I played the original version a couple years back and I enjoyed it despite some pretty big faults in my eyes, so I was curious how this enhanced version would hold up since I had played a large chunk of the content already. Ultimately my stance was pretty solidified without much change, this game has some really awesome plot writing (it would be spoilers to get into it too much) but is hampered by a pretty bland supporting cast and a truly obnoxious main character that takes way too long to become even partially tolerable. The Noah additions to the game are a highlight though, it makes the side characters a bit more fleshed out and interesting for the most part which is appreciated. Ultimately the super dark murder mystery and crazy sci fi elements make this a good story overall but the character shortcomings keep it firmly in last place in the franchise for me (DaSH didn’t happen).

Whose eyes are those eyes?

This is a really hard game to review because there are some things I love and some I hate. I think some the stages and gameplay are great and so much fun. I also think the uniqueness of this game is something special. There will never be another game like this. I really hate some of the humor and just disgusting parts in this game, but again I respect it for trying and doing something that couldn't be done today. I had fun in certain parts but I don't know if this will be a game I play again other then certain parts. I will say the boss fights are just so good and might be Rare's best. I think you should try this game for the experience alone

"God Bless You, Andreas Maler"

Might just be Obsidians crowning achievement in video games, it may appeal to a niche and smaller crowd but this game is a testament to the art of video games itself and how fantastic a studio like Obsidian has released a diverse and consistently spellbinding amount of wonderful titles throughout the years and games like Pentiment show that isn't ending anytime soon. Rich and dense in its historical language, dialect and accuracies but don't let that scare you off from robbing yourself of one of the better video game narratives to exist out there now. A story of challenging the old ways, new ideas, small town dark secrets, human folly, melancholy, tragedy and bloody murder at the center of artist whos is tied between it all.

I'll break this down into a few sections as best as I can, but I'll give a summary for those looking for a quick review. For those that played Danganronpa, if you played this game, you're going to find enjoyment here; the vibes and style are very different and you won't get the same experience of entering a class trial or anything like that, but you'll find a similar sense of humor and writing for the better and worse. As for the game itself, its pretty good. Not something to gush over, as I think the story's themes aren't quite as profound as other titles, including the last of the Danganronpa entries, V3, but still think its just solid.

Cast
The characters are all at least good, with some of them being great. Shinigami is basically Junko Enoshima done right; despite being a death god whose got a very different outlook on life and death and its sanctity than our protagonist, she manages to feel more human with those human moments being much stronger because of the said natural disconnect. She manages to carry over the funny from what that character did in that series, while also being her own unique charming character. Yuma also makes for a compelling protagonist, growing a lot as the game progresses, and most of the detective agency makes for a likeable bunch. Desuhiko is the token pervert of the group so you might not be as big on him; for me personally, he was ok, but definitely the weakest of the core group. The antagonists and suspects are all pretty strong for what they are and there really isn't a character in the game I can call outright bad, which is pretty impressive with the number of folks we meet.

Presentation
I'll be short with the music; Masafumi Takada composed it, so its pretty excellent. As for the art style, that's also pretty damn solid. Really the only problems I have from a pure presentation perspective personally are the fact that this game's stuck on a switch and you gotta play it at 30 fps. I believe data miners have already found xbox buttons in the files for the QTEs, so if you're worried about having to actually use a switch to play a game, hey, there will probably be a port within a year.

Story
The game is new, and with the game being so new, I won't go into heavy spoiler discussion as said discussion isn't as helpful when the game's not as much of a known entity as a game that's been around for a few years. As for what is there, I'll say the game has some pretty strong chapters where you're gonna find yourself very sympathetic for the culprit, and others where you'll be practically screaming murder this guy! The overall main story and main twist of this game is strictly okay. I think it grows a bit too big as far as stakes than the game needed to, but I do think it was fairly built up to aside from one detail. Now with the main story being overall okay, you do still have some pretty strong character moments and the stories in some of the individual chapters hold their own as being pretty great.

Mystery Quality/Gameplay
I'm bunching these together since the gameplay in the Mystery Labyrinths and mystery solving themselves are pretty tied together. So, to answer if labyrinth minigames are better than class trials for solving the mystery, yes, I would say so; a lot of shackles from being stuck in a high school are solved by them and despite me not feeling a similar level of tension to class trials, I do think these labyrinths and their approach to minigame design are a general improvement over the last game; they also do a good job cutting the more useless minigames. As for the mysteries themselves, I thought the mysteries for each case were pretty rock solid, save for maybe the first one. There's a few details I didn't personally like, but I didn't have any problems with the rest of them, aside from what I've gone over with the last case, though its always hard to do those flawlessly and I think for what it was worth, it was fine.

