In Video Games, the line between a knock off and an innovative continuation is often razor fine. The amount of great games labeled with the words Doom Clone or God of War rip off over the years are more than enough evidence for that. The very nature of the medium being interactive makes them benefit from clear structures and system after all. Structures and systems that can be easily applied across multiple titles, so it's no surprise you would borrow heavily from existing elements. Even with all that, there is an understandable negative reaction to seeing whole UI designs and set pieces shamelessly ripped off. And I have always struggled the question if I should just condemn that or look past it as embarrassing inspiration. Lies of P was the ultimate test for me, as someone who has spent hundreds of hours with FromSoftware's flagship series and knows a lot of its ins and outs by heart. I was rolling my eyes at similarity just for the sake of it, only for the game to turn around and smack me across the face with the answer: Yes, you can not only heavily ripoff your idols, you can use that as a springboard to transcend them.

As the first big budget title of Korean developer Neowiz, Lies of P takes from the literary work of Italian author Carlo Collodi's famous Pinocchio story. Although this is less of a 1:1 adaptation, and more a jumping off point to take the moral lessons of that story in order to explore deeper themes like ethics and transhumanism. And the further I descended into the city of Krat, the deeper the rabbit hole got, as I noticed the literary references and themes pile up to construct a cohesive world with immaculate world building. From I what I could find, this seems to be writer and director Choi Ji-Wons first big budget gig and I can only applaud his skill at weaving an absolutely inspired setting out of what is a patch work job of his big inspirations. There are clear references to the works of Oscar Wilde and the sci-fi stories of Isaac Asimov and Philip K. Dick. Even classic anime like Full Metal Alchemist and Ghost in the Shell find their way into the city of Krat. Of course, there are also countless parallels to FromSoftwares own catalog with themes of mortality, how some are willing to seemingly doom the entire world for their ability to cheat fate and if there can even be some kind of some kind of moral or ethical justification for those very decisions. It's masterfully crafted, and I'm far from done sifting through its dense lore, a feeling I honestly haven't experienced since first diving into the original Dark Souls trilogy.

Just as important as the lore in a game, is its soundtrack wich turned out to be a mixed bag. And I can clearly separate the music in two very distinct categories. There is of course the non-diegetic soundtrack, which consists of your typical biblical choirs that play during big boss fights. Their epic, their bombastic and honestly something I'm really tired of. I couldn't pick them out of line up even if you held a gun to my head. I miss the days when boss themes in this genre had interesting compositions, like the theme of Lord Gwyn or Seath the scaleless from Dark Souls 1. What is exceptional however is the diegetic music played throughout the game. There are vinyl records to collect that can be listened to in the hub while you do your typical busywork like level up or weapon upgrades. They can also be heard throughout various places in Krat. Fitting with the city's theme of being heavily inspired by french culture, they consist of classical melodies with french lyrics, actually sung by Korean Artists. Which gives them an additional lair of other worldliness while you traverse the ruined streets of Krat. It's a style that I would love to see composer Yeakun Yoo develop further if he hopefully sticks with composing another Video Game.

On the gameplay front, Lies of P is also the closest one can get to ever matching FromSoftware's Souls formula. It's a true grab bag of all the modern FromSoftware mechanics. From the basic 1 vs 1 combat against bigger foes, to the aggressive tug of war that was introduced in Bloodborn that encourages you to get health back by fighting aggressively. Mechanical Lies of P is more than excellent. It's finally a soul-like that puts heavy weight behind your build decisions. To the point where the game makes it incredibly easy to respec your character. You're incentivised to experiment with all the options given, while also immediately teaching you the benefits of learning how to get enemies to stagger and parry their attacks. From increasing the chance of giving enemies fatal hits, to being able to negate damage entirely and even breaking their weapons. Of course, your weapons can break as well, with you having to repair them mid-battle leading to tens moments. This creates a wonderul tug of war where you're on equal footing with most enemies. I enjoyed those moments immensely where you decide to stick with parrying a flurry of attacks, get them to stagger for a fatal blow and using his recovering time to repair your weapon before jumping back into the battle. The dodge roll does exist, and can even be upgraded further, but unlike its inspirations it tends to be entirely situational. There is a prosthetic arm as well, ripped straight from Sekiro, that opens additional combat options. Among other things, you get a hook shoot to pull enemies towards you, a flamethrower and an arm canon. This result in a variety list of combat options while still being able to design everything around a few core mechanics. And those mechanics are used in some of the best boss fights in my opinion, with them even outdoing a FromSoftware staple. Twice. A 4 vs 1 fight that doesn't suck and gives you the option to even the odds in multiple ways. If I had to pick, those fights might be my overall favorites in the game, both in how they are build up from the very beginning of the game and then when the game finally pulls the trigger. It's the pinnacle of what I think Lies of P can achieve when it moves beyond its slavish devotion to Miyazaki's work. With spectacular results.

The other side of that devotion is all the parts where the game's falters, often in the exact same ways as Fromsoft. I found most of its last third to be a bland slog. Locations that conceptually should be fantastic, but fall flat in execution. In a game based around the concept of living puppets and philosophical questions about what makes one human or what a conscience even is, a graveyard of discarded puppets should be amazing. But it turned out to be one of several uninspired locations that had me just run through them blindly, not regretting that decision for a second. And one of several poison swamps Lies of P throws you into aswell, bringing the game's stellar quality down for me. Myazaki really put the brainworm in developers heads with his poison swamp obsession for all eternity. Please, stop it, get some help.

