For a licensed game based on a TV series it's pretty good. The combat is surprisingly fun and kinda intuitive if you watched the show (like needing to stake vampires or being able to use shovels to fight them and even stake them with it).
I generally preferred the more linear levels as the puzzles in between fighting can get a bit "point and click" like, like needing to find the right item and then use that to blow something up or recording a voice to get by a security door or something. In the less linear levels I found that to be a tad tiresome. Sadly, the bosses in the later levels are also not the best, as most of them just spam adds at you and you constantly need to de-activate or destroy something to get to damage the bosses at all.

The real appeal is definitely just the amount of love put into this. Not only can you play as many different characters from the cast (though my best gal Faith only got a single level, which is definitely not enough), most actors also returned to voice their characters in-game, paired with the quippy one-liners from the show this was definitely a highlight in presentation. The title screen also starts with the classic Buffy intro music and the menus in general definitely have that Buffy flair.
There is also a plethora of bonus content like interviews with a lot of cast members or even the whole fucking ass comic that this game's story is based on. Imagine getting something like that in modern game!

All in all you will enjoy this game if you're a) a Buffy fan or b) really into retro PS2 games. Luckily I'm both so this was really nice, while not the absolute pinnacle the system has to offer.

This game is a roadtrip in the best kind of way.
I gotta be honest, I was immensely sceptical when I saw that FF7 Rebirth was actually to be open world or at least sorta open world. This kind of world structure often leads to bloat and uneven story progression, but I really like how they did it here - even if it is not perfect.

Before playing this I always thought the story progression in the original FF7 was weird. Usually you just go some place and then some other for no apparent reason. Occasionally, you might have a vague hint to what the direction or the logic might be, but it mostly feels pretty random. In FF7 Rebirth you're actually provided context! Like following the Black Robes until the party looses their trace or some incident along the way, that actually leads the party to wanting to learn more about the planet and go to Cosmo Canyon for example. Now this episodic and somewhat random story progression actually makes sense! The party has a goal, but they are caught into weird shenanigans or come across a place of importance for a specific party member. Even though the story is still very much meandering about, now I finally have the context to understand and feel like it makes sense.
This meandering feeling of a roadtrip is also FF7 Rebirth's biggest strength. Characters get time to interact in funny, silly, or surpsingly heartwarming ways and it is believable that the group gets caught up in a lot of side hustles to finance their trip or just because it happens along the way. Especially the sidequests give a lot more character time between all them, making this feel like one of the best parties in RPG history. Even if it is just stupid stuff like Tifa pushing Cloud playfully into the Frog mini-game or Barret being all sentimental about Marlene eventually growing up.
Mostly the open world is really nicely designed too, with a lot of vehicles/ new chocobo breeds that give each area a new gimmick to spice up exploration. The biggest problem I have with this is Chadley though. Way too much is funneled through him. You can't find the Summons or their materia somewhere in the open world, but have to talk to him, to fight them in a simulation, even though they are heavily tied to the places you visit in the first place. Chadley's simulations made sense in FF7 Remake, where it would have been odd for Ifrit to be running around in the sewers of Midgar, but I could totally imagine Kujata running around somewhere in the Gongaga jungle. Chadley also gives you some of the best materia in the game, but you have to buy it from him with "exploration exp" that you gather by finding stuff in the open world, half of which is really basic like mako springs analysis points, "ubisoft towers" (though not as bad) and monster hunts. This can easily make the open world feel like a checklist you just have to work through. Which is a shame, cause I really liked how they stole so many elements from (what I've heard) good open world games like little chocobo chicks leading you to resting points that also act as travel points. Some of the sidequest like protorelic or this one quest in Cosmo Canyon can also be offenders of just eating up your time by maing you run back and forth for four times or so, even though the lore actuall might be interesting.

Talking about interesting lore, this game gives so much more information about the FF7 universe, some of which is new like the Old Republic that was in place before Shinra controlled everything or information that is old like the backstory of the Gold Saucer being founded by a former Shinra employee; Dio. Some of this stuff is really good in further emphasizing how the fantasy world of FF7 has really been shook to its core by the economic and political changes of Mako Energy, but also what Shinra's rise to power in general has brought about. Like Under-Junon being barely able to survive as their living space had been chosen to be the space of operation for Shinra's military endeavours.

This game is also better in foreshadowing Cloud's trauma and episodic flashbacks and how he is influenced by Jenova and Sephiroth making Tifa's distrust and anxiety around him actually a focal point that often gets discussed, while at the same time giving them more space to reconnect, making Tifa actually a way more active character.
I also really like the romantic relationship between Tifa and Aerith, such lovely roommates. (They are soooo gay!)
In general though every character gets some time to shine and they all have lovely relationships. Barret just acts like a father to spunky, teenage Yuffie and Cloud is her grumpy uncle. It's a found family on a road trip.

Another negative aspect is some of the bombast. In general I think the game knows how to present everything and I also like how new characters from FF7 Remake make a reappearance, however sometimes it does way too much. Many people lament that the funny fight against Palmers robot frog was placed poorely in the middle of Barret's backstory and I agree. It wasn't the most optimal placement.
Worse for me however where some of the boss marathons the game throws at you towards the end. One of them concerns the second fight with Rufus, which somehow felt really bad in this one. That fight was already hard in the original, but here it comes right after another fight and as it was changed to accomodate for Cloud being able to attack from afar just made it immensely obnoxious to me. Same goes for the final series of fights that just would not end and throw random party combinations you have to fight at you or even a character you had barely played before. (While the very last fight is actually pretty cool, that boss also has an attack I really hated.) In general, I wonder if this game was properly play-tested or how why the difficulty spikes and plummets all over the place at certain moments; some of Chadley's (rather early) challenge battles (another place where good materia is relegated to the Chadley checklist™), where also absolute bullshit, either because you have to kill an enemy before the others kill themselves or are easily killed by your companions or because some enemies just have the weirdest stunlock attacks or attacks that hit so hard you have to babysit and heal constantly.
Another minor complaint I have is that the timeline shenanginas feels a bit like bloat. It is nice to see Zack in between story chapters, but so far it's not really important to the story. The ending with Cloud and how he not accepts Aerith's death or how he is still able to perceive her through other timelines could just as well have been done via the Lifestream. But I guess this is the problem of the second part to a trilogy, it will up the stakes but not really give any satisfying conclusion.

Anyway, in general I think this is one of the best Final Fantasy games and I hope they improve on it's structural mistakes as I think the formular is pretty good to be worked upon for future FF games. And I'm still excited to see tits conclusion.

