For me, video games are a social experience/lubricant first, and then an artistic medium with strengths not found in books/movies/etc, and then a source of comfort. There are games that I don't think are fantastic or that I don't actively play, but are games that I enjoy existing because I can connect with other people. We can have a chat and I can see what they value in media and we can connect from there, it's a nice time. The other day, I stayed like 30 min after my shift at work ended to talk to a coworker about Style Savvy. Dark Souls is a 0/5 game to me for how alienating of an experience it's been since this game blew up.

The presentation of the game doesn't do any favors. I don't like the visual direction of the game. I think the soundtrack is largely forgettable. I think the sound design in general is passable without leaving any notable impression. The enemy designs feel very bland, or what a teenager that just read the Golden Age arc of Berserk and didn't get it thinks is cool. It'd doubly frustrating because, even when they were less technically proficient, Fromsoft's audio and visual output in games like Lost Kingdoms or Armored Core resonated with me for years after I played through them.

The story of "you're a stranger in a dying world and any information you want has to be clawed out of the dead hands of its previous residents" is another aspect where, having played their previous backlog, it felt like EA version of a Fromsoft game. All of this atmospheric worldbuilding is in service to a stock dark fantasy setting and it's really hard not to compare those aspects to games that used similar approaches, but were alien enough to make the act of piecing everything together a unique experience, like Evergrace. So what you're left with is a largely empty world filled with NPCs that's hint of something more interesting.

Nothing about the gameplay works for me. The level design is one of those things where I'll hear people complain about basically every part of the game, or I'll watch them play the game and they'll just have this awful scowl on their face if it isn't a replaying of the game, but I get instant pushback if I point out that most of the "difficulty" either comes down to trial and error sections that lose all tension once you know the specific way the game's going to mess with you, or they're disasters like Blight town. I know they can have levels with decent flow, Bloodborne's level design largely (not always) avoided sections of the game that come to a screeching halt due to annoying enemy placement or stupid environmental gimmicks. The most praise I can give the level design is the interconnected nature of the game, but that's not a feature that Dark Souls does better than most games with similar structure, nor did I find it preferable to the menu system of Demon Souls.

The combat's way too limited to keep my attention. Weapons, outside of specific late game additions, have the same static moveset regardless of player or gear progression, and that moveset's too limited to warrant much outside of either "smack and run off to wait for stamina if you're unsure about the fight" or "aggressively position yourself to trivialize the encounter because all the tells are 90+ frames long". Player vs Player degrading into smacking your opponent into chugging potions is a telling sign. Magic might be the one saving grace of the game, I think access to these strong and possibly overpowered (they're not in Dark Souls) abilities in a RPG like this can change the way a playthrough is experienced and is cool, but still feels like a major step back from how it was implemented in Demon Souls, like they were worried about the player having too much fun and brought it into the same bland line as everything else.

The RPG mechanics in this game are just as dull. I do on some level appreciate how your progress isn't strictly tied to better gear, and if you find something that looks better than the most "optimal" piece of equipment, you can just keep wearing it with very little detriment to the overall experience. It does mean that every piece of gear I came across felt like either dull numerical increases or outright vendor trash, and the sense of progression that usually comes along with RPGs like this was totally lost. The souls system is in a similar boat. You're just increasing numbers with soul investment, you're not going to be able to spend your way out of a fight's gimmick. Death has less "meaning" when the thousands of souls you're supposed to be worried about dropping when banking up for an upgrade could be lost isn't actually that big of a deal. It deflates a lot of the progression or tension.

The community around the game is also a strong mark against the game. I have good friends of mine who really enjoy this game, even people who don't usually play a ton of video games. I don't mind those people enjoying Dark Souls, I like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, we can both enjoy some bad media. The diehard "my main interaction with this medium is Dark Souls and I have 2000+ hours in the series collectively" fans are some of the most universally repulsive and mean terminally online freaks I've ever had the displeasure of dealing with, and I played League of Legends for 8 years. Skeevy people with a laundry list of accusations if you're willing to hang around those circles for longer than a couple of hours.

