I probably set myself up to fail for this game by expecting it to be a short, one-sitting 3-4 hour game (screw you HLTB you lying little-!) but here we are.

I didn't know what to expect going into this, but I really enjoyed Hatoful Boyfriend. It was a lil slow to start but was still pretty funny and had its charm.. The early chapters of this, however, were honestly just kinda dull. Chapter 3 was good, and Ch4 was really good, but given how the events unfold it felt as though the first 2 weren't even required as set up for them, so I'm really not sure why half the game was spent on what could've been a single chapter's worth of content, ah well.

Overall, this is saved/carried by its final chapter, the rest of the game has its moments but I didn't really settle in for a good time so much as I was just waiting for it to get good. When it did though, it was right back to what I'd been wanting all along. This game could've easily gotten a 4/5 were it not for the first half of it feeling like a slog for me, the last chapter is well worth playing and I'm really glad it stuck the landing. But unfortunately despite how strong it gets, the early game was honestly just boring, and it wouldn't feel right not to factor that into the score.

Side Note: The trailer on Steam is of the birds all single Jingle Birds.. idk if this is a side-story in the game but it does not happen in the main chapters, I was looking forward to it the whole time goddamnit 😭

Final verdict: If you can speedrun the early chapters paying just-enough attention to keep up, I would recommend this. Otherwise it may only be for you if you really liked the characters from the first game lol

Happy New Year everybody! 🎉

This isn't quite a 4/5 but I'm going higher to help the avg smh.

[Disclaimer: This 'review' is basically just a ramble I had in DMs with some edits to be real sentences and legible, if it feels like there's even less flow or format than usual, that's why! Also it's kinda long sorry oops ]

The hate for this game is so much more extreme than it deserves. Sure, I miss being able to throw cash registers as much as the next guy, I think they seriously fumbled by not letting you throw melee weapons, but I also think that the separated inventories is a benefit overall. Having only 10 slots or whatever and having to use them for food items, melee weapons and guns was arguably where the first games got their difficulty, but was mostly just kinda annoying. Getting stuck in a fight against humans with 8 melee weapons and 2 sandwiches was an easy way to lose hours of progress, and that's no longer an issue.

They've also removed the super restrictive timer in this game, which again could be called the 'difficulty' of DR1, but if we're being real that game's timers went so hard that if you weren't sprinting everywhere in the optimal order you couldn't do it anyway. There's definitely a charm to that, but the amount of times I failed something, even the entire story mode, just because I went the wrong way or got lost was frustrating. Especially when particularly useful items were often only found in corners of the map, so you'd head to the weapon shop before going to a psycho only to run out of time to fight them on your way back :p

Also, Frank is an ass and the plot is dumb, but there's no pretending that the first 2 games weren't just as silly. This one is just straight up zombie-killing fun, without the timer and with the map being more open with items scattered around more, it feels more like Dead Rising 3 did: You can mess around as much as you want, get sidetracked as often as you like, just play at your own pace. To me personally, that is what Dead Rising should've been like from the start.
Sure, I still wouldn't say that it's great or anything, but in a franchise that's built on killing zombies in dumb ways the only thing this does particularly 'wrong' is redacting our right to throw everday items, and honestly, I kinda got over this within the first 2 hours.

This game may have a random ass COD UI for some reason, but I don't understand why people are so mad or saying it 'killed the series'. When you encounter survivors in this game you can't accidentally kill them in 2 hits and when you save them they run off on their own. They actually run past zombies! Insane right, the first 2 games taught me that all survivors are obsessed with slowly walking to safety or sprinting headstrong into the horde 😭
I honestly believe at this point that it's just nostalgia. "Why can he be megaman" because it's fun killing dozens of the dead with a blaster why is that a negative 😩

I had never played this game before now because I was lead to believe that it was too over the top and had been stripped down to a sandbox. Just "here's a billion zombies and a bunch of dumb weapons, have fun" with no characters, story, nothing. Knowing it had a story and maniacs is all it took for me to wanna play it and now here I am having had a perfectly enjoyable time: It's Dead Rising, I experienced exactly what I expected to while playing a Dead Rising game 😅

To comment on the game proper: The UI is weird but it's dumb fun and that's really all it has to be, I don't care lol. Also the Christmas/Black Friday theme is perfect for this franchise, don't see enough praise for that. Hearing holiday music on the radio and pause menu is much loved by me, might make an annual habit of spending some time on this each December idk. Besides that the trophy list is atrocious as always. I want this series back, in the RE Engine please 😌

Happy Holidays everyone, appreciate you all greatly❤️

Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was a game that I adored so, so much, that I couldn't bring myself to start writing a review for it. I could talk about that game for hours, and yet, I'm lost for words.

