I've been following this game for a few years and now that I've finally gotten to play it? I really liked it! That being said, there's definitely room for improvement.

It's a really solid soulslike with charming characters, an interesting world, and a pretty good story. Where Lies of P started great and slowly fell victim to an identity crisis, Another Crab's Treasure knows what it is and commits to it the whole time. This is reflected in so many aspects, like how combat takes inspiration from Sekiro with stagger and parrying, while maintaining its own identity with the shell system, or how areas are clearly inspired by common soulslike locales and design philosophies but take their own shape and form and become unique landscapes to conquer. This game is unabashedly itself and that carries a lot of the charm for me.

Not everything is perfect, though. I think damage values are a tad too overtuned, as fodder enemies kill you in 2-3 hits and you take years to kill them. This is more of an issue in the early game, but it takes ages to resolve through levelling, which doesn't feel very impactful overall. Also, while I love the world designs overall, I think some areas are a little too open-ended in terms of level design while failing to build themselves around that design philosophy, meaning extra exploration is implied but not always fun to do. Also, minor nitpick, ending felt a little weightless with how the game sets it up, and some story beats fall a little flat.

Overall, a really fun time, but probably could've used some tweaks to make an even stronger experience.

I would pay any amount of money to see a kid in the 90’s experience Giygas for the first time

Earthbound is a game I’ve tried and failed to play for almost a decade at this point, but I finally sat my ass down and really enjoyed myself. It’s insane that this game came out when it did, because so much of its identity translates perfectly to the gaming scene of today. After playing so many games inspired by what Earthbound does, it’s really endearing to go back to the source and see why it’s such a cultural touchstone for the indie community. The world and characters are really charming, and despite the sometimes clunky and old nature of the combat, I think it holds up really well.

I was actually kind of surprised by the combat, as I always thought it was pretty basic JRPG fare. While that’s true near the start, the game quickly evolves little by little and becomes a fun combat loop. Each character has a unique role, and minor conveniences like auto battle and instant killing weaker enemies makes fights much less tedious, something JRPGs still struggle with today.

In terms of criticisms, I still don’t like how limited the inventory is, even though that becomes much less of a problem in the later game. I wish Escargot express was more accessible and less tedious to use, but it is what it is. Also, it feels easy to get lost in some parts of the game where directions are ambiguous and solutions to puzzles aren’t implemented as well as they should be, but it’s not terrible at all.

Really happy I finally saw this one through, looking forward to playing Mother 3

I felt a pit in my stomach as the game came to a close. It was so beautiful but so destructive as well. I think this could've been my favourite of the Persona games I've played so far, but it's held back in certain spots.

While I think the story and characters came together beautifully by the end, I think the first half-ish of this game is super weak. The story isn't that interesting, and the characters all feel a little too disconnected, and the game doesn't really give you opportunities to remedy that until the back half. I understand this was probably intentional, so this isn't a major sticking point for me, but I think I'm also just getting tired of the typical persona character antics (ala Junpei's IM A SEX OFFENDER shtick). That being said, this is easily my favourite cast now, though I can't say I loved most of the external social links, most of them felt pretty weak.

I still vastly prefer palaces to 3 and 4's dungeon structures, so Tartarus didn't do this game any favours. I appreciate that they put in a lot to keep it refreshing and prevent repetitiveness, but I don't think anything could've made 266 floors any more enjoyable. I can't say I hated it, but I definitely didn't love it.

Will always cherish this experience, just wish it could've come in a slightly improved package to really take it the extra mile for me.