this is…. not a good game. i can see the vision, and maybe if i had played the PSP version i could fully appreciate what this game was trying to be, but if i have to hear “Activating Combat Mode” one more time i think i would explode. the dialogue is so disjointed, it’s almost giving Silent Hill except.. not on purpose. some of the interactions are so awkwardly written i wonder how this made it past a playtest.. then again, these problems are probably due to the updated models and i believe they re-recorded the voice acting (could be wrong but i know Zack has a new VA). even though i was playing on normal difficulty, the battles hardly even changed in difficulty, it was crazy how i was one-shotting nearly every enemy in end game. i very quickly obtained the strongest of each spell and there wasn’t really much i could do after that.
the only reason i’m awarding this game 2 stars is because i do adore the Final Fantasy 7 universe, could see the message it was trying to convey, and the OST was fantastic.

wow! i did NOT expect to have as much fun with this game as i did. i love strategic rpgs but i’ve never played one so focused on hiding behind covers and strategically placing party members. it never felt stale, and even up until the end the game was still introducing new gameplay elements that kept evolving the gameplay foundations already established! i adored the plot, and even though the Phantom Thieves kind of take a backseat in their own game, i wasn’t mad about it. Toshiro and Erina’s story is well-written and tugs at the heartstrings, the whole tale is cleverly an amalgamation of all the struggles the Phantom Thieves went through in the base game, and it felt great to witness those characters give Toshiro their words of advice and experience regarding those struggles. it kind of felt like *i* was the one giving Toshiro an empathetic pep talk, because i also went through those events in the original game. the style and artwork for this game are phenomenal, honestly the “chibi” style is so creative that it’s not stale at all, and fits each character extremely well. the soundtrack is banger after banger, with a he battle themes deriving inspiration from rock and roll it’s hard not to feel pumped during battle! a small-but-big thing i noticed is how the music doesn’t stop and restart when you undo a turn or retry the battle, and i love that. more games should have uninterrupted music during the loading screen! overall a fantastic and worthwhile game for Persona 5 fans like me.

i had never played a Wario Land game before and damn was i in for a treat. this game is wonderful - the music is nothing but absolute bangers (looking at you Crescent Moon Village), the gameplay is wildly fun and creative, and the sprite work takes a page out of the “never draw the same frame twice” ideology. the animations for this game are AMAZING, it’s crazy how much talent and style we’ve lost by making so many games in 3d these days. the levels are cleverly designed, i loved spending all the time in the world exploring before racing back to the start. some of the ending sequences to the levels were fantastic, like the one where you’re playing a board game throughout the whole level and to get to the start you need to roll dice to get all the way to the end of the board. amazing game, and doesn’t overstay its welcome a bit.