Concluding Thoughts
I don't think Rain Code is quite a game of the year, or the best story I've seen in a game. However, what Rain Code does have going for it is that it manages to be a really good game that'll manage to feel familiar to fans of Kodaka's other words like Danganronpa, while also being incredibly unique. There isn't a game with a vibe like it, and while I think it would be difficult, if Kodaka would want to revisit this occult world and write more mysteries for it, I'd be curious to see what they are.

Having finished multiple runs, unlocked most of the runes, and explored many of the different areas I am content saying I have “finished” the game but I will be continuing on and off for a very long time I am sure because this game is just a blast to play.

The combat is incredibly up my alley, stabbing and rolling around feels super fluid and natural: i felt like it clicked with me almost instantly and I have still not gotten sick of it at all. Things are kept fresh with a variety of different weapons to try (dual blades are the best though) and tons of different enemies across the stages. Add in the different upgrades and rogue like systems and you have a game you could play for hundreds of hours.

I am very picky with rogue like games, sometimes they click with me and sometimes they don’t, it all depends on how satisfying each run feels regardless of success or failure. While I still think Rogue Legacy 1/2 are my favorite implementation this game made me feel like every run was worthwhile by implementing a level system where you could spend your souls between each stage. This allowed progression to continue on even if you weren’t having the best run.

I am also a big fan of the fact that you don’t need to have grinded forever to actually have a complete run, since it only took me 3 runs to finish for the first time. I always appreciate a more skill based approach to a “you should have had better stats” one. This is definitely a game I will be picking up and playing for the foreseeable future and it joins Rogue Legacy 1/2 and Slay the Spire as my favorite games in this genre.

This is a game that understandably causes mixed feelings in the wider gaming audience and especially the franchise's own playerbase. That's pretty much an expectation for the series at this point, so it's hard for me to say what even my own expectations for this game were.

Whatever they were, they were blown away. I enjoyed its direct predecessor, but that game had very visible seams and glue. That's all gone here. Every decision made with the direction of Final Fantasy XVI felt to me intentional and clear. Even when it was obvious those decisions were made for budget and time constraints, I was left to believe they were the right decisions to not compromise the beautiful gem at the core of this work of art.

[Yes, it being a "Role Playing Game" is debatable ...]

I don't like formulating my opinions reactively, but I've heard so much disappointment expressed about this game's status as an RPG that I can't help but address that point directly.

I don't care about this game as an RPG. I come from the pen-n-paper RPG traditions, even to the point that I've gone back to first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons when running games for my friends (actually Old School Essentials, now, which is a much cleaner representation of that ruleset). Final Fantasy to me has always been "baby's first RPG" at its deepest.

While I couldn't resist that snarky phrasing, I don't say that disparagingly or as any kind of criticism. I've been enjoying Final Fantasy alongside the likes of Baldur's Gate and Neverwinter Nights ever since I was a 4-year-old. Its simplification of the Western tradition has been a feature since day one and in my eyes a nice, lighter alternative.

Even FFX, what I consider the best game in the series for "tactical" combat, is still a bare as bones "RPG."

Final Fantasy XVI then isn't that huge of a change to me as it finally goes all in on being a character action game. It still has Final Fantasy grade presentation, which was the important part, and now it's also captured a bit of that classic BioWare magic with its character driven moments. One might even call it Squeenix's Mass Effect 2.

Everyone complained about ME2's lack of heavy RPG systems. It's also considered one of the studio's greatest works. Yes, this a fairly odd take. Don't think too much about it.

[... but it's a smooth and approachable "Action" Game]

Sure, you can argue that even ME2 probably has more "build choices" with the suite of weapons and power upgrades. But in my experience with FFXVI, I was regularly playing around with my combat power selections until the last 3 hours of my 60 hour playthrough. That seems like a good amount of playstyle options to me.

You know what I don't spend any time thinking about? The Green/Blue/Purple/Orange gear shoehorned into a lot of games today. Not that they're automatically ruined for it, but as an example, God of War (2018) is a game I recently played that epitomizes what I consider "tacked-on" RPG systems. None of it felt like it did anything for my playstyle.

