It can be very fun when you're playing with the right people. This can be said for most multiplayer games, though. Outside of that, it's a solid game. I don't think there's too much that's outstanding here. Most things that this game excel at were in the first iteration, like the tactile and involved feel of the weapons/items, the difficulty, the humor of the accidental team kills, the button prompts, and the somewhat fast-paced mission structure.

I'm glad the game exploded with success; hopefully it's a lesson to other developers/publishers that something fairly simple can be appreciated by many. Not every game needs to be a grindfest that encourages you to continue spending time and money on a constant basis just to keep the game "fun".

Man, am I a sucker for snappy and responsive UI. Rarely is that pulled off well in the first place... but add in colourful and flashy bits to the mix and it is STILL quick? That's a job well done.

This is probably the second best take on roguelike deck builders so far (though it could also be Cobalt Core). There are plenty of ways to continue to challenge yourself as you "ascend" through the difficulty levels. After beating the game once with every deck and then beating gold rank (or whatever the highest one is) on one deck, I was content. I put the game down after about 60 hours of play or so.

I think something that became apparent after I understood the game well enough was that this game feels a bit too luck based to be a truly fantastic game like Slay the Spire. In StS, I always feel in control of my destiny. Here, it feels as though I can get screwed super early over and over. Not only that, but late in to a run you can just get stonewalled suddenly. The difficulty curve is very strange.

The first few antes are hard unless you get great synergy immediately. If you can get past ante 3 you're likely going to easily get to ante 7 or 8. But then.... there's a good chance you're gonna lose. It just kinda feels strange in that way.

Outside of that, I loved my time with this game! It's very satisfying learning how things work together and how to position your cards.

I don't really know why these games receive the praise they do.

My brief history with LM as a series:

I love Luigi as a character. Always have. He was always my choice as a kid in every Mario game. I was super excited when Luigi's Mansion 1 came out; he was finally getting his own game! Played it at launch and was very disappointed. It's boring.

Since then I've avoided the series, but this year I decided to finally try out 3. It received enough praise at this point that I was willing to give it another chance.

Nope. It's still pretty boring. I like the presentation. It's a pretty game, and the way Luigi emotes is great. The music adds to the silly/spooky vibe - it's great too.

Everything else, though - meh. It just felt like a chore to scour each room and suck up a bunch of coins that felt meaningless. Puzzles are generally the low point of every game I play, and this game is essentially nothing but puzzles.

It's just not for me. There's little to no challenge and there wasn't anything pulling me forward or encouraging me to continue exploring. It also began to feel repetitive very early on. After 7 hours or so, I'm out.

It's fantastic. Having already played the game a decade ago, I decided to put it down half way through this version despite it clearly being the best version of the game now. There's too much else I want to play, but I love what they did here. All of the improvements to the visuals, the UI, the navigation, and the battles are greatly appreciated. I hope they do it to Persona 4 as well.

Persona 3 probably has the strongest overall tone/atmosphere of the three games. I appreciate how dark it feels. The cast as a whole is really strong, too. I just don't particularly care for any of the characters individually as much outside of Mitsuru and Akihiko being awesome. Persona 3 feels more mature in its writing than 4/5. The characters come off as older even though they aren't.

Regardless, I still think it's the weakest of "the 3" Persona games. 4>5>3. It's still a 10/10 though.

it's... fine. Honestly, the discourse around this game has been wild to witness. I'm glad it was on gamepass so I could try it out - I needed to play it for myself to properly form an opinion. Just by looking at it, I could tell something was off. My suspicions were correct. It's mediocre in almost every aspect outside of the creature designs and some of the animations/UI presentation. Unfortunately, it's borderline IP theft due to the way the pals are designed. It's so obvious, and I don't think it should be championed. I'm all for companies ripping off other companies that do things well; but this is a step too far in that direction when it comes to lifting art assets. Maybe not -literally- but -essentially- based on the proportions, the shapes, the colours, etc. It's shameless.

Otherwise, it's a basic survival game and it's boring.

