a wonderful time, amazing aesthetic/world, some really satisfying puzzles, and a ton of potential to sequence break and think outside the box. it's one of those games where just watching it/seeing the trailer doesn't do it a ton of justice. it's surprisingly fun to move around in, the tools/upgrades/whatever you wanna call them are pretty unique and fun to fuck around with and the puzzles even if a bit simple (at least, in the base game lol) do a great job of feeling really good to execute. there is a really crazy post game that i don't really see myself messing around with too much but if you really want to dive deep into a world sprawling puzzle with tons of crazy secrets that's absolutely here for you.

i think as someone who's played so many fucking games, namely like tunic I think the whole "woahhhh they don't give you any information and you figure it out yourself in this crazy world!" thing is cool but doesn't hit as a ground breaking thing as hard for me as it might some others but it's always very magical when a game can nail that feeling without feeling frustrating/overwhelming and this game absolutely does that. great time!

edit: i did all the post game stuff, the major new areas/items were a ton of fun and cleaning up all the eggs was really fun as well. everything after that was fun to follow the checklist for but i obviously am just one guy and followed a guide for most of the bunny and beyond stuff. still a very cool experience though and even if you don't wanna get as deep into the thick of the post post game arg stuff just following a guide is worth it imo to see the insane shit billy put in the game and the insane shit people did to solve it.

I feel like my head is overwhelmed with a ton of different feelings and thoughts on this game, 99% of those thoughts extremely positive and 1% of those thoughts, nitpicky small things that I don't really care about right now because I just loved this game with my entire heart.

The story is for sure a bit Nomura poisoned but I still had a really good time with it, I'm starting with it because I don't have a ton to say partially because spoilers and partially because it's confusing and insane and I'm not qualified to deep dive into all of the differences and what everything means. It's for sure much more well done and interesting than a Kingdom Hearts story but I get a similar feeling where I'm mostly just along for the ride and willing to let there be some bullshit.

The main thing about the narrative and writing that continues to blow me away with these remakes absolutely is the characters and all of the various interactions and moments they all get. I went from knowing and not particularly caring about most of these characters to all of them becoming one of my favorite casts of characters in all of gaming! I don't dislike anyone here, even characters I was a bit worried about being annoyed with like Yuffie or Cait Sith ended up being absolutely wonderful, Yuffie especially ended up being one of my favorites. I have nothing but absurdly positive things to say about each and everyone here, capped off with wonderful performances! I do find it can get a bit on the anime melodramatic on the voice acting side of things but as someone who usually doesn't love that stuff it didn't really bother me at all, again probably because I just love these characters so darn much. It's rare a game can juggle around so many characters and make me feel so intensely attached to all of them! Obviously I have favorites, but I don't think anyone is so far and away above anyone else and that's because they're all so insanely likable and interesting. I could talk for days about how I love all the little aspects of each character and all of the various dynamics like Barrett interacting with Yuffie, Red, or Cait Sith and how it always was a highlight or Tifa and Aerith's genuine friendship or Red XIIIs big character moment I won't spoil, or even Cloud and Yuffie's sibling dynamic but if I get into anymore detail I might never stop. I love all of these guys and even if the story can be a bit convoluted and overwhelming this is some of my favorite character writing in any game ever, it was something I already loved about Remake but it's tenfold here.

