trades subtlety for arguably having far and away the most intense atmosphere of the first three games; viscerally terrifying. the sound design here is exceptional to the point where many sounds made me think they were coming from somewhere besides my headphones. environment design is much more consistently surreal here than it was in 1-2. 1's otherworld was [to memory] exclusively abandoned fogworld contrasted with rusted red metal otherworld while 2 had some standout otherworld areas in basically the entire portion of the game beginning at the Historical Society and ending at the voyage to Lakeview. 3's environments, however, beginning around a third of the way through the game are unafraid of having utterly nonsensical geometry for large portions of their levels. several entire levels are dubious in their status as a mirror of some real world location.

by the artifice of level design which i cannot hope to understand, or by a difference in mood, i found myself actually seeking to avoid many encounters to either conserve resources or because i was actually scared. that is to say: unlike 1-2, 3 has what you would expect a survival horror game to have, or so i've been told.

so about that lack of subtlety: firstly, much of the horror elements are a bit over the top, the blood-stained amusement park mascots being emblematic of this, and secondly, the writing, while still having the awkwardness signature to the series, feels almost amateurish in how exaggerated it is at times, despite having the same writer as 2. this isn't per se an issue, perhaps it's a reflection of Heather's being a teenager, but there is less naturalism this time around, at the very least.

what is an issue however is the handling of theme towards the very end of the game: Heather and Douglas each have uncharacteristic rants about how bad religion is as if this theme was not obvious up to this point. i don't disagree with the sentiment, it is just that it is expressed with the grace of an r/atheist tipping their fedora in euphoria, and you are hearing the voice of the writer rather than the character the entire time.

Those that have called this a soulless cash grab really haven't played more than a handful of hours, initially I was rubbed the wrong way as well because the change in atmosphere is immediately noticeable, though I don't think you can keep that same feeling it originally had considering the evolution of gaming and the time gap of release, recently noticeable with the Resident Evil 4 remake as well. The more I played it the more I loved it and while I still prefer FES, it's better to look at Reload as a companion piece rather than a replacement.

A lot of problems the mass had with the original release have been fixed to a certain extent here, people griped about Tartarus always feeling the same, the Tactics system not allowing for creativity (there's even a well known mod to allow for controllable party members in FES), the general lack of content in spare time you had to experience, but Atlus listened to a lot of the criticism and touched upon what's dated. I love Persona 3 for all of its flaws and it wouldn't be the same game without some issues, so to say Reload is Persona 3 "perfected" would be an overstatement as it has an equal amount of problems, but that's moreso because it's Persona 3.

I appreciate Reload so much for offering a different perspective on the characters and story, one easier for modern audiences to get to experience while delivering the same emotional response that it's always had with its gut-wrenching final month and more importantly, I think Aigis was done better in Reload which is arguably the most crucial aspect to what makes the game as impactful as it is, for its core themes. There's so much more optional character interaction this time around that really fleshes out the main cast, and even Takaya believe it or not.

Is it the "definitive" version people have sought out ever since the release of Portable? It's still a difficult question to answer even now... I think you can't go wrong with Reload if you don't like the idea of going back to an older release, though if you're patient and want to answer the "definitive" question yourself, play FES and then Reload in the future.

You need to understand that Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne is my favorite game of all time. There's precious few games I can say are as masterfully executed, especially in the JRPG genre, and indeed even within its own series. As a consequence, my expectations for Shin Megami Tensei IV were probably unreasonable from the start, but even after a repeat playthrough I find myself walking away with the same basic assessment I had on release: SMTIV simply lacks the edge and polish of its predecessor, and frequently feels torn between two schools of thought on what Megaten can and should be.

This is made apparent as soon as the player enters Naraku, the games "tutorial" dungeon. It's a trial by fire, where it's far too easy to get ambushed and decimated by overly aggressive enemies that seek to train the player through punishment. SMT has a reputation for being "difficult," but I would argue that they're actually quite fair, you just can't skate by with your brain shut off like you would in some other JRPGs. And yet, even coming back to it with many more Megaten games under my belt, Naraku still feels... off. This dungeon culminates in two boss battles: Minotaur and Medusa, both of which sport absurd health pools and dish out insane amounts of damage. Fusion is your friend, and you'll need to spend some time working out a team tailor made for these encounters, and even then you'll feel like you get by on the skin of your teeth. Nocturne has Matador, sure, but by contrast he exists to affirm the importance of press turns and affinities, whereas a sizeable amount of the Minotaur fight feels like dumb luck.