Unsurprisingly, this is one of the best controlling games ever. I love the movement. It's almost on par with Neon White in this regard. The visuals, the music, and the feeling you get when you traverse a level are all excellent. Otherwise, there are some issues. The hub is unnecessary, the writing is bad - the acting is even worse. It's pretty awkward in terms of story presentation. It would be a better game if it was rid of all of this. That's one area I recall the first game actually being superior for. Also, the levels are a bit too sprawling. It's a bit of a negative point, as well. In every other way; the sequel is better. It's super fun to play, and that's what matters most. At least you can skip the dialogue. :)

The second best roguelike-deckbuilder out there. Slay the Spire is still the king.

This game is so good in every way. The way you construct your deck, the fun ways to customize your playstyle, the amount of options in terms of your party/ship build, the artifacts, the music, and even the writing is top notch. It's got a lovable cast of characters. Everything is short and to the point, but it was always charming.

I love almost everything about this. Please play it.

The only thing it lacks is the feeling of endless replayability, but that's okay. Not every game needs that.

It's definitely got some rough edges. It controls well and has a very fast pace - which I appreciate a lot. Outside of that, there's not much here. The UI is pretty awkward to use (on a controller, at least), and the gunfights do get repetitive after a couple hours. You can tell it was made by only 4 people (which is crazy and awesome!) (also they're Canadian! Cool!) as there are lots of improvements that could be made across the board. If you want some dumb fun with a shooter that vaguely resembles Shadow Warrior and DOOM, check this out. Just know that you're in for a little bit of a bumpy ride.

This game has some of the tightest platforming I've seen. I mean that in a good way - it's very 1:1 with your input. In the span of 6 hours or so I spent with the game (yeah, it's a bit short - but that's totally okay) I don't know that I ever over or under calculated on a jump without it very clearly being my own fault. It's very responsive. I must give it credit there. Some of the music is absolutely awesome - especially Wave Circuits stage. I love me some musical levels. The bosses were well done and were all fairly unique. After I realized the level of customization you had, which I didn't notice until about half way through the game... it seemed well-balanced. After I started equipping the badge things it became a little too easy. Once I had a bunch of upgrades, the last couple levels felt kinda samey because I was tearing through them. But hey, they're there because they want you to use them, right? I will say the actual final couple levels were a little more difficult which was nice!

Anyways, it's a cute little action platformer if you want a smaller game that's a blast to play. The standout here, by far, is how precisely your character handles. The platforming feels fantastic.

...why did I convince myself there was a chance I wouldn't enjoy this? From Software just won't miss.

It's unbelievable to think they made giant metal beasts that both feel like giant metal beasts AND also control extremely well simultaneously. How is this possible? Whether it be sliding along the ground, soaring through the air in ANY direction, gliding to a specific location, or dodging at the last second over and over... these metallic machines make movement maximally magnificent.

Not only that, but all the weapons are super fun to experiment with. From canons to lasers to shotguns to snipers to grenade launchers to swords to machine guns to pistols... everything has a use, and everything feels good. It's wild. Having 4 weapons on you at once seems overwhelming but once you get use to the flow of combat it feels natural. I loved getting up close and using swords and shotguns. Sometimes that really did not work though, so I usually had some cannons or lasers on hand to deal with enemies further away. Also, one of the sniper-like rifles was a big part of my toolkit, as well.

This game is easily a 10/10 in the game-feel department, but it also shines when it comes to the management of your parts. This was the area I was concerned about not enjoying. At first, it was absolutely overwhelming and I was doing my best to ignore it and force my way through without editing things too much. Bad idea! About half way through the game there are some major roadblocks that require you to rethink the way you've played up until that point. It wasn't until then that I realized how special the game was. I was actually interested in switching up my build, and did so for most missions in the second half of the game.

The mission structure is such a breath of fresh air. I could totally see this game for some reason being open world and you having to traverse to different objectives. Being kicked back to the hangar where your mech rests makes things so much more snappy. There's no forced down time. Quick conversations, quick menus, and quick mission breakdowns that lead to mostly quickly completed missions. I love it. This game is very respectful of your time. That's something I saw more in 2023 than I have in the past decade - I think a lot of developers are catching on to the fact that "padding" and "filler" is very noticeable nowadays. From Software has always been good about this, imo, but it shines here even more so.

The voice acting is surprisingly awesome! It's probably emphasized due to the fact that you never actually see any human faces - just voices attached to a codec call or a mech. It made the voices shine even more because they had to do some heavy lifting to get you to appreciate the characters.

