I saw this recommended a lot by cozy gamers. I LOVED the first playthrough of the game, and was invested enough to replay the game to see variations. However, I felt by the 3rd playthough it became a bit of a chore to play. There were certain story beats that would always occur, especially in the early game for an optimal playthrough. While I enjoy the characters, it got to a point where I was hunting for endings rather than character routes. The card game was okay at first, but it got to a point where you could cheese through any type of challenge with the same deck. At the end of it all, I still loved my first few playthroughs of it. The game is definitely replayable, but not as much as I expected from online discussion.

I did it. I finished Spirit Tracks. I don’t know why it took me so long, but I’m glad I finally did it. Despite this game’s flaws, it’s pretty fucking awesome and well worth playing.

Spirit Tracks is an improvement over Phantom Hourglass in most aspects. The dungeons are far more challenging, the graphics have been bumped up, and the music is WAY more unique (Phantom Hourglass had the exact same, highly-compressed cave theme for every dungeon). The biggest improvement, however, is in the game’s central dungeon: the Tower of Spirits, which you’ll have to return to after every main dungeon to progress. Whereas Phantom Hourglass made you trek through the same 20+ rooms and solve the same puzzles over and over again each time just to get to like 3 new floors to explore, the Tower of Spirits simply has you start at a new portion of the dungeon each time, and the puzzles are more devious and complex than anything the Tellle of the Ocean King offered. I do kinda miss the time limit because i enjoyed the extra challenge, but the improvements that the Tower of Spirits offers completely outweighs that little nitpick.

Unfortunately, Spirit Tracks’ overworld suffers due to its namesake: the Spirit attacks themselves. While having Link ride a train and go choo-choo as “Full Steam Ahead!”— one of the best pieces of music in the franchise’s history— blares in the background is undeniably cool, in practice, it feels ridiculously restrictive. One of the strongest aspects of both The Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass was how much freedom the game gave to the player through sailing. You can go in whatever direction you want and explore whatever island catches your eye. The Spirit Train, on the other hand is a train— meaning that you are literally railroaded to set locations with no way to chart your own path. On top of that, the train moves pretty damn slowly compared to the Swift Sail boat in The Wind Waker HD and the S.S. Linebeck in Phantom Hourglass, and when combined with the empty, on-rails overworld, the resulting gameplay loop leads to long stretches where you’ll be doing a whole lotta nothing as you head from one destination to the next.

Luckily, Spirit Tracks has one more ace up its sleeve, and it’s definitely the game’s trump card: the story. It plays out like an affectionate parody of your typical Zelda storyline: Princess Zelda is taken by an evil sorcerer who seeks to revive the Demon King, and Link has to awaken a bunch of ancient sages to defeat him. However, the finer details are what set it apart and lead to fun bits of comedy:
— Zelda’s body is taken, but not her spirit; her ghost quite literally haunts Link throughout the game and acts as his companion, all while complaining about how gross it is that a Demon King is trying to possess her.
— The Demon King’s servant isn’t some ominous, threatening, and cool-looking sorcerer like Agahnim, Zant, or Ghirahim. Instead, it’s a goofy little guy named Cole who is a complete and utter coward that’s in WAY over his head.
— The Demon King himself isn’t even Ganon; it’s some… thing named Malladus, or as I like to call him, Ganon-from-Temu. He looks like Ganon and serves the same role (hell, Skyward Sword implies that he might be Ganon’s replacement, continuing Demise’s curse), but he’s utterly powerless for the most of the game and has to rely on his dainty little servants to revive him.
— The “sages” are a bunch of wheelchair-bound cyborgs called the Lokomos. That’s a really funny name, and they’re all chill as fuck in contrast to how serious the Seven Sages typically are.
— Even Link’s post-boss celebrations are deconstructed. After beating one of the game’s main villains, Link and Zelda proceed to celebrate and declare that they won through the power of friendship while hi-fiving and dancing… only to then look up and realize that the villain just got away.
— Despite taking place in “New Hyrule”, neither the Triforce nor Ganon are ever even mentioned, having disappeared and faded into legend after The Wind Waker. In other words, despite carrying on some traditions, Link and Tetra ultimately carried out the King of Red Lions’ final wish to establish a land for themselves. And the cherry on top? New Hyrule Castle has a stained glass window of Tetra. Not Princess Zelda, the chosen maiden and wielder of the Triforce of Wisdom, but Tetra, the fearless pirate captain who explored the Great Sea. It’s beautiful.

