One of my favorite if not my favorite game of all time despite having quite a few glaring issues.

The reason it’s probably my favorite game of all time and why I’ve spent around 400 hours on it is that playing it just makes me happy. Despite having some dark themes, this is a feel good game if there ever was one. The characters and the world are just so charming. Playing this game feels like going on a relaxing vacation.

My main criticisms are twofold. First, the dungeons can definitely be a bit monotonous at times especially if you find yourself over leveled which is very easy to do. The dungeon design was improved in persona 5 but the ease with which you can become over leveled is a flaw present in pretty much all the persona games. This is a small criticism however. The game is still very fun and the dungeons aren’t really the reason to play it anyway.

My other main criticism regards many of the writing choices. The notable one is with the characterization of Kanji and Naoto in regards to the suggestion at various points of the game that they’re both queer. Now, these characters don’t have to be queer for them to be well written - that is not my critique at all - they could still be compelling and well written characters without that. My main issue is with the way the question of their queerness is resolved by the game. It honestly feels like some of the writers wanted to go further with it e.g. have Kanji be gay and come to terms with that in a positive way - but some higher up told them they couldn’t do that. This seems even more likely if you think about it in the context of the scrapped Yosuke romance option and the fact that even persona 2 had the option for the main character to be gay and confess his feelings for a male party member. If this higher up scenario was the case they should have ditched the focus on queerness altogether. As it stands we get a strange sort of half measure where the character arc feels at times very unnatural. The same goes for naoto, whose queerness is handled even more poorly IMO. The pinnacle of this being Yu getting to decide whether or not Naoto wears women’s or men’s clothing based on his preference if they’re dating. There’s actually a mod to change the dialogue in this scene to make the girl’s school uniform scene happen because Naoto wants to experiment with wearing girl’s clothes.

This is getting kind of rambling but here’s my main point: in a game where the main message is supposed to be coming to terms with your true self having two arcs where characters think they’re maybe queer and then realizing “oh wait I’m not” (either genuinely or due to social pressure) feels really bizarre. Why even bring up the question of their queerness in the first place if you’re going to do that. Kanji easily could have been a guy who likes traditionally feminine things and is embarrassed about it and has to come to terms with that and nothing else. Naoto would be a bit harder to fix since her wearing mens clothing is central to her character. It's really hard for me to imagine a way that arc could work without Naoto eventually identifying as gender non-conforming in some sense. Some people have proposed that Naoto's arc could be about a cis woman who crossdresses to fit in at work and then learns how to be comfortable with being a woman in a male-dominated profession. This, however would be an incredibly fraught and honestly quite boring route to take with Naoto. In Persona 4, Naoto's arc ends up being this really strange and confused story where she clearly feels more comfortable presenting as a boy in all situations but this is implied to be because she is just insecure about being a girl. The arc ends with the conclusion that naoto should just learn to be more confident about being a girl, which is a very unsatisfying and depressing conclusion for her arc and honestly just a very anti-trans sentiment that kind of stains what is otherwise a very likable and charming character.

My main point with all this - either go all the way and have realistic arcs about characters coming to terms with their queerness or scrap that angle altogether. It’s such a shame because Kanji and Naoto are such wonderfully written and likable characters in general. Their arcs, for all their flaws also have some really touching and wonderful moments. I just wish the entirety of the arcs was like that and didn’t suffer at times from confused and indecisive writing where it feels like two different people with very different ideas of where the arcs should go were butting heads. This issue of character development that seems to fly in the face of Persona 4's supposed theme is present to some degree in pretty much every main character arc.

All of this said I still adore this game and it’s still one of my favorites. It is however a very flawed game and by no means the best I’ve ever played. Replaying this game necessitates me relying on extensive head canon as well as mods to fix some of its more glaring writing issues, which is honestly a shame. To anyone reading this review who really loves this game - these criticisms aren't meant to spoil your enjoyment of persona 4 or make a claim that you're bad for liking it. It's totally fine to love this game and it's also totally fine to really dislike this game - there are certainly a lot of valid reasons for people to dislike it. For everyone who does love this game, however, I think its important for all of us to be critical of media we enjoy. It's very possible to admit that a piece of media is flawed or problematic and still thoroughly enjoy it in spite of that. After all, Persona 4G definitely has a lot to enjoy despite its flaws.

KIRA has a finger perfectly on the pulse of 90s PSX nostalgia. Basilisk & Basilisk 2000 were entertainingly meta, but I was curious what the longform of that kinda game looked like. Was the stamina there?

Lunacid is 10 hours of tight adventure. Within its labryinths, nearly every dead-end has a purpose: a new item or weapon, a journal entry, a secret door. Level ups are brisk and correspond to easily observed changes in ability, not just increased attack but higher jumping and quicker walking. Weapon upgrades happen only for a few weapons but when they do, the entire appearance and sometimes material makeup of the weapon changes.

Nothing is wasted, so in the end Lunacid does not feel like a watered down King's Field, or worse cropped out, but something just as filling in a smaller package.

My only issues with Lunacid is how it becomes a nexus of 90s standard definition nostalgia buried underneath a mountain of referential nods to important games, especially Demon's Souls. KIRA is talented enough that one day people will be referencing them in their own indie games, but for now the winking and nodding breaks a little of the magic.

This is one of my most anticipated games of recent years, and it held up to every expectation I had for it. I was so enthralled by the world and the music and the sense of discovery and all the esoteric secrets. I think a lot of people came into it with the wrong expectations, same with thinking Dread Delusion is "supposed to be the new Oblivion" or whatever, but honestly I don't think a lot of the complaints are founded, especially towards an indie passion project like this, and it's damn near perfect in my eyes. I genuinely couldn't put it down the first day I played it and it ate up my entire week afterwards too. Even my friends got into it, and had the same experience with everyone playing in call together for a solid 4-5 hours, even canceling previous plans to keep going.

simply put: i'm just a gal who loves 2 adventure. i love discovering little secrets 'n mysteries, i love collecting weapons 'n items, and i love battling ghouls 'n creatures. LUNACID, more than most other games, does all of those things very well. me and my wife, who usually isn't super into many games, both played this for twelve hours in a single day and for most of a week were constantly talking to each other about secrets we found or things we did in-game. it's very much a game i'd recommend to play alongside friends, if possible - but also one i'd say is worth playing blind and with its difficulty slider pumped up a bit. has some larger issues with balancing and some messy area design (like the one lategame area that's JUST the Tower of Latria, it's shameless) but the level of player freedom with its wacky arsenal and abilities is just too fun. great music, too.

Some ingame events are based on the moon phase

Not some ingame moon

The fucking real life moon

Such an utterly deranged schizo mechanic deserves 4 stars

Thank you Kira Miyazaki truely Kino Field