Still one of the best things ever. My second playthrough of this was a breeze. I did all the hero quests and most side quests my first time, wanted to see how the game felt without going too much out of my way to finish side content; honestly surprised how beautifully balanced the game felt without the bonus EXP from side content. This is easily the best cast of characters in the trilogy and the pacing of the story is wonderful. There’s so many places you might never see in this world too which I love, it feels huge and open. I miss having more conventional towns outside of the city, but the way this world functions alleviates that as a big problem. It’s not a JRPG where chilling and hanging out in towns is a priority, it’s a bleak and stressful world to be in at times, if often beautiful and quiet in the right moments. Visiting colonies still has a town-hopping charm to it, all due to the people within them. The game is littered with nice quests and dialogue to experience. The ability to obtain intel and discuss them at rest stops is such a brilliant mechanic that I want every RPG to have. The colonies may not be much in terms of level design, but as big checkpoints where you can catch up with your buds and gather some quests is such a brilliant substitute.

I love how insanely dramatic Xenoblade 3 is as well. Character dialogue is likely 50% motivational speeches and I love it. The game drowns in its concepts and ideas. Drowning might be a bad comparison, it really just dives in and gracefully swims through its concepts. I love Final Fantasy XIII, but I think Xenoblade 3 is a great contrast to it in which it gracefully introduced terminology, world building, language, and conflict in a coherent way that doesn’t require reading a wiki.

Xenoblade 3 is devastatingly beautiful. It’s hope, love, anxiety, fear, and any other important emotion anthropomorphized into a piece of narrative art. Not to mention it has one of the best combat systems in anything I’ve ever played. The whole series is a pure blast to play, but 3 is on another level of snappiness and customization. I can’t comprehend where a 4th game could go with its mechanics. Xenoblade combat pulls off a wonderful trick of feeling familiar in each game without sacrificing new ideas. On the surface all 3 games are completely different systems at their core, but they all retain the wonderful flow and problem solving of the first game.

It’s a masterpiece. It’s probably the best game on the Nintendo switch and it’s my personal favorite of the trilogy. I don’t need xenoblade to last forever, but I’ll follow Monolith Soft wherever they decide to go next.

Final Fantasy VIII-3 hasn’t left my mind. The fixation has lasted much longer than is probably called for. I’ve reviewed it already but that review was mostly my reactionary feelings and thoughts in a very general sense. Nobody asked, but I want to let out some thoughts that branch beyond the game itself and discuss the aura around it and its place amongst remakes and remasters that continue to populate the industry.

Despite the facade that we are tired of remakes and want more original ideas, it’s fascinating how many are widely beloved and celebrated. Perhaps we’re embarrassed to admit that we love repackaged nostalgia. I hear about remake fatigue so often but it seems to dissipate when “one of the good ones” comes out. I’m in favor of more work being put into new games (or sequels even) rather than remakes and remasters, but I can’t help but admit to myself that almost every huge remake has been pretty great to play, and it’s also wonderful to play older games on new hardware. It’s convenient and helps people avoid spending 100 dollars on a GameCube game. I’m not sure I would have ever played Baten Kaitos without it receiving a remaster. So many celebrated remakes are pretty 1:1 as well, with only the slightest of adjustments that could go unnoticed easily; the discussion is usually around the visuals alone. Preserving those original experiences seems important to the business of remakes. The most skepticism I can recall around a remake was Resident Evil 4. It ended up being very faithful and safe in terms of its changes and it went on to receive GOTY nominations. Dead Space received a very faithful remake and fans are devastated that we aren’t getting a remake of 2. So many games that “didn’t need remakes” became examples of “the good ones”. Some people try to claim that Final Fantasy VII never really needed a remake and all they wanted was a visual overhaul remaster adjacent kind of thing. While true that plenty of people were never clamoring for a remake of VII, it would be wrong to say that the idea of a Final Fantasy VII Remake did not consistently surround the legacy of VII.

Fans of Final Fantasy VII wanted a remake of it as soon as they played it; wondering why the characters couldn’t have realistic proportions all the time. Why can’t the game look like the cutscenes? Final Fantasy VIII came out and already we saw what VII could have visually been instead. Final Fantasy X happened and we then wanted VII to have voice acting too. Final Fantasy XII released and a fan receiving the first copy said “Please remake Final Fantasy VII for the PlayStation 3” into the microphone. There’s a lot of remakes, a lot of them are good, and plenty of them we never really asked for, so how is it that the one game that begged to be remade upon its birth stubbornly refused to be remade for so long? Sometimes it’s hard to believe that it exists and that we’re 2/3 games into this trilogy.

