where to start? kingdom hearts has always kind of fascinated me as this absolutely insane idea to blend disney cinema with final fantasy characters and storytelling, an utterly bizarre clashing of styles that doesn't really work in the traditional sense, but in the kind of hot-topic mallgoth edgy snow white way that was very prevalent in the early 2000s. it's clearly chasing more of a teen demographic rather than a child demographic, with it's slightly more complex systems and labyrinthine narrative, but there's never really a point where it can transcend the strangeness of having goofy in the same frame as cloud, or donald saying stuff like "the keyblade" in that bizarre raspy voice.

but there's a charm to it all, especially in the segments that aren't just replaying a disney movie (although there is still a certain disney charm there too), where there's this earnest naivety, seeing the world through the eyes of a child and trying to break free from what you know into a wider expanse of questions and adventure, and trying to pick up the pieces of what is lost and turn it into something new. a game with so many twists and turns and yet it remains as simple as just being a story of trying to right by your friends, and forgiving those who've wronged you when they try their best to make it up to you. while not as impactful as something like final fantasy x (almost done that one too lmao) in it's coming of age narrative, there's still an ultimate sweetness here that i can't help but let carry me on to the ending, even through the variety of frustrations.

and by god are there frustrations. i'll start with some of the most obvious ones, the top of which being the horrible platforming which is relied upon far too heavily. while never really punishing the player too much for missing jumps (with the exception of hollow bastion my god), the platforming remains imprecise throughout the entire journey, and can just add to so much tedium in sections like deep jungle or monstro where the player constantly has to retry sections due to missing a single jump. there's also the ever presence of backtracking throughout the entire game, which in levels like monstro, deep jungle, or hollow bastion which also suffer from confusing layouts, can become hideously time consuming and grossly aggravating. there's also heavy difficulty spikes throughout the game, which i will say could just be me being terrible at the game, but especially in the ending section there were bosses that took me upwards of two full hours to beat. the gummi ship adds absolutely nothing to the game and just extends travel sections with mind-numbing shmup levels. the combat is fun, but lock-ons can be clunky at the best of times and i could never get the handle of healing animation times especially when facing multiple enemies that just shred your health leading to a simply overwhelming amount of times where it felt like the game simply killed me for no reason. there's a gem of something really interesting in the combat system, with it's mix of real time battling and turn-based style menus, but it never fully comes together leading to a system which turns more cumbersome than engaging when dealing with the more difficult enemies.

there's also the elephant in the room of what this project looks like in the modern day. as we've extended further into the multiverse industrial complex, i think it's really easy to look at this as a precursor to some of the most diabolical machinations of the current-day cultural machine. combining all of these marketable properties for brand synergy, hitting both the disney fan and final fantasy fan at once, throwing all of these things together to make a boatload of money. but because this is so early on in the obsession with multiverses, and because it does feel like it has a really distinct and idiosyncratic voice behind all of the madness, this never really feels like a spider-man: no way home (had to look up what that one was called) or the flash type of debacle where they're constantly pointing at things you recognize for a cheap dopamine rush. in the end, it really is that charm that pushes through it all and keeps me interested in where this all goes, no matter how utterly stupid it can all be.

This is gonna be a conflicting one.

In 2021, I first saw the trailer for NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139. I was a huge fan of Automata and had also played a bit of Gestalt before dropping it, so I was no stranger to the series. I wanted to play Replicant but also wanted to play every prior game beforehand. Alongside going back to Gestalt and finally beating that, I also decided to buy both Drakengard and Drakengard 3 since I knew they were connected to the series somehow. Fast forward to 2022, I randomly decide to finally dive into the Drakengard games. I play up until like chapter 3 or 4 I think and drop the game due to a skill issue. What did I think of it? I thought it was shit! Not only did I not like the gameplay, which most people don't ofc, I also just thought the story was super boring up to that point. The story was the main reason you'd be playing the game, so for me to not be into the characters or story at all, I just wasn't motivated to continue playing it. Fast forward to present day, fellow user Lemonstrade eggs me on to play it as a joke. Well I didn't back down and decided to beat it this time. The first mission or two, I immediately thought "yup this is still shit". But then I remembered some of the gameplay mechanics that made the game more tolerable and bada bing, I started to enjoy myself more.

