this awesome video by BaseSk8er about their early days. Highly recommend this channel to anyone interested in eroge history in general, in fact. At the expense of lifting BaseSk8er’s work for my own, I’ll leave further influences on Tsui no Sora to largely be explained elsewhere. That said, it’s undeniable how strong of an influence both the fictional and academic literature SCA-Ji had been taking in at the time, as well as contemporary otaku artwork, particularly GAINAX’s Neon Genesis Evangelion, held on the story, themes, character designs, and imagery. One of the main characters, Takuji Mamiya, even has his design and some personal traits heavily lifted directly from Eva protagonist Shinji Ikari. However, if we’re going to talk about dominant influences and themes within Tsui no Sora, we need to discuss my favorite genre in Japanese media, one essentially dominated by eroge works in representation and although not necessarily birthed within eroge, it certainly found its home within the medium: the urban horror of denpa.

Denpa, which literally translates as “electromagnetic wave”, refers to either a narrative genre or character archetype revolving around those on the fringe of society. Denpa characters operate on a different wavelength than “normal” society; delusional street-wanderers who find fear, paranoia, and a loosening grip on “objective reality”, often finding themselves wrapped up in urban legends, conspiracies, and the modern occult. These stories tend to also revolve around themes of trauma, lack of a sense of self, and spiraling into insanity. Arguably the first truly denpa work within video games was Leaf’s 1996 debut eroge Shizuku, which is where the term “visual novel”, the name of the trilogy that Shizuku started, was adopted from when describing ADV games and eroge in the West. While Shizuku certainly has a reputation of being the grandfather of denpa eroge, generally there are three names brought up as the “holy trinity” of the genre in terms of cultural impact, innovation, and influence on eroge to come. Tsui no Sora was the first release to be considered part of this trinity, followed in 2001 by Duke’s Jisatsu no Tame no 101 no Hoho and CRAFTWORK’s iconic Sayonara o Oshiete. Plenty of the most iconic eroge and ADV titles ever made, whether or not they’re entirely denpa works or not, owe a great deal to the influence of these titles and the denpa genre as a whole - just to list off some names, you wouldn’t have Saya no Uta, Tsukihime, Fate/stay night, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, the Science;Adventure series, or Kimi to Kanojo to Kanojo no Koi. without these games.

But, if there’s one title that clearly defines all that denpa is as a grounds for storytelling and has reached unprecedented acclaim on an international level, it’s the legendary 2010 title Subarashiki Hibi ~Furenzoku Sonzai~, a game that shares a rather… enigmatic and bizarre relationship with Tsui no Sora. Initially, there were plans within KeroQ dating back to the early 2000s to remake Tsui no Sora in a modern engine - likely after the completion of the next major work SCA-Ji had on his mind, Sakura no Uta (which, ironically, would not see proper completion until 2015). During this nebulous talk of a Tsui no Sora remake, ideas for two other titles were brewing in SCA-Ji’s mind, “Subarashiki Hibi” and “Diskontinuierliches Dasein”. Eventually, these two titles likely worked their way into this initial Tsui no Sora remake attempt, blossoming into a strange re-imagining and interpretation of the original game - the Subahibi we would receive in 2010 - in a fashion not unlike Jonze/Kaufman’s Adaptation. in relation to its source material, The Orchid Thief. I, like many other fans of KeroQ’s output, first found them through Subahibi, and so my basis for the cast, story, and themes of Tsui no Sora comes first and foremost through their 2010 reimagined selves. Tsui no Sora is largely retold through three of Subahibi’s chapters, “Down the Rabbit-Hole II”, “It’s My Own Invention”, and “Looking-Glass Insects”. Without diving into spoilers for an entirely different game, it’s hard not to be absolutely curious about what the original Tsui no Sora is like once the final lines of Subahibi come and go. For the 10th anniversary of Subarashiki Hibi, KeroQ would release a limited edition box-set, including not only the original 1999 Tsui no Sora, but a new Tsui no Sora remake proper - intended to be read after Subarashiki Hibi, which I have yet to do. With two reworks of varying loyalty to the source material with over twenty years of hindsight, it would be an understandable assumption that the original Tsui no Sora now serves largely as a historical footnote, a blueprint for two works with decades of polish and hindsight from which to usurp its long-held title. With that said, I disagree. Not only do I feel that Tsui no Sora and Subarashiki Hibi inform readings and interpretations of one another greatly, but I absolutely loved my time with this classic of the eroge scene and found it compelling entirely on its own merits, some of which are completely different in approach and execution than its legendary successor.

I think with a little over 1,700 words under our belts in this piece on KeroQ’s 1999 debut work, Tsui no Sora, I can now begin talking about KeroQ’s 1999 debut work, Tsui no Sora.

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Through the looking-glass.
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The focal point of the entire plot of Tsui no Sora essentially revolves around two major events: the sudden suicide of loner Zakuro Takashima, and the subsequent rise and fall of a death cult convinced of the oncoming apocalypse on July 20, 1999, under the leadership of the once meek self-assessed teenage messiah, Takuji Mamiya. One could frame the entire plot of the game under these terms, stating that these events are more or less the entirety of “what happens” in Tsui no Sora. However, what makes this interesting is the fact that we examine the roughly two week period in which these two events take place under four different lenses. Rather than the Dragon Quest IV approach of telling a revue of separate short stories, Tsui no Sora essentially tells fragments of the same story four times with the narrative perspective of four very different students of the school where most of the story occurs. The first chapter or “First View” is told through the well-read but ambivalent eyes of Yukito Minakami, “Second View” follows his childhood friend and patented genki girl Kotomi Wakatsuki, “Third View” revolves around the days leading up to the death of Zakuro Takashima in her own account, and “Fourth View” finally lands on the denpa wonderland and ascent to urban godhood of Takuji Mamiya. It is established early on that Yukito and Takuji essentially sit on opposite sides of the same philosophical scale, but it should be noted that much of the pathos and emotional tug of Tsui no Sora is found in the girls’ stories, which are both arguably the most gut-wrenching and painful stories within. I believe it’s best that we take this chapter by chapter, to properly assess the viewpoints and thematic purpose of each protagonist’s story.

"First View"

To anyone who’s played Subarashiki Hibi, Yukito’s story should feel right at home. A large amount of the story would be lifted as the basis for “Down the Rabbit-Hole II”, but there are certainly still differences between the two. Being that Yukito is a young man, his manzai-like banter with Kotomi should feel right at home with many ecchi works of the era. If he weren’t so well-read, it would be easy to pass Yukito off as your typical stand-in ecchi protagonist - but it’s in his more intimate moments of reflection, as well as his rooftop conversations over bento with the denpa epicenter of Tsui no Sora’s cast, Ayana Otanashi, where his depth is made clear. Spending his remaining high-school days with intent laziness, most of Yukito’s deeper thoughts revolve around the “big questions”, considering the writings of Kant and Wittgenstein as he begins to form his own philosophies about the world and humanity. To me, Yukito reads like he has a lot of faith in humanity, but not a lot of faith in people. He’ll postulate over the crocodile tears and lack of genuine interest his classmates take in the wake of Zakuro’s death, claiming that none of them (himself included) have any right to grieve a girl they so clearly ignored. Yet, he’ll also go on internal tangents about that spark within humanity that simply cannot be explained through logic: our issues with God, our emotional dilemmas, and the purpose we find in being around other people.

