My feelings about EB are complicated. It's extremely grindy and slow, will often force you to survive with only one or two party members, and deal with all sorts of annoying ailments, massive difficulty spikes, a very cumbersome inventory management and revival system. Despite all that, it's still very alluring. The bizarre way the NPCs are written, the places you'll go and the overall otherworldly atmosphere are fascinating. Visual effects and animated backgrounds are striking and impressive for SNES hardware, as is the sample heavy soundtrack. I adore the creepy undertones that get more full on as Giygas' influence grows, and I'll never forget moments like going to Moonside, or the ending which is one of the best I've ever experienced. I even find myself enjoying combat in a masochistic sorta way. But overall this is an RPG that I love more conceptually, than actually sitting down to play it. I have a lot of respect for it.

A dark mix of classic 3D Zelda, Shadow of the Colossus, Castlevania and light dating sim elements..? I generally enjoyed the loop of going to the dungeons, solving puzzles and bringing back flesh before time runs out, keeping Elena from transforming into a monster and growing the bond with her. Your chain basically doubles as a hookshot and whip and there's a lot of climbing and swinging around which is quite fun. Each boss fight is a puzzle in itself and they can feel pretty grand. Despite taking a lot from other games I mentioned, the curse aspect, lore and variety of endings gave it its own thing.

I have to say there was a lot of room for improvement. Gameplay is kinda janky. Towers start to reuse old interiors and ideas halfway through very noticeably, and feeling of repetition can start to set in. I wish that Aeron was more of a character with more voiced lines, so their relationship didn't feel one sided. No original compositions was also a bit of a disappointment for me, the dungeon music got old fast. But for a studio's first attempt at making an original IP, it honestly turned out surprisingly well, it's not something forgettable. Sadly Ganbarion were sent back to Namco's basement to make One Piece games forever.

Definitely more enjoyable and less frustrating gameplay than the first part, the bosses were actually really fun this time and the final dungeon didn't make me want to blow my brains out. It's still diet Nocturne - missing elements that made that gameplay so awesome and adding irritating random mechanics, like being ambushed in a weak human state or other limited transformation (which happens extremely regularly). But it's still got the press turn system, so still much more engaging and challenging combat than the average JRPG. The lore and world was the best bit of DDS1, and entering a brand new reality in the beginning of DDS2 and seeing the shift in tone was super intriguing. Unfortunately as it went on, they kinda lost me with the direction they took it. I still enjoyed the conclusion, visually and conceptually.

After finishing this duology, I gotta say I don't think DDS is Atlus' hidden gem masterpiece like a lot of fans seem to say. I was honestly really disappointed overall because it has some of the coolest story concepts I've seen, but there's so much that I think it fumbles. I did not care for the characters at all (especially the dude with the shit jamaican accent) which makes it harder to care about what's going on. There is literally NO reason for the protagonist to be silent in this particular story, with an extremely small amount of inconsequential dialogue options. The gameplay can be so bullshit and aggravating, it's not as fun as other SMT games. The encounter rate is still insane and there are still several roadblocks where you just have to stop and grind to unlock skills you don't have, because that's the boring replacement for demon recruitment and fusion. Dungeon design is also extremely basic in 2.

I just expected a lot more from this with everything I'd heard, but I did have a much better experience with 2 and came away from it thinking more positively. I don't regret my time spent playing them at all. And I have a lot of new songs for my playlists now, the soundtracks go insanely hard. I think Battle for Survival is my favorite random encounter theme ever

I've never had a game become one of my all time favourites so instantly, it's been a long wait and it lived up to all expectations and even surpassed them. BRC nails the early 6th generation aesthetics and has an aggressively colorful art style with awesome character designs. Movement and general control is immensely superior to its (glaringly obvious) inspiration Jet Set Radio. It's so smooth and effortless to skate around the walls and ceilings once you've learned the ropes, helped by the addition of a air boost. Level design is all round consistently fantastic. The maps are all dense and much bigger than they first appear, I felt genuine excitement every time I discovered a new secret section which I do not experience often with games anymore. What I wasn't expecting is for the story to be interesting too, while not taking a big focus. It's not entirely perfect - there are quite a few glitches as of the current version and some QOL changes could be made, but nothing hindered my 10/10 enjoyment and I can't wait to 100%. It absolutely oozes soul and it's the most fun I've had with a modern release since 2017. PLAY IT

I first played P3-5 in 2019, and since then I played 4 and 5 a few more times, but never 3 which I always had ranked below them. After finally securing a European copy of FES (very expensive) I decided to finally revisit it that way on my CRT. Man... I GET Persona 3 now. I finally understand why people love it so much. After playing other SMT games and growing accustomed to the difficulty and quirks, it was now a walk in the park and a lot of the criticisms I had don't matter to me anymore. I enjoy grinding Tartarus, the boss fights, really enjoy the higher difficulty than 4 and 5, and I even grew to like the weird stuff - ordering AIs with tactics, tiredness, reverse social links. I guess it made it feel more realistic and made me approach it differently to other RPGs. I tore through the story and didn't find any of the pacing issues I remembered and wow, this is a super consistent story with probably my favorite finale in the series. I don't love all of the cast but they are generally well written. It's undoubtedly the most flawed of the modern Personas and it's not gonna be for everyone, but I love it now. I've been thinking about it so much. 9/10 for the experience

