the second coming of christ

some years ago i played the original live a live and while i still think its one of the greatest rpgs ever made in this world where sinners wreak havoc i do think it actually has some issues here and there that couldve been fixed and in complete honesty i hated whatever they were going for with the battle system (im impressed with what they accomplished though and i can say that for the first 30 minutes the battle system was something so completely different from what people were used to in that age of videogames but still i wish it didnt single handedly give me brain damage)

live a live has a sick premise you get to choose between 7 (?) different scenarios that play out in 7 (?) different time periods and its absolutely incredible if you ask me even more incredible when you think about the fact that the main skeleton of the entire game still is the 1994 SNES original concept and everything else is either graphic overall or some QOL changes to story beats and combat mechanics

as for the remake in itself i can say that the 2D HD aesthetic of octopath travelers echoes of time really do justice to the beautiful and unique environments you will have to travel in this super convoluted story on god

so as always first things first lets talk about everything except the major story beats for the little gangsters out there who read sull reviews without actually having played the game on god

i didnt think about a real tier list for the different stories until now and im pretty confident i wont be able to make a tier list thats gonna really put all my feelings for this game into words so im gonna do it anyway because im quirky and goofy like that

Tier S
Oboromaru (sexy ninja) and then Oersted (sexy warrior)
Tier A
Sundown (has some gay implications) and Cube (has some incredibly tight horror/mystery vibes) and Akira (not a huge fan of the pacing but akira is kinda hot i wish he read all of my thoughts)
Tier B
Pogo (i actually do like this one a lot but the random grinding mid game was kinda baffling also the power of sex and pussy) and Shifu (i also love this one but it has some weird pacing) and Masaru (i hate masaru)

that being said i actually do enjoy most of these by themselves and the fact that you can play them in every order you deem fit so that people like me can go on and choose oboromaru right away so basically everything else turns into a B tier movie because the middle ages is just that good

as i was saying they remade the graphics from scratch and i believe this would be absolutely wasted if it wasnt of the incredible art design this game has going on every single scenario plays out a different vibe and therefore the atmosphere of the entire world around it changes with it the ninja scenario is gloomy and atmospheric due to the fact that it plays out at night and you gotta be stealthy stealthy (or murderous your choice) or like the cowboy scenario that plays out in a desert and so everything is bright as fuck and shit like that OR the robot scenario where theres thriller vibes all around and UGHHHHHHHH

this is not only about the environments in itself but the characters also got some bomb spritework thats honestly jawdropping compared to the original works and its absolutely fucking insane and when you put these 2 together with the 2D HD engine some bomb lighting effects (that dont look like the piss hue of octopath traveler) and some dinamic camerawork you get such an immersive experience that really enhances the already incredible story this game got going on

i would love to have an entire segment talking about music and how the music in this game is top notch and every ost got my bussy popping but thats not possible because theres no osts on youtube or anywhere else because square is a fucking disgrace to society and they didnt even publish the ost like HOW HARD CAN IT BE you already got the ost files ready you released the games you know how can you not have this stuff in there ready for uploading but i digress so anyway the music in this game is absolutely insane i wouldve loved to listen to it after beating the game but as i said its not possible for the love of everything alive on earth in this moment and megalomania is the most hype song in a videogame ive ever listened to so

the combat system was actually shall i say rejuvenated as in it didnt make me want to fucking kill myself which is a welcome feeling and now that its actually shall i say playable its incredible how actually great it is you got some of the most interesting grid turn based combat in a while and even though it may not be the greatest idea in the longrun it always keeps you entertained with different moves and move patterns to use and actually great conversion from story to battle (cowboy scenario is centered on long range attacks while fighter scenario focuses on short range attacks) and people need to respect the fact that the shit throwing attack is sick

so

time for some 1 on 1 convo about the different scenarios because im a mad man and i got something to say

PROBABLY SOME SPOILERS AHEAD IM NOT A SAFE PERSON TO BE AROUND

prehistory

possibly one of the most interesting scenarios in the entirety of the game due to environments and how it conveys the story you play as a caveman and since these people are actually years and years before language all day do is make noises and talk in speech bubbles (love the fact that the speech bubbles actually have the original sprites in them its such a cute detail if you ask me) and has some interesting gameplay mechanics you got to craft some weapons smell the foul odors of beasts to KILL THEM and EAT THEM and thats basically it until you rescue a femme fatale whose pussy probably stink of fish and yet shes one of my fav characters forreal not a big fan of the sudden grinding in this one but at least its not octopath traveler im sorry it sounds like i hate octopath but in general i do really like it so anyway big dinosaur boss monkey throwing shit around and a guy with a lizard on his dick and crazy hot sex

imperial china

i fuck with the themes around this scenario quite a lot actually like the fact that time will always eat everything up and the importance of generational traditions and death and stuff like that like i fuck FUCK with that . but i also do think this couldve been pushed a bit to the extremes and lacks some heart to heart convo due to the fact that it plays around with training new disciples and choosing a successor (if you dont choose lei we cannot be friends) and in general the environments do look a bit aseptic i wanted some more stuff some more angst some more more anyway still great if you ask me im sorry

twilight of edo japan

this is the one guys this is the best one . now this is probably the longest chapter in the entirety of the game if you put aside the final final chapter and it has such a great premise youre a ninja on a mission to rescue a guy who turns out to be a famous guy from japanese history whatever we dont care and in the meantime you can do it with different methods you can either kill everything in your path or just going there and doing your thing and leaving now im pretty sure if youre mentally stable you will choose to just kill everyone also being underleveled with oboromaru in the final chapter ? you dont want that plus its way easier to just kill then level up then kill some more and get a lot of goodies from around the place and being tricked and FALLING FROM THE CEILING GOD THAT FUCKING CEILING and you know stuff like that plus the castle is a fucking labyrinth so im pretty sure this is gonna take you some 4 hours or whatever thats probably how much it took me to finish it so anyway yeah this is great and also my favorite scenario in this game thank you everybody for your time