You'll likely game over a lot here, and quickly be introduced to a new mechanic where you can pay to resume the game at the point you died. This is handy if you haven't saved in a while, but considering you can save whenever you want, it's really quite pointless (unless you're going Fiend hunting, but that's not really worth getting into here.) Sitting through the game over screen just to load a save is interminable, and it's much faster to just close the game and start it again. However, after you claw your way through Naraku and descend into Tokyo proper, you probably won't need to worry about it as much, because the game suddenly, on a dime, becomes a cakewalk.

It really does feel like someone somewhere messed up some numbers. The boss encounters following Minotaur and Medusa have, like, a third of their health. You also get a lot more options for what demons you can recruit and consequentially fuse, which makes it much easier to turn the tables and start steamrolling the game. Your victories post-Naraku don't feel earned, and this in turn only validates any notion you had of the early game being unfair. SMTIV never finds its middle ground, and as such lacks the finely balanced challenge of prior games. It is both discouraging for new players with its horrendous opening, and borderline dull for returning fans.

This lack of balance is present in the games visuals as well. Demon designs were sourced out to several different artists, but there doesn't appear to have been any effort made to keep designs cohesive. This results in a lot of decidedly un-SMT designs which are wonderfully grotesque but at odds with returning art from Nocturne. And then there's just a ton of low quality art that is blurry as hell. The main cast of characters, conversely, feel like they should occupy the same space as one another, and while not all of their designs land with me personality it is at least something to latch onto when the game is otherwise giving me aesthetic whiplash.

The player is given a slew of side quests to fulfill as they explore Tokyo and Mikado, the game's primary locations. Navigation between the two is handled entirely differently. Mikado can be explored by simply selecting where you want to go from a menu, whereas Tokyo serves as a proper overworld map. Between the two, I favor picking from a menu. Not because I think it's inherently better, but because Tokyo is just a pain to navigate. There's very few open areas, movement is mostly restricted to roads that are laid out like a maze. Anytime I got a quest that asked me to find like, five piece of a demon or something, I could feel my body physically rejecting the thought of fulfilling it. When you're in dungeons, enemies appear in the world like they do in Persona or SMTV. I have nothing against this, though I do think it's a little odd that demons who are drastically underleveled still chase you down.

On both playthroughs I got the neutral route, the first time intentionally and the second time entirely by accident. Without getting too deep into spoilers, the protagonist awakens after a brief absence to find the world isn't quite how he left it, and the forces of chaos and light are in the final stages of preparing their armies for an all out assault that will forever change Tokyo and Mikado. The tension is palpable, but before you round up your crew and put an end to the old gods and their eternal war, you need to do a bunch of boring fetch quests! Hooray!

The pacing dies on the spot, and frankly I could not be bothered by that point to see my second playthrough to the end. Just a big "no thanks" from me. I evidently forgot about this after my first playthrough, totally blocked it from my memory. I'm sure six years from now I will repeat this process all over again. This is my curse.

The story is fine, at least! I like the characters well enough. Walter is a good lad, though I do think his immediate adoption of "might makes right" is a bit silly, they don't build up to it well. But it's fine... it's fine! It was the only part of the game I found myself getting invested in. It's fine!

The music is also incredible. The boss and mid-boss themes sound appropriately strange and vicious, and the rest of the soundtrack does an equally good job of setting its own identity from other SMT soundtracks. It really hits its stride when you get to Tokyo, and the tracks used for the end bosses do a good job conveying how much is on the line.

SMTIV is the one mainline SMT that I outright dislike. Most of my playthrough was spent questioning the games balance, art direction, and wondering what development was actually like. I'm sure there's a story there, because this definitely feels like a step down in quality for Atlus, and a game that I liked no more on my second playthrough than the first. If anything, I liked it less.

the world dies. but it doesn’t stop existing. its post-mortem is a decaying place, where demons full of different desires and wandering souls full of regrets roam around. the world is the way it is because a conception occurred. it’s on stand-by, waiting for someone with strong will to create a new world based on their reasons. “reason” is an individual’s inner philosophy. it’s not the first time that an individual with a “reason” creates a new world. it will not be the last. someone will always want to change the status quo. so the cycle continues, a new world dies and a new world is reborn, as god intended.

