Pac-Man's limited run of platformers or "Pac-formers" as i like to call them has been very hit or miss, the only one that I'd say is up to par with other Platformers is possibly Pac Man World 2 without 100% the game, World 1 is decent albeit poorly aged and World 3 is a classic 2000 mess despite it's writing being surprisingly funny and the Ghostly Adventures games while serrviceable, feel generic and don't use Pac Man's character to his strengths and also have awful production values.

This is where Pac Man World: Repac comes in, a remake of the first world game now modernized for modern consoles, the game showed a lot of promise when first shown but i did have some reservations after the Klonoa remasters had some backlash along with other recent remakes.

I'm glad to report this remake not only improves on an original game but is a pretty decent time like the first. There are some issues but i feel Repac shows an insane amount of promise if this is way that the world games can be ported.

Going on a tangent here, the original Pac Man World games with maybe the exeception of Pac Man World 2 can't be ported due to using Ms Pac Man which has some weird legal jargon, and now is replace with Pac-Mum which i gotta be honest, isn't a good design but is a small price to pay to have these games on modern consoles.

In terms of being a remake, this game looks and feels great! What surprised me is that the game actually has a performance mode on switch that runs at a lower resolution but runs at 60fps so that's nice, but the remake's artstyle is really good, I love a lot of the new designs except Pac-Mum, it's bright and colorful while also staying true to the original game, they did redesign Pac's Family and some Bosses along with changing cutscenes/level environments but a lot of them are for the better, like for example, if you don't save all his family members which are now optional to save, the original ending plays of Pac Man eating Orson which is now framed as the bad ending, the new ending follows the new cutscene where they celebrate the party but now the ghosts are there, wholesome.

Despite how good of a remake it is, there are some issues, they removed the fake bloopers as a 100% reward, they changed the power pellet ability so now Pac-Man grows big for some reason and the bonus mazes are still annoyning, however i think the good outweighs the bad such as the new hover power-up, new cutscenes with Toc-Man introducing the bosses, better and smoother controls, songs remain faithful to the original game while also improving on the sound design of the game as a whole and the best change, Bosses are now a lot more fair, gone is the one hit BS from Toc-Man'a final Boss and the annoying Anubis feels fun to fight due to the new platforms on ground, hell they even added some pinch modes to some other unremarkable Bosses in the game, making them more memorable, as far as remakes go this is good as it's gets.

The game however is decent enough, it follows Pac Man as he journeys through Ghost Island from an robotic imposter (Toc Man) as he saves his family after they're captured from his surpise Birthday. What makes Pac Man World great is Pac's movement, collecting items such as the fruits or PACMAN letters and level design, they use his design to it's fullest potential, though not to the extent of Pac Man World 2, Pac can butt bounce, roll and throw pellets he can collect. You also have Mazes which can be unlocked by collecting a certain fruit in a stage, the mazes aren't really that fun unfortunately, they rely way too heavily on gimmicks which hurst them heavily since they're pretty unprediactable most of the time.

Level design wise, this game is decent enough, it's not going to shake up the genre but is servicable enough and uses Pac-Man's abilities very well, it throws enough gimmicks such as racing, revving and using some of the power-ups in the game such the totally not stolen from Mario power-up the metal pellet, used for water sections.

This would be the part of the review where I'd listed some flaws but since the remake fixes most of them, i don't have many! In the original game some Bosses had some pretty unfair moments and the controls and camera (especially in the Racing sections) feeling off but a lot of these are thankfully fixed.

Overall, Pac Man World Repac is a great remake of an already solid game, it shows what a remake should do and does have some the pitfalls of some remakes such as unneeded fluff/changes but more than makes up for the fixes it does do and having a great artstyle, the Pac is actually back and I couldn't be happier.

I'm not here to tell you Drake of the 99 Dragons is "actually good" or anything dumb like that. I have no doubt that whatever nightmare got released on the Xbox was probably as bad as people said it was. But I have to admit, in regards to the version of this game currently on Steam, I can't say I really had that bad of a time! It starts out extremely rough and annoying, but once you unlock the slowing down time mechanic and the health recovery (yes, you have to unlock the ability to pick up health objects), this game becomes so much more manageable and actually kind of fun, sometimes intentionally, usually in how dumb it is. Watching Drake contort his body to point his guns at whatever is being shot while wallrunning on the side of a couch, it's a beautiful thing to witness. The plot is also just completely inane, pure 2000s sci-fi action slop, and the voice acting on Drake himself makes every cutscene worth watching.

