Between 3, 4, and 5, Persona 3 was always my least favourite. Tartarus was a tedious slog, you didn't get to delve very far into your relationships with the people you were closest to, there were bizarrely no option to just be friends with any of the love interests meaning you just didn't get to finish Social Links, and above all there was simply no definitive version of the game with FES and Portable both having features the others lacked. But what Persona 3 did always have was a strong story, a well-defined message, a great main party, and of course, a tremendous soundtrack. While Persona 3 Reload disappointingly lacks a FeMC route, I am happy to say that it features everything else I could want from the game and more, and (unless you want to experience the better main character), the easiest version of the game to point to and say yes, you should play Persona 3.

For the most part, visually it is a stunning upgrade. There are new mo-capped(?) 3D cutscenes for certain moments that feel incredible, and in general the game is also a lot more vibrant while still retaining the colour palette of the original game with lots of blues and greys. You can tell they wanted to adapt a sort of similar style to Persona 5 and it works, with the exception of losing some of the personality in the old character portraits for a more "clean" look.

The soundtrack as expected is fantastic. While many of the less prominent songs are retained in their original version, there are a ton of new remixes. Lotus Juice returns on many of the vocal tracks this time with Azumi Takahashi in place of Yumi Kawamura. It's Going Down Now is introduced as the new advantage battle theme in Tartarus, and Colour Your Night is the new night time theme as Moon's Reaching Out to the Stars is shifted to be only in the day. Colour Your Night in particular is one of my new favourite Persona tracks, I ran around outside at night a bit just to hear it more. While long time fans of P3 might find the new remixes a little hard to adjust to, by the end of the game I definitely loved all of them. Takahashi's voice brings a softer vibe in contrast to Kawamura's, but it is in no way a replacement - they both fit just right.

Similarly, perhaps the thing I was most excited to hear going in was the new voice cast. Many of them feel very similar to their old actors and actresses, while others feel entirely new. Junpei and Akihiko in particular really killed it for me, with the former elevating the character far above what they were previously in my mind. All of the other social links are fully voiced now too, with Yuko and Bebe being big standouts.

P3 Reload also introduces a number of new ways to interact with your party members with new Link Episodes where you spend time with and get to know your male party members better. There's also new activities in the dorm at night that not only are fun little events, but also contribute to their capabilities in battle via their Characteristics. As an example, you can cook or watch DVDs with Yukari enough times, and SP costs of her healing spells are halved, then quartered. These events ALSO will increase your social stats or give you an extra useful consumable, so they do not feel like a struggle to fit into a game with an already tight schedule. It really goes a long way to help them feel like a group of friends who live and fight together, which was sorely missing in the original games.

And finally, we come to Tartarus. It's really hard to make a 200+ floor dungeon feel engaging, and admittedly it still felt a bit rough going in the home stretch, but the new improvements made a world of difference. First off is the visual style. Each block feels wildly different with striking aesthetics so it really feels more like 5-6 different dungeons at times instead of one big tower. Party members have a new theurgy meter which functions as a super and you gain meter for doing something particular to that character (Akihiko having buffs on, Mitsuru inflicting debuffs/ailments, etc.). They are absolutely overpowered and can invalidate a lot of fights, but they look flashy and damn cool so all is forgiven (such is the way in Persona). The Monad depths that used to serve as an end game optional dungeon are now sprinked throughout Tartarus via random doors and fixed passages, offering harder boss fights for reliable major tarot cards in shuffle time and greater rewards/chests. The major tarot cards you can now draw offer a lot of one-time or same-night bonuses in Tartarus such as greater fusion bonuses or getting to draw extra in Shuffle Time. They also even added a catch-up mechanic, where once per-excursion (or maybe Tartarus segment?) you have a chance of having a clock show up after opening special chests. When you touch the clock, you pick two party members that will level up to the MC's current level in the next battle. Something like this is SORELY needed in Persona where most of the time party members will just stay on the bench once they are placed there to avoid grinding. By the end of my playthrough, every single party member was in the mid-70s and I could freely select them as I saw fit for each battle. I remember one full moon fight in particular, I screwed up my team composition and died but that was cool, because I had the freedom to pick a different set of characters in the same night without feeling under-leveled. I really hope we continue to get mechanics like this, because for games with such a good cast as these, it's such a shame to not use more than 3 of them in battle.

