This game was a perfect choice for the beginning of spooky season! This was a fun, short and utterly terrifying experience to say the least. This went from playing hide and seek with cute little gnomes to swimming through piles of rotting meat real fast. The story itself was incredible , something that I will be thinking about a lot and looking more into. The environment, soundtrack, and monster design are this games strengths. Where this game falls short, is the animation, frame rate, and wonky controls. At some points, it ran completely fine but there were multiple instances where the frame rate just couldn’t keep up with the action and caused me to mess up what I was doing. But the frequent checkpoints made this not a huge issue. While some might be turned off by the gameplay, I personally think it’s worth pushing through it simply because of the wonderful narrative and visuals this game has to offer.

I cannot explain how much I love this game. This game frustrated the hell out of me, but in a good way. It kept me coming back. I died a lot, but each time I died, I benefitted. Finding the perfect cast of characters for each boss and pulling off perfect strategy is so satisfying. There isn’t a bad character in the game, they are all great for their own skills. And though I wasn’t sure if I’d like the “second job” option, it became really fun really quickly. The game is an eye-gasm to say the least, it’s gorgeous to look at, not to mention the soundtrack that lives in my head rent-free. The voice acting is above and beyond. Needless to say, this game had a death-grip on me and I grew fonder and fonder of it the more I played it. Each character became very special to me. I know this is one of those ‘either you love it or you hate it’ kind of games to people but I can honestly say it’s one of my favorite games I’ve ever played.

Finally pushed through and finished this one after months of putting it off. Engage is a great game, don't get me wrong. This game had a chokehold on me for the first half of it but as it went on, the story got way too unnecessarily ambitious. There were way too many twists and turns that it turned into something I didn't care to be invested in by the end. That being said, the ending was absolutely beautiful and specifically the cutscene with all the emblems right before the final battle. (shoutout to my boyfriend for pulling up the cutscene on youtube when I accidently skipped it). It got me excited for a fight the first time in awhile.
The gameplay was great for the most part. I loved the engage feature, it made fights more fun, finding new and creative ways to take down enemies. The maps were very fun, with terrain effects and gimmicks that made the game not as repetitive.
The characters were enjoyable but compared to the close-knit groups in three houses, they fell short. This game made it a lot harder to achieve A-Support with units that by the end, I was disappointed with the amount of content I wasn't able to see. I can see it being easier if you grind support with a few select characters but me being me, I like to give everyone a chance to participate and Somniel activities and battle (Except Saphir and Lindon, screw them. Literally had to just look up their names, that's how much I don't care about them). A few of these characters became very dear to me, my favorite being Zelkov. Honorable mentions include Pandreo, Amber, Alcryst, Rosado, and Merrin.
As far as units go, this game has some broken characters. I can literally send Merrin off on her own to take out a large group of enemies and she is fine. No one even comes close to even hitting her. A few characters who also are very close to that level of broken are Panette, Kagetsu, Diamont, Yunaka and Timerra. Most of these units can be pretty self-sufficient and were a consistent staple in my army.
I found the game overall enjoyable. It wasn't perfect by any means but it wasn't bad at all. I thought the running sibling theme really worked for a game like this. Maybe it was because I didn't get supports up all the way up but some of the characters didn't even feel like they were close to the characters who were written to be close with other characters. EX: Diamont/Amber, Merrin/Timerra. To me, that just takes away from the close-knit feeling that games like three houses gave me. So perhaps that's why I wasnt as emotionally invested in this story. Some of these characters who are saving the world together felt like absolute strangers. Overall, I'm glad I got to play this game and I'm glad I got to know some of these characters from the franchise that I didn't know about before. For a long time fire emblem fan, I can see this being a great crossover game and a solid stand-alone game with its own story. I usually can tell by the end of a game if its something I'll ever go back to. For this one, I can't tell. Mainly because 'New Game+" isn't an option. If it were, I might be tempted to get support conversations that I wasn't able to get in my first playthrough. But since its not, going back to it feels pointless and starting a new game would feel like a chore. So for now, I'm done with it. It was fun for what it was :)