This was pretty neat. Yuffie is a energetic, little monkey and her gameplay is really good. I also liked the combo attacks with Sonon a lot. The boss fights here are definitely on the same level as FF7 Remake at least, though the mechanics elevate the fun just this tiny bit.
The mini games are also really fun, Fort Condor is really engaging and the tournament was a cute idea, especially with all the characters showing up.
The climbing sections are kinda cool and make the linear dungeons even more fun to go through.
All in all though it merely builds on the gameplay foundations of FF7 Remake and while it serves as a cool introduction to Yuffie and the story told here isn't even bad, it's ends a bit abruptly and you can tell, that was more of an extended ending. I really like that it highlighted the struggle of the common folk a bit though and even made a point about one of the Avalanche splinter groups trying to advocate for unions and voting rights. Deepground from Dirge of Cerberus making an appearance was also kinda cool, at least as long as they only stay minor antagonists for cool boss fights.
After the last boss though I felt like it just... evaporated. This weird transition from Yuffie being all sad and distraught to her whistling while leaving Midgar was a bit jarring tbh.
Anyway would still probably replay this, even if it were to be only for the fights and the fun sections. All in all still real good DLC that brings Yuffie, the common folk and Wutai better and earlier into the world of FF7.

FFXIII trilogy walked so FFVII Remake could run!
I always found it kind of funny, when people said, FF had become to linear. The world map usually isn't too involved in the beginning anyway and you might find only one maybe two places were anything other than the main narrative was possible at a given time. BUT! That was important cause it made the world more interactive and explorable, even though the games might have been linear in general. The problem here isn't linearitiy but modes of play, ways to interact with the game.
I think it's kind of funny that FFX had this figured out with little nooks and crannies you could explore/ find on the linear maps and the game being regularly broken up by either (the possibility of) mini-games or another mode of play like the cloister of trials. Giving the whole thing a sense of worldness to it.
The FFXIII trilogy took quite a while to rediscover this, after FFXIII was a graphical masterpiece that was so linear and devoid of any other mode of play that it get a bit tedious at times (I still love XIII, but it's undeniably my least favourite of the trilogy to replay). FFVII Remake comes with the lessons learned and implemented in FFXIII-2 and Lightning Returns giving us back areas that are more interestingly designed and broken up often by actual dungeon navigation, either a mini-game to make a way or some mechanics you gotta figure out for additonal materia etc.
On top of that the FFVII Remake can build on the gameplay system the FFXIII Trilogy experimented with: marrying action combat with turn-based party control. I think there can be no arguing, that the system is just so incredible fun, having you build a good party synergy while switiching into one character or another for the action. The shock system not being mandatory to beat the bosses also is a huge bonus as it gives the opportunity for massive damage but doesn't force the players to learn just a sole strategy that has to be used to actually make the fights go over quickly. And then they even added strategy elements like exploiting certain bosses weakness to elements, debuffs or using a certain time frame to attack so the boss will be paralyzed or something. It's just top notch.

Apart from that I also think this game just improved on the original Midgar section. I was never the biggest OG FFVII fan But I always loved Midgar and thought it was just a really imaginative place, with interesting world building and the huge corporation sucking the life out of the planet was just a great antagonistic entity. So when the Remake was supposed to be only Midgar I didn't even mind. On the one hand, even if it was bad I wouldn't loose anything and on the other, I really wanted to see more of the world building in Midgar and I love almost everything about it!

You spent more time in the slums, getting to know it's people the way they live down there, solving little problems here and there, that might feel like stupid side quests for some, but I think they were well implemented either to get to know Sector 7 and 5 or in the case of Wall Market even to send you around the place and give everything a bit of structure. (talking about Wall Market, I'm really happy the queer representation here now isn't just rapey gay man really wanting to molest Cloud, but insead really fabulous and actually colorful)
The addtional character time and additional characters also add a lot to the whole world, making the destruction of Sector 7 feel soo much more meaningful. In the original I knew, that it was bad it happened, but I didn't loose anything really. Biggs, Wedge and Jessie for example barely made an impression on me and I never feeled very connected to the slums themselves. Here that is so different, and they really home in on the destruction and suffering Shinra brings (especially in Chapter 13, it's a really nice gut punch and just hurts to see).
Shinra is also way better characterized with their propaganda and actions being very clear: manipulating news, cutting footage as it pleases them and only investing in anything that will make them money. So when you come across monster invested power plants or places left to rot, you can see just all of the decay. Midgar was literally build on top of existing villages, build on an existing fantasy world, with its environment and eco-system now trying to adapt to the new conditions. Sewers infested with Sahagin and corporate filth, spider monsters building their nests in abandoned railways, and ghosts haunting a train graveyard. It just makes the climate crisis messaging so much stronger. People have always changed nature to their liking, every society in this world has grown out of nature, relies on it and adapts it. (yes, even hunter and gatheres domesticated animals or even burned parts of forests in a controlled measure to make the soil more fertile.) It's just the manner and extend to which this is possible that is changed, humans aren't parasites that destroy nature, but powerful actors that can shape it in a way that they might destroy themselves. Fighting Shinra because they focus more on profit just feels so right here.
This might also be, why I didn't even mind section like the Train Graveyard being not just a screen but a whole-ass section, that builds on the world and even gives us some insights into the characters pasts and relations.

Character relations is also a real strong point of this game. Apart from the lovable interactions and abundance of voiced dialog here, there are also the little statistics running in the background (without the Aerith will remember this prompt Bioware games love so much), making the outcome of scenes feel really organic. You interacted everytime with Tifa or gave answers that relate to her? Yeah, she is the first to help you in the Sephiroth endfight. Here you go. All of this is really bringing back Roleplaying into a FF game, that might have been missing since FFX (apart from FFXIV maybe, you know, were you make your own character).

Shippers don't come at me for writing Tifa there, in my headcanon Cloud, Tifa and Aerith are a throuple anyway. They're all romantically involved, okay?