And as overall polished as combat is, even Neowiz could not iron out all of the typical souls like issues. I'm willing to cut them some slag as it's their first big title, but in the last third these issues just piled up in a way I could not ignore anymore. The camera getting stuck in smaller areas, enemies that spam you with status effects and predictable ambushes that stopped being surprising 10 years ago. If it was just a single area, that be fine, but it's a consistend drop off in quality right until the very end of the game. It really is a case where the setting and gameplay systems carried me through to the “final boss”. I'm saying final boss in quotes because I didn't actually get to fight the true final boss. For some reason, Neowiz decided to grab one of the worst decisions Fromsoftware themselves made in Blooborn and copy it. Hiding the real final boss behind an arbitrary decision with no warning, that you can't go back on. Setting aside the fact that NG+ seems to add some more lore elements and gear, from what little I played at least, I think locking a main path story boss behind another full play through has never set right with me. I just think its bad design. And I really was going to lower the score based on that alone.... Then the post credit scene happened. Needless to say, I'm beyond excited for Neowizes next game. It's a stinger hinted throughout all the game, and then they just confirm it with “yep, we are doing THAT” during the post credit scene. I'm here, my wallet is ready.

Everything comes together for one of the best multiplayer games you’ll ever play

The campiness from being a parody of wartime propaganda blends perfectly for the video game feels: humorous dialogue, dynamic music that feels orchestrated to your current objective, and the feeling of community among your fellow patriots. I’ve only played with friends and I don’t give a shit about the meta, I just want to shoot some damn bugs for Super Earth!

It’s controls are very smooth, you can feel like a walking fortress and a ballerina at the same time with the maneuverability options given. Adjustable difficulty so that you can play with friends of any skill level. The UI is a bit lacking, a lot of information is crammed on some screens where others feel so barren I don’t know what to do.

The ethics of the studio that makes the game is probably the best thing about this whole game. Patch notes are fun to read, address any issues the community has, it even doesn’t have any FOMO mechanics, just bottlenecked progression but it’s so fun you don’t really care. This shouldn’t technically be a praise, but given the state of most companies ethics at the time of this review, it earns its merits for being exemplary of what every studio should be doing.

EDIT:
I feel obligated to mention that the ethics of the company are incredible, and that the whole PSN account fiasco was the publisher's (SONY) doing. It's unfortunate when super awesome studios are only able to give us such amazing games under the gamble of the higher ups not fucking it over for some corporate bullet point at the end of their fiscal year. Always bully publishers, Patriots, it's your God given right on the internet 🫡

Revelations: Persona was the first Shin Megami Tensei game released in the West. No, Jack Bros. does not count. Sorry guys. I had thought this was the only game with the weird “Revelations” surname, but I recently found out a GBC port of the first Last Bible game was released in the west as “Revelations: The Demon Slayer." It's kind of weird to think that there’s an alternate timeline where SMT3 would’ve been called “Revelations: Nocturne” or something like that.

This game has a notoriously bad localization job, and I’m sure most have at least seen some things about it. The game's script was altered to take place in America instead of Japan, and Atlus tried to make it seem that way, but it's pretty easy to see through since the characters are clearly wearing Japanese school uniforms and the song playing in the pharmacy has Japanese lyrics. Character names were also changed to sound more standard. Nanjo’s name was changed to Nate, and Maki’s name was changed to Mary, to name a few. Character designs were also changed, most notably Mark being changed into a racist stereotype. It also seems that anyone who had black hair had their hair color altered to blonde or something. Why is this? No idea. And I thought Working Designs was shit at localizing.

Well, firstly, about the gameplay, Persona 1 struggles with its balancing. Most enemies will barely do any damage to you, let alone even hit you. Paired with how slow this game is, it tends to get pretty dull at times. Most of the boss fights are also complete pushovers that never challenge your wits. The only time I was really strategizing and switching personas was the final boss, which can be RNG-reliant, is held at the end of the final dungeon, and can take 2-4 hours to get through with no save in between! Nonetheless, it still serves to make you use everything you can at the end.

About the personas, though, unlike later entries in the series, this game actually lets you equip 3 personas for each character. It requires a lot more planning than just fusing for the main character, as you’ll need to have personas that are better suited to the whole party’s traits. Mark should get personas with high strength, Mary/Maki should get dexterity/agility, stuff like that. You’ll also have to level up the personas by using their moves in battles in order to unlock their full moveset. So, I was switching them around and getting all their moves, which at times can prove very useful. At the start of the game, I had gotten a persona with a Heal All move that only cost 7 MP, and that carried my ass through the entire game and helped tremendously on the final boss. It’s super fun fusing in this game and getting oddball broken shit when it feels like you’re not even supposed to a lot of the time. It never really breaks the game, though, since traditionally with Megaten games, a lot of enemies are going to repel certain attacks, so you’ll not be able to really use the same move the whole time.