wild west

if you ask me this is the most queer coded media ive ever seen in a while like you cannot tell me sundown and the other guy are not enemies to lovers you literally cannot do that to me you may come and show me a picture of sundown FUCKING a biological woman and id say ok well what about the ending where they run off together in the horizon this is a homosexual im looking at and I wont reason with anybody in the group chat . anyhow this is a supershort chapter and isn't even battle heavy because you just gotta go around and craft traps so theres that

present day

i famously hate this chapter . now its not about the chapter in itself I actually do dig this I gotta be the strongest kind of theme but I'm not that generous with the actual gameplay stuff . mind you this chapter was actually MUCH MORE DIFFICULT in the original one this time if you know what you're doing you can breeze through it in just 30 minutes but yknow idk why I dislike this chapter this much maybe im just bitchy because the main man isn't hot

near future

I want to slurp on akiras dick . sorry now that that is out of the way this is an interesting chapter but i believe it looses its charm because of some weird pacing choices you are a telepath hot yankee with a thing for his sister but honestly who in japanese media doesn't have a siscon so whatever you gotta battle with some other thugs who are somehow thugger than you and go around with either a very macho motorbike guy or a super giant robot with an anime opening . honestly this chapter is actually kinda weird to explain but the battles are interesting due to the fact that are based around killing the main enemy so that you can also kill the 10+ mini robots around the battlefield . you will understand

distant future

possibly the weirdest one for the fact that theres no fighting (I mean for most of it) and it's entirely story driven with a focus on horror/mystery and lemme tell you this remake did SUCH a great job to the horrorish contents its insane yall basically you're a robot in a spaceship and there's also like 4 humans that begin to slowly die weird deaths here and there and you gotta uncover the mystery AND make some coffee so basically my day to day life . so this is a great chapter thank you everybody for you time

middle ages

now …….. this is the one . oersted is my little baby I will defend him to hell and back he did nothing wrong and is pretty hot and can split me apart whenever he wants . this is basically the most jrpg chapter of every single one the setting is medieval fantasy like your classic final fantasy / dragon quest title there's a focus on battles and leveling with random encounters you create a party with different "classes" (there's no classes but the characters represent different classes) and you gotta save the princess . slowly you can see the steady decline of oersteds mental capabilities due to the treasons of every single character around him its insane me when the silent protagonist of my little jrpg begins to talk . also its insane how this manages to emulate the jrpg genre so well you're like oh ok im gonna save the princess the end AND YET that bitch let you down with a suicide in front of you like nothing happened and at that point oersted shifts and becomes the lord of shadow ? like theres no stories like these anymore the complete dread and hopelessness this chapter gave me are insane . deadass oersted loved aletheia so much and if you noticed most bosses charm abilities have no effect on oersted because hes just so in love with aletheia he can't be swayed from his righteous path . like also streibough is a dick

final chapter

apart from the fact that the final chapter can be tackles from the viewpoint of sir odio and just crush every single character of the different chapters . after you pick your main fighter this is gonna play out also as a jrpg experience you're gonna recruit the different characters from the different chapters make them level up and explore some dungeons to get that good good equipments to fight head on with odio . obviously l chose orobomaru and he's fucking insane you can wipe out most of the enemies out there and it's definitely a great option if you leveled him enough in the main game . main party for me was cube sundown and pogo kinda great party if you ask me I didn't have any problem whatsoever . so after you do your stuff you get to odio beat his ass in an incredible final battle have some heartbreaking moment and everyone goes home the end

also the final battle Is damn fucking epic and you get some more final scenes to see what the characters are up to after their stories end . this game yall

so this is still the masterpiece from the end of the 20th century but completely revamped with some QOL changes and I'm incredibly glad this is even real so thank you everybody who worked on this one because now i can satiate my thirst with some rule34 fanarts of the main cast . cheers

"Now, go home, Link. Regain your lost time! Home... where you are supposed to be... the way you are supposed to be…"

a statement

nothing ever came close and will ever come close to the absolute might that this game means to the video game genre as a whole and to an entire generation of people playing ocarina of time at the end of the last millennium in 1998 you could say that video game as a media peaked here theres legit something magical about this game an aura of sacredness and monumentality that it feels weird to talk about it like this tackling this game isnt easy but not for the game in itself but for what it means to everyone who played it and what it meant to people who worked on it and theres nothing I could ever say that hasn't already been said times and times again but I'm gonna be the next guy in the queue of people who want to praise this game to heaven stay tuned

sexy mutyumu recommended this to me as part of this list thanks dude

ocarina of time is a game that doesn't need any kind of presentation whatsoever and I'm not gonna sugar-coat anything since you already know its fucking good I won't be daddling in weird deets just so you know i played the original n64 one but i never finished it so im glad this sudden zelda marathon made me realise what a fucking fool i am yknow

first and foremost I'd like to talk about the remake aspect bitch this is basically one of the most safe remake of all times and really understands the source material to a tee I know for sure the grezzo team were shitting their fucking pants because they just opened pandoras box and whatever they did to diverge from the original game wouldve been horridly received so they made the right decision to just give it a modern overhaul and leave it almost untouched just adding some QoL and tweaks to famously despicable parts of the game but apart from that the journey is mostly the same

now i really love the new graphics theyre absolutely beautiful and really complement the original art style adding just the perfect amount of spice here and there link is super cute both in the baby and adult model every single character of the game is brimming with details and personality beloved places across hyrule got completely modernised with those delicious “HD” textures and enemies and bosses are as intimidating as ever really this art direction takes the cake for me it leaves the original feel untouched and thats probably what also happened with the ost . the songs are recreated entirely but no single note or instrument has been changed because lets be real the music of the original was already perfect it had not fucking need to be changed

