Actually enjoyed this a lot more than I expected. It's basically Firered/Leafgreen with some minor changes to the game plot and layout, nothing too crazy but enough to make it feel somewhat fresher. Obviously the real draw here is the fusions, it really does add a new spin to a game I've played a dozen times, and once you get more mons and come across more of the custom art fusions, that's when it really becomes fun and legitimately difficult at times to pick a team lol. I accidentally played on normal mode not realising that modern mode gives you a larger pool of Mons so if I ever want to replay it, I have that option available to me.

The first few hours of this are really fun, especially if you grew up on the Arkham games or even more recently, Marvels Spider-man, since the combat is an evolution and deeper form of that. But after a certain point, Sifu starts demanding almost nothing less than perfection from its players, and for some people that challenge is welcome and engaging, but for others, like myself, it becomes very grating, especially on a specific mid game boss fight where I shit you not, the boss has three combos, one of them you can't interact with, one you can, and one where you legit have to run away from her and trick the AI into finishing the combo because it can run forever if it thinks it can hit you, and thats all just for phase 1. Thankfully the rest of the game does feel more fair in comparison but that one boss fight in particular at the midpoint of the game really stopped a lot of positive momentum I had for Sifu.

Outside of that, the game is fairly simple plot wise, its just a revenge story. I do like its art design, especially in the museum level, and how the different bosses have a sense of theme around the elements.

Overall, you play this game for the combat, which is very solid and rewarding once it clicks, but its boss fights just are a bit too unforgiving as they require perfection, and even just surviving a boss fight can harm you for the next one.

I really hope no parents were tricked into buying this game for their kid, because unless you play on a difficulty lower than normal, this game can be fucking tough lol.

Lets start with the obvious, the games art style and graphics are beautiful. Its overused to say but its true, it really does feel like playing a Pixar movie at times. Its at its best when you are going through a shimmering forest or through the village, unfortunately the last act takes place in a darker area and while it still looks nice, I don't think it looks as good as it does in the brighter areas.

Peel back the "pixar botw-lite" layer of this game and you'll find babies first Souls game lmao. The boss fights and even some of the regular encounters in this game are deceptively hard, some to the point where its an annoyance more than a skill issue. A few times I debated lowering the difficulty but didn't need to in the end but a bit like Tunic, I don't think I'd fault anyone who did lower it as I think it can ruin some peoples fun with it.

Not much to say plot or character wise, probably one of the weaker points of the game. Kena doesn't really have much of a personality and the game is basically three mostly separate mini stories that somewhat tie in at the end with the main big bad, but its loose at best.

Overall its fun but I think its short length helps as I dont think it would have a lot of staying power if it was a longer game, but a great first effort from the people who are known for a majoras mask video. Definitely some design flaws in the game but I think experience will fix that for whatever they make next.

This was a lot of fun. When it was first revealed, I thought it looked cool but I wasn't gonna play cause I'm not a big fan of rhythm games and I didn't think I would enjoy being punished for having bad rhythm. Then people played the game and said how you don't actually need good rhythm at all really and how easy it is to keep on rhythm, and they were right!

In the best way possible, this feels like a Saturday morning cartoon mixed with the xbox 360 era of action platformers, and the combat even gives me some kingdom hearts vibes at times. The art style is great, levels are vibrant and a good mixup of fights and platforming with plenty of collectibles to find. I played on normal so I didn't have to overly dive into the combat but there is definitely depth there around the various combos and specials for people on harder difficulties.

I also really liked the characters and writing, I did genuinely laugh out loud at multiple points and I really liked both the final boss fight, and how the various characters tie into that fight and ending. My only real gripe is that sometimes the levels can be a small bit repetitive, like the tower climbing one, but overall its not a big deal.

Hogwarts Legacy isn't too far off your generic Ubisoft style open world rpg but with the Harry Potter IP slapped across it. This wouldnt be worth much, if not for the care and detail and sense of nostalgia that comes with that IP and it boosts the enjoyment of the game immensely.

