Bender
2023
Having not played many numbered Final Fantasy games, I enjoyed my time with Final Fantasy XVI.
I liked most of the main characters and the story the game told. Though some characters I wish I liked more but were just too dull (Jill). A big pain point for the game is side quests. They dish them out to you as you progress through the story but most of them are not that interesting. The side quests that are interesting are near the end of the game but even then there's a lot of dialogue that could've been cut down and I ended up skipping though about half of it to complete the quests.
The combat, while not very deep, is really fun and flashy. The main combat loop allows player expression with a number of moves that are all viable and different styles. Figuring out my "build" to maximize my efficiency in combat scenarios or boss fights was really enjoyable. It does take awhile to get the latter half of the abilities and I barely used them until I just forced myself to try them out blindly. One other small grip I had with builds was not being able to switch out moves in the middle of combat or before a boss that you wouldn't know was coming up after a cutscene. The Eikon fights are anime as fuck in a good way.
Visually, the game is gorgeous. Environments are highly detailed, Eikons look awesome, and the visual effects are spectacular. Sometimes the VFX can be too much during combat cause enemies can get lost and you can miss an attack to dodge or parry. The 4 main maps you explore while great feel kind of same-y and empty.
Lastly, for the most part I did not like the character designs. Some character designs are great like Clive, Joshua, Cid, Dion. But a lot of them are not. All side characters look like they were spat out of a random NPC model generator. The best way I can describe it is that they lack "character". The voice acting does the heavy lifting to make these characters shine but not really their appearance or animations. The enemy designs are really good though.
Overall I liked the game. It's a roller-coaster of game but near the end, I was ready for it to be over. Part of me wants to do a new game + run to challenge myself with the combat but I think I need some time away from the game for now.
I liked most of the main characters and the story the game told. Though some characters I wish I liked more but were just too dull (Jill). A big pain point for the game is side quests. They dish them out to you as you progress through the story but most of them are not that interesting. The side quests that are interesting are near the end of the game but even then there's a lot of dialogue that could've been cut down and I ended up skipping though about half of it to complete the quests.
The combat, while not very deep, is really fun and flashy. The main combat loop allows player expression with a number of moves that are all viable and different styles. Figuring out my "build" to maximize my efficiency in combat scenarios or boss fights was really enjoyable. It does take awhile to get the latter half of the abilities and I barely used them until I just forced myself to try them out blindly. One other small grip I had with builds was not being able to switch out moves in the middle of combat or before a boss that you wouldn't know was coming up after a cutscene. The Eikon fights are anime as fuck in a good way.
Visually, the game is gorgeous. Environments are highly detailed, Eikons look awesome, and the visual effects are spectacular. Sometimes the VFX can be too much during combat cause enemies can get lost and you can miss an attack to dodge or parry. The 4 main maps you explore while great feel kind of same-y and empty.
Lastly, for the most part I did not like the character designs. Some character designs are great like Clive, Joshua, Cid, Dion. But a lot of them are not. All side characters look like they were spat out of a random NPC model generator. The best way I can describe it is that they lack "character". The voice acting does the heavy lifting to make these characters shine but not really their appearance or animations. The enemy designs are really good though.
Overall I liked the game. It's a roller-coaster of game but near the end, I was ready for it to be over. Part of me wants to do a new game + run to challenge myself with the combat but I think I need some time away from the game for now.
2022
One the best Pokemon games in years plagued by poor performance on aging hardware. Great QoL changes. The open world works, though not the prettiest open world. There's an actual post-game that is good. Personally, I think it's worth playing through even with the bad performance or you could wait for a patch down the line.
A great Kirby game even if it's a little on the easy side.
Incredible sense of freedom and exploration that breaths fresh air into a interesting open world.
2016
One of the Best Single-Player Campaigns of all time and One of the Best Multiplayer Games no one played.
2018
Fantastic Spider-Man game and great open world.
A great collection but the gameplay hasn't aged well.
2021
I love Arcane games and I liked the idea of Deathloop. But planning out the times of days for runs got boring and felt like I was wasting time if what I wanted to do didn't line up with killing one of the visionaries. Level design was great but not much changed during the different times of day.
D2 is my main game and Witch Queen is the best expansion since Forsaken. Great campaign (play on legendary difficulty) great Raid, void 3.0 was great. Crafting needs a little bit of work but the foundation is there at least.
Improved a lot from previous game. Story was very interesting and engrossing. Side quests on open world check lists were meaningful. Visually gorgeous.
2022
Fantastic little game that is more than meets the eye.
Breath of fresh air in game design and gameplay. The world is lacking but the good out weighs the bad. Would recommend to any pokemon fan.
Great Story, Characters, and Art Direction. Only thing lacking is gameplay but worth playing.
2021
Very well made Metroid that goes back to its roots with upgraded mechanics for modern era gaming. Hard at times but rewarding.
2019
Missing that something that New Vegas had. The world seems like just big static squares. Writing was okay. I didn't care for any companions.