If this game didn't become one of the most popular RPGs of the 2010's, it probably just gets a 2/5 and I forget the game exists. This game has influence. This game is the "Oh, I don't play hard games other than Dark Souls" option for a generation of people. It's influence on FromSoft outside of "it payed the bills" was a malignant one and we only recently just got out from under the shadow this game cast with AC6. There are games that wouldn't learn from this game's mistakes, but quadruple down on them, like the myriad of largely awful Souls clones that came out in the following years. It defined difficulty in video games going forward, not as a skill set that has to be developed and iterated upon like in fighting or rhythm games, not as a means to push yourself and compare your progress to your peers like shmups, but as trial and error, and if you don't get it then that's a personal failing on your end. I've ran into so many people in real life that play video games, and when I ask them what they've been playing lately, they say it's Dark Souls and I have to politely dance around the fact that I think this game isn't worth the disk it was printed on, or the bandwith required to download it off of steam.

My favorite thing about Dark Souls is that it probably kept a lot of people at FromSoft employed for years to come. Outside of the barest fact that "it existed and people didn't lose their jobs", I can't think of anything else I enjoy about this game.

This was a one of a kind experience... It's amazing how far ahead of its time MGS2 was. Not just mechanically but in terms of its themes where it's almost prophetic and more relevant than ever in our current day, and also how it uses unique features of this interactive medium to tell its story. It's been a while since I've been truly excited to keep playing something and see what happens next. Played MGS1 and MGR and they were cool, but this was something else and I was really enjoying the gameplay now too. Raiden is an awesome character, I much prefer this iteration of him. I'm definitely a fan and I'm looking forward to playing 3 sometime

I first played P3-5 in 2019, and since then I played 4 and 5 a few more times, but never 3 which I always had ranked below them. After finally securing a European copy of FES (very expensive) I decided to finally revisit it that way on my CRT. Man... I GET Persona 3 now. I finally understand why people love it so much. After playing other SMT games and growing accustomed to the difficulty and quirks, it was now a walk in the park and a lot of the criticisms I had don't matter to me anymore. I enjoy grinding Tartarus, the boss fights, really enjoy the higher difficulty than 4 and 5, and I even grew to like the weird stuff - ordering AIs with tactics, tiredness, reverse social links. I guess it made it feel more realistic and made me approach it differently to other RPGs. I tore through the story and didn't find any of the pacing issues I remembered and wow, this is a super consistent story with probably my favorite finale in the series. I don't love all of the cast but they are generally well written. It's undoubtedly the most flawed of the modern Personas and it's not gonna be for everyone, but I love it now. I've been thinking about it so much. 9/10 for the experience

I've never had a game become one of my all time favourites so instantly, it's been a long wait and it lived up to all expectations and even surpassed them. BRC nails the early 6th generation aesthetics and has an aggressively colorful art style with awesome character designs. Movement and general control is immensely superior to its (glaringly obvious) inspiration Jet Set Radio. It's so smooth and effortless to skate around the walls and ceilings once you've learned the ropes, helped by the addition of a air boost. Level design is all round consistently fantastic. The maps are all dense and much bigger than they first appear, I felt genuine excitement every time I discovered a new secret section which I do not experience often with games anymore. What I wasn't expecting is for the story to be interesting too, while not taking a big focus. It's not entirely perfect - there are quite a few glitches as of the current version and some QOL changes could be made, but nothing hindered my 10/10 enjoyment and I can't wait to 100%. It absolutely oozes soul and it's the most fun I've had with a modern release since 2017. PLAY IT

So I liked the original version of Persona 5 a lot, but upon finishing it, I still found myself enjoying Persona 4 a lot more, and then when I played Persona 3 Portable after Persona 5, that ended up being my favourite game of all time, so out of the neo-persona trilogy, 5 was always my least favorite.