There's a lot more I didn't talk about in this massive review of Persona 3 Reload, but above all I can now happily say I consider it one of my favourite Persona experiences alongside Golden and Royal. I'm sure it'll still get a re-release down the road as is the way with Atlus, but for now anyone looking to try out Persona 3 - this is the one to go for. You won't be disappointed.

Superstars is as definitive as a Mario Party experience you can get. Not tied down by the new, simplified foibles of 9, 10, and SMP, Superstars recaptures the magic (see: nonsense) of many of the classic games with some excellent board choices. Lots of minigames to select from as well, and the addition of stickers is a level of BM I would not have expected from modern Nintendo so kudos to that.

Most of the remixed music is stellar, and the visuals are gorgeous. The levelling and unlocks are nice incentives to play more, and the online and handling of interrupts like disconnects is very well executed.

I would have maybe liked to see some more boards and characters (and if Nintendo is feeling extra psychotic, a 50 turn option as the current max is 30), but I have no doubt that at least some of that will get added in a future update.

Superstars shows that somebody at Nintendo is still in touch with what made Mario Party memorable in the first place, and I hope to see the next numbered title following suit.

Adventure games are an extremely popular genre, but when you really get right down to the specifics of what makes a game feel like a real adventure, I don't think any game comes nearly as close as Dragon's Dogma and its sequel. Every venture out of town is considered and planned, and those plans are subsequently broken in different ways on each excursion. For me, Dragon's Dogma II is a series of hits of the same high that Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom or even Death Stranding provides.

Dragon's Dogma II puts you in control once again of the Arisen, a character of your own making who is selected by the dragon to control Pawns. In addition to a Pawn who is also of your own making, you can have up to two Pawns created by other players to form your party of four. Pawns can be any of 6 vocations while the Arisen has access to a few more specialized ones, and your team composition determines your approach to battles. Combat is largely the same as the first game, where you pick your four weapon skills based on your vocation on top of a couple of other baked-in unique abilities. You can also pick up and throw smaller enemies (or friends), as well as climb all over bigger ones a la Shadow of the Colossus. There's a little something for everyone with each vocation, and I am a big fan of both the new ones (special shoutout to Mystic Spearhand) and the slight reworks to the old ones. While admittedly there isn't a great variety of smaller enemies (mostly the same as the first game with some slight variations on Harpies and Saurians) and the large monsters could be spread out a lot more evenly through the world, but I personally never got tired of fighting cyclopes' or minotaurs whether it was my first time or my tenth time. You definitely feel a good sense of getting stronger as you and your Pawns chunk through those health bars faster and faster.

For fans of the first game, you'll also find the plot structure is pretty similar. A mostly straight-forward fantasy adventure with very light political intrigue that gets a bit weird with it as you go on. Above most other games, I highly recommend playing DD2 without a guide because the plot is counting on both the player's (and their Pawn's) ability to figure out the right direction and even beyond that, make mistakes. I can't count on two hands the number of major quests I royally screwed up, and yet still stumbled my way through the story. Some quest lines will even straight up drop if you don't make your own effort to pick them up and continue them, and many side quests aren't even presented to you unless you happen to talk to the right people. Whether you are in or out of town, curiosity is at the forefront of DD2's design philosophy. While still a bit on the barebones side, the main plot does have a few cool set piece moments, and the last few hours especially were stellar.