I would say the sweet spot on this game is everything from getting the slow time power to right before the beginning of this game's version of Xen from Half-Life (yes, really). Everything before and after is mostly just miserable, and the bosses are also usually pretty bad, but overall this was a fun thing to experience. The game only really takes about four hours to beat. No checkpoints in levels can be rough, but thankfully levels tend to be short. Maybe pick it up when it's on sale if you're curious about these kinds of trainwrecks the way I am.

Despite skipping over an entire console gen, Volition managed to put out a Saints Row reboot that’s nearly indistinguishable from its predecessor from 11 years ago. It has the same clunky controls that’s still without a cover system, lackluster visuals with constant pop-in and similar janky physics, Santo Lleso is barren with next to nothing ever happening in it and NPCs that lack any reactivity (arguably worse than before since basic features like mugging and hold ups are missing), it has the same old mission design and repetitive side jobs, the same animations, etc. It would honestly be easy to mistake this for another entry from the 360/PS3 era and not something that released in 2022, though I suppose for some that might not be a bad thing if that’s what they wanted from it

This one follows a new crew of younger Saints as they form the gang from the ground up and take over. I guess the writing’s about on par with the others past SR2, which is to say it’s not good but doesn’t take itself seriously. The new characters were more like normal college friends than criminals who constantly shoot down waves of enemies and their dialogue was generally awkward, but they weren’t unlikable. The worst thing about the story is how it tries to build up a betrayal twist at the start which in no way was surprising and just rushes straight through it in the last 3 missions, but otherwise it’s fine and doesn’t take much time to finish at least

Basically those who liked SR3 (less so SR4 since it tones down the zaniness) and would just be satisfied with more of the same will probably get decent enjoyment out of this. But those who figured it would do anything more to set itself apart after all this time, well… it doesn’t. And the lack of polish in most areas, notable amount of bugs, and sheer lifelessness of its world bring it down further for me

It's been over 10 years since I played this. Replaying it on the Mass Effect Legendary Edition has been an absolute joy and it's surprising how much it held up under the scrutiny of my rose tinted glasses.

Firstly I must say the main plot to Mass Effect 2 is engaging with some stunning moments, but it doesn't quite deliver the impact of the first game overall. The majority of Mass Effect 2 is in fact made up of recruitment quests to bulk up Shepard's squad before making the final attack. Those characters you recruit are the heart of Mass Effect 2 and are what really make the game memorable, their personalities keep the game engaging and very addictive.

At the start of the game you choose what class Shepard specializes in which varies from being a tech specialist, pure combat specialist, using telepathic biotic skills or a mixture of all three. No matter which choice you make there will be other characters available that can make up for what you can't do, and against certain enemies having certain skills is important so having a balanced party is key, especially on harder difficulties. (Engineer all the way, go my drone!)

In combat Mass Effect 2 is a mixture of third person shooter with RPG abilities. Though you always progress with a party of three characters Shepard is the only player controlled character, with the other two AI controlled. Bringing up the wheel menu they can be directed to a certain location or to use specific abilities, but for the most part they handle themselves fairly well bar the odd suicide run where the AI does something unexplainable. Like a lot of third person shooters of that generation Mass Effect 2 is cover based with plenty of low lying walls, crates and door ways to hide behind when the situation gets risky or to wait for Shepard's shield to recharge. The combat is fun but feels a bit wooden in places especially in controls and aiming and although the melee attack is a huge improvement in close quarters things still feel ridiculously clumsy.

When enemies are defeated or quests are finished you are awarded experience points, when enough are gained Shepard and crew will level up getting more health and ability points to put into skills. I am a little torn about Bioware's choice here, in the first Mass Effect there was a lot of option when distributing points in stats and skills, it felt like an RPG, Mass Effect 2 feels stripped down in comparison as there are only ever about 4-5 options which are all invested in attack based abilities rather then stats or more subtle things. That isn't to say it doesn't work, it does, and outside of the stat screen you would never know the difference, it's just it feels less like a full role playing game at first, though over time I have to admit it made things smoother.

This isn't the only area that has changed as there are no longer armor to collect and equip for your crew. Having amazing armor and a billion omni-gel from melting down gear didn't quite work in the original game so Bioware have instead implemented an upgrade system where your equipment never changes, it is merely upgraded. Spread throughout the universe are various upgrades not only to weapon stats but they sometimes give added effects, not to mention health boosts, shielding, some odd new weapons and even ship upgrades available and it works. Once a weapon is upgraded any of your crew proficient in that weapon can use that type with all upgrades.