I played Diablo 2 and especially 3 for hundreds of hours. I do not get a high just from item-make-number-go-up anymore (more power to you if you do). I do get a high from inventing and executing a series of actions that make a damage number double in size without having to even change my equipment. I got that a fair amount in Final Fantasy XVI.

And a funny thing happened as I got used to the timing of the abilities and enemies... I discovered there's an oddly deliberate amount of downtime woven between many of the actions. Abilities, especially big ones, have a tendency to have fairly long executions with either minimal additional input needed, or they outright stop time for the animation. That gave me a fairly tactical experience at points as I took a couple seconds to double check my available abilities and plot out my follow up action when was either in a bind or trying to figure out how to best capitalize on an opportunity.

Maybe the future of JRPGs has been fighting games all along.

The combat here is rarely that "punishing" but that's quite certainly because it's tuned for a narrative driven experience and an audience looking for that. I consider it quite rewarding, though, as it's fluid, flashy, impactful, and as mentioned, if you dig into its systems you get the satisfaction of completely demolishing your foes. There are a few fights that require that, as well, so it's not all rose lined paths.

[A minimal distractions experience]

This is a case where my opinion is that the only-what-matters approach to gameplay systems was the correct one. I do think the equipment systems might have been stripped a bit too bare midway through development, as they still show signs that more was once intended, but otherwise I like the very reigned in approach this game has to the content.

Maps aren't overly expansive but they have a few key explorable parts. The only real drivers are the marked story sidequests, the unmarked "hunt" fights, and some hidden accessories. Otherwise you're in it just to see the beautifully crafted world and soak in the sights. Even when the side quest log hits its longest, you can still mop it up and return to the main story in an afternoon. And for most of the runtime you'll never have much more than 2 or 3 additional objectives in a story chapter for about 3-10 minutes a piece.

Overall, my impression is that it kept its sights close to the central narrative at all times without resorting to the infamous "hallway" design. This is not a game where you can eff off for 30 hours then come back when you're bored to "mainline" it. It's a meaty, focused narrative with a few optional breaks to soak in the world and characters.

[A deluge of spectacle delivered with excellent performances]

One thing I've always appreciated about Final Fantasy is the series penchant for larger than life fantasy and imagery that I will never forget in my life. Like the opening of FFX as Sin swallows Zanarkand, looking into the Jenova tank in FFVII, or the whole city of Burmecia in FFIX.

XVI stands on equal ground for me. There's some fight sequences in particular here that I can only imagine are what the developers of the original games always dreamed of putting to the screen. The sense of scale, the color, the detail the motion the lighting —

(Breathes deep, finds calm)

It's so good.

And the voice acting and motion capture performances during the directed cutscenes, along with the most natural and nuanced writing the I've seen from the series yet, were a pleasure to see. Just as I was floored by the big moments of the game, the little moments and "blink and you'd miss it details" kept getting me too.

This is the best character work the series has seen. I won't try to argue on a subjective matter like the "most interesting cast" but I'd certainly die on the hill that this is the most "fully realized" cast in a mainline title. It's hard to sum up exactly what I mean in a way that won't bloat this review into a full thesis, but the sum of it — I think — is that they all feel "present" and in the balances they should be for their roles. And frankly they feel more "real" than any other FF character I can remember.

And the camera work and facial detail and THE MUSIC ahhhhhh—

This is a bittersweet story about the struggle to keep living and to find a reason to do so in the face of world breathing its last whispers. And every bit of it sold that for me and got me entirely invested in Clive's journey.

I love it so much.

[This probably isn't a game for most people]

I'm not going to make a pretentious claim like "modern gamers are too hooked on the digital casino of modern AAA to appreciate this game." For one because, while I've seen a lot of takes on this game's story and pacing I just cannot understand, lots of people are enjoying this game just fine. So it's not my mission in this review to make everyone "see the light."

And secondly, because I know that this game is decidedly made for people who look forward to sitting through an hour of dialogue and cutscenes between 15-30 minute bursts of gameplay (not that the game is always that balance). And the game does start light on the gameplay.

While I personally find a heavily cinematic gaming experience very natural and compelling, I can understand those who don't want that.

So I won't call this a perfect game.

But it sure was near perfect for me.

A Space for the Unbound is an incredible blend of Omori and Inception that creates a deep and thought-provoking experience. The game goes deeply into how loss, grief, despair, and self-acceptance affect people, and explores these issues in fascinating and varied ways. I was initially intrigued by the trailers and the idea of a love story entwined with an imminent apocalypse, but I wasn't expecting the complexity and shocks that would be waiting.