There’s also this kind of cool SRPG formation mechanic in the game too. You’ll have to move your party of 5 around on this formation grid to best suit their strengths. If they’re in areas in the back, they’ll take less physical damage but will also not be able to reach enemies with their physical attacks. One of my characters, Brad/Brown, had good reach with his spear, so he was able to be placed in the middle and still attack most of the enemies with his physical attacks. You also don’t want them all to be placed too close to each other, since there’s area magic in this game that extends to other party members when hitting someone. Truthfully, it’s not super important, and you can kind of use one formation the whole game and it’ll work fine. I only found myself really using this mechanic on the final boss for the most part.

My favorite aspect of Persona 1 is how it absolutely nails its atmosphere, mostly due to how outstanding this game's soundtrack is. There are these really creepy songs that fit super well when dungeon crawling, and then some of my favorites in this game are these ethereal and relaxing tracks that play during cutscenes or downtime. There’s barely any misses, and it definitely became one of my new favorite OSTs.

Also adding to this game's atmosphere is its first-person dungeon crawling. Many would call it dated; I would call it a different perspective. Honestly, design-wise, it's kind of boring. Most RPGs would have treasure at the end of dead ends, but Persona 1 doesn’t. Instead, you’ll rarely find these rooms with a few treasure chests in them, which, for the most part, have nothing useful in them. I would have really liked to see more of these rooms, as they really would have given me more of a reason to fill out the map. Thankfully, this game has a map that fills out as you progress in dungeons, so you’ll not need graph paper or anything like that! Accompanying this map is a mini map at the top right of the screen that will show you pieces of the map that you haven’t been to yet from the radius of your character. I didn’t realize until my friend pointed it out, but I was literally just staring at the mini map because it just shows you the dead ends so you can completely avoid getting lost. It’s a huge quality of life thing, but a little bit too much in my opinion, and it made the dungeons effortless since combat is also very easy.

Besides the gameplay aspect, I think the dungeons are really cool. They all have their own designs and music, and strangely enough, they have different walking sound effects to accompany the different terrain. I really like when you’re walking around the school and it plays these recorded sounds of someone walking on the tile. It's kind of a weird thing to point out, but it really just added a level of immersion for me. There’s also surprisingly great sound design in this game, too. In combat, there’s so much reverb and punch to attacks, and that makes them feel effective.

When going into different areas in the overworld, the characters in your party will all be present, and you will be able to speak to all of them. When different story events are taking place, they will all have unique dialogue for all the areas in the game, that being stuff like the clinic or shops. This was a level of care that I was surprised to see, and it helped me get attached to the cast of characters. I really wish more games would do stuff like this.

Lastly, I love the UI in this game. In the menu, there’s this blue and orange grid, and on top of that, your options are all allocated to an orb on what looks like a solar system. Then, in combat, your options are these metallic-looking boxes that, when highlighted, glow orange. It looks a lot cooler than I made it sound though, I promise. I didn’t really know where to throw this in either, but in battle, there’s multiple of these psychedelic moving backgrounds that look like they're straight out of Earthbound and look really sick.

Persona 1 does a great job at using all the PS1’s new bells and whistles. It excels in so many departments and looks great in both its 2D and 3D sections. There’s so much effort in areas that didn’t even need them, and it works great as a horror RPG of sorts. It’s tough to recommend this game though, since it’s honestly pretty inaccessible. But, if you can look past how dated and slow the game is, it is one that will not be forgotten.

A mixed bag of a sequel that improves on some things yet falters on others. A game that tries to force variety but makes it a chore instead. (I'm going to be adding more to this in the coming days as I remember more talking points.)

Let me start out by saying, I played 150hrs of this game. I still liked it. I just am not going to let it get away with all the terrible design just because I liked it. This game is no where near perfect. Still a fun game though.

I will be doing a rare thing and speaking about story in detail, but not until the very end and I will tell you before I spoil anything. I will give a brief spoiler free story opinion too.

First off, the combat has been drastically improved. Dodging actually does something. Although not well explained, the new synergy abilities and attacks are neat. The pressure system is a great addition as it help you stugger things quicker.

The story is mostly good. Although it drags on. It's pacing is constantly interrupted. It forces story into areas that never used to have story. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it does not. It's not as streamlined as remake. A lot of side quest do end up tying into something relevant with either the world, a specific character's story, or the story as a whole. This is neat. Although some are completely there for filler and have no relation to anything. It's more faithful to a fault I feel. Feels like you do things because 7 OG did it, not because it was necessary. Like you visit every time almost but they force story in those towns that lacked any story before. I won't say anything about the end here, but I have thoughts. All I'll say is that it is confusing, in a bad way. It will be in the spoiler section.

Now let's get down to the meat of this review, what is wrong with the game? There is going to be a lot here. But bare with me. No one else seems to be saying it and someone needs to.

The open world is simply tedious, not needed, and serves no real purpose but padding out an already padded game. It destroys the pacing of the story. And yes, although optional, you need the exp, the resources, and the relationship points. So it doesn't feel optional. Not only that but Chadley is literally interrupting you at all times making what is already a slow process, even worse.

Running around the world is jank. The animations get very tedious.

You can swim across anything most of the game, until all the sudden, you can't swim across a 5ft body of water in the open world because they don't want you to. It's really dumb and simply an excuse to give a purpose to something existing in the game. And no, I'm not talking about a swamp.

Upgrading is now delegated to specific machine/vendors which is a complete downgrade from Remake where you can do it anywhere anytime.