Gameplay wise it's even more fun than Remake which was already a pretty amazing Action RPG. It's not too different all things considered, but some new Materia, Synergy Attacks/Commands, and most of all the brand new characters in Red XIII and Cait Sith (not to mention some short really fun playable versions of a couple other characters) all come together to make an already astounding combat system that much better. Synergy Attacks/Commands were probably the biggest thing I kinda refused to learn until I realized they're really fucking good and fun as hell! They generally follow a couple guidelines but are extremely useful and a lot more powerful than I was giving them credit for. There's also a ton of returning and new weapon abilities that are a ton of fun to mess with. Finding a new weapon is always exciting even if the stats aren't great because it means you'll at least get a new attack to unlock and they're all pretty fun and worthwhile. The two new characters are a ton of fun as well! Red XIII pretty instantly clicked with me, but Cait Sith felt a bit awkward for a while. It wasn't until a section where you're forced to be only him did I actually put some time into learning him and end up finding him really cool! Still on the lower end for sure but once you get used to him he's also a ton of fun. Exploration was solid! Each region looks absolutely gorgeous and it's fun to do all the little tasks in each place. I can see someone finding them tedious but they all have an absurd Final Fantasy charm that I never really got bored. I'm also the kind of guy that just loves ticking away at a checklist and this game does it great. Control/Movement during exploration is pretty average, I think I would have preferred a Jump button cause it can feel a bit awkward but I understand why there isn't one. The various Chocobo and their gimmicks are fun to use and the giant monster truck thing you get is silly and fun to use. If I had one complaint it would be that Chadley won't ever shut the fuck up! It's a pretty annoying pace breaker the amount of times he stops you from playing to tell you that you got some good data and to keep up the good work. I wish it was kept to walking conversations or something, I actually like the idea of Chadley and your exploration fueling his research and working towards new materia and such but he stops you so much and it's pretty fucking annoying.

The other big aspect of the gameplay is the sheer amount of mini-games here. I'm a guy that absolutely LOVES stupid little mini-games and changing up the main gameplay here and there and this game does it a TON. It's almost all great too, I love how often they have you do a silly little mini-game like shooting boxes on a mine cart ride, a punch-out style fighting game with low poly OG FF7 models, a pretty fun Piano Rhythm game, Chocobo Racing which feels way more satisfying to control than it has any right to, and a ton other I could go on and on about. The two big consistent ones are the returning Fort Condor which is still lots of fun and I like the more offense-oriented changes they made and it also uses the great low poly FF7 models. The new one is Queen's Blood which is an insanely in-depth card game that's a ton of fun! There's over 100 cards and there's a good amount of variance in what they all do. It's pretty fun to make new decks and I always went to do all the new Queen's Blood matches available whenever I got to a new town because I liked it so much. I'm really excited to go back post main story and grind all of these mini-games cause they're genuinely so fun and there's way more than I would have expected.

The music is also WONDERFUL which like, obviously. It's a bit unfair having one the greatest OSTs as a base and a ton of it is pretty new to me but it's just so beautiful. I don't think I emotionally connect with Video Game soundtracks much, there's a ton I love and think are great but they don't grab me emotionally as much as I just think they're sick. This entire soundtrack felt so emotional, I don't know if I'll ever hear Tifa or Aerith's themes again without feeling a bit emotional. The way they weave character themes into the important moments for each character is so insanely beautiful. There's also obviously iconic songs like the battle theme which I'll never get sick of and the insanely beautiful town themes. It'd be pretty tough to find a video game OST on the level of this and it's one that'll stick with me for a long time.

I can't believe this game exists and it feels as large a step above the first game in the remake trilogy which was already a game that really surprised me with my love for it. Direct sequels pretty often end up amazing before later games try a bit too hard to be different and crazy so it shouldn't surprise me as much as it does, but fuck man it's a beautiful feeling to have a sequel absolutely crush it like this game does. For my tastes and opinions there's been a few of those the last few years and it's just so sick. I'm incredibly excited for the third game, it's gonna be tough to live up to this but no matter what I just can't wait to have more experiences with these characters. I could go on for way too long absolutely gushing about this game but I'll leave it at this already way too long review and say I'm so glad these remakes exist and got me into the FF7 universe.