everything of this version is perfect BUT im gonna nitpick here and no its not about the sheikah stones because i used them when i needed and no its not about the 360 camera being absent from this game unlike majoras mask 3d but i absolutely despise the fact that they used the touch pad for most of the menu and item management

now i wont lie i emulated the shit out of this game and that means that every single time i had to use a touch prompt i had to use the fucking mouse and completely destroy my pace while playing with the controller like why would you do that im not gonna complain that much because this is not a game breaker but the real issue to me is why the fuck would you put touch screen as the ONLY OPTION for the remake of a game that DIDNT HAVE IT like why i dont understand and also i have no idea if theres somewhere a patch that makes you use some buttons instead of the touch screen but i couldnt find it so yeah it is gonna be a problem for me that being said this game is fucking perfect lets go

ocarina of time is one of the few games that will absolutely make my heart heavy as soon as i listen to the title screen ost theres such a sense of peace nostalgia joy EVERY SINGLE EMOTION was POURED into this music i have no idea in my ignorance who composed the music for this game but i hope you have or had everything you want or wanted from your life (update i looked it up its koji kondo everythings fine I know the guy) this is such a generational masterpiece when you just boot this game up it HITS link and epona ride across the fields of hyrule with incredible scenography for the time heavy focus on the nature that encapsulates this game and BOOM title screen

if you make a title screen that leaves such a big impact you will be remembered for better or for worse games like kingdom hearts and persona 3 fes made such an incredible impact on me JUST with their title screen now tell me if you ever booted up kingdom hearts and listened to dearly beloved or persona 3 fes and listened to brand new days the beginning and havent started to get all emotional and teary eyed at second 0.3 im not even joking

if i were alive in 1998 and had played this game for the very first time i wouldve never NEVER forgotten this title screen this is absolutely insane compared to the standards of videogames at the time and even now that we have so many different genres franchises games spinoffs remakes everything that can be played with a controller im not gonna joke theres nothing that hits AS hard as this title screen

some of you may know me as the absolute number 1 fan of twilight princess im gonna defend that game always forever until the day that i die twilight princess was for me what ocarina of time was for many people older than me and maybe even people around my age i had never played a zelda game and when i booted up the title screen for this game i was absolutely dumbfounded enthralled and emotional it struck close to me as something so personal and epic that nothing else could ever come close in the games that i played at that time such powerful ost and art direction

and after some years you could see me tearing my hair out when i realised that the twilight princess title screen was basically a reimagining of ocarina of time title screen and its absolutely jarring to me that i had no idea beforehand like how can someone be so dumb BeReal with me rn

so maybe thats also why the ocarina of time title screen hit me THIS HARD due to the fact of being not only the main inspo of twilight princess title screen but also as the original it can eat twilight princess alive

sure i will always prefer twilight princess over everything its not only one of my favorite zelda games of all times but also one of my favorite things in the whole world it means so much to me that i could not even put it into words… actually i will when i play the HD version lmaooooooooo

ok enough of twilight princess propaganda i need to talk about ocarina of time

this game also feels kind of reminiscent of the other games in the series and specifically a link to the past somehow they were making a breakthrough into the 3d perspective and they thought ok actually since most of the people around here fuck with alttp a little to the past we are gonna make a game that has basically the same core progression and they're gonna love it

and we did

ocarina of time has a structure really similar to a link to the past with the first 3 dungeons to get the spirit stones and then some others 5 dungeons to get the sages and then a Final Mix++ Final Dungeon so yeah I will call it the 3+5(+1) progression I got war flashbacks from math classes anyway yeah more so than zelda 1 or links awakening this really feels like an homage to alttp

then again this game absolutely broke every record whatsoever and alttp became the lesser zelda so whatever and its incredible to me how this one's title theme is parallel to that one a link to the past stars with a strong epic fanfare youre here for a monumental journey to save the day now instead ocarina of time dabbles into something new . nostalgia and existential dread don't we all love that

the prologue for ocarina of time is absolutely beautiful its dreamlike and emotional you get to peek into links life friends and family and even though youre gonna go away from here asap this has such a beautiful atmosphere

kokiri are magical beings and links not one of them if you didnt understand it after 3 seconds and so he doesnt have a fairy but boom enter navi the games biggest mouth and somehow the most cute character in this game i really have a lot of gripes for this fucker she never shuts her mouth and she will never be midna but when i tell you that she brings so much comfort i love being with her im not gonna lie when shes not with you i get uneasy its true

navi is a cutie i love her a lot and then you meet the deku tree that dies instantly as soon as you make it into the dungeon of the great tree which is honestly an incredible first dungeon of the game absolutely streamlined but interesting example of whats to com e for the next dungeons youre gonna explore in this game and its still probably one of my favorite ones in the game if you know what youre doing you can finish this dungeon pretty quick

so whatever finish this dungeon get a nice story about goddesses DEATH and then adventure in the hyrule field

hyrule field is pretty fucking hollow theres not much stuff in between places apart from dungeons here and there but this is also so fucking comfortable going through this land has a pretty similar feeling that i had with shadow of the colossus with the sense of wonder and greatness

so whatever get to hyrule castle and the town here is brimming with life absolutely beautiful place you get some minigames here and there a lot of stuff to do and character interactions with NPCs and possibly the greatest town in any single game ever its really small compared to towns in other games and even minish cap has a bigger town but this is super simple and super effective just another day in a peaceful kingdom

syke

introduce zelda the princess you get to her and she tells you about the end of the world about ganondorf having a big nose and about a hunky lesbian nanny and she tells you her song zeldas lullaby possibly one of the greatest songs in any game ever im not gonna lie teehee and this is the absolute greatest link youre gonna construct with zelda youre 2 little kids trying to save the world without even knowing whats gonna be out there its just such a personal conversation that strikes your heart strings as fast as possible and even this little conversation will make you care for zelda

that being said the side things are cool instead of having heart pieces unreachable with current items or behind some secret passages like in other games theres actually some depth to getting this stuff you can do minigames you can do side quests explore every single part of hyrule and still discover something new its fun