shin megami tensei: nocturne is a videogame about cycles.

it follows this idea to its core: kagutsuchi, the center of this universe, probably “god”, follows the cycle of the moon. it starts as a new phase, until it becomes “full” and goes down until it becomes new again, thus continuing the cycle. this translates to in-game events that vary according to kagutsuchi phases, as enemies becoming stronger or specific items being acquired once the it is in its “full” phase.

the concept of “reason” to continue the samsara is also something very important in-game. it is the mechanic of “alignments” from shin megami tensei but contextualized to nocturne’s setting, where your choices affect the course of the game’s narrative and leads you to a specific ending. each character represents a “reason” and is very interesting to see how each reason has its own implications on society (and i assume that early 2000s japanese society is the biggest parameter) and character’s motivations, as well some political ones (hikawa wants a world of peace where humanity will cease to desire. thus, there will be no evil. still he drops the equivalent of a nuclear bomb in a place to achieve his goals). as the game goes, the characters progressively get deeper into their ideals until abandoning their humanities (philo-phsyi-cally) and becoming ideas themselves.

you don’t have to go further, you can go back.

in the middle of all of this, there is a single character that is the most interesting one for me: yuko takao. she’s your school teacher that you visit in the hospital at the beginning of the game and, together with hikawa, she triggers the conception in order to create a new world. however, she regrets what she did: she does not believe in the reason of shijima. she believes in something else. what? well, she doesn’t know. still, she lives searching for her truth. what enchants me about her is how she doesn't sink into ideology, becoming only a vessel for a “reason”, but keeps struggling, searching for her own truth with hope in her heart that she will create a better world. she’s the most human character in this game.

and, while you have to be a human to create a new world, you must summon a god and become one with them in order to conceive a new world. believing in someone that keeps struggling the way she is to achieve her goals is the true way to break the status quo? or perhaps you are just regressing to the old world? is the old world really that bad?

you don’t have to follow the cycle. you can break it.

there’s also the enigmatic figure of a blonde boy/oldman with an old/young lady in black, who gives you “magatama” in order for you to become the demi-fiend and has its own views on the situation. following their path will lead you to the labyrinth of amala, where you commit the worst sin: search for knowledge. suffering through the most head-wrenching dungeons will lead you to the truth, even if you have to follow a dark path. the blonde wants to break the cycle, but instead of having hope, he is full of hate for being submitted to the eternal cycle of life and death of the universe. maybe it is the time for the oppressed to go against the oppressor, breaking the status quo, defying the great will and starting a new world where they are the ones that rule.

shin megami tensei: nocturne is a videogame about cycles.

it does not blame you for following the cycle and choosing a reason and does not blame you for the reason you choose. however, it presents you with the choice of breaking the cycle and following a different path. it does not matter which path you follow anyway.

someone will always want to kill the world you created.

This is one of the few games I find hard to talk about without getting a bit rambly and abstract, as I think this game elevates the medium to an artistic marvel that remains unparalleled in its atmosphere, storytelling, setting and ideas. I could write an entire essay about this game. There are going to be minor spoilers ahead, so be notified.

When we think of JRPGs, we often think about saving the world, good versus evil, power of friendship and fantasy settings. This game ignores all of these tropes that we've come accustomed to. Instead of saving the world, the world ends within the first ten minutes of the game, there's no good or bad, instead of a party the protagonist is alone and instead of a fantasy setting it's set in modern Tokyo. Shin Megami Tensei games have a system known as the allignment system. There's no scale that measures choices between good and evil, but rather between law and chaos, which are extreme opposites of ideals.

