I feel like my head is overwhelmed with a ton of different feelings and thoughts on this game, 99% of those thoughts extremely positive and 1% of those thoughts, nitpicky small things that I don't really care about right now because I just loved this game with my entire heart.

The story is for sure a bit Nomura poisoned but I still had a really good time with it, I'm starting with it because I don't have a ton to say partially because spoilers and partially because it's confusing and insane and I'm not qualified to deep dive into all of the differences and what everything means. It's for sure much more well done and interesting than a Kingdom Hearts story but I get a similar feeling where I'm mostly just along for the ride and willing to let there be some bullshit.

The main thing about the narrative and writing that continues to blow me away with these remakes absolutely is the characters and all of the various interactions and moments they all get. I went from knowing and not particularly caring about most of these characters to all of them becoming one of my favorite casts of characters in all of gaming! I don't dislike anyone here, even characters I was a bit worried about being annoyed with like Yuffie or Cait Sith ended up being absolutely wonderful, Yuffie especially ended up being one of my favorites. I have nothing but absurdly positive things to say about each and everyone here, capped off with wonderful performances! I do find it can get a bit on the anime melodramatic on the voice acting side of things but as someone who usually doesn't love that stuff it didn't really bother me at all, again probably because I just love these characters so darn much. It's rare a game can juggle around so many characters and make me feel so intensely attached to all of them! Obviously I have favorites, but I don't think anyone is so far and away above anyone else and that's because they're all so insanely likable and interesting. I could talk for days about how I love all the little aspects of each character and all of the various dynamics like Barrett interacting with Yuffie, Red, or Cait Sith and how it always was a highlight or Tifa and Aerith's genuine friendship or Red XIIIs big character moment I won't spoil, or even Cloud and Yuffie's sibling dynamic but if I get into anymore detail I might never stop. I love all of these guys and even if the story can be a bit convoluted and overwhelming this is some of my favorite character writing in any game ever, it was something I already loved about Remake but it's tenfold here.

Gameplay wise it's even more fun than Remake which was already a pretty amazing Action RPG. It's not too different all things considered, but some new Materia, Synergy Attacks/Commands, and most of all the brand new characters in Red XIII and Cait Sith (not to mention some short really fun playable versions of a couple other characters) all come together to make an already astounding combat system that much better. Synergy Attacks/Commands were probably the biggest thing I kinda refused to learn until I realized they're really fucking good and fun as hell! They generally follow a couple guidelines but are extremely useful and a lot more powerful than I was giving them credit for. There's also a ton of returning and new weapon abilities that are a ton of fun to mess with. Finding a new weapon is always exciting even if the stats aren't great because it means you'll at least get a new attack to unlock and they're all pretty fun and worthwhile. The two new characters are a ton of fun as well! Red XIII pretty instantly clicked with me, but Cait Sith felt a bit awkward for a while. It wasn't until a section where you're forced to be only him did I actually put some time into learning him and end up finding him really cool! Still on the lower end for sure but once you get used to him he's also a ton of fun. Exploration was solid! Each region looks absolutely gorgeous and it's fun to do all the little tasks in each place. I can see someone finding them tedious but they all have an absurd Final Fantasy charm that I never really got bored. I'm also the kind of guy that just loves ticking away at a checklist and this game does it great. Control/Movement during exploration is pretty average, I think I would have preferred a Jump button cause it can feel a bit awkward but I understand why there isn't one. The various Chocobo and their gimmicks are fun to use and the giant monster truck thing you get is silly and fun to use. If I had one complaint it would be that Chadley won't ever shut the fuck up! It's a pretty annoying pace breaker the amount of times he stops you from playing to tell you that you got some good data and to keep up the good work. I wish it was kept to walking conversations or something, I actually like the idea of Chadley and your exploration fueling his research and working towards new materia and such but he stops you so much and it's pretty fucking annoying.