This game does not reinvent the wheel for rpgs or open worlds, but it does give us a version of one that many people have longed for and I think does it quite well. Hogwarts as a building is unbelievable and you'll easily spend the first 10 hours just roaming its halls for secrets and places you recognize. The outside area isn't bad but its nothing too special imo.

The combat was my greatest fear going in to this but it was honestly a lot better than I expected. Its sort of hard to describe but its fun if thats worth anything. The main story is decent, some parts of it are boring and forgettable, mainly the two villains and their whole plot, but the stuff about the Keepers and the trials are memorable, and the side character relationship quests actually end on quite good notes, the game doesn't pull its punches at times.

Gripes include the repetitive nature of some of the open world elements, the lack of variety with some dialogue lines around fast travel and Hogsmeade, I think they could have cut some of the more generic side quests to focus on the main story, specifically some characters that I think would have benefited the final act if we had spent more time with them.

tldr if you like harry potter you will like this, if you dont like harry potter, there really isnt anything new for you here.

I played this ahead of the upcoming remake and honestly, I think this game has aged fine. The camera is a bit wonky but it doesn't take long to adapt to. I think the best way to describe re4 is just "cool". Its a cool game, Leon is a cool dude, doing cool shit like kneecapping zombies to them roundhouse kick them into someone else, or surplex them and burst open their head. The game also gives you plenty of tools from handguns to shotguns to smgs etc. It definitely leans more towards action than survival horror compared to its predecessors but it hasn't jumped the shark totally yet.

The plot is fairly simple, you could probably have ripped the plot and villains from a B tier 90s action movie but it works here. Also, anyone who complains about Ashley has to just be bad at the game. I expected an awful time with her due to the hate I had see online prior to playing, but its legitimately just a skill issue lmao

Disco Elysium is a political satire murder mystery visual novel with strong writing, excellent voice acting, rpg elements, and some minor flaws.

I'll start with the positives. As mentioned, the game is very well written, which is great because there is a lot of text in this game lol. Characters are given distinct personalities through their dialogue and their voice acting, even those that are cliches are still implemented well and feel at home in this games fictional war torn city. If I had any critique of the writing it would be that at times, it felt a bit prone to over explaining various historical events and the various fictional races and locations of this games world. This may be due to my build skewing towards an intellectual so my encyclopedia stat was quite high.

While on the topic of stats, the game differs itself from other visual novel experiences by having an rpg element, where as you level up through completing task for the locals and for your overall case, you can invest points into various elements such as Intellect, Psyche, Physique and Motorics, and each of those has six different skills you can increase. These skills will impact your ability to pass various rng checks to help discover more about the world and the case at hand. At first this system can seem overwhelming and you will worry about your build but in the grand scheme of things, it doesn't change the end result, just the journey of how you got there, which I like as it doesn't punish you for a "bad" build.

Finally, my only other main gripe that prevents this from getting a higher score would be the reveal of the killer. Without going into any specifics or spoilers, it personally did not satisfy me and thats a let down in a murder solving game. Also I hate that they implemented fast travel but made it so awkward to use in a game that can involve a lot of back and forth walking for various side quests grrr

Idk how to really format my thoughts on midnight suns, I think my brain is a bit mushed rn but I'll try. Basically it boils down to a fun enough card strategy system that's surrounded by bloat.

The characters are all fairly one dimensional, any sort of development most of them get isn't actually development and is just a reference to a comic run they were in. Out of the cast of like 15 or so
heroes, I'd argue at most that 3 get any sort of relevant development, and even then it's mostly just plot relevant rather than character based.

It also has just so much bloated dialogue. I know a lot of reviews talk about how cringe or quippy it is but eventually you can look past that, it's the fact that it takes them 10 sentences to say something they could have said in 2. So often I'd find myself just skipping through the social stuff cause 1) the personalities are nearly all the same or just a rehash of a select few, and 2) it just fucking drags, it's the bulk of the 60 hour playthrough, it's legitimately like 20 in combat, 40 listening to dialogue.