Now that was changed, with Persona 5 Royal - I didn't think Royal would be THAT big of an upgrade but hoo boy, Atlus... you nailed it. While P3P is still my favourite game of all time, I feel like Royal is the epitome of modern JRPGs, everything about this game is just so perfect, it rivals Dragon Quest XI as being the best turnbased JRPG of the last decade for me. I'll even go as far to say that this is the best game Atlus has ever made, beating Catherine and Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne in my opinion, and while I like those games more just based on my attatchment to them, that does not undermine the fact that I think this game is better than them by quite a large margin.

The new characters in Royal are genuinley some of the best characters in video games in general in my opinion. I felt nothing but sympathy for the true "villain" in Royal, he's so expertly crafted. And my favourite character in base Persona 5, Akechi, was made even better thanks to his new re-designed confidant, and this greatness is further extended in his 3rd Semester appearance. They managed to make this character, whomst I love so much, astrologically better. (I also regretted dating Haru over Yoshizawa after completing the second half of her confidant in 3rd semester :/ ).

After my disappointment with Shin Megami Tensei V, I was kind of put of playing Atlus games for a while, I am so thankful for this remaster because I most likely still wouldn't have got to Royal, what an absolute treat this was and masterclass in video game design.

A horror masterpiece and shining example of video games as art. After playing through it multiple times it's still so scary and fascinating to me.

SH3 is a non-stop ride of terror that moves from area to area quickly. I can point to so many memorable haunting setpieces in each but they're best discovered for yourself. The puzzles are less cryptic and the gameplay is generally much improved from previous installments. For a 2003 release taking a realistic style, the visuals have aged miraculously - character models still look lifelike and the environments are striking and rich with details. This version of the otherworld has a uniquely horrifying appearance that's unlike anything else I've seen, which the PS2 lofi aesthetic compliments well. That's not to mention the incredible sound design - every playthrough I hear new mysterious distant noises I've never heard before. A lot is left to your imagination like that making every location even scarier. I also think Akira Yamaoka's finest work is found here.

It gets overshadowed by 2 in all discussions regarding horror games today and I think that's sad. Both are very special but I think 3 actually did so many things better. It may not have 2's personal tragic story but for me it's balanced out by having one of the best gaming protagonists, and it still has all the symbolism and depth if you're looking for it. This is one of my favorite pieces of media ever and I'm sure I'll keep discovering things in it for years.

TotK is to Super Mario Galaxy 2 as BotW is to Super Mario Galaxy, and not entirely in a good way. TotK may technically be stronger on a gameplay level, with its great Ultrahand and Fuse mechanics and more fleshed-out questlines, but it's nowhere near as cohesive thematically.

Everything about Breath Of The Wild created a sense of isolation and discovery. The map was filled with hidden secrets and memorable landmarks, NPCs were sparse with some even turning out to be disguised Yiga, the difficulty curve is steep at first, the Shrines looked so alien and unique, and the abundance of flashbacks worked for a story about the ruins of a kingdom long since destroyed. There's a vibe to BotW that really resonated with me that TotK just doesn't hit.

Despite Ganon being promoted heavily these last few weeks, I was surprised to realize that I thought less about him than I did when I was playing BotW. He seemed like such a constant threat in that game, but between your more powerful moveset, the increased number of NPCs, and the fact that your home base is right next to Hyrule Castle makes him seem less intimidating somehow. I remember how excited I was for TotK to be the "darker sequel" ala Majora's Mask but I feel it's more light-hearted than BotW was.

The sense of discovery isn't there either, with not even the new areas being as exciting to explore. The sky is sparse, the depths are barren, and the caves are repetitive, and the rest of the game is re-exploring a map I've already invested 100+ hours into completing. TotK is a great sandbox game, it throws you into a massive world and lets you do whatever the hell you want, but because of that it lacks the sense of adventure that BotW tried so hard to emphasize.

Once again, TotK is still a really good game but it feels like there's something missing here that all of these extra gameplay elements are unable to fill. Breath Of The Wild feels like it had a vision, everything in that game felt purposeful. Tears Of The Kingdom, on the other hand, just feels like it ever so slightly disrupts the balance its predecessor struck so perfectly, and feels like a lesser game for it.