The other big aspect of the gameplay is the sheer amount of mini-games here. I'm a guy that absolutely LOVES stupid little mini-games and changing up the main gameplay here and there and this game does it a TON. It's almost all great too, I love how often they have you do a silly little mini-game like shooting boxes on a mine cart ride, a punch-out style fighting game with low poly OG FF7 models, a pretty fun Piano Rhythm game, Chocobo Racing which feels way more satisfying to control than it has any right to, and a ton other I could go on and on about. The two big consistent ones are the returning Fort Condor which is still lots of fun and I like the more offense-oriented changes they made and it also uses the great low poly FF7 models. The new one is Queen's Blood which is an insanely in-depth card game that's a ton of fun! There's over 100 cards and there's a good amount of variance in what they all do. It's pretty fun to make new decks and I always went to do all the new Queen's Blood matches available whenever I got to a new town because I liked it so much. I'm really excited to go back post main story and grind all of these mini-games cause they're genuinely so fun and there's way more than I would have expected.

The music is also WONDERFUL which like, obviously. It's a bit unfair having one the greatest OSTs as a base and a ton of it is pretty new to me but it's just so beautiful. I don't think I emotionally connect with Video Game soundtracks much, there's a ton I love and think are great but they don't grab me emotionally as much as I just think they're sick. This entire soundtrack felt so emotional, I don't know if I'll ever hear Tifa or Aerith's themes again without feeling a bit emotional. The way they weave character themes into the important moments for each character is so insanely beautiful. There's also obviously iconic songs like the battle theme which I'll never get sick of and the insanely beautiful town themes. It'd be pretty tough to find a video game OST on the level of this and it's one that'll stick with me for a long time.

I can't believe this game exists and it feels as large a step above the first game in the remake trilogy which was already a game that really surprised me with my love for it. Direct sequels pretty often end up amazing before later games try a bit too hard to be different and crazy so it shouldn't surprise me as much as it does, but fuck man it's a beautiful feeling to have a sequel absolutely crush it like this game does. For my tastes and opinions there's been a few of those the last few years and it's just so sick. I'm incredibly excited for the third game, it's gonna be tough to live up to this but no matter what I just can't wait to have more experiences with these characters. I could go on for way too long absolutely gushing about this game but I'll leave it at this already way too long review and say I'm so glad these remakes exist and got me into the FF7 universe.

Part 2 of the remake series, this covers a much larger section of the game than part 1, and absolutely nailed this part of the story. From the antics at the seaside resort Costa Del Sol, to the events of the lost city, Rebirth’s tone and writing is absolutely spot on, and it plays with your expectations frequently, especially in the finale.

There are some changes to the story, but most of it is to further expand upon the pre-existing plot, making side characters such as Yuffie far more vital to the bigger
picture. The animation is absolutely incredible, the acting is perfect, they just understand these characters so well. The ending truly enhanced the tradgey of the events, and it was so impactful.

Gameplay is expanded from Remake, with more characters to play as and a semi open world setting. It's much more open in terms of content than Remake, though sticking to the main story will take you on a linear path through dungeons and awesome boss fights. This game is huge, yet I found the
Pacing to be miles better than Remake. The open world gives you plenty to do as well as a ton of side games, which remarkably are mostly fun. You know your having a good time when you feel like completing it all. Traversal methods constantly change within these beautiful environments, from Chocobo that can glide to a dune buggy, and exploring is supplemented by the magnificent OST...

The battles are an expansion of the first game, bringing in a proper parry, as well as synergy abilities which are total game changers and were super fun to execute.

Rebirth really is the full package. Not all of the content is perfect, but I loved every second of it - 9.5/10

DD 2's approach to world design, its loving disinterest in commonly accepted quality of life features, its sometimes obscure but always interesting mechanics - all of that I hope will inspire games to come.
Unfortunately DD2 runs out of gas really quickly. There simply are not enough enemy types and environment types to sustain the game's length. I can only fight goblins and ogres on my way to a cave with nothing interesting in it so many times. Pair that with forgetable writing and a bland story, and despite loving my first 10 or so ours with it I quickly soured on DD and ultimately dropped it.

Give the team that animated the Sphinx a massive raise though, holy shit.

What did I even want out of Dragons Dogma 2? I began this game with a severe sense of disappointment, frustrated that it wasnt something “more”. But Im glad the game has a much greater sense of itself than I did, unwaveringly retaining its unorthodox core with a much more grand presentation. When I get over myself, I see theres just as much here to love as the first game - I would be ungrateful to not appreciate its weird and rare nature.