The combat is what holds the game together and seeing it's the xcom team maybe I shouldn't be surprised. While there's little personality to the heroes in their dialogue, their moves and abilities in battle actually do match their skillsets. Spiderman can string together web attacks, Captain Marvel can go Binary for a boost, Blade can bleed enemies to weaken over time etc. It is genuinely quite fun to just do some missions and listen to a podcast in the background.

Overall, it's fine. If you like marvel and strategy games, get this on a discount and just skip through the dialogue. You can pay attention to the plot cutscenes if you want but tbh it's just set pieces strung together, and the ending made no sense to me, maybe I was too focused on a podcast lol.

I really wanted this to be good but unfortunately I ended up getting a game that was clearly going to be a game as a service but pivoted once Marvels Avengers bombed.

Theres a lot wrong with the game, the level system, messy UI, crafting materials out the ass, lazy missions, repeated locations, boring story. I think the things that annoy me most are the levels, location, and story. The game is set up on a leveling system, complete missions to get xp to level up. Missions will generally give you a recommended rough estimate on what level to be to tackle that mission, which sounds useful so you don't end up fighting a damage sponge boss, but YOU DO. Boss fights are nearly always 1-3 levels higher than you, regardless of the recommended level for the mission. Then there are the locations in the game. A lot of the game is spent in Gothams map doing general side quests as they pop up but they just repeat the same locations each time. Idk how many times I went to the 8 bit bar or the dock up north. Then theres the plot and oml, I can't believe how dirty they did the Court of Owls. Without getting into specifics, the game has 8 main missions, most of which are split into 2 parts. The Court of Owls stuff mostly happens from mission 2 to mission 6. You could legitimately remove those missions and the overall plot does not change since only the first and last mission seem to actually matter. It wouldn't be so bad if that middle section with the Court was good but its just so generic and bland.

That all being said, the game isn't completely god awful. Its not very long, probably around 15 hours or so depending how much side content you do, and while not as pleasing as Gotham in the Arkham games, I grew to like this design of Gotham City more than I initially did. I don't think the game uses Batman's rouges gallery nearly enough as it should, but the few villains we did get I liked this games take on most of them. I also didn't hate the knights themselves, I only really played as 2 of them but they were fine. Combat itself overall isn't great, it does improve as you get more abilities but not having a counter mechanic really starts to hurt towards the end of the game as you just have to spam dodge roll against so many enemy types. Speaking of, it does also do a decent job of introducing different enemy types throughout the game.

Overall, unless you plan to play this co-op or something, I'd just advise you play one of the Arkham games, they are all better than this.

Don't let the 2.5 throw you off, that's a 5/10 and for me, that's a bang average score, not good, not bad, and that's how I feel about Frontiers, it's not good, but it's not bad either. Well, it has aspects that are really good, like a fun core gameplay experience of running fast, but some parts are really bad, like the very repetitive nature of the gameplay, how the story is told, the beta feeling of the game.

Probably worth keeping in mind I'm not a sonic fan, this is my first game so when Sonic references something like his human girlfriend from 06, idk what that means lmao. So those callbacks and fanservice moments didn't do anything for me but that's ok.

I personally didn't really like how the story was told. I think there's an interesting story buried within this game but the amount of cutscenes and how often they happen, just didn't click for me. I also don't like how coy they try to play out the plot for so long and then just expect you to connect all the dots at the every end. I will say though the one story aspect I did like, even though it was underused and not fleshed out enough imo, is the Sage and Eggman connection and how that works out in the ending, I think that could have been a much more interesting payoff if more time was spent on it during the game.

