Final Fantasy XV DLC that single-handedly made me reevaluate my rating for everything else FFXV-related because I cannot in good faith rate it anything below a 3 and cannot in good conscious rate it anything above or on par to the rest. Episode Ardyn is messy and edgy and I had a great time with it, honestly. To give it some actual credit, it had some interesting concepts and imagery in there that kept me genuinely hooked. I think that the ending was a pleasant if not strange surprise that addressed FFXV's themes in a way that I had wanted from FFXV for a long, long time. Ardyn himself is fun to play as and fun to follow once the third chapter kicks in, and that third chapter is hilariously ridiculous, so much so that I was without a doubt having a great time all throughout. Lotus Juice is there! You can blow up cars and jumbotrons for shits and giggles! You can buy Ardyn different hats! Raw as hell. I would recommend Episode Ardyn on this basis alone, but fortunately for me I can say that it personally scratched an itch that may or may not appeal to you as well, if you're anything like me.

Unfortunately, beginning to Episode Ardyn is deceptively boring. The best part for me was a familiar face, you could say, and that realization eclipsed pretty much everything else going on at the time, which is dire. Its dramatic moments are laughably predictable and uninspired, but I suppose that there's SOME things you could thematically extrapolate from the fridging of a female character introduced specifically to make Ardyn sad. As for later on, I consider the sheer edge of it all to be delightfully silly, but I suppose it could be what others might call grating. Even I think that the gameplay is repetitive, for as long as I spent running around Insomnia making sure I fought and broke anything and everything that I could. That final boss has the same problem that all of the other giant-sized bosses in FFXV have, which is to say that they're janky as hell. All in all, I'm not sure if I would call Episode Ardyn good. However, I would say that it's worth it, even if for all of the wrong reasons and maybe one or two of the right ones.

Oh, and my final note is that the optional boss is fun as hell. It's goofy. Highly recommended, but I'm a guy who genuinely enjoyed Episode Ardyn, so take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Final Fantasy XV is an extremely fun romp in the first half and an extremely non-committal tragedy in the second. The plot is okay, but paced very strangely with all of the emphasis put on all of the wrong things. It simultaneously draws attention to the problems of its world and says nothing about them in favor of portraying itself as a typical fantasy epic. The characters have zero agency, as it feels as though they simply go wherever the plot takes them, which I can see resulting in many feeling frustrated and which I personally believe results in Noctis's so-called development feeling unearned.

That all said, GOD, that first half of the game has a feel to it unlike anything else I've played. The open world is expansive and empty, yes, but against all odds I believe this to work in the early game's favor. Bluntly speaking, the main cast is the reason to play FFXV. They're all engaging and lovable characters and their chemistry and banter with one another is off the charts; after playing so many games where you're told the characters are friends and have nothing to prove of it, the palpable sense of love between the boys is like a breath of much needed fresh air. Thus does traversing the world- as long and admittedly tedious as this may be- truly does succeed in feeling like a road trip with your loved ones. There's a reason why I believe the interpersonal drama to be better than that of the main plot. On the topic of agency from earlier, I do feel as though the lack thereof amongst the cast is crucial to the narrative, for as much as FFXV fails to fully capitalize on its own themes. All of the characters are pawns in the cruel and unusual scheme of callous beings far beyond their comprehension from long before their time. They're often given no choice but to follow the path laid out before them like lambs to the slaughter. But check out how cool the Six are! Isn't Noctis so cool? At least Ardyn's a good antagonist and a pretty great parallel to Noctis, in concept.

The presentation of the game is great. It looks good and sounds even better. The gameplay of FFXV ranges from fun to frustrating entirely depending on how ambitious it's feeling at any given point in time, but when it's fun it feels pretty fucking great. Its semi-modernized world never bothered me; in fact, I think that contrast to be found in the combination of aesthetics was one of the cooler aspects of the game. I liked fishing, I liked Prompto's photography, I liked camping... Despite everything, I cannot understate how much I liked Final Fantasy XV. Is the game good? I don't know! Did I, even in all of my critiquing, enjoy my time with it immensely? Very much so. If you happen to spot it on sale, then I would suggest giving it a shot, at the very least.