While exploring Mass Effect 2 is simultaneously brilliant and disastrous. Those upgrades need raw materials of varying types like Platinum or Iridium to use. Some of these are found in lock boxes in dungeons and towns but the majority of it is found though scanning planets which is the most tedious side questing you can do in an RPG. Seriously it's insanely awful. When traveling from star system to star system or planet to planet you actually fly the Normandy, Shepard's ship, manually on a giant space map. When going into orbit around a planet you are giving info on it and sometimes will detect anomalies like distress signals allowing you to land and explore around. It's a fun way of exploring. When there aren't these anomalies though there is only the scanning where you control a cross-hair spinning around a planet measuring for large material deposits which isn't too bad a few times but you need a fair amount of material to fully upgrade everything and it gets seriously boring quickly. The amount of probes the Normandy can hold to pick it up is also limited meaning you have to travel back and forth to buy more. I had over a million Iridium by the end of the game as I never knew I wouldn't need it, terrible....

Visually Mass Effect 2 is a huge improvement over the original game (though hilariously actually is now a downgrade in the legendary edition) and more importantly just a great looking title generally. The game has a really smooth frame rate now, decent particle effects and great art to hold it all together. Except....except some of the characters. Samara's tit top, Jack's entire design and Miranda's weird one piece costume are just ugly and objectifying nonsense. I'd like to say it's a product of the times but some games are actively worse in this regard. The audio is on par with the visuals with an epic score (My favorite track in the game)matching the space opera theme. As mentioned before the voice acting still really stands up and excels in some areas, Garrus, Tali and Mordin especially sound so unique.

Mass Effect 2 is a good 30 - 40 hours long if not longer depending on the amount of exploring you do. (I finished NG+ without side quests or much planet scanning on Insanity in less than 10) There are a ton of side missions, and depending on what edition you have a lot of DLC content, and new characters.

Overall this game is still a fantastic ride that holds up really well over 10 years later. While there are flaws here and there, the amazing characters, compelling universe and overall style of Mass Effect 2 is hard to beat.

Recommended.

+ Fantastic characters.
+ Great lore and world building
+ Large variety of things to do.
+ Space map exploration is a nice addition.

- Combat still feels wooden in certain ways.
- Planet scanning is just a waste of life.
- Some of the character designs are...questionable.

I personally feel the Game Boy Advance Castlevania's steadily increase in quality in the order they released. Circle of the Moon is ok but flawed. Harmony of Dissonance is great but still lacks a little something and lastly comes Aria of Sorrow which absolutely gets it right. As others here have mentioned this feels like a true sequel to Symphony of the Night in a lot of ways.

The core game loop that makes Aria of Sorrow stand out is the souls system (a system that the creator Koji Igarashi liberally makes use of again in Bloodstaind Curse of the Moon). Each enemy in the game can, in a variety of drop rates, have a chance to give it's soul to the protagonist Soma Cruz upon it's demise. Soma is an exchange student in Japan who gets whisked away to Dracula's Castle with a friend where a mysterious man Arikado informs him of this ability. Each soul comes in one of three types, a passive and two that give abilities or attacks. There are over 100 souls in the game all with unique from turning into a bat, walking on water, immunity to poison etc. etc. I constantly changed between souls experimenting as there was no perfect combination depending on circumstance. In a way it's like the DDS system from Circle of the Moon only actually good though it still requires grinding for them to get the most out of it sadly.

Souls system aside, Aria of Sorrow just has a much better overall balance than it's predecessors. The Castle isn't too big and moving around in it is struggle free as abilities are clear how to use and fast travel points are both easy to use and spread out in fairly hassle free locations. I played this on the Castlevania Advance collection and even on my tv it looks great. I thought Harmony of Dissonance was nice but this easily tops it with detailed sprite work and effects. I especially liked the detail on the Medusa heads as their faces angled left to right as they traveled.

In all honesty I don't have to much else to add here. Aria of Sorrow is a great game not just amongst it's brethren on the Game Boy Advance but it is in my opinion one of the top Castlevania games generally.

+ Souls system is well implemented.
+ Castle is way better balanced to explore.
+ Great visuals.
+ "Arikado"

- Getting on the souls to experiment with is still insanely grindy.

Bubsy is one of the many...specimens that appeared in an attempt to rival Sonic the Hedgehog in the early 90s, and he was less doomed from the start than you would initially believe. It sold pretty well, better than Sparkster oddly enough, then Accolade pressed their luck a few more times and now Bubsy has just about mainstream infamy for his piss and shit games. The games are probably more known nowadays for their poor quality than even games featured in early AVGN episodes. I was wondering today, though, if the first title was really that bad. I've played some absurd bullshit and was kind of expecting to get around to this one sooner or later anyway, so might as well quit delaying.

