This is my thoughts after my first playthrough. I understand that there is a lot more in two more playthroughs so ill probably re review this when im done with those. I think I wanna take a break from this for now to play earlier entries and other games in general.

Armored Core 6 was a really great time. What really impressed me about it is how well the game controls. It really feels like the perfect balance between the weightyness of 1-3 and the fast polished controls of 4-5. This games missions are incredibly memorable and the way missions surprise you with stuff is very Armored Core. The storytelling was surprisingly gripping and the choices I made were genuinely tough nearing the end. That feeling of working with all sides of the engagement was really well done. This game had suprisingly fleshed out characters that kept me going and even rooting for them sometimes. This game is a must play and a no brainer if you are just starting out with the series.

Before this I played Armored Core 1, Project Phantasma, then I touched 3 and For Answer. So I dont have this like really wide spread opinion on the series or anything, but my biggest issue with this game is when the elements stray away from what made the earlier games good. I feel like everything in Armored Core 1 was made with purpose. The way the missions and money worked engrossed you in this cutthroat mech economy. It felt unforgiving in a good way. I also liked how expressive the builds were in the ps1 games, there was genuinely good and bad things about which legs and type of weaponry you used and it was all very fun to experiment.

I think Armored Core 6 fails to capture what the original games were doing with that system and try and do more traditional Soulsy things with it and thats where the frustration really came in for me. Case in point, I really wish the bosses other than the AC's weren't there. Every single one of them made me feel like the AC I wanted to use was impossible for the fight. I appreciate that the game wants you to experiment with different builds, in fact I built three and had a good time with them. But it often felt one sided. I had this fast tank with two shotguns that just steamrolled most of the bosses. It got to a point where using my other two builds was pointless, even when they were good and balanced in other situations. This goes counter to what I loved about building my mech in the other games.

I also feel that the checkpoint system misses the point a bit. Levels feel a bit too long even when they are pretty short, and being able to just wing it up to a checkpoint is a little weird for this series. It gives the decisions you make for your builds have less weight. I think id have the game be the exact same, like same controls, weapons and everything, but just design the missions with no checkpoints and have the soulslike bosses be replaced with more AC fights. I also wish there was more decisions in the missions like in AC1, but it does seem like there is more in the post game so ill see how I feel when I get around that.

This game is quite great and for a while I was thinking maybe it was my favorite From Soft game. Maybe ill appreciate it the more I play it. But it started getting really frustrating near the end. Maybe new game plus and further work on my builds will make this game sing more. Im personally just hoping that the next entry makes the experience feel more open and less rigid.

This review is post remaster but I have played it before, I'll split my review into the game itself and the remaster.

Quake 2
7/10

When I was playing this again I was having a blast. Like everything was really clicking and the pace of it felt really good. I still think this might be the best roster of weapons in any FPS game and I really enjoy the Strogg as an antagonist. The Half-Life esq structure was really ambitious for its time and it has its moments. That being said, I think the game overstays its welcome big time near the end. A lot of the enemies are really tanky and boring to fight. All the levels start blending together, nothing you do in it really sticks out. I think the separation of levels was really key for Quake and Doom and they were a lot better off for it. The game just doesn't feel as tight as the first Quake. Weapon switching is really clunky. A lot of weapons feel slower than they need to be. I really hate how there are hand grenades and a grenade launcher, it's entirely unnecessary. It's just a lot of these small gradual problems that make the experience kind of a mixed bag. It has some of the most interesting Id design but more often then not it gets bogged down. I think it's worth playing and I definitely don't have complaints about the multiplayer. I'm really glad this game paved the way for Quake 3 which is a much better feeling game and a great arena shooter. Quake 2 is really disappointing compared to the first Quake game which is one of my favorite games ever, but it's solid enough.

Quake 2 Remaster: 10/10

This remaster is incredible. It fixes a lot of issues I had with the original making it more fun. The item wheel and quicker weapon switching is a god send. The remastered visuals are perfect and I often felt the colored lighting and modern effects helped make the game look less samey even if only a little. This is also the first time I was able to play Quake 2 multiplayer. It has issues similar to the first games remaster. I think the lobby system is pretty bad and some matches felt a little laggy, but it's still fun. I haven't played the new expansion (let alone the original expansions or the new expansions for quake 1) but I have heard it's some of the best Quake 2 content out there and that's really exciting to hear. There are a couple of things about the first games remaster that gives me pause in calling it the definitive sourceport of it, but Quake 2's remaster is absolutely the way you should be playing this game.

