Shin Megami Tensei IV was a great entry into the series for me. Although I played some of SMT V, I gave up on it early on, but I decided to give the series another chance with SMT IV, and I am thankful that I did. This game is great in all aspects. I've fallen in love with the battle system, the story, the characters, the demons, everything, and it has made me go on a binge through every SMT game.

I like how the story revolves around a Chaos and a Law route (there also being a Neutral route) with one character that is a symbol of each route. I will say that if Neutral wasn't such a pain to get (without a guide), I would've went with that, but I decided to go with Walter and Chaos, and I actually liked that route. Although a bit cliche, I enjoyed the story a lot, I liked the contrast of the above-ground Kingdom of Mikado, and then the underground city of Tokyo, separated by the bane of my existence, Naraku. The conflict between the Ashura-kai and the Ring of Gaea was interesting. I will say that I was somewhat confused during both the Blasted and Infernal Tokyo segments, but they were enjoyable enough. The final boss being against either Merkabah or Lucifer was also enjoyable, even if it made me stay up until 2:30am because of how many game overs I was getting.

I enjoyed the main cast of characters for this game, with Walter and Isabeau being the highlights. Jonathan I have no opinions on because I just didn't agree with his path alignment, and Navarre can suck it. Characters like Skins and Fujiwara are confusing because they just appear out of nowhere and I just don't care about them. It was fairly obvious how the game was going to handle Issachard after he failed to become a Samurai, so no surprises there. Hikaru was interesting because I did not think she was going to turn out to be Lucifer out of all things, and thought she was just another random character. Also, Burroughs is so annoying after a really intense conversation she's like 'You've completed this mission.'

As for the gameplay, I like how this series uses the Press Turn system to encourage striking weakness, while also encouraging the use of buffs like Sukukaja to make enemies lose their press turns. I need to talk about why this game doesn't have a 5 star rating, and that is because of Naraku. I think I almost wanted to ragequit in Naraku and that made me turn the difficulty down to the lowest difficulty (I turned it back up later). The amount of gameovers I had in Naraku was unbelievable and I wanted to cry because of it. Other then that, I enjoyed how the game made me utilise buffs more than I have ever had to in Persona. I also found it enjoyable fusing a bunch of different demons in the Cathedral of Shadows. A very rewarding system which was one of the reasons why I fell in love with the series.

While I enjoyed getting to walk around Tokyo on a map, it was so annoying not knowing where to go sometimes. Coupled by the fact that I decided to stop doing sidequests because of how pissed off the random encounters on the world map was making me, and I never got the levitating function so the world map remained an annoyance for me. I did do most of the quests and they were quite enjoyable, involving different demons, and some were unique, such as running away from Seth in Naraku.

I have so much love for this game, and coming off from Persona 3 Reload was no easy feet, but it did deliver a great game that I thoroughly enjoyed.

EDIT: What on earth did the devs do Lucifers sprite? Also, now I know what getting SMT’ed is now, pain.

Wait, I forgot to review this?! Welp, this is gonna be a little hazy. I played it a couple years ago. I recall liking it quite a bit but it doesn't quite reach the heights I think it was capable of. I love games that blend aspects of Zelda with aspects of Souls. It's a match made in heaven. Similar to Tunic in some ways, but I actually preferred DD to that game.

My memory is not the best, but I'll try.

I like the ability to increase your stats in the order you choose. Focusing on speed and strength is always my go to. I think the game is very smooth to play and is great at providing a sense of weight with your weapon. Love me a big hammer. Fighting is great. Being able to mix in some spells is also satisfying. I do wish it was a bit more difficult. This leads to one of the issues I recall having. The backtracking was a bit much at times. Once you've cleared an area, it's not as fun to go back through a refight enemies that are annoyingly in your way. They can be avoided, yes, but the game also makes me want to fight since it has such tight controls. Part of this might be my own fault, but there was certainly a feeling of tedium creeping in at points.

You know what else I love? Hookshots. That is all. Moving on.

The bosses were cool, but it would have been nice to have a couple more important fights sprinkled throughout.

I love the aesthetic. It's a simple looking, yet beautiful game. The focus on greyish tones makes the colourful bits really pop. The UI is clean and easy to navigate as well.

