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.

"'It's peak,' as they say" - Aigis, probably.
This might sound cheesy, but every time I play a new Persona game I feel like I learn something new about myself. This time around we tackle themes of death, nihilism, the impermanence of everything, and what it means to truly live. Nothing lasts forever, people die and they're gone for good, this is absolute.
I'm at the point in my life now where loved ones dying is starting to become more of a common thing. As goofy as it sounds, stories like P3 help you recenter and contemplate on this concept.
Philosophy aside, the game is pretty solid. I'm a bit torn on how I feel about their faithfulness to the originals, but I think ultimately they made great choices to improve the QoL and overall experience of the game. I say this as someone who never played any original version of P3, but am familiar with that era of Persona via playing P4G. If anything I wish they had been maybe a little less faithful and tried something new.
It's hard for me to say, but I think P3 has my favorite cast....? Regardless, it's very close to P4 in that area. Interacting with Koromaru is definitely more enjoyable than interacting with Teddy or Morgana at least. The other party members also feel more grounded and mature. I'll also cautiously say that I think P3 has some of the best music out of any Persona game overall, especially when it comes to battle music. Sorry P5 fans, the jazz is great and all but I prefer Mass Destruction and It's Going Down Now. Colour Your Night absolutely slaps, Changing Seasons slaps, When the Moon's Reaching Out Stars is bubbly and upbeat to contrast the melancholy and nihilism. And when the music and tone shift in the last month... that whole month was a gut punch.
Pacing at the beginning of the game is a little strange, but in hindsight I understand why it has to be that way for story purposes. I liked the way P4 handled broaching the main subject of the story with all of the mystique surrounding Personas and the world inside of the TV. P3 felt a little weird in contrast because you move to a new school and suddenly everyone's like, "Sup? we fight Shadows in Tartarus during the Dark Hour with our Personas. You start Monday, welcome to the team." It made the first couple areas of Tartarus feel much less impactful than the dungeons and palaces in other Persona games which were obviously specifically tailored around the relevant character.
Even knowing how the game would end, it still wrecked me. Memories of You hits really hard, it's the kind of shit that makes you want to call your mom or some close friends.
Now do this, but with P4G.

Eu nunca achei que algo pudesse de verdade consquistar meu coração como Hollow Knight conquistou um dia, e meu deus, eu ainda tô indeciso e não consigo um favorito, mas com certeza Persona 3 Reload se tornou um dos meus jogos favoritos de todos, um jogo que não só me apresentou a um novo gênero, não só foi uma experiência extremamente divertida (e triste, MUITO triste), mas foi o responsável por conquistar o meu coração da melhor forma possível, isso não é uma simples Review, é uma carta de amor a este jogo.

Eu sempre fui muito pé atrás com jogos JRPG, assim como muitos, o único que havia me interessado até hoje foi Persona 5 Royal (finjam surpresa), quem me apresentou esse jogo foi o usuário geno no twitter, e já que eu o sigo há um tempinho acabei vendo um monte de postagens sobre esse Persona e acabei me interessando pelo jogo, mas até hoje não joguei por causa da barreira linguística devido a falta de tradução por parte da ATLUS, então meio que deixei de lado esse interesse.
Até que foi anunciado Persona 3 Reload, o qual eu soube um pouco da existência durante os rumores, mas tinha deixado de ver sobre Persona há bastante tempo, então não olhei muito sobre, mas ele veio junto ao gamepass no lançamento, e como eu sempre olho os meses, acabei lembrando do meu interesse na franquia há um tempo, então decidi instalar e jogar pra ver se me interessava. Eu joguei por bastante tempo e desisti não pq o jogo estava ruim, na verdade estava ótimo, mas eu não sabia se realmente estava com vontade para zerar algo tão longo, até que então dois amigos fãs de Persona meus me incentivaram a continuar jogando, eu rapidamente viciei no jogo, durante semanas e eu só sabia falar desse jogo, eu só jogava esse jogo, eu só pensava nesse jogo, eu só buscava sobre esse jogo, a minha vida tinha virado Persona 3 Reload.
Até que hoje, dia 4 de Abril, depois de 103 horas e 21 minutos de jogo, eu finalmente zerei Persona 3 Reload faltando apenas a conquista de maximizar os social links, então... o que eu posso dizer? Esse jogo é perfeito, eu realmente não consigo encontrar erros significativos diretamente, o artstyle é simplesmente o melhor que já vi em jogos em toda a minha vidas, sendo tão característico e único da sua maneira, a gameplay é tão gostosa que mesmo com 263 andares do Tártaro ele mesmo assim não fica nem um pouco enjoativo, o tártaro é simplesmente só muito gostosinho de jogar, a música desse jogo é simplesmente divina (LANÇOUUU 🎉🥳), passando exatamente os sentimentos certos nos momentos certos, a história foi feita com uma caneta pegando fogo azul de tão insano que o cara tava, eu desabei de chorar por basicamente 20 minutos INTEIROS de tanto que esse jogo é emocionante, simplesmente se juntou as duas experiências definitivas de videogame pra mim, junto de Hollow Knight (é claro).
Essa experiência que pra muitos, incluindo eu, pode parecer entendiante, chata, lenta, planilha do excel, eu asseguro a todos: não é, esse jogo não só é excepcionalmente fabuloso, como também foi a minha porta de entrada para essa franquia e para esse gênero de JRPGs, eu não sei se realmente vou entrar de cabeça no mesmo já que só foi esse jogo desse gênero que permaneci até o final, e ainda mais único por eu ter o amado tanto, mas definitivamente o meu preconceito com esse gênero não diminuiu, mas sim não existe mais, não vou limitar a comprar jogos por ser JRPGs mais, se o jogo me interessar, irei jogar, simples assim. Inclusive, estou pensando seriamente em começar a buscar aprender inglês pra finalmente jogar o P5R e eu com certeza vou comprar o Metaphor Refantazio que sai ainda esse ano.

