A great improvement over 3, it presents a better looking moveset for Edward Kenway over Connor's, which I would argue is the best thing this game did: controlling the character feels great. Unfortunately, it's victim of the same mistakes that plagued III, namely constant repetition and worthless activities. I don't mind it as much as others, but even I can't deny it would be better having a much better set of objectives than 5000 of the same things.

The star of the show, however, is obviously naval combat, especially since the devs made it great. It doesn't have much to it, but it's undeniable that the low investment and moderate but steady benefits make the ships an ideal time sink.

There's a lot of stuff you can do in this game but not a single one feels particularly enticing. Story is alright, and Haytham's introduction remains peak Assassin's Creed (even though it's s little too long). When matters shift to Connor, things kind of get stuck, the story gets too boring, which is a very generic criticism against III but I really felt it, too. I find Connor's eventual disillusionment with the whole system very well done, I genuinely felt for the guy in the end.

When it comes to the activities you can do in the free roaming explorable areas, well, it sucks. I remember I liked getting the attention of lots of guards on a single street and accumulate. This was nerfed in subsequent games, so I felt bad m, for that, I liked calling those moments 'Assassin's Street'. I mention that because any other extra activity the game offers you is downright awful and simple, put in the game just for the sake of quantity. You can assault fortresses, but all of them have the very same defenses, just different layouts. You can get a ton of collectibles but thr rewards for doing so are nonexistent. You can embark on naval expeditions, but this is before Black Flag, so the combat sucks.

Desmond and company are unremarkable characters just as usual, so yeah, this is a veru forgettable game, too.

The devs should've made the same thing that the ones of the modern ports of FFVII and VIII did: being able to adjust the game speed on the go with a single button press. Instead, you have to pause and then adjust the speed. The difference is negligible but it adds up eventually.

On another note, the first half of IX is still my personal favorite: it's humorous, corny but beautiful, tragic and epic. The combat mechanics work perfectly and the fantasy world envisioned for this occasion is just so endearing. And then... it kinda drags out, but it's still good.

Vivi is best fictional character, tho. And the ending is still the sweetest thing I've ever seen in video games.

Legendary Final Fantasy.

It's kind of weird because, while I'd argue there isn't much here to grab your attention - the gameplay, for instance, isn't any fancier than other JRPGs and the narrative is fairly typical, this game held me there until the very end. Perhaps it's a combination of looking nice and having interesting scenaries, solid artwork, having a polished combat system and really diversifying the contents of each plotline. While that last thing might sound like any kind of good game, DQXI changes A LOT throughout its entirety.

There is a ton of collectible fluff in Odyssey, but I don't think even 100 of the moons available are obtained through great platforming, rather, a lot of these thingies are obtained through mundane and obscure puzzles and/or very short challenges. If you rush the main story, it makes up for a decent playthrough, but the rest of the meat of the game is not that enjoyable, feels like a drag after a while.

Some things I liked is that we finally can put customes of our choice on Mario and that the coins actually function as a currency for the first time, that was really neat and a nice change of pace for the Super Mario games.

As with any PS1 main Final Fantasy game, I have to clarify that I simply cannot stand the slowness of the battles. Speed booster was mandatory for me. If I were to ignore that, however, I'd say this a great game, namely the narrative and the characters, and, in spite of the limitations of its era, it manages to convey exactly what it intends. Something that I felt was weird was the drastic transition between locations. You start the adventure in a heavily urbanized city, then you go to a small European-looking town, then to a modern-looking farm, then to a paradise resort, then to an amusement park, pre-Columbian ruins... IDK, feels weird, could've used some more cohesion there.

It was amazing to see this gem totally renovated, made me proud of the fandom that had pushed this game for so many years. Only thing I didn't like was that when I played the online, the game plan was way too optimized LOL Kind of hard to keep up. Things like the placement of lumberjack camps and farms factor in a ton in the advancement of the matches, kind of reminds of the Super Mario Bros. speedruns, which hardly can get better nowadays. Still, that's not a problem with the game at all, but it caught me off guard for sure.