Now, their are also changes that might be more controversial. the Arbiters. At first when finishing the game I thought they were a horrible addition. I didn't want to fight fate or have some weird KH/Advent Children-like over-the-top-action. And the Meta Commentary about fans expectations? I didn't really care. I embraced the changes to the original anyway. Give me more explicit condonement of Avalanche, give me more time with the characters, give me more clear signs of Sephiroth being important to the story and Clouds past right away (the flashbacks scenes are just so much more clear here, I LOVE it!). Then later I replayed the game on hard mode and then I didn't mind too much. It didn't really take away from the messaging for fighting against capitalism and climate crisis.
Now? Now, after having replayed the OGFFVII I actually hope the comming changes will clear up some problems of the original. Like the messaging of overcoming trauma not being tied to (merely) such an spiritual outlook, but to actually overcoming the problems and trying to prevent climate catastrophe. That doesn't mean I don't want any stakes or any losses. Overcoming trauma is important to be able to save the planet, but comming to terms with your own past should end in us trying to build a better world, were something like this doesn't happen again - and for that blowing up a pipeline Mako reactor and toppling capitalism is essential.

Sometimes it's the journey, not the destination.
The moment to moment vibes of P5R are just immaculate, the game is oozing so much style in almost every single screen and every gameplay system from battle mechanics, over social links confidants to every tiny side activity are just polished to perfection.

Where it gets tricky is in its themes and presentation thereof. The whole world is probably more based on Carl Gustav Jung than ever before. "Personas" in this sense fuse two of his concepts: the personas as masks (and thus as outward representations of oneself in social settings) as well as the inner shadows as negative aspects of ourselves we don't want to accept or that are not fit for social norms in general.
The collective unconscious as the reason why the same "archetypes" exist in many people, cultures, mythologies and stories: mother-type goddesses, the trickster, the old sage or a cat that can turn into a car...
This whole dedication to psychology, mythology and storytelling is one of P5R strongest aspects, but also were it falters. Our heroes are all outcast in one way or another and their Personas are often themed around famous figures, that have some trickster-like or otherwise mischevious qualities. They are Tricksters, gods that are not entirely good, yet their strange way of seeing and interacting with the world makes them also bringers of change; bringers of culture itself... And that at least works for most of the individual antagonists you face every month. Infiltrating their "Palace", their "distorted cognition" - that is there sense of self and their surrounding environment - to change them for the better. Where the game falters in its themes is when the whole thing gets supposedly "political". Shido is not only a very flat antagonist his whole ideology is super unclear - he wants to "make a strong country for the masses that can't rely on themselves" - you could argue that sounds very nationalistic, but we don't get to hear anything about how is policy is to be enacted nor what he actually wants to achieve. The whole things sometimes reads like a parody of a politician that isn't really saying anything - but this is our antagonist. We should know, what we stand against. (it also doesn't help that the game often frames this as "corrupt adults" making the whole thing seem very childish at times)
I also really don't like the flat commentary on "the masses". Not onlyour enemies, but our heroes as well often make commentary to most people just being "bored" and thus just on whichever side is most entertaining or trendy, they just want to be controlled and not think for themselves - or thats what the game tells us with the mouths of Shido and the Phantom Thieves both.
By focussing so much on psychology it also makes societal problems come down to a couple of bad actors - the evils of society as individual flaws of people in power, not the system itself.
This is visible the most when talking about gender. The whole Kamoshida sequence is really good an tackles abuse and sexual harassment in a very tangible way without becoming exploitative - only to have Ann having to model naked against her will for the next mission. In general some of the adult dating options and a couple of scenes make women the center point of sexual fetishes - and while they're not as awful as they were in P3 and P4 - they are still heaily disonant with its theme of changing society.
The game really likes the aesthetics of revolution but not its actual content. Makoto is probably one of the best cases here, she learns to go against the system and prevalent power structures, becomes a rebel and wants to carve a way for herself. She becomes a Phatom Thief ... and then she wants to become a cop...cause that will change society...or something... In Persona 5 Royal "change" just means replacing bad apples, not actually changing anything.

...and all that is just really sad cause the whole theming of tricksters and this cast of characters is actually really good. I love these misfits, I love this game, but sometimes I need to just skim over it's messages to still enjoy what's happening.

P.S. I still dated Makoto. Shut up, I can change her!

Horizon Zero Dawn is a ~tRiPlE A~ (James Stephanie Sterling Voice) game, if I've ever seen one. A cynical person might say It's nothing but an amalgamation of every trend you've seen in the 2010s in gaming:
Assassins Creed's free climbing and towers
Ubisoft's general open world structure
Witcher 3's witcher sense
BioShock's voice recordings as a way to tell the intricate backstory of several places
Soulslike button layout for close combat (though that feels rather janky)
...and Monster Hunter in regards to how the combat actually works, you know removing parts from enemies and stuff (or so I'm told, never really played monster hunter)

I'm seven years old and visit the kid that lives in the same house as me, he also only has an SNES and no N64 or PSX like the cool kids and we play Donkey Kong Country. We're not particularly good at it, but the music and the jungle athmosphere really fascinate me. The graphic looks gorgeous and I love just jumping through this vibrant jungle setting and even though underwater level is super hard, Aquatic Ambience is just an awesome piece of music

And of these open world features are used quite well here though - If you didn't get sick of open world by 2017 or whenever you decided to play this for the first time. There aren't as many "Towers" and the Tallnecks are a bit of a more interesting idea, moving around the area or being captured by a camp of the occult, so you have to work through that to be able to climb. Some baggage still remains of course, like bandit camps or numerous collectibles. Also you might at times travel great distances between story missions, which can be tedious if you don't feel like exploring at the time. Luckily I've barely played any open world games, cuz I thought they get tedious very easily, but I can bear the more annoying parts here, because I haven't done this a million times before.

I'm 10 years old and we have a project in history class building small houses modeled after the ones people in the early Bronze Age had lived in. I'm not good at crafting anything, but my heart was really in it and I couldn't stop thinking about what it must have been like to live in a house like that. It looks kinda cozy, though I would miss the comfort of my home, tv and video games

I found the world to be engaging, the vistas are just beautiful, between lush jungle forests, glistening deserts, decrepit ruins of a only slightly futuristic society long gone now.
And the enemies are fun to fight, the fucking Glinthawks you either have to shoot down very effeciently or you'll be like me and pull them down to you with a ropecaster. Laying traps for big and especially fearsome foes, sneaking around to kill the enemies one by one - I always felt their were a lot of apporaches to battle if you were willing to take you time, and there are some tactical or RPG-elements to it. Using elemental weaknesses or tearing down specific parts to maybe even use the weapons against the enemies themselves. Or you just sneak around and corrupt as many enemies as possible to have them fight each other. The only place, where this isnÄt true is the fight against other humans. You either hit them in the head with an arrow or you try to wittle down their health with your spear - and close combat isn't that good, if you're not sneaking about.

