It's hard to express just how amazed I am with this. Moon is something that I think appeals to a really narrow set of people, but for those people will be one of the most incredible games they'll ever play. It's not about blasting through to 100% completion, TASing every enemy encounter that you come across with zero thought. It's like, about the vibe. You aren't gonna talk to the NPCs just to get into the action, you're gonna want to talk to them like it WAS the action. And that's something I've never quite experienced anywhere else. I collected all of the love not for some end game reward or deep lore dump, I just didn't like the idea of leaving those characters stories unresolved. Especially Gramby, I didn't want to let her down. 10/10. Even with the dogshit fishing contest RNG. One of the rawest video games put to disc. Open the door.

(Played for my Love-de-lic Marathon: https://www.backloggd.com/u/pkmncrystalpepsi/list/love-de-lic-marathon/)

HENTAI WEED PUZZLES is a game about people above anything else. It cuts like a person, absorbs like a person, observes like a person, and moves like a person. To experience Ghost_RUS’s latest is to experience the feeling of sitting still while uncontrollably moving forward. It uses those rare pauses and moments of relief in life to their fullest potential.

This is an incomparable piece of work that exists in its own bubble. A bubble gently floating through the air ready to pop but living in complete tranquility while it still can. This will only get better with time.

Long Version: Exists at the intersection of simultaneous insane visual, game, and narrative design. Every inch of this project feels completely effortless and authentic, in a way that I would’ve never been able to predict going in. I think it’d be a disservice to Heisei Pistol Show to compare it against other games, especially with the level of transparency there is for its message and development within its text. I don’t think you end up making something like this without having some sort of deep connection to the subject matter, and so I think it’d be disrespectful for me to approach it with a coldly analytical review. So, let me just urge anyone reading this to play the game and see it through. It’s like, around two hours. Someone even made an excellent playthrough you can follow. This is the most a video game has resonated with me in a really long time, I think it’s a special thing that I got to play this.

https://patchy-illusion-team.itch.io/heisei-pistol-show

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTvwlBeNzxs

Short Version: I Get It

"Completed" as in I played the game until I unlocked Cloud Strife and then stopped. But considering that entails finishing the story mode five times, I feel like I experienced the game a suitible amount. Not the most polished and mechanically sound kart racer in the world, but something that obviously had a lot of love poured into it. The way Final Fantasy was weaved into this felt really natural, like going from FF7 to this and recognizing the magic as abilities was really cute. I'm not a massive FF mega fan so I'm sure there are tons more references and sources of inspiration that went over my head. The artstyle of this is fucking amazing, the storybook cutscenes have aged like fine wine. Full oomfie cast. Chocobos are my friends. I wish unlocking characters wasn't in such a repetitive and bland way but it's not that big of a deal. Sucks that I've heard Chocobo GP is this game from a nightmare dimension.

If you’re looking for just the “remaster” part of this, We Love Katamari Reroll is probably the definitive way to play the game now. There are a few areas where I feel the original PS2 version edges it out, like the audio could absolutely use some improvement. But the simultaneous authenticity of the port paired with the QOL improvements make this version the winner. I wish it wasn’t $30, but if it’s anything like the first Reroll it’ll get pretty frequent price cuts. Royal Reverie, for the ten minutes you actually spend in it, is a collage of some of the worst levels in the entire Katamari series. It’s such a minor part of the game that I don’t think it positively or negatively affects the entire package, it’s just a thing that’s there if you want to play it. But as someone who hoped this would give us a taste of a New Next-Gen Katamari Title, I’m pretty disappointed. Oh and also, the classic graphics mode is a nice addition. They should’ve made the music DLC part of the base game. Buy On Sale. Katamari Forever.

Full transparency, I was literally at what I understand to be the very end of this game when I noticed my Switch battery getting puffy. I already clocked in 35 hours so considering I don't have a good way to play anymore I'm just marking it done. I really liked this one though. My experience with Pikmin prior was playing 3 over a decade ago, so I can't speak to the minutiae of this as a sequel. But as a standalone thing it really blew me away. There's a ton of content here and it almost always feels fresh and unique. The gameplay isn't overly complex and never feels very challenging, but it plays into this just being a slower paced game to relax and explore in.

The biggest flaw in my eyes are that the characters and dialogue border too hard on Nick Jr Baby Cartoon vibes. That's subjective so more power to those who could look past it, but I would've loved to see more personality in the Rescue Corps. The last area also weirdly feels like nothing to me. By this point the game has shown all the tricks up its sleeve so it just feels a push to give this game it's "one final area". The caves I was able to do played like lazily reskinned jumbles of the previous ones. There's so much you can do other than that though, I'm bummed out I won't be able to cut my teeth on side quests and unlockable content that randomly pop up left and right. Amazingly good value here. I should be recommending this for how boss Oatchi is alone.

Honestly, I wasn't expecting to like this one as much as I did. I always figured Katamari was a game that couldn't have a meaningful sequel, like how much more can you do with the concept than what was in the first one. The premise pretty much ran its course from beginning to end. Apparently, all you have to do is just add on more and more crazy shit and hope it sticks (Kinda like a Katamari itself ¯\(ツ)/¯). This game is completely gimmicky but in the best way possible. Every mission just escalates with weirder and weirder conditions that you have to work within that keeps everything from feeling repetitive. It sucks that they scrapped the idea of it all being in a singular map that you see different angles, but this works better for what this game is going for. The aesthetic is even a lot more refined here, it's insane to ask anyone to top Katamari's OST but they actually came pretty damn close (sunbaked savanna & everlasting love goated). Also, I like how they develop the King as a character in this. Good video game, probably not as good as the first one but I had fun so fuck it 10/10.