Xenogears is one of my favorite Jrpgs of all time, its script is excellent and mindblowing at times and the scope of its world was insane at the time, having played it, i was not a fan of the modernized Xenoblade formula, i enjoyed Xenoblade 1 but i was very disappointed in Xenoblade 2 to the point where i was on the verge of giving up on any feature titles from this franchise, however after Xenoblade 3 successful release i decided to give the series another go and ultimately i didn't regret it, the game overall was worthwhile.

To go straight to my verdict on the game elements i will skip indepth details and write a summary-like quick thoughts.

Tech:
- From a technical point i had close to no issues on the game, it runs well and performance is good.
- Sound design and OST: excellent, there's a little issue here which was that certain tacks got repetitive like the combat and chain attack one, but otherwise the music was nice.
- Visuals: low on graphics power due to hardware limitation, gorgeous world and landscape design, good art-style, character design is a bit generic and bland.

The Writing:
a) Story: grand, epic, adventurous, a bit messy, doesnt know what it wants to be, pacing too slow, moments that contradict gameplay, bloated with filler content that goes nowhere, falls off hard from chapter 5 finale and towards the end due to inconsistencies in the plot and failure to keep up with the interesting themes after the mystery reveal.
b) Characters: mostly okay, few uninteresting faces, few underdeveloped ones but mostly good, the villains on the other hand are so bad. (Note: Time-travel stories with reset button more often than not damages character development heavily)
c) World-Building: okay for the most part, develops upon prior world knowledge and lore that tracks back the the older titles. I would've appreciated a more multilayered dive on its world themes rather than total reliance on previous established ones.
d) Dialogue: juvenile and very teenage focused, writing makes nonsense statements, like how ethel is strong when she doesnt deal damage - situations like this, dialogue tries hard to shove meaningful statements at points where it feels unnatural. Overall; not bad but full of padded text and could be cut by a significant margin.

// Story relies too much on cutscenes to convey its storytelling which is not a good sign, could use a bit of storytelling in form of a game //

One another side-point is that i heard so much praise for Chapter 5 and i was very excited to reach it, as supposedly it was the peak of the game. While its truly a wonderfully executed cutscene that did deliver on the emotional and presentation level, the writing felt cheesy, too many plotholes, the time reset, the lucky seven sudden reveal at the right time, the stakes that could only be described as fake tension, and the conclusion of the chapter all were disappointing and didn't live up to their hype. The peak of the game i would say is Chapter 3 to 5. After it reaches the finale of Chapter 5 the story goes downhill and never really recovers.
Chapter 5 also contains a lot of filler and boring quests where i was running doing prison tasks that felt incredibly padded and waste of time, which is another point why its not really as peak fiction lol as its reputation suggests.

The Gameplay:
a) Combat: meat of the game, enemies lack mechanical variety, limitation of different attacks patterns, they feel similar, mostly change color and level and sometimes shape, hp bloat, however interesting design concepts, a lot of enemies to defeat, chain attacks is the best part of the combat by the end i was dishing out insane amount of damage. overall, a decent battle system
b) Level/World Design: mostly alright, a bit bloated (mobs) and empty(content), a lot of handholding, but other than that gives meaningful tools to traverse, good backtracking and so-so rewarding system. Gives a good sense of scale with its vast
and varied landscape, chapter 5 sea region is a highlight.
c) RPG mechanics: most of the loot is not useful, crafting feels meaningless, too much collectable bloat, no use for money, few uses for the good loot you get, overall weak on the exploration side. Good amount of class customization but has one annoying aspect which is the skill mastery that you get, the customization of accessories and gems are alright, could use more depth but mostly is ok.
d) Quest Design: a mixed bag of great side quests and poor fetch quests, the ones with the tag Hero Quests are often very good and deserve your time, they offer a hero to use entire new class with good rewards and explore the world and the characters even more, the collectable and standard quests are just boring fetch quests that should be skipped and are more or less an excuse to just fight more monsters.
e) Interactive systems: outside of combat, barely anything to do, you just walk and talk, craft and collect, no other system than the battle system.

// The gameplay is decent for what it is but it also could use a lot of improvements, its a stronger highlight than its writing counterpart and its the best in the whole Xenoblade Chronicles series but is still far from its true potential. //


Xenoblade Chronicles 3 is a decent back to form by Monolith, and is a game that offers as much interesting and great stuff as it also offers flawed and poorly executed stuff, in my opinion the series has yet to reach its true potential and is still a long way from reaching the peak of its original in terms of scope and script power.