So let's get into the absolute most contentious aspect of the game, the gameplay. The biggest issue I had with it, and it's still its biggest issue now, is it doesn't flow the best due to the camera. It's a fixed camera depending on what way you're facing and the right stick only tilts the screen a bit and goes back in place when you let go of it. If there's an enemy behind you, this can be really clunky feeling as you manually have to face the enemy before you can see them in front of you. I got used to this pretty quickly but this is the only major issue I had with the gameplay tbh. Otherwise, it's just a perfectly fine hack and slash/musou game. The actual gameplay, not including camera issues, is perfectly serviceable I felt. It actually does get satisfying killing hoardes of enemies while the side characters talk about how brutal Caim is. That plus there's combos that can knock enemies down which makes the gameplay more tolerable, there's summonable characters that can just mow down hoardes of enemies like nothing and the magic that changes depending on what weapon you're using. The combat is surprisingly more in depth than you'd think, and that's not even getting into the air combat. I found that more enjoyable from the start tho that can be even more frustrating than the ground combat at points just because how slow it is to aim sometimes. That's only an issue with later encounters and bosses but either way, the combat in this game? Not bad honestly, it's not great ofc but in the end I found it a lot enjoyable than when I played the game initially.

The music is honestly super fitting and also really experimental and out there. A big chunk of the songs sound like looping messes. It kind of sounds shit at first, and look I aint listening to the OST outside of the game, but it really is memorable. Playing this 2 years later, I still remembered all the early game songs. I wouldn't say I actually "like" the ost, except for maybe a couple of the more comprehensible songs, but it's still a good ost since the game is trying to drive you crazy.

Diving right into the story, I'm gonna just say it. I didn't think it was mind-blowing at all or even that amazing. My issue with not caring about the story or the characters still applied to a good chunk of my playtime here. It wasn't until like the last third, and all the endings, where I was actually interested. I really really enjoyed how crazy it got near the end, and I really loved the dark fantasy elements. I just wish more of the game was like that, and that the earlier chapters weren't so boring. But I also think that was the whole point, it was to subvert expectations and make you think it'll just be a boring fantasy game only to surprise you with all that craziness in the endgame. It also wasn't until post ending A, where you got cutscenes with all the side characters. Those were entertaining every once in a while but I just did not care about the cast in this game. Even Caim, who has an iconic design (which may have been caused by a very iconic user on this site) I just didn't like as much as I should've. I know the whole point of him not speaking is for the characters to describe how awful his slaughtering is and for you the player to basically take his role. That's a cool concept but it just made me not care about his character. It's funny how I'm more positive on the overall gameplay than the story, but the peaks of the endgame story cutscenes overshadow everything else at least. I just wish there was more idk. Also, that final boss, holy shit idk how you're supposed to do that without the pause trick or looking up inputs. I had to do both cuz otherwise I would've just not beaten the game lol.

Additionally, I may not really care about the cast in this game, but I can't deny the voice acting is actually surprisingly good. It's a mix of British and American voice actors but it works surprisingly well, especially for a game from 2003. Aroch, specifically when you summon her and she screams "WHERE ARE MY CHILDREN", holy crap is it satisfying. Idk who voices her but that voice actress was cooking.

So yeah, like I said, it's a very conflicting game for me. Usually you see people either loving or hating this one but I just personally think it's a decent little game that does some really unique things. I'm glad to finally have beaten this as a huge NieR fan and I'm glad I did end up enjoying this one overall. Excited to play 3 in the future, tho I also own that physically too and idk if I'm ready for the framerate lol.

6.5/10

This is a game I've had a lot of conflicted feelings on, ever since my playthrough of it over two years ago. Not helping matters is how its become basically inseparable from the heated debate over how it handled LGBT issues, which has resulted in the speaking over and harassment of trans people. But you know, I get it. Not the speaking over and harassing trans people part, please go fuck yourself if you do that, but I get Persona 4's appeal. It's a game about coming terms with truths about yourself that you don't feel like accepting and if you play it as the teenage demographic it's aimed towards, that's a powerful message. So I'm going to be extremely charitable and separate Persona 4 from its politics to see it for what it is: a mechanically dull/pathetically easy RPG with boring procedurally generated dungeon design and a poorly paced story that's as repetitive as those dungeons

I do have a major nostalgic attachment to this game. I watched a playthrough of it when I was a kid, and it was probably what got me into JRPGS as a whole, I owe a lot to it.
However, upon revisiting it, there's a lot of issues with it which makes it really hard to recommend to friends. The homophobia in this game is, quite intolerable, and there are transphobic aspects to the story too, although not as prevalent or in your face.
Some of the S.Links feel as though they're a regression of that character, but it's seen as a good thing by the game and it's very strange. It does have highlights though, I really enjoy Dojima and Nanako's respective S.Links, and I like a couple of the party members quite a lot, my only issue being that the story they're in under serves them.
Gameplay-wise, I find the combat generally quite boring and the dungeons not enjoyable to run through at all. It certainly is an improvement upon something like tartarus but I wouldn't exactly say that's a huge achievement.
The overall plot is also pretty good, it's generally interesting and it helps balance the more upbeat feeling of inaba with the murder mystery you're trying to solve. I will also say that Inaba is definitely the comfiest setting out of the nusona games, and I'd love to live in a place like it.