I won't go into detail because doing so would ruin the amazing conclusion. Suffice it to say, the culmination of the narrative hits the player with an emotional force like a train. By the end of the story, I found myself wholeheartedly invested in the journey of Atma and Raya, their struggles resonating deeply within me and ultimately leading to genuine tears and unabated sobbing.

Few games have been able to stir up such strong feelings in me. In reality, I can name only a few of works that have had such a big impact on me. A Space for the Unbound expertly combines ambient elements and narrative expertise, a combination that is evocative of games like Omori. Similar to Omori, this game masterfully creates an atmosphere throughout each of its dynamic environments, leaving a lasting impression on the player's mind. The background music readily infiltrates your mind; its melodies turn into earworms that won't go away.

ASFTU's production quality and length for its $20 price point also surprised me. This game radiates an artistic quality that goes beyond the bounds of simple enjoyment and manifests as a genuine work of art. The painstakingly created pixel art displays astounding detail, outstripping the graphic prowess of other pixel art games.

When you take into account that the development team only consisted of 12–14 people, it is even more incredible. The game's creative and committed creators deserve high appreciation for their incredible effort, which manifested a world of complex beauty and maintained consistently excellent writing throughout. The soundtrack is an additional noteworthy portion of the game that also bears some similarities to Omori. It's a cute, deep, and emotional soundtrack that compliments every scene it's apart of. There are even times in the game where completely vocalized songs embellish the experience, providing an auditory treat best appreciated with headphones. 

ASFTU is infused with heart, soul, and a profound connection to human emotions. It should be warned that there are traumatic moments to be experienced, making it inappropriate for individuals who are easily upset. The voyage through these experiences is rewarded, though, with an extraordinarily wonderful conclusion that will live on in my memory forever. ASFTU is a unique find that is overlooked and merits more exposure. I strongly beg anyone reading this review to play the game because it is one of the most moving stories I have ever read in a game.

Lord help you if you play this game high.

From a gameplay perspective, Bugsnax is the logical evolution in creature catching gameplay in a post-Pokémon Snap world. I feel like I missed a few transitionary steps in that sequence, but as the bugs chirped names at me over the Dualsense speaker, I could think of nothing else.

The toolset of traps and interactions available for hunting down the snack monsters is a fairly well rounded and satisfyingly physics enabled set. 80% percent of the time, the core gameplay is snappy, reactive, and sensible even as it engages in light puzzling. 15% of the time it can get a bit jank or tedious (somewhat an inevitability of trap gameplay for me)... 5% of the time I don't know what exactly happened but I got the bug so all's well in the end.

As is inevitable, I'm unable to compel myself to completion amount beyond "a bit more than necessary," so it was nice to see the game didn't really demand any more than that from me. I did what looked interesting and moved only fairly smoothly.

There were likely a few "big catches" at the end of some of the sidequest lines that I might have wanted to get to, after having incidentally gotten at least two of them and having fun there. However, my chimp brain couldn't stomach teleporting back and forth across the island another dozen times to catch a bunch of stuff I'd already gotten to before, in order to get to said final quests.

Which brings me to the part of the gameplay that ground my gears: small inventory space but frequent demands for random critters.

Usually with a bunch of collection quests, I try to nab 1 or 2 of everything as I see them so I can quickly turn in and move on, or at least get a head start. But Bugsnax foiled my every attempt to take the initiative.

First it introduces a funny but insidious mechanic where you can feed anyone snax at anytime to transform body parts. Entertaining, but effectively all it does is make you waste bugs that you should be shoving into the ranch for backpack upgrades. This likely should be considered an element of interactive storytelling.

Second, and to my actual point, is that the number of times I had to discard a bug that I thought I was done with to make room for 3 or 4 of one type I needed, only to then find out I needed one of those discarded ones 10 minutes later, was too damn high. Probably have been an issue if I didn't catch anything until requested so I didn't waste the effort...

... But why would I not catch every new bug I see in a bug catching game??

There's no storage at base (that I was aware of), so anything you couldn't hold in your hands was wasted or consumed. As a bit of mechanical storytelling, kind of genius. As someone who only barely enjoys collectathon gameplay, screw you, game.

And as for the storytelling.

Well, it somehow managed to bypass my expectations. Certainly hasn't done anything to mend my suspicion of muppet-based stories.