The irony in this dichotomy is that Yukito ends up being the character that perhaps spends the least time considering others as well as their own place within the world, despite all of this internal hem-haw; again, Yukito and Takuji stand on opposite sides of a spectrum, and that’s also clear in how much initiative is taken in their actions through the lead-up to the 20th. I’ll talk about Takuji later, but really it’s funny that for a “protagonist” if there is one proper in Tsui no Sora, Yukito doesn’t really do so much as he considers, with the exception of the final act of his route in which he rescues Kotomi from the clutches of Takuji’s cult. I find Yukito compelling as a lead because he’s simply enjoyable to witness talking to others, thinking about the world, and ultimately find his conviction when dropping the philosophical pretenses and acting out of pure care for Kotomi when push comes to shove. I wouldn’t go as far to say that he “grows” over the course of his route, really, but he does show a softer side in the back half that contradicts his initial aloof coolness. He might be the member of the Tsui no Sora leading crew that ponders the big questions the most, but he’s also arguably its most put together and adjusted member.

"Second View"

While Kotomi Wakatsuki's route certainly informed the development of cast members and plot beats within Subahibi’s “Down the Rabbit-Hole” duology, I’m happy to say that this story is one that remained a virginal and surprisingly fresh perspective for someone who first experienced that later rendition of this story. While the more identifiable aspects of Kotomi’s character were split into Subahibi’s Wakatsuki twins (along with some blatant borrowing from CLANNAD’s Fujibayashi sisters, who both SCA-Ji and myself love dearly) she is a character that remains, in her original state, unique to Tsui no Sora. As the captain of the kendo team, Kotomi is a valued member of the social structure of the school, generally liked by her underclassmen, and unafraid to speak her mind and challenge others to put their money where their mouth is when the time comes. As I said when discussing Yukito’s route, the banter those two share is genuinely charming - but perhaps more interestingly, their lifelong friendship is also an area where Kotomi struggles internally. The future is approaching her faster and faster each day, and as things progress through her route, she gets real with herself and accepts that a time in her life in which Yukito isn’t close by, or in the arms of another, is one that would absolutely crush her. These are feelings understandable of any teenager dealing with a serious crush, but no doubt the death of Zakuro Takashima sends Kotomi’s insecurities and inability to get open, to get over the idea that she would be burdening Yukito with her vulnerability, down a dangerous and self-destructive path. The first time that Tsui no Sora resonated with me on a deep level was Kotomi’s initial response to the news of her death. SCA-Ji weaponizes sentence structure wonderfully in this section, with Kotomi initially sputtering off into internal tangents, recollecting her final meeting with the late Zakuro, trying to pick up the pieces and recall why she had thanked her for being so kind to her despite the two sharing a surface-level relationship at best, before she breaks down into repetitions of Zakuro’s name, apologies, and unfinished starts to trying to offer up some sort of explanation or amends to the deceased.

It wouldn’t be fair to call Kotomi’s route headier and more contemplative than Yukito’s per se, but the way it plays out feels much more reliant on her thoughts leading her actions and responses than his more philosophical ponderings. Kotomi continues to be plagued by two trains of thought through the majority of her route - the first, a direct guilt for what she believes in her fault in the ultimately death of Zakuro, which she hopes to manifest as some sort of emulation of the late girl’s pain, reaching out beyond the grave to try to understand what she was going through to lead her to the place she ended her life. This feels like projection of her own insecurities about the future, because the other main plot thread in her story revolves around her inability to express her desire to be with Yukito, or really even understand what her feelings towards him are. She understands him to be strong and unwavering, and also wishes to emulate that about him as well. On a larger scale, I think Kotomi is looking to better understand her place in the world, more specifically, where she belongs. This is a theme I believe to be consistent with the third and fourth routes of the game as well, and I’ll be looping back to this point later.

By the time that these plot points settled in, I began to realize just how good Tsui no Sora is at creating an alien and off putting atmosphere. I’m a big fan of the sketchy and clearly doujin art here, with a very vibrant and saturated color scheme that feels distinct from the lighter and more polished colors and linework of Subarashiki Hibi’s take on this cast and setting. Backgrounds are largely empty which works to great effect when alienating the cast members from the extra characters - it certainly feels like the spirited characters are almost the only “real people” in the world at each respective time. I would liken the soundtrack to that of the original Tsukihime, very brief, minimalist passages lasting around ten to thirty seconds on average, looping ad nauseam to wash over the player in a trance-like presence. There is no voice acting and hardly any sound effects to speak of, so most of your time is spent on either the sprites, the text, or the music - and it all blends together to birth a product that feels just off-center, just amateur enough to have a real sense of tension come crawling on the regular. We’ve yet to see Tsui no Sora firing on all cylinders in this department, but again, more on that later.

Whether or not Kotomi comes to the answers of these plaguing questions is left vague. Ironically, the torture she ends up enduring once the class turns towards Takuji - and thus against her and Yukito - is not unlike the pain and suffering Zakuro went through on a daily basis. Of course, even as she’s reminding herself to be strong like Yukito, considering Zakuro’s situation, she couldn’t know that they shared so much experience when she goes through it. She’s probably left wondering if she’s somehow done enough to atone for something that was never her fault to begin with. Of course, as we see in “First View”, Yukito does end up coming for her - but this is another place where Tsui no Sora plays with perspective so meaningfully. In fact, so much of Kotomi’s route plays with perspective directly in argument with Yukito’s. When he went off at her and Kimika in his route for even discussing Zakuro’s death, mumbling to himself about how none of them had any right to grieve her, we understand in Kotomi’s route that this moment absolutely broke her spirit and she already internalized the feeling that because she didn’t save her, because she felt she didn’t do enough, that she specifically had no right to grieve her death. Yukito does not understand the lengths which Takuji goes to try to win him over, including the fact that Kotomi doesn’t make it out of her kidnapping unscathed, having been subjected to physical and sexual torture in abundance. Yukito has no understanding of the personal betrayal Kotomi goes through in this process, having been sold over to Takuji by her close friend and underclassman Yasuko out of what are likely unrequited feelings of love soured in part by delusion into hate and jealousy. Of course Yukito saves her, but is it really a happy ending for Kotomi? Is what he does for her too little too late? Can she learn to heal from this experience? Thankfully, these things are left up to interpretation - because again, Kotomi is just one of the viewpoints of this story. And if she’s so concerned with emulating the pain of someone she knew so little about in passing, it only makes sense that the experiences of Zakuro Takashima herself come under discretion next.