This game makes me want more games that are as polished as this from teams of similar size. It reminds me of the best of the best like Hades, Ori, Rogue Legacy, Zelda, etc.

I think they're almost there. Perhaps next time will be a real triumph. I believe.

Since I have now gotten to the 3D Zelda's in my Zelda marathon, and they're usually a lot longer than the 2D ones, I've decided to play a game or two in between entries. There will be new games here and there, but it also gives me a good opportunity to replay shorter games I love. Plants vs Zombies is a game near and dear to my heart. I've played it countless times in the past, even tried to Let's Play it years ago, and even still in 2024...it's one of my favorite games ever.

The concept of PVZ is pretty simple. Zombies are trying to get to your house to eat your brains, you have to stop them by using plants you acquire throughout the game. Incredibly simple plot but it works because of the constant humor throughout. The only non-zombie, non-plant character is Crazy Dave and he also helps with the game being hilarious. He's iconic for a reason and is also home to all the dialogue in the game. The zombies themselves are also very humorous. I've seen them all hundreds of times not but on a first playthrough, it would've been a blast seeing each new zombie type as they appear and seeing what methods they use to try to get to the house.

The gameplay is also pretty simple in this game. This is a tower defense game, meaning as enemies slowly (or fast depending on the zombie) move to the point you have to defend, you must defend it with your arsenal. The game is on a grid system too so you must plan out your plots of land/water/roof as well. Your arsenal, the plants, are also varied in their uses. The sunflower is your most important plant as, while you can get sun here and there from the sky, they are the best way to produce sun in the game. Sun is your currency that let's you buy plants so obviously it's incredibly important. The game makes it known pretty much right away that you'll want sunflowers at all times. Other than that, you have offensive plants like Peashooters or melon-pults. You have defensive plants like wall-nuts or pumpkins that can hold off zombies for a bit. The reason they can is because they have much more defense than other plants and as such take longer to eat, vs like the usual 3 or so seconds it takes to eat a plant. You have TSPP's (temporary solution to a permanent problem as coined by Nintendocaprisun) which are plants that destroy a single or group of zombies and then disappear afterwards. They're amazing in a pinch but also usually take longer to charge. That's another thing in this game. Besides plants needing different amounts of sun to plant them, they also have different recharge times until you can plant them again. Sunflowers or offensive plants are usually the quickest while defensive or TSPP's are usually a lot longer. It adds just even more strategy to the game I feel.
The zombies are also varied in their ways to try to get into your house as well. I already said their various ways are humorous but they're practical too. A regular zombie has 10 health. Then there's an upgraded zombie with a cone that has 25. Then ones with buckets have 50. Not only that but some zombies are faster and behave differently than others. Pole-vaulters are very fast at first but once they get in front of a plant, they pole-vault over it and then walk normally. Dancing zombies literally dance over to you and summon 4 zombies all around them like a backup crew (they actually were originally Michael Jackson zombies doing the Thriller dance but had to change it due to him passing around that time). Gargantuars have 100 hp, the most of any zombie and when they get to 50 they throw a little imp on their back like 5 grid spaces ahead of you. AND the imp itself has like 3 hp or something but is super quick. It's just really cool to see all of these zombies with their own unique properties combined with the many different plant types in the game.

So, you know how the gameplay works. How about the levels themselves. That's also pretty simple. There are 5 levels in the game and each has different properties. The regular lawn levels are the most basic and there's actually nothing special about them. The nighttime levels don't have falling sun so you must rely on cheaper mushrooms that can only grow naturally at night and maybe some sun-shrooms instead of sunflowers. Pool levels introduce the water and also 6 rows instead of 5. You must plant lily-pads before you can plant any land plants. There are aquatic only plants (lily-pads as well) that you can plant without a lily-pad tho. Fog levels are pool levels except at night but also with fog. So apply everything I said about the night levels here as well as fog that covers half the level. So you'll either have to deal with not seeing half the level at all or use specific plants that let you deal with it. Finally, the roof levels which don't allow you to plant pea shooters, because of the angle or the roof, and you must plant these flower-pot plants first before any other plant. Besides the first level, which is basic for a good reason considering it teaches you the basics, each level is varied enough so it doesn't ever get boring. Also, every 5th and 10th level, the game breaks the pacing up a bit by letting you play a mini-game or a conveyer belt free-for all style stage. These as well are very fun and again makes it, so the game doesn't get tedious. This campaign all culminates in a battle with Zomboss, the final boss of the game and the mastermind/leader of the zombies. His fight is super fun and challenging enough to the point where it's not too easy. I didn't mention it before, but the main campaign is honestly not very hard at all. Some people might take issue with it but I always found it to be a very relaxing and chill game to play so I welcome the easier difficulty.

