I cannot be expected to write anything about a remake of a game that means so much to me, so I'll try and keep it short, simple, and relevant to the remake rather than the source material:

The team did a really great job modernising NieR, but by bringing it closer to the memory of Automata and further from the memory of Gestalt maybe a little bit of the magic was lost to me. However everything sounds and looks wonderful, and I relished the opportunity to luxuriate in one of my favourite fantastical worlds once again.

It took me until early December to start playing this, but by putting off picking it up the only thing that got played was myself. I knew I would adore this game, but I didn't really realise just how thoroughly and completely it would consume me. For a week-long stretch it was literally all I wanted to play.

This game learns the best lessons from tabletop games and then presents them in a phenomenal, economical way. Every time I started a new campaign, I was worried that I wouldn't love my new characters as much as I loved the last one. However within the first dozen encounters, events and opportunities, each group and individual had such a unique combination of flavours that I was never once bored with them. It's a really special thing that this game has achieved!

My only gripes are small, but they keep this game from getting a perfect score from me: firstly, I really don't love the way the game looks, and in fact the handdrawn handcrafted style was one of the reasons I put off playing the game in the first place. The initial pitch was ALWAYS exciting to me, but when I saw footage I faltered. Now, after having played it for many hours I can say that the aesthetic grew on me, but every now and then I felt a little slighted that my party members all felt like they were ripped straight from a budget fantasy webcomic circa 2004, perma-smirking their way through a world otherwise gloriously written.

Secondly (and this might be greedy of me, but) the repetition of certain events over multiple questlines took me out of the experience somewhat. I know there's only so much the devs can prepare, and that inevitably you're going to see the same things happen multiple times. I just feel that there should have been some more care put into making sure you don't see the same event 3 times in 3 consecutive stories, because that specifically was a little jarring to me. This is ESPECIALLY considering how few times the repetitions have happened for me in my first 20 or so hours, it seems really unlucky that the same one or two events and quest opportunities have happened so frequently in completely separate stories so early on in my experience.

Those things aside, I adore this game. Considering there are only three unit types and the combat is relatively simple, there's enough nuance and differentiation between abilities that fights can be handled in a really respectable number of ways. Obviously the main thrust of the game isn't the combat, so the fact that they put this much effort into it at all is honestly nice.

I'll continue playing this game as long as they keep putting out new content for it. I can't wait to see what story I write next.

For much of this year I found playing most video games nearly impossible without getting a truly unpleasant anxious rush, and Cloud Gardens was the best medicine for that feeling that I could have been prescribed.

Lots of games are meditative, but not nearly as many are 'meditations' - by which I mean in the transitive sense, allowing one to reflect or focus thoughts onto a repetitive action.

Cloud Gardens gave me pause on several occasions when I considered the implications it was laying out: that human trash and inorganic detritus could, under certain solitary conditions, give rise to it's own life. It almost felt radical in it's simplicity, placing these objects and allowing their aura to emanate and their essence to grow plants through their inherent existence. It made me think about my place in the world, the energy I emit unconsciously, the energy I take in from inanimate objects around me or on my person, the way that reverberates around a room or a house or a yard or a street or a suburb or a city.

It's a simple game, but a beautiful one. For many puzzle games of this variety I find myself reaching for podcasts or documentaries to listen to in the background as I play. With this game, I never felt the need.

I have to admit, I'm a little bit of a Shin Megami Tensei poser. I only played the first couple of hours of SMT IV (which I don't even really remember), and when it comes to the Persona series I've only played and beaten 5. So, maybe my appreciation of SMTV is a little skewed, because I'm sure what I love about this game is in all of the other instalments of the series (probably done better).

Nevertheless, let me try and count all of the things I love about this game: I love the numbers, I love the frequency with which they go up. I love the demons, I love the writing, I love the negotiations. I love the fusion system, I love calculating the most ideal combination of demons to best avoid spending currency and carrying over the best set of abilities. I love the look of the game, the way the Netherworld cascades, I love the colours and the sounds. I love the music, I love every time the battle theme kicks in properly after the first attack is made. I love slowly discovering the best economy of actions in order to prolong my turn before the enemy gets a chance to strike. I love sliding down dunes, I love exploring the landscape in piecemeal chunks until I feel like I understand it's twists before moving onto the next area. I love just staring into the skybox, there's so much detail in every inch of this universe.

Here's what else I really enjoy that no-one else seems to: I love seeing the seams of the engine tear apart! This game is broken and botched in so many ways because of the weakness of the platform it's on, but I think it's great! The way the framerate stutters on an NPC in the distance and then equalises as I get into range of it is hilarious, the way texures pop in on a demon a second too late as I'm scrolling through the compendium is cartoonish. I might be in the minority here, but I actually like being reminded that I'm playing a game people have made, and seeing this stuff is like seeing the errant brushstrokes on a painted canvas up close.

Beast Breaker was fundamentally the best time I had with a single game in 2021. I gobbled it up completely, crafting and upgrading every single weapon and accessory, trying multiple different loadout configurations, testing different companions and preparation strategies. I don't think I mastered the game, because I never feel that about the best games, but I do think I capital-K Know Beast Breaker very well.

The core loop is fairly simple, but the intricacies come from the physicality of the mechanics. The quality of any given brick breaking game comes down to how frequently you're hitting those pure satisfaction moments, seeing the numbers deplete and the blocks explode with a single attack. Some of my favourites increase the momentum of this feeling by adding additional balls or multipliers (I've probably sunk a couple hundred hours into Hole Down on my phone because of how good it gets this), but Beast Breakers customisable depth adds levels of observational and experimental skill to this foundation. Certain Beasts favour certain weapons and strategies, and sometimes the perfect angle isn't possible depending on the way the Beast moves, so a successful Break attempt requires visual calculus, an understanding of the strengths of your loadout, foresight into future turns and ability management. Add to that the ever-present threat of loss due to the rampage mechanic, and you find yourself in tense late-game situations where minute degrees of an angle can spell either utter failure, or lead to living to fight another round.

This dynamic tension feels so full of friction, and brings to mind some of my favourite tactics games. Honestly, the closest tonal equivalent I can find to this game is Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, one of my favourite games of all time. In that world too, load-out, preparation and foresight are key factors to victory above any aggressive action you take in a fight. And also similarly, finding broken combinations of weapons and accessories can lead to moments of absolute joy as you let rip on an unsuspecting opponent.

At this point, I feel I've exhausted what the game has to offer, and that's absolutely fine. Not every game has to be a constant service to the player who purchased it. However if I'm going to be critical of any aspect it's that the final, multi-phase boss fight felt so great that I wish there were more like it in the post-game. Taking on that same Beast variety without the threat of losing on the 2nd or 3rd phase and having to start again took some of the threat away in a manner that felt a little anticlimactic. However, if my main criticism of this game is "I wish there was an infinite horde mode" then I think that's probably a pretty damn good thing.

I won't touch the story much, because as heartfelt and sincere as it is it wasn't the main focus for me. There are some great character interactions, and the ending was wildly and hilariously blunt in it's message (I don't think I've ever had such a colourful piece of media say to me "the people in charge will never help you" in such a delightful way). It's a serviceable veneer, in exactly the way I want it to be.