Kinda floored at how much I ended up loving this game. Having just come off of Ys I & II and reasonably enjoying them, this one has made me a real fan of the series and excited to play more.

Set hundreds of years before the first two games, Ys Origin takes place entirely within the Darm tower. Starting off with two characters to select; Yunica Tovah or Hugo Fact, your mission is for the most part identical. You climb the tower, meeting all manner of enemy monsters and friendly characters alike. The boss fights are varied and (most of them) are fun and challenging, and as you progress through the game you learn more special attacks and other various abilities to deal with them. Yunica is a light-hearted axe wielder (who reminds me of Estelle Bright from Trails in the Sky in a few ways) and has to get in close to effectively deal damage while having pretty good defence to compensate. Hugo on the other hand is an edgy, arrogant, and quite frankly complicated mage character who ended up stealing the show for me. In combat he is very squishy, but deals tons of ranged magical damage and has a shield to help compensate for his lack of defence.

I really do love how the game itself feels. Moving and attacking is quick and snappy, and I bet a really skilled player could blitz through the game in record time without taking much damage. You have a boost meter that is constantly filling up, and when you activate it you have better MP regen to spam your special attacks, attack faster, and do more damage. All the way back to Ys I & II, one of the little things I really appreciated was that level ups felt meaningful. When you levelled up, you immediately felt how much more efficiently you could defeat certain types of enemies which isn't as noticeable in other action RPGs. This feeling is still present in Ys Origin, and I hope that means the other games that came out before this one retained it too.

While the structure and many story beats are identical for both playable characters, their perspectives were polar opposites and it made for some nice contrast on a subsequent playthrough to play as the other and learn some new things. Upon completing the game with either, a hidden third playable character is unlocked and is considered the "canon" route, with a new play-style and some new scenes/backstory to fill in the rest of the blanks.

All in all, Ys Origin is an awesome action RPG that felt so good and had a gripping enough story that I did not mind playing through it 3 times to get the full experience. My total playtime judging off my save files is somewhere in the neighbourhood of 20 hours, and that felt just right. Really looking forward to continuing on with the series!

As someone who adores action games, music, and vibrant colourful graphics, Hi-Fi Rush feels like a game that was made for me. It feels like something straight out of the early PS3 era and I do mean that in the best way possible.

Taking a lot of cues from character action and hack-and-slash titles, Hi-Fi Rush has a familiar feeling. Light and heavy attacks that can be strung together and spaced out for different combos, a dodge, a parry, a grapple, and a whole host of special meter moves. The twist here is that EVERYTHING in the game is in-time to the music. Your attacks and the enemy's attacks all line up to land on each beat of the song and you are encouraged to time your moves just right to master each encounter. It feels incredible if you can get into the groove of it, and almost everything makes a noise which indicates if you landed on or off beat to sync up to it. The only thing that doesn't, and perhaps my only major criticism of the game is the parry. You certainly hear and feel when you land a parry perfectly, but you don't get any feedback if your timing was too early or too late (outside of getting hit), so it took me quite a way through the game until I really felt comfortable with it.

That being said, multiple playthroughs are encouraged. There are no small number of secrets hidden in the gorgeous and thoughtfully designed levels, quite a few of which demand you come back later with all your upgrades/post-playthrough. Add in the scoring system for each encounter and level, and it's easy to see why you would want to play it over and over again.

As far as the story goes, it's serviceable for what it is. The strength is in the fun characters and writing, and I was really impressed with how much I loved the main character after my initial apprehension. The game also has a killer original soundtrack and even some well chosen licensed songs for a couple of the boss fights.

Hi-Fi Rush wraps up in a perfect length of around 10 hours, but as mentioned previously there are plenty of extras to look for after completing it. I highly recommend this game, and I am shocked that one of my favourite games of the year thus far just came out of nowhere. Well done to Tango Gameworks.

I had high expectations going into Final Fantasy XVI. The producer, composer, and (one of) the writers from Final Fantasy XIV, along with a combat director from Devil May Cry 5, as well as help from Platinum Games and the Kingdom Hearts combat team sounded like the recipe for an incredible experience. I am happy to say FFXVI delivers on all accounts.