Final Fantasy VII is the only game that could be remade in this way. A lot of the original creators are on the Remake project. The developers that made games we grew up with are getting older. Retirement is close for many and has arrived for others already. This is the last chance we have to get this from them. It’s not just about remaking a game because it needed quality of life upgrades, it’s about remaking the culture around it. The FF7 remake games are remaking the fan theories people had around the original in the 90s. It’s remaking the experience of leaving midgar for the first time. It’s remaking the biggest spoiler in gaming and finding ways to replicate our original experience. It remakes experiencing the music for the first time. There’s a world where we got a standard remake of FF7 that goes on to be “pretty good, but not as good as the original”. Some remakes release to little fanfare and feel unnecessary. Some remakes want to replace the original or be the default version we go to when we think of it. FF7 could never be replaced. It’s why games like Ocarina of Time will likely never receive more than what the 3DS version provided. Some games are too big for themselves. Some remakes are destined to be hated by fans solely because it isn’t the original game. The FF7 remake games know this. Never have I played a remake of a game that so strongly loves its original self. Nothing about the Remake series feels like a replacement. It’s an extension of the original in every way, refusing to ignore what made it resonate with us. I’ve seen countless people play the original game for the first time because of these games or in preparation for them. It’s a huge conflict for many people, wondering if they need to play the original game or not. Resident Evil remakes are great games, but I don’t imagine many people feel a weird sense of guilt by not experiencing the original games before or after. The creators of FF7 are proud of their work and don’t want it to be forgotten. These remakes may be different and change story beats or add a plethora of original ideas absent from the original, but it’s all in service of its blueprint. It only seeks to emulate what the original accomplished.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is what we’ve all been waiting for. I don’t think we’ll ever have a set of games like these ever again in terms of concept and development. Love letter is far too mild for what this is. These are developers who loved a piece of art so much that they couldn’t say no to making it for us again. There’s discussion about other Final Fantasy games that should be remade and I often see people say “hopefully it won’t be like the VII remake”. I love FF VIII and IX, but we do not exist in a world where those had similar reputations as VII and would warrant a similar approach. It’s almost a misunderstanding of what the VII Remake project is about. It isn’t simply remaking a game because it seemed like an easy check to cash, it’s tackling the nightmare that was the never ending demand for it and what angle to approach it; fully in relation to us and our expectations as fans. No video game calls for such a remake other than Final Fantasy VII. The fact so many people have gone back to play the original PS1 game is amazing. I may never play the original resident evil 1 because of how good the GameCube remake is, but because of the way the VII remakes are turning out, I will always see it as another branch on the tree.

In a way it’s preserving art by remaking it. Something like the Silent Hill 2 remake has a gross vibe to it because the original game isn’t easily accessible, and here we are making a radically different version of it in a world that won’t let you properly experience its original self. Final Fantasy games are wonderfully ported and preserved across so many systems. We can play the original VII whenever we want. The Remake series may be divisive, but its approach to examining itself begs you to not forget where it came from. It preserves its place amongst gaming as an art form. Sure it can be played in isolation, but it is radically improved when you carry the experience of the original game with you. It reminds me of a film adaptation of a novel. Video games remake themselves to improve ideas and visuals or to introduce itself to a new audience that will never play the original. The VII remake project aims to avoid that. It’s still remaking itself within the medium of video games, but the novel to film comparison is to say that it provides a new experience rather than a definitive one. You may prefer one over the other, and that’s okay. I don’t think the point is to have a better game than the original, but to let both coexist with each other and go down in history together, side by side. It’s a wonderful thing.

Finally knocking the first couple FF games. I only need to finish V and I’ll have finished every single player mainline game.
These were fun! They’re for sure going to be my “least favorites” of the franchise, but they’re still great little games. The GBA versions helped get me through them pretty quickly too. I is very simple and charming, II is interesting and makes for a super weird sequel for its time. Perhaps this version elevates a lot of the pain, but I didn’t have a bad time with it. I don’t dig II’s systems but it was a short experience that felt inoffensive. Not bad! I did try to play the first game authentically on my NES but I couldn’t go through with it knowing versions with less tedium existed. Maybe I’ll do it someday just to say I did, but for now I think it’s safe to say the GBA versions are excellent ways to play these.

Pretty good! Gorgeous environments - much needed after being trapped in the desaturated visuals of the endgame. Wonderful music and an incredibly cool boss fight. The new abilities are some of the best too. It didn’t really add anything to the overall narrative of XVI though. These two DLCs are definitely excuses for cool boss fights, which is okay for the kind of game XVI is. I love XVI and it’s nice to have a reason to go back for a little more. Just wish our main cast had more time to do stuff together and interact.

