I feel like my head is overwhelmed with a ton of different feelings and thoughts on this game, 99% of those thoughts extremely positive and 1% of those thoughts, nitpicky small things that I don't really care about right now because I just loved this game with my entire heart.

The story is for sure a bit Nomura poisoned but I still had a really good time with it, I'm starting with it because I don't have a ton to say partially because spoilers and partially because it's confusing and insane and I'm not qualified to deep dive into all of the differences and what everything means. It's for sure much more well done and interesting than a Kingdom Hearts story but I get a similar feeling where I'm mostly just along for the ride and willing to let there be some bullshit.

The main thing about the narrative and writing that continues to blow me away with these remakes absolutely is the characters and all of the various interactions and moments they all get. I went from knowing and not particularly caring about most of these characters to all of them becoming one of my favorite casts of characters in all of gaming! I don't dislike anyone here, even characters I was a bit worried about being annoyed with like Yuffie or Cait Sith ended up being absolutely wonderful, Yuffie especially ended up being one of my favorites. I have nothing but absurdly positive things to say about each and everyone here, capped off with wonderful performances! I do find it can get a bit on the anime melodramatic on the voice acting side of things but as someone who usually doesn't love that stuff it didn't really bother me at all, again probably because I just love these characters so darn much. It's rare a game can juggle around so many characters and make me feel so intensely attached to all of them! Obviously I have favorites, but I don't think anyone is so far and away above anyone else and that's because they're all so insanely likable and interesting. I could talk for days about how I love all the little aspects of each character and all of the various dynamics like Barrett interacting with Yuffie, Red, or Cait Sith and how it always was a highlight or Tifa and Aerith's genuine friendship or Red XIIIs big character moment I won't spoil, or even Cloud and Yuffie's sibling dynamic but if I get into anymore detail I might never stop. I love all of these guys and even if the story can be a bit convoluted and overwhelming this is some of my favorite character writing in any game ever, it was something I already loved about Remake but it's tenfold here.

Gameplay wise it's even more fun than Remake which was already a pretty amazing Action RPG. It's not too different all things considered, but some new Materia, Synergy Attacks/Commands, and most of all the brand new characters in Red XIII and Cait Sith (not to mention some short really fun playable versions of a couple other characters) all come together to make an already astounding combat system that much better. Synergy Attacks/Commands were probably the biggest thing I kinda refused to learn until I realized they're really fucking good and fun as hell! They generally follow a couple guidelines but are extremely useful and a lot more powerful than I was giving them credit for. There's also a ton of returning and new weapon abilities that are a ton of fun to mess with. Finding a new weapon is always exciting even if the stats aren't great because it means you'll at least get a new attack to unlock and they're all pretty fun and worthwhile. The two new characters are a ton of fun as well! Red XIII pretty instantly clicked with me, but Cait Sith felt a bit awkward for a while. It wasn't until a section where you're forced to be only him did I actually put some time into learning him and end up finding him really cool! Still on the lower end for sure but once you get used to him he's also a ton of fun. Exploration was solid! Each region looks absolutely gorgeous and it's fun to do all the little tasks in each place. I can see someone finding them tedious but they all have an absurd Final Fantasy charm that I never really got bored. I'm also the kind of guy that just loves ticking away at a checklist and this game does it great. Control/Movement during exploration is pretty average, I think I would have preferred a Jump button cause it can feel a bit awkward but I understand why there isn't one. The various Chocobo and their gimmicks are fun to use and the giant monster truck thing you get is silly and fun to use. If I had one complaint it would be that Chadley won't ever shut the fuck up! It's a pretty annoying pace breaker the amount of times he stops you from playing to tell you that you got some good data and to keep up the good work. I wish it was kept to walking conversations or something, I actually like the idea of Chadley and your exploration fueling his research and working towards new materia and such but he stops you so much and it's pretty fucking annoying.

The other big aspect of the gameplay is the sheer amount of mini-games here. I'm a guy that absolutely LOVES stupid little mini-games and changing up the main gameplay here and there and this game does it a TON. It's almost all great too, I love how often they have you do a silly little mini-game like shooting boxes on a mine cart ride, a punch-out style fighting game with low poly OG FF7 models, a pretty fun Piano Rhythm game, Chocobo Racing which feels way more satisfying to control than it has any right to, and a ton other I could go on and on about. The two big consistent ones are the returning Fort Condor which is still lots of fun and I like the more offense-oriented changes they made and it also uses the great low poly FF7 models. The new one is Queen's Blood which is an insanely in-depth card game that's a ton of fun! There's over 100 cards and there's a good amount of variance in what they all do. It's pretty fun to make new decks and I always went to do all the new Queen's Blood matches available whenever I got to a new town because I liked it so much. I'm really excited to go back post main story and grind all of these mini-games cause they're genuinely so fun and there's way more than I would have expected.