"Third View"

While the perspective of Zakuro Takashima offers the vague plot points and themes that would go on to serve as the basis of Subarashiki Hibi’s “Looking-Glass Insects”, the intent of each of these renditions is different enough - and the execution so largely different - that it’s fair to think of “Insects” as a heavy, heavy revision and reinterpretation rather than a direct adaptation of “Third View”. Perhaps the most crucial change made in how “Insects” tells this story is the complete rework of background character Kimika Ishihara (renamed Kimika Tachibana in Subahibi) into a major player in several of the game’s chapters. In “Insects”, Zakuro has a home base in Kimika most of the time. She has someone to confide in even in spite of how many awful things she’s put through. There are people in her cruel and unfair world that still see her. In Tsui no Sora, this really isn’t the case for most of her chapter. The only person in the world that seems to regularly acknowledge her existence is Ozawa, her sexual abuser to whom she is essentially bound through no fault of her own. There is no build-up to how Zakuro truly feels about the world in Tsui no Sora, because there doesn’t have to be - there is an immediate, obvious understanding that the world Zakuro inhabits offers her nothing but anger, pain, and fear. There is simply no hope in her life, there is nowhere she belongs and nothing she believes in. There isn’t a Kimika in her life, and so every day is spent with the inconsolable fear of the next. Her life is hell, and a hell with seemingly no way out.

I spoke previously about Kotomi’s unique perspective and the theme of belonging that ran throughout her chapter. As I began to notice this theme seep into Zakuro’s route in its second act, in which she comes into contact with Usami and Ayumi, two girls who claim to have known her in a previous life as the magical soldier Angel Advise in their battle against an awful cataclysm, I truly began to appreciate the seeds that were being planted that Subarashiki Hibi would capitalize on down the line. One could argue, and they wouldn’t necessarily be wrong, that the path that Zakuro takes in the back half of “Third View” is ultimately one of destruction - taking her own life and ultimately those of these newfound friends in the process. But, at the same time, the Zakuro presented in Tsui no Sora is far more outwardly hopeless and spiteful prior to meeting them. Something I feel that Tsui no Sora arguably offers with an even more potent emotional affect is just how much Zakuro’s life is changed by making her first friends, and as a result having a place where she feels understood and, again, that she belongs to. This may be a result of the fact that Usami and Ayumi simply play a larger part in the Zakuro story than their Subahibi equivalents do, but I found the sisterhood shared between the three even more intense and heartfelt in the original rendition of this story. When Zakuro begins to take a leadership position and treads over the second-guessing of her fellow former “Angels”, the two thoughts that come to mind are of the catharsis that Zakuro must feel in having some level of control and agency for the first time in her life, and the conviction with which she clings on, desperately, to having a purpose and a place she understands that she is needed. Subarashiki Hibi expands on this world and its characters on an ultimately greater and more intricate level, I agree, but I think the Zakuro storyline sits at the very heart of the original Tsui no Sora and as a result is given even greater chance to shine as the emotional “purpose” of the story. More than anything, Tsui no Sora is a story that belongs to Takashima Zakuro - a dramatic irony lies in the fact that it takes her death for that to become apparent.

"Fourth View"

Sitting deep in the heart of Tsui no Sora is the final major chapter, the longest and most infamous of the perspectives. “Fourth View” is perhaps what Tsui no Sora is best known for - its most influential section, which puts the player behind the eyes of Takuji Mamiya - and so the grand denpa carnival begins. Previous chapters have seen Takuji as less of a proper character and more of an abstract force of chaos. The two modes we’ve seen him in - the sheepish, flitting coward, and the terrible, commanding preacher of the apocalypse - are so radically different from each other that it innately begs the question: what drove Takuji from Point A to Point B? While previous perspectives had brief stints with denpa, it’s no doubt the lunacy and almost eldritch horror of Takuji Mamiya’s perspective that not only influenced its Subarashiki Hibi equivalent episode, “It’s My Own Invention”, but also serves as the mark it most strongly made on the entire eroge scene in its wake. And what a ride it is.

It’s in “Fourth View” that the player gains an understanding of who Takuji is as a person - and in reality, he’s not all that different from Yukito in a few areas. He’s clearly bright, clearly passionate, but where Yukito stifles that with his own projected disinterest and apathy, Takuji’s flame is put out due to the harassment and abuse of his peers. For all the brilliance that clearly lies dormant in Takuji, his life has essentially been stripped of that glow to the chagrin of his predators - he is bullied, put into financial corners, and laid bare of all that makes him an individual. Based on the previous chapters, one might assume that Yukito is the strongest emotional presence in Takuji’s life, the attack on Kotomi something of a personal gambit done for the sake of provoking him into confrontation. “Fourth View” brings this idea into question, however, because it’s here we learn that the entire plot seems to be spurred on by the death of Zakuro Takashima.

Suddenly, these two plot points become connected on a level beyond Takuji simply using her death as additional reasoning in his proclamations of the end times. He grieves for Zakuro. He never concerns himself with whether or not it’s right for him or others to do so, her death has a profound effect on his outlook. Like Kotomi, he sees the purity in her presence and feels the weight of her loss on a personal level, regardless of how well he knew her, and it’s at this point where I started to consider the possibility that, under better circumstances, maybe the three living leads of Tsui no Sora could have been friends in a better, more communicative world. The audience comes to understand the bullied, battered-down life that Takuji leads of course, but it’s arguably through the death of Zakuro that he comes to accept life as unfair and broken on the level he does, which spurs his descent into madness and awakens a deep belief within that he is the Messiah of the world, advised by his beloved Magical Girl Riruru, leading a conquest within his school into the titular Endsky, accepting the death and rebirth of the world into absolute nil.

And what a descent into madness it is - it’s here where the game holds no more punches and we get to see KeroQ working their magic in creating some of the most unnerving, creative, and grotesque imagery in this era of the eroge scene. Real-life faces are warped and mutilated into eldritch horrors, the Magical Girl Riruru babbles on and on, crossing from spoken words into quadratic formulas and back again, bullies are revived from the dead with their fatal injuries still well intact, and KeroQ saves an exponential amount of cash by not hiring a seiyuu to accompany Takuji screaming bloody murder through the better half of this. It’s an absolutely glorious roller coaster ride into surrealism and the decay of someone whose conviction lies in the absolute dedication to nothingness that Takuji finds. If all Takuji ever wanted was a place to belong, he finds it here, a self-proclaimed Christ figure among the rabble of serfs who heed his every word. No teacher, no classmate, no sibling is safe from the depravity - and in all its hedonistic glory Takuji finds himself ironically more alienated from the people who would serve his word than ever before. He wants nothingness, and as they jump from the rooftop one by one, it’s fair to say he finds it.

… This is one conclusion to draw, of course.

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Beobachtungen über das Gefühl des Schönen und Erhabenen.
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The following section will feature spoilers for both the original Tsui no Sora and Subarashiki Hibi, in their entirety. Please be advised before moving forward.

There is a single conversation in the original Tsui no Sora that I feel stands as the strongest case for reading it as a companion piece to Subarashiki Hibi. I have not read the remake as of writing this essay, so I am not sure if this is retained there, so I don’t want to call this section “forgotten” - just the opposite. The final conversation in “Fourth View” between Takuji and Yukito on the rooftop plants a seed that SCA-Ji would only allow to blossom eleven years later, and it’s the moment of the game that has stuck with me the hardest in reflection.

In direct reference to a story from the Rigveda, Takuji offers a monologue to the dumbfounded Yukito about two eagles resting within the same tree. To summarize the purpose and the quandary presented within this conversation, Takuji likens himself to the second eagle, who watches the first eagle roost, enjoying his harvest and leading his nest. The second eagle only watches on as a lone observer on the tree, occupying the same space, but never actually enjoying what life has to offer. As Takuji leaps from the roof, admitting his admiration and adoration for Yukito, the empty sky hangs above, and I’m left wondering… was his assessment of which boy represents each eagle correct?

