Kingdom Hearts is a game I grew up playing; there is so much nostalgia for this game and there's a charm to the somewhat innocent and unassuming storyline in this entry, before it does a triple axle backflip nose dive into the convoluted and near impossible to follow mass it is today. Every entry spanning the ridiculous number of devices and consoles is vital for all the main storyline payoffs, so if this game snags you as it has me, get ready to watch some YouTube videos on the mobile games before you play KH3.

I'm playing through this again this year but for the first time ever on Proud mode. The challenge is mostly fair and rewarding, and there's definitely a big spike after completing the first bit of Hollow Bastion. The only reason I'm leaving this as a 4.5 is because, especially on Proud, traversing Hollow Bastion is a miserable experience. To move around, you have to interact with switches that cannot be interacted with until the enemies have been defeated that you're within range of. The enemies will regularly wipe Donald and Goofy and you're left getting stunlocked in a corner by 4/5 enemies all at once. The actual landscape and level design is fantastic apart from this massive oversight.

I have come back to Stardew and played it with a friend, only to find it much more enjoyable and satisfying to play through than each time I've tried to play it over the last few years.

JUNIMO KART IS THE WORST THING EVER ADDED AS PARTLY OPTIONAL CONTENT WHY IS THERE A QI QUEST FOR 50,000 ON ENDLESS FOR THE LEAST REWARDING AND UNBELIEVABLY PUNISHING GAMEPLAY LOOP I'VE EVER HAD THE DISPLEASURE OF WITNESSING (even fueled by pure spite to gain a measly 10 Qi Gems I will never touch this aspect of the game again but it's optional so the overall game rating remains unchanged)

I played Bloodbourne once for an hour and instantly turned it off never to play it again, thinking that I'd be entirely against all Soulsbourne entries forever more.

Even Elden Ring didn't initially click with me. I played for 2 hours with no real direction, and didn't figure out how to level up until a little after that, but once I had that, alongside grinding enemies for weapons and armour started coming up against minibosses that tested my ability to adapt and learn their movesets, I was hooked.

Unbelievable game and incredibly rewarding, both in storyline and gameplay. Enjoying a second playthrough now and looking forward to the DLC

After completing Celeste I thought I’d follow it up with Steam World Dig. To be honest, I remember playing a bit of it a year ago or so but bounced of it. With my new found love in Celeste, surely I’d be able to connect with other platformers too, right?

I was honestly hoping for a stronger gameplay loop. The way the game limits your progress is by limited resource space which gets kind of boring when you have to return from exploration each time it’s filled. It isn’t an inherently bad mechanic, but it happens so often that it’s gets old pretty quickly.

I wasn’t overly impressed by the world either. A large part of this game is clearly the exploration but it didn’t grab me at all.

My quest for other enjoyable platformers continues.

I’m gunna preface this by saying that I have always hated platformers. I never really clicked with the gameplay and tend to get frustrated by any title within the genre.

Roll in Celeste. This game had been hyped up to me for quite some time but I’d always written it off because, you guessed it, the game is a platformer. The only reason I picked it up recently is because I bought it in a sale a little while ago and it’s the first in a relatively long list of titles that are in my backlog.

This game is hard. Harder than any game I’ve played for a long while. There was definitely a point on maybe the 3rd chapter where I was getting so vexed that I put the game down and was certain I would never play it again

But then I reflected on the story and mechanics. The game was so cleverly hardwired to reward failure with the knowledge to progress and the characters were so wonderfully written that it spurred me on to continue. Did I get stuck from time to time? Absolutely, but I persisted because I knew that I had beaten each screen beforehand and each little pay-off, whether that be a level clear or piece to the overall story puzzle, was worth every frustrated moment. I was visibly improving and the story was so heartfelt and genuine that I couldn’t put it down. Each new puzzle or gimmick was so enjoyable, the pacing of everything was perfect and I felt so emotionally attached to Madeleines journey that I expect it will stay with me for years to come.

Play this game if you haven’t already. You owe it to yourself.