Tbh overall, a lot of my dislike is just that it felt repetitive at times so even if I initially liked the gameplay, after an hour or so I'd be bored cause it's just a loop of finding gears to get keys to get emeralds to fight bosses to move to the next island and do it all over again with little variation in-between. All islands are the exact same, they may visually look a bit different but the grass, sand, and volcanic terrain all plays the exact same. I hate saying this and I hate even more that the developers are open about it, but it really does feel like a beta game that was sent for playtesting and still needs to be tweaked a bit and arrange the pieces better.
Tldr: its a mixed bag that feels like a beta for a potentially really good game. Story is told badly even though it has interesting aspects. Open world is better than cyberspace but it was nice to have a mix even if some cyberspace levels were hell. I don't regret playing it, but I'm glad I got it 50% off.
Weirdly, a lot of thoughts for a 2.5/5 lol

Santa Monica studios had probably some of the biggest expectations on their shoulders for this game in recent video game history, and I am delighted to say they have absolutely matched and exceeded all my expectations.

This game is a step up in every sense from its 2018 predecessor. The combats improved and refined, enemy types and boss battles are varied, the story has bigger beats and more emotional moment, the graphics are pristine and it all runs with hardly a hiccup.

There is so much more detail about this game that I could go into but I don't think its really needed. I think the only thing I want to touch on is the story, but I will remain spoiler free. This games story obviously has to be on a much larger scale than the original, in order to wrap up the duology story. I think that hurts this game just a smidge in the story department compared to 2018 as that had such a small but consistent and tight plot thread of spreading the ashes, that sometimes Ragnarok gets a bit lost in its grand epic realm spanning adventure. However, where Ragnaroks story shines over 2018 in my opinion, is its emotional beats and overall theme and message. I nearly cried twice during this game, one of them is a bit of a cheap cry but still, I can count on one hand the amount of games that made me tear up. And there are moments of complete shock that are not in the first game bar maybe the reveal of its ending. So while Ragnaroks plot might have slightly lower lows than 2018, I think its highs are much higher.

Is it a flawless game? No, but I don't think any games truly are, it still has far too many chests and random tidbit collectables laying around, its story does feel like it has some minor padding at times, and some of the combat challenges (which are optional) are repetitive and redundant to 100%. But in the grand scheme of things, these are very minor nitpicks of an otherwise masterpiece game and perfect bookend to the Norse story of Kratos and Atreus.

Glad I replayed this before Ragnorok to get the plot fresh in my mind as I have not played since release and I could only play it once a week back then, so this was a much better experience.

Honestly not much to say here that hasn't already been said by others, its a really good fucking game with engaging combat, interesting characters that grow and evolve as the story progresses, and it still looks visually stunning 5 years later. I only refrain from giving it a 5/5 because I think it lacked diversity in its boss fights, it meanders around in the plot at small periods, and I think the content outside of the main plot is a bit weak and almost filler, might have served better as a more focused narrative experience.

So with that being said, I hope Ragnorok can just improve on those few pieces and so long as its not held back by being cross platform, it'll be a fantastic experience.

Pokemon Infinity is a roughly 8-10 hour playthrough. It's fun, simple, and enjoyable. The plot is nothing special but it's good enough for the short runtime and honestly not a bad premise.

I really liked a lot of the new Mons and forms, but I wish some of them weren't as obscure to get and also that it was better informed in the game what pokemon got new evolutions etc.

The game has various difficulty settings, I played on Normal, which I think is perfect for if you want to nuzlocke. If you don't like nuzlockes but still want a moderate challenge, I'd probably go up a difficulty level.

I think the only "big" downside I can point out for the game is the last 10 minutes. It decides to get weird with the plot and pulls out some questionable tropes and cliches, with the last one being the most questionable and definitely going to annoy a lot of players, but it wasn't a big deal to me, it's just a pokemon game lmao

If you like previous Arkane studio games, then you will probably enjoy this. I personally don't love how combat feels in their games. The plot for deathloop also didnt grip me much. Honestly the thing that kept me coming back to finish this game was the personal sense of satisfaction from slowly solving the loop and making progress towards lining up all the pieces to break the loop.

Its got a few bugs on pc which caused it to crash twice for me and needed to be alt f4'd two to three times. Overall middle of the road game thats mileage varies on your interest in the combat and story.