Sei muito bem que essa não foi uma Review muito boa, já que eu falei muito mais de mim, sobre como minha mentalidade era e como esse jogo me foi apresentado, mas espero que entendam que isso foi por dois simples motivos:
1°: eu não consigo descrever em palavras o quanto esse jogo acabou sendo especial pra mim, o quanto eu amo esse jogo, esse universo, esses personagens, essa gameplay, eu amo absolutamente TUDO, então achei que fosse melhor e mais fácil dizer como esse jogo me impactou.
2°: eu sou burro e não sei fazer review muito menos expressar sentimentos

Bom, que agora venha episódio Aigis para eu chorar uns litros a mais, Metaphor: Refantazio, P5R, pegar a última conquista no P3R, e tantas outras possibilidades que esse jogo abriu pra mim.

Persona 3 Reload iluminou meus olhos.

This game is literal perfection. The gameplay, inspired by Max Payne, merges everything perfectly. Every weapon has a utility. Every enemy is different enough to change your strategies and try different thing. Every level is a masterpiece. Every song kicks in at the perfect moments to create the perfect combat encounters to create the perfect experience. The story is top-tier and covers topics I haven't seen before in another game. Every single aspect of this game just lands so, so well. The characters, especially Savage, is just... Amazing. The performances are amazing. The writing and humor is amazing. It is scary how amazingly good this game is. I'm going to follow this company closely, because this game left me wanting so, so much more. Everyone should play this game.

There's a great game hidden in here somewhere, but unfortunately, it just doesn't have that one element to make it stand out. Combat? It's pretty satisfying, especially as you unlock new abilities, but it's also a bit sloppy. Traversal? Probably the highlight of the game, it's really damn good, but probably not gonna blow many minds. The world? The idea is there, but the execution leaves something to be desired - none of it truly stands out but it isn't bad either. The story/characters? Unfortunately on the bland side.

Overall, this is a cool game that I had a good time with, but it isn't a must-play. It could have been an excellent game with a stronger story and just a couple gameplay tweaks, but it overall just feels like another "pretty solid" game that I've played - and that's fine

People are being a bit hard on it for not a full price game, but def wouldn't recommend for more than 20-30$ USD.

Without a doubt the weakest aspect of it is the writing and dialogue, the first hour can be extremely bumpy due to a poorly paced intro and just bizarre delivery of poor lines. Once you enter the open world aspect however, the game shines more. The world is wonderfully designed and interesting however questionable in scale, though admittedly it won't make you fondly think back on it months from now. It's not massively open world like alotr of triple A's which is great for exploration and lends well to the traversal of the game, which shines through.

Overall the combat is fine, hack n slash that won't blow you away but the gauntlet mechanics of perks based on adrenaline is a fun system with plenty of variety to customize. This includes the armor which has customization and straight up glamor options if you prefer the look of one armor set with the stats of another.

Overall I would recommend on sale, especially with a friend due to the co op. If you are wondering why I didn't finish it I accidentally deleted my save so will come back to it in the future :P

Dripping with Max Payne influence, El Paso, Elsewhere does maybe too good of an homage to that style game.

The constant motion abilities with gunplay and movement are good. It gets a bit dragged down by aiming mechanics that just feel slightly off though. Where the reticle is in relation to the camera placement just feels slightly off, so whenever I was aiming, I found it unnatural and like I was going to miss.

The game is a bit rough around the edges in a few places. Some of this is charming and really works for the style of game its going for. It's not able to overcome all of those rough spots, especially in regards to hit detection and clipping.

I found myself a few times getting stuck on something or getting stuck inside something. These of course would always happen in a wave of enemies, so I'd end up dying or in pretty rough shape when this would occur, making the whole experience a bit frustrating at times. Especially with the more common hit detection issues.

To just finish the bad stuff and get it all out of the way, the game is also way too long. The environments, the gunplay, the weapon and enemy variety, these are all pretty good in El Paso, Elsewhere, but because the game feels like it drags, some of these good factors get less impressive as the game goes on. Especially once the game stop introducing new enemies, new weapons and new environments.

There are good to great things with this game too. The music is fantastic, the weapon variety is nice, the enemy variety is as well, and the story is pretty good on top of it. The voiceover of our main character is also done very well.

El Paso, Elsewhere does a great job standing apart from its inspiration while feeling so similar to that Max Payne style gunplay and vibe. Some of the design choices from those games probably should've been left to that era. Minor frustrations and bigger ones drag the overall creative and interesting experience down which is a shame but this is a game worth trying if Max Payne style mechanics is something you enjoy. The story, the music, and overall experience should be enough to push through some of the issues.