At the beginning of the game you meet with your friends at Shinjuku Hospital. Upon arrival, your teacher seems to be missing. Your friends tell you that there's something off about this hospital and suggest to look for her. At some point while exploring the hospital, you meet this creepy dude in a chair, a cult leader. His name is Hikawa. He tells you about the inevitable rebirth of the world and attempts to kill you but is interrupted by your teacher who suddenly showed up. She takes you up to the rooftop to witness the spectacle called The Conception, which means the end of the world. She tells you that everything outside the hospital will be destroyed. Here you're about to witness the end of the world (which is a sight to behold). After The Conception occured you wake up in the same hospital, but not as the same kid you once were, but as the Demi-Fiend (half demon half human). Once you leave the hospital you learn that you're now in a chaotic post-apocalyptic limbo state called The Vortex World inhabited by demons. Within the Shin Megami Tensei universe exists a multiverse with billions of worlds that all go through a cycle of rebirth after a certain point. My guess is that this happens when a world runs out of steam, so to say. When on a collective and spiritual level the world somehow runs against a wall and needs to be reborn in and endless cycle of reincarnation (the title Shin Megami Tensei translates to Reincarnation of the Goddess after all). After The Conception occurs, everything about the world as you knew it is gone, with the exception of the few survivors in Shinjuku Hospital. You, your friends Chiaki and Isamu, as well as your teacher and the cult leader Hikawa are the only survivors left. There's one more guy who survived (there are theories going around that he is the reincarnation of Aleph from Shin Megami Tensei II, but I'm not going into that here as it's not relevent for this review).

Let's get the obvious out of the way first, the atmosphere. Without a doubt the most unique, eerie, dreamy, mysterious, lonely and yet beautiful atmosphere I've seen in a game. What's so odd about this isolated atmosphere is that instead of it being scary or claustrophobic like in a lot of survival horror games, here I find myself strangely attracted to this chaotic and isolated world. It makes me feel calm and happy. Why is that? I think there are multiple factors that make this possible. One very important factor is the story and characters.

In this game, there's a thing called Reason. A Reason is essentially an inner philosophy or ideology for how the world should be reshaped. With a strong Reason and enough power, one can summon a demonic sponsor to create a world with the laws they wish for. Since demons and even semi-demons are forbidden to have a Reason, you, the protagonist can't have a Reason. However, the idea here is that you can side with a Reason. The characters you can side with are Chiaki, Isamu or Hikawa, each with a different ideology. These characters are not there to be sympathised with, but they represent ideas. Yosuga is the Reason of Chiaki. It is a Reason based on elitism and survival of the fittest. Those who are useless and weak do not deserve to live and would be purged from society. Only those who are strong may rule, and power is acknowledged as the only thing of value. The weak will forever serve the strong. Musubi is the reason of Isamu. It is based on solitude and isolation. The self is absolute, and every living being would live in an independent world, completely separate from all other living beings. The individual could use their mind to shape their world at will into their own personal paradise, without consequences or unwelcome interference of others. Shijima is the Reason of Hikawa. It is based on stillness and oneness. It is a world of perfect harmony, without self, without passion, without conflict, without destruction. Individuality is eradicated and there is simply a collective inner peace in which everyone is equal to God. This collective functions as cogs in the giant, stable machine that is the universe.

What comes to mind when you read these philosophies? Well, they all have a theme in common: the world as it was... kinda sucked. The game never explicitly tells you the backstories of these characters, but it's exactly this subtlety and attention to detail that makes this game so brilliant in its way of storytelling. You rarely meet these characters after The Conception, but when you do, every single dialogue matters. No unnecessary chit-chat here. Let's take Chiaki as an example to illustrate how this game handles its story. The first time you meet her after The Conception, she will tell you that she's scared and sick to the stomach because she lost everything. The second time you meet her she will tell you that's she's tired of having to look over her shoulder all the time. When she finally realises her Reason and shares it with you for the first time, you're presented with one of the most beautiful cutscenes I've ever seen in a game. We are suddenly in a white space in where Chiaki is standing in front of what looks like a teacher's table where she's looking over a classroom with red silhouettes of chairs, tables and people. She tells you that the previous world 'was filled with unnecessary things' while the silhouettes disappear and the chairs and tables slowly fall down and fade away, as if the ground disappeared. Until all that's left is Chiaki sitting on a table in the middle of an empty white space. Her dialogue itself makes little sense in this cutscene, however there's something deeper going on. Something that's not visible in her lines. She says she wants to shape a world in which only the strong rule, but actually her Reason is based on fear and paranoia. If you pay attention to the little information that the game gives you about her you can see right through her reasoning. The classroom setting makes me think she felt weak and lonely in the world and The Vortex World made her feel even weaker, which probably affected her reasoning. These character's ideologies are mostly based on their greatest fears. Which really made me think that psychology and philosophy aren't that far apart from each other.