What I learned is that it sucks ass, but it's not necessarily unsalvageable. This is about what I was expecting, a mediocre platformer at its core that was then rendered nonsense due to a few glaring flaws. The biggest issue is probably the combination of screen crunch and Bubsy's utter incompetence. He is probably three times as fragile as a glass bottle. It seems like they were more focused on making various ways for Bubsy to die than making actual fun platforming. He has a downright strange amount of death animations for a game this old, and they're always provoked with a single touch. If you take one hit he'll melt or shatter or split in half or some other shit. There are lots of old games where you only have one hit, but imagine if you were playing like Vectorman or something and he was that weak. That's what the screen crunch is like in this, it's another one of those games where the level layouts really don't match the screen size at all. Also he builds up ridiculous speed too, so you'll constantly crash into things that weren't even on screen long enough for your brain to register that they exist. Truly delightful.

At the start of each level, Bubsy makes some lame quip of sorts. You would think "oh, good, at least he doesn't talk as much as later installments," but it also plays over again each time you die, which is bound to be a ton of times. It gets incredibly grating. I don't see what the point of that is anyway, when instead you could just fade to black for a second and spawn back at a checkpoint instead of looking at the level's title card every time and hearing him spout dumbassery. It sounds like a minor nitpick, but it really starts to wear on you fast when you're the one with the controller.

The thing is that I feel like this game could definitely be fixed. If Bubsy himself had better physics, he had more hit points, and the screen was zoomed out a bit, it would probably be pretty serviceable. I don't at all think it's one of the worst ever, but it's got a lot of insanely frustrating issues. Not as horrible as a lot of content creators would lead you to believe, but still pretty goddamn bad and not worth a play.

I really want to like this game. It has the classic Ratchet gameplay that I've always loved since I was young, and Rift Apart's base combat is among the best in the series. The game is also a graphical showpiece for the PS5. Demon's Souls and Returnal look fantastic, but this game's graphics are on another level. The variety of locations really sells that graphical power, as you travel from bustling cities to bright mining facilities. Jumping between these locations with the new rifts is the first time I've been sold on this generation as a sizeable leap from the last. These aspects of the game do a good job of distracting you from several major flaws that are present throughout its entirety. Many of these issues aren't unique to this game, but a few of them are, and they really make me worried about the future of the series.
The biggest flaw is the enemy variety. This is at its worst with the bosses, but the regular enemies are guilty of this too. I couldn't tell you when I first realized I was fighting the same giant robot boss for the the fourth or fifth time because it happens so many times that I lost count. If you take out all the variants of bosses, there are only around 5 unique bosses in this game. The worst part is that none of these bosses are particularly fun to fight. It's so disappointing that a game so beautiful is stuck throwing the same robot and T Rex at you over and over again. In a game with such diverse worlds to explore, the bosses should reflect those worlds in some way. The regular enemies stoke similar feelings in me. I understand that this is a universe with an iron fisted emperor, but that isn't an excuse to make 3/4 of the enemies boring orange dome robots. This is one of the longer Ratchet games, and the lack of enemy variety really hurts when you're getting to the end of the second act. It all feels like they were playing it too safe with the enemies, and that feeling extends to every other issue I have with the game.
The more I think about the story in this game, the more it baffles me. It's a feeling similar to what I felt when I played the PS4 remake of the original game. It messes with a formula so simple that I was essentially rewriting events from the game in my head as they happened. It's so easy to see a world in which the story in this game could have been good, but not even the dimensionator could materialize it. Ratchet and Clank has always relied on the same basic themes of bonds the importance of friendship rather than the concept of "destiny". Rivet is introduced as an alternate universe version of Ratchet. She never met her universe's version of Clank, and there are so many interesting ways to take that plot point. You could explore how Rivet's life is a lot harder, but that she pushes through it anyway because of her unique ambitions. You could also go the opposite way, and show how empty her life is because of her solitary adventures. While Ratchet faces off against the buffoon that is Doctor Nefarious, Rivet lives in fear of the much more threatening Emperor Nefarious. I always think about the attic scene in Uncharted 4 when it comes to characterization in a video game. That scene shows a side of Nathan Drake that is almost entirely absent from the rest of the series. It's only when he's alone that these feelings get fleshed out. Rivet never gets a moment like this. You never get to see how Rivet lives, or what she believes, or what her deeper ambitions are. Her characterization reminds me too much of Ratchet's in the PS4 remake. She's just good because she's good and that's that. She doubts the honesty of Clank for like, one level, and then believes him instantly. Wouldn't someone like Rivet be a little more on edge when it comes to trusting anyone? This point is more of an issue with the overall plot. Ratchet and Rivet come in contact very early in the game, and this hurts their characterization and gameplay immensely. Once Ratchet and Rivet contact each other, all characterization is thrown out the window. The story becomes a checklist where characters are driven by the plot instead of the other way around. Before that happens, I was actually getting invested in Rivet and Clank's relationship. It reminded me a lot of the original Ratchet and Clank, and that made me love this series in a way I haven't since A Crack in Time. The story is at its worst when it comes to Kit, Clank's alternate dimension counterpart. First of all, I think this type of character shouldn't have been in the game at all. I think any way you slice it, Rivet would have been much more interesting without Kit. It feels like Kit herself doesn't even want to be in the story, as she continues to bring up this manufactured drama that ends in a pining to go back to her home planet. It reminds me of bad movie writing, and that makes sense when you look at the writers for this game. I love that two women were the lead writers, but it's incredibly evident from their portfolio and their work on this game that they tried to make their own bad comic book movie here. This is all ignoring the lack of character this universe has been plagued with since Deadlocked. A Crack in Time is my favorite game in the series, but even that game is missing the grime that the PS2 Ratchet games had. That was a world where everyone looked out for themselves, and people had motivations beyond "I'm good" and "I'm evil". I'm not saying Chairman Drek is a revelation when it comes to character writing, but he runs circles around Emperor Nefarious. As a final side not, I feel like Doctor Nefarious has stumbled his way into being the iconic Ratchet and Clank villain. To me, he's one of the weaker villains in the series, and he just happens to be in two of the strongest games. It truly annoys me how Insomniac insists on putting him in like every Ratchet game now.