I was surprised at this one! I only really started it because my friend who hated it said I should play it as a joke before the new steam share policies come into effect and we can't steam share anymore. I can see why he stopped, the first impression isn't great. Some lame "It's dangerous to go alone, take this!" gamer type references/humor that aren't great and graphically I don't love how it looks. It didn't end up bothering me as much by the end, although some of the lighting especially in regards to the gems was very overwhelming and hard to look at. Once you start getting upgrades and into the puzzles this game really starts to make sense and is very fun! It's full of pretty interesting and unique mechanics with tons of satisfying and fun puzzles! Exploration is pretty fun, although I felt like some areas were a bit too big and open. The secrets and such felt fun to get to but the rewards are a bit underwhelming. It's obviously helpful in the grand scheme of the game but it's so many little number growths like 5% critical damage chance increase things that in the moment don't feel that great to get to me. I don't super mind because the puzzle/exploration to get there is usually worth it but I just kinda started barely even reading my rewards. Combat was kinda nothing, I don't think the game would have lost anything by dropping it. It almost feels like it was added so the secret rewards would have a purpose but because combat is so uninteresting it also contributes to that feeling I just mentioned where the rewards for secrets and exploration didn't feel all that exciting. The final boss not being combat and just being a big puzzle was a nice surprising, and it was pretty cool!

I don't feel much of an urge to go back and work towards 100% or play the other Supraland games (maybe way down the line or something) but I was pleasantly surprised with this one! Unique and fun puzzle game!

This game was amazing and I loved so much of it. Starting with the negatives: it was pretty laggy on my end, as well as a few glitchy areas with clipping and other annoying things. NOW ONTO THE POSITIVES: I loved the exploration in this game, there were many moments where I ventured off the beaten path, and found a cool secret area with a sick boss. Speaking of bosses, most of the bosses in this game were amazing, so many cool fights with different mechanics and a good challenge. The combat in this game is also so fluid. The parrying, the graple hook, the adaptations, all of it comes together so well when fighting and never leaves a dull moment in combat. Take it from me, someone who 100% the game, it is worth your money, and if you have gamepass then you can just play it off there :)

I only really started this game as a joke with a friend and told myself I didn't see myself playing this one because I really fucking hated Dark Souls 1. I heard this game was a bit different but I figured if people that loved Dark Souls 1 even often say this game is terrible there was no chance I'd like it! I was surprised to find out it was completely fine! Didn't love it or anything, the world was much less connected and interesting as a world than Dark Souls 1, it makes up for it, to me at least, by being much less obnoxious and designed to make you miserable. I heard problems with I frames and stuff being a stat, which is kind of stupid don't get me wrong, but I was surprised at much I didn't care about this. This game gives you levels like candy so I just got my stat to the average Dark Souls I frame level and moved on. I also found this game to to be like really fucking easy compared to the others though, you do so much damage and bosses are so bad at understanding if you're behind them. The Pursuer was pretty cool though, I generally liked the more Duel esque fights, like the Dragonrider or the Old Dragonslayer. Most of the big monsters were too slow/stupid to really be interesting or fun though unfortunately. They did do another shitty gargoyle fight and fights with 2 or more bosses are still as poorly designed and unfun as always but even the dumber bosses like that were just so much easier to handle and felt much less stupid and overwhelming compared to DS1.

To be fair, there's a very solid chance I'm just much more used to the bullshit of this series so I had a bit of a tolerance here but I do think DS1 is still by far the most frustrating and annoyingly designed of all the Fromsoft games I've played. I understand finding a charm in that, I like plenty of insane bullshit, I'm a Sonic fan! I just think every other soulsbourne (not counting demon souls which I haven't beaten) does everything so much better and doesn't make me miserable the entire way through. That being said I'm glad this game surprised me like it did, and after playing all of these games I have a much larger appreciation for what these games are. I'm still not as in love with them as a lot of people are, and a lot of that is an unwillingness to care about the lore of it all and get as invested in the world and I just wanna play silly game and kill big bosses, but I've evolved from thinking Souls games were dogshit 5 years ago to thinking only Dark Souls 1 is dogshit and the rest are actually pretty fun worthwhile experiences! Yay for growth!

