What started out as a love letter to JSR quickly turned into a disappointment. Trust me, I wanted to love this game, as a fan of the original Jet Set Radio, but the game has so many issues that I can’t in good faith recommend this at all.

Firstly, the stages are too spacious, nothing is happening within them. There aren't many cool landmarks and most of the stages begin to blend together at a certain point. The level design is something the original game did well, but here, it’s just not fun to grind through through them. A certain point you kind of lose interest in exploring at all.

Secondly, there is no energy to this game. Remember how the original Jet Set Radio opens up? With Professor K’s iconic JET SET RADDIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO blaring into your eardrums. That game commanded your attention from the start and you, the player, knew you were in for a ride. Here, there’s no voice acting. Sure, we get some grunts and a few short words here and there from the many characters, but you can’t help but notice that something is missing from the cutscenes. Everything feels so quiet… so lifeless… despite the game wanting you to be invested its story.

And that finally brings us to the story. I will say right of the bat I didn’t like it. The story started off well but halfway through, I was bored. Could it have helped if the game had a better presentation with voiceovers as well? Maybe. But the writing just isn’t that interesting. I thought it took itself a bit too seriously.

The music is great, possibly the best thing about the game and I’ll leave it at that.

Final Fantasy 1 was a good time. Really, that’s all it came down to in the end.

The gameplay mechanics are outdated and traveling the world felt like a slog due to random encounters every 5-10 steps. None of the battles felt rewarding because you could brute force every encounter easily. Problem is, all of this gets draining about 3 hours in. And let’s not get into the barebones plot.

But you know what? It was all worth it I would say. Graphically, this game looks great! Yeah it’s basic sprite work but I still loved the many dungeon and town designs this game offered. Oh, and that music. My god, it was worth continuing for that alone. The QOL features added to the remaster also helps out a lot through some of the more mind numbing parts of the game.

All in all, I liked it and I’m interested in seeing the series develop from this point on.

Remaking a game is a huge undertaking. Remaking a classic as beloved as Final Fantasy VII is a ginormous mission. Although this is only part 1 of the Remake trilogy, Final Fantasy VII Remake delivers on almost all fronts making it a worthy continuation of the FFVII universe.

What I enjoyed the most from my time with this remake is that it doesn't try to replicate the original game. No, it sets out to do its own thing. From the moment it opens with its simple, yet deep action turn based (ATB) system, Final Fantasy VII Remake boldly tells its audience that it doesn't want to be its predecessor, it wants to evolve, push forward into new uncharted territory. And it excels greatly at that. The fast, slick gameplay offers so much customization with its Materia and upgradable weaponry allows players to play however they feel suitable to them. On top of that, each of the party members have their own fighting styles further mixing up combat! I was thrilled each time I entered battle because I always wanted to try something new.

And I gotta talk about the music, easily some of the best pieces I've heard in the entire franchise even. They turned the Happy Turtle theme into this amazing buttrock track that blessed my ears the moment the first key hit. Also, we can't talk about the music without recognizing how they remixed music from the original in new stunning ways. Yet another example of the game taking what was old, re-polishing it, and pushing things in new ways. To give a new experience to both new and old players.

Though its not without its flaws unfortunately. While I do appreciate the team exploring new character writing and expanding on lore, at some points it becomes a detriment. An example being the Railroad Graveyard. In the original game, the trip was a short breeze; storywise, the gang needed to be quick because of where it takes place in the scenario. However, Remake greatly expands this section to a 3 hour long dungeon which, in my opinion, greatly hurts the game's pacing. And there are more examples of this peppered throughout. Adding to that, the game has numerous segments where the player has to walk across certain platforms slowly and carefully, hold Y to advance, crawl across debris, and so on. I know why they exist in the game, but after a while, the time it takes doing those adds up and can make the slowest parts of the game even more of a slog. Fortunately, the DLC, Intermission cleans some of this up offering better level design and a more fast paced adventure!

What else can I say though? Throughout it all I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Final Fantasy VII Remake and I look forward to seeing where this new journey takes us.
Posted August 19.