the next 2 dungeons are interesting the fire cave of the goron tribe makes for an immediate increase in the challenge and its gonna make you aware that not everything is gonna be fun and play in this game and the zora tribe jabu jabu stomach is some of the most disgusting dungeons ever and the doors are buttholes and carrying ruto around get tiring really fast this was probably for me harder than the water temple im not gonna lie

ruto is a really cool character and somehow reminded me of mipha even though mipha is 100 times better and also dead but ruto has a really cute little dynamic where she wants to fuck him and hes as clueless as ever i love my cute little guy hes great

so thing thing happen get the master sword boom adult

becoming an adult in this game is some of the most heart wrenching part of the game and really hits home with the metaphorical value of the scenes ganondorf destroyed everything adult link doesnt use the items he used when he was a kid because theyre in fact toys and not appropriate for an adult anymore zelda is gone and the howl is gone you get some poetry from a mysterious sheikah tribe guy melodies to dungeons are now harder and actually less memorable than when you were a joyful kiddo and everything that happens in the game is now gonna be way way fucking harder

a bit of a stretch but THATS ADULTHOOD !!!!!!!!

a lot the big ass contrast between this reality and the reality of link as a kid and the tragic nature and consequences of what happened into the land of hyrule youre gonna find long lost people but theyre now more mature or more sad theres not hope or joy anymore like they were in the childhood days and youre left alone . with navi . i love navi

i guess this is gonna be SPOILER TERRITORY

ok good now the game is gonna concentrate on dungeons over dungeons theres not really anything to keep you entertained or minigames to live life happily theres just gonna be nothing like that theres you and the dungeons and everything bad that can happen is gonna happen

the forest temple is probably my favorite one of the entire game it has so much fucking detail the vibes are unmatched the entire structure is diverse and beautiful and the mechanics are entertaining enough to not make me want to kill myself

the fire temple was probably the easiest one for me but the fact that it was completely set into an active vulcano where you feel danger everywhere around you and a single misstep will get you fucking killed good fucking dungeon

the water temple is bad we all know its bad im not gonna give this dungeon any merit apart from being absolutely fucking beautiful and the verticality of it all is really pleasant to see in a myriad of dungeons traversed horizontally

the shadow temple is mostly good but theres some stuff that i didnt enjoy that much and that somehow killed the whole pacing of the level and puzzles but damn is this fucking dungeon atmospheric as shit and the final boss is kinda hot like look at those shoulders daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn i want him to crush me frfr

the desert temple is probably my favorite one of the bunch and honestly the entire gerudo part of the game is incredible the stealth part in the gerudo valley the colossus thats gonna watch over you every time in the dungeon the fact that you need to tackle this one as both child link and adult like i just enjoy this dungeon too fucking much and the boss is also one of my fav ones like the hot mage is peak

that being said these dungeons way harder and way longer than the first dungeons youre gonna meet in links childhood and that really drives the sudden harshness of the situation home

while i did think the final rehash of the already visited dungeons i felt ganons castle was a really incredible narrative segment with every single sage wishing link good luck for the battle to come and yeah i grew pretty used to this segment super fast and it went through pretty easily (apart from the shadow one please kys)

now talking a second about the story here im absolutely in love with revisiting already explored parts of the world but when youre an adult now going back to kakariko village and seeing what remained of it and what actually changed or seeking your bestie sarya in the forest temple and getting reunited with your friend (the final message going i will always be your best friend HIT ME i could not move for 5 mins because i was crying im sorry this game is so much for me) or even going back to lon lon ranch and meeting malon now grown up and getting epona back to ride her through hyrule like all this stuff has so much emotional wait in it because you know its been 7 YEARS since the timeskip and it hits it HITS

sheik is also an enigmatic character that speaks in poetry and the realisation that its actually zelda its a fucking jaw dropping moment that wouldve been really incredible if i hadnt known about this plot twist since 10 years old but its still super heavy

now im not actually a fan of zelda turning back to a damsel in distress like you were a fucking ninja speaking in poetry disappearing using weapons playing music doing a lot of great stuff and now you cant even fend for yourself gworl what in the fucking hell

this was actually kind of anticlimactic to me since its basically said that she learned every single battle secret of the sheikah tribe from impa fought bad guys for 7 years and is pretty hot and now she cant do shit but alright im not gonna complain about it because meeting zelda again is always a good thing im not gonna lie

the final battle with ganon is pretty great even tho its basically volleyball and somehow my favorite part was running away with zelda something that really feels reminiscent of running away from the castle in alttp its pretty cool being with her again after all this time and also she can do some weird magic to open gates pretty handy

the final final battle is easy as shit but i love it so fucking much WHAT THE HELL first of all this version of ganon is pretty fucking hot and can rail me whenever he wants second youre gonna be using your items because he pushes the master sword away and then you get reunited with navi with some incredible punch lines and then you just cut his tail lmao ok that IS anticlimactic but i love this game

after everything zelda thanks you and she rewinds time till before ganondorf actually getting evil power for you to never see her again apart from her past counterpart

this finale is absolutely fucking sad i cried like a bitch and after the credits when you see the little scene with baby link going back to baby zelda you wont believe how much i cried i was absolutely mentally unwell it ruined me from inside

somehow the plot of this game is really usual zelda flare but you add a time skip flavor to it to make it more engaging AND more depressed at the same time we love it

that being said the music of this game should be put in the best albums ever made for a game but also in general in the music tradition in humanity as a whole im not even fucking lying this shit it is incredible and while i would like to talk about it forever i wont because i got stuff to do but theres video essays everywhere do that

so music time

i already talked a lot about the title screen but im gonna say it again the title theme is absolutely incredible and i invite everyone to listen to it RIGHT NOW

going into the overworld and listen to this is such a fucking joy and probably one of the most upbeat songs of the entire game since it kind of reminds me of pokemon and shit like that and its also i think one if not the longest song in the entire game since it goes on for like 5 minutes with a lot of nuance put together like it gets really chaotic at points i love this one shit

