I don't have too much to say about Peakmin 4 but I'm really gunna miss Oatchi going back to play 1 and 2 ...

Biggest complaint by far is that some late-game cave enemies are super BS and can devour far too many piks at once if you don't have the right crew/approach (I'm ngl I soloed half the final cave as Oatchi) -- This wasn't bad for most of the game but it got to a point where I'd only have a couple dozen of one type and I'd lose all of them instantly if I got licked or knocked over or screeched at the wrong moment. Skill issue I'm sure but still a bummer.

In terms of positives though, everything else! Level designs were great, music is beautiful, having so many pikmin types was fun (even if half of them were so rare it was easier to use Oatchi) -- This was really fun to just sit down with before bed and I really can't believe I spent nearly 30 hours on it before reaching the true ending. There's something so addicting about figuring out how to get stuff done and then watching cute lil guys put the work in.

Really recommend this to anyone interested, super chill time (until it was the most stressful thing ever, but that's over now, it can't hurt me 😌) - easy to get into and honestly just buy it regardless so we real gamers can get a 5th one :p
It even has hands down the most hateable villain in all of media 🥹

That'll do it anyhow, thanks for reading folks, hope you're all well! I'm 110 hours deep in Infinite Wealth so hoping to finish that this week, review will likely end up similar to this one but we'll see -- Until then! 🙏

Decent Virtual Novel game. A bit boring at times and its just your simple beat em up game. Altera easily the best character. Caster made me want to pull out my hair with her cringe dialogue. Her combat wasn't fun either. Nero was alright. Golden poem arc made her better for me (not coz of the nude battle armour lol). Switching characters and some side missions were nice. The constants enemies being produced and having to go back to re-obtain territories got boring after a while. Wish the combat was more immersive and story was more entertaining. This was my first fate game after watch many fates, so I expected something more rich and entertaining character arc. Nonetheless, it wasn't that bad . Altera had the best story arc and I thoroughly enjoyed that section and her gameplay. The story wasn't that long so it made it easy to keep up and before I got bored, I was onto the next character. That helped a lot.

The original My Name Is Mayo is pretty much the poster child of the easy trophy genre. Trophies are a great way to increase your playtime with games and it turns out that little dopamine hit you get with every "ding!" can be quite addicting for some. It did not take very long for developers to capitalize on it. The trophy hunting crowd is surprisingly big and full of everyone from casuals to of course "hardcore gamers" who get mad at people who don't solely go for "Beat the game without dying while you're blinded and dismembered" type of trophies. Its a sizeable crowd of addicts and makes it easy for publishers to take one of two routes. They can shit out shovelware asset flips for like two bucks. Or they can use the promise of easy trophies (that often unlock far before completion of the game) to get hunters to try out an obscure indie game and maybe even like it enough to beat it. I chose to believe the second option was done the most. Even if most of the games end up being cheaply made or bad, with how some hunters even buy the same game in different regions or across systems to stack I can't deny how enticing the profit sounds. However overtime it quickly became a lot more of the first option. You couldn't look at the new games section on PS5 without being spammed with shit like "Hot Dog Jump" and "Hot Dog Turbo Jump" and it was actually insulting. Sony never bothered before because its more money for them but it got so bad they actually did something for once and delisted most games like that.

So, that's all the background information you really need about these types of games. My Name is Mayo is the most popular one. You simply click X a few thousand times and boom that's 50 trophies for you. For every couple milestones you'd get a little random fact. Or you could do some side stories (if you can really even call them that) that would maybe put your mayo in a costume or do something silly with the background with every new milestone you reached. Basically the very bare minimum to even call it a game, its pretty lazy even for a clicker game. But the sillyness and quickness of just tapping a jar of food a bunch made it become both popular and infamous. The sequel, My Name Is Mayo 2, was surprisingly an improvement. It's still pretty terrible but it looked better, had a few minigames and was a little funnier too. Unfortunately 3 feels like a step down.

