Once you've played one Souls game, you've gained the skills to play them all. Except for Sekiro - fuck Sekiro. This game brought me back to all the rage I felt when first playing Bloodborne. Only by the end of Bloodborne, I felt competent at it and actually first tried a few bosses. By the end of Sekiro every new enemy was just as bad a slog as when I started.

I'm willing to admit that the game's still well-designed; it might just not be for me. I enjoy the exploration side of these games way more than the combat. Sekiro has a few good souls-y intertwining levels, but most are linear runs to the end with a bunch of annoying enemy groups. This is a game about memorizing animations in boss fights. That's never been my favorite thing in FromSoft games, but if you enjoy it then more power to you.

Groovin' skate game unfortunately held back by clunky combat and occasional jank design decisions.

It's more laid back with its combo system than a Tony Hawk title, but that also means it's levels can feel like massive spans of nothing to accommodate the leisurely pace of traversal. There's almost no shortcuts that reward skilled play like in Mario 64 or THPS, so you'll find yourself doing the same motions over and over to get to certain locations on the map. Ugh and why is there combat in this skating game again? By the end, I desperately wanted to opt-out of it since there's no reward for engaging with enemies and they just act as flies buzzing in your ear while you're trying to explore.

But damn it's also such a triumph to see Team Reptile realize such a massive game with their miniscule team. The soundtrack has been stuck in my head nonstop since finishing the game (2 Mello's "I Wanna Kno" especially), and it's awesome that they enlisted real taggers to create the 50+ graffiti logos for the Bomb Rush Crew. And apparently director Dion Koster mocapped all the dance moves!? It's such a clear labor of love that even with all the warts I can't help but recommend it.

What a fantastic Souls game! The combat is just the perfect blend of Bloodborne and Sekiro, and the level design was perfectly balanced to where I was always on edge but never frustrated with any given challenge. And some of the new ideas it brings - like steadily recharging your last heal or disassembling your weapons - are so good I hope FromSoft steals them. The only letdown is the completely linear world progression - you're never gonna accidentally wander into an optional area here, and it does make for slightly less satisfying exploration. But what the devs at Neowiz and Round8 have accomplished is nothing short of amazing, and I'm eagerly looking forward to the recently announced DLC and sequel.

Incredibly charming soulslike platformer. Quality writing, quality combat, and quality exploration all around. It only sags in polish, where you can tell the small team struggled with some minor bugs and level geometry issues (I ended up out-of-bounds several times just through exploring the edge of a map or an enemy clipping me through the floor). Also the difficulty curve is especially wonky, with a lot of late-game bosses going down very quickly without requiring the player to learn their patterns. But the fundamentals are all great, and it's a triumph that an indie game can match some of FromSoft's best gamefeel.

Neat little Metroidvania full of unique ideas and elegant design. Your mileage may vary in how you like its approach to secrets, though. I'd personally recommend stopping after beating the game and rolling credits, as the "2nd layer" the dev talks about is a little too cryptic and where the minimalist design starts to show cracks (like not being able to equip more than one item at a time, or not having warp points where you want them). This isn't like Tunic where the "true ending" feels fairly natural and most players could get there with minimal assistance - it's more like Environmental Station Alpha where the easter egg finale puzzles go off the deep end. But if you like losing your mind in these La Mulana-likes, more power to you.