A game that could very easily have fallen into any number of pitfalls in the messages it tried to convey or they ways it tried to convey them, but deftly dodges every one. A game about numbers and systems and relationship values that is steadfastly against the idea of gamifying life and relationships, that asks us to value each other and the in-between moments of life.

On my good days, I’m here. On my bad days, I’m still here.

Losing parts of ourselves and our identities are as essential to the experience of living as growing them is. Individuals can only do so much but they can still be so much for each other, and that’s worth as much as anything else. In a world where there is no ultimate victory for ideology or faction, where there is no intrinsic value in any one outcome that is ultimately worth more than any other, we’re still gonna find ourselves in each other.

I’m still here.

this game is incredible; in fact it has completely changed my relationship to video games as a medium & it is now my favourite of all the games I've played so far- & I knew it would be early on. immaculate vibes, soothing & catchy music, wonderful sound design, beautiful character art, slick gameplay & deeply emotional writing. like full crying emotional release depths; it's just so human & such a perfect non-binary mix of heart-warming & heart-breaking. so much came up for me during my first playthrough~ just rolled credits twice before I got my first final ending, and I'm so excited to play it again and again so I can uncover & weave every possibility together & experience each unique Sleeper life that unfolds. very excited for the third update & to whatever happens next with this game and whatever Gareth does next (I'll also be playing In Other Waters). the game just vibrates with all the love they poured into this game~ I'm feeling every bit of it & will be recommending this to anyone and everyone!

also, as a non-binary person I deeply appreciated all the magnificent & subtle non-binary representation (& just the diversity of representation in general!)- finally, we are entering an era where ungendered pronouns are just used casually!

what an absolute gem of a game <3

most fun I've had with a pokemon game maybe forever? very fun gameplay loop, checking off research tasks brings me such autistic joy~ most pokemon games lose me by the endgame but I'm still working on fully completing my pokedex, & this is the first one to get me into shiny hunting (a lil bit) with mass outbreaks, flying with braviary & the shiny sparkle & sound making it more accessible for me. I LOVE being able to catch them without battling, something I've always wanted to see~ & so many other quality of life improvements!! no forgetting of moves, nixing of HMs & TMs, fast transitions in battle, agile/strong styles, evolving if/when I want, ride pokemon, just so many. I actually really like the graphical style, and though the game could've been optimized better to reduce pop-in & framerate issues, it didn't rly affect my experience much. if for the next Legends game they did that, hired better writers, did sum voice acting, improved the inventory system a bit, improved accessibility options, and just spent more time working on it, I would be absolutely thrilled! honestly, not even going to bother with mainline games anymore unless they implement lots of arceus quality of life features (or just give their games more customizability options so we can individually tailor our experience), especially considering the complete mess that is Scarlet & Violet...

if u are debating which to get, I wholeheartedly recommend Arceus! finally some actual change & innovation in this tired series. played 100 hrs before moving on from it~

spoiler free as always
I loved it~ it has its issues, but they didn't stop me from having a great time! definitely recommend it

- u can tell there is a loooot of love poured into it
- so much freedom & closest to a true roleplay experience I've experienced in a video game yet
- character creation is rly fun! lots of customizability, but not so much so that it can veer out of the games art direction. we've still got a long way to go in terms of representation, but this is the best I've come across yet
- great characters that rly want to make u get to know them & care for them
- rly fun combat (played on balanced), & there's just so much there~ was still experimenting with playstyles & learning fun new things after 170 hrs, impressive feat, also just a wonderful capture of d&d
- great music, at times a bit generic yet great, & sum truly great tracks that stand out when they need to
- awesome sound design, v creative & varied
- love the cinematic aspects, the motion cap, the many great voices. the fact they have voice lines for when ppl are alive, a whole different set for Speak with the Dead, & for all animals with Speak with Animals, and for countless different scenarios based on different decision u make or what class or being u are... mind-boggling
- beautiful visuals, a world that actually feels alive & not just big to be big
- story is fun & though overall it's not super ground-breakkng or emotional, the wild & tricky dilemmas they put u through rly makes sum parts of it impactful, especially as u get to kno the main characters better. I cried several times at the ending, so that's a good game to me!
- the more intimate relationship scenes were surprisingly well done, u can tell they had an intimacy coach in the crew! bravo
- while the bar is very low in video games unfortunately, the levels of communication & consent in character relationships was much better then I anticipated, best I've seen yet! long way to go, but it's slowly happeningggg
- I just love how much Larian has managed to show up & flip the gaming industry on its head, a good solid step towards a future where all game designers can access health, wellness & creative satisfaction, gamers can enjoy games with real love poured into them, & where the creators & gamers can truly have a relationship instead of just unsustainably printing rushed products that are then consumed with no thought to the humans at it's origin

