"Devil May Cry's a Rockin, don't come a knockin baby yeah!"

So for a long time this was my favourite game ever and was the start of my solidification into a hardcore Capcom fan which has continued to this day. When this came out I was around 18 and a friend had bought it. We played it together and seeing a leather clad biker girl smash through a bar, a gothic castle and uppercutting a marionette with a sword then juggling it with dual wielding pistols was, at the time, the coolest thing ever. I knew this game inside and out speed running it, learning every move, or collecting over a million red orbs because I could. One weekend when I had the house to myself that same friend came and stayed over playing all night by setting up two PlayStation 2's next to two TVs so we could both play Devil May Cry on our own saves hunting S ranks until we had every one on every difficulty level including Dante Must Die. I loved it.

The thing is I'd never played a game like this before. It's roots starting as Resident Evil 4 before changing into it's own series are pretty evident in aspects of it's design. The gothic horror atmosphere slightly underlining it's occasionally camp and over the top exterior gelled for an extremely unique experience. I've seen a lot of reviews on here being pretty negative about it and you know what? I get it, I do. The static camera angle and controls built around it for people who having not played it during that era wouldn't care for or have the patience to learn would feel dated. The thing is though, the game is built around it fundamentally when you learn how to use it on it's terms. Enemies even off screen give audio attack cues, the controls are built around directions and angles in relation to the camera but are also designed for angle changes when you know how. It's a clever game for it's time and the mixture of basic exploration, puzzles and scattered battle arenas was just a fun mix as the game understands the importance of downtime.

It's also an impressive looking and sounding game. Remember this came out only a year after the PS2 launch and has these large levels, detailed character and enemy models and insane boss fights in which each feels like a real event to behold. I love the enemy designs such as shadow cats that launch spikes, incorporeal grim reapers and giant lava spiders. Though the boss fights do repeat they are such big spectacles and some of the hardest challenges in the game with some insane music. Speaking of which whilst the later soundtracks went a lot more metal with vocal tracks the original game has this mixture of gothic haunting melodies that could easily be in a horror game to sort of electronic rock tracks and just stands out a lot more from it's later sequels due to it.

Coming back to this in 2012 for the remaster and all the trophies then playing it again now and I still love it. Yes it's terribly cheesy with laughable lip synching, yes it's fixed camera can make the action feel unwieldly and yes it's probably one of those games you had to be there for....

....but it's the best Devil May Cry game though.

+ Horror and action roots mixed.
+ Combat and boss battles are exciting.
+ Great music and visuals.
+ Sometimes funny, sometimes intentionally.

- Fixed camera angle can take getting used to.

When I first heard Persona 3 was getting a remake, I imagined it would provide a shiny new coat of paint on an enjoyable but flawed entry to the series. As more trailers trickled through in the lead-up to release, I got more excited for what could be much more than just a graphical update.

That's not to say the game hasn't undergone a gorgeous graphical overhaul. Persona 3 Reload is consistently breathtaking on stunning beaches or foreboding hellscapes. Hell, even the menus had me in awe of the sleek design, which, to Atlus' credit, has become standard for their games nowadays. Overall, the game feels like an animated film, and I mean that in the best way—just pure, unfiltered eye candy.

The gameplay of Persona 3/FES/Portable has always been the number one criticism of the entries. As such, I was ill-prepared for anything mind-blowing in that department. I've never been happier to be humbled, with Persona 3 Reload pulling no punches when it comes to innovating. Including quality-of-life mechanics, such as the 'Shift' pass, makes it much easier to wipe out hordes of Shadows easily. The Theurgy mechanic is a great addition that gives us a deeper insight into the characters while providing potent abilities. Throughout the main dungeon in the game, you are thrown curveballs, where some floors will have additional challenges, such as Monad doors, where you're given the option to fight brutal enemies for rare items used for crafting. These new challenges, along with some other gameplay mechanics, make the main dungeon much more engaging in my eyes and are a welcome addition.

In Persona 3 Reload, as with most Persona games, a social link mechanic rewards you for building friendships with powerful unlockables. This remake stays faithful to the original game, for better or worse. Unfortunately, the social links in this version can be a letdown. Some links feature poorly developed characters, making them a chore, while others could be more exciting.

However, Atlus did add some new events involving members of S.E.E.S., which was a welcome addition. These events helped understand the characters' motivations better and made the experience more enjoyable. I wish there had been more of these events and fewer involving the strange teacher.