It is funny to me that this series falls into the common trilogy trap of the 2nd being the best and the third being kinda uninspired. This is certainly the best looking of the three, it tries to go for like a 60s vibe. But everything else leaves a bit to be desired, even for a game of this quality. The little side stories are dull and sometimes even derivative of previous entries, and only once do something interesting with the background. But after you've gone through all of those you unlock a bonus final story. Now you are no longer tapping the jar, but instead holding up the left stick as you peacefully walk up a randomly generated forest. With a goal of making it ten miles. Each mile you unlock a trophy and a little blurb like usual. Along the trail you can find different types of mushrooms. These will either change the visuals in a psychedelic way which is cute, or will throw you into a random minigame. Before you start it briefly shows you what buttons are used but it never tells you what they do or what you're supposed to do. All of these minigames are terribly designed, terribly explained and feel terrible to play. What's worse is for the little story bits it tries to be a solemn reflection on the titular Mayo's father passing. This would of been a great opportunity to reflect on trophies or something in a meta way, but they try to do some wholesome "spend time with your loved ones thing" and with how its framed - you being a fucking jar of mayo, for one - it comes off like a really longwinded, out of touch and borderline disrespectful joke. Good intentions or not it just feels gross and cheap. It soured the already lackluster experience to begin with. This is the worst one yet.

Nancymeter - 30/100
Time Played - 1 hour 25 minutes
Trophy Completion - 100% (51/51) Platinum #226
Game Completion #8 of December
Game Completion #154 of 2022

There's so many things I want to say about this game. So many things I don't quite understand or am still thinking on. So much I loved - all the new cast and music is fantastic - so much that left me so...unsure (everything). I don't really know if my feelings will ever settle on it. So much of the story is fantastic and yet the big plot points leave me perplexed and excited and.. disappointed and hell I'd forgive all of it if it just made me cry. There's some emotional moments and some of the Somniums are wonderful symbolism but the ending and everything just leaves me feeling so unsatisfied. This game is far more meta than its predecessor and because of that its simultaneously far more brilliant and so much less emotionally compelling. I cried at the ending of the first game and at the end of this one I was just wishing I could. The climax feels stunted and lacks impact because a key character is already dead before it and its attempts at replicating the best parts of the original ending just fall flat. Ryuki is a great new protagonist but his usage in the second half of the game is just completely fumbled. But how much of this is my fault? I took a month long break inbetween this game when I wasn't even that far from the ending. How much did I miss? How much did I forget? I spent over fifty hours on this game how could anyone remember every finely put detail? Would i love it or understand it anymore if I could?

I need to replay this game sometime. In the you know what order. I don't know if it'll get me any closer to a definitive understanding of my overall feelings on this game but surely it'll give me something. I feel empty after beating this. Similarly felt the same about Danganronpa V3 which also has a bit of an infamous twist. You can rag on both of these games for being too silly and having a stupid sense of humor and fuck, yeah I love that about both of them but.. even though my turmoil for either is with different circumstances I knew the second the credits rolled that they were gonna be games I'm pondering about for as long as I'll be able to remember enough to ponder.

I guess all i have to say for sure is I love Mizuki and I need a third game. You and everyone else who wrote this are sick fucks, Mr. Uchikoshi and I hope you never change.