It's very grey, but it's actually quite nice looking. The theme of red throughout the game really pops. Also, the colour customization of your own mech is extremely detailed - possibly more detailed than the combat customization! I rocked a bright orange/cyan mech the whole time and loved every second of it. The designs of some of the other mechs are really cool, too. Visually, despite being literally 90% grey - this game stands out. The massive scale of the game and some of these fights certainly plays a part, too.

It's not my preferred genre, and I like their Souls games better, for sure, but this is still an absolutely fantastic video game.

The best shooter since Rainbow 6 Sieges first couple years.

This game looks and runs beautifully. The movement is probably what I would deem as perfect for a shooter. It feels so good to move around in. The verticality is very impressive and makes the gun fights really dynamic. On top of that, the destruction is done better than it has been in any other game. This cannot be understated.

I love the simplicity of the guns. No attachment customization that bogs everything down and over complicates things. Just pick a gun, point it, and shoot it. Oh, and you can also use a bunch of cool gadgets to help you accomplish the objective. Grappling hooks, jump pads, etc. encouraging such an insane amount of traversal is so fun.

You actually have time to engage in a gun fight, start to fail, then quickly bail and find a way to recuperate your health, reload, then re-engage. It's so refreshing to be able to do this in such a fast-paced shooter. You don't just die instantly! Your movement skills AND your ability to manipulate the environment are equally - if not more - important than your ability to aim. That's awesome!

Outside of when you spawn super far away and have to painfully make your way back to the objective for literally a whole 30 seconds - I love everything about this game. Well, except for the monetization. I miss just paying for multiplayer video games. Oh, and the heavies do seem as though they really center the game around them. They're painfully difficult to kill.

Probably my favourite Metroidvania since Guacamelee, which is my #1. This game eventually gets to a point where it actually feels a bit like Guac. and that's a huge part of why I love it.

MOST IMPORTANTLY - which the Metroid series seems to completely misunderstand - TRAVELING and BACKTRACKING are actually fun in this game. The ways you can fast travel to traverse make this game feel mostly seamless and it flows very well. From the start, you are able to leave little marks on the map to note things for later. There are various options. You can use icons or colours. This is a huge benefit and something Metroid desperately needs. In a game this expansive, it's impossible to remember exactly where everything interesting is. Thank you for letting me mark it down! It's not perfect, but it's better than most games in this genre in terms of how it deals with backtracking and using your abilities to access new places in old areas. It was a joy to explore from start to finish. I believe I explored over 95% of the map.

The movement is perfect. It's smooth, but you can feel the weight of the weapons as you swing them. Every ability you get is implemented well, and they're all useful.

The game kind of "feels" like a Souls game, in a way, but it only has a few similarities. To me, it's a mix of Guacamelee and Castlevania. I actually like that they didn't opt to use the Souls mechanic of losing your currency when you die. Instead, there's a different kind of punishment that works pretty well. Essentially, the more you die, the less "magic" or "ability points" you are able to use until you visit your corpse or cleanse your sins. That's a cool way to go about it! It feels less punishing, which is appreciated.

I keep mentioning Guac. due to the way you can traverse the environment horizontally, vertically, and diagonally. It's something other games rarely pull off this well, or even attempt to do. Nice to see someone else do it! On top of that, the platforming is perfectly solid. Everything is snappy. All the platforms and obstacles are laid out in a way that every platforming challenge is satisfying to complete.

The dashes! They're cool looking AND they're so buttery smooth. Bonus points for the dashes.

The bosses are awesome! I won't go in to detail but overall, they're way up there in terms of 2D boss fights go. Same tier as Hollow Knight, imo.

On top of all of this, you have 3 entirely different weapons to use so the replay value is higher than most games like this. I used the heavy/slow weapon at first but eventually opted for the midweight sword. There's also a quicker stabby one, but I didn't really use it. Options that diverse in a game this complicated is awesome to see. Apparently there's some ability that's broken on one of 'em, but I didn't use it so I'm not sure. I think using whatever you enjoy is the way to go.

The tone/atmosphere is fantastic. I'm not a major fan of gothic/religious imagery in games. I like it just fine, but it isn't my first choice. I think for those that DO love that, this game nails it just like Castlevania.