(Last thing I'll mention is how ridiculous it is how much you have to turn to external material in order to see all that FFXV's world has to offer. Locking some of its best/most important stuff behind DLC and a fucking movie of all things is bokers.)

Monster Hunter Rise is a strange game to talk about, because it's simultaneously insanely fun and bizarrely disappointing. The movement in this game feels good, the QoL changes carried over from World go a long way, it feels GREAT cutting through monsters like butter- I suppose that would have to be it, right? I recently cleared G-Rank in MHGU. It's slow, and it's a bit of a slog, and it's great. The feeling of spending 30-40 minutes methodically wearing a monster down compounded the sheer amount of rewards for your effort is unmatched, and I most certainly did not get any of that while playing Rise. I am well aware that this isn't an unpopular opinion, but I do want to reiterate that for as weak of a Monster Hunter as this game may be, it still rocks. I really, REALLY enjoyed Rise. But a lot of the supposed harder fights of Rise left me saying "that's it?" while the triumphant music played and the game tried for the millionth time to get me to care about Kamura Village.

Gameplay aside, the monsters themselves are really good. I don't think that there was a single monster in the game that I wasn't, on some level, looking forward to fighting. The game looks good and this extends to their models. Most important to me, I greatly enjoyed some of Rise's originals. Rakna-Kadaki is the highlight but Somnacanth and the serpents were also standouts. The intro poems weren't... bad, but they were more corny than I would've liked. Oh well.

Uh. The character customization was good. The music was good. The story was not good but I don't really care about that anyway; I only wish that there hadn't been so much emphasis on it. New mechanics like Wyvern Riding and Wirebugs were cool for as easy as they make the game but I've been over that part already. I don't know what else to say! I like Rise. I really, really did like Rise. Still, it wasn't quite what I was expecting coming off of the heels of the past Monster Hunter games I had played, and didn't quite live up to the standard set by what I liked so much of those games. Oh, and FUCK the endgame.

Where do I even begin? Final Fantasy IX was a fantastic experience. I'm not embarrassed to admit how emotional this game made me. Hell, it's probably the most I've gotten invested into a game in a long time. I actually want to really dig into this, even if it is mostly to gush. Quick side note that I have no reference for how this port compares to the original. All that I know is that it ran with no issues, and that's good enough for me after my complications with the X/X-2 Steam release. I will simply be referring to this as the game itself.

This is one of my first forays into Final Fantasy's classic ATB system, and I had a great time with it. If I were to complain about anything, it would be Trance. Not only does it go off whenever it likes, but it's only useful around half of the time, if not less. I suppose Freya's Trance did save my ass during the penultimate fight of the game, however, so take that as you will. Besides that, the battles were quick and decisive and fun. I feel as though I was given a lot of tools at my disposal and was able to plan/adjust accordingly. On the topic of tools and gameplay, I find that I really like how equipment and abilities worked. This isn't to say that there weren't pieces of equipment that got decidedly outclassed, but there weren't a whole ton of objective or obvious upgrades- especially later on- like there are in other RPGs, which I always appreciate. This makes equipping for battle feel like an actual strategic choice. The same concept applies to learned abilities, which were fun to build with and manage. There was a nice variety of them and some interesting ways one could go with it. All in all, I wasn't sure what I was expecting with FFIX's core gameplay loop, and I ended up having a great time (even as bosses would delve more and more into "bullshit" territory, as people might say, but even then I never struggled more than what was engaging for me personally).