Regarding the narrative, Clive Rosfield makes for an excellent protagonist. Throughout the course of the game we see him grow up and experience a lot of the harsh realities of his world. In a lot of ways, mainly due to his gravely voice and blunt personality, he reminds me of Geralt of Rivia. His wolf companion Torgal also has many opportunities to shine both in and out of combat, and you really get attached to him as the game goes on.

In general, I could actually go on about a lot of the supporting cast. Even minor characters get a ton of great development through the side quests, which are all fully voiced and either serve as meaningful world building, or just tell interesting stories. Admittedly, no small number of them are fetch quest-style, however the payoffs are usually worth it.

The overall plot is a wild ride from start to finish. Many heavy themes are tackled and are handled appropriately, and it's a really grim picture that gets painted. As you journey around Valisthea, the story spends a considerable amount of time building up to these big Eikon fights, multiple of which I consider to be among my favourite boss fights of all time. They are that good. The overall pacing is handled well, speeding up and building to these big battles and then giving the player time to breathe afterwards. It never really feels to fast or too slow. That being said, the game will typically throw side quests at you during the downtime, so obsessive players (like myself) who feel compelled to do them and will find the pacing slow down considerably as a result.

When it comes to the combat, it really is Devil May Cry 5 Lite. The Eikon forms you unlock over the course of the game serve as your styles that you can cycle through during combat (3 equipped at a time), and each has a certain gimmick they are centered around. I thought I would stick with the first 3 you get for most of the game, however my end game loadout was pretty different because they all do feel different and fun to use. Initially, I found the common fodder enemies to be too easy to blast through with your Eikon abilities, however mini-bosses and regular bosses are plentiful. Eventually I began to feel that it served as a good contrast to remind me how powerful Clive is. I think if they were too hardy, it would really make the game feel like a chore.

The open-world is also more of an open-world lite. You have a handful of FFXIV-sized zones dotted with fast travel points, and there isn't much in terms of exploration outside of looking for Hunts and fullfilling side quests. This isn't a bad thing, in fact it's a nice balance between being a linear game and still giving you open vistas to run around in without experiencing open world fatigue.

Overall, FFXVI really is one of the best. A powerful, well-written story with some heavy themes, a cast of characters that I got attached to (even the shopkeeper and the blacksmith!), a stellar soundtrack as always from Soken, and some really crazy combat. They really nailed the whole package, and once I have had a bit of a reprieve I will certainly go back and try all the cool things I unlocked for beating it.

A direct sequel to Ys I, Ys II immediately picks up where the first game ended. This time around, Adol has access to various forms of magic which are your main way of fighting most of the bosses.

Overall, the structure of the game is very similar to the first - you explore long, winding dungeons with brief moments spent in towns along your journey. The difference in this game is that the dungeons are MUCH longer and more maze-like, and you spend a lot less time in the towns comparatively. This isn't strictly a bad thing, what actually knocks the game down a bit for me is the pacing/build-up. Ys I is a very solid structure with a gradual build-up to the epic, climactic final dungeon. Ys II feels a bit more plodding, and the final dungeon has a bizarrely (yet still pretty good) chill theme that doesn't really convey the stakes well. It might seem like a minor complaint, but it's pretty important to get that right if you want to build up to a big finale.

Overall, I still really enjoyed the whole experience and the ending even if it didn't quite live up to the first game. I am excited to continue the series from here in the future!

A very solid arcade racing game for the PS1 that still looks pretty damn good. Great soundtrack, and even a little bit of a story for the different teams you can join in Grand Prix mode that seemingly adapts to your performance. As an example, in the second heat I got first place and then second place, and afterwards the manager commented on how "it wasn't as good as last time" which was a very neat detail.

Only reason I am docking a star here is because while the tracks themselves are pretty challenging, the fight is actually more with the ridiculous turning that the cars do so it's hard to focus on good apex's. Still, definitely a blast regardless of that.