Unfortunately, I didn't connect with the remixed soundtrack as much as the originals. That may be due to my love for the original soundtrack.

One of the most vital aspects of Persona 3 Reload is its narrative, which has remained essentially unchanged. There is no need for significant changes to the story since it was never a problem in the original game. The game straightforwardly delivers its message, making it easy for players to connect with.

In short, whilst the game has issues like some of the weirder social links and the soundtrack, this is still the definitive way to experience the beautiful, bittersweet story that is Persona 3. The wide array of additions makes this an absolute joy to play, and I'm already thinking about my next playthrough.

TL;DR: Fantastic, play this game if you can.

This review will mostly cover the added content without trying to spoil it!
This version of Persona 4 fixed all my issues I had with the original, with additional content including new animated cutscenes, new social links, a new story line, new music, a new dungeon, and a great effort of rebalancing the game, This is the definitive way to experience one of the best JRPGs ever released.
Touching upon the new content itself, the new social links are the best and worst thing added. Giving the player time with one of my favorite characters and introducing a new character that is one of my least favorite, regardless of my thoughts on their social links themselves, both add to the story extremely well overall, alongside the added month this works great together.
The new dungeon is horrendous if you don't figure out the trick to understand it which is why I can't give this game a perfect score.
This is definitely still after all this time my favorite game, with nothing coming close to giving me that feeling I get while playing this game.

I'm so glad we have a fourth version of Persona 3, meaning there's an even greater likelihood that OG Persona 3 fans will tell me I played an inferior version! Hooray!

Where do I even fucking begin with this one? It's difficult to summarize my thoughts on a short game, let alone a massive RPG I spent over 100 hours in. Once again I must preface this by stating I'm still coming into this as a relatively new fan of the series. I was introduced to Persona (and SMT at large) through P5 and after falling in love with both it and later its enhanced version, I quickly jumped at the opportunity to play P4G once it was released on modern platforms. And like 5 before it, 4 became another all-timer for me. So I can't really speak in regards to how Persona 3 Reload operates as a remake since I have no prior experience with this title. I held off on even playing P3P since I knew this was coming anyways. All I really know is that in both the original release and FES you couldn't control your teammates' actions in combat. I understand the artistic decision in this case, but playing an extensive JPRG in that fashion just sounds like a huge hassle. But I'm happy to report that Persona 3 Reload had me hooked from beginning to end.

The aspect of P3 that immediately stood out to me the most was the team dynamic. Both P4 and P5 have very similar structures; you face a series of challenges where you help people in need, who are each gradually added to the team as the game progresses. Slowly but surely you build up a close-knit group of friends over the course of each game. P3 is quite different, in the sense that you, the protagonist, step into an already ongoing plot. The SEES organization was formed and has been battling shadows in Tartarus long before the game even began. Your character just happens to be the missing piece of the puzzle in order for them to make real progress. And from then on new teammates kind of show up with basically zero fanfare and join the team just...because they have personas. Not saying that's necessarily a bad thing, just that it's different. It's a refreshing turn of events considering 4 and 5 unravelled in very similar ways. It certainly made the story more unpredictable. And as for that story, I often hear it described as the best in the series. I'm inclined to agree...at the very least it has easily the best ending of the three I've experienced. From a purely thematic standpoint, there's so much to chew on. It didn't quite make me cry like one particular moment in 4, but I was definitely starting to well up during the final cutscene. The level of bittersweet pathos is pitch perfect. I think I still prefer the overall experience of playing through P5, but P3's script undeniably shines the brightest.

Gameplay wise, this is about as good as turn-based RPGs get. If you ask me, P5 set a gold standard for both stylish UI designs and moment-to-moment JRPG combat. P3 Reload meets that gold standard and then some; bringing with it vibrant blues that wash over you at every moment and the battle shift mechanic that I sorely missed in P4. As for the collection of social links, I'd call it a mixed bag. Some are incredibly memorable and really touched me (Kamiki, Maiko, Yukari, etc.) while others left something to be desired (looking at you, Tomochika). And some, like Suemitsu, started off deceptively unpleasant but soon revealed strong emotional resonance by their endpoint. However due to my experience with 4 and 5, I was very surprised to find that none of your male teammates are social links. Which in turn made me feel less connected to Junpei and Akihiko in particular. The team does have those charming, optional hangouts in the dorm which can unlock special abilities, but it does leave something to be desired. I suppose this is just a case of the developers trying to remain true to the original. They weren't S-links then so they aren't S-links now. At least they fixed it so that you don't have to date every girl you max out to 10.