zelda’s lullaby is incredible this is absolutely not the first game in the series where this song appears but its so iconic and so beautiful that if i were nintendo id have no doubt that this would be the main song of the series for decades and decades to come its just so so so amazing

lost woods is FUCKING ICONICCCCCCCCC ITS SO GREAT IT HAS NO RIGHT OF BEING THIS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD I DONT GET IT I DONT I ABSOLUTELY DONT i would come back to lost woods just to listen to this every time you get in there its just a fucking joy theres so much peace in this song chile

great fairys fountain is iconic and timeless im not gonna say anything about it the song speaks for itself

song of storms or as id like to call it the dubstep one is insane and i would like everyone to know that this is one of the best songs in the series and if you dont think so youre a fraud and you should not be trusted

now i gotta say that the temple songs in the adult time are way more atmospheric and ambience than i thought they would be but theyre still fucking good like every single one of them is good and when you listen to them again without link going HYAAAAAAA you realise how fucking spooky they are what the hell

gerudo valley . thank you nintendo

so yeah every single song is thats the point

ocarina of time is a timeless game a time capsule of a time long lost time time time time time time time time time

and the thing is when you realize that this game is talking about life as a whole of day to day life and the interactions we have and issues and obstacles and links and memories and the inexorable passage of time its no surprise that this is regarded as one of the most incredible work of arts that humanity brought to life in a medium that probably till now was regarded as just toys to fiddle with and emotionless pastime
time is a thing that i think a lot about and this game helped me make sense of it for the most part and i dont think even nintendo understands the absolute might of this games story but its incredible how to this day it touches the hearts of so many people

you could say it defeated the test of time amirite HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA that was bad heres my favorite sheik quote

“The flow of time is always cruel... its speed seems different for each person, but no one can change it... A thing that does not change with time is a memory of younger days…”

unimpressive and tedious at times but still gets to some legit fire territory in some routes

im pretty sure most of people here know whats up with this game but just so you know you are kind of a promoter of this mentally ill girl whos trying to get sick rich and internet famous to the point that shes willing to deteriorate her mental sanity even farther

by doing that you can basically micromanage and scrutinise every single of her action from when she sleeps to what she does to what kind of content shes putting on the web basically shes youre puppet and you can do whatever you want with her LITERALLY im not even joking here

and thats basically the main gameplay loop and i genuinely kind of started to hate it after 30 minutes because this is gonna take you fucking long and the game has like 20 endings or something that do add more to the story (i mean only 3 or something the others are complete shit genuinely) so yeah its one of those games that makes you play it again and again for every ending but the point is that this is not a visual novel where you can skip stuff you already read noooooooooooo you gotta do it all over again haha SO FUNNY HHAHAHAHAHA UNTIL ITS NOT FUCKING JESUS

ok anyway enough of the gameplay or im gonna go crazy ame is the real star of the game for being mentally ill suicidal codependent incredibly depressed and attention seeking she got it all and somehow the point of the game is to pity her ? now most of the time i wanted her to shut the fuck up because she was getting on my nerves but obviously this is supposed to happen because the point is to make you realise how insufferable and toxic she is (you the protagonist are too anyway) and slowly want her to get better

now i didnt really end up LOVING her after all these endings but some of them made me actually care for her happiness and wanted to see her smile like the 1m ending was probably the most i cared for this png and i regretted it when they used that cheap ass plottwist SPOILER BTW that im still going to ignore BUT it would actually make sense that its HER desktop and i was really weirded out by the fact thats its your laptop but the webcam is showing ame so like at first i thought they were doing facetime 24/7 BUT they also lived together for some reason ??? and the fact that when she takes drugs everything becomes trippy as shit because she herself is taking those drugs or the fact that she talks on the phone with someone she lives with so that makes more sense than i thought yeah

so yeah whatever this is not a game i can really recommend to anyone and the main gimmick is dealing with a mentally unstable goth gf and people out there live this everyday i can name you a few so whatever that being said interesting concept weird execution most of the endings last for like 3 seconds and dont really have any real emotional or story value but my fav ones are the 1M one the one where she goes absolutely fucking crazy and it turns into a psychopath and the game all turns into horror territory like THAT SHIT was the most interesting and gripping one of the bunch and also the one where she smokes a fat blunt and becomes sex addict and idk theres that

at the beginning of the game the main ost was splitting my head in half so i thought this games ost was pretty shit but i realised i was wrong because some tracks really hit hard like the joy one and the emotions one these ones are pretty incredible and when they start a switch goes on in my head that makes me care for ame music is so powerful then you also get some bomb tracks like this one and [this one] they go pretty fucking hard if you ask me theres some gems in the soundtrack rest assured you'll gonna like at least one of these

and yeah the art design is pretty cute too emulating that vaporwave pastel vibe of early computer era and in general ames design portraits animations and expressions are top notch kudos to the artistic department

ame I could not really love you as much as other incel people on the Internet but i still wanted you to be happy thats why I made you take every single one imaginable God bless your heart

just wanted some more psychological insight is that too much in this day and age

"I just wanted to be with… you rei and you, ryu… my family…"

after putting more than the hour counter can actually count (it maxes at 99:59) I can finally review this fucking game

there's absolutely nothing that feels quite like breath of fire III it sits right there into the classic JRPG genre and cornucopia of titles and still it's one of the most unique and innovative title in the scope of the genre legacy and its so weird to me that a game filled with love talent and professionality for a game that is sure to leave an impression may it be good or bad but you WILL remember bof3 for something even the most minuscule detail

breath of fire has always been sitting there as one of those really interesting series that I wanted to check out but never really gotten into because of reasons i guess

ive tried bof1 many years ago and it was honestly kind of an underwhelming experience i never finished it because it seriously got to be a fucking chore just after a couple of hours into the game and I can't honestly really say im that excited to get back to it

