Do you ever stumble in one of those games that, despite not being perfect, it manages to cover certain specific things in such a smashingly perfect way that you can't help but give it the highest score ? Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is that game.

It has debated to hell and back how this game is definitely less balanced than its predecessor, especially due to its slow start and the not-exactly-ideal tutorials which omit some key info and also feel more tedious than they could've been if streamlined better. Yet, despite this, Xenoblade 2 managed to slip into my heart, right next to the first game.

The graphics, of course, make full display of the artistic creativity of Monolith Soft, which is able to put very unique spins on what could feel like familiar views in any other JRPGs, where the classic green plains are placed on the back of an enormous quadrupedal titan, while a complex set of caves, a massive lake and a medieval town are all stored inside the stomach of a huge whale-like beast.

The character-design has been another source of debate, but I've never found it bad, if anything I welcome a JRPG protagonist that seems to be coming out of the 90's in terms of weird, yet uniquely striking fashion. I prefer it to normal-looking clothes at the very least. The rest of the cast pretty much follow suit, going for an unapologetic vibe that fits the previous works of the main character designer, while also featuring some guest artists for some of the non-story Blades, including Tetsuya Nomura at his best on designing the main villains of the game.

As with the first game, the title shines in its main story cutscenes where the animators display an amazing craft in how they handle expressions and movements. I've been a huge fan of their direction ever since the first game.

The gameplay is where those previously mentioned problems start to pop up. Xenoblade 2 isn't a bad game, it's legit great once you understand its mechanics, but it's one of those games that will give to you as much as you're willing to give it back in return. its battle system based on elemental combos requires constant attention and a familiarity of the roles and abilities of the different blades, which can be unlocked through the story, side quests or through an in-game gacha system (one that thankfully doesn't involve real money).

Each blade is also crucial for exploring the world as, depending by their skills, they'll be able to unlock shortcuts or secret passages, some of which will be mandatory for some of the side quests. It's a very intriguing system, but unlocking the different abilities and tiers will take time and the game might sometime block the player's progress because of this, forcing them to grind away at the requirements to unlock the abilities needed to progress.

It all feels a bit too tedious for most people, while others might find themselves just vibing with the game and exploring around, clearing side quests and finding all the side-story content that the different blades will unlock through their own requirements.

For people that will be willing to put in some time, Xenoblade 2 will have lots of rewards of course, but it's undeniable that it won't be worth everyone's time, especially as the game sometimes does lack a bit of guidance as mentioned before.

The other side of contempt regards the game's story, which takes quite a bit to get going. It's not bad by any means, but the first part of the game is clearly a huge, careful setup that, much like its gameplay, will reward people who will be patient enough to wait for the game's plot to be ripe enough and show its real flavor, which, to be honest, has moved me to tears, as the characters shown their motivations and stories. Unluckily it's hard to talk about the plot without spoiling anything and one might have to make their own essay about just the plot of the game, as it's rich with interconnected themes about one's purpose, life, death and the dramatic nature of a Blade's life. It's a hell of a ride once it gets going, I assure you.

All of this is topped by an absolutely fantastic soundtrack. It shouldn't be a surprise given the track record of the series, but this second title manages to repeat the success of the first game, by having several bangers in its song selections, both in battle themes and location themes, as well as its emotional tunes.

The lows of Xenoblade 2 are quite low due to an excessively tedious gameplay loop that might scare most at first and a plot that has a slow start, but the highs are also among the highest I've ever experienced in the genre. it's worth all of it in my opinion and it's one of those special games that, despite having quite a few crucial gripes, manages to hit me right in the heart and has been worth the whole experience.

Does a couple things particularly well, but I think it's more of a base hit than a home run.

There's a lot that's worth praising - the animation, the attention to the environments, translating the core gameplay fantasy of champions between two different games, creating a Demacia where regular people can live their lives. Perhaps most praiseworthy through - since Riot themselves fuck this up constantly - is recognizing that Demacia is only capable of being an interesting setting if you dig into its fundamental contradictions as a genocidal anti-magic state whose most iconic symbols and heroes have their roots in that magic. My great fear upon first learning that this game was in development was that they would spend too much time on League's most popular boring-ass white bread champions but they've actually done a great job of drawing in characters who haven't traditionally been used to their fullest potential - Sylas is the primary beneficiary, of course (he's the main character after all), but tapping Morgana to play a big role in this story is a great choice as well.