I'm 12 and I just got Star Fox Adventures. I didnt have much experience with the Star Fox franchise before, I've only seen a friend play Lylat Wars/ Star Fox 64 on his N64. Adventures is suppossed to be like a 3d Zelda though and I always wanted to play one of those myself! I like how the characters look and a planet full of dinosaurs is just exciting to visit. The environments are varied an lands of snow full of mammoths, a labyrinthine temple complex with triceratops and t-rex's lurking about, a misty village full of humanoid dinosaurs clad in tribal clothes with houses build on lakeland connected to each other with wooden racks. But the music is what realy builds the atmosphere! Everything is tribal drums, flutes and ethereal synth sounds

The story of Horizon Zero Dawn is told on two timelines if you will. On the one hand you have to figure out what happened in the distant past - our immediate future not destroyed by climate crisis, but by some rich guy who wanted to make money with the solution to climate crisis: ecological robots that can basically terraform. He sells them as warmachines reliant on biofuel and this is were shit goes haywire. Now a team of scientist will have to try salvage whatever possible, to have at least something survive. These stories are mostly told via voice recordings or the occasional holographic scene, showing us people arguing in the shape of purple hazes. The other part of the story is about Aloy an outcast in the tribal Nora society, seeking out how she was born and what mysteries lie in the ancient past as well as why she was attacked by an insane cult. She travels the world gets to know different tribes and different people.

I'm 25 sitting sitting in an anthropology class about how historically Europeans tried to model an universal history of humanity, putting themselves as the most advanced on top and modeling the "lower"and "most primitive stages" after North American Native people as well as African hunter and gatherer societies. I haven't thought about the early Bronze Age and how it was taught to me in ages, but the Professor points out how "tribal clothing" or "early humans" is often modeled after Native American people in popular media and sciences as well.

The settng of Horizon Zero Dawn tries to accomplish something interesting: a mix of Sci-fi with ancient history. Aloy and her immediate conflict and surroundings is more based in "tribal conflicts", religious superstition and a former feudal power exploiting local people than the conundrums of climate changes, billionaires or ecological responisiblity for the planet. I liked traveling through the lands and areas, getting to more about the local beliefs and histories while also figuring out what happened in the distant past. As an anthropologist I could recognize easily where the inspirations for some of these tribes came from. The shamistic rituals and musings of the Banuk are very much inspired by real shaminism in e.g. Mongolia. The Carja Sundom reminds me of Aztec or Babylonian "high cultures" (that term implies one cultures is more developed, which might be true concerning technology or means of production, but not in anything else, especially not in morals or religious belief). The Nora - Aloy's own tribe - are a superstitious bunch and reflect on tribal people as very backward. In general the sci-fi background tends to portray anyone else that is not Aloy (or otherwise a technological afficionados) as simpletons, which goes with western modern beliefs. Hand in hand with the borrowing of native american aestethics, this makes for a handful of icky immplications - though I don't think this was the intention here, I guess its more about making Aloy more relatable to a western audience. And I like Aloy, she is capable a bit of a loner, determined, but heartfelt and at times snarky. Her quest of wanting to find a home for herself and finding out more about the past and her mother/ previous version of herself Elisabet Solbeck caught me emotionally - it's just that it is often tangled up in typical Western portrayls of other societies.

All of this is a very roundabout, part academic, part reflective emotional way of saying: there are reasons this game resonantes with me. The atmosphere catches something I didn't remember that once fascinated me ("tribal societies", stone age/ early bronze age and vibrant jungles) with aspects that I care more about nowadays (different cultures and ecological responsibility for the planet) while giving me gameplay, that is enjoyable to me while not reinventing the weel and also giving me a character that is trying to find a home or a found family. A lot here just works, even if not perfect.

P.S.:
I like the commentary about capitalists fucking up the earth even if they actually might be able to save it from climate crisis.
I also think it's kinda interesting, that a huge group of them came together to try to just flee into space, which doesn't work out very well...
Also Ted Faro also destroys a huge knowledge data base on a whim. Feels awfully fitting with the downfall of Twitter.
...the choice to create an AI that is supposed to save the Earth...didn't age well though. I know, what we have now isn't AI but machine learning, but it feels weird to have such positive talks about AI especially in regards to the climate and nature in general.

Phew, I'm a bit late for my Halloween gaming entry, huh?

Honestly, I love the Shadow Hearts franchise for it's historical settings, it's horror aesthetic and it's themes of trauma. It's good shit, but sadly this one might be the roughest of them all.

Yeah, its story is better than From the New World (of course it is), but damn the first iteration of the Judgement Ring gets a bit stale in battle after a while. The other games sure improved on that. This doesn't make the gameplay bad, but it's rarely better then serviceable, despite the great ideas.

People always say that this one is the most horror (except for maybe Koudelka), but I think it's the most tonally inconsistent. I honestly don't mind the anime humor and even the horny stuff is totally alright with me, but maybe don't go for a cheap gag, when the entirety of Shangai is destroyed by an evil god and our protagonist seems to be dead/ lost forever. (Talking about the part where villain makes his evil speech, takes his leave and in the middle of the whirlwind around him he gets hit by a small stone). And stuff like this just happens so often, always undercutting the tension instead of maybe alleviating it after an especially tense section.

Some of the dialogue especially surrounding Yuri seems immature and really comes off as corny, when the theme is living ones best live despite trauma and despite horrible shit going on in the world.

That said, the vibes are just awesome here. The areas, be they haunted villages (and there are lot of those here), ancient temples full of alien monsters, decrepit caves or creepy mansions or Geiger-esque half technological half mystical places. It's all some really good shit and often feels like a best-of from all kind of genres of horror.

The history stuff is a bit more of a backdrop and it doesn't really seem like the game really knows what to do with it, apart from talking a bit about Japanese colonialism, but not really coming out with any meaningful critique or analysis or anything. Just a character that is kind of a minor antagonist turned ally that really struggles with it as she is a commander of the Japanese army, her story also ends only in side content, so you might even miss that. And also there is a minor antagonist, that fights against Japanese colonialism and...yikes. However, the setting really helps to establish things like vampire castles in Transylvania or evil Taoist magic in China, effectively helping to build the fantasy and magic inside the world.

I still resonate with the flawed characters and how they try to live their lives. I resonate with them or rather especially Yuri and how he doesn't really have a reason to live at first, but then later he and the rest of the party become a found family. He also gets more vulnerable the further the game gets on, and that's honestly pretty great. Also the game kinda combines a lot of my special interests: colonial history, horror and JRPGs. And that will always make Shadow Hearts in general really special to me, no matter how flawed it is.

