Holds an outrageous amount of filler content (ground pound moons, buyable moons, chest moons...). Lots of boredom and aimless hidden moon searching to reach 100%, a very small percentage of the moons actually come with a worthwhile mission worth playing. This being said, the controls are exceptional, level design is great and storyline is modern and fresh. The missions that are worth playing are also some of the best in the series. It's, however, likely my least favorite 3D Mario game for a home console; I would have expected more substantial content for the game and less repetitive idling and searching.

hot take: a hat in time is the more enjoyable game

Okay, now that I have made everyone my enemy I start with my thoughts on the game lol

Mario Odyssey (I always spelled that wrong) was the first switch game I've booted and I was immediately absorbed in the gameplay. It's your typical jump and run Mario game with some cool twists and beautiful graphics and great world designs. However, I started to getting bored near the end, I'm not sure why. I've beaten it and I had my fun, but it's just another Mario game for me personally in the end, unfortunately. One of my favorites, but something was missing. Like, I don't know, a DLC MAYBE OR SOMETHING IN THAT MATTER???

I hope future Mario games take what this game nailed and reinvented and take it even further.

A frankly mediocre game with an awful storyline, but a testament to how you can wrangle months of playtime out of me if you're a polished feature-complete title with a strong community-creation component. MapleStory 2 was as standard as MMOs get, I don't remember it being very well balanced, the action combat struggled to hold shape under the latency issues, it literally kills u irl when u die. Yadda yadda, I could say anything and you'd have no choice but to believe me, the game's servers have closed down permanently.

This was, however, my Massively Online Style Savvy: Trendsetters for PC. Games are terrified to let people make things for themselves, use their own images, provide customisation tools that could be exploited for devious ends - but they're pure and valuable expressions of da self! On one hand, I empathise with the walled-garden approach most games take, all content within the title being curated and poured over by the developers n publishers to assure maximum sponsor compatibility and compliance to ratings boards. MS2 was a rare and frankly exemplary occasion of a fairly major MMO publisher essentially not even caring about all of that. If you could think of it - you could make it. You could design your clothes and accessories and furniture meticulously, you could buy real estate within the world map and design every block of the house, you could buy billboard space and plaster any .png you want in story-critical questing zones. Was dumb as shit but so pure and good.

Also want to signal boost this
https://maplestory.nexon.net/ms2archive
An official site recognising the fact that the game has shut down and just made ALL of its art assets freely available for download. Wtf. Why is this so rare.

I KNEW I WOULD LOVE THIS GAME ESTELLE IS BESTELLE!!!

Even though this is only the first chapter of a much, MUCH longer saga and has a lot of unresolved plot points as a result, this is genuinely an excellent RPG I enjoyed from start to finish. It definitely takes its time for the story to pick up as the exposition is quite hefty but almost every line of dialogue helps flesh out this world and makes it feel alive. I remember almost every location very clearly and while that could be because I played the game just recently, I can't say that about many RPG series', even those among my favorites. Maybe it's because you return to the towns so often to report quests and you thus become familiar with the layouts (even more so if you talk to the NPCs throughout the course of your stay) or the fact that the music of these areas is great but I can hardly see myself forgetting some of these locations anytime soon. This game really hits home that it's more about the journey than the destination and that's a sentiment that I find really refreshing for these kinds of games. You don't do sidequests because you just want exp or to say you finished the game; you do them because it is genuinely enjoyable to explore the kingdom of Liberl and see what kinds of monsters and treasure you encounter.

That said, this game can pack narrative punch when it really wants to. The last chapter in particular raises the stakes much higher and the last 20 minutes or so of the game is just brilliant and leaves me wanting more.

Characters share the common trait of generally just being lovable, even if some of the party members barring Joshua and Estelle aren't entirely fleshed out as of yet, but I expect more will come of them in future games. The battle system is pretty solid with a grid-based, strategic spin on traditional turn based combat. I won't lie though and say this game really kicked my ass in some places and some fights seemed impossible at first, but I found it satisfying to see the fights get slightly easier as I learned about the enemy and found new ways to counter them.

Overall, terrible, 2/10 garbage game. Jk, for real though, it's great stuff. It's definitely not gonna be for everyone as the amount of dialogue will definitely test your patience if you aren't into that kind of thing. And I will admit some of the simplicity earlier in the game as well as the general pace at which the story proceeds keeps it from being a JRPG masterpiece in my eyes. But still, I cannot wait to play more of this series. Especially after that ending. See you in 2025!

This is coming from someone who typically avoids the genre at all costs-- let alone touching a series known for the grinding-- but Disgaea 5 nails its gameplay loops and map design in a seemingly accidental perfect balance. The way you can assess each situation with any given party of characters is hardly comparable to much else, and all of the usual progression mechanics allow for "ways of getting there" to accommodate varying skill levels, rather than necessary time sinks. Overload abilities bring incredible nuance to every situation as you figure out how to apply them on the fly. All of these things come together in such a way that still makes it insanely accessible.
Disgaea 5's art style brings its HD hybrid animation to a peak with smooth transitions between attacks, and each ability doing very much with very little. Environments are fantastic but very readable and attacks are over the top and more insane than you could ever expect.
The game's greatest shortcoming is easily the story, something which used to be the highlight of the other Disgaea games, however it was still terse and effective for changing locales. Even that being said, characters don't ever become stale and always have their fun little moments.
Top this all off with my personal favorite soundtrack of the series, and you have a pretty exceptional game for the genre that is still accessible to even the fresher players.

If Haku has a million fans I am one of them.
If Haku has ten fans I am one of them.
If Haku has one fan then that is me.
If Haku has no fans then I am no longer on this earth.
If the world is against Haku I am against the world.
I love Haku until my last breath.