There is no way to properly explain the way this series hits any more. Half the reason I never tried writing about XC3 was that so much of what I wanted to say would touch on spoilers in one way or another, and given the nature of this expansion the same is going to apply here. (So this is more a rant summarising my feelings on this series as a whole)

One thing I will say, however, is that I am honestly devastated that my memory is as bad as it can be, in particular with this franchise. I have loved, loved all 3 parts of this trilogy but if you asked me to even summarise one of the first 2 games I'd get maybe 5% of the story right, it kinda sucks😭

I'm pretty confident that 3 is my favourite, and not just for recency bias, but the combat, the party, the world, the story, the relationships and development of the characters.. It is truly deserving of the label peak because it genuinely sits at the top of the JRPG mountain in my opinion. I fucking love that game dude, they even added a navigation line to follow!
(Unfortunatley, this expansion removes that again 😭 2 games and 2 expansions to finally stop me from getting lost only to rob me of it again, wounded!)

Anyway if you can't tell I'm already losing myself, these games have got me bad, man. It is all heart, I have no brain, no thoughts (no memory 😔) - I barely understand myself how they've touched me this much, but there's an undeniable charm and sincerity to them that's really just 😩

To make some comments about Future Redeemed specifically, I fully understand the reasoning behind Matthew et al, but I can't help but wonder if I'd have preferred somehow getting to bring things to fruition with familiar faces. Matthew is great don't get me wrong, but his specific personality archetype is an interesting one to go with for the main character of this expansion lol.
Also, without saying anything else: Holy shit the glow up, the future is not the only thing being redeemed god damn.

Final thoughts I think I preferred the combat and overall dynamics in the main game vs this, and locking arts and accessory slots behind finding rare items instead of your player level is kinda oof, but I got by. It felt a bit like XC3 but stripped back a little instead of further improved which is a shame, but with the bar set by XC3 I really don't think there was anywhere to go but backwards anyway.
Difficulty wise there was one boss near the end that was a huge spike for me, but admittedly I'd been playing somewhat lazily until then anyway and it didn't take too long to overcome it.

Overall: this is insane. This series is nothing short of beautiful and if you don't believe me then the soundtrack alone can prove you wrong with ease. I don't know if I want more or not but I definitely want more of something from this team. Do not let British voice acting put y'all off these games bro, yes I know XC2 sounds kinda goofy but you can play in Japanese if you must and even if you don't I guarantee that the voicework does not detract from how good they are. (Also Mio and Nia's accents are too good to pass up on smh shame on you)

Thanks for reading to all who did, hope it's okay that this is just word vomit but I really wasn't kidding when I said I have no words. Hope you're all having a wonderful December and enjoy any festivities you may or may not partake in. Until next time🙏

Excellent. Looking forward to the next one!

Jedi Survivor is better than Fallen Order in just about every way in my opinion. I enjoyed the first game for sure, but I was never really 'excited' for it, nor this. After beating this one, well let's just say the reveal for the next one is going to be hype 😌

The story (while starting a little weird considering where FO left off) was pretty straightforward, but is told in such a way that I think this worked to its benefit. There were still twists, some more obvious than others, and only one moment that was egregiously silly. One reveal in particular seemed so glaringly obvious that I spent the whole game calling it out and then questioning whether I was just being cynical or if it was a red herring, and while I am of course a genius who clearly knows everything, my favourite thing about this was that the game handled this event in such a way that it was possible for me to have this ongoing struggle, and I think that's cool as shit. When I was proven right it wasn't with a sigh and an "of course", it was an "I FUCKING KNEW IT!!" - and if a game can get me that invested and excited over a "cliche" or an "obvious" reveal then it must be doing something better than everything else I'm just sayin'.