This was a one of a kind experience... It's amazing how far ahead of its time MGS2 was. Not just mechanically but in terms of its themes where it's almost prophetic and more relevant than ever in our current day, and also how it uses unique features of this interactive medium to tell its story. It's been a while since I've been truly excited to keep playing something and see what happens next. Played MGS1 and MGR and they were cool, but this was something else and I was really enjoying the gameplay now too. Raiden is an awesome character, I much prefer this iteration of him. I'm definitely a fan and I'm looking forward to playing 3 sometime

Woefully unbalanced and broken and that is precisely what makes it so chaotically enjoyable. Everyone gets access to the same ridiculous weapons of destruction to the point it becomes fair again, no two races are the same. The skill ceiling, mechanics and physics are so much more advanced than other MKs that everything else pales in comparison for me. There has never been movement as good as the bikes in this game since. It also has the best new tracks (which were all BUTCHERED in 8) and selection of characters. And of course, a thriving online scene that still plays the game every day and are creating custom tracks for it 15 years later. The GOAT Mario Kart no contest

I think this is a pretty underrated game. I wasn't amazed by the little I played of its Wii U port, but the original 3DS version is much more interesting. It pushes the handheld to its absolute limits despite being one of the first games on it, just really impressive to see it running so well on there all things considered. I much prefer the first person aiming of this version, shooting feels much better than I ever expected it to and the touch screen is used for a variety of things. It's way better to me with circle pad pro turned off because then it just plays like a portable RE4 (and the N3DS' nub is not suited for that movement at all). Enjoyed the ship setting and it ended on a good note with a challenging final boss. I had a lot of fun overall

My thoughts as a long time 2D Sonic enjoyer. I wanna start by saying the retail price is outrageous. This is not anywhere close to the quality of Nintendo's 2D games (which are also overpriced). Sonic games are made with lower budgets than ever but they want you to pay more for them. Releasing this in the same week as Mario Wonder is just embarassing.

The first few zones are genuinely good. It's not in the same league as older games and feels messy, but there's KINDA original level theming, a lot of cool fresh new concepts and enemy designs, a new 3D special stage. Its level design is more akin to the erratic CD than 3K but I initally didn't mind that. Control and physics are fairly close to Mania and felt natural to get into. Bosses can go on for way too long but I initially found that they were surprisingly creative and challenging. It's after you reach halfway that all of this takes a nosedive and the jank becomes too much. The last zones feel thrown together to make the 12 total and have you constantly stopping and dying to random unreactable shit. Golden Capital is the worst. This is what YouTubers THINK classic Sonic is. Anyone who's not usually good with Sonic gameplay is probably going to detest the whole experience, which confuses me as this entry seems to be so casual oriented. I can't even imagine how 4 player multiplayer is supposed to work.

The lamer half is not helped to make more exciting by the lacking aesthetic in comparison to CD or Mania's striking art styles, and the most forgettable OST of the entire series. A few tracks sound like Tee Lopes, but a lot of them sound straight up repurposed from Sonic 4. A forced fake "RETRO" sound that doesn't fit. There is a single standout that sounds like a lost Saturn era song, that would've been a way cooler direction for the OST. Sonic music used to be the one thing you could rely on! I can tell there was at least some passion put into this from its animations and so on, and it's easily better than Frontiers, but it's still unbelievable how a series so well known keeps feeling so amateur.

All in all it's okay if frustrating, and might become more fun after more plays to adjust to the bullshit - if I even find it to be replayable. 3K and Mania obliterate it and it also pales in comparison to most 2D titles. I am legit heartbroken that Mania 2 died for THIS. I would rather get more 2D adventures like Rush if we have to lose the sprites. Wait for a big price cut

If "style over substance" was a game this would be it. Throughout the playthrough you'll be mowing down hundreds of about 3 enemy types reskinned in a barren ugly city to make money so that you can play the "real" story missions and mow down even more guys. These start off with a mansion, stadium, school etc, but about halfway through it feels like they ran out of ideas for interesting locations and became straight up hallways. You might think that the assassin boss fights would be its saving grace at the start, but those also devolve over time becoming jankfests with the most bullshit invincibility frames I've ever seen. Well, I kinda liked the humor of the game and it was sorta enjoyable in a mindless sort of way cleaving a load of dudes into pieces even if the combat system is very simplistic and as aforementioned, JANK. But you should just play God Hand instead. I just don't really fuck with games that are unfun "on purpose"... Shoutouts to the abysmal audio mixing which I'm surprised didn't blow out my Switch speakers

Klonoa 2 is one of the most well-designed platformers ever and I'm mad nobody told me... There were multiple stages that transcended just being a level of a video game and felt like spiritual experiences. Dreamlike visuals and sounds so engrossing I forgot I was controlling it. Despite looking like a lost Sonic Adventure character, Klonoa's gameplay could not be more his own. His moveset is very simple but used in incredibly clever ways - each stage is like a big 3D puzzle which you experience from a 2D plane and can be genuinely very challenging to figure out. The game was really ahead of its time doing things that only became more common in the genre in the 2010s.

I have no idea why this is considered "the good one", this is so horribly designed compared to World on PS1 which was a decent little platformer. What happened?? First thing you realise is the view is no longer fixed to the side and you are immediately hit with the worst free camera possibly ever. Initially the levels seem a bit more open, trying to be more like Mario with the metal cap and underwater stuff, or Crash Bandicoot with levels that have you running towards the camera. After the 2nd boss the quality goes down the toilet and you are surrounded by bottomless death pits at all times, either trying to find your way through confusing pitch black mazes or just going down a straight line jumping over more death pits / swimming on rails. Very boring level theming all round. 100%ing this could pass as a form of torture