I'd like to end this on a more positive note, and talk about Blizar Prime. Blizar Prime is one of the best levels in the entire series, and I would almost say sells the game by itself. A mining planet destroyed by machinery gone haywire, Rivet has to swap between the blasted off remains and an universe where it hasn't been destroyed. Seeing a planet enveloped by the void of space come back to life buzzing with energy is jaw dropping in a way few games are. There are levels like this in games like Titanfall 2 and Dishonored 2, but this one is on another level when it comes to true childlike wonder. It's moments like these that make Rift Apart worth it even with its flaws. The pure joy of shooting a giant laser through a crowd of robots is enough to almost outweigh any negatives.

As a Ratchet fan this is pretty much what I wanted.

Rift Apart carries on from Into the Nexus which came out in 2013, at the start of the game Ratchet even makes reference that he has been in retirement for years which amused me.

The story is pretty good with dimensional travel but what really makes it great is Rivet the new Lombax character. She is adorable and makes a great counter part to Ratchet throughout the story. There are some surprisingly impactful moments though I would have liked a deeper look into some characters and themes.

Presentation wise this game is pretty much the first real next gen experience. The graphics are gorgeous, great particle effects, details, lighting, crispness but what really brings it all together are the animations and loading leading to almost seamless cutscene to gameplay like you're watching a pixar movie at times. Rift Apart also really shows that crazy PS5 SSD. Hitting crystals and swapping between worlds in less then a second, selecting load at the menu and being in the game in less than a second. Just crazy good stuff. The options are great too and playing this at 60fps with ray tracing turned on is crazy for a first year title.

That said it does have a first next gen console game feel to it in some ways. It's pretty short, I got the platinum in two days completing everything and if you've played a Ratchet & Clank game before nothing here will really shock you gameplay or story wise much. Hard to really make that a negative though as it's what I wanted?

+ Amazing visuals and animations.
+ Insane loading showing the power of the SSD.
+ Play mode options (fidelity, Performance, performance RT)
+ Fantastic accessibility options.
+ Rivet is a great new character.

- Feels a little short.

Following the groundbreaking success of Final Fantasy VII, which set the gamer world on fire by placing Square right on the map as the developers cooking up absolute bangers, there were now heavy expectations on what can follow up to a game like that. This would lead to inner conflict within Square at the time over the direction of Final Fantasy while riding fresh off VII's momentum. What these conversations all boiled down to was what exactly did Final Fantasy mean to these developers? Sure, FFVII developed the series into something more contemporary by leaning into realism and modern technology, but was the franchise ready to branch away from the classic fantasy design and aesthetic that gave its identity to begin with? Or should it continue to go down this unconventional path to breathe even more new life? The next three mainline Final Fantasy games after FFVII would be separate answers to these questions. Square divided itself into three different teams for three different games, roughly developed concurrently with each other, to express what Final Fantasy meant to them personally. Knowing this makes the fact that we got FFVIII, FFIX, and FFX back to back kinda insane to think about now.