Structure is Xenoblade’s strongest attribute - narrative and geographical. So much of my experience is driven by my anticipation to see a new area and experience its music. It’s a little hard to go back to the first game and lose the ability to switch characters during combat like in 3, but there is an intentional puzzle-like satisfaction in making your ideal party and prioritizing who needs the benefit of your control. It seems intentional for sure. Melia and Shulk aren’t super reliable unless directly controlled, but the flow of combat totally shifts depending on your party. I particularly love to play as sharla and choose when to attempt the headshot art on enemies, usually partnering her with characters who can constantly topple and daze enemies. It’s hard to not want to play as shulk for the whole game though, but there is a rewarding feeling to mixing it up. I try and prioritize different members every time I play and I’m always surprised at how many new strategies and combos I previously neglected.

Xenoblade’s strongest trick for me is the unveiling of new sights. Walking through a tight canyon with no music, suddenly approaching a wide open zone as its music kicks in. Climbing a structure for several minutes and looking down to see how small the world below you looks. The scope is so effective, especially for the hardware it was constructed on. Monolith Soft are experts at making the world a strong characteristic of the game.

This is my fourth time beating this game I think. I still hold it precious and it is one of my all time favorites, but the flaws are very evident to me and are harder to ignore. Xenoblade 3 is one of the best games when it comes to giving every character a strong purpose, backstory, and interactions with other party members. Nobody really feels neglected. Xenoblade 1 certainly favors a couple of characters. Fiora especially comes across as incredibly shallow. There’s definitely a problem with all the female character’s motives being driven by their assigned male counterparts. It’s worst for fiora, but I still like all of them. Melia certainly has a lot more going on with her own people and Sharla has several moments of agency. The game’s story is very focused on our connections to other people, so I don’t think my previous critique is immune to rebuttal. You can say Shulk’s whole character revolves around Fiora, but it simply comes down to the writing, not the overall concept of the characters. The presentation of their personal motives and desires lack a good balance. That being said, I love every party member. Individually there’s criticisms to be had, but as a collective group and what they stand for is fantastic.

Xenoblade 3 is my favorite of the trilogy, but 1 still has a few things that were never surpassed for me personally. The idea of two civilizations living on two dormant gods is incredibly creative and makes for a wild map to explore. The OST still contains my favorite songs in the series, though not my much considering the ridiculous quality of the trilogy’s entire OST. Xenoblade doesn’t have the best towns in the genre at all, but 1’s towns felt the most fleshed out to me, as little as there were. Helping reconstruct colony 6 is cool. The starting colony has a wonderfuly cozy design and geography. The Nopon village has a cool vertical design that feels completely distinct from the colonies you visit. 3 may be my favorite, but it’s mostly colonies that look the same and The City. I do wish xenoblade focused on fun towns to hang out in.

Side quests are also a point of contention for people but I don’t mind them being excuses for quick EXP or items. My only problem is how one NPC will give you 7 quests back to back and you have to talk to them multiple times. At a certain point I stop collecting side quests and to this day I can’t think of one that had an interesting narrative hook. I probably missed out on some good stuff, but they don’t encourage keeping up with them.

I’ve criticized the game a lot, but my 5 star rating still holds strong. It’s always going to be one of my favorite games. Its release on the Wii got me back into JRPGs at the time after being away from the genre for a good chunk of time. I’m so glad this became a whole series with Nintendo and I love the entire trilogy. There’s something special about Monolith Soft’s approach to world design. Nobody does it like them. The only game to make me think “this reminds me of xenoblade” was my recent experience with FF7: Rebirth.

Huge games usually need to find exploring its map not boring; whether it’s a mount or vehicle. I’m surprised no xenoblade game has tried to introduce its own version of a chocobo (let’s ignore the mechs in X for now). I would love a fun way to get around faster, but not once have I dreaded making my way through these worlds on foot. They’re easy to hang out in and get into battles every couple minutes. Encountering a giant gorilla named “Delirious Daniel” that is level 99 is a great aspect of these worlds too. It doesn’t scale with you, yet somehow it’s paced so perfectly that you never feel too ahead of the curve or too far behind. The clockwork-like design it must take to pace the games out like that is intimidating to think about. These designers are legends, I can’t wait for Xenoblade 4.
(Also please re release X. Thank you)

92 hours clocked in and I still want to go back for more. This is a dream game. This is a landmark title in my personal gaming history. Remake felt a similar way but in a much more contained way. I adore it and everything it set out to do, but it was clearly a fraction of what was to come. Rebirth sits among the best experiences I’ve ever had with a video game. It reminded me of the first time I played Xenoblade Chronicles 1, being blown away by every environment and piece of music. It brought me back to playing Kingdom Hearts 2 for the first time with its constant narrative mystery and ridiculously fun and snappy combat. I can’t fully express how impossible it feels that this exists. Maybe to some it’s nothing more than The Witcher 3 with JRPG elements, but the way this game approaches the series legacy and history is unlike any remake I’ve seen, including the previous entry. It completely understands the spirit of the original. So many mini games that are actually fun. A card game that’s finally better than triple triad. It has the best towns I’ve experienced in any jrpg. In general it really revived the idea of the jrpg town being a place to look forward to and interact with. Too often do post 16-bit jrpg towns act as simple checkpoints and rest stops. There’s wonderful exceptions of course like DQXI, though it does feel rare.