I'm distraught. I might delete this review. Its not a good one but hell even nearly a year later I still havent been able to compile my thoughts on the original to review that properly either. I'm sorry you had to read this but if you did I hope you did it like the way Jacob Geller ends an uncertain analysis. I got the collectors edition of this thing, my first figure of Aiba. I own this game both on switch and playstation! I don't regret that at all. Just looking back on how excited I was for this makes me wish maybe I never played it in the first place. Until next time folks

Please share your thoughts i feel like im going insane

Update #1 After talking with my BF a bit more about the story i definitely feel less upset about the plot and want to try playing this again someday, but i cant shake how empty most of the ending felt for me and for that i've decided to give this game a 94/100, aka the closest i can give something to being a 5/5 without a 5/5. I havent even touched on some of my other thoughts about different parts of the game but Im just so overwhelmed and exhausted by this experience as a whole that I dont think ill cover the rest. I need to take a big step back from this before i attempt it again.
Update #2
Im going back for some trophies cuz i planned on this being my 225th milestone. Replaying a lot of parts and remembering all the stuff I really like. There's still so much I dislike but ugh I simply just can't wrap my head around it. I've been thinking about how my scale says i define a 5/5 as near perfect and I really think thats what this is. So close to perfect but its not. I had similar problem with some other movies this year and decided a 95 and a 5/5 was fair so im gonna keep this score and try not to think about this game anymore before i disintegrate
Update #3 lmao
Man. As i'm typing this i got the platinum after working on it all night. While I was playing it i got frustrated at trophies and remembered some more complaints I have about this game... man I just dont know. I've unlocked the ending cutscene in bonus and have just been letting it play. I still think the finale could of been a little better, I still think they really fucked up Ryuki, i still am not sure about the twist, but.. this game and series means way too much to me! I love this cast and I'm so happy with the new additions and what they did with Mizuki in this. I have the collectors edition box and figure on my headboard and shit! Looking through all my other favorite games even though i hate this one its still so much better and i love it so much more than most games that ever existed. Ive seen this ending multiple times now and it makes me happy. Even if its not what I wanted, i'm happy. And i think it got me a little teary eyed thinking about it all, so in the ending maybe it did succeed after all.

I've updated this review multiple times over the course of the day and a half since I've beat this. I just hope this isnt the last we see of this series. I'm gonna stop talking now as this is just becoming the diary of a mentally ill woman's attachment to fictional people and how easy she is to sway with large dance numbers.

Also! I keep forgetting but I'm proud ProZD is in this hes a good boy

Nancymeter - 97/100
Time Played - 69 hours 32 (and counting)
Trophy Completion - 100% (49/49) Platinum #225
Game Completion #7 of December
Game Completion #153 of 2022

Man, this game really doesn't play fair..

This review will likely be structured as a multi-layer shit sandwich, which honestly is kind of appropriate for my feelings toward the game. For every few good things, there is at least one.. not good.. Kinda.. Let me explain.

The first thing I took note of when playing for the first time was a much needed and welcome change from the previous 2 games, in the form of the upgraded Menus and UIs, particularly the former. The menus in Bayo 1/2 weren't all that much to look at and in 1 especially felt kinda awkward to use, 3's aren't the most user-friendly thing in the world either to be fair but they're a step up and more importantly they look much better. I actually used the skill trees and crafted items, and the Gates of Hell store page was so much more interesting than the previous games simply for having idle animations of characters on screen. It's the little things sometimes.

The second thing I noticed were the changes to combat. I'm hardly a combo expert and I suck at these games, but Bayonetta's moveset and combos are changed quite a lot which was an exciting surprise. Furthermore, when using her default weapons, if you stop a combo midway (or just attack once) Bayonetta does a little dance-transition from her position following the attack, back to her fighting stance. There's no reason for this to happen but I love it so much letsgo! There are a decent number of weapons that can be acquired during the game (most through the story - no more missing the fun ones!) and these all have their own combos as well. They're a little hit or miss, but when they hit they feel amazing. (And when they miss it's most likely bc they just don't fit my playstyle, which is okay :p)

Finally the usage of demons in combat is mostly pretty awesome, at times you feel a bit dependent on them maybe and some of them are a bitch to use, but I liked the mechanic a lot overall.
Honestly I think my biggest letdown with Bayonetta's combat is that the torture attacks have been downscaled, and now just sort of happen on their own. I'm all for cutting down on QTEs and button mashing, but the game still has plenty of the latter and the torture attacks are simply less fun when they're not close-up with my direct engagement -- perhaps an option to toggle this on/off or even trigger it or not depending on the prompt would've been nice, oh well.