The music is also WONDERFUL which like, obviously. It's a bit unfair having one the greatest OSTs as a base and a ton of it is pretty new to me but it's just so beautiful. I don't think I emotionally connect with Video Game soundtracks much, there's a ton I love and think are great but they don't grab me emotionally as much as I just think they're sick. This entire soundtrack felt so emotional, I don't know if I'll ever hear Tifa or Aerith's themes again without feeling a bit emotional. The way they weave character themes into the important moments for each character is so insanely beautiful. There's also obviously iconic songs like the battle theme which I'll never get sick of and the insanely beautiful town themes. It'd be pretty tough to find a video game OST on the level of this and it's one that'll stick with me for a long time.

I can't believe this game exists and it feels as large a step above the first game in the remake trilogy which was already a game that really surprised me with my love for it. Direct sequels pretty often end up amazing before later games try a bit too hard to be different and crazy so it shouldn't surprise me as much as it does, but fuck man it's a beautiful feeling to have a sequel absolutely crush it like this game does. For my tastes and opinions there's been a few of those the last few years and it's just so sick. I'm incredibly excited for the third game, it's gonna be tough to live up to this but no matter what I just can't wait to have more experiences with these characters. I could go on for way too long absolutely gushing about this game but I'll leave it at this already way too long review and say I'm so glad these remakes exist and got me into the FF7 universe.

Fucking christ what a video game. I'll get my gripes out the way real quick, game is a bit dated. I understand its literally a ps2 game so like it's gonna feel old in some parts but maybe some things couldve been redone. Like we did NOT need the "battle panties" armor sets that the girls got. Sometimes remakes do this good thing of taking out things that are bad in retrospect so theres some stuff I wish would've been taken out. Also feel that some social links weren't given as strong of writing but I do appreciate that each bond with everybody could max out platonically. The rest of the game though was fucking amazing though. To the theming and storytelling and also goddamn they don't skimp out on presentation. The music extremely catchy and the unexpected music shifts that would happen to help elevate some scenes. Fushimi was such a nice social link because I got to see her grow more confident in herself as a person and being able to live with her head high and to approach situations herself. Her link really made me tear up at the end. Also love the art style of the game and how distinct each character felt in their art. Now to why this game hit extra hard for me. This will be spoiler on from this part of the review so if you care for those just know this is where the non spoiler section ends. Play the game, especially for the fact if you're not 70$ you can be one month of gamepass sure.

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Since I was young and even now I have struggled with the idea of death. The end of me as a person and the end of those I love. Thinking many times in a nihilistic way when I was younger to think "I know death is coming. I might as well just shit around and do nothing cuz nothing matters." So going into this game I will be honest, I knew the ending. It was like the one persona game I had heard the ending of before LOL. And to a certain way, treated the game like how I treated myself when I was younger. Told myself "Well I know at the end I'm going to die so I might aswell just try to help the other people so they'll be fine without me." This game showed me though that I couldn't merely just detach myself from how much I cared for each character. Like how I was in real life, these people exist and I should be happy of the time I am here with them. This game constantly shone a mirror in my face and went "think about your unhealthy relationship with death that you've had for a lot of your life". The beautiful monologue Aigis gives you in the end, all my emotions hit me like a truck. I came to this conclusion as I got older but the game reiterated my idea: Nothing can stop death, but nothing can stop me from enjoying the time I have here and the people I love dearly. That is what life is to me, to celebrate those around me and to uplift others along with myself. I live to make everybody happy. And I am going to therapy for making sure that I can bask in the happiness myself. Make sure to love those around you while you can. And keep them in your heart. Always

TLDR: This bitch cried and the message of death hit 2x stronger due to past circumstances.

Mega Man (X/ZX/Zero) is a series indie games very often try to recreate and capture the magic of, I enjoy a lot of them but this is one of the best games to do it. It's most inspired by Mega Man Zero in my experience. The hub, chip system, rescuing civilians in the levels are all very much inspired from that game but in my opinion done even better than it was in the original.