You'd think that with a game that garnered such a divisive reputation, segmenting itself as the certified black sheep of the franchise, would earn it by trying to poorly imitate FFVII and misunderstood what made it great. But the reality is quite the opposite because FFVIII is a game completely aware of the impossible challenge of trying to live up to FFVII and instead tries to be as radically distinct as possible to be judged independently. Everything that you might've loved in FFVII is only here in broad strokes that you'd have to squint hard to notice. The contents of FFVIII differs vastly from the gloomy existential melodrama seeped into the industrialized capitalist backdrop of something like Midgar. What you get instead is a bloomy teenage highschool love story that's surrounded by a sprawling political conflict with heavy science-fiction undertones like Final Fantasy Wakanda, going to the moon, that weird UFO random encounter, and Days of Future Past time travel! Did I mention one character launches her dog at enemies with a gun and another has an “Eat” command which causes the screen to get censored while eating sounds are played in the background? These are certainly creative choices that I don't think anybody predicted, but I think I’d rather have that than a pale imitation that would’ve never measured up directly. The only thing FFVIII shares with its predecessor was its ambition in trying to revolutionize the JRPG genre and video game storytelling. And the first step needed to have been to divorce itself gameplay-wise and story-wise from what we normally associated with Final Fantasy. I respect the boldness of what they were trying to do, even if the pieces didn’t quite fit nicely together as a whole.

It’s hard to narrow down how I feel about the story as a whole since my opinion radically shifted from Disc to Disc. To keep it simple; I think I like it? But there are large chunks of the game that just don’t work. I think Disc 1 is a pretty average if not sluggish introduction to this latest reinvention of the series. The story just kinda happens with no hook for why you should be engaged with anything that’s going on beyond you’re fresh out of mercenary school and off to do your job as a child soldier I guess. Disc 2 is where it peaks. Still carrying some of the clunky presentation from before, only now it allows the characters to unravel a bit and just vibe. Though I have to mention there’s a story revelation that happens here with your party that I honestly found incredibly stupid and pointlessly retroactive. Nothing can prepare me for Disc 3 and onwards where the plot changes dramatically and delves deeply into out there story elements that results in the narrative feeling messy in explaining how everything is happening the way it is now. It’s a whiplash compared to how fairly straightforward and almost consistent the game was up to this point that I can’t help suspect either the developers were really throwing every idea at the wall to see if it stuck or maybe production was compromised so things had to be cut or changed. Whatever the case, it leaves the game’s narrative, from its characters and setting, to feel a lot to be desired. Some of the party members are just worse versions of Final Fantasy archetypes you’ve seen before and liked better. Others feel too detrimentally one-note and have little to contribute to the story to feel like compelling characters. I liked Quistis? She and Irvine were pretty cool but they never seemed to go anywhere. Zell and Selphie exist. Laguna is very fun and I only wished he was better integrated because of how important he became. Seifer was pretty disappointing as an antagonist and rival, outside of a couple exceptional moments, he doesn’t do much and lacks the presence needed to feel memorable. Rinoa is a delight. Her unlikely relationship with Squall and how it zigzags through the insanity that happens was what slowly kept me hooked. Squall is definitely one of the most misunderstood characters in the franchise and I grew to love him in how uneasy his development was. His arc effectively ties together the thematic threads of responsibility, grieving from trauma, and how these self-placed barriers need to be broken down to realize the value of companionship and love.

For comparison’s sake, I still believe FFVII is a more well-rounded game that I can go back to more but this isn’t to say some things haven’t been improved in FFVIII. I’m guessing Square had a massive budget from FFVII’s commercial success because they love showing it off on a technical and graphical level. The character models have more realistic proportions, the pre-rendered environments continue to feel even more lived in, and the FMV cutscenes hold up fucking amazingly well. There’s A LOT of them sprinkled throughout, with some impressive motion-capping for the characters, the FMVs seamlessly mixed with the gameplay for certain sequences which seriously blew my mind. They can be genuinely beautiful in what they’re capturing visually and became some of my favorite moments in the entire game. What sold this emotionally for me had to be Uematsu’s music which might arguably be his best work from what I’ve heard so far. No tracks can really compare well with Fisherman’s Horizon or Roses & Wine. It’s great aspects like this which made me question what about this game warranted such a divisive reputation that got people to either love or hate it, especially the latter. Then I remembered the elephant in the room for this game and what ultimately turned people off pretty hard which was the combat system.