critiques:
- I do agree that the pacing of act 3 is a lil sloggy, esp after the epic build in act 2, but I quite enjoyed it regardless
- the character creator rly needs a cpl more body shape options/adjustable height & weight, and sum options like prosthetic/missing limbs or rune-powered chairs, wud help soo many more folks feel like they are appreciated, invited and can relate to their character, and just enrich the experience overall to be that much more human.
- while they attempted to allow avenues for a more open approach to relationships (which I rly appreciated as a relationship anarchist), it is still obvious that the creators were operating from a very mono-normative perspective, with almost all situations not allowing u to roleplay outside of that mindset (or even a cpl times, not allowing u to engage in proper communication or consent practices unfortunately). yes we have a long way to go, but tbh after experiencing this i have faith that this team could rly do that in the future~ it's definitely the closest I've seen an rpg get to portraying & encouraging healthy relationship dynamics
- i understand that this is a game based on a game that is based around combat and violence, but it would've been nice to have non-violent options available for more situations, i didn't like how many times i just had to fight no matter what, even when it didn't really make sense that there wouldn't be a non-violent approach.
- some of the issues I have are actually with the more problematic aspects of d&d~ like it's racist+ origins & it's continued influence, calling these different beings races at all in the first place & largely putting specific beings into distinctly good/evil categories- also why is looting & hoarding still such a prominent & encouraged aspect? makes me v curious to see what Larian does going forwards with projects that don't have Wizards of the coast & their baggage involved (will definitely play divinity 2 to get a better window into that too, I'm curious)

gnosia! i had a fantastic time with this game. while admittedly wary of the gameplay loop at first, i found it to be engaging and exciting. learning everyone's personalities was fun (although i could do without some of the creepier comments from one character, but at least that was acknowledged) and getting significantly better at the game with each new loop was satisfying.

i did look up a guide to not spend too much time looping, so a heads up for that. that didn't detract from my experience, necessarily, as i was pretty stoked for each new part of the story to be revealed as things went along. it's also worth looking up how to get the true ending.

additionally, gnosia's nonbinary representation largely strayed from stereotypes - a breath of fresh air in media, especially as a nonbinary person. setsu, the main character aside from the player, unexpectedly really resonated with me. the dreamy art and music on top of it all? definitely a treat.

lastly, it was wonderful to experience a story landing in my lap at just the right time. this visual novel's ending aligned perfectly with both a beloved text-based roleplay game i just wrapped up with some online friends (my OC's epilogue was released today...) as well as another writing/roleplaying project i just started working on. with that in mind, gnosia nudged me further into my emotions in just the way i needed. so. this review is probably rather biased from that alone... but gnosia has indeed earned a place in my heart!

Minute of Islands has a lot of weird issues. The platforming is totally unnecessary and awkward; the narrator talks way too much especially at the beginning; the game constantly breaks its own flow with slow panning shots, cutscenes where nothing happens and so, so many loading screens; and there are even out-of-place and half-baked stealth puzzles.

All that being said though, I can't dislike this game at all. The art is too good, the world is too interesting and the story being told is too deep and relatable. Minute of Islands would most likely have been better as a simple point-and-click adventure game, but what it is is still fantastic and I loved it.

I didn't research any plot details beforehand, not even the synopsis, because I knew I would like it based on my (abrupt but nonetheless great) experience with the previous game from Lycoris. Initially, I was expecting a light yuri romcom with no stakes, similar to OshiLove (to be fair, I couldn't finish it; maybe I should have been more patient), but it certainly wasn’t that. Instead, UsoNatsu is the slow burn coming-of-age story with the most accurate representation of teenage years I've ever seen. Even though I'm a straight guy, a lot of themes and plot points were relatable for me.

There was a huge wall of text I decided to scrap because, even after an hour of thinking, I wasn't able to collect all my thoughts into something comprehensive. This VN is so much to me. Anger, anxiety, happiness, amusement, envy, regret, and a little bit of hope.

Also, there's a 1-hour-long prequel voice drama on youtube, but I would not recommend listening to it until you've played at least half of the game

UPD: This novel has completely destroyed me. Half a day has passed, and I still can't stop crying. I haven't felt this depressed since 2021, but now it's for a different reason. It's too sweet. Their relationship feels real, and the thought that I won't ever experience anything similar is soul-crushing.

My fiancee and I tried to get through this after finishing DR1 in our effort to play (well, watch for her) through the entire series together, especially because she loved Toko in the first game, but after however many months it's been of me trying to force myself through this and finding any excuse not to pick it back up again every time I close it, I just... can't anymore.

The story was interesting, I really did try to stick to it for the sake of that and the twists and the narrative connection to the series (I've never met Nagito before, for example, as I've never played the rest of the main games and am relatively unspoiled, so I wanted to see what was up with him here), but it's just not worth it.

The controls are excruciatingly awful, as is the camera, the characters are exhausting, the combat is janky, most of the minigames are tedious and repetitive, and the graphics are distractingly bad. Every non-main NPC is just the same two featureless silhouettes copy-and-pasted across the map, and the handling of themes like child abuse, body/facial dysmorphia, mental illness, and sexual assault are cartoonishly offensive.

And I didn't even get as far as all the pedophilia stuff.