The characters in particular shine bright in this entry. Cal is a genuinely interesting protagonist and while a lot of the arcs and tropes he goes through in this can be compared to similar stories, some as recent as this year, that doesn't detract from how much of a blast it was to experience his. Cameron Monaghan's performance is as great as expected and by the end I really found myself invested in Cal's story, and I will be there when the next chapter of it releases.

Quickfire some other comments now the gush is over:
The environments felt much less overwhelming in this entry, and the navigation assist was a godsend in helping me not get lost. The maps are still pretty big and while I could understand people complaining about bouncing between the same few planets it didn't bother me at all.

The combat felt better as well, it's still not amazing with the stances being limited to so few combos, but having them at all was a nice touch. I do agree with the masses that only being able to switch between two of them at a time is a shame but it is what it is.

And most importantly: Merrin 😌

That'll do it, don't sleep on this one folks, in a year absolutely stacked with bangers this definitely sits up in the upper echelons, don't let the fact that it's still buried under other GOATs stop you from playing it!

Thanks for reading to all who did, hope you're have a great week. After I'm done with the P5T DLC story I'm gunna be going on a brief PS5 hiatus to focus on some Switch and PC games, not sure if or what I'll review of those but first up is XC3 Future Redeemed so stay tuned 🙏

P.S. I don't know whose idea it was to make the enemies in this game so pitiful that I feel bad for killing them but it's equal parts hilarious and 'aw :(' ... Hearing someone ask if Jedi wound people because they don't want to get wounded and then having to cut them in half moments later is 😔 RIP Rick, bud. ✊

Damn shame this one ngl, there's a really good 2-3 hour game here but the walking speed being set to fuckin 0.5% and half the PS trophies being "stand still for 5 minutes lol" make the whole game feel like a waste of time.

The story was genuinely interesting and the map is very well crafted, if I was able to move around it at human speed I'd have had a wonderful time exploring, but playing as what I assume was a 200lb camera being pushed around by a small child made it feel more like reading a picture book on a tablet with shitty internet.

It seriously takes almost a full minute to get from the front door of a house down the yard and across the road, bro has a fucking 3 hour commute to his shop half a mile away.
Anyway I'm sure everyone is as bored of walking-speed rants/complaints as they were being let down by what should've been a much better game.

Thanks for reading if you did, sorry for the moan but it's gone 4am now and this game would've been twice as good were it half as slow. Can't wait to speedrun it again tomorrow for the platinum! :D

Hope you all have a lovely December, hopefully I'll have a proper review before it's over but brief thoughts for now: Persona 5 Tactica was great, much better story than expected. Jedi Survivor has been really good so far, Ace Attorney isn't as good as TGAA was but it's a joy and Maya is 😌

A good start to an iconic series.. its definitely aged in some areas with lack of strafing and such compared to its sequels
Having played the reboot and A Crack in Time first, it shows

However, the writing and humor is good, such as the titular duos growing friendship throughout the game and many funny lines

The soundtrack and atmosphere is quite good and seems unmatched in future games

All in all, a classic PS2 platformer that is very much worth playing even today

I know a lot of people were kinda soft on it but I really loved the story mode for the base game so I found this DLC to be a bit frustrating. Its good, expected comic book-y stuff like the rest of Mortal Kombat but I don't know. My favorite part of the base game was the mom-daughter stuff with Cassie and Sonya. So of course this DLC focused a lot on the worst mother character of all time, Sindel. It does make for an interesting contrast and the focus on villains is cool but I just am not sure the ending is satisfying enough to make up for how it felt like all my favorite characters got done dirty. The most frustrating aspect of this DLC is that my opinion on it entirely depends on what happens in the next two Mortal Kombat games lol.

Other than that I like the three new characters (Fujin the most) and having Robocop is sweet but I already had my mains so wasn't too interested in trying them out.

Overall Mortal Kombat 11 Aftermath is a pretty solid expansion with a good if somewhat frustrating conclusion to the story and good new character additions. I do think the original 40 dollar price tag for it is positively ridiculous but thankfully you can get it for much cheaper on sale. Its a solid add-on to my favorite fighting game and I can't ask for too much more than that.

