The only thing holding me back from giving this game a higher rating is due to this being in early access, so some features are obviously missing. But with that being said though, this is a fantastic follow up to Hades and the framework is definitely there.

As per usual, Supergiant has crushed both the character and world design. The soundtrack is stellar and even more incorporated into the game with the second boss and the combat is as buttery smooth as ever. Having not only one but two paths was also a welcome surprise and I absolutely love the environments they incorporated.

I am curious to see how the story will play out though because as is, It feels like it’s about 75% of the way there but sort of ends abruptly once clearing for the first time. So besides that and a few balancing issues, I know we’re in good hands. Overall, I’m excited to see how this game fully evolves as we get closer to a final build!

Animal Well kinda took me by surprise, what I thought would be a short little metroidvania turned into something more vast than I ever could have imagined. There are so many secrets and hidden areas to discover. Even after collecting all 64 eggs and getting all the secret bunnies, I find out there’s even more that I’ve missed. Plus, I’m sure there are still more hidden secrets out there yet to be discovered. It’s clear how much thought and time went into making this game and It’s hard to believe this game was made by only one person. That, plus the fact this whole game is a measly 30MB, absolutely blows my mind.

Off the rip, I appreciate that you’re immediately thrown into this world with no tutorial and forces you to figure out how this game works. It made exploration a blast and gave you a real sense of discoverability. The use of colour in this game is simply astonishing. Neon pixel art paired with dynamic lighting completely immerses you in this dark and mysterious world. Additionally, the fluid dynamics and physics are outstanding. As enemies disappear and blocks get blown away by TNT, the wisps of smoke left behind lingers ever so beautifully. I’ve never seen better smoke effects than in this game.

The puzzles in this game were super engaging and made good use of the tools you find along the way. Instead of the usual attack, bomb and double jump in your standard metroidvania; you are instead treated to the yoyo, slinky, and bubble wand. Each expanding your moveset and allowing you to unlock even more of the ever growing map. I never felt stuck as there was always somewhere else to explore and by the post-game, there were countless rooms that I felt I exhausted everything it had to offer until I found a new tool.

Slowly pulling back layer by layer, this truly is the lasagna of gaming.

Thank you Animal Well.

Stellar Blade plays it pretty safe, it has taken inspiration from so many great things that it can be hard to be anything below mediocre (There will be many comparisons). But the things it does do right are amazing, resulting in a really enjoyable experience for me.

Combat is great and basically everything feels fast and satisfying. The parry system could do with a bit more work, but maybe this is just me wanting a clone of Sekiro's posture bar + deathblow system rather than the common mechanic of 'reach parry threshold for a critical blow to the health bar', which was also seen in Lies of P.

Beta skills and the other trees are very fun to use, The animation team at Shift Up cooked extremely hard. The downside is that Eve is so strong with her cool as fuck abilities that you can basically skip some bosses' combos, it can take away from the entire point of parrying in the first place since you can just wail on them instead.

Dodging is also really satisfying, theres such a dynamic feel to every blink you pull off. The game also encourages you to do square and triangle combos to deal extra damage, but this can sometimes lock you into an animation that leaves you vulnerable. Its a nice touch and keeps you thinking about your inputs, rather than spamming the same button like in Sekiro. I do appreciate what its trying to accomplish, if I had to compare the combat its kind of like a mix of the Jedi games (abilities/parries), Lies of P (souls styled encounters/parry criticals), and Nier Automata (combos).

The gun is also a cool aspect of combat, it spices up some of the enemy encounters and levels that remind me of experiences from The Last of Us or Dead Space.

Movement and platforming is similar to how it worked in Jedi Fallen Order, wall running, double jumping and mid air dashing is what you'll be doing for most of the map traversal. I don't mind it at all and it gets the job done, nothing too special here but at least it isnt unbearably slow.

Visuals are great, a bit too many desert areas for my liking but aside from that it was all eye candy. High quality 2D iconography and modelling for individual assets, incredible lighting, colour direction, super dynamic cinematics and QTEs that put you right into the action (insane camera work). Character designs are great, Raven, Tachy, Orcal and ESPECIALLY Eve (I lost) with her many crazy outfits. The Naytiba designs are very interesting too, some pure nightmare fuel in that shit. Loved the inspiration from oceanic animals like octopi, land insects and mecha.