The onlooking eagle - a figure standing watch, never reaching out and simply existing unchanged and unmotivated to branch out and change no matter how much the victorious eagle harvests. Such uncertainty and lack of action doesn’t really represent Takuji Mamiya within Tsui no Sora to me. In fact, if there’s any character we’ve seen take the most action, engage with the most truly life-changing, exciting, and dynamic-shifting experiences in this game… it’s got to be him. From pushed around coward to the commanding shepherd of a flock of sycophants, ordering lives to be sullied, stripped, and cast away in the holy name of the Endsky. It’s a life cut off early but one lived ultimately with conviction, intent, and execution.

In one of the epilogue sequences, we follow the ascertained dominant eagle, Yukito, into a surreal and desolate version of his school. All that waits for him there is Ayana Otanashi - a character I’ve chosen to talk so little about to this point with intent - and all the time he could ever wish for. In this reality, which the two deem is likely some form of mirror image of the one they’ve known, the quiet is only broken by meaningless and copious sexual gratification and a plastic happiness with which to wait out limitless time. Interestingly, this idea of infinite space and time is a concept that Ayana has run by other members of the cast before, namely Takuji, as a hypothetical. Adding more and more “things” to an endless existence simply means more time for those things to sour, and while at first the erotic scenes with Ayana here mark some of the most “happy” and “feel-good” instances in an otherwise bleak and explicitly violent story, I couldn’t help but think back on these conversations. In a sense, it was almost as if Ayana was presenting this life without change to Yukito, the most stubborn and unchanging member of the cast. His inaction and disinterest granted him a quiet life without change, but without much else to hold onto beyond that. Is that reality so unlike the abyssal world which Takuji claimed he and his disciples would leave behind? Is his mulish demeanor and emotional blockage really the coveted have-all life Takuji likened to the victorious eagle in his parable?

Which “viewer” sought change the hardest, who pushed the hardest to find the place they belonged, and who was the happiest for it? Who got it right? In my opinion, this lingering question, above all else, not only explains the purpose for Subarashiki Hibi’s very existence, but also leads to a discussion of my own theory regarding its final chapter, the fittingly titled "Tsui no Sora II". There are many popular “lore”-based theories regarding this chapter, and to be perfectly clear I think the entire point of the ending is to be open to any and all interpretation, so please don’t think that I’m inserting my opinion as any more correct than anyone else’s. With that in mind, one of the other most important themes in both games is the layering of multiple perspectives over the same set of events or ideas in order to gain a more nuanced understanding of a multifaceted “truth”, and I do believe you’re missing a substantial piece of the puzzle without having played Tsui no Sora yourself.

Arguably the most important and famous line in Subarashiki Hibi is, of course, “live happily!”, a quote that gains prominence during the “Jabberwocky” chapter duology late into the game. The purpose of the title of the game itself, translating to “Wonderful Everyday”, is just that - the ability that anyone and everyone has to find tranquility, peace, belonging and above all else happiness in the mundanity of everyday life. Tsui no Sora provides the basis for the events - again, this story largely revolves around the death of Zakuro Takashima and the subsequent spiral into despair and proclaimed holiness of Takuji Mamiya. It is a world of little hope, little light and little answer to the above questions. How fitting, then, that Subahibi immediately adds its own layer to the perspectives - its opening chapter, “Down the Rabbit-Hole I”, ends up giving the answers to new readers well before they know the question. It marks the change in philosophy SCA-Ji went through as a philosophical mind and as a storyteller in the decade separating these two major iterations of the story. The paths of “Rabbit-Hole I” may lead protagonist Yuki to one of three possible endings - two of which, a hasty, needy rendezvous with either Kagami or Tsukasa, dropping the pretenses and hesitancy towards same-sex relationships masked as childhood friendship, embracing the reality of their feelings, allowing the wonderful everyday to take hold. Should the player choose to fall for the very well alive, very well expressive and happy Zakuro Takashima, though, the wonderful everyday comes from both the heartfelt expressions of blossoming love… and the tenderness with which Zakuro is able to express her thanks in an interpolation of Night of the Galactic Railroad, and join the infinite cosmos in much-deserved finality, peace, and rest. This level of hope, radiance, joy, recklessness, and adoration of love in spite of, living in spite of, daring to dream and to go out and do in spite of, it all permeates the dark world Tsui no Sora set the foundation for, the foundation which asked the question: “who really lived a fulfilling life of happiness?” And no matter the circumstances, no matter the context, this is the importance of the stories as retold through the lens of Subarashiki Hibi - the answer: “all of us”.

In “Tsui no Sora II”, we are led to believe that all of the events of the preceding game are the inventions or stitched-together memories and personalities which combine into the girl known as Ayana Otanashi - dismembering her full conscious into characters, settings, and reruns familiar to Tsui no Sora prior but with this newfound philosophy and conclusory response applied. This is also true of the second epilogue in Tsui no Sora, in which the line is blurred for Yukito between Kotomi and Ayana, perpetually floating in a sea of ambiguity and infinite time. In reference to this reoccurring theme as it appears in Subarashiki Hibi, though — what is the purpose of this? Why is she suddenly called back by a random student who prior to her appearance in the last minute of the game must have had a dozen lines maximum in the script? Why place this secret at the end of the rabbit-hole to begin with?

Ayana’s discussion of perspective and theorizing about the “reality” of Subarashiki Hibi with the game’s central protagonist, Yuki, rings the same bell that Takuji and Yukito’s conversation did at the end of Tsui no Sora. In our eyes as readers, Ayana may hold all the cards and the specific knowledge about the state of all things that we, proxy Yuki, lack… but all the same, what difference does that really make? SCA-Ji debunks his own former conclusion here. It could very well be that Tsui no Sora serves only as a blueprint to its far more beloved and discussed reimagining, it could be that theories of Ayana comatose in a hospital in the “Rabbit-Hole I” ghost house concocting dreams of sunflower fields hold some truth, it could be that the Tsui no Sora remake which I’ve yet to play will layer yet another perspective atop this forgery I lay before you now, adding context I couldn’t imagine and could very well shift my perspective on this game entirely. That’s the secret of the Endsky - the Tsui no Sora. Endsky is the collective, it is all conscious understanding and expression. The more people who read, believe these characters, and find themselves thinking about the “big questions”... the more we discuss this work, the more we overlay our perspective atop each others’, the greater the tapestry of understanding we create, indeed, the closer we climb up the endless ladder to the Endsky. If we just keep thinking, maybe we could reach the “truth” at the end of the rabbit-hole…

But, at the end of the day, just like that final scene in Subahibi shows the ever-present Ayana, we’ve all got class to go to and a life to live in. The game closes, the tab gets X’d out, and the discussion threads need to be put on pause eventually. Thinking and expressing the internal is wonderful and expression is how we come to define our world and existence to each other, but we have everyday life to attend to, after over 7,000 words together. Live happily, and seek your wonderful everyday a thought, a dream, a conversation, a laugh, a cry, and a wish at a time.

EN: The House in Fata Morgana was my introduction to the medium of visual novels and I immediately feel like I've already read the best of the genre without experiencing the rest.