As I mentioned in my opening paragraph, the real draw of this game for me was the moment-to-moment. The exploration, the adventure. I took the same route out of Vermund countless times as I explored the Western side of the country, and by the time I eventually reached my intended destination, something different always happened. Maybe I found a new cave I hadn't spotted before with a new Pawn's help. Maybe I was ambushed by a Minotaur and knocked across a river. Maybe a Drake landed and utterly destroyed my party. The term 'friction' has been thrown around a lot to describe this game and its become a bit of a buzzword, but it is absolutely true. Traditional fast travel is (mostly) discouraged so that the player can experience lots of moments like this. It's a constant battle of tradeoffs, is it worth picking a fight with that Cyclops while the party needs a rest? Oh no, a Gryphon just landed on us and it's time to find out if we are prepared to fight it, or lead it back to the city where a good number of people will probably perish (but can be revived if you've got the item to do so). I could go on and on about all the cool moments I encountered, and suffice to say I thoroughly explored the map as best I could in doing so. It's been so refreshing just playing an open-world game like this where I can open my map and point at a spot and think okay, I want to go there because I want to. There's no icon there (yet) so maybe I'll find something cool. It is the antithesis of guided checklist open-worlds.

To be absolutely clear, it is not a game for everyone. I am not trying to gate keep or be pretentious about it, but the focuses and game design philosophies behind Dragon's Dogma II (and Dragon's Dogma for that matter) are very specific. It is more often about the journey than the destination, and the lack of fast travel and direction will probably cause a lot of people to bounce off. But for me, this is exactly the type of game I have been craving and as a follow up to the first game, I am happy to say that Dragon's Dogma II is just more Dragon's Dogma. At least at the time of writing, it's my GOTY of 2024.

As always, with a narrative heavy game like this it's tough for me to talk more in depths about the nuances of the story without getting into spoilers but I am going to do my best here as Alan Wake II has a lot to unpack. What I can absolutely say is this: Remedy continue to be masters of style, atmosphere, and story telling.

Alan Wake II is a massive departure from the first game in terms of how it looks, plays, and just generally feels. It is much more of a survival horror game this time around with proper grid-based, Resident Evil-ass inventory management. Enemies feel to be more of a threat, and in general we have a much darker and more terrifying tone than the first game.
Dark areas are dark and your flashlight feels more important than ever, as infrequent uses of street lights, safe rooms, and neon provide some semblance of relief among the atmosphere. For fans of the previous game Control, a lot of impressive visual tricks to mess with the player are used in this game, but do be warned that there is a liberal usage of old-fashioned hard-cut jump scares as well.

The game features two playable protagonists, Saga and Alan. Once both are properly introduced, the player can freely hop between them in safe rooms and play their stories in whatever order they wish. I could certainly see different players coming away with wholly different experiences depending on if they choose to prioritize one over the other, or keep an even balance throughout. Both characters have their own collectibles, with Saga pinning hers up on a corkboard and Alan using them to strengthen various gameplay abilities.

As for the narrative, it is a wild ride from start to finish. I can certainly see it being divisive (in full honesty, I am still not totally settled on this score) and at times it feels fairly cyclical. There were a couple of moments that I felt like Remedy was more "checking a box" for a thing that has to be in Remedy games now, but it all still serves a meaningful purpose for either the story or the player, and is executed well. Saga is a fantastic new character with her own quirks and struggles, and she had me every bit as invested as Alan himself. Overall, I am excited to see what the Final Draft and the DLC will bring, and what ultimately will be next in line from Remedy.

Alan Wake 2 is a work of art. It is bold, cryptic, and does not compromise on its own weirdness nor the messages it wishes to convey. It is definitely rough in some areas but still manages to be a charming package overall. I don't think I have played a AAA game so uncompromising since Death Stranding, and I hope we continue to get more crazy off-the-wall shit like this.

I didn't really know what to expect with Elden Ring. Going in, all I knew was that it was "open world Dark Souls" but what did that mean? Early reviews were saying 30 hours, I was confidant the horse controls were going to be jank, and above all else, I feared for the game design. From Soft are MASTERS at linear(ish) level design with plenty of shortcuts and well thought out enemy placements. Surely this would all go away in an open world format. Boy, were my expectations off.