If you want difficulty, the other modes have you covered. Yes, the main levels aren't the only thing in this game. In fact, I'd say it's only around the halfway point if you want to do everything. First off, before I get into the various other modes PVZ provides, let's talk about the other things you can find on the main menu. Once you're at a certain point into the main campaign, you'll start unlocking other things you can do. The shop let's you buy various plants, items for your lawn, stuff for the zen garden and even a tree you can grow. You can buy all this stuff with money you get randomly from zombies. The zan garden let's you grow plants you get from the store or from killed zombies. This is a great way to get cash and is relaxing to check out every hour or so since it takes plants a bit to grow. There's also built in achievements, which I did get all of them back in like 2021, but this time I only got 11/20. I could've done them all again but a couple of them take a long while to get.

As for the actual modes, this is where the real difficulty comes in. Minigames contain some of the ones you played in the main campaign and a bunch of new ones. They're mostly very fun, some are more fun than others, and mix up the general gameplay a ton. There's a minigame where you feed brains to zombies that swim in a fish tank like fish. There's one where you must match plants like bejeweled. There's one where you play slots to obtain plants. They're all very different and the later ones especially can get quite touch. I'm looking at you Pogo Party and Bobsled Bonanza. The 2nd mode is puzzles. Here you play two types of little puzzle games. Vasebreaker where you must break vases that you don't know have a plant or a zombie in it (unless they're green then they always have plants). And I, Zombie where you actually play as the zombies and you must carefully figure out what zombies to place down to eat the plants. There's like 9 or 10 versions of each of these but they're pretty quick and a lot of fun. The last mode is survival where you must survive waves of zombies with whatever setup you have. In between waves the lawn doesn't reset so you can build a pretty crazy defense by the end. There's a normal and hard version for each of the 5 levels and the hard versions can get pretty ridiculous. Dare I say the hardest thing in PVZ1. I did everything in all of these 3 modes tho (besides the endless stuff cuz yeah that's a thing too) and got the gold sunflower trophy so I'm satisfied. Idk if I'd do the survival hards again tho, at least not all at once cuz they can get a bit tiring lol.

This game's soundtrack is something special and I have to give props to the composer Laura Shigihara. Not only is she an amazing composer and also vocalist (she voices the sunflower in "There's a Zombie On Your Lawn"), she also streams a lot and just seems like a cool person. Anyway yeah, she composed an absolute banger of a soundtrack. My absolute favorite song was always Watery Graves and it's still my favorite now. Other than that, my other favorites would have to be Ultimate Battle,Loonboon and Braniac Maniac.

This replay was fun, even if I 100%ed it on replay a couple years ago, I can never get enough PVZ1. Like I said, Ocarina of Time is next and after that I think I'm going to replay Katamari Damacy before I get into Majora's Mask so stay tuned for all of that!

I first played Link's Awakening on my 3DS years ago. I got it on the eShop one day after a Youtuber I liked was let's playing it, and seeing as I was a Zelda fan at this point, I figured I'd enjoyed it. I think I got up until Eagle Tower and dropped it? I at least don't remember ever beating this game. Fast forward to the beginning of 2022, I had just gotten the remake for Christmas and was excited to play it. I actually beat that version this time and had a great time. Now with this marathon, I can finally beat this version of the game. I think overall I might prefer the remake, but this version is still good and Link's Awakening is still a good game overall.

Also quick note before the review: I was originally going to play the three CDI Zelda's next but decided against it so I'm skipping those. I also know this is the DX version, and that technically released after Ocarina of Time, however the majority of this game is still the original Link's Awakening which released 5 years before OOT so I just decided to play this first.

