A great game. A not-so-great zelda game.

I had the privilege of getting this game on day one. I bought the collectors edition. I was extremely extremely excited for this one. The final trailer they put out for the game still gives me chills, top 3 videogame trailers of all time. Looking back, I maybe went too hard on it when I first got it. I was losing sleep and was not a kid anymore. So I rushed through it the first time, demolishing it, not taking time to stop and smell the flowers.

Second time around was master mode and full DLC. I noticed something: This game is a real treat and I am tired of open world games. It's not just that they are way too large in scope and design, but they are also incredibly empty. Every game is boasting on how large their map is but it makes me want to play it less. It's too much. Maybe as I age I'm finding I pine for concise games with brevity. That being said, drinking in the atmosphere carefully crafted by the game designers is unmatched. What a beautiful world created here. The game is so committed to it's idea and scope that Nintendo pulled this one off, to an extent.

I think being a lifelong Zelda fan hurts my perception of this title. The game is great, but in terms of how - Z e l d a - it is, the game is lacking on multiple fronts. Foremost is the music. While the music fits the scope of the game's vision and is beautiful in its own respects, BotW is a step backwards in terms of legacy and connection to the Legend it claims to be a part of. It is a void in the space of magnificence.

Now, I have a respect for how storytelling is told in an open-world game and how each studio may do it differently, but god did they do a poor job with it in this title. I did not quite understand the subtext and supportive story after collecting the memories and reading through zelda's journal and everything. I had to later watch a synopsis on youtube literal years later to actually wholly understand what was going on. I understand there is something to be said for the subtlety of this game in general. Most of the world is subtle and hiding under the surface, waiting to be explored. But damn, please don't do it to the main narrative. It IS a good story. I LIKE the story. They just needed to tell it in a better way.

I could go on about the dungeons or whatever you want to call them. Shrines. I did all of them and they were fun. Some better than others. They didn't have that Zelda magic which is fine. They were just fine.

At the end of the day, the game is fun. It is a good game. It's huge in game and out of game. It was culturally explosive around the world. I do not think it is perfect though. I do not trust people who give it 10/10, 5/5, perfect no notes. I do however like having them around because sometimes you need a pal with blind optimism.

I think this game has it all. It's my favorite strategy game. The canvas engine is beautiful in this game. The look and feel is like a water color painting come to life. The game has a really charming anime WW2 basic story here but the game is really well told through it's storybook chapters and in game cutscenes. There is a huge cast of characters in this game and you can pretty much customize your squad with who you like. The gameplay is a true strategy game with twist. When selecting your units on the battle map it then goes into the game world and you can move your unit around and shoot like a third person shooter. Watch out for intercepting fire and line up your shots for maximum damage. You get the customization of an RPG, the tactics of a turn based strategy and the movemnt of a third person shooter. It's really cool and well done. There are multiple classes and different jobs for each unit. Each character has their own potentials that can turn the tide of battle. Maybe one unit moves faster in the grass, or gets a defensive boost when standing next to a tank or how about another unit has better accuracy when around women and then on the flip side you can have negatives as well. Like such and such hates this character and won't act when near them. Or this unit has a dust allergy and will lower his accuracy. Or this guy can't see in the dark ect ect. It makes your team stand out and feel like real people and trying to maximize their strengths and weaknesses is a lot of fun. The game is a ton of fun trying to figure out to conquer each mission while trying to keep my units alive. There is also a perma death element if your unit dies and is overtaken by the enemy and not rescued in time. So you wanna strive to keep your favorites alive and aim for total victory. I was generally invested in the games story and characters and I think it's a great highlight as well. The voice acting is really good too. This is a fantastic franchise. I replay this game every year or so and everytime I enjoy it. It's a perfect ten in my book.

The original Tetris Effect is one of the best games ever made, to the point that it was all I played for a few months straight when it originally released; I forewent a heap of other big 2018 releases just so I could keep playing it again, again and again again. That’s the mark of a good fuckin’ game right there! Maybe a perfect game, even…

If the original Tetris Effect had a flaw, though, it was that the experience could be quite isolating. It had a certain aura of loneliness that stood in stark contrast to its uplifting core message that humanity is a single-stacked mass of glowing, breathing blocks that deserve to be together in instrumentality, not held alone and apart. Singing “it’s all connected” is all well and good, but the sound of that voice can ring hollow when it’s bouncing off the walls of your empty living room.

I think Tetsuya Mizuguchi and his team may have been aware of this, too - because Connected is all about making the original Effect’s promises into a reality. It’s hard to know when this update was actually conceived of, but announcing it a few months into the original lockdown and delivering it during that harsh 2020 winter feels like a heartfelt gift from Monstars and Resonair to the planet. A puzzle game’s plea for love and mercy at a time when it was most needed.

I feel kinda guilty about ignoring the gift, though. This DLC/v1.5/whatever-it-is primarily focused on multiplayer, and not since Tetris Battle Gaiden have I seen a game actively innovate on what communal Tetris could be. I doubted this would be any different than other Tetris games that had tried and failed to unite players in the past. I checked it out for a bit at launch last year, but kinda left the Connected content by the wayside for a long time. I thought it wouldn’t be my kind of thing; only after watching three Tetris Pros absolutely demolish the Co-Op Journey did I begin to understand what I was missing out on.

The non-competitive multiplayer in this is a total delight, so much so that I beat the whole thing in one sitting with two random online dudes from Brazil and Japan in the middle of a random Sunday morning/Saturday night/Sunday night. We worked together to battle the stars and keep the galaxy’s light alive, all from our respective corners of our world. It was awesome to see three people span continents to co-operate and communicate via the medium of Tetris Ghost Pieces. “Put your S block here!” “Rotate the line!” “Put down your T piece here, and then I’ll put my square on top!” - I heard these people saying these things without ever registering a word. That’s crazy. That’s cool. That’s connected. And arguably it’s all the more powerful when played online with players across the globe.

Tetris Effect: Connected is the change it wants to see in the world. If you liked the original game - or are just a fan of Tetris in general - I highly recommend checking the online content out. Who knows? We might see each other out there, beyond the time.