Elden Ring is nothing short of FromSoft's masterpiece. The combat is a natural evolution of Dark Souls III and Bloodborne in terms of speed, with returning concepts like my beloved power-stancing from Dark Souls II. Their work on Sekiro also allowed them to experiment greatly with verticality in both level design and combat encounters. The horse feels great too, even being a great tool to jump on and off of it mid-fight if it is permitted.

In terms of challenge, I would say it's pretty open to being as easy or difficult as you want to make it. Tools like the ash summons can make for useful diversions/allies during battles without having to rely on other players, and there are plenty of busted weapons, spells, and incantations for you to abuse as you like.

But beyond those FromSoft series staple refinements, the real key differentiator with this entry is the exploration. Elden Ring gives you very little direction beyond the first hour of where to go and what to do and the world is massive and full of interesting catacombs, tombs, and castles. You are constantly presented with gorgeous, scenic vistas full of rotten enemies. A friend told me from what they saw it's like playing through a concept art book and that is absolutely right. Though BotW isn't the first to design an open-world this way, it's the most recent example that comes to mind so I will use it as the point of comparison. You feel compelled to explore places you see in the distance simply because they look interesting, and you are always amply rewarded for your efforts. It's incredible how a studio with practically no experience designing this type of game knocks it out of the park on their first try in a way most studios have failed.

That isn't to say the experience is ALL golden, I do have some minor complaints. Side quests and optional stories are as obtuse as they are in all FromSoft games, but in a world THIS massive it's almost impossible to stumble through them accidentally. A guide feels mandatory if you want to follow certain characters and their escapades. Some other minor things that would be nice to have are stat comparisons in shops to the gear you currently have equipped, and in general a tab of your inventory for new item pickups would be nice because it's easy to miss what you just picked up is supposed to be.

Minor complaints aside, Elden Ring is undoubtedly one of FromSoft's finest works, and maybe even their best title. It feels like the ultimate Souls experience combining the size and scale of all of their games in one. If you enjoy a challenge, exploration, and some rad boss fights, this game is a no brainer to pick up.

There’s a lot of things I could say about how wonderful Persona 5 Royal is. The new areas to explore, the new minigames, new dungeon quirks, new battle features. All of these things add up to make a pretty definitive upgrade to the vanilla Persona 5 experience. But what really pushed it up for me are the new confidants and the third semester. It’s impossible to really talk about why I love these here without getting into full spoilers. What I can say is that P5R explores some very powerful themes and some characterization that I consider to be the peak of Persona. While there were some aspects of the base game’s narrative that left me a little unsatisfied, Persona 5 Royal shows off that there are people who work at ATLUS who still know how to write a damn good story and character arcs. It gives me hope for the future of this series and I really can’t wait until my friends finally do get around to playing this.

After seeing a fair bit of the promo materials for Infinite Wealth, and especially after playing 'The Man Who Erased His Name', I had a single great fear going into this one. Yakuza: Like a Dragon had claimed the title of my favourite RGG studios game due in no small part to the new protagonist, Ichiban Kasuga. It is no exaggeration for me to say he is my favourite all-time RPG protagonist, and with how things were shaping up my fear was that he would have to relinquish that spotlight back to the long-time series favourite, Kazuma Kiryu. I am more than happy to report that these fears were unfounded and Infinite Wealth simply allows both these protagonists to breathe by simply jamming two massive games together in one.

To elaborate further, the scope of this game is insane. I have that same feeling I did when I first played Yakuza 5. A whole new map to explore in Hawaii on top of Yokohama and Kamurocho, and there are a massive amount of minigames (and even a proper ass game in Dondoko Island) to go with it. Want to play a Pokemon Snap-like where you take pictures of perverts wreaking havock across Hawaii? There's Sicko Snap at three of the bus stops around town. How about a dating app where you build Kasuga's profile and do rhythm game-like inputs to score a funny date? There's Miss Match. How about straight-up Crazy Taxi x Uber Eats where you race around picking up food, doing tricks, and stopping by citizens? There's Crazy Eats. All of these are pretty fun and have a respectable amount of content and incentive to replay them, and there are plenty of other reasons to manually explore around town like Aloha Links, the Photo Rally, and the Sujimon League rather than just fast travelling from destination to destination. Having a dedicated button to wave to the people you meet, a playlist full of collectible SEGA songs, and a segway really make it comfy to explore.

