I bought this game on April 6th as a late birthday gift for myself. I currently have 40 hours on it and just beat Gold Stakes. I've been completely incapable of peeling myself away from it. I'm constantly thinking about how I can play the game better. I find myself going to bed thinking about how I can use jokers like Blueprint to get away with absolutely filthy builds. I wake up thinking maybe this will be the day I get a Straights build to work (it still hasn't worked). I tried playing Old School Runescape on my second monitor while playing this and every time I just ended up AFK'ing long enough on OSRS and getting autokicked while standing next to a river with an inventory full of fish. I went to a Magic: The Gathering pre-release event and realized I was constantly reordering the cards in my hands based on their colors and costs. When I spoke to a friend of mine and found out they had also been playing the game, it became the only thing we talked about for the rest of the shift. I don't watch youtube videos while I eat anymore, I just play this game instead. This game has succeeded in awakening my inner gambler.

I'm absolutely cooked.

At some point in the future, I really ought to write a great deal more about this duology, but having just completed my revisit I wanted to voice my initial thoughts. Whether or not I prefer certain aspects of Ocarina to this game, whether or not I resonated with one half more than the other, or whatever other gripes and nitpicks I have - as a conclusive, consecutive whole piece, that is both halves of this duology combined, I believe the Nintendo 64 Zelda duology very well may be Nintendo's magnum opus.

The Ocarina pairing carry themselves with a certain sophistication and solemness rarely felt in the company's other titles. What I felt these games have to say about the passing of time, of childhood innocence warped and cast aside, the process of growing up and the relationships, expressions and experiences that carry us through to adulthood... that's the sort of magic that this group of creatives was capable of in this era. The sort of knowing adoration poured into this duology, into Mario 64 and into MOTHER2. It's Nintendo at their absolute peak, and I don't want to get into my displeasure with the company as they stand and have stood for years now here... I simply want to commend them and express my gratitude for this two-headed beast, this totemic work of human expression they took the Nintendo 64 to its limits to produce. I'm not the Nintendo fan I was as a kid... far from it. But during those moments in Ocarina and Majora... yeah. I believe.

P3R was one of my favorite experiences in gaming. Despite knowing the large story beats and ending, I was still sobbing for the last hour of the game. P3R's darker tone is in stark contrast to the more recent installments and it's refreshing. For a game so focused on the pain of death and loss and struggling it brilliantly showcases characters struggling through life BECAUSE they can and want to see tomorrow. It's a truly inspiring game and message. Narrative aside, the game as a game is brilliant as well. The balance between Tartarus and social links is honestly addicting, the links are some of the best I've seen as well. Gameplay and Tartarus is awesome, Theurgies are such a cool mechanic that is cool every time they're used. Lastly, the music. Some of the best I've heard in a game. The battle themes are great, the theme of rap/pop is also pulled off beautifully. The voice actors also did a phenomenal job. Especially Aleks Le and Zeno Robinson. Stand out performances. Overall, this game is easily one of my favorite games of all time, I highly recommend it to anyone who likes turn based RPGs. I can't wait for The Answer.

I've been itching for a mystery game like this since I finished Obra Dinn, and The Case of the Golden Idol certainly scratched that itch.
I plowed through this game with a couple of friends, and sharing the aha-moments once all the pieces were starting to fall into place was fantastic. A large part of the mysteries can be solved with enough trial and error, but we tried to challenge ourselves by only placing names that we were 90% sure were going in the right spot.
Looking forward to the sequel!