What if Metal Gear Solid 2 was just bad and had absolutely nothing meaningful to say?
What if we made Shadow the Hedgehog but as a Final Fantasy game?
What if we turned a cheesy FF7 Fanfic into a video game?
(Nothing against Fanfics in general, there are some great ones out there, but we all know one that...wasn't that great)

You know, some stuff here even half bad. The gunplay is alright, just a bit boring after a while.
The Tsviets are a colorful bunch with strong character designs even though they are all rather one-note.
The whole FF7 crew (apart from Red XIII) makes a reappearance and they have some cool moments, especially Yuffie gets some time to shine here!
The concept of Deepground being a secret super soldier project by Shinra is a fun one (even though it's creates some problems for the plot, especially as Rufus supposedly never knew about it). I kinda even fuck with it, as one the one side we have the OG FF7 crew and the WRO trying to restablish a livable space whereas the Deepground soldiers powered by Shinras experiments just want to see the world burn. It's a nice idea for the kinda pseudo post apocalyptic setting after FF7.

The game isn't really interested in that though.
Instead we get ... a lot of stuff about Lucrecia that kinda just confuses me. Like, okay she felt guilty, that Vincent's father died during the experiments she conducted... but that's why she leaves Vincent, fucks Hojo and conducts experiments on her own unborn son? If she was supposed to be a conflicted grey character...wouldn't we at least need to know, we she wanted to carry out these science experiments? What her motivations were to begin with?
If we had gotten that, that might even have carried into one of the themes of FF7: science out of love for and to better understand the planet on the side of Bugenhagen and science only for ones own gain in the side of Hojo. Lucrecia could have been character that stands in between and that could still feed into Vincent's backstory even if we keep all that silly Omega and Chaos stuff. Hojo is even kinda the main antagonist in this game! He takes over Weiss's body in order to become Omega. You know shaping the planet of its power for selfish gains? ... ah well....

Instead we get a lot of melodrama about Vincent's past and we get Shelke who learns to trust others in a very bland way you have seen a thousand times before. She also kinda becomes Lucrecia's second chance at living or something? Don't really know what to make of that.
Also this is kinda the era of SE where any meaning flew out of the window to be replaced by nothing but cool imagery. It's not really that all of that is Nomura's fault, he isn't even the director for this game, but it's what people associate with him, which is probably why many peoples opinions have soured on him in the last couple of years.

Anyway this game is kind of a weird (and probably pretty expensive?) way to advertise Gackt's songs Redemption and Longing. You're probably better of just watching the videos on YouTube and just imagining what the story could be like.

Why is everyone so negative about this game? It's a PS2 game and I mean this in the best way!
It's a solid turn-based RPG, which as far as I know is quite atypical for a One Piece Game. Retreading past arcs however is quite typical. The narrative in these revisited stories isn't too special, though it will have a twist here and there as well as some unique boss battles or situations sometimes that will throw you of for a second.
The real star of the show however is the exploration and level design: Luffy can climb high places with ease, Chopper can squeeze through tight spaces, Zoro can cut through iron doors, Franky can build bridges across big chasms - you get the picture. With all of this stuff you can constantly find side paths hiding a good accessory or some other valuable items. I for one really enjoyed exploring Alabasta, Water 7 and Dress Rosa and took every single revisit of these areas as a chance to immersive myself in these places of wonder.
The battle system is also really fun with the rock, paper, scissors system making every character actually viable in battle. You don't have to and probably shouldn't leave everything to Luffy, Zoro or Sanji. Combined with the accessory system that lets you equip and create some unique stuff, you can act like me and make a glass canon Nami, who will wipe the floor with Aokiji before he even gets to turn her to ice. All in all it's not too deep though and if you regularly clear the exp challenges you will probably be overleveled towards the end.
The story is what you expect from an anime game, nothing too revolutionary as it can't establish anything too important. Waford has some interesting lore though that ties into the world of One Piece and had me entertained just by that. The crew also gets a lot of moments to reflect on past adventures or just engage in their usual banter. Lim, the new character, is caught up in this and thus learns the value of friendship and family and stuff, nothing too deep, but well executed.
Look, it's a fan service game. If you enjoy all the small moments and just like being on an adventure with the Strawhats, you'll have fun. Moreso if you really enjoy japanese RPGs like it. For me it kinda fulfilled a dream I always had: traversing through the world of One Piece. Not an action game were just bash in the heads of the bad guys in a contrived retread of story beats, but just the magic of a journey.

You ever played a game you love to bits, but you won't or rather can't recommend to anyone?
Playing Drakengard 3 after having finished Nier Automata a while ago is kinda weird. Drakengard and Nier are very different from one another, even if they are connected and made by the same director. Drakengard is strange, occasionally edgy and very often completely unhinged. Nier in contrast has it's weird moments and Yoko-isms, but rather intends to convey some deep melancholy.
Yet these series aren't only linked by their shared timeline and creator, they are also the vehicle by which Yoko explores themes. Drakengard 1 and Nier (Replicant) are answering the question why people (or players) kill each other - and they do it very differently. Drakengard is like Taro Yoko's first idea for themes, without much investigation, whereas in Nier the answers seem to be way deeper and more profound.
So while I mentioned in my Nier Automata Review that it contemplates life and argues that we should strife to reach out to one another, Drakengard 3 kinda wants the same, but not quite.

About the first half of Drakengard 3 is vehemently trying to dissuade you from engaging with it further. Be it because we can't sympathize with the protagonist's (seemingly) selfish and crude goals. Be it because the whole party is constantly cracking (seldomly funny) sex jokes/ innunendos. Be it because everything seems to be gory or based on excretions of any kind. Or be it because their is no sense of earnestness to be found. - this is all true for the first half and that is kinda the point. If you have to get to know someone to be able to understand them this game will show you how hard that can be.

The characters here are so warpped up in their own desires, that it's hard for them to look beyond and see what other people around them might need. In One's DLC she explains that the Disciples were made to quench the desires of the Intoners. "Desires for sex, honor, cruelty, romance, loneliness" - And yet, they all fail spectacularly. The Disciples were made for the Intoners and yet none of the couples seem to fit.
A couple of examples:
Five yearns for pretty things and any kind of self-indulgence to overshadow her deep inner sadness, while Dito only yearns for an ugly, rotting world and couldn't give less about the feelings of others.
Three wants to do nothing but create dolls and later she experiments on monsters and humans to create perfect soldiers, whereas Octa just wants to fuck - the whole goddamn time.
No-one is happy in any of these supposedly pre-ordained relationships. It's as if bonds between each other are destined to fail and any meaningful attempt is nothing but a waste of time. Mikhail will ask again and again, why Zero can't just talk to her sister to solve the problems and every time she shuts him down - there is no other way.