On top of its subversive plot, the characters are just… 🤌🏽mwah💋! Princess Zelda herself works alongside Link, and you can even PLAY AS HER in the Tower of Spirits and the final boss. It’s wonderful to see her go from a sheltered, slightly bratty, and insecure princess to a courageous, confident, and selfless warrior that would make Tetra proud. She also has great comedic, platonic, and possibly even romantic chemistry with Link, who is just as expressive as he is in the previous Toon games. Probably the game’s most memorable moment is the culmination of Link and Zelda’s teamwork: as Link struggles to push his sword into Malladus’ forehead, Zelda runs over, places her hands on the hilt, and together, they plunge the Lokomo Sword into the Demon King and save the land. It’s so awesome.

Aside from Link and Zelda, we also have Anjean and— more significantly— Byrne. Anjean is a likable mentor who’s just as chill as the rest of the Lokomos, but her connection to Byrne (no spoilers) is what really elevates her character. Byrne, the aforementioned villain that got away while Link and Zelda were celebrating, is a badass-looking cyborg with a mechanical arm, a samurai ponytail, a ninja mask, and powerful sorcery. Aside from just being awesome, he also has a surprisingly compelling backstory, understandable— if still despicable— motives, and a character arc reminiscent of Tai Lung from Kung Fu Panda (I know that sounds random, but if you play the game, you’ll understand) that ends in a bittersweet fashion. Much like Linebeck in the previous game and Groose from Skyward Sword, the developers didn’t really need to make Byrne such a layered villain, as the story wouldn’t change much if he was removed, but they did anyway because he enhances the story and because they care.

One last note: the bosses and items are on par with Phantom Hourglass, which is to say, they’re still really good. The Sand Wand and the Whip are both great new additions, with the latter being brought back in Skyward Sword. The back-to-back final bosses against the Demon Train, Chancellor Cole, and Malladus are all ridiculously awesome. The Spirit Flute and the Whirlwind both suck because my 3DS mic is unreliable and I have asthma, but… I don’t know, they’re creative, I guess.

Overall, despite its many flaws, Spirit Tracks is definitely one of the franchise’s more underrated entries that deserves more love. I’d highly recommend it.

Do I desperately miss the stories and the business management elements? Yes.

Is the handling of gender and bodies cowardly and prejudiced? Yes.

Is there a BAFFLING lack of a neckware category? Yes

Do I get a bigger rush than anything else in my entire life when someone deems my avatar worth making a thoughtful outfit for, or when they like an outfit that I made for them? Yeah man. Yeah. Sorry. Can't help it. Nothing like it.

I admittedly didn’t get far in Fashion Dreamer because despite being rather excited to finally play it, it was immediately hit with far too many dealbreakers to feel salvageable.

The biggest issue the game has is it makes an effort to make the gender options more ambiguous by referring to the selectable Fem and Masc character models as Type A and Type B, only to then completely u-turn by making almost every single clothing item in the entire game locked to only one of the two character models, accessories like hats and earrings are unisex, but literally everything else from shirts to shoes are locked to one model and can’t be mixed into one look, and the only workaround is to make two different characters of each model for you to swap between.

It makes the experience feel very drab and arbitrary as you’re completely incapable of making any interesting, clashing or gender nonconforming looks that it got miserable extremely quick.

