In many ways this is a lovely send-off for Atelier Ryza, but it overall feels as though the ambition in this game served to distract from what it's done well in past entries. Opening up the world made the game less focused & exploration less rewarding. The new key system is needlessly confusing and poorly explained. The number of different effects a single key could have bogged down the entire system and resulted in me fully disengaging with it. The translation is also frankly abysmal, rife with strange grammar and typos. This makes the dialogue seem robotic, making the late-game, jargon heavy text more of a slog than its predecessors. I still enjoyed the battle system and the core alchemy systems, but the added aspects and botched translation dragged this one down in my eyes.

I'd have some forgiveness if it was actually a good 15 minute long game, but The Rusty Sword is nothing more than a pale imitation of classic Zelda. It's got grating music, poor hitboxes, some pointless items, and it's over in under 15 minutes. The bombs are in the game for some reason, but don't appear to have any real use. The one room I found with bombs was completely empty. I could've seen this garnering some small fanbase as a full-fledged game, but considering its length it's not even remotely memorable.

Yooka-Laylee should have been a return to classic form, but it's nothing more than mediocre. The core platforming is enjoyable, but it's marred by the need to constantly wrangle a camera that feels like it's working against you. The game's worlds are inconsistently designed, with unclear direction and unnecessarily large & empty areas. These areas are stuffed with bad minigames and side content that distract from the platforming which should take focus. There is some charm to this game when it comes to the look & the characters, but it's otherwise a poorly designed mess.

I understand now why this was such a killer app for the PlayStation VR. It's absolutely oozing with charm and uses VR to a highly effective and accessible degree. Each stage is sharply designed and the level design is highly varied. It's a joy to actually have to look around the world to find hidden bots and the various "powerups" with the controller were all enjoyable additions. It's impossible to not be charmed by Astro Bot, I'm glad to have picked up a PlayStation VR even if it's just to experience this lovely treat.

When this game works well it's addictive, strategic, and entertaining, but when it doesn't it induces hair-pulling frustration. Card of Darkness is just ruthlessly balanced when it comes to randomness -- there's no guarantee that a given board is even solvable. Compounded with some challenging to keep track of enemy effects, I often found myself in no-win, frustrating beyond belief levels. The game still has a lot going for it in terms of charm and interestingly strategic gameplay, I just wish the randomness felt a little bit more fair.

When sorting my Steam library by Steam reviews, I always forget to account for the fact that any sort of anime girl aesthetic results in significant ratings inflation. It's not that Rabi-Ribi is a bad game, it's just an eyebrow raise to see such universal acclaim. The character designs are skeevy and the dialogue and plot are childish resulting in me feeling like I needed to take a shower after playing this game. The gameplay itself also wasn't for me, I don't find bullet hell too engaging and I didn't like the combat mechanics. I will say that it's impressive how non-linear this game is, it may be the most open Metroidvania I've ever played.

Returnal stays great. Everything I loved about this game on PlayStation 5 absolutely holds up and it was a blast playing through this game again. It's just unfortunate that this PC port appears to have added some bugs which I never experienced on the original version. I have a high tolerance for most bugs, but when progression is concerned, I have zero tolerance. This game has a nasty habit of going to a black screen and killing your run entirely. I also personally experienced some performance issues which made certain fights more challenging than they should've been. In spite of these issues, I still had a great time revisiting Returnal and I'm excited to see what Housemarque does next.

I'm not vehemently opposed to the Ubisoft open world formula like many others on the Internet. I find a lot of the aspects of their design to be relaxing and see them akin to popcorn flicks. Watch Dogs is just an unfortunate distillation of the most bland aspects of Ubisoft's design, culminating in a truly lifeless and corporatized husk. Ironic, considering its subject matter. The hacking is barebones, the stealth, driving, gunplay are all varying degrees of annoying and frustrating. Aiden Pearce himself is completely unlikeable and the story is boring. I'm surprised with how much I enjoyed Watch Dogs: Legion a few years ago, it truly did not have much of a positive foundation to work with.

I have a long history with Frictional Games and have enjoyed nearly every single one of their titles, and The Bunker isn't breaking that trend. They've done well to tweak their formulaic survival horror experience into something even more refreshing than their usual fare. The game has a strong sense of atmosphere and dread with some interesting new game mechanics. I would've enjoyed some deeper lore, as this one felt a little bit light on that aspect compared to other Amnesia titles, but it was otherwise a very strong entry into the series.

Given how much of Minecraft is centered around building things, it seems like a real-time strategy base building game should be a perfect fit for adapting the series to, but I felt like this one seriously missed the mark. Controlling units never feels right, even with the game's more in-depth command menu. It's not exactly clear which units are being issued a given command and pathing often causes units to get stuck on geometry. The pacing of the game is also pretty whacky with an open world whereas I feel like a mission structure would be a better fit. I love to see Minecraft experiment with other styles and genres, I just wish this one had been structured differently.

There's something cathartic about an arcade beat 'em up. They're all simple and straightforward, but the journey of the game's stage, enemy, and boss designs can be a treat regardless. Night Slashers didn't do anything that made it particularly stand out to me, aside from its classic monster theming. It's as generic as they come otherwise. Simple movesets, quick stages, and you're home before dinner. I felt like Night Slashers relied a bit too heavily on absolutely mobbing you with enemies in later stages rather than introducing new enemy designs, but still enjoyed the 40 or so minutes it took to clear the game. I just wouldn't be going out of my way to play this in the arcade.

Final Fantasy is a series that I personally hold in extremely high regard. I spent the past few years playing through every game in the main series, along with a huge chunk of the side games, so I was coming into XVI with lofty expectations. Initially, I found the game to be a little bit of a drag, but with each passing hour the game was more and more endearing. The characters are likable and well-written, the gameplay has such depth beyond the first few hours of the game, and the overarching story (while flawed) kept me intrigued & invested throughout. There are valid criticisms to be made about this game, such as the sidequests being boring and the lack of any real RPG mechanics, but it's a game that has such heart that it was impossible for me to dislike it. It's clear that the XIV writing team has upped the ante because this game has some of the best writing in the series along with the voice acting chops to back up the script. It also has some of the highest highs of the entire franchise, with some absolutely bombastic fights and emotional moments. The future of the Final Fantasy series is extremely bright with Yoshi-P on board.