Just wanted to leave this little mini review. I also recently got the platinum for both the PS4 and PS5 version of the basegame if that doesn't tell you how much I enjoyed it. I currently have MK1 installed and I def need a bit of a fighting game break but I am very eager to play it nonetheless, will definitely be reviewing that as well 😌

-----TLDR----
+ Good new additions to the roster
+ Interesting set up for the future of MK
- Too many of my characters got disrespected in story mode lol

Nancymeter - 70/100
Trophy Completion - N/A
Time Played: 2-4 hours
DLC Completion #2 of November
DLC Completion #35 of 2023

Sure the combat could be better but if you think its bad clearly you've never impulse mega flare permafrost dancing steel into stagger will-o-the-wykes lightning rod gigaflare zantetsuken level 5-ed before and it shows :/

I struggled a good bit throughout my playthroughs of Final Fantasy XVI. It is now the third mainline game in the series I've beaten but at the time I started it I had intended it to be my first. Its a series I've always known i needed to try to get into, and the demo of this game was absolutely amazing, it completely blew me away. I was very unexpectedly hyped for this. And playing it I was like oh yeah this is def 5/5 material, after the Garuda fight I was so sold on the game. The music is fucking fantastic and I've never seen such awesome boss fights. But then after that the game felt like it had already peaked. There are still great boss fights through the rest of the game but they never were as impactful as the first 10 or so hours were for me. I felt myself increasingly disinterested in the plot and all the lore and by extension - the game itself.

All that changed near the end when I finally actually started doing side missions. I surprisingly ended up becoming quite fond of all the side characters in the Hideaway and to a much lesser extent the different characters out in the various towns and villages. The game has a pretty damn good cast. It was around that point that I was pretty hype for the end. And for the most part the finale delivers. Its plenty epic, and I was having a great time. But in the end, I was a bit disappointed in how everything wrapped up. That's not to say that there's really anything wrong with the ending, it just wasn't what I was wanting. How i feel about that is how I feel about Final Fantasy XVI as a whole. Plenty of great moments, but in the end still just a little disappointing.

Now that I've explained that I still think FFXVI is great, I have a lot more to complain about. Mostly minor things but it all added up over my 90 hours spent with the game. Some minor annoyances like enemy phases being tied to health bars so sometimes when you set up a stagger and start unleashing, the game just lets them sit there and recover without taking damage and you being unable to do anything for like 20 seconds before the next phase begins. There's also some battles in the wild where if the fight naturally goes a little further than where it started, enemies may just become immune and run back to their spawn point at full health. There's also without fail after every big boss, a main quest that's meant to let things settle but it just kills the pacing and feels like the game is wasting your time by dishing out forced side quests, sometimes several in a row. In the more dungeon-y areas the game is also pretty bad at leading the player along, there were several times I ran completely in the wrong direction because it doesn't make it clear what doors you can open unless you're right next to them. My final complaint is that Final Fantasy mode, the supposed hard mode for NG+, is a complete joke. Now I'm sort of glad it wasn't hard because it made the platinum obtainable for me and now that i have one for a mainline game in the series I don't ever have to bother again. But like, the games idea of hard is give every enemy 50x as much HP. For normal enemies it ain't nothin a level 5 Zantetsuken can't solve but any enemy with a stagger bar doesn't actually feel harder to fight, they just take ages to fucking kill. Even though i skipped every cutscene and did minimal side content, my FF playthrough felt longer than my first where I did basically everything. It just isn't very fun.

So that's about all of my thoughts with Final Fantasy XVI. But to end on a more positive note: Jill is hot and Titanic Block + Counter is one of the most satisfying moves of all time.

Thanks for reading <3

-----TLDR----
+ Great cast
+ Amazing soundtrack
+ Awesome boss fights throughout
- Story quality and pacing is wildly inconsistent
- Didn't like the way it ended
- Too many little gameplay grievances that add up

Nancymeter - 85/100
Trophy Completion - 100% (Platinum #278)
Time Played: 92 hours
Completion #6 of November
Completion #210 of 2023