Hollow Knight is one of those games that just gets nothing but praise from most people who play the game and for the most part, I agree, the game is fantastic, but it has a lot of flaws that hold it back from being incredible. The world is really incredible with such interesting lore, cares, and environments that rival some of the best in the game. This comes from both it's atmosphere and design which both come together to make a dark and complicated world. However, I felt as the game went on and the world opens up more and gets more complicated. This combined with the worst problem in the game, there are way too many blind jumps you need to make into enemies and spike pits, it's a really strange issue on an otherwise incredibly designed world. However, I think personally for me the aspect of the game I felt could had used more work are the bosses, there are some really incredible bosses but they all felt pretty similar with a lot of similar moves to one another and the same tactics to kill them all. There was no boss I thought was incredible, which is a bit disappointing since bosses really make Soulslikes for me personally. Overall, Hollow Knight is a fantastic game that everyone should try but one that can use a bit of tine tuning to really make the game special, I'm really hoping that Silksong is able to address these issues and make an even better game than this one.

Sekiro barely feels like a Souls game and I kind of loved it for that, it shows just how flexible this genre can really be. It's not a RPG, meaning you have to rely mainly on skill and exploration in order to defeat bosses, which made it pretty much the hardest game I've ever played. This also means that there is no character customization, which allowed the developers to focus in how Sekiro specifically plays which leaves a lot more options of what to do against bosses than other Souls game. I only really have two issues, which both have to do with bosses. The double bosses in the game, while very few, just kind of take the approach of smushing two already existing enemies in the game in one arena which doesn't feel nearly as well refined or fair as when they are made from the ground up. There are also a handful or repeat bosses that I just happen to fight pretty much right after I beat the original boss of theirs, so I kind of wish they could've been a lot more spread out. Those are very small issues in the grand scheme of everything that Sekiro does. At the end of the day Sekiro is the most focused Soulsborne and the most inventive one I have played yet.

Everyone is already on their hands and knees giving this game that porn star tier sloppy toppy and you know what? I can't say I blame them. It's actually so fucking good with every run feeling incredibly random and unique from one another. It's just a game about risk vs reward and math but it's so addicting and so well designed. I don't even like roguelites and I have never played poker but I still loved it. I highly recommend giving it a shot, it's only like 15 dollars or you can do what I did and bum it off of your friend's steam account. Thanks Jon.

Dark Souls III is the definitive Dark Souls experience, doing what the first game does but a lot more refined and elegant. The only two complaints I have are that the levels are very linear which I didn't really mind since suck at navigation in games and the base game isn't very hard, but that can also be because I am more experienced with the series. Apart from those nitpick which I don't really have too of an issue with, this is one of the most solid games I have ever played. It has such a solid set of bosses with some of the best bosses I have fought in any game to bosses that are just okay, but it is impressive the bosses are never bad. The areas take the original's dark and dingy style and uses it to create a lot more unique areas with it with twisted and strange architecture and land masses. The combat is a lot more fluid than the original and is a lot closer to Elden Ring while still keeping in the quirks of the original Dark Souls' combat. In conclusion, I absolutely loved Dark Souls III and as I play more Souls games, it's going to be very hard for anything to top this one.

(Minor story spoilers) When I finished with Infinite Wealth, I was left with a lot of mixed emotions on my feelings with the game. At it's best, Infinite Wealth is able to improve on the gameplay of Yakuza 7 and have some of the best and emotional moments in the series. At it's worst, the gameplay doesn't improve enough from Yakuza 7 to make a big enough improvement with messy and confusing plot points that feel at odds with one another. It's such an ambitious game with so many ideas at work but not all of them really gel well together.

The best example for this is the story, with Kiryu's portion of the story being genuinely fantastic and amazing, telling a really emotional story about dying and what dying means. On the other hand, Iciban's plot is a lot less serious and lacks any big moments of emotional depth or intrigue. Both stories are meant to connect with each other but they don't end up meshing well together well at all.

The game also completely ignores some issues I had with the first game, mainly the weak dungeons with no way to exit and renter them midway through, which leaves you having to constantly reload save files if you're under leveled, which is a bigger issue than in the last game since the level scaling is a lot worse in this game and you have to manage levels for two separate parties.

In conclusion, this game reminds me of last year's Spider-Man 2 in a lot of ways. I thought both games were great but I mainly have negative aspects to talk about each game. Both games feature two protagonists where one feels a lot more sidelined than the other. Both improve gameplay in a lot of ways and take a step back and doesn't change the gameplay enough in other ways. Overall, I am a bit disappointed with this game but it is a pretty great game overall with great gameplay and a fantastic story at points.

