After decades of failing to innovate its core experience, Game Freak finally shook things up with a completely open world and a non-linear story which uproots most of the franchise's conventions. The gameplay hasn't changed much from the previous generation but it worked well enough.

Unfortunately, all of these praises are mired by its technical shortcomings – and frankly, these are too terrible to ignore. I stood on a rock and ended up halfway across the world, I had pokémon spawn under the floor, and was able to toggle the world's lighting with my battle menu. These would be funny if they didn't also crash your game.

It desperately needed more time in development. It's also painfully obvious that it was initially more ambitious before several features were cut. This is not a finished game by any means.

As of writing, Pokémon is valued at $70 billion. By comparison, Kirby is not even 1% of that. It really should be held to higher standards.

A narrative based on someone's coming-out story is a good starting point, but it falls flat by failing to explore it in any meaningful detail. The game spends most of its brief time meandering around the adolescence of its cast, which is always told and not shown, before rushing towards its undeserved ending.

There is no agency from the player to explore at will as everything is railroaded; no compelling incentive provided for it either, which makes me wonder why this had to be a video game at all. It has no mechanical faults but when that's the only praise I can give, I also can't recommend it.

It suffers from the usual PS2-era shortcomings, such as frustrating puzzles and clunky combat, but there's no arguing that this an attractive psycho-thriller adventure. The narrative is creative and its world is vividly brought to life through excellent art and sound design.

It was quite controversial in its day but that reputation is entirely undeserved. Video games as a medium hadn't matured yet, as nothing you see here hadn't already been done in any other medium. This one deserves a remaster to earn the respect it deserves.

Didn't see the ending coming. As of writing, the world needs more narratives in games like this.

Gameplay is kind of wonky but since it's quite short, it's forgivable. It's a novel concept which is unfortunately bound to upset a few people sensitive to depictions of self-harm, but art should push boundaries.

Would've been perfect if not for a few awkward design choices, like the absolutely terrible checkpoint system.