Let's talk about mini games. NOT EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE A FUCKING MINI GAME FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH! Let me repeat that, not everything needs to be be a fucking mini game. Like OMFG, I try my best not to cuss in reviews, but holy shit. I cannot express how infuriating it is to have shitty mini game every five steps. And no, I'm not talking about the amazing Queen's Blood. I'm talking about every quest turning into an annoying, terrible controlling, bad designed mini game. Sometimes they are optional. Other times they are not. Like they saw other mini games in other games and said, "Let's make that!, But Worse!" It kills the pacing of the game. It makes certain quests a chore. It makes one specific chapter unbearably slow. And no, I'm not talking about the Gold Saucer. Which surprisingly, had mostly good mini games.

Let's talk about the lighting in the game. It's shit. I'm sorry, but the game starts at 0 or 1 brightness by defeat and it's still too damn bright. Every time you exit into a bright area, you can't see. Everytime you enter a dark area, you can't see. THAT ISN'T HOW LIGHT ACTUALLY WORKS SQUARE! Yes on occasion, if you are out in the bright sun, it might be hard to see in a dark doorway. On occasion if you are in a dark area, it might be hard to see outside for a second. But not every time! But what makes this worse is that in cutscenes, characters look bleached in the sun. It looks terrible. I tried to adjust setting on my TV nothing helped.

Another complaint is the map. It's terrible. Not useful. It doesn't help guide you. It actively confuses you at times. Misleads you. There is a moment early in the game, where it tells you to climb up. You do that, then the Quest Icon on my map moves into the void and is no longer helpful. You don't realize there is another place to climb up because the map doesn't tell you. It's very easily missed due to the lighting. And due to the fact that you just shot a bunch of debris that never goes away.

Let's about about debris and item physics. So they decided your characters can collided with boxes, rocks, metal boxes, etc on the ground. The metal boxes make this loud noise when moved as if you threw them off a fucking cliff. Let's ignore the noises for a second. It just looks terrible. It feels amateurish. The moment I spoke about in the previous paragraphy. Not only is it hard to see because of the lighting, but it hard to see because there soo much debris. Like you blow up 4-5 boulders and at least 4 crystals. So you are walking around in this small area, wading through an ocean of crap that no longer needs to be there because you broke it. Any other game would have despawned the debris. But not this game. It looks terrible. It's amateurish and Square should know better. I expect better from them.

One last thing. Why is the music drastically louder than the voices. I had to lower it and it still honestly was not enough. Like at times, it feelts like you cannot hear the dialogue due to the music. Like yes, easy to fix, but yet again, I expect better from Square. It just adds to the amateurish feel of the game.

Oh and, they should be ashamed of themselves for the complete and utter lack of accessibility features in the game. Get with the times Square. Makes your games accessible. It's not hard.

Here's the thing. I know I'm talking badly about this game. All these things isolated, not that big of an issue. But after awhile it all adds up. Especially in a game that took me 150hrs! The game is just plagued with terrible annoying design.

Here are some more good things. Characters are well fleshed out. Relationships between them are great. Besides the lighting, it looks great. Music is fantastic, as long as it is not blasting over dialogue. The chocobos are cute. The moogles are cursed.

Queen's Blood, the card game, is the best. It's so satisfying. It's really fun. It has a lot going on that I cannot go into due to spoilers. Seriously one of the best card games out there. I want a game based on Queen's Blood alone. Give it to us Square.

This is where I will end my no spoiler review. All in all I still loved this game. I just refuse to let it get away with all this terrible stuff without saying anything. Most other people are not saying these things. And they need to be said. Below this will be spoilers. You have been warned.

YET AGAIN

SPOILERS STARTING

BELOW THIS POINT!

Okay, let's talk about the new playable characters. Red is a lot of fun. Although his Vegence mode is hard to grasp. I let the CPU build up his bar for me. Then used it. I couldn't seem to get a hang of the blocking needed for his gimmick. But the CPU is good at doing it for you. And also, Stardust Ray is OP.

I'm not gonna talk about Yuffie much. She is mainly the say from intergrade. I don't like her as a character nor playing as her tbh.

Cait Sith is super fun. It took me some time to understand him though. He plays very well. And his moogle is also very fun.

The Queen's Blood Story is very cool.

Now, story spoilers. AGAIN, I'M SPOILING STORY. DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU DON'T WANT SPOILERS.

The Zack story is confusing and mostly amounts to nothing until the end. Like you get minutes with him. Then you go 20hrs with nothing. I don't feel like it paid off most of the time. Except for the end, but yet again, I have words about the end. I'll leave it for last though.

So this game follows 7 OG to a fault. It forces story into areas that lacked them before in a bad way. The most notable is Costal de Sol. They present it as a break for the party. Look at this beach town. Go have fun. The problem with this is, go have fun means. You must play all these mini games that suck and you must get the lowest rank on each. It's terrible. Not fun. There are some cute moments and a fun mini game or two, but mostly it's not great. Especially when you realize the next huge location is leading towards the Gold Saucer. There is 1 chapter in between Costa de Sol vacation and Gold Saucer break. Not only that but before you reach Costa de Sol, you have a break playing in a card tourney on a boat. So yet again, it's just poorly paced. We go from high action in Upper Junon to boat vacay to some action on the boat, back to beach vacay, followed by beach boss, 1 chapter of Barret's story, to Gold Saucer vacay.