bof2 was an interesting step up from the predecessor but still it wasn't THAT gripping to make me insanely enthusiastic in continuing the journey so it got dropped really fast im so sorry

now bof3 is the one bof3 is the super hot mysterious guy sitting in the corner that gives you all kinds of emotional ecstasy and turmoil and this is probably now one of my favorite games not only in the franchise but in general as a whole in the wider sense like I'm completely hooked on this I just cannot begin to tell you how emotionally attached I am to the story to the characters and to each and every single aspect of the game

still having the skeleton of the first 2 games bof3 delivers an experience that feels true to the series in itself and yet tries something completely new in all departments

gameplay wise this is the usual jrpg experience youre gonna find everywhere you get a simple battle system you get some party members you level up and you defeat god as usual but of course its done with incredible care and love I cannot overstate enough how good this shit is

the battle system is something that blew me away for how simple it is but also for how customizable it can be when you know what you're doing apart from the usual stuff like leveling up skills shit like that you're also gonna get some nuance that the game DOESNT even tell you about like theres the ability to examine enemies and this will give you some additional skills like the blue mage in final fantasy and you have the possibility to make your party members study under masters now this master mechanic is fucking amazing you can basically change the level progression and points attribution making the character study under a physical master or a magical master you can do whatever you want AND after some levels you can learn some skills from the master itself and thats where it all shines PLUS you can also use some skill ink to move the skill from one character to the other so the possibility of customization is beyond what I was expecting forreal

that being said the battles are pretty uneventful and straightforward if it weren't for another mechanic which is the dragon genes . your protagonist being a dragon breed is able to turn into a dragon and throughout the game you can acquire something like 20 something genes and you can mix them up however you want theres genes with elemental values theres genes that change the attributes of the character and genes that make things that I genuinely don't know because I didnt experiment enough honestly also my ryu build was mainly physical so I didn't have that much AP to do enough dragon breed play

and what's interesting is that most of these have different sprites ??? THATS SO FUCKING COOL UGHHHHH

understandably enough this is actually gonna add a lot to the gameplay which is already pretty rich and that means that you can tackle the main bosses of the game in so many different combinations of abilities skills tactics and party members that the possibilities are rightfully endless you can do whatever you want and the game always rewards a little curiosity here and there

allegedly this was dubbed as one of the hardest jrpgs around and honestly after playing smt3 (which isn't the hardest jrpg by any means anyway) I can tell you that this is a breeze to go through maybe this is the SMT aficionado DNA doing all the work during this game but I didnt have that many issues apart from the final boss which is honestly pretty tough

apart from that maybe the real difficulty spike is during the beginning of the game where you don't really know what is happening and how to actually exploit the main mechanics of the game but after that it's pretty chill not really a surprise because of the BIG difference that makes leveling up (this is no +1 atk the difference is pretty massive and youre gonna finish the game at around level 40 or something and at least as I managed to understand by watching levels go up every level counts)

that being said the exploration aspect is also interesting but it's more about treasure hunting than real exploration the main traveling you will have to do is strictly entwined with the main quest and youre not going to have the entire map available to you until you actually get pretty late in the game and you're gonna get there through the story events so yeah the real exploration is gonna be like scavenging for treasures here and there until you find new equipment new items or even new masters sometimes

there's a fishing minigame which is pretty great I was purposefully ignoring it but a main quest requires you to actually fish so I went there and actually had a lot of fun what the hell I was NOT expecting that but ideally im not one of those "I love fishing minigames" guys so i cannot really give this minigame a rating of course it didn't make me change my opinion on these ones but at least it didn't bring me to mental anguish

and another thing that I didnt actually MIND that much but it made me kind of confused and weirded out is the fact that during the second part of the game which is obviously the climax of the story in itself youre stuck with doing a lot of minigames and a lot of puzzles here and there now as I said I don't think this is inherently an issue but when you're going after the true bad ™ and the games says OK but actually why don't you just do a "getting water from a well" minigame or a "tug of war" minigame or like 10 others like this its actually pretty anticlimactic and it broke down the pacing but whatever this game is still perfect im not gonna say a single bad word about it

another shit that absolutely FUCKS ASS is the art direction and music department

now yknow I'm a sucker for art style and art direction more than I am of graphics because everybody can get a 4k texture or model from the web and put it into your game development engine but most of the people here don't actually know how to work IN FAVOR of these aspects you can't just put RTX on graphics with zero sense of design and call it a day cmon and thats also why sometimes old games shine brighter than some games releasing nowadays NOW PLEASE dont say shit like "UGHHJ BOOMER YOURE SAYING ALL MODERN DAY GAMES SUCK" no im saying either old or modern games with no sense of art direction are doomed to suck AT LEAST in the art department maybe they're gonna be the best fps you'll ever play but I won't be here to praise it one bit

and this game UGHHHH the pixel art is GORGEOUS every single expression and action is animated not only during the cutscene segments but the animations during battles are absolutely fucking insane when you cast a spell with garr his necklace is gonna break and hover around him making a circle and when you cast a spell with momo her rifle is gonna make some fleshy enchanting lights

and the bosses have some bomb ass sprite work and the animation pushes them to their limit like the dragon lord is hot as fuck the gazer blew me the fuck away and then myria being myria she's absolutely gorgeous incredible to the end and to top all of this kaiser dragon form is the hunkiest transformation for ryu like it made me sweat like crazy this guy8

like this is not the best pixel art ive ever seen in the entirety of my life and doesnt even compare to the one in bof4 but the sheer amount of love put into every single character design every single animation every single pixel can be felt through the screen and right in front of your fucking face theres nothing that feels quite like this and it would amount to nothing if it werent for the jawdropping character designs

and also the character portraits in the menu are so cute im sorry I love each and every one of my kids

