bajablast
one of the most thoroughly beautiful games on the console and probably of its era. the klonoa of its respective console, 2.5D platforming at peak performance, save for kirby feeling pretty slow. That sounds like it should be damning but its such an audiovisual experience where experimenting with its weirdo power system is itself the mechanical meat so its fine. luv it
1994
played an hour or so cus i got the jrpg itch and immediately remembered that i actually dont like final fantasy combat at all. i swear im not trying to be a hater i just dont like active battles and how nothing is clearly telegraphed. ive probably in total spent a few hundred hours playing final fantasy games and i still cannot point to an enemy and intuit what they're going to be weak or resistant to and when i do i am wrong almost always
1992
This game's got a real quiet, simple, wiseness to it. It's like spending a weekend at a bluegrass festival with your grandpa. I quite like it, especially as a sort of proto-Dark Cloud. There's a lot of unpretentious warmth and sadness here that Soul Blazer never draws attention to. I will probably play the other games in the unofficial "gaia trilogy" some day. I would like to.
2012
2000