Genuinely a pretty well put together fighting game considering it is a free fan project. There's the usual training, versus, and arcade, and online modes, as well as a Virtual Frontier mode which is reminiscent of BlazBlue's Abyss Mode. You fight different characters with different modifiers as your health bar carries over between matches, and look for places to rest or acquire new items to help you along the way. It's pretty unforgiving and definitely the main draw of the game for me.

There's currently 8 characters to choose from with a number of assists and they all have a unique style. The big detractor here for me is that movement/animations don't feel amazing and it overall ends up feeling a little wonky. Still, I cannot deny the effort that was put into it and I hope the developers continue to work on and improve it!

The tale of the 1000-year old witch. A stunningly woven story featuring a great cast of characters and a mystery that keeps you thinking. There are a number of themes that really came across strongly here, but I certainly believe it would be better for those interested to take this journey and reason them out for themselves. It is not a short endeavor by any stretch of the imagination - my overall play time combining both Question and Answer Arcs summed up to be just shy of 130 hours but I can assure you every moment was well worth it.

Like Question Arcs, Answer Arcs undoubtedly has its moments where the pacing slows down, however this time around I was significantly more enthralled with the plot points to really feel like it was a detractor. It is a roller coaster ride from start to finish and wrapped up as well as I had hoped, but I still believe Chapter 5 to be my favourite overall.

I did not imagine that I would have made more handwritten notes for a VN this year than I did for Tears of the Kingdom - and I started far, far too late. For fans of the mystery genre, you absolutely owe it to yourself to read this to completion. I genuinely hope more people continue to do so as I have, and I can think of no more fitting game to mark as my 1000th played game tracked on this website.

I never really got into Street Fighter; 2 and 3 were well before I really got interested in fighting games, and I really did not care for the visual style of 4 and 5. However, between World Tour, the crazy character creator, and overall just general aesthetic of the game I felt like this was finally the one I wanted to jump in with.

First and foremost, the story in World Tour mode is by no means great. The plot is fairly cut and dry, your created character is on a journey to find out WHAT IS STRENGTH and meet the cast of the actual fighters along the way. As you meet each new "master", you can change your normal moveset to match theirs, and as you rank up the style/develop your social link with them, you can learn more of their specials and supers as well. Running around the world itself feels almost like a Yakuza game where random goons will run up and start STREET FIGHTS with you, and how easily you can kick their ass depends on how close you are to them in level. Beyond that, there's also a clothing/equipment system to upgrade your stats (and a glamour setting you unlock fairly early to ensure you can separate your desired look from your best stat gear), as well as a selection of fun minigames that teach you some fundamentals like motion inputs, charge inputs, and parrying. The highlight really is being able to give gifts to the masters, rank up your bond and style with them, and even their text messages to you get pretty entertaining. They even made it so maxing out their bond unlocks the second costume for each character in online/versus modes. It took me about 25 hours to beat while I was scraping all the side quests I could, so the content is certainly there and it's one of the most impressive story modes I've seen for a 2D fighter.

Another big driving factor behind my SF6 rating here is the option for Modern controls. Admittedly, as a gamepad/anime fighting game player, I really never thought 6 button fighters felt good. The modern control options reduce your available buttons down from 6 to 4 and trade a higher selection of normals and higher damage for some easier inputs. It certainly makes the game more accessible for less hardcore fighting game fans, and it makes trying out new characters a lot more fun.

Beyond that, there is the standard fighting game fare. A battle hub where you can run around with your highly detailed (or highly monstrous) created character and sit down at arcade cabinets for unranked matches, a selection of built in Capcom classic arcade games that rotate in and out, the traditional arcade and training modes, tutorials, character, guides, everything you can think of. The menu-ing is a LITTLE bit too cumbersome, but most things you need to change are easy to set and forget.

SF6 really does have it all. Good netcode, lots of content, and is just in general really fun to pick up and play. I really hope Capcom does a good job supporting it, because I could see this being one I stick with for awhile.