If you go through the rather predatory DLC and read the side-stories another topic gets a stronger focus: life is portrayed as nothing but constant fighting. Fights for ideology (carrying over Nier's themes here) or a fight for survival, there is nothing else to it. - Or is there?

Despite having an awful life leading up to the events of Drakengard 3, she does find a single companion: Michael, the white dragon, and when he dies at the beginning of the game, she struggles to connect again to his reincarnation Mikhail, but she needs him. Despite it all, having little moments of connections, having little pieces of happiness, having someone to rely on in all this constant fighting, having someone by your side, even if understanding and trusting each other is mostly hard - or even impossible - it's still something worth living for.

P.S. some further musings you shouldn't take too serious:

I don't think there went any research into it, but it almost seems as if every Intoner has a disability or mental illness.
Five is heavily depressed, only overshadowing it with all her consumption of food, constatn buying of new dresses or unending appetite for sex.
Four has the worst inferiority complex I've ever seen depicted in fiction.
Three has autism. She walks funny, talks in a monotone voice, except when talking about her favourite thing experimenting on "dolls" and doesn't show much interest in people around her. (I don't think it's a nice depiction of autism though, she is super selfish and lacks any empathy whatsoever. Almost seems as if she is psychopathic)
Two is... not the smartest. She almost seem to have some developmental problems in how childish she acts (though this could also just be the "adorable anime girl" trope cranked up to eleven.
and One can't really stand to be around anyone because of her hightened senses resoluting in immense loneliness. (Which could also go for autism or just a sort of social anxiety, I guess).

I kinda like how the whole Disciple thing as well as brother One kinda switches the christian creation story with Adam and Eve around and as such, this game actually tackles feminist themes, though I'm not too sure how well they are depicted.

...I really like Three (nonesensical) riddles and aphorisms:

Whether human or beast, all should brush their teeth between meals
None of us in this world are powerful. We merely hide our faults and guard our weaknesses. We were all lost forms of existence from the start
Dreamlike days are nothing but dreams. Unbelievable truths are nothing but lies

It's the Zelda for the emo kids, and that's why it's the best one! (Besides Wind Waker!)
Love the dungeons!
Love the music!
Love the aesthetic!
Love the characters!
I mean, it's a Zelda game, probably the most linear one, which I don't mind. The side quests are a bit boring, only mini games or endless collectathony stuff and nothing intricate like you might find in Majora's Mask or Wind Waker.
But the story experience is probably my favourite in any of the Zelda games. Nothing too deep,l mostly carried by (quirky) character moments or epic set pieces. That's kinda what we play Zelda games for though, isn't it?

I... didn't expect to like this game as much as I did.
A couple of years ago I had a phase, where I wanted to know everything about its lore, even though I had never played it and actually dreaded ever doing so. The whole discourse about Soulslikes and how hard they are, really turned me of gameplay-wise. But all the video essay explaining the lore, discussing its themes, analyzing it's endings as well as the general aesthetic and gothic, victorian vibes and the eldritch horror always occupied a space in the back of my head.

Having now actually played and finished it as well as the DLC I just gotta say, this is probably one of my favourites.
I spend the first three hours trying to get to the Cleric Beast (fuck those werewolves, I still think they are way to hard for a newcomer and would encourage every newbie to cheese the shit out of them) and even de-installed the game angrily only to come back the next day. This time I reached the Cleric Beast and was even able to kill it after a couple of tries. From that point on, I really enjoyed Bloodborne.

Maybe it's because it's my first Soulsgame, but I think the tense difficulty paired with the very precise combat that discourages button mashing makes this a great horror experience. Whenever you walk down a path you haven't walked before you're really tense, cause there might be (a) new (combination of) enemies that is gonna fuck you up.
The esoteric story-telling and general atmosphere only enhanced this horror feeling.
I don't think I really need to add anything to the whole discussion around how this game puts Lovecraftian horror perfectly into a video game: Insight, knowledge beyond human comprehension, uncaring Gods/ Old Ones, dreams and nightmares as surreal yet powerful places that can actually manifest things in reality - you know the deal. There is maybe an aspect that isn't mentioned as much though: It kinda took the racism out of Lovecraft. The evil cults aren't black people doing some "voodoo" magic (I'm no expert but voodoo is apparently a amalgamation of various African religious influences, in which the enslaved came together) to summon Cthulhu or "mad Arabs" that translated ancient texts and thus put evil magic into the world. No, this game takes place in Fantasy London, and the evil cult is actually a complex mixture of the (christian) church and a seemingly European medieval university. This time it's the colonizers fault and yet they blame the "outsiders", the hunters that are hired from different lands to kill the beasts that are increasingly plaguing the city, in exchange for which they can also benefit from the blood healing Yharnam is famous for. I'm not gonna pretend that Bloodborne is a anti-colonial master piece, it's much to dedicated to it's narrative about ancient unknowable horrors for that, but I appreciate that it does clean that up a bit.

Lastly, while playing this I wondered why I like the gameplay so much, it really reminded me of design philosophy left behind in the era of the PS2. Design philosophies and gameplay I've dearly missed.
No open world, but instead a rather linear experience with interlaced, convoluted pathways that will always be worth exploring. Be it for new items, interesting bits of lore/ environmental storytelling or just a shortcut so you don't have to do a harrowing passage again.
The combat design is also really good. Everything reacts to your hits, you can counter bosses or other enemies if you're dexterous enough. The parry system as well as the dodging is super precise making anything you pull of general delight. I would still advocate for an easy mode/ accessibility options (people with not as much free time, stressfull jobs as well as disabled people might still enjoy this game for one reason or another). Only being able to play this when you're able to highly concentrate could be a bit frustrating if you wanted to play a little after a hard day at work for example.

Still, I enjoyed as a gameplay continuation - and maybe that's a bit of a hot take - of the original Kingdom Hearts.

...I mean that. Many people say the original Kingdom Hearts is a bit antiquated, but it actually shares a lot of qualities with this game. It's level structure is rather linear, but you can find convoluted pathways and secrets in every major area and you can also parry enemies to your advantage. The last thing is not necessarily needed to beat Kingdom Hearts, but it makes the combat so much more fun. (both games also share an atrocious camera, but I don't think that's something that is willingly designed that way).