They focus a lot on Tifa's and Aerith's friendship. It works so well. It pays off. It's super cute. They do this so well with all the characters. In OG Tifa and Aerith feel like rivals for Cloud's attention. This is much better.

Cait Sith is so cute! I love him. His Moogle is so fluffy. They even do a better job at explaining why he betrays them. They also don't make his sacrifice feel like he is dying. It's dramatic but explained well enough that you know he will return in a minute or two. He also doesn't ruin a serious moment when he return by making a joke.

Added the Gi storyline about the black materia is really neat. I feel like it fleshes out Red's story a bit more. It also is just more world building. It's nice. The one other thing about Red. His voice changes when go to Cosmo Canyon. You find out he is young and he stops trying to act old. I kinda hate the youthful voice. I got used to it, but I like grumpy Red better.

Cid is likeable in this. Dare I say charming. In OG he is not. That is all I gotta say on that. Vincent is cool as always. You fight him. It's a hard but fun fight. Good stuff all around.

Finally learning Wedge's fate was heartbreaking. It does suck. But not surprising. They do a great job of sending the 7th Heaven crew off.

The theme song is very good. And the Gold Saucer date was very good. The whole hour long CH12 Loveless sequence is just amazing. Like one of the best things I've seen Final Fantasy do.

The final boss is really cool except for having no control over your party. That is infuriating. Especially during a moment where my only range character is Yuffie. I needed Barret. The party is randomized. I've watched another streamer and they had a completely different party.

Finally, let's talk about the end. It's super confusing. It starts showing many timelines and you don't realize that the mascot dog is you clue that it's a different timeline. It does this thing where fate still manages to catch up to everyone. Biggs still dies?, Zack gets tracked down by a group of solders in 2 universes and dies? One Zack manages to jump between universes and meet up with our Cloud for the final boss to then give you a fake out death and be placed back in his unverse again. It's a mess.

But even worse is the pivotal moment of Aerith's death. Does she die or not? It's so confusing and fakes you out many times. And you have no time to process it. You enter a 20 minute multi boss multi phase fight not understanding what is going on.

Your Aerith ends up dying. It's not clear though forever. One, it looks like Cloud deflects the blow. He doesn't? It takes like 23 seconds before she reacts to being stabbed. You never see her get stabbed though. It makes no sense that Cloud deflects the blow yet she still gets stabbed mortally. Then she collapses with no blood or any sign of injury. The rest of the characters gasp and then they all rage at a boss for 20 minutes. Followed by the final part of the boss where Aerith fights with Cloud. Your Aerith. Not another universe Aerith. Then she fades into the life stream after the fight. Confirmed dead? BUT WAIT! Then they show a scene with where Cloud tells her to wake up, and she does! So either that is the spirit of Aerith he tells to wake up or it is a new universe where he actually saves her? Anyways, your aerith is a force ghost only Cloud can see. Now add all the Zack stuff in that sequence too. It's so confusing.

It ruins a pivotal moment. It fails Aerith and her journey. You shouldn't have to deep dive into Youtube to understand the end. Like I understood, our Aerith died and is a force ghost only Cloud can see. But why fake us out so many times? There was no reason to make it such a mystery. You took one of the most powerful moments in gaming and made it super confusing. Added with the Zack stuff, it's even more confusing.

Tifa being sad about Aerith pays off this time. They were good friends. The whole party is sad. But they don't get to grieve like they do in OG. They don't bury her in the lake like in OG. They barely talk about. They focus so much on Cloud being about to see her force ghost and talking to her.

Great game. Needlessly confusing ending. There is a bit more to it than that. Like all the multiverse Aerith's seem to be making a plan. But still it leaves you so confused unlike Remake. Also one last thing. Remake's ending made it feel like major changes to the story were to come. To be honest, it didn't turn out that way. There are some big changes but a lot of adding more details but not changing much. The multiverse stuff is the biggest change.

Like I just feel as Remake promised major story changes but what we got was more detail but not much actually changes. Biggs dead. Wedge dead. Aerith dead. Like idk. The biggest thing being the multiverse Zach stuff. Which is cool. But it was not a huge part of the game until the end.

Also the whole mascot dog being your indicator of a different universe is not a good enough clue.

Yet again, I should not have to deep dive into Youtube to understand the end of you story. It's bad storytelling if I have to do that. I should not be left confused.

This is not a video game. I know this is haha funny fun jokes but it's not a video game. This is on Steam, this is interactive, this looks like one. Do you consider the 3DS Louvres guide a videogame? I don't, and this is the same deal here. This is unconventional, an art piece delving into those who create, its purpose laid bare over the course of the documentary. Much like any of those, it is a linear experience, there's no mechanic, no catch, but there is a story. And it is one, make no mistake. Full of theories and halts, from yourself and the ever present narrator, Wreden. You'll recognize his style throughout the projects you're thrown into. Gives food for the thinking man.

I'm not done. Let's take a look at the credits. "By" and "For"? This is not a jab at the blurriness of credits in the entertainment industry so much as carrying the purpose of the product: it's an e-mail. No, really it's a message. I don't know if it's being sent to a person, I think this "R." refers to a category of people, and that's wonderful because it would line up with a a specific set of people that this game managed to pry open. Or, maybe he's writing a public message to himself and he invites onlookers to follow suite. A game can have a message, but a message is not a game.