I’m going to have to begrudgingly put on the clown shoes here and say that the Junction & Draw system of FFVIII is actually not that bad. At least, it’s not this offensively bad idea compared to the Materia system many strongly preferred. Actually, I find this to be a very ambitious, experimental concept that puts more focus on player customization and makes progression a non-linear process. Instead of buying armor or equipment, you craft it at shops. Instead of magic being this learned, accessible resource, it’s something you need to collect as a usable item. Instead of battling enemies to grind for experience which increases your stats, it’s rendered practically pointless because enemies are level-scaled and what matters is how much magic you’ve collected to even out the odds. The hurdle comes with how poorly the game teaches you this very unusual combat system which makes it seem more complicated than it really is. Junction is just equipping summons (who are called Guardian Forces) in order to use magic. Draw is just stealing and collecting magic from enemies to hoard for personal use. This is mandatory to understand because this is how you can actually boost your party member’s stats and abilities. There’s even a surprisingly addictive card mini-game that makes collecting magic or items an easier alternative compared to the downside of the actual process for drawing magic which is monotonous and annoying to overcome. It’s around this point I came to realize FFVIII’s gameplay is very broken beyond hell because once you’ve cracked it down you can cheat through the entire game at a low enough level without really needing to grind much. If you were like me and didn’t have a complete comprehension of the combat system and how exploitable it was until very late into the game you get punished very hard for it. Let’s just say that Ultimecia was the four phased vibe check I couldn’t pass, even once I’ve drawn enough high-level magic needed with the right summons junctioned, until I had no choice but to cheat during her last phase because the outcome was always me dying. I kinda regret doing that since you can clearly beat her normally but I just lucked out super for not realizing certain things sooner like being unknowingly super high leveled was a bad idea for a final boss in a game like this. But I’d argue if it wasn’t for how poorly conveyed the combat system was, including the ways you can take advantage of it, it wouldn’t make the experience as frustrating as it became.

FFVIII has so many gapingly goofy flaws. Some of them are misrepresented and unfair, but some appear as the result of people biting way more than they can chew in taking Final Fantasy outside of its own comfort zone than FFVII did. I’d imagined there must’ve been longtime fans who hated the game because it was too disconnected from the series’ roots with how out there it got. That might’ve been why FFIX was the more favorable between the two, especially nowadays, since it felt like a special return to that classic era of Final Fantasy. Maybe FFVIII’s shortcomings helped Square realize what had to be improved upon for FFX which carried similar energy. In retrospect I can’t blame FFVIII for not catching on like its PS1 siblings did because it took so many daring risks which I think is almost rare to see with the franchise now. It’s ironic to say that since this franchise likes to constantly reinvent itself every mainline entry which is part of why everyone’s favorite Final Fantasy is so varied. I think out of everything Square achieved with FFVIII it has to be proving Final Fantasy is a series willing to tread uncharted waters while still feeling like it’s made by developers who have a passion for what it still universally excels at.

There's no safer statement out there than "Marvel vs Capcom Infinite was a disappointment" but for me at least it's not for the same reason you may come to expect.

The PR nightmares attached to the game leads to people pointing out the more obvious flaws of it. Never mind that the game is clearly a rush-job by Capcom and looks ugly as sin with character models clearly ripped from UMVC3 without the care put into the lighting/shading to mask any of the shortcomings those models got away with. Never mind that licensing shenanigans caused the game to miss characters from the X-Men or Fantastic4 franchise such as Wolverine, Dr.Doom, Magneto, Storm, or Sentinel, characters that were in the series since its inception. Never mind that the game's bizarre and nonsensical story mode was the most focused thing on its marketing which is a very strange thing to advertise such a mediocre mode. Never mind that Dragon Ball FighterZ came out just a few months after this game causing the game's player base to hemorrhage as fighting game players migrated to a seemingly more quality product. Never mind the fact that the DLC characters were obviously finished already and featured in the story mode but were locked behind a paywall so Capcom can milk out as much money as they can without developing many assets to create new fighters from the ground up. All of these are bad enough, but my main issue with the game stems from a design choice that was intentional from the start:

Why remove a 3rd teammate and assists?