Persona 4 Golden is definitely, in my opinion, the weakest of the 3 new persona games. Persona 3's story and characters are way better, despite the gameplay being weaker, and Persona 5 has a strong style and competent gameplay that clears Persona 4's by a mile. Persona 5 Royal also definitely has the edge story-wise too.

It would be easy to say that Persona 4 Golden's main issues are a product of its time, but even when it came out, the homophobic jokes it features were getting old, especially when Persona 2, which came out in 1999, featured a very respectful portrayal of a gay character, that was never played for laughs.

Whether or not you should play P4G depends on how much this type of thing would bother you. Personally, I would say that the good aspects of the story are worth experiencing in spite of those issues, but I am far from biased.

There's a lot of complaining in this review but I did really enjoy myself playing Persona 4, so hear me out.

But it drags hard. And there are a lot of problems. It took me over a month to beat and there is so much downtime between a lot of story events - just nothing happening, with not much to keep you engaged. I do like how many random events there are with the investigation team where you just go and hang out with them and do stuff but it's still pretty far and few between. There are two whole months where literally nothing happens between story beats.

A lot of people say the characters feel the most like friends out of all the modern Persona games and I do absolutely adore the cast and the little inside jokes and interactions they have, but a lot of it is dragged down so much because of the unbelievable amount of misogyny and homophobia and transphobia (no I'm not talking about Naoto) that is so pervasive in Persona 4. It's hard to empathise with Yosuke when a lot of cute moments are interrupted with objectifying women for no reason or calling Kanji gay - it's insane how literally scared of gay people he is like all the time. Teddie's character arc is undermined by how his entire bit is just being a womanizer. It's even more frustrating that the protagonist joins in on all this and you don't get much choice in joining in on some new pea-brained scheme to spy on the girls in the group, you just have to go along with it. I wanted to close the game so many times in scenes like the bathhouse or the inn (not to mention how Hanako's character is just the punchline of countless fat jokes and Kashiwagi is the opposite end of the spectrum and a one-dimensional bitter 'slut' stereotype) because these ENTIRE sequences are so uncomfortable and cringeworthy to sit through. What really struck a chord with me the most was the crossdressing pageant. It's not nice to be playing a videogame as a trans woman and suddenly get hit over the head with the most outright bigoted transmisogynistic attack on trans women that the game expects you to be giggling at, making your existence into the punchline to a joke. Persona 4 is rife with terrible, creepy, dehumanizing jokes that sexualise and objectify women and it made me deeply uncomfortable throughout my playthrough.

That's only one part of what I think really cheapens the experience of Persona 4. This is a lot less of a rant than the previous paragraph but the dungeons are just boring. It feels like you're perpetually grinding. I changed the XP gain in the custom difficulty settings to more because I found myself so ridiculously underleveled in the first few dungeons despite fighting literally every enemy I spotted on the way to the stairs. Trudging through the same hallways and identical chest rooms is an almost joyless endeavour after you've used up your 20 minutes of excitement over a new environment - but the music is fantastic. Heaven is definitely my favourite of the bunch.

The last of my really big problems I think is the buildup to the killer. It came out of nowhere even though I was already spoiled a while before I started the game. Not in a "oh wow I'm so shocked and surprised" kind of way but more in a "what?" kind of way. They just became evil and started calling women worthless bitches. There was literally no reason to suspect them other than the way the game basically tells you who to choose when you're outside with Naoto. Really had zero emotional impact because they just spontaneously became evil. Didn't even do much killing if you've also played the game and know all the details of the story. Persona 4 just kind of throws villains at the wall to see what sticks and ends up with God. None of them are really an effective foil or anything to the MC (which I will take this opportunity to say right now is given about as much personality as a wet sock).

All this complaining does make me sound really miserable and you expect me to give it a super low rating. But I really enjoyed this game. The misogyny is really hard to ignore. Flaws and all, Persona 4 is heartfelt and you grow very close to the cast and all your social links. Battles are actually very fun and I enjoyed min-maxing my personae. I would recommend you play it rather than not - but go in expecting it to be a bit of a drag sometimes, and to be more than just insensitive to a number of minority groups. Overall I still really liked this game and it was fun. I thoroughly enjoyed myself more than not.

Pretty goddamn good.
Decent 8

Shadow of the Colossus is justifiably praised for its atmosphere and art, but I really struggled to finish it. So much of the game is tedious and frankly, boring at times. When I finally got to a Colossus, I got a rush of excitement, clinging on while a Colossus shook you was pretty fun at first, but it's certainly not enough to entertain me 16 times in a row. But what really bothered me the most were the utterly atrocious controls. The horse was just a pain to ride.

I can appreciate the spectacle. It's beautiful, ambient and sadly a chore to play.

This has been 5 years and 4 months in the making and I don’t even know what to say about that lmao I’m so bad at starting things and taking eight lifetimes to finish them. In my defense, I get obsessed with stuff and focus only on that for a while but then I move on for a while (in this case 5 years pft.)