So what's there left to say? I guess I didn't touch on the soundtrack, which absolutely meets the S+++ tier standard set by this series as a whole. A wonderful collection of tracks that is sure to stick with me for years to come. Climbing and fighting my way through Tartarus, despite the monotony, never became boring for me. As for small problems, I do wish there was more to do at night, particularly during the final months of the game. Most of the S-links are during the afternoon and I had maxed out my social stats by around mid-September, so my evenings were fairly uneventful leading up the conclusion. And while I think the cast overall did a fantastic job, Koromaru was very clearly a person making dog sounds, which was a little distracting. Sadly not every VA can be Frank Welker. Also the lack of weather effects left me scratching my head. Again, this could just be a case of remaining true to the original, but after 4 and 5 implemented weather systems and the changing of seasons, the eternal sunshine of Tatsumi Port Island felt...somewhat off. January brings with it a slightly new colour palette, but very rarely do the characters even mention the colder temperatures. That's more of a nitpick and not a real issue, but finding things wrong with this game is really difficult for me. I'm basically splitting hairs here.

What a game. What an ending. What an experience. Now I sadly must continue the long and arduous wait for the inevitable release of Persona 6.

Rollerdrome is a really mixed bag of a game, where the core gameplay is incredibly smooth and fun, but is brought down by all the decisions made around it. You play as Kara Hassan, a rookie participant in the sport of "Rollerdrome" where entrants on roller skates move around an arena, defeating all opponents. There are elements of the Tony Hawk games here, where tricks earn you both ammo refills and additional points. You can flip, spin, grind, slow down time, and shoot one of four weapons. Actually controlling the player is really fun and smooth, and when you get into a flow, the game is exhilarating. Unfortunately, the game constantly feels like it has to, for lack of a better word, compensate for something. While some of the enemies are simple fodder that can be killed in one hit, others are incredibly tedious, where the enemies that have the most annoying weapons also are the most annoying to kill. Perhaps the worst is one that fires a long-lasting tracking laser across the entire arena, leaving fire in its wake, who teleports away when hit, and requires several shots to kill. They pack each level with too many enemies at once, and defeat often feels unfair. It doesn't help that I didn't like three of the four weapons, limiting combat further. Even once you do finish a set of levels, you'll find you can't progress unless you complete X number of "optional" challenges, which are arbitrary items on a checklist that again takes away playing the game the way you'd want. To their credit though, the game actually has the option to just turn that off, and allow you to just... progress in the campaign. I pretty quickly did just that, and didn't feel like I missed out on anything. It's a really fun game at its core, one that your Tony Hawk fan would enjoy, but one that gets in its own way too much.

For me the biggest flaw of Rollerdrome is that it doesn't feel like a sport. There are no other rollers in this drome other than your character. You're the only thing moving around shooting down mooks that manifest out of thin air and stay mostly static.

The Tony Hawk mechanics leave much to be desired, eveything feels too floaty and imprecise, I didn't find the flow I could with THPS.

Shooting isn't bad, the slow mo mechanic is pretty sweet but the whole thing is hindered by the movement.

Cool art style, 2nd game I played that borrowed from Moebius. I'm not complaining.

I like the idea of deadly sports match, it's a fantasy perfectly suited for video games. Rollerdrome is sadly not really it.

Quite possibly the most important JRPG title to be released by ATLUS, it played a huge part in their identity standing out in the western market which lead to the major successes of SMT:Persona 3 and the following ATLUS games.
It's extremely difficult combat and luck based outcomes make this game unplayable by many, but learning how to make the perfect Demi-Fiend and team is extremely fun to me and I'm not a huge fan of overly difficult games.
The atmosphere, art style, and music is largely unmatched by anything other than it's sequels, it is an artist's paradise to pick through it all. It's small but great story is also fantastic, every ending was a blast to go through even 20 years later.

Much better the second time around. I was originally quite disappointed in Fading Afternoon compared to its predecessor (Stone Buddha not withstanding) The Friends of Ringo Ishikawa. I felt it leaned too much into the combat at the expense of what I most liked about Ringo, namely the character interactions between deeply human shitheads, the true roleplaying in the roleplaying game, the great soundtrack and existential angst. Those were still in the game but I felt as if they were drowned out by the endless button mashing combat.