"No one knows who first said
...that the mansion was cursed."

It is a Visual Novel in which there is a mansion which is cursed, in which a servant girl guides you so that you, the master, can remember who you are, she presents you with stories of former members of the mansion in the form of memories and each one presents different themes, between tragedy, human nature and madness. These give way to a great mystery and the search for the answer to the curse that affects the mansion.

A masterpiece that highlights in every section the talent behind the game, showing an incredibly well written story, with the presence of extremely human characters, with a soundtrack that subtly tells its own story, as a set of things that create the atmosphere of the cursed mansion, it is a terribly depressing work, so much so that it tears the soul but at the same time through all the tragedy continues to light a hopeful fire and that immerses you in this love story.

It seeks to explore in depth the search for identity, the importance of communication and mutual understanding, how our surroundings shape us and build our being and how even small moments of human connection and warmth create a lasting effect on the people around us. it teaches us to accept reality and facing it can be as painful as reality itself. no matter how dark it gets, there is always some light at the end of the tunnel.

There are no words that can describe everything I felt through the characters, they are so human you can feel their own pain. everything maintains a level of believable realism that of what makes the narrative so heartbreaking. everything you are presented with has a purpose, putting the big puzzle together, seeing how it all came together as I went along was one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever experienced in a game.

It's not a perfect VN by any means, it's pretty unevenly paced, but I forged a greater emotional connection to this story than almost any other I've ever experienced in my life.

It is beautiful, breathtaking, heartbreakingly tragic, unflinching and brutal, and one of the best love stories ever told. It will take you on a journey of strong emotions in every way. Nothing so much passion and heart was put into could leave anyone without having gained something valuable from reading it. I am so glad I read it, because it is an experience I will never forget and it will stay in my heart.



ES: The House in Fata Morgana fue mi introducción al medio de las novelas visuales e inmediatamente siento que ya he leído lo mejor del género sin experimentar el resto.

"Nadie sabe quién dijo por primera vez
...que la mansión estaba maldita".

Es una Visual Novel en la que existe una mansión la cual está maldita, en la que una sirvienta te guía para tú, el amo, puedas recordar quien eres, te presenta historias de antiguos miembros de la mansión en forma de recuerdos y cada una presenta distintos temas, entre la tragedia, naturaleza humana y la locura. Que dan paso a un gran misterio y a la búsqueda de la respuesta a la maldición que afecta a la mansión.

Una obra maestra que destaca en todo apartado el talento detrás del juego, mostrando una historia increíblemente bien escrita, con presencia de personajes sumamente humanos, con una banda sonora que cuenta sutilmente su propia historia, en conjunto de cosas que crean la atmósfera de la mansión maldita, es una obra terriblemente deprimente, tanto que desgarra el alma, pero al mismo tiempo a través de toda la tragedia sigue encendiendo un fuego esperanzador y que te sumerge en esta historia de amor.

Busca explorar en profundidad la búsqueda de identidad, la importancia de la comunicación y del entendimiento mutuo, como el alrededor nos da forma y construye nuestro ser y cómo incluso los pequeños momentos de conexión y calidez humana crean un efecto duradero en las personas que nos rodean. Nos enseña aceptar la realidad y enfrentarse a ella puede ser tan doloroso como la propia realidad. No importa lo oscura que se ponga, siempre hay algo de luz al final del túnel.

No hay palabras que puedan describir todo lo sentí a través de los personajes, son tan humanos que puedes sentir su propio dolor. Todo mantiene un nivel de realismo creíble que de lo que hace que la narración sea tan desgarradora. Todo lo que te presentan tiene un propósito, armar el gran rompecabezas, ver cómo todo iba encajando a medida que avanzaba fue una experiencia de las experiencias más gratificantes que he experimentado en un juego.

No es una VN perfecta ni mucho menos, tiene un ritmo bastante irregular, pero he forjado una mayor conexión emocional con esta historia que con casi cualquier otra que haya experimentado en mi vida.

Es hermosa, sobrecogedora, desgarradoramente trágica, inquebrantable y brutal, y una de las mejores historias de amor contadas. Te llevará a un viaje de fuertes emociones en todos sentidos. Nada en lo que se haya puesto tanta pasión y corazón podría dejar a alguien sin haber ganado algo valioso al leerlo. Me alegro mucho de haberlo leído, porque es una experiencia que nunca olvidaré y se quedará en mi corazón.

All the way back in 2010, me and my brother were gifted a Wii during our first week of school that Fall. I had just started the 5th grade and a week or two prior I had rented and played a chunk of Super Mario Galaxy 2 on my dad's friend's Wii during a beach trip. I absolutely loved what I played of it but after the trip was over, I had to return the game back to the rental store and of course the Wii was not mine, so I craved more. Like I said, my dad gifted us a Wii and with it was Super Mario Galaxy. My brother got the Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs game so it's pretty clear only one of us got a quality title. I was infactuated with this game. I can still remember running home from school, going right to my Wii as I couldn't wait to play it any longer. I'd wake up super early on weekends too just to play more. This and Galaxy 2 were basically the first non-licensed game's I truly loved and I'm very thankful for that as it made me want to play more Nintendo titles afterwards. As you can see I adore this game, let's talk about why!

I think the defining factor as to why people love this game so much (besides the story) is its atmosphere and portrayal of space. Sure, you have more goofy or lighthearted galaxies like Honeyhive or Beach Bowl that wouldn't feel out of place in another game. But a good chunk of the galaxies in this game, as well as the Comet Observatory, just have this really unique emptyness or marvel that really makes you feel like you're in space. Take Space Junk Galaxy for example. It's a very serene and solemn galaxy where most of the setting is literal space with some junk spread throughout just like the name implies and it's very relaxing to go through. A lot of the time I would just go into first person and marvel at the scope of all the planets or just look at the different skyboxes each galaxy has. Even on this playthrough, when I've played this game countless times, I still did this..it just never gets old to me.

As I said, the story is probably the other aspect people love about this game the most. It's still a Mario game so don't expect something mind-blowing but the cutscenes that are here are all great. Be it the beginning cutscene where Mario gets shot at by a magikoopa and gets flung to the starting planet while Peach screams his name, to the ending cutscene where all the Luma's save the entire universe by sacrificing themselves. It's just all so well done. Granted, these cutscenes only really happen at the beginning and end of the game, but it's what's contained in them that matters and it's the single best story in any mainline Mario game hands down. That's not even getting into the optional Rosalina's storybook which is in itself the single best part of the story. It just adds that extra depth to her character and let's you see who she is and how she got there. And even replaying it now, I still teared up...it's that good.

The OST I also think is the single best soundtrack in any Mario game. It has it all, it has catchy songs, it has majestic songs, it has atmospheric songs, it has emotional songs. I love Galaxy 2's OST too but it doesn't top 1 in my opinion and I think that's specifically because 2 doesn't have those emotional/sad songs which I value a bunch nowadays. Those would be A Wish, Sad Girl, and Family. Those last two especially, goddamn dude, I always can't help but get emotional when I hear them. Some other more lighthearted songs I love are Gusty Garden obviously, Melty Molten Galaxy, Buoy Base Galaxy and The Comet Observatory. All in all, an absolutely fantastic soundtrack.