To sprinkle just a tiny bit more shit in here real quick, the repeated voicelines gripe I had with 2 is back, and while it's not as bad bc the combos and stuff are more varied, there is quite literally 1 spoken line for when you check your objective marker, and she says it every single time you check it. There's also only a single line spoken when you're idle for more than a minute or so, which is a real shame bc the first time I was like "oh hey nice I like when games remind me I'm playing them" but by the fourth time I was like "omg I just took a sip of my tea stfu" (it's not that bad but I'm easily distracted and I talk online while playing a lot lol)

Bringing this back to the positives, one of the other new things that I was pleased with is that traversal has been given a bit of love and now varies depending on your equipped weapons. Off the back of this, while I still prefer Bayo 2's hairstyle, the customisation options in 3 (while fairly limited and don't look phenomenal) were a nice touch.

Okay I'm rambling too much already so I'm gunna run through my thoughts on the story pretty swiftly: I personally enjoyed it. It's not what I expected from this entry and it's not necessarily what I would've wanted either, but it was easy to follow for the most part and by the end I was left with minimal questions so I really can't complain. It's not like 2's story was exactly the next best-seller either, but this is an action series :p
That said, the new enemy types and their designs got old pretty fast, kinda disappointed by the lack of variety there, in the colour palette more than anything.

[FYI, this section is about mechanics/sections that are new for this title]
One of the most conflicting things for me in this game were the parts that happened partway through the levels, normally near the end, and were really cool to watch or on paper, but simply were not very fun to play in my opinion. The Kaiju fights varied from each other in more cases which really helped for this point not to pull my opinion down further, but my god some of them just do not land for me. As someone who flies through the game with fast combat and agile evades, slowing down to a crawl and throwing heavy punches just killed the pacing and really took me out of it. Not to mention some of them are kinda like platforming but the controls are either a little stiff or not really explained bc you're thrown right into it... Idk I like the idea of them but I kinda wish they were just cutscenes honestly.

On the flip side, the Jeanne side missions were nowhere near as bad as they could've been. I daresay I enjoyed them even. I've played games in that style before and I think if it was longer it'd definitely need work, but for what it is I liked it. Jeanne is neat and I was never disappointed to see one of those levels appear.

Now, with that said... It's time to address the most divisive parts of this game.

Viola. I'm sorry folks I tried so damn hard to like her and I just don't. I don't dislike her, she just doesn't resonate with me at all idk. Punk is very much not for me and her whole vibe sorta comes across as like, DmC Dante mixed with Enzo or some shit lol. I get what they were trying and at times it's endearing but more often for me I just wanted her parts to be over. It really didn't help that her combat style is a huge step down from Bayo's imo. DMCV showed us that you can have 3 totally split MCs with their own styles that are all fun in their own way, and it feels like Bayonetta 3 took a leaf out of that book, but dropped it on their way home. V's summoned demons fighting for him is an interesting approach and I'm not even sure how but it kinda works, most likely because you still control the attacks themselves. Viola's fighting style is just, not that idk. It felt like every fight went better if I just held ZL or whatever and kept back as best I could. A real shame tbh.

[Minor Spoilers ahead re: interpersonal relationships, nothing game-ruining I promise, this controversy is so fucking dumb]

Bayonetta, Jeanne, A Man. Ohhh my God Bayonetta fans need to calm their tits so hard. I have now played all 3 games in the series within a couple of months, all with the distinct impression that Bayo and Jeanne were a canon couple bc the fanbase treats it that way. Not once did I ever get the impression they were fucking! They're literally just two hot girl bosses who care for each other deeply. It never came across as romantic to me I'm sorry. Abso-fucking-lutely they're both bisexual, perhaps even pansexual, who knows, but they never once shared a moment that made me believe they were interested in each other romantically.