I guess I should mention Spoilers from here on out

On a second run through, I liked the game quite a bit more. Now, I've never really subscribed to the notion of "playing a game wrong" but I think I was approaching Fading Afternoon with a somewhat unhelpful mindset, though I think it was somewhat of the game's doing that set me in that path. You see, in Fading Afternoon you play as Seiji Maruyama, a Yakuza enforcer recently released from prison (for what I assume was decades) who is also suffering from a terminal illness. Hence, given the mechanics of taking over territory from other Yakuza families through combat being an excellent way to make money (and necessary to advance the game's storyline) and my interpretation of Seiji's character I decided to fight the other families to leave Azuma a decent territory from what pitiful remains he has left.

Seiji and by extension the player's time is limited, as his illness is simulated through a decreasing max health stat constantly ticking down day (or week rather) after day. And given how much the game seemingly punishes dilly dallying (first time I did the first story mission I got slapped by Azuma cause I went to a place at the wrong time and couldnt go back the same day) well, It wasn't the best mindset to enjoy the game.

On a second time around however, I can see the perspective better. Whilst having to constantly go around defending/attacking places is still a thing, time seems to move when you transition from area to area rather than necessarily just time spent. And after discovering I could hire more thugs to defend my territories I started to enjoy seeing more of what the game had to offer whenever I went to an area with some kind of activity to do. I hit a stride much faster knowing what to do, buying a car, getting enough money to buy a house so I wouldnt have to pay the hotel every week, delegating the detective work to Seiji's protege Kato (and incidentally my favourite character in the game). I found some memorable interactions I wasn't aware of, like getting drunk and punching a dude at a bar and then flirting with his girlfriend, helping out a gambler at a casino and then having to pay off the loan sharks, sucking ass at baseball etc.

In the end though, my playthrough followed a similar path to last time, except now I didn't slap Kato, which led to me having to kill him. Thankfully I put enough cash to buy the house from the real estate office and then some into a bag and gave it to Kodama: Seiji's friend and reincarnation wizard. I then dispatched Ando, a Yakuza boss on behalf of Tanaka, another boss who had Seiji's Boss hostage and then I was forced to flee to what looked like Walter White's cabin from Breaking Bad. In character I decided Seiji would have taken up alcoholism, and went to the town bar to get drunk. Seiji must have overdone it though, because after stumbling drunk through the town he collapsed in the snow (incidentally I'm starting to think that the game's trigger to kill Seiji if he's knocked out is the snowfall) and unceremoniously died.

It's a deliberate anticlimax certainly, although I wonder if that was "the intended ending" or if I held out long enough Azuma would have called me to go bowling after that but as usual its hard to tell. Of course now its a bit more clear that pursuing each of the families will yield different endings and presumably also going after all of them, as well as deciding to slap Kato or not amongst other key choices. I do now know, that Seiji is trapped in the cycle of reincarnation described in Buddhism and will receive as much money as he put in the previous loop when Kodama hands him his bag. I also discovered you can kill yourself in this game pretty much at any point. That plus the yakuza loan sharks loaning up to 14m yen at a time gives me an idea for a funny exploit by just constantly looping and getting rich enough to just buy the Yakuza world outright.

The highlight of this playthrough was Kato, for good and for ill, given his ultimate fate. I enjoy the thematic and mechanical convergence of Seiji and his' relationship. Seiji is a yakuza legend slowly dying, so in combat he is an absolute beast but his illness makes him quite fragile, with the whole depleting max health thing, whereas Kato is a young hothead, his combat style is ungraceful and energetic, he levels up fast if you use him in combat. Seiji is sometimes referred as "Gozuki", a demon general from Buddhism who prevents sinners from escaping their penance. Early on, when Seiji is roughing up the streets Azuma mentions new youngsters are being inspired by his actions, including Kato most likely. I didn't reach the climax of that storyline but seemingly in one of them Kato was being set up to share Seiji's exact fate, being forced to spend most of his youth and life in prison in service to a band of thugs. Its not hard to see the parallels. You wonder then if thats the alusion to Gozuki, Seiji being a keeper of doomed souls to be trapped into a life of crime and violence. Though as we see in both the mechanics of the game and Seiji's own circumstances, he might be the one that's truly trapped here.

