At first glance, this seems to be one of countless retro inspired indie game, but I think CrossCode manages to carve its own identity amongst the titles that inspired it.

The game is a top-down twinstick action RPG. The controls are smooth and the combat is fast. Melee hits feel just right but range attacks also play a crutial role.
By changing elements you Basically overhaul your whole moveset which makes combat dynamic and customizable.
The game is not too difficult but it is fairly challenging.

CrossWorld is the the setting the game takes place in, a real life physical MMO located on the moon! Players connect into the game by projecting avatars on it. Other than this, it feels pretty similar to other Isekais, although not disconnected from the real world. ThIs MMO contains exotic locals and dungeons that were a joy to explore with plenty of secrets hiding at every corner.

The story starts fairly generic but takes a very interesting turn later into the game. Our protagonist, Lea, is a silent protagonist who is not so silent. An excellent jab at the trope which felt pretty well executed. She manages to convey a lot to the player through limited vocabulary by employing creative solutions. The party members were all great and I loved the relationships they built with Lea.

The OST is pretty good. Nothing that really stuck out to me but it felt right in the moment. There are a few tracks i listen to outside of the game but not the majority of it.


Pros:
•Fast paced, smooth and dynamic gameplay.
•Gorgeous pixel graphics and colourful aesthetics.
•Great sci-fi/Isekai story and endearing characters.
•Lot of side content and secrets to find and explore.
•Save anywhere! The game is great for short play sessions or long binge.


Cons:
•Challenging puzzles with a very large amount of them. Some puzzles require real time coordination which requires motor skills. An accessibility option is available to slow down the puzzles butthey take a while when slowed down so it's not a full-proof.
•The top-down perspective males it hard to distinguish height levels due to the game being pixel art, this makes a small portion of the platforming not quite intuitive.
•Dungeons are lenghty and combat can get difficult, you can still save anywhere in the dungeons.
•Ending has players divided. Personally I liked it but it is a little vague so you will need to connects some dots or play the DLC for a resolution.


An amazing game with a ton of soul, this hidden gem must not fly under your radar!

Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time is filled to the brim with great new ideas all around that had the potential to outdo the already masterful first game, and even a few better executed stuff than the first game (mainly plants like Blover and Cactus). However, the scummy amounts of microtransactions and artificial difficulty ultimately undercuts the game's strengths and makes it rather tedious and not really worth coming back to. Meanwhile, the soundtrack is noticeably weaker and the Versus mode is an uninspired bore in every way. EA can fuck off.

i've been realizing that most things i could possibly praise undertale for are all things that were done much better (to me at least) in other titles before or after, most of them before. it was a very important game to me when it first came out and i was a young teenager, but nowadays i can't bring myself to praise much outside of a few songs. hell, even toby himself has made it hard for me to have too much nice to say about undertale now that deltarune is out and is just better in every conceivable way.
i guess retroactively i do like mad mew mew quite a bit and in terms of music the dummy theme and the genocide-exclusive tracks (especially battle against a true hero, probably my favorite toby fox song) are all marvelous, but in 2022 having played a lot more games than i had before 2015, undertale is just very okay. it's not bad and is a really impressive game in a lot of ways, but i don't enjoy it anymore and i will probably never play it again.

i'm also very mixed on how i feel about undertale's impact on indie rpgs but i won't get into it