Gameplay and control are the biggest stand out, the movement and level design are super fun and exciting. I wouldn't say too many level gimmicks are super original but it's just very refined and done super well. Kai feels great to control, the combat takes a little to make sense but once you start to understand it and learn how to use it alongside your grapple hook it's incredibly satisfying! There's also a lot of chips to slightly change how combat/movement feels and you can use those to better hone in how you want Kai to feel. I personally used chips that gave me an extra jump mid-air, and made my attack have extra range/faster and it felt amazing. The bosses were exciting too, the only complaint I would have is they honestly felt a bit easy once I got a better grasp of the game + had some upgrades. The attacks and patterns were super fun though, and I loved the burst attacks they get. I won't spoil it but this game has a really cool way to do a boss rush that I thought was creative and fun!

Graphically I adore how this game looks, super stylish and amazing pixel art. If I had to say one negative thing, the character designs while not bad I think are pretty generic. Namely the main 8 bosses, they're fun fights and don't look bad or anything but also aren't super memorable and don't stick out. Overall though the game is a bit simple but it works in the games favor and is great. The music wasn't bad by any means but much less memorable than the games it's inspired by. Obviously that's a really insane bar but it stuck out way less and I don't particularly remember any song.

This game rocked! I had been following it for a while and it lived up to all expectations I had going in, even exceeded them! If you're a fan of Mega Man, Mega Man X, or Mega Man Zero/ZX you absolutely will have a great time here, and even if you felt those games were a bit too intense you might find some enjoyment here. It's a lot more accesible and easy to jump into IMO and has some nice QoL stuff that make it a super easy reccommend if you're a fan of action platformers.

Look a woman can admit when she was wrong and I'll say it. I was wrong about this game. When this game first cameout I kind of immediately put it down. I was lost and after 3 hours I gave up and went "man this game is fucking boring". Now after 6 fucking years I decided to give it another shot and man. What a video game. I think also what hindered my enjoyment really was me kind of hardcore comparing it to older zelda games which while some things are zelda staples this game is a MASSIVE departure from the usual. I will say after 6 years it is a shock how little I knew of what was in this game. I guess that's what you get when the most you saw is the occasional clip of somebody sprinting to ganon off game start or them bomb launching themselves across the map. So it felt like how everybody else felt day one where everything was new. I was shocked to how well some of the shrines were because of how many there are. Plus the divine beasts felt like true dungeons that were fun to figure out. The big like "oh!" moment I'd get a lot from this game when I figured out a solution and it was very creative was a treat. I enjoyed how this game expands on the story as a whole of hyrule. The supporting cast being very memorable characters that helped add to the world of Hyrule. This game truly was a treat of a video game. I will say now I get it and I am 100% on board for Tears of the Kingdom

I have never played such a poorly designed multiplayer in a minute. To the terrible onboarding and the confusing multiplayer setup and also the fact that it takes a lot of fucking work just to get into a match. It is genuinely just an overall bad time. And you know ill concede I am hopping on the third entry of a series I only played very sparingly throughout the years but still what an experience that is not at all welcoming. I knew I was gonna get stomped but I have never felt so lost in a multiplayer experience as a whole. Also with just the poor servers feeling like I constantly disconnect and the atrocious map design I really couldn't get behind this game. Also this review stands for the multiplayer portion of the game because that is indeed the main focus. The weapon balance sucks dick, the map design is confusing and not cohesive with several map elements not being conveyed and only existing on certain maps. While having unique map gimmicks is cool and works in a lot of shooters it kind of just doesn't help this game's case of confusion. Really wanted to try to like this game but unfortunately I kind of hated my overall time with it. Im sure splatoon fans like this game so its not like my opinion will really change their minds and it may seem overall very bitter and spiteful in this review but its kind of me trying to give my genuine shot into a series I heard so much of. Just if you've never really played one of these just really think about it and watch more of the game is what i'd say.

hey, they made the best single player splatoon experience again! awesome! i haven't played the multiplayer at all, not that it's all that different but just wanna preface with that.

it very heavily uses the octo expansion formula for multiplayer, similar structure and missions, which was a great decision! most missions were pretty fun and interesting, the boss fights especially felt like a big step up for the franchise. i went crazy for the third boss reference and the final boss felt pretty cool and exciting. slight spoilers but the secret kettle was a super fun challenge and felt really satisfying to complete, i'm a sucker for that type of completion reward. all of the new abilities were good, but especially the grapple hook was really fun to utilize! overall i don't think this will change your mind if you dislike splatoon already but it's clearly the best entry in the series (to be fair it'd be pretty bad if it wasn't) and if you like splatoon this campaign is really fun and worthwhile!