Bloodborne's story is not as unhinged though. Yeah, I might check out some more Fromsoft games

"In case you haven't noticed, the god-fearing people of this realm and their pious leaders, care for but one thing - themselves. And they'll do whatever it takes to hold on to power. The rest of us are just a means to an end. The moment you raise your voice against them, you're decried as an outlaw, clapped in irons and sling into a cell to rot. [...]
No... this isn't a battle you can win with words. Believe me, I've tried... But nothing ever gets through. The world is simply not ready to listen. So to hell with talking. If they won't give us a say, we'll decide out fates another way. You can't blame a man for wanting to bring and end to all this, can you?" - Cid Telamon

You know, this game definitely has its heart in the right place and it was a passion project for everyone involved for sure.

The theme of freeing the Bearers and creating a better, free world for the exploited and oppressed stays throughout, even when things seem to get more mythical and "less grounded". (The Big Bad is shown midway through though, so it shouldn't really come as a surprise). What I like most about this is, that it doesn't even pretend, that the oppressed could talk their way out of this, but instead points out how on the one hand violence is necessary and so is building an alternative community on the other. The whole world of Valisthea is being eaten away by the Blight (let's be honest, it's climate change caused by the powerful) and so you try to survive in the little Hideaway, build an alternative community and even try to find new technologies, that aren't destroying the earth. Especially the characters in this Hideaway really shine, be it because they get interesting sidequests (more on that later) or be it because they change their dialogue after every major story event. You will help a gardener to grow new seeds and fruits, you can follow how an illiterate person goes from learning to read, to eventually writing a book if their own and you form bonds throughout that really make you feel, how this community grows slowly but surely. On the other side you topple the powerful or at least take their source of influence and power mostly by violent means (in grandiose, epic boss battles). In this sense, this game really feels very leftist in ideals.

Sadly, it does have some short comings. Many of the Bearers seem a bit passive and I would have wished more of them took an active or rather more meaningful roles, just like the oppressed do in reality. No revolution ever waited for saviour, you know? A lot of critic has been made that this is a story, where white people just decided that slavery was bad and I think that's a bit unfair. I don't even think this game was meant to make for racial metaphors like many would think, when they hear the word slavery. Maybe it would have been better, if the developers had modeled the oppressed rather after serfdom as it seems to follow more of a caste system of oppression and exploitation, rather than a racialized one. It also doesn't help that in some sidequests the strictness of revolution gets a bit blurry, when all it take is a couple of not-oppressed people on your side, that often will take the helm for change to be put in motion. It can also sometimes be a bit comical how often the Bearers are treated really badly, not only in sidequests, but also in casual dialogue.

Many people have been critical about FFXVI from the get-go, cause supposedly it's "too western" or "too action". But I really believe the developers just made a game they really wanted to make, instead of sticking to any conventions for a particular genre.

In fact I don't think I've ever played a game were I could see it's diverse influences so clearly. The grandiose setpieces (even including quick time events) from God of War (but more like the old trilogy) and other single-player AAA-Games, the political intrigue from Matsuno's games (Final Fantasy Tactics, Vagrant Story Final Fantasy XII) and Game of Thrones (never watched or read it, but I've been told some of the world-building seems almost lifted from that) the combat a mixture of Devil May Cry and Kingdom Hearts (honestly, why is nobody mentioning KH? This game plays like Birth by Sleep and DMC had a love child that got put into the Witcher environment!).

And then there is a lot of CBU3 design philosophy from FFXIV directly put into this game. Big areas, that are a bit empty and that only get more meaningful, when a side quest/ hunt takes you to some of the more memorable places. Dungeon-like missions, that are not only replayable, but that even follow the structure of FFXIV dungeons to a tee: action packed corridors broken up by three boss fights. I know many people lament the "missing RPG elements" or the poor crafting system, but I think it does it's job, keeps out the bloat (except for an over-abundance of materials maybe) and you get a new, most of the time cool looking sword every couple of hours. Kinda reminded me of KH1 actually. The exploration is a bit lacking because of that though, and especially in the later half I would only go out to explore, when I had sidequests or hunts to do.

Talking about sidequests. In the beginning they're are mechanical really simple and mostly serve to flesh out the world-building, in the later parts however they will be more more about the outcomes of certain side-characters and their arcs, making them sometimes even have a cool cutscene or two. In general they stay rather basic though, and especially towards the ends there can be so many, that the pacing of the story really suffers if you do all of them (though I think it's worth it). Otherwise I don't think the pacing ever gets bad if you stick to the main plot, usually it comes in nice 2-3h bites, that you can even do, when you're a busy grown-up.



"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck" - Clive Rosfield

Grown-up is also what this game wanted to be, being the first FF game with an M rating and a 30-something protagonist. In the first couple of hours, this can feel a bit jarring, cause there is so much profanity and violence that seems to be here onky for the sake of it. But this gets better, even if sometimes you might wonder if the developers just really enjoyed, that they could use swearwords now as much as they wanted.

Clive as a protagonist doesn't really feel as revolutionary as a 30 year old protagonist in a FF game sounds at first though. The plot and his life go dark places, but I can't really say that I found him to be all that exceptional. Might be because I was always drawn to final fantasy because the male protagonist seemed way different from what I was used from western media and Clive seems more like Shepard or Geralt, but more emotional, nothing too emotional though and still very classically masculine.