The internet shit it's ass out so hard when they so much as heard fourth-hand that Bayonetta and a male character might be 'involved' in this game. "B-but Jeanne!!", "Stop straight-washing bi icons" -- It was utterly ridiculous. For starters, people with sexualities befitting of both their own and other genders are allowed to be in "straight" relationships, they're not betraying the cause and treating it as such is an insult. There's a reason it isn't black and white so why is there a stigma around those in the middle taking "the wrong side"? Ridiculous. Anyway. The reveals between Bayo and this male character didn't feel all that shocking to me, if anything they were closer to cliche. Which yeah I get is why everyone's fuming because they got a "generic standard" romance rather than an explicitly LGBTQIA+ one, but my god it genuinely sounded to me before playing that Bayo 2 was full of lesbian sex and Bayo/Jeanne got married and lived together swapping spit for 10 years, only for Bayo 3 to then pluck her up like a claw machine and put her next to a man instead. Honestly it's so annoying I'm wasting half my review ranting about it. I understand being upset that your ship wasn't fulfilled, but if I'm being blunt the ship felt kinda forced anyway. Idk man, the fanbase really ran away with that one and then threw a tantrum when they were told they'd gone the wrong way. I would've loved a lesbian girlboss couple as well, but what we got still worked and y'all are doing the game a disservice by clouding those scenes with a thick layer of hate.

Ultimately, I can say with confidence that Bayonetta 3 is a fantastic action game. Sure it breaks the pattern and starts pretty slow, some of it's level designs are a bit lacking, and not all of the playable sections are that fun- but when it goes, it goes hard, and it feels great.
Also the climax is badass and there is so much dancing omg I am physically incapable of knocking points off oops so sad (It's the 2nd best of the 3 imo)

As per this was much longer than intended, thanks to those who read it all - I'd be Interested to know how much of this I'm in the minority for tbh.
If anyone has a good reason that something I didn't like is actually great please tell me, I wanna love it more :)

It's hard to rate a game when It's supposed to be bad on purpose. The whole point of the game is that its janky unfinished and terrible. One could argue that if a game is trying to be as awful as possible and succeeds in that it has achieved everything it set out to be. But if its not meant to be good then well.... it just simply can't be good.

"DEEEER Simulator" is not good. It's bad. On purpose maybe. but that doesn't make it any less bad. It's fun for about ten minutes which is at best the whole time you'll play it and at worst like a sixth of that unless you try to go for all the trophies. I'm not one to like to talk about price but the fact that this game is regularly 15 dollars is a bit absurd, especially with a 5 dollar DLC (Which might be deserving of that, I haven't played it). One hour can potentially be worth 15 dollars if its a fantastic game but since this is purposely awful the price point is a bit egregious. Goat Simulator at the very least had dozens of easter eggs and secrets and more things to do than just shooting while also being more affordable. DEEEER has some of those things but excels at none of them. It does however have a story of sorts to it. Which was funny for what it was but really just none of this game is really worth seeing yourself unless it gets a really steep discount. Its not particularly hilarious or creative its just a few semi good jokes and a way to kill an hour or two. It doesnt help that the jank is too much, the game is really frustrating to control at times and just made it less fun. Some of the boss fights are a bit of a pain but dying to them respawns you with more health. This is a bit silly but trust me in a game like this its challenging enough trying to play it normally. By design or not, this one isn't really worth your time.

Thanks for reading my little mini review on a game I played because I was bored and procrastinating. <3

Nancymeter - 43/100
Trophy Completion - 90% (15/17)
Time Played - 1 hours 52 minutes
Game Completion #151 of 2022
Game Completion #5 of December

Modern Warfare and Call of Duty as a whole has always been a series that meant a lot to me. The original MW2 was one of if not my very first video game experiences. My dad was big on xbox and Call of Duty so that's what I spent a lot of my time playing as a kid, yknow way back when you'd still get made fun of for being a girl that plays video games lol. I was never pro level but I got quite (inconsistently) good at multiplayer. But what really mattered most to me was the campaigns. Modern Warfare especially I have incredibly fond memories of replaying the trilogy repeatedly. Sometimes id just replay specific levels that I thought were just that cool.