As far as I’m concerned, the core experience of personal and independent fashion creativity is squandered by this, and I’m just disappointed.

Fashion Dreamer is not really a video game. I dont really know what it is. Its not a 50 dollar game, and it is apparently not Style Savvy. That being said I do continue to play it every day and thoroughly enjoy my time with it. Do I like it? I suppose I do. The price tag is baffling because there is only one thing and one thing only to do in this game; obtain clothes, dress other people and yourself up. Without the online function this game is very empty. Youre talking a 3-4 hour game if you pirate it or only want to play offline. For 50 whole dollars that is insane. What little writing that is in the game is good, so it is strange that theres no dedicated story mode for something like this.

Another problem: a majority of the clothes are gender-locked. Which is also strange because 99.9% of people who play this appear to be girls. And the .1 percent of men who play a fashion dress up game most likely are not of a straight orientation. So youre just denying clothes to pretty much everyone who would like to have them, which again is pretty odd considering they let men wear makeup and have pretty pink heart earrings that you can only match with khakis.

The audio. in this game. Is insane. Its so loud. Its so loud. Cocoon HOPE, the menus. They have the worst music ive ever heard in a game. The rest of the game is exempt from this, but every time one goes to create clothes they also have to live with the pressure of having this loop in their ear indefinitely. Its so loud. Its so loud everyone I call can hear it perfectly as if they were right there fashion dreaming themselves. My friend Uri described the sound design as casino adjacent. There is inexplicably a gacha machine in this game so he is therefore correct. Blinking lights and shining sparkling explosion sounds every time i want to simply play shitty bingo. Sensory overload when i want to make a hat. Its insane.

The social element for this game is really lovely and it is the sole reason I keep playing. Its nice seeing other peoples muses and getting to dress them up, see how they react to what you made for them. Receiving an outfit made by someone you dont know also makes me feel giddy, i like watching people enjoy what ive created and wanting to wear the clothes i made. The showrooms are also fun to mess around in but it feels particularly mobile gamey (reach brand level 150 to unlock THIS yellow wall!) But its literally the only other thing to do in the game that isnt dress up so its fine. Fashion Dreamer is also visually very pretty, so theres no complaints about boring areas or bad textures. Just wish there was more of it. It needs more of all of it.

Should I buy Fashion Dreamer, you ask yourself. No... probably. This game has one upside, which is that its a perfect tool to do nothing with while you zone out on the couch. Something to play while youre talking to your friends or watching a movie you dont really like. It serves one purpose: dress up characters and look at clothes. I was going to say it does that pretty well but then i remembered that they gender-locked half the outfits so nevermind. Its not 50 dollars- unless youre very well off then I suppose go for it. I dont regret buying it because i know im going to be playing it on and off forever, but just dont expect a substantial gaming experience.

Appreciate all the boys who play this, I get to live my fashion dream through you. How I yearn to wear a suit vest....

Someone said, "What if Nier: Automata was a farming sim" and just went for it. The visuals are stunning, the character writing is endearing, and the sidequests tie in nicely with the overall themes of connection, loss, and rebuilding that the overarching story discusses. There's a lot here that will feel familiar to fans of the RPG genre, but presented in way that shows the devs understand why people keep coming back to these games. There's something really satisfying about finally reaching that next teleport point in the dungeon you're crawling through, or getting that new crop in order to finish a recipe you've been wanting to try, or unlocking a new ability in your chosen job. It's not perfect - Harvestella is mainly held back by its budget, which can most clearly be seen in its reused character animations and lack of innovation in both the battle system and farming mechanics - but it more than makes up for it with heart. I loved all the time that I've spent with it, and I'm happy that I can now point at a game other than the Rune Factory series for people who want an RPG plot to go with their farming sim.

The MH Clone that definitely lacks the most in terms of the overall gameplay loop and other mechanics in exchange for focusing on the story and presentation which it makes up for immensely.