I thank the Bingo, Kaleidoscope and Casual A-Z challenges for giving me the motivation needed to FINALLY finish this game.

Bully is one of those classic games that can easily withstand the test of time. It’s such a good game with a damn good story and pretty cool characters. The main character has that little brother feel to me and I had that feeling throughout my playthrough.

I wanted him to succeed so I tried my best. And by “tried my best” I mean I failed a shit ton of times. Which brings me to my first complaint. When you fail a mission, there’s no option to retry, it just kicks you out and you have to run ALL the way back to the NPC that gave you that quest.

This is super annoying, especially if you’re like me and fail a lot. I ended up giving up a few times because I got tired of having to run back and do everything over lol This is pretty understandable given the game’s age, though.

Another really weird thing for me is the button layout. Like, instead of O being the back button, it’s triangle. The amount of times I sat there pressing the O button repeatedly wondering why the feck nothing was happening lol And to pause the game, you press the touch pad instead of options.

L2 and R2 cycle through your weapons/items, while you aim with L1 and shoot with R1. That kept messing me up on Mass Effect because I was pressing the wrong button (but I did learn the Mako has boost so it’s not all bad.)

I didn’t learn this until I was literally on the LAST chapter of the game, but you have to press the left side of the touch pad to get the map up. As someone who gets lost easily, this would have been really helpful lol

The trophies are all pretty simple, at least for the PS4 version. I didn’t really have any trouble with any except for “Sharp Dressed Man.” I’m not really one to buy clothes in games unless it’s my own character, like GTA, so I only have a couple pieces bought.

Between running around trying to make enough money and trying to FIND all the clothes, I think this is the trophy I spent the most time on. I was so confused because I bought out all the clothing stores, the school shop and the fair but still hadn’t reached 250. I read that the barber shop sells clothes, but I went to two and they had none so I didn’t bother checking the third. Turns out, 3rd time really is the charm lol

One thing I really love about this game is the fact that, when the game ends, it doesn’t actually end. It lets you run around and continue whatever you missed so you don’t have to play through the game again to collect trophies. The fact that this game, old as it is, had the thought to do this while new games don’t is honestly incredible. They do make you sit through the credits first, though. No amount of button pushing can skip ’em.

I suggest getting the flower trophy out of the way before finishing art class. You CAN flirt with guys, but there’s only like 2 or 3 that you can flirt with while you can flirt with ANY girl. I wish they had put a bit more into the NPC students… there’s only a couple unique students in each clique before they just copy and pasted them a bunch of times. It was kind of off putting… and creepy.

Maybe it’s just me, but the kiss trophy was painful. It’s so cringey watching them makeout and I had to look away, it’s just uncomfortable lol And the thing with Zoe… it was so weird because he had literally met her TWO TIMES and then they were talking about love. Is that normal for fifteen year olds? Am I just old?

Speaking of romance, here’s a hot take: Johnny Vincent deserves better! The whole game, I kept wishing he would just break up with that cheating [redacted]. Why did he keep taking her back? She claimed to love him but as soon as he turned around, she was making out with another guy. Not just one, either, she was with basically the whole ass school okay.

My man deserves better. Period.

Speaking of characters, whats-his-face nerd leader was creepy and annoying as hell. I thought he was cute at first but after seeing how he behaves, he became uglier every time he was on screen lol Derby is cute but I want to punch him sometimes. He reminds me of Atobe from Prince of Tennis in a way. Russel is the man and he is a precious idiot, okay.

The gym teacher was also a creep and I hate him. Like I said before, Jimmy is great and I view him as a baby brother. Must protect. Finally, I felt bad for Pete. He’s such a good kid but everyone treats him like dirt, even Jimmy – I would smack him for this if I could. Honestly, I think he’s the only sane person in this whole damn town.

I almost forgot to mention Dual Nebula. This trophy requires you to beat the high score in three different arcade games. The sumo one is the easiest, in my opinion, it only took me two or three tries. The one with the squirrel flinging nuts is second.

I died a bunch of times but most of that was because I was trying to glitch it, having ZERO faith that I could do it on my own. The glitch didn’t work and I made it! Finally, the hardest one is the monkey one. It took me sooo many tries to get this one because you can’t jump over the spiders, you just gotta wedge yourself in the corner and hope for the best.

It was fun, but it’s time to say goodbye, Bullworth.

I think I’ve covered everything I wanted to about this game. It’s a really great game and I highly recommend checking it out. I didn’t do a playthrough of this game, but I do have some clips posted and a bunch more waiting to be posted. You can check out my playlist here.

Honestly, I wish I hadn’t done the clothes one last. Just look at the damn platinum screenshot, it’s terrible ò_ó) I should’ve waited on the last quest for Kleptomaniac… oh well. Nothing I can do now.