Not a single side quest lost my interest either. A lot of them have unique mechanics or expand on some aspect of the world in an engaging way. It puts Remake’s side quests to horrendous shame. Even if the quest itself is a standard monster hunt, the developers know that the characters are the most important aspect of the story and turn every quest into a bonding experience. It adopts a dating-sim approach in a way. Choices pay off and almost feel like a personality test. Despite my efforts to go on the gold saucer date with Aerith, I ended up getting paired with Red. He’s my favorite character and the game knew that. It’s a very clever and simple little trick it pulls. I’m sure with more intent to artificially raise my relationship with certain characters I could have forced different scenes to play out, but I really loved the natural results I ended up with.

Playing this every day after work with my fiancé was a warm and comfortable tradition. The amount of emotions we experienced was unforgettable. Rebirth is a legit funny game a lot of the time too, only occasionally having an eye roll of a joke. The way these characters play off of each other and feel like real people is not a surprise after remake, but man is it nice to get 90 more hours of it.

I could go on forever, even without digging into spoilers. I know that Rebirth will likely be even more controversial than Remake, but I love seeing the discussion around it so far. Currently the final chapter is overtaking the conversation, but the wider scope of every chapter in this game warrants discussion. There’s sooo much here to reflect on.
I also love that we have some big questions answers but not all of them. I’m equally as eager for part 3 as I was for part 2. Something brilliant is happening here, and I hope those who flinch at things being different are able to look through what’s on the surface and see how it’s all still here. The discussion on what a remake of FF7 should be will never go away, but I believe what we’re getting is itself a reflection on that. It’s a swan song for these developers and probably their last chance to make this happen before they enter retirement. Discussion around remake felt like it lasted all the way until Rebirth. Rebirth will certainly keep us busy until part 3 is out. I can’t commend the creative team behind this game enough. Not only is this likely the best final fantasy game ever made, but it feels like what a modern final fantasy was always meant to be. Even if the story isn’t fully to your liking, the pacing and exploration on top of the tightly designed combat system and boss fights make for a modern reflection of classic final fantasy. Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is special. I can’t help but feel like this will end up as the greatest gaming trilogy of all time.

It’s chill. X-2 is an excuse for experimentation rather than some genuine and necessary sequel to X. I’m really not here for the story or drastic shift in tone, but it’s fun to see how unserious this entry was considering it’s the first direct sequel in the series.

The combat system is astonishingly interesting for what some would consider more of a spin-off title. Direct sequel final fantasy games always get weird with battle mechanics. It’s almost an excuse to try new ideas instead of scrapping them during production of a new game. The combat here is totally a precursor to XIII’s combat. I think I like XIII’s more but X-2 does often feel more tight and easier to grasp. It’s super fun. I really dig getting to see characters from X again too. It has this incredibly long epilogue feel to it in regard to them and I think that’s cool.
Not sure I fully vibe with certain ideas in the ending, but it’s also harmless and does not detract from any moments in X.

This game kind of owns. It’s more of a fun goofy ride than a dramatic and lush narrative experience. I like it for that though. It’s not like this was ever meant to be the new high budget mainline title of the FF series at the time, but it’s cool that the series is capable of lighter moments that don’t take themselves too seriously.

Of all the direct prequel/sequel games, I think it’s a little better than XIII-2 for me but not as good as something like Crisis Core. It’s half the length of X as well so it’s a quick jam.

It makes sense this is considered the “starting point” final fantasy game. Its linearity is used well enough to feel adventurous and cinematic rather than restricted and on rails. The mostly linear levels are well contrasted with the sphere grid system that has such a creative and free flow to it. Yes, the physical map is relatively straight forward, but your character growth isn’t linear and you still have moments of rest where you can chat with NPCs. It’s paced pretty well! It’s an ideal version of 13s philosophy. The use of a pilgrimage also justifies traveling from point A to B rather than backtracking to old areas. It’s justified with the narrative to the point of it barely being noticeable.
FFX has some of the best music in the series too. Challenge is such a wild song especially. The ps2 version specifically (I’ve never played the remaster, though I don’t dig the changes made to that song in it)
X is a full entree of themes and ideas and is served in a coherent fashion. It never felt overwhelming or confusing to learn terminology; the benefit of the fish out of water element. I really like XIII but X feels like the best version of what that game wanted to be, at least in regards to world building and blending the level design with the narrative.

