This is my fav game!!! I just really love the levels you explore in, theyre really colorful and interesting to look at and the weapons are really cool. All of them are cool in their own way even if some aren’t useful. and the writing is pretty funny too. Idk why the replaced ratchets voice in the 2nd game he sounds really nice here, but that aside although ratchet and clanks conflict arc came out sort of out of nowhere and it does seem a bit random i still really like it because theses two have to learn to work together. the music is great and i just have more of a nostalgic bias for this game :P

*This is coming from a guy who beat all Trails games after the Liberl arc and its the final arc that still need to be played.

Trails in the Sky FC is a slow-burn, but a pretty solid game. As the very first story to tell in Zemuria, the story was extremely character driven with it doing the job of introducing the settings and concepts that'll stick with the series until the end of the series's storyline. However, because of those introductory elements, FC suffers on a very slow start with the pacing being slow paced and low-staked. While I carried through due to my experience with the future arcs, I had to admit the story was pretty slow despite me liking the characters from the get go. I'll honestly say it took until Ruan for me to fully be invested in it. Despite the story stakes being slow and low stakes, the character moments definitely makes up for it with its strong writing and developments. Estelle Bright is indeed Bestelle (though Kloe was personal favorite). Gameplay is pretty simple, with the quartz system being the factor of making the game entertaining for anyone. Despite how initially confusing it looks, the quartz system is simple and with the right art setup can snowball your characters into winning any fights since arts are king in the game in terms of damage output. Despite that, you'll only stick with usually two same characters as you traverse Liberl, you get shuffling character that fit for any story moment in each location. For the most part, you only really need to worry about equipping gear your two main character being Estelle and Joshua Bright. The system is extremely simple, but its a recipe for it to get better. Visually, while it looks a bit dated, the 3-Dish sprites are charming and the cities are all distinctly different. Music is great with my favorites being Ruan, Zeiss, and Silver Will. Finally, talking to the named NPCS were just fun as some have small development over the course of story events. It shows the attention to detail Falcom gave to the game (which they continue to do for every future game). Overall, recommend it as the excellent starting point since it's the first chronological story of a long series. However, understand it is more character-focused so come in the game with that in the mind.

*I played the PSP version as I had problems with black screen occurring in my files for Ys I.
Ys I is a pretty fun game for about 75% of the time. The bumb combat system that was created due to the lack of an action button was weird, but easy to get used to. Exploring Esteria felt fun due to how quick it was and the banging ost from Falcom Sound Team. While it had some crypticness in terms of finding the next objective, there were clues that did hint on what you were supposed to be doing. The only part that was definitely cryptic was at the last part of the game. Also, the game was cryptic in the items not being usable in boss battles. While the plot and characters are simple, the lore and mysteries in Esteria were intincing enough and the upgraded art does give some characters to shine. The biggest flaw of the game were the bosses. Most of them were inoffensive to mildly annoying t best. However, a peculiar bat boss and the final boss were the most frustrating parts of the game. Especially the final boss as his fireballs and destroying floors were terrible game design. I salute all players whom beat him on PC as his fire balls are faster than on PSP. Just for those two bosses alone, the game falls to a 3.5/5. Despite those bumbs, the game is still fun and short to beat (if you know what you're doing). Easy recommendation for anyone trying out Ys for the first time.

*I finished Ys II on PSP due to my PC causing the textboxes to disappear.
Ys II is straight-up an upgrade to what Ys I was. Having the same bump system, Ys II polishes some of the annoyances that Ys I suffered with a satisfying conclusion to the adventures in Esteria. The combat felt smoother as I felt I was hitting the enemies more than the enemies hitting me on accident. Magic is introduced and while basic - was fun to use. Exploring the flying island of Ys was still fun with a banger ost and the direction for the most part was easy to figure out. While the bosses aren't still that great, none of them were as frustrating as the bosses from Ys I. The only negative I had was that some clues of your next quest were obtused and the final dungeon was a bit too long in comparison to Darm Tower from Ys I. I also would say the final bosses was too easy, but considering Ys I's final boss's terrible game design, I can excuse it as a final victory lap. Overall, Ys II improves Ys I's combat and is simply a solid fun game. Easy recommend for those that just finished Ys I. 4/5.