i don't really want to give this game a star rating quite yet because I feel like there is genuinely an absurd amount of potential here.

unfortunately, this game just doesn't live up to that potential right now. i was so excited to see the trailer for this game, it had a lot of promise but man the issues show themselves instantly. the tutorial is anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour long and it is an absolute overload of information. i think there's a ton wrong with this tutorial, it's way too long, throws way too many things at you, and it's all just presented in such an overwhelming and confusing way man. there's so many text boxes while you're in the process of racing/learning the mechanics and it's so hard to take in most of the information. even if the tutorial itself was better and conveyed the information clearly, unfortunately, I just think there is WAY too much for a kart racer. there are so many mechanics and they can feel so overwhelming. that combined with the fact that this game weirdly locks online and addons/mods behind single-player grinding for some reason. it makes for such a terrible and overwhelming first time experience, especially for newcomers to sonic robo kart or even just people that aren't such big nerds about sonic and kart racers. i play with a little consistent group of friends in srb2k and it was already a bit of a hassle getting that setup with everyone, pushing them to do an hour long tutorial + single player grand prix content just to get into a game with an infinitely higher skill ceiling that won't be as fun to play because of a larger skill gap is a pretty fuckin tough ask.

i don't know man, this game has so much potential like I said at the start of this and it's clear SO much love and effort went into it. i was really excited for the single player content at the very least but even that feels a bit stilted because of too many unnecessary and overwhelming mechanics. i really hope in a year this becomes this beautiful 5 star game that i boot up with my friends here and there and have a great time with but for now it just feels like it should be great, but it's a pretty huge let down.

So much of your enjoyment of this game is if you're willing to ignore how (to its credit, intentionally) disgusting it is. It's very Ren and Stimpy gross-out humor in, at least my opinion, a bad way. I was pretty willing to ignore it, even if it's very in your face at times but if you can't it will really weigh your experience down. Which is a shame, because everything else here is pretty great! Really fun movement, solid level design, and inoffensive combat that's pretty fun to demolish any enemy in your way. The movement is insanely freeing and gives you a TON of options, especially by the end of the game when you max out the skill tree. The little cherub you get "Nugget" lets you use him as a grapple hook and you can get up to 4 grapples + things like grappling straight up to gain height on top of various horns (think Hat in Time hats) that give you new abilities like gliding and sprinting. You can truly do almost anything you want if you think of it, and it's very fun to gain a ton of height or sequence break with well-timed grapples and such. The movement being as free as it is does kinda trivialize a lot of the platforming and level design though which can be seen as a negative, but it's really up to you how much you let that affect you. I found it pretty fun to create my own little objectives or limit myself to do things how they were intended to be done similar to like a Mario Odyssey. However, it's a lot more breakable and cheesable here and the intended solutions aren't quite as fun but that's also a pretty unfair standard to compare it to. I also wish there was some item that made collectables a bit more easier to find. Maybe after you beat the main game the horns that show you where teleporters and whatnot general locations are showed you the last few main collectables would have gone a long way. That or like a Spyro esque tracker where Nugget shows you the general direction of a main collectable. By the time I finished the game I was missing like less than 10 of each collectable but it just didn't feel worth following a guide to track down which exact ones I was missing.

I could see this being one of my all-time favorite Indie platformers if there were a bit more exciting and challenging platforming challenges. Even without skipping everything, it's just pretty simple (probably because they realized you can skip everything lol) and I would have loved some more interesting platforming gimmicks. There are murals you can eventually light up that give you small platforming challenge rooms, and these are pretty fun! There are just not a lot of them, and they're pretty quick. The biggest thing holding it back for me though is the general art style/humor. I think there's a select few people that this will connect with really heavily and more power to them, but for me I just actively disliked it most of the time. I never found it particularly funny and I just dreaded getting an ingredient and seeing the gross art for it. Still really fun, and I was generally having enough fun to be able to overlook that aspect but I'd be lying if it didn't hold it back for me a little bit.