I loved X much more than I remembered. It’s only my second time playing it but it was a breeze to experience. Such fun combat and characters. An incredibly diverse OST. It’s the perfect blend of old and new final fantasy. There’s occasional road blocks with bosses that might push you to grind for a while, but I found grinding to not be too big of a time commitment when it’s required. Some bosses have this IV type quality to them where it’s hyper specific on utilizing specific solutions and solving it like a puzzle. Not to say bosses have one solution, but I got in a similar headspace as IV’s bosses. The dungeons aren’t bad either. I feel like people really dig into those from a negative angle, but only one of them
really stuck out as trashy to me. You fight so much in this game and I appreciate a break from it.

FFX is beautiful and sentimental. Hard to imagine scowling at anyone who has this as their favorite entry. It contains a lot of ideas that I honestly wish would come back in future entries. Really stoked to have finally gone back to it after all these years. It holds up! There’s some ps2 era jank to deal with but if you have any love for this era of games, it’s nothing new to you.

Kingdom Hearts 3 is a game I have finally reconciled with. My time with it has been one of the strangest experiences in my journey of giving certain pieces of media an honest ‘second chance’.

My story here isn’t unique. You’ve heard it several times before, or at least the first half of it. I was severely underwhelmed when I played 3 for the first time. I thought it was pretty fun but found myself lacking the proper investment in the narrative. I have gone through this point time and time again reviewing the series lately. When I played 3 I had played birth by sleep on the psp several years prior, KH1, KH2, chain of memories on GBA, and seen some of the cutscenes from 358/2. I played them all quite passively. The stories sort of slipped through my mind, like eating soup with a fork. I was upset that I didn’t feel catered to. This sentiment feels incredibly selfish to me now. I rejected something because it expected too much of me. In hindsight it just expected me to play a few games that are all pretty fun and simple in isolation; 3 was just the intersection of them all. I rejected it because it made me feel as if I experienced the games wrong. I thought about my love for 1 and 2 and felt cheated that I didn’t have a third love that was equally strong. I said the story was convoluted and impossible to understand. A couple years passed and I found myself thinking about the game yet again. I researched the stories, actually played 358/2 days on my DS, and read up on story from the games I didn’t get around to. I replayed 3 and emptied my mind of the mountains influence I had received from Youtube videos that vindicated my negativity. I was ready to exchange my disappointment for satisfaction.

This is something I believe a lot of people don’t grasp as a concept. Just because your first experience with something is negative does not mean it must stagnate and remain that way. You can allow yourself to shift perspective. It’s a chance to give up something bad for something good. This doesn’t make a fickle person, I think it makes an adaptive one. It removes stubbornness. Of course there is nothing wrong with disliking this game or any piece of media, but indulging in those moments of “what if I changed my mind on this thing” is an experience worth diving into. Art is something that we project our experiences onto. Revisiting a piece of art to see how we react differently is a fascinating and sometimes exhilarating way to see how we have grown as a person throughout the years. Kingdom Hearts 3 resonates with me in a much different light since the first time I played it.

When I first played Kingdom Hearts 3 I would say that I was still in the early stages of my adult life. I had just moved into a new home that I was renting. I was working 3 jobs and barely affording bills. It was arguably the most stressful and tedious time in terms of gaining new responsibilities. Kingdom Hearts was a symbol of my childhood. It was so strongly connected the concept of childhood for me. To play the “third” game in this franchise as a tired exhausted adult did not sit perfectly right in my head at the time.
I’m turning 29 in May this year. I have a stable full time job that I enjoy enough. I’m engaged and getting married in October. I’ve reconnected with my family a lot more. Most importantly, I’ve accepted the connections I have lost and the friends that have moved on. Life feels stable. It feels normal. It’s nice! It’s also alarming to think of how many years have gone by. How many people I haven’t talked to since high school.
While playing Kingdom Hearts 3, you will eventually visit Winnie the Pooh as you tend to do in each numbered entry. It’s arguably the worst iteration of the 100 acre woods world. It’s short, repetitive, and you kind of just want to leave by the end. However, I completed it for the first time on this play through. It was here when Pooh asks Sora why he forgot about him. (Possibly paraphrasing a bit). Sora ensures that he will never forget him, but in his head realizes that his connection with him is indeed weaker. He says his goodbyes and leaves. One back, Merlin assures a saddened Sora that what once is lost can always be found again. Sora is on the book again and his connection with Pooh is restored. If I could just call up an old friend that I miss it could just as easily restore a connection that was lost. This is when it clicked for me. Kingdom Hearts 3 is about reconnection. This is why it narratively and thematically resonates with me now.

