Gorgeous, full of love, snark and chalky working-class pessimism, the afterlife which Grim Fandango illustrates is a gorgeous dance, seeped in a love for sepia-noir and Mexico's Día de los Muertos. Everything from the voicework to the expectedly golden Doublefine-touch in the art and writing makes Grim Fandango an absolute pleasure from start to finish. Fans of their contemporary titles - see: Psychonauts 2, and its original; are sure to love this kitchy, art-deco, jazzy romp through both the grime and the good times in the underworld.

Not a moment of gameplay is left without the insightful, funny, wise-cracking commentary from the phenomenal character that is Tony Plana's Manuel 'Manny' Calavera, best travel agent in the Ninth underworld. Rest assured - you'll be both entering, and with any luck; leaving the afterlife with a big dumb smile on your face.

incredible stuff. completely forgot so much of this game. dds has such a great story and it probably has my favorite music in the larger megami tensei series. atmosphere unbeatable other than maybe nocturne. some of the localization is super wack (dds1's depiction of the solids as The Black Tribe comes to mind) but i imagine it was just the era. my only real big issue with the storyline is that some of the emotional moments don't hit because the characters don't have a ton going on at the point we need to care about them, namely Jinana, but by the second game the main party feels so tightly knit that it's hard not to love all of them. even roland as a latecomer feels like such an earned arc. not to mention it does that 2000s atlus thing of characterizing the silent protagonist in a subtle but poignant way...!!! i love serph. i love the cast of this game

Beautiful presentation with the amazong art style, art direction, and music that define all Supergiant games, but what really elevates this game for me is the uniqueness of the gameplay mechanics. Unlocking abilities, and then being able to slot them in as active abilities, modifiers for other active abilities, or as passive buffs, is such a fun system to play around with that I wish more games would take after. The combat itself is also a lot of fun with the ability to map out attack strings then see them execute in perfect precision, without it being automatic, being so much fun to see happen.

The music and atmosphere of the game draw you in, but the gameplay is what keeps you coming back. While the story is functional, it doesn't really stand-out much, but the rest of the package is crafted with such care that any shallowness in story or level design feels insignificant when taking the entirety of the package together. A beautiful game inside and out.