probably my biggest "i get it now" moment as a gamer tbh

every second of this is iconic, and i say this as someone who tried the original RE4 for about an hour before gently shelving it away as a game that had probably not aged as graceful as it could have. but now... now i get it, yeah.

y'all were right. Resident Evil 4 really is that game.

i've played this game twice and wanna do it a third time. if you can get past all the adult men being horny over the barely legal minecraft streamer chick you're gonna have your balls blasted straight off.

there's a beautiful story about family and how it isn't defined just by blood. while it does a couple of stuff i don't like with it on the main right branch (oh, mizuki...), and the way they explain the multiple ends this game has is kind of stupid, ultimately it's a hilarious heartwarming and agonizing package all at once. the cast is also awesome and while i can't speak for the original japanese voices the english dub knocks it out of the park :)

as for gameplay, the somnium logic is kind of confusing in those gameplay sections (aside from brAIn pAIn and sustAIn i was either using guides or save scumming a lot) but once again i am a guy who likes story and they tell good stories (sustAIn and captAIn still make me cry on command.) even the most mid ones have something to look back on and be like "yeah that was some cool foreshadowing". also the music is awesome i still go back to it a lot.

go play salami files. and when you play salami files you will understand that mizuki has the best route.

SO CALLED "FREE THINKERS" WHEN LOVE DIES: ALL THAT REMAINS ARE THE FACTS

okay so the aesthetic of this game is out of this world. first of all. loved going through the world and collecting all the collectibles (there are a TON which is amazing for ME in specific i love collecting things) and doing funny parkour without taking fall damage. related to this the soundtrack is also a jam and a half especially the title theme
the word "diverse" has been tainted but there's something very nice about the varied backgrounds of the characters (especially witness who is iranian probably kurdish? i am not kurdish but i am iranian and he HAS AN IRANIAN ACCENT it makes me sooo happy) and the queerness of it wrt love dies and her optional flings. i love the whole cast and how messy they are even if they suck shit the world they're in sucks shit so it's influenced them. except for yuri because he's a dick but that's the point i guess?

as a mystery... it's great. i love it. i like how starlight groups all your evidence together so that i don't have to do the heavy lifting and thinking. the final act with the trial was also a delight and i like how different characters can be convicted based on the evidence you have at the time (whether you start the trial prematurely or not) and how co-conspirators can drag each other down with them it's like watching dominoes topple. though unfortunately for all the free will love dies gets as detective and executioner (especially once the trial is over) it feels kind of empty. like the only consequences come if u mess with the based married couple and even then it's not much

but don't let this stop you from playing!! Please play this game im so normal about it

i have so much to say about this game and half of it is spoilers. so i'm going to leave the meat of my review here and then make a second one to talk about the spoilers that i really want to bring up. i only played it earlier this year but i swear it changed my life i think you can tell by my username and icon IF YOU KNOW YOU KNOW.