Yeah this game has the sauce. It has a really expansive metroidvania map to get lost in and a lot of movement abilities that you unlock that substantially re-contextualize the gameplay. The movement is easily the best part. I feel like this takes inspiration from games like sly and jak but the momentum based stuff turns it up to 11.

This game is begging to not have a sequence, I had a lot of fun experimenting with ways I can skip a room with my understanding of the movement. Early on if you do a backflip off of the peak speed of your slide you can already access a lot of the game. I really enjoyed the map. Something unique here is that a lot like Metroid 1 there is no map screen or waypoints to look at, so it recreates that similar feeling. I do really enjoy it, though I did often get confused as there are some similar looking level design here and there.

I was surprised how combat centric this game is. There are two main bosses and enemies you sometimes have to fight to progress. While I do really enjoy it, it has some issues. I think the lock on is really bad. The one section you need to use it was really disorienting and I often couldnt see my own character. And the three hit combo itself is a little odd to use because it takes a while not pressing the button for it to reset and the ender has lag. So sometimes id end up using the combo ender at the start of my combo which didnt feel that great. The storytelling is also very light and I didnt really understand what was going on in the ending. But yeah no a lot of my gripes with it are nitpicks and I had a great time. If you really like those movement games like me its a must play. Im looking forward to going back to it.

This is my initial playthrough after doing very little of the side quests. I mostly just stuck to dungeons and i'll come back to complete all the masks later on as I know the side quests are really important and flesh out the world quite a bit.

Even without 100% completion this is still the Zelda game that does the most for me. It conveyed this haunting and dire tone brilliantly through its gameplay. I love all the dungeons, none of them were bad in fact all of them were incredible. The bosses were actually really fun this time, I really love the final fight against Majora and how it changes its forms throughout the whole thing, its such a memorable moment.

There was a lot of attention to detail in the world that I really appreciated. It creates this sense of community that I havent seen other games quite match and you end up caring a lot about the things you do for people. You have that sinking feeling knowing that the good things you do for these people wont last as you have to turn back time. You play a part in these peoples lives but more than likely they wont remember what you did for them, you are kind of like a phantom over the story and I found that really engaging.

There are a lot of emotional moments in this game, especially the scenes that play out when you get the main three masks. The game has such great writing. It probably has the best directing of any Nintendo game, all of it feels genuine and I was surprised how cool some of the shot composition(?) was. The ending feels bittersweet as despite making friends and helping people, you dont belong in Termina and you arent wanted there.

I have a few silly problems in this game kind of like Ocarina, but I feel it isnt as big of a deal for me here. I thought the Stone Tower climb was really annoying. Playing the song to summon the statues was a huge hassle, the temple ended up being worth it though as I was almost out of time when I beat it which made me feel stuff I havent really felt in games without that time limit. I also do wish the side quests were a little more sign posted...I dont know...like I think the appeal is that they happen naturally and the peoples problems dont revolve around you. So I think changing that would probably be for the worse, but if im honest if I understood where to even begin I would have been more compelled to do them on my first playthrough. Im not really extrinsically motivated when I play games so its mostly just a me thing.

Yeah probably the best Zelda game. Im shocked this came out of Nintendos development studio. Its doing stuff not a lot of games even try and do and it does it with a lot of heart. This game feels like people really poured their soul into it and I think for that reason it persists as something really special.

I think theres some preamble I need to cover before I review this game proper. This is my first final fantasy game. There have been arguments about whether or not this lives up to Final Fantasy's style and pedigree but that is not a conversation I can properly talk about, nor does it interest me that much. I dont think because one final fantasy also has x problem means that it isnt a problem for this one and so on. Im more looking at this from the perspective of someone who plays character action games and is a fan of that genre. I was really excited when I heard the combat designer of DMC5 was on this, its the main reason I really wanted to play it.

I enjoyed my time overall and dont regret playing this, but this game has HUGE problems. I think every piece of content that isnt a tightly scripted action sequence or cool boss is really bad. The side quests are insanely repetitive. The content in the side quests and the rewards in them felt completely barebones. Some of them do offer some insight in the world, but given how much they waste your time, they never felt all that important. It always just ends up being this cycle of watching characters awkwardly pose and talk to eachother for a while, then you like go some place and fight some easy enemies, then go talk to them again, etc. The studio who worked on this worked primarily with MMOs and ive heard that that kind of design was implemented here as a result. To me this is the cause of a lot of the games issues and why the side quests are so stilted and boring. That kind of design is probably served better for a much bigger game with continuous content to keep the player playing. But it does not serve this game well at all.