Trails in the Sky the 3rd is easily my favorite of the Liberl Arc. Yes, the game is not the conventional Trails game since its more of a dungeon crawler rather than exploring a nation with a grand story and full of named NPCs. Despite it being different, Sky the 3rd still is an amazing game in its own right. The gameplay is still solid, with the big thing being you can basically use a lot of the major characters from the first Sky games and use them in anyway you want. The dungeons (or Corridors) were fun to do and raising a team of about 16 playable character is easy due to level experience gains being easy for low - level characters. The biggest things to note about the game is specific - colored doors in which there are three - Moon, Star, and Sun Doors. While Sun Doors are simply minigames, the Moon and Star Doors are significant is they provide more moments of characterization between the main playable characters, as well as giving focus to side-characters, and setting up plot points for future games. They are all great in quality, though I do admit the Moon Doors do take long (thankfully only five doors are in the game). As for the story, while it isn't a grand tale that doesn't reaches the highs of SC, it still is a well-told story that focuses greatly on Kevin and newcomer Reis. Maybe that fact that the game is shorter in length and didn't have problems with being split unlike FC or SC, the story's pacing is well-done and there is barely any padding at all in it's execution. Music is still great with my favorites being "Fighting Right On" and "Determination to Fight". The only negative I can really think off is the lack money (which even that isn't a problem since you get ample amount of quartz to trade in for mira), the Sixth Corridor does pad out with too many fights, and the game being more of a dungeon - crawler (which is still more on preference than anything). Overall, Sky the 3rd is an excellent game that made Kevin a top-five favorite character and is a game that should NEVER be skipped, even if the game structure is different. Easy 4.5 / 5.

*Played Trails from Zero twice back in 2023 (first on PS4 then on Switch). Now making a review of it since it's still fresh in my mind and I just finished the Liberl arc not long ago in 2024.

Trails From Zero (or Zero for simple sakes) is a solid game through and the second Trails game I ever played.

As the start of a new arc known as the Crossbell arc, Zero had the job to establish a new cast of characters as well as develop the city-state of Crossbell as a setting. From the two playthroughs I did, I can confidently say it did it's job well as I loved the settings of Crossbell in general and the new cast of characters from the Special Support Section (SSS). The main cast of characters were fun to watch as the game greatly builds on their dynamic with each other over the course of the game. It doesn't help that the amazing jp voices from the Evo version elevated them into some of my favorite characters (ex. Randy and Tio). Crossbell, while small in comparison to Liberl, is still a rich setting filled with some of the best named NPCS in the series. Due to the settings contained in one city with a few small towns, bases, and a hospital, the stories of the named NPCs develop through out the whole game and it makes me care for them more than Liberl NPCs due to the smaller setting.

The story is pretty good for what it is, even if its pretty small in context to the larger narrative of the series. However, I do like the fact the story is really self - contained with a start and an end that doesn't force the direct sequel baiting that most other Trails kind of fall into.

As for gameplay, it still follow the quartz system from the Sky games, though there are minor modifications such as changing some specific spells into a different element or adding new spells all together. The battles are still the same from the Sky games, though you are mostly sticking with the four SSS members for most the game. You do get the usual extra characters, though they are only temporary.

Finally, music is simply excellent whichs make walking through Crossbell a joy and battles pretty hype.

As for the negatives, the game starts off slow though thankfully not as slow as Sky FC. There is unfortunately no English voice acting though I could understand the fact that trying to record it would delayed the game and thus delayed future Trails games that need to be localized. Finally, the PC and Switch ports invalidate the PS4 version due to the simple fact that there are no chat logs to check.

Other than those nitpicks, Trails from Zero is just a pretty great game in general and a solid start of the Crossbell game. And shouts out for the Geofront Team for making this happen! 4.5/5.

*I played Ys Origins "twice" on Switch and on PS5.

Ys Origin is yet another solid Ys game that polishes the Napishtim system to its max. It's the only mainline game not to have Adol Christin as the protag and the protags consist of two main characters (with a secret final character) with their own story, development, and unique play styles.