- so fire emblem echoes has a pretty simple story. three houses was my first FE game with this being my second and the political landscape of fodlan was too brain hurty for me so i quite enjoyed this for a change. i could give a synopsis of both paths from start to finish easily.
- is it a GOOD story? i think it is. there are some glaring flaws that keep me up at night but it's because this game has such high highs that i wish the whole story would be like that.
- particularly wish this game cared about women outside of them being the guys' setpieces. it happens even to the most capable girls and i got sick of it after the third damsel in distress on alm's route. this happens in celica's route too and unlike alm's it is not a port from gaiden so it's about every bit as frustrating as you can imagine
- also alm's story for the first half or so tries to present itself as something it's kinda.. not? this makes sense if you've played it. that's something that bugs quite a few people but it makes sense in my head.
- the combat is also pretty simple imo - maybe too simple for some people's tastes? you can only hold 1 item at a time. there are no second seals once you're in a class line you are stuck there if you don't have dlc or are not a dread fighter. double attacks are done if one person has one more point of speed than another. i don't really mind that but some people do? also magic and combat arts are cast from hp which is interesting i like it
- the maps are nothing to really write home about because on alm's route you get Vast stretches of land with a bunch of soldiers and in celica's you get... Boats. Deserts. Swamps. And so many cantors. They're not that fun. between the bad maps and the random encounters (WHY ARE THEY THERE?) i did have to put this game down for a few weeks after like act 3 but coming back to finish it was a very good decision
- this is the first game to introduce a rewind system. they were obviously cooking with it which is why they have divine pulse in 3H and the time crystal in engage. but mila's turnwheel is also how you can view supports you have obtained and "memory prisms" which are scenes that take place outside of the main story. some of these are plot-relevant some just give some extra love to underutilized playables or side characters. i like the memory prisms. especially when you basically collect them off people's dead bodies in act 5
- this is also the first mainline FE game that has near-full voice acting. the overworld conversations where people speak at you are the exception but the main story? the supports? even every time you select a character in battle and they say their funny little line? all voiced. i can't speak to the quality of the original japanese voices but the english dub cast is phenomenal. i've seen some performances get dissed (personally the only one i'm iffy on is deen because he sounds like squidward but i always picked sonya so i don't really know what to say) but this cast really carries their weight.
- everyone shouts out ian sinclair (berkut) and kyle mccarley (alm) FOR GOOD REASON but the list of good casting is endless. i was going to start shouting out some other performances i liked but it would have turned into me actually naming the whole cast so i'll just leave it at bonnie gordon (silque) who also sings the english ending theme. her voice is actually like honey.
- so the good casting really brings the characters to life. i LOVEEEE the characters. some characters have rough backstories others are more everyday and it's explained to you through supports or overworld conversations that is very down to earth and very up my alley
- SUPPORTS!!!!! while there are a couple of supports that kinda have no reason to be there my big problem is that i wish there were more!! lots of dynamics that aren't explored enough. just as an example alm only has one support outside his mini-harem even though he has a plethora of buddies. like luthier. alm is luthier's first human friend. BUT THEY DON'T HAVE A SUPPORT CHAIN. WHY?
- oh i haven't talked about the art yet. hidari's art is amazing. we all know this. even the little nicks on armor are so lovingly rendered i need to be able to draw like that. the UI also looks very cool and sleek which combines nicely. i think even people who didn't like this game can agree that it has the best window dressing
- the music is also phenomenal. i mentioned the ending theme but this is just one track out of a plethora. alm and celica have battle themes in acts 1 & 2 that evolve for their act 3, and their act 4 gives them each a new track. these are some of the best in the game and are a wonderful expansion of gaiden's already pretty awesome soundtrack. berkut has like 5 different tracks associated with him (even if 1 is kind of a repeat of another) and those WEREN'T in gaiden so they just came up with that from scratch? mindblowing. orchestral music always slays. also the final boss theme is iconic for a reason. Don't listen to it before you play this game. unless you won't play this game then go listen to it. it goes hard in gaiden and it goes harder in echoes. Just to name a few examples. the use of leitmotifs are stellar by the way.

so yeah. if you play fire emblem for the gameplay echoes is probably not going to be your cup of tea. if you play it for the story it's a coinflip on if you like it but honestly the soundtrack and voice acting help sell it. Also the pretty. to me sometimes simple is better than complicated and i think the simplicity is to echoes' advantage. i love this game. it's a part of my personality now.

also can i shill the sacred echoes romhack? i'm gonna shill the sacred echoes romhack. it's a demake of echoes on the GBA system (using sacred stones as a base) and while it doesn't solve EVERY problem i have with echoes it is a fun experience in its own right. just don't make the same mistake i did and play on hard because "oh i played echoes already the maps are gonna be the same right?" NO THEY'RE NOT. that is all for now

my first pokemon game that i played to completion! pretty enjoyable. i’m at the point where i have sucked this game so dry that i open for 5 minutes to get a pokemon to level 10 observation and get so tired i close it for the next few months.
it doesn’t look that great unfortunately. even if i didn’t run into many visual glitches it just looks kind of ugly sometimes. but as someone who like never cared about the pokedex in other games i had tried it really incentivized the collector in me! even if it also burned me out. never collect 200-something wisps for spiritomb you will hate yourself by the end no matter how good that quest’s story is.
the main story is pretty decent and the postgame is awesome :) i’m obsessed with the little freak behind the twist. the sidequests were also fun, especially the chimecho, beauregard and daybreak ones.