As for the galaxies themselves...they're good! There may be some I'm not the biggest fan of, mostly the beach/bee galaxies and that's mostly because they reuse that theme twice which kinda stinks. But in general the galaxies are quite good even if they're aren't a ton of main one's. In that regard, 2 still does it better because there's way more fun and varied galaxies in that one, but 1 still has some really great levels to play around in. My favorites were Gusty Garden, Buoy Base, Freezeflame, Melty Molten and Space Junk. Special mention to Toy Time too for being so wacky and fun. Though, honestly another small critique I have with the game is the prankster comets. I'm fine with the purple coin ones but for the ones you playthrough your first time through before Bowser, there only being 4 types is kinda lame. 2 fixed this somewhat by adding more types and making it less obvious what it's gonna be but I felt it was worth pointing out. I will also say, people saying the movement in this game sucks I will never get. Is it better than Odyssey's? Definitely not but I still think it's a ton of fun to play around with the gravity. That's just me at least.

So yeah, I know I gave a criticism or two but I still absolutely adore this game and 2 fixes those issues I have and I sort of group them together as one game so it balances each others faults out. It and Galaxy 2 are basically my favorite games ever and I go back and forth on which one I prefer regularly for different reasons so I usually group them together even if both give pretty different gaming experiences. Either way, this game means everything to me and it's a must play for every gamer I think. I love it so much. Anyways, figured I'd go and replay 2 while I'm at it so look for that review soon!

Also forgot to say, I played as Luigi this time around. He's fun to play as even if he is slippery cuz his jumps are much larger. The reward you get for 100%ing both Mario and Luigi is lame as hell though and definitely was improved in 2.

Ya know, I was gonna start this review with my usual personal story opener. I was gonna talk about how I was interested in this game because of Chuggaaconroy's Let's Play that had just come out. I was gonna talk about how I bought a copy at TooManyGames 2019 and saw Thrown Controllers live. I was gonna talk about how I was going to have Chugga sign my copy and I was disappointed in the end that I missed my chance while I was there. So, for this to be my first mention of the guy in any of my reviews, and I'm putting this review out after all the stuff that's come out in the past week and a half? Probably the worst timing imaginable since I had planned this opener from the start lol. (Edit: with the recent statement Emile put out, I have decided to delete the part saying I'm done with him.)

Sorry to start this on a negative note. I figured it needed to be said since I've had this on my mind for the past week and a half. Either way, on to the actual game. I did play like a half hour of this game back in 2019 but dropped it for whatever reason. It was one of my most hyped games in my backlog and while I don't absolutely love it like some people, I did think it was pretty great overall!

Let's start with the story of Chrono Trigger. It's a typical time travel story but it's executed very well! Throughout the game, you're traveling through various different time periods, meeting various different characters along the way. It's light hearted and really picks up in the last third of the game when shit goes down. While the story overall is executed well, flawless in pacing too, I can't say I loved it as really nothing about it blew my mind. Future square games, while maybe more imperfect in their execution of their stories (like FF7 or FFX) I enjoy way more just because they're way more impactful to me. That's not to say the story is bad in Chrono Trigger, it definitely is not, it's just not mind-blowing like I was expecting from such a well regarded JRPG.

Onto the cast, I really liked most of the characters! They all have little arcs that come to play in the story and those are my favorite bits of the story, just seeing the characters interact and grow. My favorites were Frog, Robo and Lucca..they just felt the most impactful of them all. My only issue and it's another bigger one sadly, I really wish there were more scenes of the entire party interacting and more specific character scenes in general. Once you go through a characters arc, you don't really see much from then again unless you have them in your party during a big story moment. There are little scenes here and there that do involve specific characters but I really wanted more of that. The best parts of the character development and worldbuilding and honestly they were maybe my favorite parts of the game as a whole, were the endgame optional side quests. Most of them were super great in fleshing out the characters more, I just wish that happened more in the actual story. The one where you have Robo help Fiona for 400 years, and you learn about something that happened in Lucca's past and Robo comforting her...god it was so good. But I wanted more of that! So while I did really enjoy the cast as a whole, I just wish they were more prominent in the story and not just tied down to who's in your party. Because sadly someone like Marle I completely forgot about for a while cuz I didn't find her fun to use so she wasn't really involved in the story. Also in regards to the main "villian", Lavos. They're alright..it's just a big towering obstacle in your way but I never loved it as it obviously doesn't have any dialogue and thus I never felt any type of connection to them compared to other JRPG's I've played. Everyone kept talking about Lavos but the being itself didn't do much for me besides having a cool design.

The presentation is honestly mind blowing for a Super Nintendo game. I did play the DS version so idk if the visuals were totally the same or not but what I played here was goddamn impressive. The little animations each characters have are crazy, especially if you compare it to something like Final Fantasy VI which came out a year prior to this. The areas are very rich in detail and the world as whole, while being relatively small in scope, felt alive because of the amazing visuals. Along with the presentation is the great OST. Now I won't lie and say I'm in love with the OST as a whole as of now, but each time I listen to it I'm liking it more and more and it truly is great. The standout themes for me were Frog's Theme, Schala's Theme,and Secret of the Forest among several others.

The combat is another thing I think was super well done. It's ATB like the Final Fantasy games from 4 onwards but in Chrono Trigger's case, positioning of the party plays a part. Instead of the characters being lined up all in a row, depending on encounters they can be in different postions on the screen. The character's moves can then take a part in this as some only hit enemies when they're close to you or some multitarget enemies when they're bunched up. I thought this was really fun and added something new to the combat system we all know. That plus tech moves which are specific moves that involve two more more characters when their ATB gauge is full, it adds a lot of variety to the combat. There is a ton of tech moves btw, with it being between every single character and I don't think I even unlocked them all, I doubt I even performed half of them. Gives the game a bit of replayabiliity I'd say.

Something else that makes the game replayable in my eyes is the addition of NG+ and the different endings this game has. I got the Beyond Time ending but I believe there's around 10 endings to get. You get these by defeating Lavos at different points in the game. The fact you can technically beat the game at any time, is not only awesome but with the addition of ng+, makes it feel worth it to get every ending. That plus the game is like 20 hours on a first playthrough so it's a short JRPG overall. This was also one of the first instances of NG+ in a game too which is so cool. Like I said, I got one ending but that's it. I plan on going back to get all the other endings eventually and do that NG+ only extra dungeon and final boss added in the DS version.

Speaking of something else added in the DS version, along with doing all the normal side quests which were great, I also did the Lost Sanctum. This, in my opinion is a pretty crappy addition to the game. It gives you good items but the whole thing is just meaningless fetch quests, going up the same mountain like 20 times and fighting some mediocre bosses. It's not worth the hassle and story-wise I just don't care at all. There was also this arena the DS version added too and I didn't mess with it much, didn't seem like my thing.

So yeah, overall the game is pretty great! I feel like this is a prime example of a jack of all trades but master of none game. Everything is really solid and well polished but nothing is super exceptional except for the music. Personally, I prefer more ambitious games that may be messier in execution..tho I also love Xenoblade 1 and relecting on that game, it's also pretty safe. Maybe chalk it up to when I played it then, I probably would have absolutely adored this game if I played it as a kid..but as of now, I just think it's a great classic game that does deserve the praise it gets! Anyways, now I'm wondering how I'll feel about Chrono Cross as that one seems more split. Ah well, guess we'll see!