Diving further in, Dondoko Island is the new 'main' minigame in Infinite Wealth as the counterpart to the Company Management in Like a Dragon. Essentially Animal Crossing, you clear out trash on your island to make room for all sorts of buildings and decorations of your own creation as you invite various people to come stay for a few days and enjoy what you've built. Once you have the requisite resources and recipes (which you gain both actively and passively), you can build it right there on the spot and place it and move it around as you see fit. Create your own paths around each area to fit the style you want, and even redecorating isn't much of a hassle. A day on Dondoko Island takes about thirty minutes or so, and each day has daily tasks to help you rake in the Dokobucks which can be used to purchase upgrades, buy special decorations, or even just convert into straight cash. It was very addicting to push my island rank all the way up to 5 stars and I ended up putting the plot on hold for a long time just for how fun it was.

Now back to talking about the real game itself, there are a handful of improvements to the combat system. The big one here is the expanded movement during battle. You have a circle which you can freely move around in, and many of the moves and attacks for each job allow you to knock enemies into each other for extra damage. It becomes a fun little game on each turn of battle how to take best advantage of the positioning of your team. There are also new tag team attacks with each party member as you level up your bonds. There are still follow-up attacks and the ability to tag-out when you have more than 4 party members, as well as new Poundmates to summon in battle. Of course, there are also a whole host of creative new jobs in addition to many of the previous ones, which you can use to customize your playstyle and team composition. It's not a dramatic change over the previous game, but it is just enough to make the combat even more enjoyable. If the level difference is high enough, you can also just start a fight with a beatdown to skip the battle for slightly less exp gains. Doing absolutely everything I could, I felt like I outpaced the plot's enemies around the halfway mark, but managed to be on par for the finale which is the important thing. Unfortunately (and maybe this is my fault for hitting too many bad guys), there weren't really any battles that felt like a stiff challenge. The previous game had (IMO) two notorious fights that hit like a truck and one of which was especially awesome for it - but there has been no such equivalent in this game. Still, the combat and job customization has been fun enough for me to really care too much about that.

As I mentioned, the story is really doing both Ichiban and Kiryu justice. They both have a personal stake in the plot, and my attachment to both characters could not be greater. I won't sugar coat it, there are a LOT of cutscenes. This is not the game for you if you thought MGS4 was excessive, because you will often (especially in the first few chapters) just be sitting your ass down to watch a movie; but god damn if it isn't an engrossing one most of the time. In fact, one other thing I noticed is that the first and last scenes of all substories are also fully voiced. There are also a ton of conversations out while wandering the world that are also fully voiced. In general, there is a lot of audio dialogue in this game! Maybe more than I have ever heard in an RPG before! Unfortunately, the overarching plot and central conflict is also the weakest aspect of the game. It feels a little bit unfocused and even occasionally just sloppy with all the key players and motivations and many feeling under-utilized, and if I were to make a comparison it actually reminds me a lot of FFXIV: Stormblood in this regard. It isn't like it's terrible, there are genuinely wonderful character moments and the themes of reflecting on your past, regrets, atonement, and forgiveness are well established and executed. I also like that they are continuing to blend fantasy elements (such as boss fights) into the """""realism""""" of the RGG series. Just overall I would not rate it amongst the highs of the series like 0 and 7.