Unfortunately the boredom and repetition doesnt just stay in the side quests, it often trickles into the main storyline. There are a couple of questlines where you just go around talking to people. I can be fine with this if those long questlines lead to something meaningful, but they never do. It all ends up feeling like busywork. Most of my playthrough was just spending HOURS hoping for the next setpiece and that doesnt really sit right with me. After a while I ended up just skipping the side quests alltogether, even the plus ones.

This games difficulty balance is so out of whack its something to behold. I dont think anything really made me sweat or feel challenged. I honestly dont mind games being easy, in fact this game has plenty of ways for newcomers to the character action genre to enjoy it without much hassle. I appreciate the accessibility here, but the game is so completely barren of any feeling of struggle. Clive has this incredible moveset with insanely useful moves and that just grows so much as you play, yet the enemies you fight never rise to meet that. The enemy design is really bad, a lot of the mooks just stand there asking to be hit. I think DMC5 is a pretty easy game on a casual playthrough as well, but that games enemy design is much more engaging. Not only are they more aggressive, but each enemy has engaging methods of interaction and there is a nice balance of mooks to whack on and stronger enemies that put up a fight. Here, its just all mooks or big guys with heavily telegraphed attacks that you just wail on until they are staggered. There is no Nero buster arm equivalent. Your abilities have pre set defensive options that spice things up, but there isnt a lot that seperates one big boss from the other besides the different flashy moves they can do. The game also has this baffling mechanic where your potion stock is entirely refilled upon death. So what would happen is that id die on low potions and come back on the next phase of the fight with full heals. I think the healing system is another big reason why this game didnt feel challenging and I wish that was reworked in some way to where theres more drawbacks to using them.

There's a lot of DMC similar moves and mechanics like enemy step here. But they never really felt all that core to the experience. You can be stylish and juggle enemies in the air to infinity but theres never a reason to. A lot of fights I spent just cycling through my big moves until the things were dead. The overworld design is also baffling. You are never pressed to fight enemies on it, I spent a lot of time just running away from stuff, which I think is a bad thing for a game with a character action mold to make me want to do. I think the closest thing to a challenge I came across were the hunts, but even then, they werent that fullfilling, id usually just die once, get all my potions back, then get them down. I know this kind of discussion is really subjective, im sure there are a lot of people who struggled through this game and thats entirely valid. I just wish there were ways to make the game more challenging for veterans of games like DMC. I feel challenge is really important to the character action genre. This games story tells of this really cruel world with deep rooted societal problems and monsters that can make mince meat of the people living in it, but I never felt that struggle from the gameplay at all.

I think the narrative is pretty great and probably my favorite part of the whole thing. Clive and his crew kept me going and I really enjoy the growth the characters and the world went through. By the end of it, I felt like I got to spend a lot of time with them and I got emotional when they all finally fullfill their ambitions. This story isnt perfect though. Like the game itself, it often drags big time. There is a lot of just characters pontificating about the themes of the story which made for long swaths of uninteresting cutscenes. The game has a shift near (I wanna say) the last quarter where a lot of its politics and more challenging concepts are just brushed aside in favor of some vague themes of fate and humanity triumphing over it. The ending stuff was really cool but I cant really say it was all that intriguing compared to the earlier stuff. I do wish the story tackled the consequences of Clives movement overall, but it never really does. Also the villains that show up near the end are really boring, they are just kind of evil archetypes that dont feel like compelling foils. I also wish this story did more with Jill. I really like her character and she has some great moments, but theres a lot of times where she just doesnt do anything. I often forgot she was in my party because of how little she has to say. She feels placed here to be the romantic interest for Clive and not much else and thats a shame because she is really cool.

This games bosses are sick as hell. Extremely fun setpiece fights with great music blaring in the background. This is where all the polish and money went and this is where the game is at its strongest. I love this games sense of scale, there is just some huge stuff happening and the game doesnt really break a sweat rendering it. There are a couple where I think I would put them on a top 50 boss fights or something. I do think the difficulty balancing plagues them a little bit. Theres a certain fight against a huge guy that was extremely cool but was monotonous and over stayed its welcome after a while. But the bulk of them are a really good time and had me cheering at the screen.

The very best part of this game is the music. This is an incredible work from Masayoshi Soken. It punctuated the events of the story perfectly. It had a surprising range in genre. Some of the tracks here are really unorthodox and those ended up being my favorites. Its really masterful stuff and it really stuck with me.

At the end of the day I think this game was pretty neat, but I was disappointed with a lot of it. If the game didnt waste your time as much and made fighting enemies more interesting, it would have been something I really adored. The RPG Character Action mix is really rough here and I think those two conventions really clash with each other. I do kind of hope there is another game like this in the series, because it has a lot of potential for improvement. I will probably never play this again, it was 40 hours too long, but I think its worth checking out.