Now that I beat the main story, I feel like I can finally review this. After the feeling of wonder and awe that I felt with Breath of the Wild, I had high expectations for this game. For the most part, this exceeded my expectations in more ways than one. But I must say, this game didn't give me the same feeling when I began it, it was a good feeling but very different. Maybe it was the beginning sky island or the vibe of the story but it didn't feel the same and that may be no fault of the game; in all honesty, I don't think any game will make me feel the way that BOTW felt. But besides that impossible expectation, this game is near perfect. It is everything I would want in a sequel game. The controls frustrated me to no-end at the beginning but after awhile of playing, it became very familiar. I applaud the amount of new content this game gave with the addition of the sky islands and the depths (it took me an embarrassingly long amount of time to discover the depths by the way) and even the new content and flow of the surface. They left a good amount to discover with the additions of the caves and wells. I loved the sages and their powers. They all proved to be very helpful at times, I mostly had Tulin and Yonobo out at all times. As for the story, while it wasn't perfect, I feel satisfied with it. I don't feel like there were any loose ends and there were no questions that went unanswered. I'm planning on returning it to 100% it, I'm at about 70% as of finishing it. (Just need to finish side quests).

Okay so, there's a lot to say about this game and not a lot of words to say it. If you're into games like this, consider this a masterpiece. The environment, the characters, the story, the visuals, everything is beautiful. This game had me by the throat for awhile, its hard to stop playing once you get in a rhythm. The mines were compelling and kept me coming back again and again, well after I finished them. I have very few complaints about this game. One being the way the characters don't change over time with dialogue. I figured when I married Shane that Marnie and Jas would treat me a little more like family or at least have a few dialogues that acknowledge the fact that we were married. Whenever I kept seeing Marnie, she would always say something like "Oh my nephew Shane has been living with me for the passed few months-" that never changes. Another complaint I have is the GRIND for perfection. I was at the point where I had everything but the golden clock and I was so desperate by the end, I was just selling my accumulation of materials over the years to get the 10,000,000 I needed for it. It was actually painful but I got really desperate. But eventually I got it and the satisfaction was indescribable. I highly recommend everyone who even has a hint of interest give this a try. It had so much charm and I consider it a real treasure of a game.

This game took me A LONG TIME to get into. Having never played a game of this style, the game really didn't have a lot of instruction and most of it I figured out through trial and error (lots of error). I just felt like for a long time that I was just REALLY bad at this game and it was really discouraging to say the least. It felt clunky and I just couldn't get used to the controls for the life of me, but once I got them down and unlocked more useful shards and weapons, the whole game was easier to navigate. This game really isn't forgiving and save rooms are few and far between so when you fuck up, it feels worse than usual. Once I was about 50% done with the game I started to get hooked and had my own shard formula that worked very well for my playstyle. The bosses for the most part were very challenging and I had a lot of fun with them but I must admit, they were glitchy. The two bosses that my game glitched out for were the twin dragons and the doppelganger. For the twin dragons fight, I randomly fell through the walkway and fell 2 levels down and saw the dragons from behind (they don't have full tails by the way; fun fact) and the doppelganger got stuck in the wall at some point and wouldn't come out. It just felt like for the boss fights, there should be little room for glitches to happen and they still do. Overall this game doesn't have a lot of replay value (at least to me) but I do feel like I got a full experience and am able to form a solid opinion on it.

I really enjoyed playing through this, I had so much fun with it. For a fps from the 90's, it has surprisingly held up very well. The levels were short and sweet with the perfect amount of challenge. The only issue that I had was keeping track of what switches did what. I found myself running around in circles for a few minutes a couple of times because I couldn't figure out what the switch I hit just did. Though I wasn't around to experience what it was like to play this game at the time it came out (I was born in 1998 lol), I can imagine how iconic this was when it came out. I can definitely see myself playing this as a relaxing game in the future if I'm bored.

KIRBY! I vibed with this game a lot. Playing this was a very relaxing experience all in all. I found myself playing in hour or so sessions and I was able to beat it in a little over a week. I loved all the enemies and all of the game mechanics. The trippy final fight was one of my favorite things I've ever experienced (Probably because I was high but that's besides the point). I am definitely going back to play this some more and get all the collectables if possible. It was a great length if you are looking for a shorter game to play. Over all, I really enjoyed this game and I'm so glad I got to play it.