I won't rate this product. Why is it a 4? Why is it not a 3? When I rate a game, I do so on multiple criterias that, in truth, I do not know or define properly. Here, I can only speak about how it made me feel. In that regard, Wreden has not made me feel... much. He's not really a good guide, if I'm being honest. But what he says is true to heart and, since he decided to share it, means it deserved a train of thought. We'll see what form the next project will take!

P.S: Those speedruns are insane to watch. This is truly a game, I take it all back

FIFA for the chronically silly. It's a bright new day for Mario and friends but they're being real smug about it. Charged has just enough to be considered good and, shit, it's missing a stray gamemode with excellent replayability as the condiment, because the ingredients are all there and far from the expiration date to boot. Better take yo sensitive ass back to FIFA if you can't handle big Luigi stepping on you.

Good enough transition (Birdo reference) to touch upon power ups. In Mario Kart fashion, Strikers has leftover stock for the silly goobers to use. If only a few of them, but that's not all! You have this "megastrike" as the kids say. It's the ultimate fuck you, and the key to victory if your opponent's wii remote is broken. I know I be eating some balls when the CPU thinks he confortable with me. I could have eaten a player's balls but the people I asked to play with me weren't available. Maybe my wording was not convincing enough, what do we know.

I'm obsessed with that Bowser stage in space. Those stages look really rough. I'm talking aesthetic here, genuinely well done stadiums. The first Strikers had neat stadiums and all very classy but it's war Goku ain't no time for that 🤓 you're playing football on trashy waste garbagio and would dare tell me it's not a good game? I won't be fooled. Monty Mole and Petey Piranha also make this a not so boring cast. And the goalists. How did DK even convince K. Rool to lend his infantry? Now I wan't K. Rool megastrike 1440p.

I like mid games and I'm tired of pretending I don't. Terrible hook please don't hit that non-existant dislike button. Look, I even said hook right here and didn't save the word for the shittiest pun known to mankind for a review of a game with a grappling hook (I'm pretty sure I did ima check. There we go, Sanabi review). However what I do grapple with are the controls, honestly do not use a controller. There's an impressive learning curve that is more curved with those shitty gamepad controllers but you may not have issues at all I don't wanna influence an entire generation of Hover wannabes.

This game is stuck in an all-or-nothing mindset, the line becomes blurred between insane and respectable design. The "stealth" is nothing more than lore-heavy nuisance that we could have done without considering the actual state of the story. They need an overhaul asap I am so tired boss. I did manage to reach the credits through sheer will I'll chalk this up to challenges, they were fun when they weren't one hour long bcuz I ain't tryna redo allat. While the music is kind of a shuffle between the same tunes, it kinda GOES. All's I'm sayin'. It does be givin Jet Set Radio wannabe, but what they gonna do? Play Environmental Noises (G-Major Version) - Super Smash Bros. Brawl???

The social aspect of the game basically amounts to NPCs mentioning your "team" that just isn't there because there's little incentive to make different characters or find friends to play with. You can make your little guys look like other characters but it's not a big thing really, modders could have done that pronto. These hubs make me feel like a kid lost at a mall that grows up and learns the layout so yeah it's👍 Feels "dead" though. Fun isn't allowed, so it makes sense, people are walking home from their factory job and that's it. I had some amount of fun, but take solace in knowing I haven't been arrested for that yet. We will be seeing new reviews from me.

I'll preface this by saying I've played a total of like three 2D sonic games. (more of a 3D sonic girly myself) HOWEVER this game was rad, and I genuinely think it improved quite a bit from the first Sonic. (I drowned far less, yay!) Some of the levels were a bit redundant, but the killer music and fun bosses made up for it.

The game isn't too hard until the final stages, and overall the pacing felt super reasonable. Looking forward to trying to find some of the hidden chaos emeralds in the future!

My left nut thinks this is a very clumsy game. I tend to disregard that nut but I can see the merit in what it said. The cast features Hat Kid, and I think it needs to be said first and foremost, surely this is for a much needed trivalization of token white people and not using women to sell your game to gamers! Grossly exagerated, I find the inclusion very funny, and I bought the game solely to judge it and, if the stars align just right, enjoy it! There's been something of an obstacle in that regard, however.

If the catchy music, warm artstyle and straightforward mechanics try to clue us in, it doesn't take long to realize we've been played like fools. Beating up mobs is enjoyable, there's talks of bloated HP and whatnot but I allow some padding in indie games. These bosses? They're not padding, they're far beyond saving! The one with a fugly design is the first one, so it's already a barrier of entry because his ugly self is gonna show up first chance he gets. But be decisive dammit. Shield and bloated HP? You want to eat ur cake and eat my cake too, huh? Just the shield and changing phases once it runs out would be better. The surprise second boss fight in world 3 wasn't bad enough until I was completely stuck and lost a whole 200 HP in 2 seconds with no way of doing anything. This my post-work workout?

The comics used to tell the backstories of the characters are refreshing. The visual art part is, as briefly touched upon before, great! Animations and allat. The literary art is definitely there, somewhere in what I assume is a janky translation. The interactive part is... not there, and it's the most important art of a game as a piece of art. Satisfying aerial control can't be the core of the game. My co-op partner would tend to agree, since revival is limited and she becomes a spectator to my aerial prowess. I'd rather she just play with me because I start feeling lonely in these small samey hallways full of enemies overtime.