Kingdom Hearts 3 is about friends who have been separated for well over a decade coming together again. Friends who lost each other. Friends who maybe even lost memories of each other. One specific character near the end even laments that nobody would care if they did not come back: a truly realistic feeling I and many other people feel when we think of sending a message to an old friend. Would they really care? Of course they probably would, but we can’t always assure ourselves of that. Kingdom Hearts is a silly Disney game about the power of hearts and friendship. It’s full of weird stilted dialogue and hilarious moments that make no sense. Of course I recognize the stupidity of what’s on the surface here. Kingdom Hearts is…well it’s about how it makes our hearts feel; the hazy emotional feeling that embodies the writing itself. I enjoy how visually literal the story telling can be. Laughing at it is fun, but I still buy everything it is selling to an extent. I was originally disappointed in Kingdom Hearts 3 because it made me realize I was so disconnected from the part of me that would have adored this long ago. It made me feel like my childhood was officially over during time where that feeling was pretty fresh. Now that I have accepted the past and embraced the future, I find the feeling of embracing this world and its characters cathartic and exciting. There is nothing like this series. No series (besides Metal Gear?) loves the dedication of its most hardcore fans this much. Usually they are the ones who leave disappointed when they aren’t rewarded for their efforts. Here instead we find a game that returns the same amount of love to its fans that it has received. Maybe a little too much. It ain’t perfect believe me, but at this point I don’t think I am capable of seeing it as anything other than monumental and loving. My third time playing it really brought it home for me. I love this game. I feel like it always loved me too but I didn’t have the time or patience for it. I have to cherish that a game this weird can exist today.

—

To discuss some more literal aspects of the game itself: I believe 3 has the best Disney worlds in the whole series now. Not exactly because of the movie selections though, I mean the level design. They’re all really fun to explore. The world selection isn’t incredibly special, but there are plenty of highlights and none of them are bad to play. Every entry has pretty awful worlds, and the worst one here is the Frozen world (imo) and yet compared to the other games, it’s still not that bad. It does a good job threading story beats in between worlds as well. 2 is still a better overall game to me, but even I need to admit that you go a long time in that game without any interesting story advancements taking place. The combat in 3 is fantastic once you disable keyblade transformation animations and strategically ignore attraction attacks. Its snappy and flashy. It’s really fun!
There is plenty to criticize here but 3 has its own identity and I’m stoked to see it in a positive light amongst the rest of the franchise. I know development must have been rough for 3. The engine swap, threading together all of the games to bring closure to this specific saga, combining ideas from every game into one without making it messy and unfocused. Not to mention modern day Disney’s eye looming over their shoulders. The pressure to please fans had to be astronomical. I get why this ended up not being for a lot of people, but I’m happy to switch sides and appreciate this for the monumental achievement it is. Kingdom Hearts 3 is a special game. This series is special. I can replay this trilogy forever and be happy, but I am overwhelmingly excited that this was not the end. I’m happy that it will continue to grow up with me as it has been this whole time.

The only KH game I had never completed until now. I looked up the story cutscenes before 3 came out originally, but I never fully played it. I got it for 3DS when it originally came out and dropped off about halfway in. At the time I felt like the series was far past what I had invested into it.

Playing it again was nice! It’s definitely in the same tier as the other handheld games - though it is for sure my least favorite story compared to BBS and 358/2. It’s not bad but it is almost exclusively a build up for KH3. It still has some great qualities though. It’s Riku’s game really. He develops the most here and it’s great to see him taking on a role that sora usually has. The gameplay is snappy if a bit slippery at times. It’s fun though! It plays better than BBS but the story is a fraction as interesting to me. It has plenty of wonderful and creative moments though. There’s a lot of “buts” here. Every praise comes with a criticism. I keep in mind that it was a 3DS game originally, and for that it’s pretty cool. I love seeing traverse town again and the levels are big and vast (and empty) and it’s fun to blast through!

Overall I liked it though. If we exclude re:coded for now - I’d rank the handheld games as
358/2 days > Birth By Sleep > Dream Drop Distance.

I know people slam the series for making these so critical to the overall franchise, but seriously it’s not like they’re a chore to play. They’re all very fun and easily accessible on one console now. Yes KH3 seems convoluted because it provides closure for all these games, but playing those games are pretty simple experiences in isolation. No YouTube essay will catch you up in the same way as playing them yourself. It was totally worth playing them all before my replay of 3. It’s not only helping the story make complete sense to me, it’s giving me the intended emotional investment and reframing KH3 as an incredible game for me. I was fairly disappointed on my first playthrough. I turned around on it a lot for my second and loved it. My third playthrough could end with me seeing it as a near masterpiece. Like my review on the FF13 series, I’m glad I took the time to reevaluate and invest myself in these. I’ve exchanged a disappointing experience for a completely satisfying one. In these regards I love admitting when I’m wrong.

Continuing to re experience the entirety of the KH series. While I like the movie version of this just fine, I’m glad I’ve played the game itself. That repetitive structure of doing work for the organization really adds to the vibe of the story. Roxas is my favorite character in the series and honestly Jesse McCartney kills it as him. When he gets angry I’m impressed at how well he works as Roxas. This story adds a lot to KH2, but I think it’s important to experience it as a prequel and not as a primer for KH2. I think KH2 really wants you to feel coldly about roxas at first. The story in hindsight especially after this game enhances the experience and makes replays incredibly effective. Nomura is really good at making it feel like everything was planned, despite the fact that it definitely wasn’t.