Gameplay is polished with better platforming, better use of the magic system, and the bosses mostly being fun. Music is solid with a lot of remixed songs from Ys I, though all the original songs from the game are great. The playable characters are all fun to use and I appreciate the effort they made to make them feel different from Adol. The levels of Darm Tower were all unique with a campaign that least barely under ten hours. While the side characters aren't anything special, the main playable characters were all solid characters themselves.

Despite the positives, there are a few negatives I'll share. Despite how fun all three playable character were, the mage Hugo Fact kind of makes the game really easy and invalidates many of the bosses. Finally, and the reason why I personally think Origins is my last favorite of the Napishtim system is only for the simple fact you need to play all three characters to get the full context of the story. It wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't for the fact that all the levels of Darm Tower are the same regardless of which character you play. Despite the fact I still had fun and the campaigns are still short, I wished there was better variety in the Darm Tower levels between all three characters.

Despite my grievances with the needed replays, Ys Origins is a great game that give so much more context to what happened to Ys and why specific details are the way they are in Ys I and II. For that, you should play this game only after playing Ys I and II (and the other two Napishtim games for that matter). If not, it's still is a solid entry point since it is a prequel for the entire series. Easy 4/5.

A masterful return to glory for the Tekken franchise after how mediocre the previous 2 number entires were (barring Tag Team Tournament 2 which I adored, despite balance issues)

Tekken 8 just hits the rights notes for both story and gameplay.
Plus, phenomenal visual desgin and music.

One of my favourite games of 2024.

Metal Gear solid is something truly special. Its undoubtedly one of the greatest games ever to have been created, innovated on so many levels, and created one of the most beloved stories in gaming. Yet, i am conflicted on what to think of it. i feel like to accurately describe my feeling for it, i need to get the bad out of the way first, so here goes:

As you might expect from a shooter game made this long ago, the aiming and gun controls feel very jarring to use today, and aiming can often feel like mashing the button and hoping it works. This is made worse by the fact that aiming outside of first person mode means you can only aim in the directions you can walk, witch is very limited.

The game is very cryptic and often barely tells you where to go or what to do or doesn't at all, meaning there will be situations where you will have no idea what to do. this is made worse by the fact that many objectives in the game require you to backtrack to much earlier areas that you would think you would be done with. the game would be extremely frustrating to play without a guide, and still can be with one.

More on this later, but the stealth game-play is actually very good, and so are most boss fights, aside from the fact that at the start of most of them theres a gimmick to defeat the boss that the game doesn't tell you so your left scrambling through a few game overs to figure out what to do. The major problem with the game-play is more prominently shown on disc 2; any time not on a stealth or boss fight, the in game combat is extremely clunky, and scripted evens barely work, the worst examples of this being the rage inducing fight with liquid snake and the machine gun battle that follows after, every button just doesn't quite do what you want it to do and you'll get several deaths that don't feel like they were your fault.

That was just the beginning of flaws that this game has, but if your able to overlook and struggle through those sections, believe it or not, you are indeed in for one of the most special gaming experiences of all time. Everything in this game feels so ahead of its time in everyday. to this day i get chills or would even tear up while watching some of the cut scenes. the dialogue has its flaws, but overall the games story is extremely dedicated to the direction it takes, and the anti nuclear weapons awareness and messages hold true to this day.
Now to touch on the technical aspects of the game itself,(aside from scripted segments) this game is a masterpiece. the mood on shadow Moses island is set the moment you reach the docks at the beginning of the game. the use of fog, lighting, animation, and incredible textures make this one of the best looking play station games ever, and it still looks great to this day. The game-play (aside from the shooting controls) is also incredible. the stealth sections work incredibly well and are intuitive to control, and super engaging. the score of this game is also incredible.

Overall, MGS1 is an imperfect and aged masterpiece. despite its flaws, no other game of its time came even close to what this game achieved, and i believe this game was one of the biggest steps to games being more than just games, but also seen as a form of art in every way. it may be gruelling and frustrating and make you want to through your controller from time to time, but if your able to push through, your effort is 100% rewarded. even if only once, i would recommend every person who likes video games to try this game at least once. its really something special, and i would go farther than to say its one of the greatest video games ever made, but one of the greatest pieces of art ever made. This game has definitely left a permanent impression on me and i will never forget it.