There's no clean transition into this, but the game looks fine, really. Good, even. I went in expecting much worse based on what I was told but Final Fantasy IX looks about on par with the original Final Fantasy VII if not better. Is it because of the character designs and art style? Those are the best parts! The more cartoonish look of FFIX really aids it, I feel, and really makes for some fun characters that you can take one look at and get a great idea of their personality. The aversion to it is weak. Embrace the whimsy. Anyhow, the 2D backgrounds are great, the overworld isn't so great but that was to be expected, the cutscenes are charming, and on the topic of presentation, the music and atmosphere of FFIX was fantastic. Congratulations to Not Alone for successfully hitting as hard as it did. Besides the more emotional pieces, there are some really enjoyable and interesting ones. It's a good and varied soundtrack for a good and varied game.

To even begin to broach the topic of writing, it's worth mentioning first and foremost how very tight the pacing is, especially earlier on. There's almost always something happening and it's very good at keeping one engaged without feeling like too much, so to speak. Everything happens for a reason and it always feels as though the characters are taking an active part. This is aided massively by FFIX being unafraid to split off from Zidane and follow the other party members on their solo ventures. This is referring to the ATEs, of course, but I find that some of the game's most interesting moments came from when the player was controlling two separate parties. It gives the game and characters a lot of life. On that note, it's been said before, but FFIX's characters are truly excellent. Even the more unimportant members like Freya and Amarant (specifically the former, in my case and personal preferences) had their moments, but characters like Garnet, Vivi, and even Steiner are dynamic, engaging, and just plain fun. The party members in general have some great dynamics with one another. The NPCs, similarly, tend to stand out, and even the unnamed ones have some good dialogue in light of FFIX's decent sense of humor.

This leads me to Zidane and, by proxy, Kuja, who are two characters I find myself enjoying immensely. Going into FFIX, I was honestly expecting to not like Zidane at all, having been introduced to him through Dissidia in which his character description is less than flattering to my tastes. However, I am beyond pleased that this couldn't have ended up being further from the truth, as he was likely one of my favorite parts. He's a very good protagonist to follow with a very good arc- as crazy as it may be, although the absurdity only makes it better for me- who I couldn't help but root for by the end. He and Garnet had a far more interesting dynamic than I was expecting in particular, and thus the ending hit as hard as it did with the help of the somber , bittersweet tone set by everything else. On that note, Kuja was fascinating to me. I think it's useless to discuss whether or not a character is redeemable when it comes to media analysis, or whether or not they "deserve" anything one way or another. The game successfully dodges both of these bullets, condemning Kuja at the end of the game while still taking the time to thoroughly understand and sympathize with him in a way I really connected with. The final scene between him and Zidane is beautiful, and the game wouldn't be the same without it. This leads to the final thing I wanted to discuss: the themes. FFIX did a wonderful job at tackling the issues it addressed, in my opinion, with shockingly nuanced discussions of death, purpose, loneliness, and legacy. Love permeates the game and you can feel it, both in-universe and out. Maybe it's embarrassing for me to say, but thinking about it still gives me chills; I truly do think that this game was exactly what it set out to be and is better for it. I resonate with the vision. I really, really resonate with Final Fantasy IX.

I'm bad at conclusions. Uh, yeah. Play Final Fantasy IX, if you're reading this and haven't already for whatever reason. Suggest to me some more games with heartfelt messages and batshit lore if you have. I love Final Fantasy.

Either the twist antagonist was super, super obvious or I just spent too much time online during the era where Nagito Komaeda was everywhere.

Anyhow, it’s fine. Your units are essentially presets and it’s sort of fun to work around that. If you enjoyed Engage’s main cast then the first half might keep you hooked. The second half is a convoluted, frustrating mess- both in terms of narrative and map design- but I can’t say that I didn’t get anything out of it, I guess. It would get a half star for Nel alone but it immediately loses it for making me settle for a less slutty version of Griss (and it's worth noting all of the Four Winds feel laughably pointless). What else can I say? It’s mid. The DLC bracelets are worth it though.