Anyways, Link's Awakening. This released 2 years after A Link to the Past and compared to that game and even the Zelda games before it, this game's plot and general atmosphere is very different. The story this time around is pretty simple. This is the same Link as the one in ALTTP and he regularly goes out to sea to train in other countries in case of further threats. One day, a storm destroys the boat he is on and he is washed ashore on Koholint Island. This girl named Marin finds him and brings Link to her home where he wakes up to see her and her father Tarin. Link leaves the home hoping to learn what this island is about and how he can get off of it. Along the way, he meets an owl that tells him to escape this island he must get the 8 instruments of the sirens and wake the wind fish (who resides in a giant egg) with them. Halfway into the adventure however, Link finds out that the entire island may just be a dream created by the wind fish. Whether that's true or not, Link continues to gather the instruments so he can wake the wind wish and get off the island. It's a simple plot but the first thing you'll notice is that it's WEIRD. I did not mention Zelda because she is not in this game. No Triforce or Ganon either. The big staple characters aren't in this game, instead it's an entire brand new cast. You have Marin and Tarin, the other villagers of the town they're in. There are many animal NPC's through out the world, there's even and animal village too lol. The villagers eventually can't recall how long they've been on the island. Throughout the game you even start seeing things from other Nintendo games like the many different Mario enemies, a girl gives you her photo and she looks just like Princess Peach and there's even an enemy that looks and acts like Kirby. This along with the general plot gives this game such a weird, dream-like atmosphere. That's kind of a joke but it's true, they really did a great job at making this game feel like a dream. This is honestly my favorite aspect of this game; just how weird and different it feels from other Zelda games.


The general gameplay is similar to ALTTP, tho it's not quite as linear as that game. You're still going through dungeons and what not but they aren't marked on your map. It can be a bit cryptic at times, trying to figure out how to get into each dungeon, because now you have to find each dungeons respective key to unlock it. Besides that, the overworld itself is pretty fun tho it can get a bit tedious to backtrack through. There are a couple warp points throughout the world you can warp to, but I think there should've been more because even with them, backtracking is plentiful and it's not super fun in this game. The reason for that is, and it's the game's biggest issue, there's only two item slots in this game and stuff like the power bracelet and even the sword takes up a slot. I know this is a Gameboy game, so there was only A and B to work with but having to constantly switch between items to explore can get a bit tiresome. That plus when you don't have an item, needed to clear an object, equipped, an unskippable message appears every time to let you know you need that item. So, whatever you do, don't touch any rocks without having the power bracelet equipped. Like I said, this is my biggest annoyance in the game and while I still enjoyed the overworld despite this, it can be annoying due to these issues.

Exploring the overworld, you'll find many optional secrets just like ALTTP. Like that game, there are caves all throughout and you'll usually need a dungeon item to get whatever treasure is inside. The puzzles in these might actually be more complex than ALTTP's, either way it's good that they're back in this game. You'll also find those weird NPC's throughout the world as well. There's actually a long trade quest in the game, that you would think would be optional due to how long and exploration based it is but it's not. It's required at several points to progress and also the reward you get at the end of it is too. It's not the worst thing in the world but I had forgotten how to do parts of it so I had to look some of it up online so that might stump new players.

Next I want to talk about improvements this game makes compared to past games. This is a Gameboy game so obviously I can't compare its visuals to ALTTP but for a Gameboy game this looks super nice and compared to the first two Zelda games, this also looks nice than them. They did a great job with all the pixel art in this game and I can see why some people prefer this version of the game compared to the remake, based on the art style since it's super charming here. This game also improved on stuff from ALTTP as well funnily enough. You could collect items with you sword in Zelda 1 but not ALTTP for some reason, luckily, you're able to in this game again. I also found the Pegasus Boots better in this game due to you not needing to press and hold the item button again and again when you want to dash constantly. You just need to hold it and Link will start to dash on every screen he's on now. Something that's kinda weird compared to past game is the rupees. Every rupee that spawns in the overworld from cut bushes or defeated enemies is a single rupee. The only way to get more than that at once is with chests and they can give you 20, 50, 100 or even 200 rupees. It's an interesting change but probably a needed one since this was a Gameboy game and this game was already probably pushing the system to its limits.

