On the one hand, this is maybe the worst RPG I've ever played, a game ostensibly made for kids that's also incredibly cruel to the player at every turn. Every resource from MP and items to XP and money is too scarce and too tightly controlled so that you can't lessen the difficulty curve by grinding - and even if you do manage to gain an extra level or two, the enemies will just scale up. The repetitive battles quickly become gruelingly long and can easily spiral out of control if you make any mistakes. Missed inputs on the insufferable Elite Beat Agents QTEs are punished way too severely. And attacks randomly miss all the fucking time, particularly early on, because for some incomprehensible reason the "attack" and "defense" stats in what was pitched as the Sonic equivalent of the beginner-friendly Mario RPGs are actually secretly tabletop-style hit and dodge stats. It's completely miserable to play. The hand drawn backgrounds are kinda nice, at least, but they also mean that the world has to be incredibly small with few areas to explore, making the adventure feel uneventful. And, of course, the literally unfinished soundtrack is just the icing on the cake.

On the other hand, my fursona is now immortalized in the IDW comics with the army of duplicate "unique" Chao I save scummed for on stream so that I didn't have to do the QTEs for the special moves anymore. So who's to say if it's good or bad

Honestly? Not a huge fan of Zero Mission. It's definitely cool for what it is, but it really does hold your hand too much and the bosses are WAY too easy. And, yes, it's cool that the devs included so many intentional speedrunning shortcuts and skips for repeat playthroughs (where the heavy guidance is irrelevant because you already know where to go anyway), but that doesn't necessarily make a one-off casual playthrough more interesting. It kinda kills the atmosphere of the previous games, too, by leaning more into a heroic action-adventure vibe. Again, not bad by any means, but far from my favorite Metroid.

I was OBSESSED with this game in middle school. As much as I love the new classic series entries we've gotten since this one, it's so hard for them to stack up to the sheer amount of STUFF in this game. On top of being a really solid remake of Mega Man 1 with a cute art style and an expanded story, you can also play as EVERY ROBOT MASTER, AND multiple variants of Mega Man, AND Roll with a bunch of free DLC costumes, and even Proto Man?? And there's a challenge mode to put all those characters' skills to the test? AND there's a stage editor, which I poured a bunch of time into making bad levels in? It rules. I'm perpetually sad that we never got a Powered Up version of Mega Man 2.

I am not a survival horror fan at all, and this game didn’t exactly do all that much to sell me on survival horror gameplay. I just don’t think it’s for me. I found it more tedious than scary, and before too long I turned the difficulty down to easy so I wouldn’t have to worry so much about the combat and resource management aspects.

With all that in mind: it should speak volumes about how much I like the story that I still managed to push through as a survival horror disliker and beat the game… twice.

Yes, immediately after beating the game once, I went right into new game+ to see the few scattered bits of extra story it added, as well as the somewhat altered ending. I never do that!! This game is a huge departure from the first, and it doesn’t quite have the same campy charm a lot of the time, and Saga’s side of the story in the real world wasn’t quite as interesting to me, but when it hits, it REALLY hits. Especially in Alan’s side of the story. The way the story keeps finding new ways to wrap back in on itself, layer after layer after layer of metatext, surreal blendings of both in-engine and live action material, all making you question how much is real and how much is a fabrication of one of a story within a story within a story, and if that distinction even matters in a world where fiction alters reality. What a blast. While I think Control was the more fun game overall, this is definitely Remedy’s storytelling at its best. They put everything they’ve learned into this game. This one’s gonna stick with me for a long time. Can’t wait for the DLCs.