first of all. i'm of the firm belief that you need to play OG echoes so you can truly appreciate this demake. i will spoil OG echoes in this review. i'll keep hush hush about some of the major story changes though

a good place to start would be some of the issues i had with OG echoes! here's how sacred echoes addresses them
- lack of supports: sacred echoes has supports coming out of its ass from a variety of writers :)! in a full playthrough i only got like a handful. luckily you can keep grinding for them in postgame, which is good because there are a few that are cross-army and can only even be accessed postgame. some characters have paired endings if you get them to max support, even! and not just the basic ones like clive/mathilda and mae/boey. even many supports from the original game were given more depth, like leon and valbar's!
- questionable misogynistic writing choices: unfortunately you still have a lot of women to rescue on alm's route. but celica's gets quite a few overhauls to preserve her agency, and conrad is still integrated in a fun way without stepping on her toes as much as he did in OG. the changes for act 4/5 in particular made my jaw drop.
alm's story has quite a few changes too! mostly with berkut, fernand and rinea. berkut and fernand's arcs are done a little more slowly and rinea is given a bit more of a role and a fun friendship with fernand :) i like it. good stuff
- map design: i actually. um. i actually don't have as much to say because i made the mistake of deciding "oh i played echoes already! let me try on hard this time". IT WAS A BAD IDEA. I WAS FIGHTING FOR MY FUCKING LIFE EVEN IF I WAS STILL ON CASUAL DUDE. but the maps give you a lot more to work with. even celica's hell is less hellish. for example in the desert maps they have some excuse as to why mages don't have their speed impeded by the sand and i was overjoyed
visitable villages are another big change. an incentive not to turtle for too long lest they be destroyed. some of them give you items some just offer flavor text but there's one village in alm's act 4 on one of the last maps that has this beautiful woman with a black veil over her face and you need to visit her with alm. Please. you get lore ported straight from the drama cds and an item too
- character integration: I FORGOT TO EVEN MENTION THIS IN OG ECHOES BUT the optional recruits actually have shit to say about the story instead of there just being a few characters with plot armor. i'm not sure how the reverse works though with plot-armor characters dying in the middle bc i was on casual

speaking of the drama CDs, the dev team incorporate extra lore and character backstories from a variety of sources! valentia accordion, drama CDs, even stuff from gaiden and its own adaptations that didn’t return in echoes. you can tell this was done with so much love and care because even the backstory changes make a good level of sense.
i'm using leon as an example because his support chain with valbar goes into his lost love (their relationship is altered here. it hurts so muchies) while his support chain with sonya puts forward a reason or two for leon to become a merchant in his ending. it's good. speaking of leon he's already pretty good gay rep in the OG but even minor additions like for example a joke about how he likes bears (THE GAY KIND) made me giggle like a little girl. i needed to mention this because i love him.

ok. continue. here are some stuff echoes did right that sacred echoes also does right
- the art is amazing. they look so good in the GBA style it's crazy!!! the CGs are ported well enough but there are a couple of upscales or originals because main dev is quite the skilled artist. the new characters (acantha and hyas) look SOOOOO GOOD DUDE. even minor NPCs have banger designs like this hot bald pirate lady from act 2 and whoever worked on those i wish you have the best lives ever. also the combat looks awesome because it's GBA of course it does.
- the music is also ported into the GBA style very masterfully. not every track makes it and i'm a little bitter about some of them (praise this despair... T_T) but that shit takes so much effort to transcribe that i can't be mad about it.
there are a couple of originals, namely act 3 gives alm and celica original battle tracks, and admittedly they're not as good as the ones they got from echoes and gaiden but they're alright.
the arrangement of the sacrifice and the saint is one of my favorites bc i didn't like that song very much before but i do now. main dev's music tastes really show in this but i don't mind i think it's great.
- SUPPORT FOR MULTIPLE LANGUAGES BABY!!!!! sacred echoes has translations in both chinese (up to act 5) and spanish (currently up to act 3), including all the original supports, with more to come in future patches ^_^

overall it's a wonderful experience. honestly the voice acting in OG echoes is the big plus it has over sacred echoes and that's not really sacred echoes' problem! it makes up for it with much better writing that doesn't need a good performance to sound believable. go play this game. don't make the same mistake i made. if you're sad about the lack of turnwheel get your own from home if you know what i mean. and when you are done with this review or even this game i suggest these next steps
- go follow the sacred echoes tumblr blog. you get dev updates for the next patch, character analysis, even soundtrack analysis for the Free Price of Free
- go sub to the unofficial sacred echoes support channel! or at least watch some of the supports they have posted. if you don't have the energy to obtain all of them (god knows i sure don't) this is a very good place to look.