This is kind of where Fading Afternoon's weakness comes into play for me. I still think FA compared to Ringo punishes first time players beyond the usual obtuseness of Yeo's design simply by nature of the game's multiple endings and seeming ease with which Seiji meets an untimely end. I think I'll enjoy my third playthrough even more, but that first playthrough was rough, not only that but I find it hard to judge the story on a thematic level when so much of it I simply haven't seen. Thats on top of the fact that I still don't like Seiji much. Ringo was just, a lot more sympathetic and resonated with me more. Ultimately though, Yeo's games always give me something to talk about, I love em AND hate em but they're always kind of interesting.

I'd also like to apologize again to @Zoda, I was way out of line in that original exchange.

Also if anyone has played through all the endings, where the hell is Chiba? I picked him up from prison but by the time I found out where his bar was I could never find him. Do you have to just hang out with him inmediately before anything else? Does he just go there at specific times or what?

Playing the House of Asterion highlights the importance of context in art. One could certainly go in blindly(literally) and let the game speak for itself, that was probably the intention given the extremely spartan ReadMe file included with the game and itch.io page description. Its also a common feature of Gareth Damian Martin's games (Citizen Sleeper, In Other Waters) to seemingly drop the player in the setting and encourage them to hit the ground running, narratively. So whilst I would encourage you to play the game and see what you make of it, I can provide the equivalent of the little art piece placards in museums that let you in on part of the creative process.

The House of Asterion is a game based on the short story of the same name by Jorge Luis Borges. The story is further based on the story of Theseus of Greek Myth, wherein our hero Theseus volunteers to be sent to the labyrinth of Minos to slay the Minotaur Asterion, a half man half bull seemingly born of some terrible act by the Queen of Minos. The labyrinth is described as a truly impossible structure built by the famed inventor Daedalus, with near endless twists and turns and one way paths to confound the beast and prevent its escape.

Its perhaps fitting then, that Borges would adapt this story, given so much of his works center the idea of infinity (garden of forking paths, library of babel, funes the memorious etc). The story of the House of Asterion tells the story of the minotaur from the first person perspective of the "monster", who becomes less a monster and more a pitiable creature, its upbringing isolated within an torturous infinity resulting in a sort Lenny from Of Mice and Men type. Through changing the perspective of the story even Theseus becomes less of a hero and more of the villain of the story, as the final lines of the tale reveal that Asterion let himself be killed, presumably to escape his cruel fate. Its a well told tale that plays with the idea of the inherent connection of the reader to the main character in a story, how our perspectives and lack thereof affect how we perceive character motivations, an idea that Borges was seemingly interested with, given another of the stories in Ficciones Tlon, Uqbar, Orbius Tertius starts with Borges discussing a possible story with a first person narrator who would present a relatively innocent story but which eagle eyed readers could decipher as revealing an atrocity committed by the Main Character.

House of Asterion the game plays a similar card by putting us in the shoes of the titular Asterion, blindly (literally) wandering around the infinite labyrinth whilst hearing voices narrate parts of the short story. Presumably being spoke aloud by Theseus? As the direction of the voices seems to be from above the Labyrinth, though given the story it might make more sense to be simply a product of Asterion's jumbled memories, endlessly tortured by fragments of others speaking of him but not with him. In another common feature of Gareth Damian Martin's games, House of Asterion tries to compensate for its faults, though less successfully here. Given the blindness of Asterion and difficulty in a solo developer in building a whole ass detailed labyrinth, the game limits what you can see with a listening mechanic; you can press a button to "see" for a second, mainly to tell where you're going through a maze of basic lambert shaded default unity cubes stretched out into semi convincing architecture. It feels like a Game Jam game, though I can find no confirmation that this is the case.

And well, as a tool to make us empathise with the plight of Asterion its effective, certainly. I too, would wish to be killed by Theseus is this was the extent of my existence, slowly wandering about blind an infinite expanse of repeating, endless corridors with nothing else to see or do. I can respect it in that sense, but without the context of the story it just falls flat and even as a companion piece it cannot help but be one note. I do not even know if its actually ends. Because I had read the story and wandered around for ages with no end in sight (going in circles even) I assumed that the game simply does not end, much like Asterion's life before Theseus shows up. But maybe it does? There are no documented let's plays or even comments on the itch.io page so who knows. Imo it almost works better if there isn't one, but on the off chance someone figures out how to finish the game, let me know.