487 reviews liked by Thechosengamer


Honestly, one of the videos games I've ever played. An immediate classic. The tone and vibes are unmatched the first half of the game. If you are completely blind to the mechanics then it will definitely pull some tricks on you. Some of the puzzles are kinda bullshit, and the tone does shift dramatically by the end of the game, but its still a hallmark in the genre.

"Even a fly lives for a day"

Final Fantasy IX is a very strange game. A decades-long reputation and countless Final Fantasy ranking lists made it impossible to go into this without expectations; knowing it's so widely regarded as one of or even the best entry in the series is hard to ignore, but I tried my best to stay reasonable, and even expected not to like it as much as 7, and to compare the two as little as possible as I played.
This worked out pretty well in the end, but unfortunately my thoughts on this game in isolation ended up being even more confusing as a result..

If you sit on the title screen for a moment, you'll see images of the party members, each with a title and a thought related to their personality. Virtue: You don't need a reason to help people. Sorrow: How do you prove that you exist? May we don't... Devotion: Someday I will be queen, but I will always be myself. Solitude: I don't want to be alone anymore. -- These honestly make for a great first impression, and had me going in with even higher hopes that the characters would be fleshed out with rich and well written arcs surrounding their unique perspectives. I don't want to go on too long or trample anyone's love for the title, but I'm so disappointed that this ended up being untrue.
To be clear, a handful of characters do get some proper development and go through real growth. Zidane, Garnet, and especially Vivi, all succeed in this regard in my opinion, and make for some of the most interesting elements of the entire game. Steiner and Eiko definitely get their growth as well, but in a much more 'secondary' feeling way, with less ongoing presence, and this is even worse with Freya and Amarant, who seem to have their whole stories told in just a few specific moments with very little going on outside of those. (And then Quina honestly might as well not even be there I'm sorry. Their menu screen says "Indulgence: I do what I want" or something but what it should've said was "I like food, that's my whole character" 😅)

Anyway, due to this, the game fell a little short for me on the party front, and all the times I'd heard that the characters are so well written became a confusion as to how, when less than half of them even have a story to begin with. Freya's arc in particular is very powerful, and the concept is excellent, but as with a lot of the game's moments, it happens and then it's over, if that makes sense? There's no lasting impression, like being told an emotional story and then immediately putting a movie on. Idk this may just be me but I felt like a lot of scenes would've benefitted from being allowed to breath a bit more and giving me time with a soft song to let it sink in. Sure I could've just stopped playing and sat there, but that's not how I play :p

I've rambled a lot already so to quickfire some other thoughts I have: The combat in this game felt really bad, I'm sorry. Like all of it, I played on PS so I had the cheats to instantly trance and do 9999 damage, but even by the late game when I had good equipment and high levels the fights either felt unfair or just took way too long. The delay between every attack and whatever slows things to a crawl I never ever would've gotten through it playing normally. By the final area I still didn't have a single summon available on either summoner so idk what the deal was there, and after maxing out my levels and abilities to have a full party of Lvl 99's, Zidane's base attack was doing 4000+ damage and my summons were doing less than 1000.. why game 😅 This is probably me being stupid and not understanding something, but yeah not for me, big dislike. And phoenix down's reviving you with less than 0.5% of your hp is comically useless idk how you're supposed to do anything with that!

Narratively, the story took a hot second showing it's face but once it got going and especially in the endgame I ended up liking it. I can understand why the core principles and themes of the game resonate with people so strongly, I just think the execution of a lot of the arcs and the gameplay itself take away from it a lot more than I would expect for a game with a reputation so strong that when I started it the only common issue I knew people took with it was the battle intro being too long 😅

Ultimately, I definitely like this game, I dare even say that it's a good one, very good maybe. It's just a shame that the good is buried underneath so much that felt undercooked to me. Lots of really great ideas all thrown into a pot that's too small to fit them - some of it may be cooked to perfection, but you've gotta eat through a load of under or overcooked food to get to it, and that sucks.

People have been pretty vocal that this game should get a proper remake in the way that FF7 has been, with some even saying it should've gotten one instead of 7. I used to think this was just because they prefer 9, and the 7 v 9 rivalry will never end, but even as someone who prefers basically everything about FF7, I think I kinda get it. Neither game is perfect, of course not, but in terms of which game has the potential to be greater than it was if given proper time, care and a much improved execution? Maybe.. I believe that the best possible version of FF9 could improve upon its original more than the best possible FF7 could.

This ended up running a lot longer than planned so I'll cut myself off here -- hope you're all keeping busy with your backlogs in what's turning out to be a somewhat quiet year for the industry. I've not been reviewing/rambling as much recently because it takes me so long to type 20,000 words per game, but next on the docket is the latter 2/3rds of TWEWY and then honestly I might jump right back into Final Fantasy with my first proper playthrough of XIII, the controversy will continue :p
Thanks for reading everyone, hope you're well! 🙏

While being more of the same like 1st mission I honestly saw myself enjoy this one a lot more then the first game. More weapons , better level layout and even voice acting !!

Overall better experience imo over 1st mission.

Eh. It didn't age well. Very clunky and stupidly hard because of it. Disappointed since I always thought controlling a ninja meant proper fluid controls but, hey, maybe I got too much used with Ninja Gaiden.

Shorter, tighter, with more variety. At "just" 15 levels, this expansion clocks in at around half the length of the original. But it packs that length with more level variety and, interestingly, an entire stretch of levels dedicated to a new vehicle/hover motorcycle mechanic.

Aftershock addresses every main complaint about the original game. Thought it had too many sewer levels in the middle part? Here's 15 levels, the majority of which are outdoor urban areas. Thought it didn't have enough variety? Here's a vehicle section. Thought it dragged on too long? Well, buddy, this one's half the length.

All that, and they added in a new BFG type weapon.

The original Ion Fury already stood head and shoulders above the rest of the retro FPS market. Aftershock is somehow even better.

This just rules. The peak of Build Engine FPS. Gorgeous art and world design, the added enemy variants make combat even more compelling than the base game. The vehicle section is a blast, and ends just when it should. My only complaint is that it ended a little too soon, but it is an expansion after all.

Visions of cloudy skies and rocking tides

It's been about fourteen years since I last saw them. I wasn't much of an Xbox gamer myself. My cousin played a plethora of titles that, fond as I was of them at the time, I would eventually grow to despise. Call of Duty, Crackdown, and other disturbing war empathizing and police enabling products. But as somber as my recollection grows, there's still a glimmer of fond nostalgia in the times we spent gaming together.

The kinds of experiences I can reminisce on and truly long for again.

Even though it was just a single player experience, Bejeweled occupied a shocking amount of our time together. We'd pass the controller back and forth each trying to surpass the others' scores (well, maybe I was struggling a little more than them). It was competitive gaming at its most innocent.

I still get teary eyed whenever I ride a plane and see another variant of Bejeweled, or even some other match 3 knockoff a la Candy Crush, whether on someone's phone or engraved into the seat's screen in front of me. It reminds me of those times. I hope I can see them again soon. Would it be the same? Hard to say, but

In my heart of hearts, I hope to hear next we meet,

"Welcome to Bejeweled 2"

kinda sad but rn is the only game that gives me serotonin

Поначалу шло на 4.5/5 но потом оказалось что игра довольно затянута + имхо слоу-мо это скорее не фича, а костыль, которым разработчики решили подлатать плохой баланс игры, но игра действительно довольно уникальная в своём роде и при этом очень хорошо состарилась