I’ve only played through through the Golden Deer route up until this point, so I don’t have the entire story perspective, but this game is truly something special. I absolutely adore how unique and enjoyable the majority of the characters are, and how well written the overall narrative and house leaders are. The core gameplay is as strong and effective as ever, and the teaching loop is satisfying as hell (although it does get tedious towards the end of the game). I wish it had the visual polish to back the rest of the experience up though. Overall, it’s one of the best overall offerings the Switch has to offer, and a great entryway into the FE series.

Quite possibly the most torn I've ever been on a video game before. The hype I had towards it before launch was indescribable, and all in all, I was disappointed. And it's taken me months upon months to truly figure out why. I can't say for certain that I've figured it out quite yet, but at the least, I can say it's still one of my favorite Switch games out there.

Frankly, it's a direction I don't want the series to take. I'm not the most creative type, and the open-ended focus on constant crafting of furniture and decoration just doesn't work with me as well. The first few months I was all over that mechanic, but now it makes any time I come back to the game feel so overwhelming and just not worth the hassle.

At the same time, I get that there's an audience that enjoys that, and I'm so happy about the cultural impact that the game has had on the entire country in the last year.

It's still Animal Crossing at its core, which is why I still love it. I love that eager sense of personal progression, and just simple tasks like talking to villagers and catching/selling bugs and fishes. The game is as gorgeous and polished as ever hearing making that aspect even better than before.

The level to HOW open things are just isn't for me though, and that's ok. I think I'll see myself continually returning less and less to this one and perhaps checking out more of the older games instead. The way the game is designed to bring you back doesn't appeal to me as much as it does to others really. I still have valued my experience tremendously over the last year and its one I'll cherish and never forget. I hope the future of the series does bring a good merge between this newer direction and the one we've gotten from the entire series though, so I have reason to get another long term investment out of the series like I did with New Leaf.

What I can speak on though is the disappointing lack of content updates from Nintendo. Lack of new QoL improvements, labeling holidays as "new content" and having very little else as of late to supplement that - it's just very disappointing, especially when its obvious the dev team really cares about the series.

Super Mario Galaxy is the perfect pairing of the traditional 3D Mario fun, with an entirely new sense of direction and atmosphere; and it could not work better. Controls are as tight as ever, levels are as expressive and detailed as ever, etc - it even successfully attempts at creating an emotionally charged central narrative through its level design and literal story beats, something I never thought a Mario game could do before.

It's the definitive example of pure, Nintendo quality. Aside from the deep memories I've held with it from the entirety of my life, it's one of the best games I've ever played period.