The most important criticism I've got is that the game really assumes you're familiar with the setting. I am, because I'm a sick little freak who plays League of Legends and enjoys it, but I think most League players start and finish engaging with the lore by laughing at the loading screen tips. The Mageseeker kinda introduces its key figures and topics, but if you're coming into this because you watched Arcane (and don't want to pick up LoR or watch 200 Necrit videos) then you have some homework to do if you want the full experience. If you meet those requirements though, the game gives you a lot to chew on with tons of lore tidbits, a decent cast of side characters (despite some painfully on-the-nose dialogue on occasion), and champion cameos that feel consistent with their established histories and personalities.

The good news is failing to "do your homework" with the lore cannot stop you from enjoying the combat, which does a pretty good job of porting Sylas over into a different game - he still likes to linger at medium-ish range before flinging himself at enemies to begin brawling, and having a bunch of enemies to steal spells from allows you to feel like a genius during the fights even if it's a bit silly that they keep sending in enemies who have contradictory elements at the same time. The only thing that gets in the way of the gameplay mid-fight is the wonky lock-on for your chains, which is actually more important when you're not stealing spells. Flinging yourself towards an enemy is your most versatile tool and the game seems to get confused from time to time about which enemy you're actually trying to target (or if you're trying to target anyone at all) and it'll lead to a handful of moments across your time with the game that break your flow. The combat is still well-designed and is by far the best part of the game, but the fact that it feels so basic even at its best meant that I was never seeking out the side missions to extend my time with the game - by the time the game was done, so was I.

I suppose for a bottom line, I should make things clear: I think this is hard to recommend for the vast majority of people out there unless you already have a better than average understanding of League's lore, or if you're willing to donate some extra time so the game can educate you. The combat is good but this really is "a League of Legends story" with the emphasis on "story". Ultimately I'm happy with this, but I'm mostly happy because it means we have an official Riot-approved story that actually cares about giving Sylas the screentime he needs to be an actual character. I've heard dreadful things about some of the other Riot Forge titles and have been apprehensive about even the most well-regarded media set in Runeterra, but I had a decent time with this title and I think it's convinced me to relax and be a little less wary.

Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon is a great game that fired on all cylinders with it's scope, humor, presentation, and variety. it's an awesome translation of Goemon's action oriented gameplay in a 3D environment.

The world is pretty vast and fun to explore and it made me easily see why so many folks hold this game in high regard. The humor was very silly (some of it dated) but when the jokes land, I'm chuckling.

The presentation is astounding. Not only is it one of the best looking games on the N64, it's one of the best sounding games too. I was seriously blown away hearing how rich the music was, it genuinely felt like the N64 hardware didn't compromise it's quality.

The gameplay variety was fun to experience too. The mech battles were a blast (loved grappling and punching them alot), and I loved that they brought back the method of swapping between characters on the fly like Ganbare Goemon 3. No character feels underutilized throughout the entire playthrough; Goemon, Ebisumaru, Sasuke, and Yae all get equal usage and they're all really fun to use too. Mystical Ninja truly feels like what Konami wanted to achieve with Ganbare Goemon 3, something that blended the action platforming with exploration/action rpg-esque mechanics.

My only gripe is the game being a bit cryptic with progression, even if you talk to the NPCs often. You'll eventually find your way around things one way or another but its still a thing I noticed.

Overall, this game was really fun! I can definitely see why its so fondly looked upon by so many folks all these years later. Definitely one of the N64's greatest hits.

Ah, how many games I have lined up on my list to play by year's end, a list full enough it's likely I won't even get to all of them even if I tried! Yet, here I was, seeing the Nintendo Switch Online offer to play Eastward--for free! For a week! A game I've heard fairlyyyyy good things about before! How could I say no to that? On a whim, it was written, Poochy is playing Eastward.

God I wish I liked it.

Eastward is a post-post apocalyptic adventure game that, like many of its kin, explores that value of human connection. Kinda. It's depiction of the world is so rich, both in terms of the ideas presented in each area and the . Just look at any screenshot of the game, it's got some of the best pixel art work I've ever seen, with a ridiculously level of animation work and lighting that makes everything feel so alive. My Switch album is filled to the brim capturing every luscious landscape and setpiece it has in store. For that alone, it made my time in the world not regrettable.

Prior to finishing, I was under the belief every other element of the game besides its aesthetics and world design undershot what they really should have been by like 20%, but unfortunately then the ending happened. The game makes a really dangerous gambit, by spending almost the entire game setting up question after question that are all loaded onto the final act to pay off. Plenty of my favorite games go forward with this structure and are so beloved precisely because of their gambit. Eastward, however, does a number of things throughout that makes its story not just rote but kind of actively bad!