SSD basically presents everything through you the player, navigating a talking book to start missions, change your loadout, read enemy lore and everything else. This is also how it tells it's depressing tale on an unnamed sorcerer and his partner's descents to madness in a completely bleak world, split through multiple chapters where said sorcerer crosses paths with fellow sorcerers of different beliefs and their very unique predicaments that really get you attached to them by the end of your very brief meetings.

All the monsters are also these grotesque monstrosities that are all named after legends, mythical creatures, and fairy tale characters like Red Riding Hood, Unicorn, and Jack O' Lantern to name a few, which add a lot to the overall uniqueness of the game. Fights are then fought by using Offerings which work like spells of different kinds like charging your arm into an axe or donning an armor of stone, some spells you can even combine which make for the most unique combat system in an MH/Clone game for sure.

As for it's faults, the game definitely lacks in terms of the base gameplay loop and there's really not much to do after doing all the story chapters which can take about 40 hours. Add this to the extremely RNG Essence system which is basically your carved materials every time you kill a monster which you only get 1 of every kill, makes for a very frustrating and unfun grind when you want to get very specific things. Building a character can also get quite frustrating especially midway through the game once things get spongier if you really don't have an idea what you're doing even with grinding the games level system. I managed to actually decimate things by the end of the game after realizing how loadouts and builds should be done but it can definitely get a bit grating to feel like swinging pool noodles at monsters for 20 minutes.

All these said, it's an extremely good game and for sure one of the most unique experiences not even just by MH/Clone standards but by games in general and it's definitely sad to see it die on the vita. Definitely play it if you're able.

This one's very memorable and special to me, but utterly for reasons outside of its storytelling and narrative design. As a writer, I tend to approach games in that way- Bear with me, I'll talk about things other than words in a bit.

Lucas Pope, I feel, does well with creating emerging stories through branching paths, heavily influenced by player action. In "Papers, Please", for example, it was extremely compelling to have little stories for all these people passing by your checkpoint, unfolding either on-screen or in your mind. After all, your decision of "APPROVING" or "DENYING" their visas was an incredibly meaningful one in the lives of these bit-characters! However,
even back then, dialogue-writing and scene-construction were not exactly Pope's forté, and there wasn't much meat to the characters' bones (partially because there were so many). That wasn't a huge problem when the micro-narratives the game created were so dependable.

"Return of the Obra Dinn" definitely does not play to the strengths as a storyteller that "Papers, Please" made apparent; it's a fairly linear game where player agency in the story is starkly reduced (considering that the game's story takes place in a past you interface with from the present through magical flashbacks). Obra Dinn is also divided into individual areas that, while variable in the exact sequence of the scenes within them, end up following each other in the same order every time.

By the way: Obra Dinn has an enormous cast, all of them named and uniquely designed - while continuing to underwrite each of them, worse even than the few consistent and familiar faces from "Papers, Please". It feels like you barely get to know anyone; the windows you see them through are so brief and so limiting. You have no agency in these people's lives because they're either already dead or otherwise gone. The game feels extremely dead because of that, to its detriment. In a game with a stronger horror-component, that feeling would've been compelling; here, it's kind of dull.

Then, there are some of Lucas Pope's historical and political beliefs that subtly seep into the writing and character designs; never becoming ghoulish, but never being particularly tasteful in its depictions of people from distinct cultures, nor of complex political circumstances drenched in blood (such as the East India Company); it attempts to ride a strange line of fantastic pulp and historical precision, where each side diminishes the other. (As an aside, I still struggle to forgive Pope for his toothless and dull examination of the "circle of revolution" in "The Republian Times". It's a jam game, I know, but c'mon.)

TL;DR:

Why does the game still stick with me. then?

The deduction mechanic in 3D-space was genuinely beautifully executed. On your first playthrough, there is so much to see and discover in these static scenes from the past; Obra Dinn absolutely is a game for people with a love for detail, and - guilty as charged, that'd be me! It's also very good at capturing a feeling; an era of computer games that's long-past, one that never played like Obra Dinn, but definitely felt like it.