6/10

Tears of the Kingdom takes everything good about Breath of the Wild and cranks it up to eleven.
This reminds me of the same experience i had going from Portal to Portal 2.
Masterclass in open world physics, traversal and sandbox mechanics makes Tears of the Kingdom arguably one of the best open world games on the market.

I can't wait to go back and play more.

As i'm playing this game more and more im liking it less and less.
I dont know what happened, maybe its the generic world and the story that i wasn't able to find myself engaged with it, maybe its the characters who i cannot relate to, but its a Diablo game so the gameplay and making builds and looting is the reason we play it, right?
Even with that im finding myself getting bored quickly, i'll sit with my friends for like 2 hours before i give up and make excuses and leave, its just boring, the skills and the enemies are not really interesting for me, maybe i outgrew this genre and this game, i really dont know, because i used to love playing Diablo 2.
I wish i could enjoy this game more, but modern Blizzard games feel soulless to me, they lack that spark that i used to like about them in the late 90's early 00s, where i could sit for hours playing them, now i just launch Diablo IV, play some dungeons, get extremely bored quickly and leave, i even started skipping side quests, i guess i just dont care anymore about this game.
Maybe its the fact that im playing better games alongside it, i really enjoyed TotK, maybe that has something to do with it, maybe its me growing up, maybe the game is really mediocre, i just dont know right now, but i can't keep my previous positive review, i enjoyed my first days with it, but now near the midgame, i just lost the interest, i feel robbed i wish i had waited for sale, but friends and hype got me, lol.

Amnesia The Bunker is a nice change of the usual format by Frictional horror games, the game takes its design clues from Alien Isolation by making the game and its levels designed in an all in one format with a stalker that roams the whole map.
Fans of atmospheric and tense horror games will feel right at home with Amnesia as Frictional style is still apparent through hide and seek mechanic, dizzy look at the monster visuals, use of darkness and light and story told through notes or audiologs.

The bunker however makes things interesting by adding light immersive sim elements where you can tackle the situation in more than a single way, which offers a decent replay value.

While i enjoyed my playthrough with the game i still think that The Dark Descent is the pinnacle of the series, mainly because in TDD i was more immersed in the lovecraftian nature of the gothic Prussian castle, i liked the story more and Daniel voice despite the criticism was good for me, i liked the physics based puzzles and the sound and music design.

In this game they added a nice spin so that you can defend yourself, some resource management and more focus on exploration, i liked all of those things but i think with the inclusion of them it had more weight on the game, so it kinda makes it harder to nail the experience.
I dont have many complaints about the game, i think the story was meh like whatever i didnt care for it, the gameplay was decent, i liked the atmosphere but it wasn't as impressive as TDD simply because the music wasn't hard hitting enough, in TDD the soundtrack played a huge part in scaring me, here it was barely there, the monster design is also less frightening, the lore and the nature of the bunker wasn't as scary either. I think it could've been less tedious with 1 or 2 more inventory slots too, and the finale was underwhelming.

Some extra notes on how i think the game can improve.
- The Stalker A.I and behavior pattern can be expanded and made smarter with more behavior patterns that can make how it moves and reacts more interesting, as of now its basic and too easy to maneuver.
- The music was forgettable, TDD OST is excellent and plays with your fears, here it was barely there and as a result the atmosphere suffered (still good)
- The inventory slots are too low, which can be challenging and encourages decision making, but because of the fuel and key items taking space it also makes things tedious with backtracking that was just more annoying due to one save spot this one is less important.
- The story wasn't engaging enough, perhaps its the voice overs, perhaps its the themes, perhaps this type of horror stories works better with lovecraftian themes since its unknown and creepy, but here i feel it was needed to make things more clear and create a coherent and tight timeline for me to follow.
Both SOMA and TDD have better stories so Frictional is capable.
- The threat on the player isn't very big, its just the rats and the stalker, perhaps some addition of monster type can make things better.
- There is a lack of puzzles, TDD managed to make interesting physics-based puzzles which makes the player think and sets up a nice change of tone and pace, here it was mostly explore or get the objective items and move on.


Overall, its a good horror game and a worthy play for fans of the series, but it has a lot more potential for the future.

"The Expansion is going to be Fucking OK" Pawel Sasko

This Spy-Thriller exceeded my expectations, with the 2.0 Update Phantom Liberty delivers one of the greatest expansions i have ever played.
Outstanding presentation, fun gameplay, improved gigs, great characters, engaging storyline and dialogue, intense choices to make, jaw dropping visual design, fantastic soundtrack and level design.
Phantom Liberty is an expansion that follows the blueprint of Blood and Wine and its one that i will be thinking about for a long time.

I also just realized my account got 4 years badge, how time flies by..wow.