Back to why this game makes me feel happy and calm rather than anxious or depressed and why I think the story and characters are important to understand what The Vortex World is. This isolated world of limbo feels like an escape from reality. You get to see how The Vortex World shapes these characters and how they basically become mad. I think the concept of isolation is also being explored here, what complete isolation does to the mind. What all of these characters have in common is that they were unsatisfied with the world in one way or another, but mostly with themselves. As depressing as that may sound, I think it's beautiful how it is not afraid to convey this existential ennui that has always been an essential part of the human condition ever since we could express ourselves, but in today's modern western societies it seems like these kind of subjects are not being explored that often anymore. I'm always happy whenever I stumble across a work of fiction like this that breaks these taboos to reveal something that's so universally human. Isolation may or may not be a modernity problem, but people do lack some sort of collective and spiritual meaning. Without getting too sidetracked here, this game makes you think about your own spirituality and what kind of world you want to live in. Are you satisfied with the way it is?

The Vortex World feels like home to me. It's a world I know all too well. I think it's a world we all know. It's a dreamy, absurdist world without meaning or purpose. It makes me relativate the world we live in. Almost as if you were watching it from above. This game is also sprinkled with dark humour that enhances the feeling of relativation even more. For example, when you talk or negotiate with demons, they can be opportunistic, sexist, unreasonable and downright assholes, which I find fitting in a chaotic world where demons are motivated by desire and don’t care about conscience or justice.

I'm aware that this review is messy. I didn’t even get to talk about the gameplay, battle system, demon fusion, demon negotiation and more. There are a lot of things I missed. Like I mentioned at the beginning of this review, I can't talk about this game without getting rambly (and somewhat pretentious). Again, I could write an entire essay about it.

On a final note, I'm glad to see that this game has risen in popularity over the years and gets the recognition it deserves. It's rich with lore, it has a great battle system, interesting mythological and religious references, great minimalistic story, thought-provoking ideas and themes, heady subjects, awesome soundtrack, unique atmosphere, humour, compelling dialogues — I can go on and on why I think this game stands to me as the very best, not only within its respective genre, but in the entire medium.

Features Dante from the Devil May Cry series.

It would take me an unreasonable amount of time to explain all of the reasons I love this game, so I won't even try to do so for the time being. The long and short of it is that I see it as this sort of theoretical maximum amount of purpose you can wring out of modernist game design. The basic concept of the story is clearly informed by the need to Make A Shin Megami Tensei Game, ie it must 1) be conducive to brutally difficult boss fights, 2) be highly allegorical and religious, 3) be exceedingly dark, and 4) contain at least 3 philosophically distinct story routes.

This boxes the game in to some extent, but beyond the basics it sets out the game becomes this genuinely insane story pulling together Mahayana sutras and the book of Job into this profoundly depressing psychological challenge addressing a unique range of topics (themes that jump out to me personally include fascism, sexuality, the need for metanarratives, and powerlessness). Since these ideas were already set up to work within traditional game design, you get some of the most playable JRPG battles I've ever seen and some of the tightest balance between those and the dungeon crawling out there to totally reinforce it the whole way through. The boss fights in particular are a highlight, with each one having some immediately interesting strategy they run on you which you can only get past by keeping your wits about you.

It's a slick game with writing better than most novels I've read, cutscenes more stylish and expressive than many movies I've seen, and design more meticulously balanced than essentially anything else in the medium. On a meta level, it also speaks to the limits of the SMT franchise, the requirements I listed out earlier in this review of being "the next Shin Megami Tensei game". It fundamentally tries to show the player that these can only go so far, even seeming to tacitly encourage them to want to essentially destroy them. However, even in that ending, the game ultimately puts its faith back into it. It's like when I'm playing this game I'm hearing rumblings of something which would finally make me less than embarrassed to admit my love of games, that I might live to see a game which is self-aware enough to deconstruct its own mechanics and build them up into something greater than the sum of its parts. Nocturne stops just barely shy of this; it's an anticipation of a masterpiece that I hope to play someday.

Embraces open-world excess in a way that undercuts Breath of the Wild's more meditative appeal and turns into a far more uneven experience as a result, but all the new shit it does attempt is SO peak that it sorta evens out.