I eventually fell off on the series as a whole. Especially when they introduced Black Ops 4 as not even having a campaign I just gave up on caring about the franchises direction. But relatively recently I've been replaying the series and getting to ones I've skipped like World War 2 and Infinite Warfare. These are all widely varying in quality but with the exception of BO4 and Vanguard (which i've not tried the campaign) I've enjoyed them all. The real standout for me though was the Modern Warfare reboot. I was both really curious and cautious about rebooting the franchise but Modern Warfare 2019 turned out to be one of my favorite games in the series (can't beat Black Ops 2 though). So I was really pumped for this game. And while it mostly delivered on what I wanted, I can't help but feel a little disappointed overall.

The 2019 campaign can be criticized for relying on shock value and such but for me personally it really worked. One of the first missions I had to put the game down because it got me too emotional. I loved the gunplay and the story and holy fuck Clean House is the coolest mission of any fps since anything from Titanfall 2. Basically all I wanted from this game was to have more levels like that (really I want an entire game of just levels like that) and actually this game does have a lot of similar segments which left me very pleased. I didn't get my dream of Clean House raiding a massive drug cartel compound because they forced that to be an overlong AC-130 mission but I was happy with what I did get. But that's kinda all my positives about the campaign. I still really enjoyed it but it just lacked a lot of what was so compelling about 2019 for me. It really feels like they were taking a step back and aside from a few instances the game as a whole just feels like its playing it very safe. It never hit hard for me like its predecessor. The cast is really good but the main villain is completely forgettable and the more interesting one is dealt with in a very unsatisfying boss fight. The final level also felt incredibly underwhelming and the only cool thing about it was all the sequel bait for the inevitable third entry. Which I am still very excited for. Idk, I'm really conflicted here lol. On one hand its nowhere near as good as 2019 but on the other its still a really solid time as a whole.

The multiplayer is a different matter however. I don't care much for this side of the series anymore but this is just one of my probably least favorite mps ever? Cold War was fucking broken but it was at least still fun. 2019 wasnt great either but it still felt good. This just doesnt have any of that. I don't like the lightning fast TTK and the 15 or so matches i played all just mostly kept putting me in the same three boring maps from the beta. Not to mention the incredibly stupid way loadout customization is set up.

In all honesty though, the worst thing about this game is the UI. It's fucking BAD. Why the main menu has spots dedicated to the other games is beyond me. Its just so cluttered and ugly. When I came back to this game after a pretty long hiatus It took me like two minutes to find where the fuck the campaign even was. Its terrible and another reason why I hate Warzone and its consequences.

The game is also pretty buggy. I think it may of gotten better after the day one patch but there were so many times that a character model would glitch out or the scripting just completely failed. My teammates would just stand there and do nothing. Restarting the checkpoint wouldn't fix this issue either and I had to redo entire levels to get them to work properly which is the bare miminum you can ask for a game.

This has been a pretty negative review. But I do want to emphasis I still like this game. I think its a good game. Just for a franchise this big and with its predecessors being so good I expect a bit more polish. Who knows, maybe when I replay this down the line on Realism difficulty I'll like it more.

I'd give it a 4/5 in a heartbeat if it used the original MW2 soundtrack instead.
Thank's for reading <3


Nancymeter - 75/100
Trophy Completion - 33% (9/25)
Time Played - 19 hours 5 minutes
Game Completion #149 of 2022
Game Completion #3 of December

Above all else, Evil West is a video game ass video game and that's what I love about it.

