As one of those normies who was introduced to this series through P5, I definitely miss some of the improvements made in that game (i.e. in-depth dungeon design, baton-pass, greater variety of activities, etc). But I still fell in love with Persona 4 all the same. If there's one major qualm I have with P5, it's that its story is pretty cut-and-dry from the very start; there are corrupted adults actively making the world worse and you need to take them down a peg. P4 instead focuses on a murder mystery with intriguing layers to gradually unravel as the story progresses. The game has this cozy, small town feel that I love, which is in contrast to an ever-present sinister undertone. And while I absolutely adore the soundtrack as a whole I can't pretend like some tracks didn't get on my nerves by the 80 hour mark cough cough.

There are plenty of things I could nitpick about the plot but that's par for the course for JRPGs. What matters is that this game was a joy to experience from start to finish; I truly came to see these characters as my friends and family just as I did with P5. It even managed to make me cry at one point, which is something that only a very small handful of games have ever done. I'm so happy I was finally able to experience Persona 4 and I can't wait to give 3 a try...sometime soon. I'm a little burned out right now.

One of the most delightful gaming experiences of my entire life. HAL knocked it out of the park!

I admittedly don't have very much experience with Kirby, I really only played the original Dreamland on Game Boy as a kid and Adventure on the Wii Virtual Console. But this truly feels like that perfect 3D translation of the latter's gameplay, in the same way Breath of the Wild was to the original Zelda. Kirby finally made the jump and he did it with flying colours.

This game is so consistently fun that it was hard to put down. And it's not as easy as I anticipated either. Those early worlds are nice and breezy, sure, but some of those later challenges and post-game bosses are certainly no pushovers. A lot of correct timing and pattern recognition to take into account. The levels are just pure fun and full of surprises, and they really feed into my "comb everywhere and find everything" itch. Between the collectibles, missions, levelling up copy abilities, timed challenges, minigames, and boss rush there is a surprising amount of replay value here.