I love that you have choices to make in terms of a skill tree of sorts. That always makes for a more dynamic playthrough. I also like the way you can customize your "perks" and mix and match them to your hearts content. There are also ways to optimize your choices in order to earn bonus perks!

It was the perfect length. It did not over or under stay its welcome.

Honestly, I can't really think of anything specific that I feel negatively about. It's a solid game. It's not one of my absolute overall favourites, but it's one of the best games of 2023 - which is stacked.

It's like a mix of Lemmings and Captain Toad.

Now this is how you do a puzzle game.

I'm not a fan of puzzle games, but something this smart will grab me. I know I'm "only" giving it a 3/5 but that's because I'm generally not interested in puzzles. It's not how I prefer to engage with games. For someone who enjoys puzzles, I can totally see this being a 5/5.

It's very satisfying to pull off the tasks you are given. Running around is smooth, the control of the camera you have works very well, and there's quite a variety to the ways the game shows you its ideas. All wrapped up with a pleasant visual presentation. There are also a lot of tools that allow the game to pace itself well. Speeding up time, freezing it, retrying while keeping your inputs in position, etc. are all very welcome. It's the lack of those types of things that kill my enjoyment of other puzzle games very easily.

I did not finish this, but I'm stepping away. I believe I'm about 1/3 through. I might get back to it at some point, but it does take a lot of mental energy to get through a couple levels. Lots of brain power required here!

After about 30 minutes with the game, I had to give up. It controls so poorly. It feels, and also kind of looks like a game made in Dreams. Not at all what I expected. I understand you get different movement options as you go along, and those seem neat - but I have no desire to play more to get to them. After stumbling around for a bit and reading some dialogue, I was prompted to play an instrument. Cool! Yikes, it was also not engaging whatsoever.

I feel bad because it's clearly a game made from the hearts of the developers, but it plays so poorly that I just can't see anything redeeming about it.

I didn't know much going in, and wow - this game surprised me! I'm usually pretty opposed to games that go for a "cozy" vibe, but this one struck a chord with me. It's slow-paced, sure, but it's also full of little moments of action that keep it entertaining. You've got to stay focused while underwater or you might just meet your demise.

I'm a big fan of ocean-dwellers; specifically sharks. Since I was little I was always fascinated by them. It's cool to see a bunch of familiar creatures and figure out how to approach/catch them. Exploring the ocean never really got tiring. I even enjoyed doing what was essentially the same thing multiple days in a row as I was simply just interested in catching sharks for a while. It was oddly relaxing.

I'm not really a fan of anything this game aims for individually, but as a whole it just felt right. I don't like slow games. I don't like relaxing games. I don't like farming games. I don't like "simulator" games (like cooking/serving). This game just manages all of that stuff really well. I liked running the restaurant. Managing your stock and creating the correct dishes was something I looked forward to doing at the end of every in-game day.

Unfortunately, this game does try to do too much. I'm not really sure why, as most of the core mechanics are well thought out and would make for a complete-feeling game on their own. The need to add tons of minigames, some meaningless side quests, and continually expanding the way you create your food was a bit much. I could have done without the introduction of... eggs. Even the farm itself was a bit much for me.

The game excels when it's you, your restaurant, and the open sea. They should have left it at that. Cut about 30% of the extra stuff and it could be an incredible game. The way it is; it's still awesome. I loved it. But it wasn't consistently enjoyable in the second half. There are also plenty of points where you are slowed down even more than usual with puzzle rooms. No thanks. I like exploring the ocean; not wasting time pulling levers and such.

On the other hand, I do think it is paced well in general. You unlock things consistently and are always being lead in a new interesting direction. Despite not enjoying every new aspect that's added, they cadence they were introduced was one of the best around. Most games mess this up. I loved upgrading weapons, my restaurant, my staff, my fish farm, etc. It was a very rewarding loop and there was always something new and interesting that I wanted to work towards.

The characters are all charming, the music is somehow simultaneously catchy but also soothing, the little animated cinematics were always a treat to watch, and you could really feel the love poured in to every aspect of the game by the developers.

"Managing" things in a game has rarely felt this fun. No other game has done sea exploration as well as this, it's just a shame that they tried to also do too many other things at once.