However it must be said that I hate these characters and their side quests and Im glad half of them are sitting in the NPC Lost And Found (the morgue). I would have liked a slightly less vast open world full of nothing but caves and aged beast skags, but I had the most fun carrying pots down ancient cliff faces than I did trying to council Hugo on how to live his life after being a bandit patsy (with that council being "Ill throw you off the cliff myself")

there's something unimaginably beautiful about games that feel just like when i'm really tired with a drawing and i just decide to do whatever and put it out into the world, then i see so many wrong things with it that could have been fixed with time but then again i'm very tired so in no way i'm touching it again. makes me think how human work will forever be valuable, we're able to develop apathy for imperfections due to fatigue and that's honestly beautiful.

excluding the obvious deadline constraints the team had to put up with, this kind of ambitious, large scale, unpredictable, weird, aggravating, difficult, time consuming, tiring, agressive, livable world barely has any space in the sanitized UX focused world but yet here we are, yet after all the misinformation efforts by 20 year-certified dumbass Stephanie Sterling here we are experiencing what is probably one of the most feverish mainstream gaming efforts done by a big studio in the last decade. this is probably the most important game Capcom has released in a lot of years and i'm all here for it, because if you play the game you end up realizing the boxart is extremely funny and there are simply no other games that do this kind of thing anymore. like, my bf missed seeing a major scene with a character around the last part of the game because he never got any of the optional quests involving him how is this not pure art.

also gotta love the genre of games that you could easily swap a "thank you for playing" at the end with "fuck you for playing!!" and it would still make perfect sense. they're dear in my heart and i will protect them always

Dragon's Dogma 2 constantly switches between being the greatest adventure of all time and the jankiest game you can find. It offers a unique experience while struggles with some bad design choices.

The open world

The world design is the best part of the game. The player is constantly presented with options, caves to explore, enemies to fight or quests to solve. There are also only a few fixed spawn points, which means you an always be suprised by one or two giant enemies, which will lead to a lot of action and fun while exploring!

The vocations

The vocations are the job system here. There is one for everyone: Heavy hitting fighters, fast rogues, mages and sorcerers, spear wielders and tricksters. The gameplay of each one feels unique and fun and you get passive abilities that you can transfer to your character when changing the vocation which allows some build variety for every character.

The Pawn system

At the very start of the journey you get to creat one pawn, an NPC that journeys with you all the time and fights with you. Furthermore you can hire 2 more pawns, which are created by other players. Here you can mix and match your group so that it reflects your play and fighting style. The Pawn AI ranges from great assists to "i jump down this cliff and die!" - but in combat they are generally super useful. The biggest issue is that the Pawns repeat the same 5 voice lines over and over again, which can be daunting in a 50+ hour journey.

The Fast Travel

One of the biggest discussion points in the game! There is no fast travel as we know it from almost all other open world titles. Bigger cities are connected with Ox Carts that you can use to travel around, but there are no points to fast travel to otherwise. You do need a Portcrystal and a Ferrystone. Portcrystals are extremely rare and hard to find, but when you aquire one you can place it anywhere you are and travel to that location - as long as you use and have a Ferrystone (which are also rather rare but you can also buy them from some merchants). I personally did enjoy the system as it encourages exploration but it can get tedious aswell.

Auto Save

The save system however is a big design flaw. There are no manual saves. There is an auto save system that saves regularly, or you sleep at an inn to save. However what can happen: You will get stuck on the map > your auto save is at the stuck place > you have to load the Inn save instead > you lose hours of gameplay (maybe). Happened to me and the only solution is to have a ferrystone with you all the time to port away then. No manual saves however are just a bad design choice if you can get stuck rather easily on some areas.

Story and characters

For me, the weakest part. The story feels like the most basic and generic medieval plot and while there is moer to it, the mains tory never grabbed me.
Same goes for the characters. Basically no memorable characters and all of them are rather bland. No real stand outs unfortunately.


If you are looking for an amazing adventure and fun exploration, which is presented in a unique way, DD2 is definitely a game for you!