Masculinity in general is a bit of a problem here. Not because the game is full of macho man - they're all very varied, but rather that the important women of the plot get cast aside rather quickly. Benedikta never gets to fulfill her potential as a character and Jill - the main heroine - and Clive's love interest is comically undercharacterized. She gets a really good moment about halfway through but especially afterwards she feels more like support for Clive above anything else. Sure, she is competent, but I kinda feel like she is missing her own motivation, that so many heroines in FF before her had. Yuna and her pilgrimage, Dagger wanting to find out why her mother changed this much, Tifa fighting for avalanche and only hanging onto Cloud because she notices something is wrong with him or Ashe wanting to free her kingdom. It's not even like XVI is missing good female characters. I think Annabelle is a great minor antagonist, Charon, Derys, Tarjay Mir and Eloise are all really cool characters, but they're more of supporting cast and not really Clive's "party members". In general I feel it's a bit weird how much of the plot focuses around Clive. Of course, FF always had their main protagonists, but a lot of things things here seem to be for the sake of Clive and that's not really something I like in a game in general. "Chosen one" story kinda bore me and I prefer more of ensembles usually. To be clear, there are other important characters, but the limelight really is on Clive and stronger than on previous protagonists in the series

All in all this is a good game and a good Final Fantasy game, as wel. I really like it and Final Fantasy always took from different sources of influence often western in nature. FFIX's aesthetic is directly modeled after the movie the Dark Crystal. FFVII started as a game about a detective in New York and the original FF emulated DnD as well as early western RPGs. Square always just wanted to make an RPG.
I think it's kinda silly, that so many people think this game is totally different from past FF, when in reality it's the FF Tactics reimagining, I kinda wished for. Too bad they didn't implement a more classical job system, even though the mixing and matching of Eikon abilities comes really close. I really like it, but I don't think it makes my top five. Just hope that when CBU3 makes another single player title that they improve on what they have here and maybe get a woman as a main creative - like Natsuko Ishikawa. You know the women who wrote parts of Stormblood, but more importantly Shadowbringers and Endwalker. Shit would sell like hotcakes.

"You cock" - Benedikta Harman

I'm a bit shocked, flabbergasted, completely bamboozled actually.
This is THE game of 2017? If i hadn't played with friends, I'm not even sure I would have finished this at all.

There are just so many weird decisions I can neither make heads or tails of.
First, the basics: the control scheme is all over the place. One button is never used except for "interaction" (talk, pick things up), but sprinting and jumping are the farthest apart...like a combination you're likely gonna use very often. And you can't change the control scheme except for switching jumping and sprinting... Was this an inside joke?

Then there is weapons breaking. I've heard how this supposedly gets you to try different ones, but...there are only like what 5(?) different types of weapons? What are You supposed to try out then for 50-100 hours? That just means a fight might be a potential loss of resources, especially when you don't know if the one you will be getting will be even as good. A lot of the enemies being damage sponges also didn't help.

Fighting in general will mostly be a nuisance cause you will lose more resources than you're getting. Ressourcen overall make this game a chore. Got hit by an enemy? Well there goes all your health, better eat 20 apples/ a cooked meal. This area is too cold, this one too hot, better grind out clothes or potions to resist that. Wanna endure any hit whatsoever? Better grind out that armor or do a couple of shrines. Wanna be able to climb or get across a lake? Better grind out shrines so you can cross a small lake a ten year old me could have crossed.

Shrines in general can be fun, but often they get repetitive or tedious cause you need to be able to finish them from the very start, never evolving your tool set or making the riddles more interesting. The same is true for the divine beasts making it possible to cheese almost everything. And because so many things were tedious I wanted to cheese as much as possible. Many people love how you can do anything but the most pragmatic approach is often super boring.

"Everyone can play this game like they want" isn't really true. Either you're good enough to speedrun it or just scavenging resources for bosses and better equipment. A lot of which, you could also miss. Friend had to look up a guide to get to the guy were you can exchange the korok seeds. You know a fundamental part of the game. Same with the fairies. What kind of design is that of you might miss fundamentals? (Some shrines will also need you to have arrows, don't have any well tough luck, again talking bad design)

Then there are so many things that - it seemed to me- were made useless on purpose:

Horses can't hear you and have to pass obstacles in real time (except for stables) just doesn't make me use them cause it ain't worth it. leaving me to pass the endless planes of this open world, while I hope I will finally reach my destination.

Rain and slippery surfaces just effectively give you a time-out. Wanna do anything? Just wait for the rain to stop!
And what kind of idea is this game having about physics anyway? Lightning strikes you specifically when you wear anything made out of metal. That's how lightning works. Other times electricity works as you would expect in real life. (The ragdoll physics and sometimes the mechanics will be super wonky too).


On a more personal note:
I genuinely hated this game's approach to implementing music. A whole lot of nothing, you climb a mountain and then you hear three notes. I really developed a hate for these sections. Didn't work for me at all and all I could do to was making fun of them to get any sort of entertainment.

I also never found a game this hard to READ. When my friend played for a whole session I wondered how much he gathered from the overworld and found things to do. I just saw empty plains of nothingness. Didn't know a row of trees was supposed to be interesting.
(It also didn't help that the light effects often made me see nothing at all, and with no options to tweak this, I realized for the first time how important accessibility options are)

What I did like, was mostly stuff you'd find in a classic Zelda game. Eccentric characters, interesting places (when I came to the towns like the city of the gerudo or places like the korok forest) and the boss fights were at least alright, most of the time. I didn't find many memories, but the ones I did find were actually kinda cool. Wish they weren't as hidden on the map.

All in all this was maybe the biggest disappointment and I will never trust anybody of you ever again. If I hadn't had so mich fun hanging out with my friends while playing this, I would have never finished it.

This was really cool!
Umurangi Generation is yet another really punk Cyberpunk game. I'm always kinda sceptical towards environmental story telling cause people hype it up so much and often it's just a dude died here or something. But this whole game is based around it!

As a photographer you take pictures (duh!) and you need to complete a certain number of sometimes strange requests to get to the next level. Some of these might be super basic, but others will force to really look at every nook and cranny of the areas, making all the posters, objects, people, areas, newspaper, graffiti etc really be able to fully tell a story if its own. And Umurangi Generation has A LOT to say about various topics: colonialism, climate change, policy brutality, capitalism, militarism, fascism, cultural identity, resistance, street culture, eugenics, militant resistance etc etc.

I was kinda surprised at how I really got into a flow of just taking pictures of interesting, catchy things that tell the story or just look amazing and much I was able to find even when I thought I knew the level in and out. Most people apparently finish this game in 3 hours or so, I probably took 10, so I really took my time to look at everything the game had to offer .. And I might still not have seen it all. The act of taking photos itself is also really cool, just because you can be so creative in how to technically fulfill the request to get to the next level. And I haven't even mentioned the replay value with the (time) challenges! The only thing I can complain about is that the game at times can feel a bit clunky and thus getting around might not be much fun, but as it took my time I could bear this rather easily.

The low-poly early 3d look, doesn't hurt the game at all and actually makes a lot of it really pop, while not being overwhelming with too much detail like a realistic looking photography game might have been.

You really notice that this game was made by a Maori living in Australia, it doesn't just gloss over the themes it's "discussing" but really comes with a lot of lived experiences and analytic view of the situations.

It's great, if you're into any of these politics or just like taking pictures, this game is definitely worth a shot!