The dungeons in this game are actually really solid. They're not as vibrant or as memorable visually as ALTTP dungeons however they're full of puzzles, maybe even moreso than ALTTP. That game has a bit more of a focus on combat, and I still might prefer that games dungeons just because of the aforementioned visual memorability. But even still, very good set of dungeons that even stumped me a bit at times. The items you get in these though are pretty solid. You have the aforementioned power bracelet, the magic rod from past Zeldas, the hookshot from ALTTP as well as the flippers. A lot of these are just older items but the standout item, and the one that actually makes the game more fun to play in general tbh, was the roc's feather. When you equip this, you can jump. That's it but it makes a world of difference in how you can play and can absolutely just destroy some bosses super-fast if you're skilled enough. If I didn't need any item to progress, I just went with my sword and the roc's feather. That was my go to set of items. There was an annoyance I had with the items. Since there's no way to speed up text, you'll be seeing the same dialogue for the map and compass over and over again. The map is fine since it's so short but the compass is like three times as long or something and they decided to let you know there's a new sound that plays whenever a chest is in the same room as you. That's cool...you don't have to tell me every time I do a dungeon tho! The bosses at the end of dungeons might also be an improvement from ALTTP. They aren't as flashy of course but they also don't require red/green potions sometimes to defeat, they all have dialogue this time which gives them more character and they're also just really weird or goofy which fits the setting of the game. I'd say they're overall maybe simpler to fight than ALTTP's bosses but simple doesn't equal bad. The final boss tho, had several different phases that took the form of bosses you fought in past games, and it also made use of several of Link's items. Because of that, it was easily the best boss in the game.

The soundtrack in this game, even tho its a Gameboy game, is really melancholic at times and is charming as hell. The signature Ballad of the Wind Fish(I sent Marin's version is easily my favorite song in the game. Mabe Village,Tal Tal Heights and the Ending Theme were my other favorites. The whole soundtrack is good however, and something else this game had over ALTTP is the fact each dungeon had their own unique theme. Now I can't say I prefer any of them over the two ALTTP had but they're still mostly solid here.

While I did have some issues that held this game back from being better than ALTTP, this is still a really solid Zelda game and one that is unique in the story it tells and the atmosphere it provides. It must've been amazing having a game like this on the go back in the day. Like I said as well, I do prefer the remake just because of the some of the improvements it made. I'm kind of known as the original game enjoyer, so for me to prefer a remake over the original is very odd. We'll get to that game way down the line but even if I like that one more, it doesn't stop this version from being good. It certainly has its own charm as well.

I think I'm going to take a small break in between this game and Ocarina of Time. I'm thinking maybe my Plants vs Zombies replay is next? Either way, stay tuned for that and then Ocarina of Time after in the near future!

Man, am I a sucker for snappy and responsive UI. Rarely is that pulled off well in the first place... but add in colourful and flashy bits to the mix and it is STILL quick? That's a job well done.

This is probably the second best take on roguelike deck builders so far (though it could also be Cobalt Core). There are plenty of ways to continue to challenge yourself as you "ascend" through the difficulty levels. After beating the game once with every deck and then beating gold rank (or whatever the highest one is) on one deck, I was content. I put the game down after about 60 hours of play or so.

I think something that became apparent after I understood the game well enough was that this game feels a bit too luck based to be a truly fantastic game like Slay the Spire. In StS, I always feel in control of my destiny. Here, it feels as though I can get screwed super early over and over. Not only that, but late in to a run you can just get stonewalled suddenly. The difficulty curve is very strange.

The first few antes are hard unless you get great synergy immediately. If you can get past ante 3 you're likely going to easily get to ante 7 or 8. But then.... there's a good chance you're gonna lose. It just kinda feels strange in that way.

Outside of that, I loved my time with this game! It's very satisfying learning how things work together and how to position your cards.

It can be very fun when you're playing with the right people. This can be said for most multiplayer games, though. Outside of that, it's a solid game. I don't think there's too much that's outstanding here. Most things that this game excel at were in the first iteration, like the tactile and involved feel of the weapons/items, the difficulty, the humor of the accidental team kills, the button prompts, and the somewhat fast-paced mission structure.

I'm glad the game exploded with success; hopefully it's a lesson to other developers/publishers that something fairly simple can be appreciated by many. Not every game needs to be a grindfest that encourages you to continue spending time and money on a constant basis just to keep the game "fun".