I understand that the team is small and they probably tried their best with this thing with the resources they had. That being said, this does just about everything wrong as a remake. The game looks really ugly. The controls feel worse. The sound design is way worse. I think the new music is interesting and often has good remixes, but they dont sound as good as the original, luckily there is an option to have the original tracks enabled.

There were a lot of times where the lock on just wouldnt work?? Like id hold the button and nothing would happen. Im not sure this is just a me thing or not. If this just came with the original, I would be a lot more positive on it, but the fact that this is the only modern version of the game available really saddens me.

I cant believe they screwed up the laser sound. Like thats the one thing you really shouldnt mess with, right? But it sounds so flat and boring here. All the animations look really stiff and worse than the original. Some of the interpretations of the levels dont do it for me, especially the forest one. This is just a me complaint and probably a good thing for people in general but I found the normal mode a bit too easy, if you want something like the original im assuming hard will do you better though I havent tried it and dont want to.

I definitely recommend trying to play the original if you can. If you have an Xbox One/Series console Panzer Dragoon Orta is backwards compatible and the original game is unlockable. There are some alright things here, I enjoy the four way aiming more here as its closer to Zwei and Orta. And some of those remixes were really cool. I really didnt like this but if this is the only way you can play it and its on sale, its okay, just expect some jank. Im morbidly curious on their Zwei remake, I do hope that turns out fine.

This game is unbelieveable. Its a true classic of its era. Its the Sega Saturns Swan Song and its doing things that I havent seen games do even now.

The games story is fantastic. Its an epic thats told in a sincere and personal way. The characters and their dialogue are well thought out and so many of the games moments blew me away. Its effortlessly paced, starting small and eventually building to something transcendent. Its themes of letting go of dated traditions and embracing a new world was really well done and fits within the aesthetic of the series. It feels incredibly rewarding if you have played the other two games. Not to gatekeep, but I absolutely recommend playing Panzer Dragoon and Panzer Dragoon Zwei first as this is deeply tied to those games narratives. The way it ends is so perfect that I almost wish there wasn't another one after it.

The gameplay is one of the biggest highlights. It effortlessly takes the arcade rail shooter foundations the series was built upon and turns it into an RPG. The way the game plays is totally unique to itself and im not sure if there have been other games like it. I really love the games use of the active time battle system seen in other RPGs. I usually dont really care for that system as it mostly just amounts to waiting until you can attack. But with this games four directional movement system and how you can charge 3 bars before attacking adds a lot to ATB. Im not sure if id say its a particularly difficult game, but it is something that does require you to play as well as you can with your head in the game at all times. The combat system makes the game feel like an action packed rail shooter even though it is molded in an RPG system, especially with how you are ranked at the end of each fight, being rewarded for ending fights quickly with minimal damage. I really love its take on the dragon evolution system from Zwei. Being able to change your stats at any time is really unique and cool. I was always excited to see how my dragon was gonna look. Theres a super secret final evolution that you get at the end of the game thats really worth trying to get. Its worth exploring and visiting previous areas for cool secrets in general and despite the games light exploration there was some really cool stuff along the way that rewards you for being observant.

My issues with the game boil down to nitpicks. While I absolutely adore the pacing of this game, I think the environment design is often a bit repetitive. There's a lot of linear tunnels and boxy big areas that are a little weird to navigate due to the constant pop in. This never became that big of an issue for me. It is also something I can excuse as this was so ambitious for hardware that can barely handle it. Theres also a bit in disk 3 where the progression becomes really strange. The game usually has a day and night cycle, but there is a bit where it has to stay at a certain time of day so that you can do things in a town. It ends up going like you talk to someone, go back to the beginning of the town, talk to someone, teleport back to the beginning of the town at night time etc. Again, not a big deal, but it was a little odd and the game usually doesn't have this kind of thing.

This is an fantastic game where its doing so many new and interesting things, yet it feels like they've been making this kind of game for years. Its effortlessly great. Its a real masterwork and one of the most ambitious and great games of its era. If you can find a way to play the Panzer Dragoon games on Saturn, you absolutely should. These are must play games that mean a whole lot to me.

Playing this game immediately after the first one makes it abundantly clear that this is the greatest sequel to any game of all time. Everything that doesnt work about the first game is fixed and its way more ambitious and interesting. This is one of my favorite games of all time. The more I play this the better it gets.