The marketing knows this too, it has a trailer featuring goddamn Danny Trejo where it boasts not having lootboxes and making fun of the absurd monetization of games. "I just want to play a game!" he proclaims. If you're beyond a casual consumer (which I assume is the case if you're using this site) you'd find this trailer a bit cringe. It's basically just yelling that its a single player game without a bunch of microtransactions (ignoring the fact it has a pre order bonus skin lol) which yknow, isn't really all that uncommon. But there's something that makes you just wanna vigorously shout "Hell yeah" about that statement and well goddamn Evil West sure is a game.

Saying something "sure is" a game or a movie is usually used as a bit of an insult but for Evil West it is not only a true descriptor but its a bit of a refreshing one. You're just a badass cowboy with electric gauntlets that rips vampires and werewolves in half. There are upgrades and perks, which may be a bit of a mandatory and exhausted system these days, but they only enhance the gameplay and add on to the glorious variety this game has to offer. For most of the game there's constantly new mechanics thrown in. It's entirely designed to make the game more fun and thats what Evil West excels at, being fun. There is an argument to make that the game is a bit simplistic. As many others point out its reminiscent of an older gen title. Non interconnected levels, gruff badass protag and a silly story. Looking at it objectively you can sum up the game as combat arena, slight exploration, combat arena, slight exploration, small puzzle, combat arena, cutscene and so on. But you can really boil any game down to something like that and dismissing Evil West because of that is denying just how fun and cool it is. Maybe its not anything new but it doesn't need to be to be a fantastic time on its own. Hell, even the cover is a form of the "generic cool guy with a gun" but the way its presented and the art style just makes it look sick as fuck.

Throughout Evil West, you'll face a lot of repeat but unique enemies throughout with an occasional new one thrown into the mix. But it's the way enemies are thrown in together and the badass arsenal you're given that still make it so every fight feels different. I was never left with a feeling of boredom or that it was repetitive. It's hella challenging too. I played the whole game on normal. Usually I find games aren't balanced well but Evil West I thought was the perfect level for me. So many of the fights toss a huge amount of tough enemies at you. I was constantly audibly saying "Jesus Christ" or "Fucking hell" at the constant bullshit this game gives you to deal with. But because of how well this game is done I was never left feeling defeated at the constant deaths or like that it was too impossible to win. The only part of this combat I don't like are the suicide bomb enemies. They do cause you to change your play style up a bit but in every game they're put in they're more of a nuisance than a meaningful feature. There's only a few actual boss fights but all of these are quite fun as well, except maybe for The Parasite and thats only because it featured a bunch of the suicide dudes. I nervously laughed at the final bosses transformation. Fighting it, watching some of its surprisingly creepy animations and getting my ass kicked but still killing the fuck out of it in the end was when I knew for sure that this game had succeeded in everything it set out to do.

Now that i've beaten in the fact that the gameplay is super fun (without actually spoiling the mechanics) let's talk about the rest of Evil West. Firstly I want to note that the game gives you an arachnophobia warning (and the option to turn off spiders) at the start which I appreciate. As someone who is deathly scared of them but also didn't want to lessen the overall experience I didnt use this option, and fuck are there a shitload of spiders lmao. Its just a nice little bit of accessibility that I think deserved its own bit of praise. Onto the story, I don't have anything bad to say about it. It's obviously not the selling point. I do honestly wish it was a bit more over the top but I was curious in the direction and it was enjoyable. The ending is slightly abrupt but I still found it to be satisfying. Graphically Evil West isn't the best looking but something I very much appreciated was how much visual variety the levels had. Almost all of them had their own unique setting, color and feel to them. Lots of unique locations is one of the things a game can do to earn a spot in my heart and I was really happy that Evil West committed to this. One thing stopping me from giving it a full 90 is that it was a bit buggy. it was nothing game breaking. The basement of your main base has a lighting glitch, there were two instances where I got stuck in the floor during combat and had to restart. And there were a few audio glitches where just this really loud annoying sound would loop. This was all kinda a pain in the ass when it happened but everything was fixable with a simple restarting checkpoint or death. Playing on performance mode I only ever had one lag spike (that happened every time i got to this section either after death or when replaying for a trophy) was when three big bat demons spawn simultaneously. Otherwise it was never choppy or anything of the such. Another thing worth mentioning isnt a bug but a little silly and definitely a product of budget. When you're at your home base and you walk by an npc they will talk but their mouth wont move or anything. You spend such little time here that it doesnt matter but I thought it was funny enough to share.