My friend Heather once said about Katamari Damacy that it's a game about interesting sensations rather than interesting obstacles and the way Tears of the Kingdom lets you interact with space, objects and materials is something I promise you've never quite sensed in a video game before.

they will NOT stop talking in this one (nothing they say is interesting either!!! wooooahhh! CAPITALISM! Corporate toiling!! shutup!!!! it's all too OBVIOUS). Sooo many boring text boxes over explaining EVERYTHING. When I first realized you can skip cutscenes, I mashed start every time an abrupt fade to black interrupted my gaming and never looked back. But I feel as if I should want to read that shit though, ya know? Kinda LAME when the musings from the Olimar tutorials/log entries and the moods they would invoke were some of my fav things about the original game but ooowell!

something incentivizing good play akin to my beloved 30 day fail state possibility is gone, purple pikmin and their DEADLY shockwaves own everything thought free, I'm not INTERESTED in just more color-coated themed obstacles counting as the utility for your various pikmin types, the caves are just LOUSY - oh man let's go off about the caves for a bit:

If something goes wrong in them - they auto save at the start of every floor - so there's not enough of a commitment to dis-insensitive just resetting and doing floors over again if too many of your guys die or something! It's toxic!!! What were they thinking........ That kind of knowledge sorta kills any excitement you're supposed to feel from the whole DIVING DEEPER and DEEPER thing, and just turns victory into an inevitable grind, wouldn't you say???

Ahhhh even ignoring that - the bulk of their boring ass gameplay is just snooze-inducing hallway clearing of enemies too. Without any of the fun from the giant map exploring or the multitasking or the timing your guys safely bringing the stuff back type gameplay that I'm ACTUALLY into. The 2 captains thing was a neat idea, but I feel as if I'm not in the proper levels enough to get actual interesting mileage out of it. I just often end up parking one guy near the goals of the shitty caves so I can do everything with one and then swap back over to the other when I'm done to leave the places SLIGHTLY quicker...

iiii'm just not feeling much with this one! I sure remember liking it more when I was a youngin', but oh! How my brain has changed. Maybe if you like more grind-y things you'd be into this one; it definitely smells to me like a would-be mystery dungeon ass game in those cave levels. Just don't think Pikmin "combat" and the crippled decision making present are interesting enough to carry in those settings. And the game keeps throwing me into them caves a lot, so.......... >:(

this ended up being more of a view into my personal foilbles as a gamer than anything: that ticking 30 day timer pushed me into a level of perfectionist agonizing I wouldn't have expected from a nintendo game. it was really to the point that I got to distant spring, took a look around, and promptly put the game down for nearly a year due to the anxiety. totally a needless drive too, considering I had ended up with something like seven items left and 12 days to grab them in, so I was really under no pressure at all! but sometimes it requires a break to regroup and put things into perspective.

the design here is all good though; it's absolutely novel and toys with RTS tropes in a way only nintendo at their creative peak could capture. base-building is eschewed in favor of exploration, experimentation, and plenty of pikmin micro-management, most of which the game neatly handles for you. the pikmin AI vascillates between intuitive and incomprehensible at a moment's notice, meaning that sometimes the pikmin will clue in to exactly what they're supposed to be handling and then minutes later decide to frolic off on their own to pull up weeds or stand stock-still in front of wily beasts on the move. combat also can quickly switch between these two extremes: sometimes you'll nail the throws and your pikmin will rack up damage, whereas other times it feels they're unresponsive and helpless. this is where the limited day count really hurts the game, as it made me feel like every major pikmin loss was a major reset point. it perhaps would have felt more immersive if I could take my survivors and lick my wounds back at base, all the while devising ways to get my numbers up again or try to take on the opponent a new way. instead I often reset if I couldn't get through my chosen encounters with an acceptable amount of losses, which led me to redoing numerous other objectives along the way past the point of frustration.

when the game works though, it's a surprisingly clever take on puzzles and resource management from the big N with a lot of heart and an elegant internal ecology that adds to the mystique of the alien planet. lining up two pieces in a single day always made me smug, enraptured in my own success even when on the heels of multiple resets. eventually I convinced myself to eat losses here and there as long as I kept things moving; after all, the game smartly lets you take any enemy you've killed back to base to sprout new allies. occasionally these puzzles push at the limits of the controls on gamecube -- for example, in the final trial where you must throw yellow pikmin carrying bombs across water while making sure they don't drop in and also without signalling them for some odd reason -- but the game is generous with how most thought-intensive puzzles are light on enemies. I wish that I could've pressed on originally instead of having this awkward gap in playtime, but this return visit to cleanup the endgame has left me overall much more positive on where the game truly sings rather than preoccupied with the hidden frustrations behind it.