358/2 also encapsulates the general tone of the series really well with its key moments.
The “who else will I have ice cream with?” Line is clowned on. That’s not unfair, it’s a silly line. However with the proper context it has a far different impact. Roxas was essentially a newborn learning how humans functioned and interacted. He didn’t know what friendship was or what friends did together. The ice cream hang out sessions make up the bulk of his time becoming friends with Axel and Xion. It’s not that he thinks it’s the only thing friends can ever do; it’s the only thing they’re able to do at all. He’s not concerned about who he will have ice cream with from now on. That sentiment is synonymous with not having any friends left at all.

However, it’s still kinda funny. It’s a goofy series with stilted bizarre dialogue and story moments that make me laugh despite how seriously the game will take it. Through all of that though, I still completely buy the performed emotion of it all. That’s what this game encapsulates within the series. From the outside looking in it’s near impossible to empathize and grasp how anyone can have a genuine emotional investment in the story. It’s one of the few game series that I believe can never be understood without playing all of it. It’s almost like the act of making friends - which is fitting because that’s the whole purpose of the series in a way. You can’t read off someone’s personality traits and interests and automatically care about them. You need to spend time with them and actually get to know them.

Like crisis core, I’m always pretty impressed at how much of its own thing Birth By Sleep chooses to be.
These are the types of prequels that work for me. Not everything about BBS feels necessary though. It kind of over-explains the keyblade and a lot of little mechanical elements from 1 and 2. Over-explain is not a synonym for bad or poorly written. In fact I think absurdly detailed lore is a strength of the series for those who follow it. I’m working on becoming a hardcore follower. As someone who only really cared about 1 and 2 prior to the release of 3 I was a bit of a hater when it came to how important every single game was to the big picture. I’ve grown to respect it a lot now. It’s honestly wild how much they put into BBS. The series screams confidence in its ideas. It rarely steps back and changes its mind on writing decisions.

I had played BBS before on psp a decade ago and at least played some of / watched summaries of the other handheld games before replaying 3 recently. I really like 3 at this point. It didn’t feel like I gave it my all though, so I’m replaying everything and really giving the story my full attention.
BBS is a great game. It’s a little awkward and slow to play, but it’s an HD psp game so I’m not expecting the combat of 2. It has a bizarre difficulty curve with bosses. The world selection is rarely interesting. There’s plenty to complain about. I left the game with more criticisms than I had originally but also more praises. The secret endings and final episode set up the future story so well. As stilted and corny as Kingdom Hearts can be it’s honestly wild how grim the outcome of this narrative is. I’m already remembering moments from 3 and amping myself up to play it for a third time so I can feel a stronger emotional punch from it. A quick recap of the story is a fine way to refresh yourself but I’m convinced the only way to enjoy this series outside of 1 and 2 is to sit down and play them all. They aren’t that long and the gameplay is fun enough for the 20ish hours it’ll take to beat. YouTube recaps or reading the story just doesn’t replace the necessary experience of a full length game that focuses solely on these characters. It brings them up to main characters instead of delegating them to side characters that you kind of know a little bit about. This goes for every “spin off”.

I respect Kingdom Hearts for rewarding the dedicated fans who stuck with every game. Even I was frustrated at how 3 played out when it released and I am now working on beating Dream Drop Distance to complete my KH catalog. I had played BBS before but I needed to remember why it became so vital to the series. So often do video game series give up on its most hardcore fans and resort to ‘soft reboot’ territory. Kingdom Hearts is one of the few examples I can think of that loves its hardcore fans as much as it does. I didn’t understand that for a while, but the past year or two I have fallen back into the series’ grasp and I don’t think it’s letting me go anytime soon.

Shenmue is one of the most AAA video games I have ever played. Look at the release date, man. That's a pretty old game! Shenmue had people walking around meticulously detailed homes and picking up items to closely examine them long before modern Sony latched onto this idea and made people hate it. I always knew people loved Shenmue, but I can't help but feel the quality of it has been completely undersold to me. I was aware of the goofy English voice acting and forklift driving, but was not aware of its Yakuza (Like A Dragon)-like structure. Not to say it's exactly like a Yakuza game. There is far less combat and a bit more interactivity with the world itself. While Yakuza is a blend of JRPG and Beat em up design, Shenmue is sort of constructed around a point-and-click adventure game structure (and fighting game combat). Narratively it has a similar flow as well. A domino effect of events continue to fall throughout the experience. It starts with one goal that gets stretched out with steps added on in between A and B. It plays out like a detective mystery. Talk to this guy to learn about this other dude who wants to meet you somewhere at a certain time to tell you about a specific thing. It's a wonderful chain of events.