Without realizing, Persona 5 became a huge part of my life, or at least most of my 20s. I played this game day one on PS4 back in 2016, loved it so much I did a second playthrough. I played Royal when it originally released in 2020 during the start of the covid lockdown and now finally on PC.

Throughout the years since its 2017 NA release, I have written reviews and lengthy blog/forum posts on why I love Persona 5 so much. It’s one of my all time favorite video games for a reason. Despite its many, many writing/pacing issues, and repeated expository dialogue, there’s just nothing else like it.

I cannot understate the impact this game has had on me. Whether it’s to become a better artist, to achieve something that’s even close to what this game makes me feel, or standing up on my two feet and changing the world even when it’s tough, I can say Persona 5 helped me in some way, as corny as it sounds.

I love this game. That’s really all I can say.

As much as I wanted to like Drill Dozer, the game has very significant flaws that I cannot overlook. The platforming is extremely bad and the drilling mechanics gets incredibly dull and repetitive a few hours into the game. It got to the point where I felt I wasn’t having a good time and wanted to wrap the title up. The last half of the game has some absurd difficulty spikes, making you wonder how did the devs at Game Freak expect players to react to certain situations when the platforming is so mediocre. That sky area, especially, is the absolute lowest point of this game to the point where I had to question if it’s even worth continuing this game. It was a very frustrating experience and I question if it was even play tested.

While I did love the music (it’s probably a more realized sound coming from the GBA era Pokémon games) and the beautiful sprite work, the last half of the game dragged so much for me that I will probably never be returning to this game ever again.

While not perfect itself, Octopath Traveler II is a huge step up from the first title. Yes, most of the stories aren't connected, which was a huge complaint from the previous game, but now we have bond events called Crossed Paths. Featuring two protagonists working together on a common goal. It's not much, but it does add flavor and flesh out the characters in ways the past title had not. Not to mention, most of the stories presented in this game are a lot more interesting. As a result, I was more engaged with this cast and looked forward to their development. Mostly. Some stories, coughAgnescough, I felt were stinkers and had me bored for the ride. Nevertheless, there were more fun adventures here than bad, so overall, I can't complain too much there.

Let's talk about how much fun the gameplay was, because if you had the right setup for your characters, wiping out enemies can be both engaging and satisfying. See, the game presents itself as a traditional turn based RPG, but it also has mechanics called "Boost" and "Break". Each turn, your party members accumulate boost points, which gives them multiple actions to use per turn (depending on how many points are collected). Because enemies have several weaknesses, it's best to boost several times and then "break" your enemies shield points until they finally give, making them dizzy and weak for the rest of the cast to get some hits in without doing neutral damage. What a fun mechanic! Every battle had me planning out my attacks, trying to outsmart the AI whenever possible.

New to this game are "latent powers", giving each character their own unique ability to use in combat. In example, Throne's power allows her to make two actions in one turn. This could be devastating for the opponent, depending on how many boost points are accumulated and how many buffs she has.

That's not all, either. The game has a class system, giving even more control and customization over the core cast. Agnes, while her story was kinda mid, could be an absolute monster in combat due to her main class, the performer, and a secondary class like the white mage which could keep the party buffed and ready for any situation. The gameplay is incredibly deep and is honestly one of the best turn based systems I have ever played.

Outside of battle, the game offers a large, beautiful overworld to explore. The artists over at Square Enix really gave it their all to make this game pop, and I commend their efforts here. Even when out and about, each party member has an ability to interact with the various NPCs. Some characters can steal items, while others can retrieve valuable information used to give more depth to the world or lead players in a certain direction. In addition, thanks to the night and day system, each ability has a different effect depending on the time of day.

Octopath Traveler II was a very fun time. While I did have issues with some of the character's stories, I cannot understate just how fun playing the actual game is. I recommend it for all JRPG fans out there.

An extremely fun Final Fantasy adventure. Though the story is without flaws, various characters and plot elements dropped throughout, the combat isn’t deepest you’d expect from an RPG, and the world at large feels lacking, this is still very much a must try. Outside of the music, the epic boss battles, the power fantasy and Clive, the best part of FF16 was in the side quests. What the main story lacked were there in the side quests and I sincerely hope whoever is reading this to DO THOSE SIDE QUESTS. Anyway, FF16 is a great game.