the 2d sprites also have a 3d background the entirety of the world youre gonna traverse is made up of 3d models that make such a great contrast with the characters this is something that I also saw in xenogears and yknow that game is also gorgeous as fuck the ps1 jrpgs are absolutely out of this world I cannot believe this

all of this accompanied by such a great OST that it still really surprises me by how different and unique it is from the usual jrpg flare you get in other games songs

some people say this soundtrack is not really memorable and I have to both agree and disagree . people when say a soundtrack isn't memorable they probably mean there isn't a strong score in the repertoire and to that I have to agree theres not really a song that shines brighter than the other or a song that's catchier or bouncer and to that I have to say that EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE SONGS IS GOOD SO OF COURSE ITS NOT GONNA BE "MEMORABLE" UGHHHHHHHHHH this score is full FULL of amazing tracks theres not a single track that made me go "ugh this again" and they also have such a nice vibe most of them are jazzy moody tunes with simple and straightforward instruments but also a lot of variety in the genre and every single one of them pumps like they're absolutely fucking incredible this cannot be a coincidence this is masterfully done by a composer that lives and breathes my same air in this planet its pretty insane if you think about it (unless they're that and at that point im really sorry)

so yeah tracks like the main battle theme which is already pretty incredible and the boss battle theme which is absolutely fucking insane honestly I just vibed to the tune every single time tutututuuuuutu stuck in my head for weeks and weeks to come theyre amazing

also theres something so hypnotic about the cedar woods theme I can't really explain it it feels so familiar and so nostalgic at the same time to the point that even if you just encountered rei and teepo they feel like family already and possibly the greatest game over theme ever like this has such a nice vibe to it its amazing and also one of the saddest theme ever created in the universe thrown at you in the most unexpected moments ever and yknow many other different soundtracks that I'm not gonna talk about or else I'm gonna just link the whole ost here ong

so now we're gonna get to the juice of the game and the main reason why I think this is actually such a strong addition to the jrpg catalogues out there

the characters are perfect I care for them I love each and every one of them I absolutely enjoy seeing them smile and having fun and shit like that and to talk about them I'm gonna get into SPOILER TERRITORY SO HERES THE TIME FOR YOU TO GO BACK

ryu is a silent protagonist so there's really nothing incredible to say about him apart from the fact that most of his motivations are pretty straightforward and clear and he's kind of a hotty when he grows up seeing him go from powerless little baby to godslayer is a recurring them in the industry and yet here it's treated with so much care to the point that you also grow up with him when you see how he changed through the timeskip and what the world has come to you suddenly get a sense of scale and responsibility that wasnt present in the time of ryus childhood and still he's an interesting character to explore and its pretty funny to me that the main way to know what ryus thinking is by "talking" with peco and hearing his thoughts about him . probably not my favorite character in existence but it's unbearable to me that this game isn't sitting in the rightful throne of unique jrpgs experiences out there
NSFW WARNING rei is my favorite character in this one and apart from the fact that he's so fucking hot and I want to suck him dry either in human form OR tiger from and I want to be wrecked from the insides out and railed to hell and back and spit in my mouth and called slurs and derogatory terms and left without any power in my legs and also with a myriad of babies in my ass umh what was I even saying oh right rei he's pretty interesting and seeing him go from chill little thief of the hometown to scarred big bro in just a timeskip is devastating as shit and while most of ryus childhood he tried to be a father figure to both teepo and ryu you can actually feel his care for the little guys to the point that in times of danger he protected them in every conceivable way and when you get to the timeskip he's absolutely powerless he's no more the big bro figure to ryu but instead it's ryu trying to save rei from complete madness where the grief for losing teepo consumed his well being to the point that he goes ape shit crazy into weretiger mode and kills people all around . he doesn't really change that much after you get into the party but the striking realisation that he's no more the easygoing cheerful pal of the prologue hurts like he'll he's great and he's design is incredible I want him in my ass
nine may be the second best character of the bunch for me mainly because I love her type of characterisation . when you first get to know her she's the little rebellious princess of the main kingdom of the land with responsibility and honor to think about but she's just gonna leave home and follow ryu and friends like its nothing to my surprise she was also a fairly conflicted character because of her gratitude to ryu but also for her ties to her parents and this actually follows her throughout the adventure with her regretting from time to time her decision and STILL she's incredibly tough she cares for ryu like nobody else around and probably is the main person of the OG gang to defend ryu in front of absolutely everyone and everything she's willing to go to the end of the world for him and this kind of friendship really takes the cake for me . when she grows up its not a surprise to see an accomplished woman who's rightful empowered and outgoing to the point that you're gonna meet her while she doesn't some arrest around the town like ok miss girl do your thing and even though she's grown up she has a bomb body she's hot she's fierce and whatevet the hell she's still that little baby you remember at heart she still cares for both ryu and her parents and this create a great fissure between what she wants to do and what she has to do and THIS KIND OF CHARACTER IS UGHHHHH I LOVE IT plus her entire design is probably the best nina design in the series like the dress the hair the wings
momo is also great im saying that every single character is great because its true she's kind of the comic relief of the bunch and while she IS a fucking clown she's still some of the most charming and easy to love character of the entire circus she's absolutely in love machines due to her ties with her father who was also a mechanic and shes absolutely obsessed with them but this is not the main point of the character her main character issue is the distance that she feels from her worth and her father's worth and this makes for some real depressing moments in her character development that will probably feel close to some of you like it did to me and yet even though she struggles with this she cares for the other guys and always does her best shes a sweetheart I love this woman
garr is an enigmatic character and I can't really put my finger on it he's an angel ???????? yeah pretty weird if you ask me he's built like a dragon and he's…… pretty beefy and hot at that I really want to see his cock if I'm being incredibly honest with you but no hes an angel and the main issue is that he's from a long line of guardian angels whose main mission was to annihilate every single dragon in existence for the peace of the world and thats also the reason why he's gonna join ryu and trick him to kill him in angel tower and this really gives some kind of perspective into the character and also when you get to the town of the guardian you begin to understand that garr is actually hiding something like why is everybody calling him guardian angel and didn't think of saying that to the others but anyway after the timeskip he realises that he's fucking dumb and that ryu isn't a bad guy to begin with he's not gonna get into manslaughter or shit like that and thats when he gets into this redemption arc type of way UNTIL he just sacrifices in the ending like WHYYYYYY GARR WHYYYYYYY UGHHH I wanted to see your dick first the fuck
peco is an interesting one since he's basically a plant and doesn't talk or think or anything UNTIL he does because he's a root of yggdrasil or whatever and that also makes a lot of sense because when you see yggdrasil in the overworld where he can become your master peco is the only single who can talk to him I was suspecting something like this when he began to talk in ryus mind but I didnt think it was actually this anyway hes a nice addition unfortunately I didn't use it at all during my campaign also due to the fact that he has few skills and can't equip most stuff
teepo I'm so sorry … I loved teepo as a kid he's shrewd and charismatic he's a little bro to ryu or like equal age bro and still sometimes acts as a big bro to him too since he's the latest addendum to the party and honestly he's cute he's intelligent and he's the sweetest baby who didn't do anything wrong in his life after the timeskip where you just lose track of him when you meet him again you get to know that he's a dragon too and that he's living in an artificial world as the goddess is asking to and while he's living comfortably in there ryu can't do the same and so they fuck each other up and teepo dies . this is actually insane if you ask me after years of searching for your childhood friend due to dissenting opinions youre either gonna get killed or kill him and even though he's become more mature and more gloomy I feel like he's still the teepo I know at heart I love you