Triforce Heroes is a pretty fun multiplayer Zelda with a lot of baffling decisions that hold it back being anything really special. First off, whoever thought that putting literally no invincibility frames should be fired. It's such a baffling component to be missing, especially with how many enemies the game throws at you. This doesn't help by the lives system which makes you restart a level if you die four times which doesn't seem bad but by the end when there are so many enemies on screen and the enemies get hard, the game can feel pretty grueling. The clothing items was a pretty fun mechanic with slight buffs for each player making everyone feel like they have some important role to play in levels, along with multiple items per dungeon that only one player can hold. Some of the worlds were also a bit misses with not a lot of fun gimmicks but most of them were pretty good and one of them was actually pretty fantastic and used the game's gimmick of having three people incredibly well and shows how well the concept can work. At it's best, Triforce Heroes is able to have a lot of really fun puzzles using the three player gimmick or just be a stupid fun with friends, however, at it's worst, it's frustating and a grind to get through.

Lost Crown is a great Metroidvania that takes a lot of elements from Metroid Dread and the entire Souls series and combines them into a really great experience. The combat was pretty fun but it kind of got repetitive towards the end, especially for the bosses which all play it similarly. My favorite part of the game was the movement, they give you so different traversal powers throughout the game that it's super satisfying to chain them together, especially in the tight trap rooms. The world design and themes themselves is great, exploring an area frozen in time is such an incredible idea for a world and they use this concept in such interesting ways. The only other area to note is the game is a bit janky, wuth some moves feeling kind of unfair and a good bit of technical issues, wasn't a huge deal but was frustrating when they came up. Overall, Lost Crown is a great game that any fan of Soulslikes or Metroidvanias should check out.

Elden Ring is an absolutely incredible experience with a lot of high highs but pretty low lows. First off, it's a Souls game, the combat is incredible, I've only played Dark Souls 1 before this and you can feel how much more focused the combat system is in this game that Dark Souls, there aren't weird parts of the move set no one uses. The bosses that are really amazing in this game, hit it out the park and a lot of them very clearly pushed me to my absolute limits. However, one of my big issues in the game is the bosses, the fact that oh my fucking god there are so many repeat bosses. The majority of the bosses in the game are slight reskin of others and with so many bosses in the game, there are some real duds. The reskin problem extends to the open world because for about half of my 60 hour playtime, I loved the world, but I eventually felt like I had seen everything I needed to since so many bosses and structures are repeated and I had really good armor anyways, so what's the point of exploring anymore? This is just a common pitfall I see in a lot of open world games but it doesn't detract from the initial sense of discovery and the really great story and world and visuals, I just feel the structure is a lot better in Dark Souls honestly. I did love this game but not as much as the first Dark Souls, it's a truly incredible game with some pitfalls that stopped me from enjoying it as much as I could have.

God of War Raganrok is a really great game but it doesn't surpass 2018 for me. The main stand out part of the these games is the story which I prefer 2018's more personal and small scale story to the big bombastic narrative of this game which had more holes and a harder time balance characters and plot points. That's not to say the story is bad, it's fantastic actually with a lot of stand out plot points and character arcs. However, every other aspect of the game is improved upon from 2018 with a slightly better combat system and one of the best looking games I have ever played.

This is just a fantastic remake of an already really fantastic game and was basically just a really good excuse to replay this game. Sure, the game is pretty easy but it's still a blast to playthrough since timing things right is still really satisfying and important. I highly encourage anyone who is playing through this game to give the extra challenge bosses a try, especially those who find the main game too easy, it really tests your skills and pushes the limits of the combat system. Also, as a big fan of the SNES Final Fantasy games, I really loved how many references there are to them in this game after playing through them all. I highly recommend this game to anyone who wants to get into more turned based RPGs, if you have a bit more experience, it's still a really great time, especially if you do the post game content.

Resident Evil 4 remake is absolutely fantastic and takes a lot of what worked about the two former Resident Evil remakes and prior games generally and incorporates them into a much more action focused gameplay that I preferred overall. The game does such a great job of balancing the horror elements that the series mainly focuses on now with the cheese action set pieces people seem to like from the original. The game just hits that pure form of fun for me of killing bastard enemies with fun weapons and roundhouse kicks and weirdly powerful knives.