A charming throwback to games of simpler times. The gameplay, while somewhat repetitive at times, is diverse enough to sustain players on both initial and repeat playthroughs, and provides a surprising amount of strategical play behind Dandy Dungeon's quirky, odd atmosphere. The storyline is simple, yet instantly entertaining in no short thanks to the wide variety of eccentric, memorable characters featured in the game, and the plot soon going off the rails in a fantastic fashion. Add in a terrific OST full of bangers, a metric-ton of references to video games, anime, and films, alongside many more mediums of fiction, and great amounts of humor, the final result is Dandy Dungeon. Definitely try this game out if you want a different RPG experience, as it won't disappoint.

There's a reason why the Ghost Trick fandom's motto is 'play Ghost Trick', and I agree with the sentiment. Shu Takumi uses his previous experience with the Ace Attorney series in order to create a stunning, complex narrative that spans much more than the simple murder of your player character, Sissel. The plot is far more quicker paced than Takumi's previous works, but the combination of a constant stream of information given by Ghost Trick's characters, the simple yet intriguing dropplings of the game's main mystery, and the jumping from one aspect of a mystery to another is enough to keep the player hooked in. Nearly every character in the game plays an important role in Ghost Trick, and while most characters lack the depth that Ace Attorney has, their quirkiness and ability to charm the player makes up for it.

And of course, the plot twists. Ghost Trick relies heavily on plot twists in order to create its unique story, and fortunately, every one of them hits the mark in that regard. I advise any new players reading this to avoid looking up anything related to Ghost Trick, as the game is best experienced without any prior knowledge of the game.

The puzzles deserve a mention too. While they're not as eye-catching as the story, they're a rather unique kind of puzzle, owing to Ghost Trick's central mechanic, and the way they promote experimentation and quick thinking is something to take note of. At times, they can be somewhat repetitive and irritating (the whole prison segment comes to mind), but it's a minor enough flaw that I can excuse it.

All in all, if you're interested in more of Shu Takumi's works, Ghost Trick is definitely something I recommend. It's very close to being a full 5 stars for me, but there are juuust enough flaws that I can't give it a 5 out of 5, in good conscience.

Mid game. It's got some cool ideas but most of them are squandered, and the cases and the twists surrounding them are incredibly predictable, all things considered. The overarching plot is un-engaging and relies on infodumps near the end of the game to make any sense to the player, halting the game's pacing to a fault, and the ending simply loses a lot of its steam near the second half. Additionally, the game's cast is rather basic and not very noteworthy as well (Kiyotaka & Sakura still slay though).

The peak of Pokemon ROM hacks. Stupidly fun and addicting, with huge amounts of customization letting players tweak their runs to their tastes. With a large variety of routes, events, and bosses, the game never feels stale, and the many QoL features present in Rogue make it easy to tailor your team at most a few minutes. And the difficulty hits the sweet spot between legitimately challenging while giving you just enough tools to overcome bosses with your remaining resources. If you're looking for an alternative Pokemon experience, give this game a shot; it won't disappoint.

Despite the absurd premise of a story centering around the adventures of a bird defending others in 1848 France, I'd say that Aviary Attorney is a pretty darn good game. The story manages to blend the outlandish premise of the game with serious, post-French Revolution politics in a way that manages to show the best of both worlds, and when it's time for the heavier story beats to reveal themselves, they don't feel out of place at all. There's a very real sense of life to the setting; to giving money to a starving mother and her child, to settling down and playing cards with a patron at Falcon's favored pub, and just taking part in chitchat with the various characters you come across, Aviary Attorney manages to create a bustling, engaging world despite its short runtime.

While we're on the topic of the game's setting, it makes great use of its time period of nearing the second French Revolution, from how many characters are intrinsically tied to either the fate of the revolution's success or the past French Revolution and their struggles in the present, and it creates this sense of uniqueness in its story that isn't replicated else anywhere much, if at all. And by that the game also enhances its character writing as a result, as their flaws, virtues, and ideals feel so real and human that in spite of its cartoonishness of Aviary Attorney's artwork, the grounded nature of them work. And above all, the game's also plain hilarious and has that same charm as the source material it openly acknowledges that it emulates.

Though it's not without its flaws (the trials and mysteries being disappointingly simple, even during the end and the penultimate trial being a near identical copy of the first Ace Attorney's fourth case being a large point of contention), if you have a few hours to spare and looking for something new, give Aviary Attorney a shot.

This game has one of my favorite stories in all of media. The vast, sprawling narrative coupled with strong thematic writing that encompasses the entire game makes it a joy to play through, picking up bits and pieces of Live A Live's message until the penultimate chapter flips it on its head, making for one hell of a surprise and perfectly paving the way for the final chapter. Live A Live's central feature, that being playing through multiple time periods, also lend themselves to Live A Live's storytelling, as in retrospect, seeing all these disorganized, jumbled facets of the game come together by weaving their arcs and storylines into the game's central theme all make for superb writing. And no matter how many times the game beats you down, tries to make you suffer, or puts our protagonists through unspeakable, manmade horrors, there's always that one faint glimmer of hope that shines through, urging us to continue forward, the world's ideas for us be damned. Just beautiful, overall.