Hello, to anyone who reads this. I’m not sure if you can hear these words, brought to you from my heart to this keyboard, and from these keys to this screen - but, if you can read me out there, uh, thank you for taking the time to listen in. I’m カケラSKY, and I’d like to share this moment in time with you to talk about this game I played recently that had a pretty tremendous impact on me. If you can read this, if you can feel me… why don’t you stay a while? Let’s talk about CROSS†CHANNEL, and my experience with it, together… or, I guess, I’ll talk to you, and I hope it reaches you out there. I hope something I have to say about this experience touches you, even if I won’t ever really know.

CROSS†CHANNEL, developed and published by the now defunct Flying Shine, is the fourth major eroge work written by legendary scenario author Romeo Tanaka, known previously for his classic debut title Kana ~Imouto~, as well as the much-beloved Kazoku Keikaku. As of right now, I’ve only played the first few hours of Kana, which I really enjoyed - and I plan to complete that work in due time - but I am otherwise new to his work. Despite this, CROSS†CHANNEL is a game that has haunted me and had my curiosity on edge for quite some time. Having studied Japanese for a solid amount of time now, Tanaka’s work was always a bridge I’d meant to cross when the time felt right, if only due to the fact that I’d heard how challenging and creative his prose gets - and how deeply flawed the majority of the translations of his work into English have been.

CROSS†CHANNEL is unfortunately the most troubled of all of his projects in this transition, having received three English localizations, each of which are at best largely unrepresentative of Tanaka’s pen and littered with inaccuracies, and at worst outright nonsensical and abhorrent. I cannot in good faith recommend any of these experiences as a suitable means to engage with CROSS†CHANNEL. Even if there isn’t much they could do to sway the graphics, music and events from telling the elements of the story the translated words cannot, there is little hint of Tanaka’s masterful language and wordplay in even the most capable moments of these localizations. I don’t mean to speak poorly of the efforts of the fans who have attempted to localize this title in the past, Ixrec the least of which considering how early into his translating career this project came. There are elements of CROSS†CHANNEL that simply do not work outside of the Japanese text without the removal of subtext, depth, nuance, or even outright explicit second or third meanings; some instances ranging as important as titles of entire chapters. I will not claim to be a master of the Japanese language at the time which I have experienced CROSS†CHANNEL - far from it, there were large chunks of the game I spent nose-deep in cultural context notes, dictionaries, and Wikipedia pages… but I feel that this drive to learn, to seek out the heart of this experience, crossing borders in order to grasp this work, that effort was so integral to both the themes of communication and the effort to understand one another that the plot leans on so heavily, as well as making the experience I had playing CROSS†CHANNEL for my first time a truly challenging, powerful, and memorable one.

Simply put, Tanaka’s prose is arguably the highlight of the entire CROSS†CHANNEL experience, and I say that as someone still confidently in the “student” phase of their life with the language. He has such a way with words, sentence structure, kanji and kana play, subtext, cultural worldliness, pacing, and emotional tug-and-pull that for me, falling in love with his work felt akin to a true coming-of-age moment where I feel like surmountable progress has been made in my studies, and a deeper and more appreciative love of the Japanese language has been achieved through reading his work. Arguably the next most powerful aspect of CROSS†CHANNEL’s presentation is Funczion SOUNDS’ fantastic soundtrack, marked by cool, distant, and often minimal and ambient compositions. Some of my favorites include title screen theme “Crisscross”, the ethereal and mysterious “Starry Heavens” and “Fated”, and of course, the haunting, heart-crushing “Signal”, a piece simply unlike anything I’ve heard in the medium - the vocals-only piece feeling like something out of late-series Evangelion more than your standard eroge fare. Matsuryu’s art is rather beautiful, particularly notable for the almost watercolor-like pastel palette and grounded but memorable character designs. The warm lighting and great framing of the CGs left several scenes particularly fresh in my mind, with the sweet scene of Nanaka holding Taichi to her chest being probably my favorite. All of these elements set a well-lit stage with which CROSS†CHANNEL allows its plot and cast to shine, and they shine brilliantly.

The story of CROSS†CHANNEL focuses on the perspective of one Taichi Kurosu, a student at the Gunjo Academy - framed as an academic institution, but in actuality a means for the government to isolate students seen as unfit for assimilation to larger Japanese society. Taichi and the other members of the school’s broadcasting club have just returned from a camping trip that he devised in a failed attempt to reconcile ill-will between the group in the hopes of reigniting their lost friendships, only to find their city completely and utterly barren. The eight students basically immediately break off into their own cliques and isolated activities, but Taichi remains determined to both bring these people together regardless of either their individual traumas or feelings on the matter, as well as help club president Misato Miyasumi complete the broadcasting tower atop the school’s roof and send a message by airwaves to the outside world in hopes of discovering what has happened to humanity. However, the plot of the game takes a quick turn and opens up its true intentions for the story to follow - this week of return to Gunjo Academy is looping, and the members of the student body lose their memories and development gained that week, resetting back to the fragmented place they left off at the start of the game. This initially includes even Taichi himself, and as a result CROSS†CHANNEL manages to pull off a route-based eroge system that is in fact also linear in progression… or, if you choose to look at it this way, canonically it resets in the way visual novels would metaphysically upon selecting “New Game” after each completed route.

The purpose of Gunjo as a host for the mentally “unfit” is a theme that permeates all of CROSS†CHANNEL. The eight students within its walls are deeply complicated, emotionally and neurologically distressed people, and from understanding this immediately arises one of the core themes of the narrative - although some members of the cast may be moved by Taichi, or come to some appreciation of him, the goal of reuniting this group of people is a task far out of his control, and frankly it’s none of his business to attempt to enforce that change to begin with. Several members of the cast have legitimate reasons to not engage with one another, particularly with Taichi himself - and ultimately it is their call, their choice to make, as to whether or not that bridge should be crossed. And yet, he persists, and this is when another element of CROSS†CHANNEL that I found so unique is also brought to light: Taichi Kurosu is arguably the most broken, most morally condemnable person in the academy, and it is through his eyes we parse this barren, empty world. Society at large has written off the Gunjo student body as monsters, and it’s a word they’re not afraid to lob at Taichi from time to time. And why shouldn’t they? Even if some find his PC-9800-era eroge protagonist humor and absurdities oddly charming, there’s still much to be said about his arrogance, possessiveness, dictatorial sense of command, and a deep streak of manic violence seemingly brought on by the sight of blood. CROSS†CHANNEL does much to show Taichi at his absolute worst, sinking to the depths of truly reprehensible actions… but it also shows him at some of his best.