What I will talk about, is that for the most part it was Muppet Gilligan's Island, which was a bit charming. I found the main points of the character drama early in a bit too petty, though, and not done with the right kind of humor to make it work for me. It was funny often, but its the difference between getting hit by a stick wrapped in foam versus a stick and a piece of foam.

To summarize: as a game, Bugsnax is delightfully weird and a very solid experience with just a few manageable flaws. As a complete experience, it gave me tonal whiplash and not in the way I like.

Not-quite-kid-friendly puppet stuff just isn't the same without Bowie 😔

So much wasted potential for something that could've been great; Forspoken almost gets it right. The combat is there, it's fun, and it's flashy. It feels like Luminous (RIP) took the complaints against Final Fantasy XV's combat and really fleshed it out. Swapping between elemental styles of magic each having different abilities and effects is fun to play with, and provides something deeper than what was found in XV's combat design.

Forspoken's world is interesting. It has a really unique approach to how the world uses color. The color of the skies and the landscapes almost never match, resulting in an almost alien world. Trees will be scorched with blue crystals. Cliffsides stained with glowing crimson rock and mineral. Enemies adorned with gold fangs or spikes. It all clashes, but in a way that creates a unique world space for Forspoken. I don't know any game released recently that utilizes such rich and saturated colors for their environments, but the way Forspoken uses it is very endearing.

Unfortunately, where Forspoken truly fails is in its main narrative and character writing. I do not like Frey, at all. It's very clear that the story was written by a white person. Those same bemoaned writing tropes and quips found in your big blockbusters are ever-present in Forspoken dialogue and don't really ever go away. Frey as a character is not interesting, plain and simple. She has a small character arc, and that's most of her character development. What we are left with is a snarky and obnoxious lead character that I just cannot get invested in. A big help is playing with Japanese VA, the lips aren't synced but at least the voice acting isn't horrible to accompany the already horrible writing. To make matters somewhat worse, when stripped of its characters - Forspoken is your base standard isekai. There isn't anything particularly unique about it, which is a shame because the world itself holds interesting and deep lore.

In what could have been a great game; Forspoken's combat, world, and art style can only take the game so far until forced to interact with the story.

Look, all this needed to do for me is to not have you battle the same troll over and over and it delivered. The enemy variety being better was great and one of the few things i needed.

The combat allowing you to juggle enemies over and over alongside great combo options. Some of the setpieces were exactly what were missing from the first title.

Absolutely incredible without even mentioning some of the incredible writing and themes explored in this story.

This game has been a rollercoaster of ups and downs but it ultimately ended on a high note.

The first 15 hours were wonderful and the physics tools they give you allows room for creativity for solving puzzles, traversing the world, and fighting enemies. The shrines were a ton of fun (especially as someone who typically hates puzzles in games). The temples are a step up and, for the most part, are incredibly fun, creative and ends with a cool boss fight. The main story is solid (although I wasn't emotionally invested) and they cooked hard with the game's finale.

Now for the complaints...This game has a lot of combat but its unfortunately very mid. Sometimes, the combat doesn't feel satisfying but the biggest issue is the enemy variety. You fight the same 5 enemies the whole game and nothing really changes. It becomes quite repetitive and the only thing they change are the colors of the enemy and make them spongier. The gameplay loop with weapons is also incredibly bland: get weapon > fuse with something > spam attack button > break > repeat. For my whole playthrough, this loop has never changed but it was cool the amount of weird things you could fuse on your weapons even if it looks ridiculous. The most frustrating mechanic are the companion abilities. While the abilities are cool, getting them to activate got tedious and frustrating. Whenever you want to activate an ability, most times your companion will run away and it leads to situations where you're chasing your companions rather than fighting (idk why they didn't put an ability wheel for this). Horse riding is also terrible and the worst I've ever seen in a game.

Lastly, the open world itself is just okay. It is impressive how big it is but I found the world relatively uninteresting. Most of the locations are just shrines, a cave, an occasional town, and more caves. While I enjoy doing shrines and temples, I didn't really enjoy the other activities. Bringing Koroks to their friends and helping Addison with a sign were all boring and repetitive. The depths were also not interesting because the game has enough caves and they just made a really big cave and made it dark with annoying enemies. Also, I wasn't crazy about most of the side quests. Most were forgettable and were typically just boring fetch quests. I do wish the games had better and more interesting locations and activities.

Despite my complaints, I did enjoy the game overall and found it fun. Its a good open world game but I don't agree with calling it a masterpiece or one of the best open world games. It's got its fair share of problems but it was a fun adventure.