the other characters apart from these guys are actually just addendum to the story like the pegasus guys deis the 2 guys in port whatever that end up fucking the sea guy ninas parents the other guardian who is also HOT AS FUCK UHHHHH guardians are damn hot im sorry so yeah nothing to say about them I want to eiffel tower with the 2 horse guys

the story is actually a highlight too and flows accordingly

the prologue is probably my favorite part of the game where you escape from the mine and get to know the other main characters of the game and create the very first trio you go thieving you go scavenging you live life and make memories until NOT and they set your house on fire and kidnap you

its probably one of my favorite prologues in general it feels reminiscent of childhood as a whole and it has this really specific vibe of big bros trying to help out this stranded little kid creating a somewhat functional family and the found family trope is soooo MMMMMMMMM to me like these people cared for each other and if it weren't for this they would've continued to live together and thats why it makes it even worse to actually confront teepo at the end of the game all of this wouldn't have happened if it weren't for some weird coincidences of fate and a bad luck all around and there's that

after this during the childhood days the main quest will concentrate around trying to find rei and teepo and in the meantime you will get to know the other main cast of the game nina in her steel fortress momo in her ruins and garr during the tournament and this last encounter actually seals the deal to head to angel tower and shit

the pacing in this part of the game is absolutely enchanting back to back to back incredible stuff story unravels and mysteries increase you begin to slowly grow up and grow accustomed to how the world works to how friendship is actually cultivated and to how stigmatised you are for being a dragon something that people treat as either a circus attraction or a menace to society as a whole

the events of angel tower seal the deal for the timeskip and actually kind of make up for actually not really advancing the story for 20 something hours

the timeskip events are weird because youre gonna meet back your friend group soon enough but garr is actually more introspective and actually sorry about what happened nina changed for the better and peco is still peco everything changed you yourself changed but the hatred for the dragon kind is still there and that's why the new mission for these guys is to go directly to god herself and speak to her as to why this is happening

after recruiting rei and doing some more main quests stuff that actually feel like side quests stuff and a LOT of time later you will get to the new continent in the other side of the outer sea and be confronted with the greatest place of the game with a weird name

now little excursus the environments in this game are unmatched everything in the overworld is alive and brimming with life each town has different layouts general aesthetic and vibes the town of the tournament feels like a nighttime casino city ryus village is calm and chill the castle town is overpopulated and so on so forth and that applies to the dungeons too theres not really a dungeon that I can deem as bad at least in the artistic department each one is distinct and beautiful but what I wanted to say is that most of the stuff youre gonna go through here and there is mostly natural when you get to the new continent youre gonna get a stark contrast in which most of the towns and the final dungeon will have heavy machinery hi tech technologyyy and claustrophobic vibes something that doesn't happen in other parts of the game and thats already an incredible accomplishment

the final dungeon is kind of a pain in the ass but I dare you to find a final dungeon that isn't mostly shit so anyway theres this stark contrast between the final dungeon AND where teepo is living which is a Eden full of green and trees and other stuff and this kind of feels even worse to do because this kind of world was something ryu and rei and teepo were trying to achieve together and instead it's the place where you're gonna kill your childhood friend for the sake of your ideals

there's nothing I can say to give justice to this scene its something so fucking powerful you have to experience firsthand and im still kind of sad how things proceeded even though that was to be expected

that being said the final final dungeon with the kind of long and tedious traversing but not AS MUCH as other games honestly this one is pretty chill apart from some weird tricky endgame enemies and the fact that you'll need to heal every 3 seconds

the final boss is nothing TOOOOOO difficult but still difficult and the emotional final confrontation is done SOOOOO well with you speaking with every character and just going there and smashing the face of the bitch ass goddess of the dick and after that garr is gonna sacrifice himself for ryu :*(((((((( garr I'm so sorry I loved you so fucking much and then youre gonna just escape from this fucking place and youre gonna be left with an ending scene where the characters actually have sprites that resemble their clothes in the character art

and thats it this game is incredible

this may not be the most perfect game in existence but it sure managed to not only surpass my expectations but soar the highs of my tierlist to the point that it became one of my favorite games of all times characters are great art is impeccable gameplay is fun and story is unmatched there's literally nothing out there that can emulate the uniqueness that this game oozes from every pore

teepo you will always be in my heart I just wish you could be happy with your family