Its compulsory need to layer on mystery after mystery without explaining even fairly rudimentary things that happen. Stuff as simple as how the two main characters met each other, or basic character motivations are barely touched on and the game just treks along as if it doesn't matter. Major characters, including who could best be called the primary antagonist of the game, drop in and out of the story without much elaboration on what their deal is, and then reappear way later on having undergone radical changes that still are barely given any elaboration. So often, the perfect opportunity for characters to discuss what their deal is with each other is set up and then they just... walk away? For no real reason???

In place of focusing on its story, the game loves sending you on adjacent objectives with side characters that don't really amount to much of anything, like the beginning section of Twilight Princess strung out across an entire 20 hour adventure. In general, the game's pacing is totally fucked, with a largely nonsensical chapter structure and a really bad gameplay-to-cutscene/fetch quest ratio. There is an entire chapter where basically all you do is go through an entirely inconsequential dungeon to save two completely inconsequential NPCs, something that in any other game would be a side quest. At another point, you're going through a section about cooking food, then while you're in the middle of cooking the food the characters decide to fuck off and do something completely unrelated. Then, when they get back, the food is, predictably, ruined! So much of the game feels like its strung together via a series of disconnected "and then this happens..." instead of being based in the realm of cause and effect. It results in a story experiencing experience that often feels like pulling teeth.

Then, I reached the final chapter, the game rapidly approached the end, and... as you can probably imagine, did not stick the landing as I hoped it would. The ultimate answers to the questions it proposes are either the most obvious ones they could be or left more or less unanswered. It ends up being so frustrating to see these scenes with some absolutely jaw dropping, beautiful visuals play out with amazing music accompanying, and yet I just don't care for the emotional beats they depict. It hits all the story beats you would expect a game like this to hit, but the game hasn't done the work needed to really make me character about these characters. And the unanswered questions... I did a bit of digging afterwards to make sure I didn't just miss out on elements of the game's story, but no! The subreddit is filled with people left confused about fundamental aspects of the world and characters with responses that amount to "well I think it might be this but idk that's just my best guess".

I want to make a particular shoutout to the bizarre lack of characterization given to John, the father figure in the main playable father-daughter duo. He's a silent protagonist, which I do not have any issues with on the face of it, but the game barely gives any texture to him beyond the first 10 minutes of the game outside of a sparse few scenes. Sam, the daughter of the pairing, is talkative as all get out though. The way this ends up playing out in the vast majority of cutscenes is John being a mindless automaton following Sam while she makes every decision, including several that a father figure really should provide at least a little pushback to her making! It's hard to shake the feeling he ended up being silent because it wanted to recapture the vibe of playing as Flint in Mother 3 and his legendary cutscene at the beginning of the game. Yet, much like Mother 3's handling of Duster and Kumatora, it feels like his silence just comes at the expense of having a character that's way less fleshed out than he really should be.

Anyways, as I said before, a far larger chunk of the game is dedicated to cutscenes and fetch quests than the quality of the writing mandates. When it's not that, however, the duo goes venturing into areas fashioned similar to Zelda dungeons--and they're pretty solid! It's a good enough time exploring each beautiful looking area, uncovering secrets, and going through puzzles that often rely on switching between the two different characters. None of it is particular novel, and I do wish the game had a few more tricks up its sleeve than the switch puzzles it loves so dearly, but it all remained fairly chill and just taxing enough on the brain to remain interesting.

The combat is similarly decent enough, but really starts to strain itself towards the end of the game. Your main methods of dealing damage are almost all short ranged or take an annoying charge up time until close to the end (and the option you do get then is... too weak to depend on). When enemies start getting more aggressive and agile, it becomes increasingly hard to keep up, especially considering that your hitbox consists of both the character you're controlling AND the follower. It's never frustratingly difficult with how many resources the game dumps on you, as well as a cooking system for more healing dishes I never really bothered with, but still. Why doesn't the game have a dodge roll or something? It would fit right in. Again, it's one element where it feels like the game falls 20% short of where it really should've been.

So here I am, left just feeling rather deflated by the whole experience. The most I dwell on it, the more frustrated I become with the story and writing. There's clearly a lot of effort and passion put in from top to bottom, plenty of stuff I enjoyed in the moment, but it just doesn't come together into a cohesive product. What a shame.

Adendum: I forgot to mention this, but the game crashed SIX! times over the course of playing. Fortunately, the game had a good autosave system that left me only losing ~10 minutes of game time total, but it was still a tad frustrating.