The whole spirit of Marvel vs Capcom not only asked the player to learn a set of characters but put those characters together to create a coherent strategy. Take for example Phoenix from Marvel 3, she was an incredibly weak character with the lowest health in the game. But if the player were to die with 5 bars of super meter she would turn into Dark Phoenix, the strongest character in the whole roster. Combined with X-Factor, that game's comeback mechanic, she could wipe out entire teams. Teams that utilized Phoenix would create team compositions that required building 5 bars of super meter for Phoenix, creating teams that were defensive and conservative in spending super meter. Meanwhile, the opponent would try to either wipe out the team as fast as they could or snap-in Phoenix to kill her early, effectively decimating the win condition. It created matches that were tense and fast-paced, to both watch and play with or against.

This idea of strategy was hammered home with assists, the mechanic where you can call out a teammate to do a specific move. These assists can determine what kind of strategy the player can create which opened the door to a lot of decision-making. Take for example Captain Commando from Marvel 2. He by himself was an incredibly mediocre character that struggled to fend off the strongest characters in that game, but people used him because he had arguably the strongest assist in the game, this giant invincible shockwave that dealt a lot of damage and pops opponents in the air, leading to air combos. It was tantalizing to use, but then you'd be stuck using a character that was considered bad when your other two died, leading to a choice of choosing a bad character with a powerful assist, or a stronger character with a similar but weaker assist compared to Captain Commandos. This idea even shows up in Marvel 3 with Dante, who is a stronger character compared to Marvel 2 Captain Commando but is considered one of if not the hardest character to learn in the game due to his lengthy combo game and tight execution. However, Dante had Jam Session, an assist that creates an enormous wall that can stuff approaches and lead to combos if successfully landed. It's one of the best assists in the game, but if you want it without having a useless teammate, you had to put in the work to learn Dante and form a team around him. This is what defines Marvel vs Capcom for me, a fighting game that's not just about execution, but strategy and decision-making, and it's what made me fall in love with the series and invest a stupid amount of time in it.

The problem with MvC:I is that it decides to have a 2-man team set up right from the get-go. This feels heavily restrictive compared to the three-man team set-up of the older games since you can't exactly form something dramatically coherent with just two characters. What was supposed to replace the 3rd teammate is the infinity stone system, where you can choose one infinity stone to give your teammate a move or a timed super ability, but this isn't really choosing a strategy to commit to but more so choosing a power-up and therefore feels less engaging as a result. It's no longer about creating a team with a playstyle to commit to, but choosing the two characters you like to play as with the skill that looks the more useful.

To compensate for this two-team setup, the game gives the characters more moves to use and longer health bars as a result, with a pretty flexible combo system, as well as the ability to tag in a teammate mid-combo, which is what replaces assists, devolving the game into landing extremely long combos while doing pitiful damage. I get it, landing big flashy combos are awesome, but combos aren't just what makes Marvel vs Capcom the game it is. When you make every character into combo-heavy beat sticks, you are left with a roster that feels homogenized than the highly distinct roster of Marvel 2 and 3. You are left with matches that not only go on for long but look the same even if there are different characters on the screen, which I feel is a big step-down from how Marvel 2 and 3 handled things.

The issue with fighting games that remove options to cater to a different audience is that you are going to alienate a large portion of the audience that has stuck playing the game you've created for years. If you remove mechanics people loved and made your game distinct without adding something new that feels like a net positive, people are not going to migrate to your next entry. It's why we see the Smash Melee community still strong as it is because the other entries nearly don't have the same depth as that game does. It's why we see Marvel 3 players return to that game in the form of Parsec tournaments because they see that game as superior, and what made that game superior to this one is that it actually feels like a Marvel vs Capcom game.

For as many problems I have with Dragon Ball FIghterZ, I can at least acknowledge why so many Marvel players gravitated towards that game, not just because of the Dragon Ball license, but it's actually a team game. There are distinct characters with different team layouts and assists and you get to build whatever you want. While I think that game too can have a same feeling playing roster, I can at least say it's more engaging to play than a game afraid of its identity.

I don't have a lot of respect for Marvel vs Capcom Infinite because it represents the very worst kind of Capcom fighting game. A poor rush job game that failed to iterate on past entries and opts into doing something new that ends up making the game less interesting as a result. Unfortunately for Capcom, people are tired of fighting games that aren't fun to play, and it's why people have turned to a developer like ArcSys for their fighting game fix. Before Capcom could have gotten away with this since they were the king of the fighting game genre, but more effort needs to be put in place if they wish to compete with their newfound competition.

As for me, I'll sit back and play more Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, Capcom should go back and play it too.