Qualms about the central conflict aside, it's a tremendously impactful and relatable journey. Even a certain collectible that unlocks about halfway through the game moved me with each one I picked up. There are certainly a number of over-the-top ridiculous moments in the plot, but such is par for the course with RGG. At its core, you can tell a lot of love and care was put into this game, the quality and amount of content is staggering. Only time will tell if this is the recency bias talking, but I strongly feel this is one of the best turn-based RPGs ever made, and I could not be happier with how they have pulled it off. My completion time was just shy of 100 hours, and I certainly want to go back and polish off the few things I did not get to. As always, RGG fans will not want to miss this entry and it still stands among the best. I really look forward to how they will continue this series (and go back to Waikiki, because it'd be a waste to use that city after only one game!).

Breath of the Wild never did really blow me away. I certainly enjoyed it, and it's approach to open-world exploration was well executed - even if the rewards for doing missed the mark. I did not grow up with the series, and I initially wasn't even going to pick up Tears of the Kingdom until the very final launch trailer pushed me to just enough interest - and man am I glad I did.

As a direct sequel to BotW, TotK set out to improve upon every single aspect of its predecessor in every conceivable way, and I will do my best to break down each one of those things with as little spoilers as possible.

First off, the absolute biggest factor for me here was the exploration and more specifically, the Depths. An entire unmapped underground section that matches the size of Hyrule that is shrouded in darkness. As you explore it, you will find light-roots that not only serve to light up the surrounding area, but fill in the map as well. You better believe I got every last one for the satisfaction of filling in my map completely. There's a lot of great rewards, creepy monsters, and fun encounters to be had down there as well so it's absolutely worth dedicating time to.

Similarly, a handful of sky islands were also added flying above the surface. While their total surface area would probably make up around ~10% of the game map, there's a lot of cool things to be found up there as well. For the main world, there are certainly some new changes since BotW, however I admit the 6 years since the game's release has helped it feel fresh in my own mind.

One other thing they did to really spice up exploration is via the Fuse ability I mentioned earlier. Fuse allows you to stick anything you want onto your melee weapon, your shield, or your next arrow. If you want to attach a silver Lynel horn to your weapon to ramp up the damage, or a spring to your shield to bounce enemies who attack you away, or Keese wings to your arrow to make it fly further, these are all new possibilities. This is REALLY important because it fixes one of the biggest exploration problems I had with BotW. Due to weapon durability, it very quickly never felt worth it attacking monster camps because your reward was inevitably just a new weapon to replace what you probably just broke. But now, killing the monsters is just as much of a reward because their parts aren't relegated to just cooking elixirs - they improve your weapons too.

Another big factor for me is the shrines, and by extension your new powers that can be used to solve them. Shrines were present in the first game, but you didn't really have very interesting abilities that you could use to solve them outside of stasis. In TotK, your Ultra Hand, Recall, and to a lesser extent Fuse and Ascend are an excellent set of tools to solve them. Outside of the handful of combat-focused shrines (which usually have more creative solutions in mind), the variety of puzzles is incredible and make use of the great physics engine in the game. The Ultrahand ability also lets you make all manner of crazy contraptions from vehicles to robots to traps. It's not too cumbersome, especially when it comes to recreating past contraptions being very streamlined.

The final key aspect I want to touch on here is the story. If you remember the BotW story, you'll have to remind me because there wasn't too much interesting going on (and a lot of it was obscured in easily missable cutscenes). TotK's plot is a massive leap forward in quality. There is a lot of mystery to it, and while there are collectible "memory cutscenes" here too, they are very easy to find and tell a pretty interesting tale that features a couple of wild ideas. Most of the boss fights also end up being pretty fun (save for one), and a final boss that I could see comfortably sitting among my all time favourites.

Now all that is to say, it is by no means without flaws. My biggest gripe is the sort function missing an alphabetical sort which makes sifting through your materials often difficult if you are looking for something specific. The other main gripe I have would be that this is a late-generation Switch game so performance struggles at times. Still, despite these flaws it is absolutely a game worth experiencing, I'd dare say even worth skipping BotW for if you haven't played it.