For all of the awful things Taichi says and does, he’s still very much a human - no matter what anyone says about him, they cannot strip that from him. No one can. Although he is arguably the furthest removed from what is deemed “acceptable humanity” by the government, he still makes great and genuine effort to connect with the people he considers close to him. He tries to shield people he cares about from truths that he knows might hurt them in the name of protection. He suppresses much of his own trauma from the cast, and even the player themselves, for the sake of enforcing a lighthearted tone where the infinitely-looping week at Gunjo can be spent lackadaisically. And most importantly, despite his insistence to himself and through the narration of his point of view that he wishes dearly for a world where he can be entirely alone, removed from everything and everyone he feels strips an individual of their “real humanity”... he’s shown to genuinely love people, and spending time with them. Every individual member of the cast is shown to struggle with expressing their feelings, their desire to be understood, given sanctity, or saved from the weight of their own baggage - arguably, none more so than Taichi himself. There is a feeling through much of CROSS†CHANNEL that in spite of monologue upon monologue, page upon page of vindictive rambling from Taichi, he’s still suppressing how his heart really feels, and how badly he wishes to be something he already is - a living, breathing member of the human race.

“Connection” is the core of CROSS†CHANNEL, and it is explored in every possible avenue to tremendous effect. The obvious urban horror and denpa influences on CROSS†CHANNEL’s narrative invert the traditional stand-bys of passed rumors, broadcasted paranoia, and overwhelming waves of noise, thought and sound for the almost cosmic terror of radio silence. I’d liken the sinking dread of each week of CROSS†CHANNEL to an experience like Ever17, where the true horror comes from the loneliness and emptiness felt in the vacant corridors of LeMU, trapped and abandoned with no S.O.S. response in sight. Where in Ever17 the claustrophobia of the underwater theme park comes into play, the opposite may be said of CROSS†CHANNEL. There could not be enough space for Taichi et al to run around in, and in typical teenage fantasy fashion, all the hedonistic and self-serving tendencies come out to play. Piles and piles of stolen junk food, driving around in the principal’s sports car, and lots and lots of gross, messy sex on school grounds. In fact, with such a dangerous and carnally-driven presence as Taichi around, there’s a feeling of distrust or fear of being too close to our point of view that comes off of many characters. Sex is indeed another facet of CROSS†CHANNEL’s themes of connection, and I’ll comfortably call the 18+ scenes among the best I’ve read in the medium. Tanaka will often treat sexual intercourse in a mechanical, analytical way - one of the earlier consensual moments treating two peoples’ joined organs as a singular nervous system, a true joining of mind and soul into a single mechanism - perfect connection. Sex is weaponized as power, as a means to try and coerce mutual harmony and understanding, and as a hazy grasp at one’s own identity and a reclamation of things lost in the scramble to figure out what that looks like. Love is often present in these scenes but in a way that feels hopeless, and oftentimes like an intentional stroke of “obligation” between two characters to create a grounds for that theme of communication. Whether or not some members of this cast are people capable of that kind of love… that’s for you to analyze and decide. But the fact that they can express that desire, the fact that they have the potential to feel, to want, to crave, and to yearn - those are all undeniable proofs of their humanity.

To get back to the core themes of “connection” and “communication”, the structure of CROSS†CHANNEL essentially demands that they be addressed in order to maintain kinetic progression. You as the player do have the potential to waste weeks away stuck in the same section of the loop, and in order to progress further requires the actual completion of each route. All of these routes require Taichi digging into the pasts and psyches of the route’s lead heroine - forging a connection with them that if not permanent is in that moment tangible. Very subtle shifts occur with each step through the loops, with ever-so-slight bumps and shifts leading further and further down the road to the true ending - and with it, the dilapidation of the show Taichi put on at the very start. As the plot progresses, the world deteriorates, metaphorically speaking .The drama and open terror of the cast’s circumstances becomes ever more real and pressing, tensions rise higher and higher as more and more awful truths are revealed and pasts are dug into, and most of all - we as an audience as exposed to more and more context and background revolving around the group, most especially Taichi. Simple exposure to a handful of scenes from Taichi’s formative years immediately shifts entire dynamics, plot points, and angles with which to view the story askew, and therein lies one of the strongest components of CROSS†CHANNEL’s meta-narrative: Taichi is having done to him through our eyes what he is trying to do to the cast. We are scraping into his memories, his thoughts, his mind, in the hopes of understanding what he has been so reluctant to accept and understand about himself - we are discovering the human life of Taichi Kurosu, a young man who despite himself, despite his so-called ideals, wishes deeply to be understood. As the full picture begins to become clear, and as CROSS†CHANNEL begins its final act, this aspect of the story truly begins to take form into something both absolutely unique from storytelling and thematic perspective across this entire medium, and also deeply moving, personal, and profound.

For the sake of not robbing you of the experience of witnessing how the events of Gunjo Academy’s infinite week play out, I won’t dip into spoiler territory here - but please, note that I firmly believe CROSS†CHANNEL to have one of the most impactful, powerful endings to any story I’ve ever read. It is at this moment, listener, if you’re still with me, that I believe this crossing of our signals is beginning to fade… so I’ll try to leave you with something to think about before I end my broadcast.

In being an artist, in being someone who tries to express themselves, and in being someone who has had their fair share of bouts with mental health and traumatic experiences, I can attest to many of the feelings expressed in the text of CROSS†CHANNEL. I’ve had plenty of times where I’ve struggled with the feeling that the things I do to share, express, and explore myself in the world ultimately land in the infinite void of radio static. I’ve felt silly for trying to pursue recreational experiences that ultimately don’t add anything to a resume, or a degree, or an advancement of my socioeconomic position. I’ve felt like I’ve had no future before. I’ve even felt like I don’t deserve to be alongside other members of the human race, like I was unfit for love and care the same way I desperately tried to show the people I cared about that they were loved and cared for. I have always, always felt stupid when I get too wordy or passionately expressive about the things I care about, things that moved me or that I was affected by. But in stark contrast to that, I’ve been allotted amazing luck in finding amazing friends, family and loved ones who don’t compromise in showing me the humanity and the goodness that I should’ve been able to see in the mirror all along. There’s a CG that shows up a few times in the game where Taichi and Yoko are displayed in a mirror in the school bathroom, Taichi’s eyes completely void of emotion or feeling… and I can’t say that’s a feeling I haven’t felt before, but it’s also one I don’t feel anymore. Everyone has the right to try and get out there and express themselves. Everyone has the right to try and be understood. Everyone has the right to put art, music, writing, performances, and yes, erotic visual novel computer games out there with the intent of shouting into some cloudy, vast world, “is there anyone alive out there?” Everyone has the right to cross channels with someone else, no matter how brief that window, and know that we as people have the ability to touch each others’ hearts. We may not ever truly, fully understand another person, we may not even ever truly understand ourselves, but we have an obligation as a singular human race to explore, to think, to love, to know, and to touch upon those crosses in signals, those flickers of mutuality, and respond, “we are alive”. CROSS†CHANNEL’s most recent release comes with the subtitle “for all people”, and I cannot think of a better way to possibly summarize its intent.

This is a static moment in time, that will continue to remain well after I've typed it in the hopes of connecting with you. I won't know if you read this unless we connect somehow, and you have no obligation to reach out and make that happen. As long as you receive this broadcast, and you've read all that I've had to express and emote to you... I am truly grateful. This is where my line continues in another direction as yours, forming an "X" of trajectories where we met in a brief pocket of time.

So, I ask in the hopes that you hear this…
Is there anyone alive out there?
Do you feel the way I do?
Until we cross channels again.
I’ll see you next week.