The most 2011 game of all time. A dark, gritty zombie game packed to the brim with dated immersive mechanics to give a sense of “realism.”

The controls are clunky; you get used to them but it’s like saying you mastered walking in shoes 5 sizes too big. You’re constantly bodyblocked by teammates and are forced to fight tons of enemies in close-quarter hallways. Forced aim-assist makes gunplay near impossible, along with no steady source to find bullets until 2/3rds the way through finishing. The neatest thing to the controls was a dodge jump that isn’t really told to you, it’s super useful for dealing with all the special zombies and different than every other game from the era giving you a little bitch push move just for a little wiggle room.

My biggest issue with this game has always been the RPG-elements, specifically with the weapons. Any time I tried to optimize my loadout, I would get frustrated from investing all my money and resources into my cool baseball bat, only to find the shop just rotated and there’s a new baseball bat that’s way stronger and sinking my money into that, but then 10 minutes of walking outside I found a new baseball bat even stronger. I had to basically put on a blindfold any time I looked at my weapons and throw all my money into a fire pit just to hope I do enough damage to the next zombie I encounter. I’ve always been told “just ignore it” and if that’s really the best response for a game about getting weapons to kill zombies with, then I think there’s a problem. 99% of quests are “go here, grab this, but zombies are in the way” and if finding the way to most optimally kill zombies should be “ignored” then what do you even have left? A mediocre looter-shooter? After a while, our group did missions by running past the zombies and I just thought to myself what’s the point of doing them if the reward is just more resources to kill the zombies that we are skipping? I didn’t complain out loud though, it got the game over with quicker 😎

I feel like most people have fond memories of this game because they could kick the shit out of a zombie with friends; it’s really this games biggest blessing because playing alone will just bore the hell out of you since your only friend is the baseball bat that you’re gonna replace in the next 10 minutes.

(Note: I've completed the contents of this DLC in Replicant ver1.22, where it's already included. From the looks of it, the content is identical with the Gestalt version though.)

The World of Recycled Vessel might just be one of the most redundant and aimless expansions I've ever played. The advertised "story" is pretty much nonexistent, and the gameplay portion doesn't really make up for it either, since it's just fighting your way through reused rooms filled with enemies. It's not entirely unoriginal though, there are two new arenas that I especially liked: some basketball court and a raft on the horizon of Seafront.

Now, the presentation of the DLC is also... unique, to say the least. Being able to play as Father Nier was definitely my personal highlight of it, since I never played Gestalt. Soundtrack's fine too, even if most of the remixes aren't quite memorable in my opinion. I really like the Song of the Ancients remix here though. My biggest issue with the "art direction" of the DLC is just how there's a video filter slapped on almost every stage for no reason; it was really irritating at times.

The cherry on top are the rewards for these trials - three below-average weapons that, realistically speaking, hardly anyone would ever use at the point the DLC unlocks. They don't even have a cool gimmick or anything, however you need them in your inventory to get access to the last three endings in the game. You also get some costumes for the cast, but they're whatever to me. By the way, you don't get ANY exp or materials from the enemies in the trials (but the healing items you use here are lost ironically), just a weak payout in exp and gold at the end of each door. Just like with the weapons, these amounts are practically worthless by the time you unlock the DLC.

It certainly was nice to play as Father Nier for once, but the rest of the expansion just didn't really stick for me. I think it's rather funny how they made a combat-centered DLC for Gestalt when the general consensus is the combat being rather rough in that game (can't comment on it, didn't play Gestalt). My review for Replicant ver1.22 is probably dropping very soon, and I can guarantee you I had a way better time with it than with World of Recycled Vessel. Thanks for reading.

All the way back in 2017, I played Persona 5. I picked it up on a whim the day after it released, because my friend loves the Persona series and recommended I get into it, and not too long after I was hooked. That same friend also gave me SMT4 around that same time and I didn't really get into at all. But it did get me more interested in Megaten as a whole. Fast forward to the Summer, I go to TooManyGames 2017. I remember seeing the Persona 5 collectors edition, man good times. Ah anyways, I also stumbled upon Persona 3 FES and Persona 4 inside a glass cabinet along with some other Megaten games. Naturally of them all, I was most interested in P3 and P4 seeing as I was a huge fan of 5. Knowing the price of the Raidou games, I wish I picked those up then since they were only $30 but in the end I bought both FES and P4. Oh, not at the convention btw. I bought them off eBay the day after cuz I realized you could get them for cheaper there. Anyways, to this day I still haven't touched vanilla P4 since I played Golden. But FES, I picked up and dropped several times over the years. I really don't know why it wasn't grabbing me but the furthest I ever until this most recent playthrough was the first full moon operation on the subway. Either way, I can say I've finally beaten Persona 3 FES and I'm happy to say I ended up enjoying it overall.