I dont even know where to begin with it. I think the storytelling is far better than the original. It has a more personal narrative, where you and your dragon, Lagi, are hunting down the ancient ship that destroyed your home. The dragon evolution mechanic is one of my favorite things in any video game. Seeing Lagi evolve throughout the entire game is such a cool thing. It adds to the narrative, but also getting better at the game and mastering it gives you further evolutions, so its this tangible reason for you to replay it. This also includes the alternate routes which dramatically change a levels progression. One of my absolute favorite things is that the first time Lagi flies is in gameplay. He struggles to do it during a couple of cutscenes, but then during one of the levels, he finally gets it. Its done entirely through the gameplay and you get to control it. It had a big impact on me even though I first played it decades after it came out.

The controls are emaculate. Flying, switching the four directions, aiming and shooting lasers and shots, it all feels like butter. Its such a satisfying game to control. Everything is so readable. I never felt there were many unfair moments or that the hardware was holding it back. It has a great difficulty curve, its actually a lot easier than the first game, but the scoring gives it more complexity. Its just a nice balance between that first playthrough being impressive versus having really good staying power. Every level is so cool and they are backed by an incredible soundtrack that eclipses the first games OST. The bosses are a highlight too. I love how the game encourages you to kill them quickly, they feel really dynamic as some have hidden phases or have attacks that can be interrupted with skillful shots.

The final boss in this game is legendary to me. It is my favorite final boss of any game. It is epic in scale but it also has this ethereal beauty to it. The track that plays is incredible and the attacks it does are stunning. The second phase is amazing. Its a fight of equals that I dont think couldve been done any better. Its something you gotta experience to really understand and its worth playing the game just to get there. Its incredible stuff.

I really dont have anything bad to say about it. I mean maybe my only issue is that alternate routes are pretty hard to identify in the moment and easy to screw up if you want to play perfectly. But thats something I really dont even mind because I can just play this over and over and over again. Its simply a perfect video game that I hope everyone gets to experience. A real masterclass.

This game is really ambitious and cool. It was a Saturn launch title and the stuff its doing is really impressive. Despite how low poly it is, it immediately captivates me into its world with its incredible music and designs that fit really well within the hardware. I love how unique the gameplay is from other rail shooters. Changing your viewpoint in four directions is something that adds a lot of dynamism to the gameplay. It is incredibly satisfying to do really well in a level, it has killer sound design where everything feels super good to pull off. Making a big laser chain might be one of the coolest things in a video game and the it rewards you for doing that effectively. It being a rail shooter allows the otherwise linear music tracks feel dynamic, like you are playing through an epic action sequence from a film.

This game has a lot of issues that hold it back a little bit for me. This being an early Saturn title, the game struggles to fullfill its ambitions. Its hard to see whats hitting you a lot of the time. The game has a really low framerate which makes it feel sluggish to play. There are a couple of bosses in this that are rather poorly implemented and some of them drag the pace down. The four way view is confusing and finicky. When I first played it, I thought it was like a first person mode where you just rotated 360 degrees to find your targets, but the easiest way to use it is to tap the L or R buttons to make it face four predetermined directions. Even when you do this method, it feels sluggish, so you cant use it to react to stuff coming at you, you have to really anticipate incoming waves. It overall doesnt feel great. I also dislike how much you gotta mash the shoot button.

Even with all those issues, I think this game is really cool. Its a really short romp, lasting less than an hour. Its a fun game to try and master. Even when a game over happens, its not too frustrating to pick it right back up, its cool how much better I got even with just a second or third try. If you have a Saturn I think its a must play. It really stands out comparatively to other rail shooters and its one of my favorites in the genre.

For starters, this game is really good where it counts. It has some of the best visuals on genesis with a great soundtrack to boot. When the level design works its incredibly well done, and there's some really nice feeling attacks here that keep it going.

I do have a lot of negatives though. I think this game is really clunky to control. I think the biggest problem is the games strict double jump timing. Think of screwattack from Super Metroid for timing comparison. It made me screw up a lot of jumps, especially near the end where the platforming gets really treacherous. The game also uses an attack exclusive to the double jump where you fire off a lot of shurikens. I find this clunky too because when you land the jumping animation plays for a split second more, thus causing me to execute the attack when I didn't want to. I generally think this game is stiff feeling in ways I don't really care for. I had a hard time also clinging to polls, and it was hard to tell which ones I can cling to. A lot of this stuff made an otherwise solid game really frustrating, and I got to the very last level and got a game over which made me have to start over. I'm probably not gonna pick this one up again any time soon, I think it's quite good and often memorable, but a little too annoying at the moment.