Shenmue does something I find unique with its 'quests'. It yearns for a realistic human experience. For example, you might be trying to find out where a character likes to hang out at night: This leads you to ask people around town for clues. Normally a game will push you along this process and tell you where to get this information from. I don't mind this streamlined narrative design in most games, but I do appreciate how Shenmue approaches the idea of gathering information. You have to discover it on your own and sometimes the people you ask will not be helpful at all. They may be completely wrong or you may discover a better idea than that which was given. An example that comes to mind is when Ryo needs to obtain a plane ticket. He gets advice on where to go. You go to a travel agency but it's far too expensive. Someone says to ask another character about cheaper flight ideas because they travel a lot. Before I even reached this character I decided to chat with a guy by the vending machine. He then tells me that traveling by boat is the way to go if I want to save money. This indeed is how the story will progress. I assume talking to the friend who's a travel expert would simply result in them telling me they don't have any ideas for me, but I loved this natural feeling of chatting with a stranger and obtaining new solutions without being strictly directed to do so. This feeling lives on for the entire game. People are people in the world of Shenmue. They aren't quest givers. You gain a sense that this town is alive and the people actually know each other. It's authentic.

There's an intended inconvenience to everything as well. You don't have a minimap, you have map posts around town. As far as I know you can't even get a map to carry around with you. This was slightly tedious to me at first, but I loved this when I started to get around based on the visuals alone. I knew Ryo's home and all the towns like my own house after a while. If I ran around with my eye fixated on a minimap all the time I would never memorize the geography. I developed a morning routine. While working on the story objective I would get a coffee from the vending machine, snag a couple toy capsules, purchase food and drink for the stray cat, and continue with my day. I made sure to talk to certain characters every day. When one of these characters tells me I'm one of their best friends by the end of the game I felt rewarded for my intrinsic desire to talk with everyone. I would probably get the same dialogue from that character near the end of the game, but because of my daily encounters with them it felt like a reward. He's my best friend too!
I didn't want to be home too late. I wanted to go play pool with the scumbags at the bar after work. I wanted to take care of the cat. I wanted to collect all the toys. I wanted to win the forklift race. I wanted to get a raise every day.
I repeat the 'want' to emphasize that I wanted to do this, I did not need to. Shenmue is not interested in forcing the potential of its experience on you. Something so many modern AAA games fail to achieve. They have an amazing experience but only if you do it their way. Shenmue's world detail and player freedom is staggering. Not just for 1999, but in general.

I've seen some criticism over the part of the game that becomes a forklift simulator as well. I can understand this not being fun for some, but Shenmue never lost my interest. I had fun working as a forklift driver. There was a simple enjoyment in doing the work well and making more money every day. However, I believe the repetitive nature is on purpose and totally intended. Ryo is about to graduate high school. He's 18. The guy is about to become an adult right as his father is killed. The first half of the game is still driven by this plot, but you have so much free time to run around the towns and have more "fun". Suddenly you're working full time. You gotta wake up earlier. You only get free time during lunch and maybe a couple hours after work. You see co workers more than your own friends and family. The feeling of not having free time anymore is crushingly real. I missed being able to check on the cat with the town locals. Most of the shops I would visit were closed after work. Life was devoured by work and the main plot. I would possibly feel nostalgia for the first half of the game if I were to replay it. This is cool thematic narrative design. Ryo is forced to grow up as fast as possible. The game provides a bite sized serving of what it feels like to...grow up and get a job. Never does Ryo lament his youth and complain about work before bed every night to hammer this idea in. You experience it and feel it for yourself.

Shenmue is a fantastic looking game as well. The changing skies. The shifting of weather. The barking dogs of the neighborhood. The bustling noise of a busy street. I love using the trigger to control running speed like a gas pedal on a car. I love how perfectly Ryo walks up stairs (people obsessed with accurate stair climbing animations will adore Shenmue). I love collecting music tapes that all have unique album art. I love collecting toy capsules. I love that there are two different versions of darts to play and an arcade with older sega games. I love that I can take pictures off the wall of my home for no reason. The amount to do is almost unnecessary. The voice acting is goofy and compressed to hell, but if you can't have fun with that, the Japanese voice acting can soften the silliness. I think the goofy old "obviously voice acting" voice acting is fun to experience, but it is not what defines this game. It's not always that bad. I was still capable of taking the story seriously.

Of course the story isn't over and Shenmue II is waiting for me. There's a lot of mystery and unanswered questions. I love that! It's an absurdly confident video game. This left a huge impact on me. Shenmue is an all timer. This was my first time playing it and I was consistently impressed by it. It's not impressive for it's time, it's impressive for right now.