Music is unbelievable and might be the highlight for me, its absolutely my pick for best score of the year so far. Okabe - the Nier series composer, has done it again alongside Monaca sound studio. So many tracks in this game are bangers, with multiple different genres ranging from piano pieces to full EDM dubstep tracks (favourites being: Buzzsaw Slide, Karakuri's Theme, The Song of the Sirens, Belial's Theme, Hypertube Slide, and Tachy's Theme). The large amount of vocals used in the score push the themes of this game which I think is nice, its something the Nier series also does which makes sense.

Story is where the somewhat small cracks start to show, for the most part its predictable, some small twists I was surprised with but for the most part it was average. In this aspect it will stay in Nier's shadow, Eve could do with more of a personality rather than a sympathetic stoic who just wants to get her mission done, other characters just seem pretty barebones too. The side lore is quite good but nothing that helps the game stand out. Dialogue and writing is pretty basic. Side Missions were average at best, but didn't feel like a chore since some banger music was blasting and I could appreciate Eve's design at the same time. The voice acting (KR) can be pretty good at times within tense moments, especially Eve, Lily, Tachy and Raven, but aside from these few everyone else sounded kind of uninteresting and void of emotion.

Needs more of the Sonic tunnel grinding levels because that shit was sick as fuck!!

Overall I enjoyed my time, don't listen to the braindead controversy and form your own opinions by playing :)

the man in black may be the only human who can rival majimas immortality in kiwami 1

i set him on fire
i blew him up with grenades
i sliced his throat with a katana
i caved his skull in with a baseball bat
i fucking ran him over with an 18 wheeler

yet he remains alive. how? nobody knows.

the physics in this game were absolutely fucked. at first it's like hehe funny ragdoll but sometimes it's hard to use a heat action or recover from getting knocked down because you're fucking ice skating across the room

"the sins of the yakuza are mine. and if i have to, i'll take on every last one."

i have spent the past month and a half playing the entire yakuza series. blood, sweat, tears, and hundreds of hours have gone into this journey that slowly rose to the crescendo that is infinite wealth. but now that i'm here, there is a void inside me left by the man whose entire legacy has been built up over the entire series.

it's rare i genuinely get deeply involved into the story of any game or series. these days games just seem to take the same plots and rehash them over and over again and so the idea of a good "story" was kind of lost to me. the story of kiryu is one that managed to slowly consume me as the series progressed, and i struggle to see how they can top what they managed to achieve with infinite wealth. it's not often you keep a main character around across almost 10 games and multiple decades, but they somehow managed to do it.

they connect all the dots between you and your past lives, and it feels like you are forcefully but hesitantly dragged into accepting fate alongside kiryu. the memory links you come across touch on aspects of every game and had me so emotional so many times. at times it felt like the world would fall apart without this man, yet he managed to hold it together every time.

"me? i'll take on the yakuza's past. but you... i want you to handle their future."

it really did feel like this game was kiryu passing the torch to ichiban in hopes of creating a better yakuza world. i didn't know how to feel about this since 7 left me with a weird taste, but over the course of this game i warmed up to the idea of it and like the character that ichiban has turned into, one who can obtain that legendary status.

the same goes for the gameplay; 7 was definitely pretty rough and i'll be the first to say i was not the biggest fan of the jrpg transition. 8 changed my mind completely on that matter; every small thing that annoyed me completely disappeared and was replaced with even more of what i loved. the combat, the jobs, the substories, everything just felt like it meshed together perfectly.

this isn't a game i can coherently explain in a review, it is something you need to experience yourself. play the yakuza series in its entirety. yes, it is going to take you forever to complete, but i promise you it is a peak gaming experience.

i really don't know what i'm going to do next, i don't know what rgg is going to do next, but i do know that whatever it is, i'm here for it.

it made it to my top 5 for a reason.

also i would die for seonhee.

bon voyage.