Let's start with the story. I think overall, it's good and has some really fantastic moments. The beginning scene where the MC awakens to his Persona, to the whole turning point in Junpei's arc near the end of the game (if you know you know) to the whole last hour or two. There's some super good moments throughout the game, I just wish the story's pacing was better. After the MC's awakening in the beginning, I found the story to be super slow up until the middle of the game where it starts picking up again. Then near the end before the grand finale I found it dragged a bit. Pacing-wise, I thought it was the worst of the nusona games but specific moment-wise it's some of the best in the series. I do think the whole theme of facing death head on and not being afraid of it and making the most of life is super strong though, especially in the end-game. They really hammer that theme into you by the end but it works really well.

The main cast is solid overall but it can be a mixed bag. I really liked Akihiko, Yukari, Junpei and Aigis by the end of the game. They all felt really fleshed out and I just liked them the most. Mitsuru is decent but I expected her to be better, idk why I found her somewhat bland. Fuuka and Ken are the definitely the weakest party members imo and a big part of that, besides just not caring about their characters as much, was their voice acting. This game has really solid voice acting (the 4 characters I listed at the beginning) and then it has some really awful voice acting (Fuuka, Ken, Shinjiro, the chairman). Fuuka especially man, she sounded more robotic than Aigis it's crazy. This no doubt took me out of the story a bit just cuz those 4 are so prominent. Oh and can't forget Koromaru, interesting that he's the only normal animal sidekick in which he doesnt actually speak but he's a good boy nonetheless.

Going into more of the game's characters, let's talk about the social links. They're a bit more hit or miss in this game compared to 4 and 5. Akinari may be the best social link in the entire series with how good it is. I was tearing up in literally every rank, no doubt due to the music that plays during it. Yukari, Maiko and Chihiro were probably my favorites then after Akinari. I didn't even think Gourmet King's was bad like some people say considering his whole backstory and everything making me sympathize with him. However, a lot of the others I just thought were decent, very meh or just straight up bad. The worst by far was Kenji's, one of the worst in the series imo and just such a nothing Social Link. Same with Bebe, just did absolutely nothing for me. I didn't love 4's social links either but I think overall they're better in that game, especially since there's no male party member SL in 3. Yeah that's a weird omission, along with being forced to romance all the school girl social links, just overall the weakest of the nusona social links imo. It's not a terrible first try at the social aspect tho, but it's clear it's the first game to try to tackle it. 5 definitely has the best social links I think even if there are a couple duds in that game as well.

Something I actually dissed on stupidly was the game's soundtrack. Idk what was wrong with me but I originally just thought it was out right bad (besides battle for everyone's souls) but have since realized it's actually a super great ost, liking it so much now I think I like it more than 4's soundtrack. 5 is still easily my favorite but never did I think I'd like 3's ost more than 4's. Some of my favorite songs were the aforementioned Battle For Everyone's Souls, Joy, Living With Determination, Memories of the City and many more. Honestly, absolutely insane how much my opinion on the OST changed but I'm super glad I can see now why people love it so much.

Just a couple of random things I liked before I get into the combat. I really like that in part with the theme of death, every single party member experiences the loss of a friend or relative throughout the story. It really makes the dorm's friendship more believable since they can all relate to each other. The 2nd awakenings are easily the best in the nusona games simply because they aren't tied to the social links and are apart of the main story. Really felt impactful, especially Junpei's goddamn man. Also really enjoyed the atmosphere, mostly in the Dark Hour and Tartarus. Seeing how each Tartarus block would look was fun.

Speaking of Tartarus, it's one of the most contentious aspects of the game (along with tactics of course). Some people really love it and some people despise it. Me? It's not terrible but it's definitely the worse of the Nusona dungeons imo (yes I like 4's more) and probably the worst of the PS2 megaten games in terms of its dungeons. Absolutely does not touch DDS1's dungeons for example, but I didn't hate it overall. At first, I was just not getting into it but after a while you get used to the flow of doing a bunch of floors, then social link stuff then Tartarus and repeat. Near the middle of the game is where I was sort of getting burnt out on it a bit, especially since you do have to grind in this game and around that point I feel like enemies weren't giving great exp. Maybe I was over leveled then, idk but near the end game I was getting loads more exp and my personas were actually good so I got over my burn out near the middle of the game. Either way, Tartarus is just meh imo. Thematically it works but gameplay wise it leaves a lot to be desired.

Funnily enough, I ended up thinking more positively on tactics this time around. I still definitely prefer controlling your party members, but tactics works really well for the most part. You just have to not be dumb and engage in the mechanic. If you simply set your party to act freely all the time, then yeah they're gonna do whatever and are more prone to do stupid shit. But if you set them accordingly then I don't see the issue at all really. In fact I found it fun the more tactics you got as you progressed. Though, one issue I personally had is when I want a group heal from Yukari. Someone is super low on health, while the others aren't as low but are still missing a chunk of their health. If only one party member has less than 50% of their health, then she'll single target them and that's it. In that case, I'd want to be able to control my party members but that was about it really. One more still doesn't touch press turn imo, and I'd take controllable party members over tactics I'd say but this game clearly is built around tactics and it works really well.

Honestly, super glad I ended up enjoying FES, even if it's my least favorite nusona and my least favorite PS2 Megaten game. I was expecting to actually dislike this one cuz that's how I felt the few times I tried to get into it. It has its faults but it also has its highs and yeah I recommend playing this even with Reload out now. It may fix some of this games issues idk, but this is still a good time I'd say. Going onto almost 7 years since I got into Persona and Megaten as a whole and I'm just happy to say I've beaten all the nusona games now!