I could probably continue to go on about how much I enjoyed Tears of the Kingdom, but I will probably leave it here. Never could I imagine I would be nearly doubling my playtime from BotW just finishing the main story and obsessively exploring the world, and I'll likely do a bit more of that before I am truly done. At the time of writing this, I am not sure if FFXVI, Trails into Reverie, or Alan Wake 2 are going to sweep GOTY 2023 away from TotK for me - but they are going to have to REALLY work for it.

Pizza Tower is ingenious all around. You can tell immediately upon reaching the main menu that there is a certain look and sound to it that it strives to achieve, and all the way through it nails that perfectly. It's very reminiscent of 90s/early 00's cartoons with it's messy look that occasionally veers into the hyper absurdly detailed. It's crazy and vibrant in all respects, and the soundtrack matches that exact tone with unique tracks for every level.

It doesn't stop at the aesthetic however, as Pizza Tower plays tremendously. Plenty of movement options that those with fast reflexes (or good memorization) can absolutely master levels. Sprinting up walls, rolling through tight spaces, ground slamming blocks, and lots of other one-off gimmicks that give each level their own unique feel. Plenty of secrets to uncover too, both in the hub and each level via collectibles, secret areas, and special treasures. If you've played Wario Land before, it's the same deal here - reach the end of the level, and then sprint all the way back to the start on a timer. While the game doesn't have health bars outside of boss fights, it will certainly remind you how you are doing via it's ranking and combo system. I genuinely don't think I have any real complaints outside of not liking the second boss fight very much.

Pizza Tower is hands down a must play for anyone who loves side-scrolling platformers as it is one of the best in the genre. It just feels and looks as good as it is gross.

A dramatic step-up from it's predecessor, Blasphemous II set out to address every possible complaint about the first game with few caveats.

Most notably, the world just feels good to traverse. My largest issue with the first game was that the only method of fast travel were a handful of portals around the map which weren't enough to make backtracking feel anything more than a chore. This game has those portals too, but it also features some upgrades which allow you to get around much more easily, the earliest of which is a prayer which allows you to fast travel back to the central city at any time. You have your slide and normal jump to start off with as well, but as with all Metroidvania's you unlock more movement options as you progress through the game to reach more and more secrets and become more manoeuvrable in combat. I enjoyed it so much that I even set out to 100% the game and see all endings.

Another major new feature of this game is that you start the game with one of three weapons to choose from: a standard sword, a giant flail/hammer, and quick dual blades; each with their own gimmick and speed to adapt to different players' preferences. You eventually do get all of them throughout the course of the game too and can freely cycle through them, and what's more is they both offer some manner of exploration ability which means different players who take different weapons first will have different hidden paths open to them right away.

In general, I think the best way I can describe the game is that it is less oppressive. Spike pits no longer instantly kill you, the music is more upbeat, and for the most part, the game is easier. The last point isn't necessarily a great thing but overall I find the experience to be a nice compliment to the first game and one I overall spent more time playing. One more minor complaint is that the cutscenes are fully animated by a third-party studio, which is a shame because the ones in the first game were quite striking in the pixel art style. Still, there aren't many of them so it's hardly a massive detractor.

Overall, if you like Metroidvanias then Blasphemous II is absolutely worth your time. While the first game is still worth experiencing (at least a little bit), feel free to jump right into this one. Try out the spanish dub too!

Yoshi's Island is without a doubt the best looking game on the SNES. The visuals are outstanding and adapt an art style that will stand the test of time, utilizing a lot of really smart techniques to even incorporate some "3D" visuals. The music is as good as Mario games can get, with a wonderful touch of adding elements to the main map theme with every new world. Gameplay incorporates a lot of unique elements like storing, aiming, and throwing eggs as well as power-ups like the horrific helicopter.

However, I cannot in good conscience give a perfect rating to a game that punishes you for taking damage with loud beeping and literal baby crying. It is one of the most bafflingly poor game design decisions to ever come out of Nintendo games. Yoshi's Island is a firm 4/5.