Overall, I'd say it's a worthwhile thing to go into entirely unspoiled. It'll give your brain some good exercise for an evening or three, and despite its flaws (all that shit up there + the 1-bit style being maybe not ideal for a detective game), it really is a game you remember.

just a note, I put down my completion date as when I beat the jhen mohran village quest. in terms of guild quests I'm pretty early on in high rank still, so I have yet to encounter deviljho, amatsu, or any of the hidden mhfu monsters. I'm at over 60 hours now tho so I feel like my opinion on the game isn't gonna change much from here on out

+great monster variety. you get the virtually all the new additions from tri, a couple new monsters (zinogre and duramboros in particular are great fights, fuck nibelsnarf), and some good returning wyverns like nargacuda and tigrex
+the feudal japan theme that yukumo village has is so gorgeous, it's a nice area to look around in. obviously it doesn't affect the gameplay very much but it's lovely, with great music as well
+the hot spring is a nice touch to streamline quest preparation... since its benefits are also shared between hunters, it's extremely handy when playing online, esp when trying to grind through low rank
+online is still bustling through hunsterverse, I think I usually see about 50-60 people online at any given time. obviously it's difficult to play this game ad hoc now, but the fanbase has done an amazing job keeping online play for this going
+getting to play the hd version on emulator is such a treat, for one because it runs extremely well (psp emulation is very mature) but also because the original textures have been replaced with hi-res or touched-up variants, making this game look just as good as entries like mhgu or mh3u
+I never played far enough in mh3u to get to underwater combat but regardless I'm glad there's a 3rd gen game that doesn't have it at all, it doesn't seem fun
+cross-promotional free dlc with metal gear solid where you can unlock big boss and the boss costumes....
+overall it's hard for me to list off exactly I like about this game so much since it's just monster hunter, but something about this one really sucked me in. I'm glad this has been the first old-school MH game I've sunken time into as everything so is streamlined while still retaining a wide variety of weapons, monsters, and hunts.
+there's a lot of QoL upgrades here that I can't really speak to since I never played tri or mhfu, but I'll list them off here: the farm is streamlined (though still a bit of a chore), weapon classes that weren't in tri like bow and GL got brought back, and you can now send a load of items back to the village once per quest, just to name a few

-village quests are annoying to prepare for, as there's no hot springs or item box accessible after you've accepted a quest. you have to run into the guild hall, use the hot springs, switch out your items, and then finally exit to go accept the village quest. very annoying
-since this is pre-mh4 the areas are rather flat. not something that really detracts from the experience too much but it does make the game a little less dynamic
-why is it so hard to uncrouch.....
-the small monsters can really be a pain in this one, I know they aggro less than in the super old ones but they're still a nuisance here, esp ones that can bowl you over from behind

mhw was the first one I played and the one that helped me understand how this series should be played, but this game has been where I actually can't stop playing it and want to keep getting better and better stuff. thanks to the (partial) english translation, the HD version rip, ppsspp, and hunsterverse, this game is honestly even better to play now with right-stick camera controls, free online play, high-resolution rendering, and so much more; thank god for preservationists. the gameplay loop is so addicting here and everything seems to fall into place just perfectly. I'll definitely be playing this one for quite a while longer, hopefully to the point where I can face amatsu, or even further beyond that.

One of the hardest games ive had the pleasure and displeasure of playing, but this game nails the uphill battle of fighting a monster. It's full of bs hitboxes and annoying mechanics but at the end of a hunt that feeling of overcoming it all is the only thing that matters. The aesthetic is lovely and I do enjoy the preparation part of the gameplay. Overall, its full of genuinely infuriating mechanics but it is still monster hunter and has given me some of the most satisfaction when beating hunts. Also Pokke Village has to be one of the best villages in the series, love it.