That's kinda all I've got to say about Evil West. I really do like this game. In a year where i've gotten lots of games on launch that ended up pretty disappointing, It was nice to play a game I expected very little of that ended up being a surprisingly good time. This year has taught me a lot about both how lame critics are and how terrible I am with money.

Thanks for reading y'all <3
More stuff is on the way.

Nancymeter - 88/100
Trophy Completion - 56% (18/30)
Time Played - 15 hours 12 minutes
Game Completion #150 of 2022
Game Completion #4 of December

Oh yeah, that's how it's done.. 😌

Admittedly, I may have gone into Bayonetta 2 with some high expectations. I enjoyed a lot of things about 1 but above all it felt dated, and was clearly an ambitious first entry into a new IP, it was bound to have it's flaws. I'd heard from just about everywhere that 2 improved upon pretty much everything, so I went in wanting and hoping for just that. And that is exactly what I got!

The combat feels way better in this, and having the combos appear on the loading screen (though shortlived) was a much appreciated way to remind/show me some ways to mix things up between levels. I dropped Bayo 1 down to easy automatic about a quarter of the way through bc I wasn't enjoying the combat - Happy to say that I completed all of Bayo 2 on normal with very minimal roadblocks along the way. It felt fair and balanced, and that's my shit.

The colour palette is also hugely improved, with this game having buckets more pizzazz than it's predecessor, which fell victim to the murky brown trend of it's time. Everything just looks better, a fantastic decision from the devs. While we're on the subject I'd like to say that short hair Bayo absolutely clears and I will not be accepting counter-arguments. Top tier protagonist design.

I also had a much easier time following the story in this one, which I'm sure some may see as a negative but one of my biggest setbacks for 1 was that it always felt like there was lore I wasn't privy to right at the centre of everything going on, so being able to understand what I was doing in the story definitely made for a better experience for me personally.

I'm having to try to think of my biggest issues with the game, but the only things that really stand out are that Jeanne was not quite as present as I'd expected her to be. This is only really on me for randomly assuming this game would have a more 'dynamic duo' vibe to it but yeah, was a little disappointing how little she was involved.

Only other thing is that the voice lines used when completing combos and especially for perfect dodges play far too often. I get that that's because I'm doing the things but sometimes you have to dodge a lot and I would've preferred not to hear "so close. Is that all you've got? Almost!" a thousand times while doing it :p
(there was one level too where someone else was fighting with me and they kept saying "wonderful" like every 5 second during their attacks lol)

One final thing to note is somehow - please don't ask me how - my dumbass managed to miss the LP needed to get the swords early in the game, so I played the whole game without them and then realised during the credits when it let me use them that I probably would've had even more fun with those so... Don't miss the swords I guess lol

Ultimately, I had a really great time with Bayonetta 2. Very glad that I finally bit the financial bullet to give the series a proper chance.
I did buy 3 during a black friday sale, but knowing what little I do about the story and the controversy I'll be going into that one with cautious optimism. Honestly though if 2 is the peak I'll be satisfied :)

Thanks for reading y'all, I'm hoping to get through 3 before the year is out but we'll see -- Samurai Maiden is creeping up so if that keeps me busy until Crisis Core and then CC holds me until January I'm afraid everything else is fucked :p