After finishing Hackers Memory, I can say it. I don't know why people are so hot on this game. The only thing it has going for it is the digimon, which rock and are beautifully designed and animated. But the story is just empty mush, the world is static and dead and there's nothing to do in it besides go directly to quest markers, and the dungeons are completely devoid of personality. Hackers Memory has the bigger problem of being a bunch of shit happening off to the side of the actual story of the first game - it tries to get around this problem by focusing on characters, but ultimately the game doesn't take itself seriously enough to get the payoff it wants - it's constantly toeing right up to the line of actually saying something, or having a REAL emotional moment, and then backing off and making a joke - I know persona has jokes too and undercuts its own seriousness sometimes, but it isn't afraid to get really emotional and honest, and this game is TERRIFIED of that. The times you visit Erika's memory server are easily the high points of Hackers Memory - the art direction in those levels feels like something from a game that is 10 times better than the one I spent a million hours playing.

Truly one of the best games that came out during the pandemic - the writing and obviously the characterization specifically is off the charts, and I think the way they breadcrumb you with little bits of dialogue and story after every run is genius - this game will unquestionably be a template for run based games going forward.

That said, we have to come to the actual gameplay. Now despite being a top down (or isometic, close enough) action hater, I think the speed, fluidity, and energy of the combat absolutely kills. It's fun to play, the weapons are cool, and there's lots of build options.

Unfortunately "liking the combat" didn't extend to "wanting to play the combat at harder and harder difficulties forever" - the game is punishingly difficult, and realizing that after your first clear that you have to clear the game 10 more times but now with halo skulls equipped was one of the most frustrating moments I've ever had in a video game. I didn't feel free to experiment with weapons and builds because if a run didn't end with a clear, I'd just wasted 40 minutes. Runs are so long, and have so little margin for error - this is the reason I'm writing this review in 2022 instead of 2020 - when I was first playing the game I put it down after running into the final boss the first few times because it just didn't feel worth it.

Even now I'm annoyed that the game gates an epilogue with what feels like crucial character/plot resolution behind even more runs. I may go back and do it someday - but not now! Fuck you Hades! But also this game is incredible, I put in so many hours.

I could nitpick this game all day - the combat is bad until you're overpowered, and then it's easy. The dialog options never let you say anything interesting. The side-quests are completely shallow, and I can say that fairly because I did almost every single one.

With that said, they put together a fascinating world filled with interesting cultures, tensions, and history. That's literally all I want from one of these! So yeah, I finally played Mass Effect - pretty cool game! I'll revisit this thought when I play 2, but what's up with all those people saying you should skip straight to 2? This game seems pretty important! And it's good!

Very cool game - has a clever puzzley take on traditional turn based JRPG combat, and manages to create a setting with a lot of new and interesting concepts (a miracle in this day and age). On the other hand the story (while having a lot of good and interesting ideas) tends to feel pretty "no thoughts, head empty" - characters just kind of do whatever they're supposed to do next for the plot, without a lot of depth or motivation. Plus while most of the characters are really interesting on paper, they don't get fleshed out enough to live up to their promise.

The game really peaks when you're exploring a town or city belonging to an alien culture - talking to the npcs in those locales and learning about the world, those moments are the few times the game really comes alive and feels like a real place, with real people.

This is an interesting one for me - the original Rogue Legacy was the first "indie game" I ever played, the first game I bought on steam, and it was a really special game to me. This is without a doubt a sequel to that game, it is Rogue Legacy but BIGGER, in both good ways and bad ways.

I obviously liked the game, I put a ton of hours into it, but ultimately I found it just too big - there are too many different currencies, too many different kinds of progression, and it very quickly becomes WAY too expensive to make even marginal upgrades back at your home base - you end up losing the sense of making progress on every run that made the original so special. I'll be honest, I cranked the difficulty sliders way down to get through the final 3 bosses - because I could see that the path to beating the game on the default difficulty was gated behind hours of grinding that I frankly had no interest in. A sour taste in my mouth at the end after a delightful 3 months of playing this game.

Also the story went completely off the rails - when the ending of the original rogue legacy ended up having a bit of actual depth it was a nice surprise but all this pseudo biblical mumbo jumbo in the game where you can have a child who's genetic condition is "clown" - come on. Very homestuck (derogatory).