I literally don't know what to say... Sonic is... Sonic... Sonic is... good?

The clock reads 4:25 AM and I have just completed Sonic Frontiers, I'm listening to the end credits theme for the second time in a row, I'm oddly emotional, it's Thanksgiving and I plan on spending it fully alone, listening to a lo-fi R&B song about Dr. Eggman. This is the state of things and I find myself oddly sentimental about Sonic of all things. This is like the one player on your favorite sportsball team who was on the team for all of its bad years, and finally got his big break and won it all after a decade plus of mediocrity. Sonic Frontiers is like that one musician that put out years and years of passable music at best, but finally got it together for that classic album. Sonic Frontiers is the Sonic that everybody has been asking for... since the dawn of the series.

Like a lot of people I've dipped and dabbled in Sonic as a franchise, with the bulk of my playtime coming in Sonic Adventure 2 Battle for the Gamecube (Recently completed on PC this past year) and while I loved that game, it was for a lot of the wrong reasons. Outside of the stellar OST, the game didn't play all that well... but it was at least fun. It had it's moments from the initial Escape from the City to the Knuckles rap songs to the "WE ALL DID IT TOGETHER" from Miles "Tails" Prower, but it was rough, writing was below acceptable, and the Chao stuff is not as fun as you thought it was, but like I said... it was fun. Does Sonic Frontiers fix all of that? The answer is no, but it does remedy enough. Sonic as a series strikes a weird chord because it's undoubtedly meant for Children in a way that other juvenile franchises like Mario and Kirby aren't, it found itself nestled within "cringe" as a draw. Mario and Kirby aren't cringe, they're funny and wholesome (respectively,) and bring about different swaggers in their branding and presentation that have led them down their path through superstardom. Sonic has taken an even more youth-friendly approach to its games and media, which might be at the risk of how quality its forray into gaming actually is. You can't make Sonic a serious character, and they don't really try. He cracks jokes that are unironically not funny at all, but somehow... the cringe makes them work? The entire crew of Frontiers is pretty dry... but I found myself smiling sometimes? The Silly Dr. Eggman-Sonic dynamic is the same as it was way back in my childhood, Knuckles is still as stupid cool as I remember him, and Tails is uh... Tails!

Some issues include the pop-in of various courses and world elements (SkillUp did a pretty good video on this) which is in my opinion, inexcusable, but didn't impact my overall gameplay in the end. It was just kinda funny to be running along the countryside and see random loops and jump pads come into view randomly.

I don't want to bog down on the negatives too much before going into the positive but it should be spoken about. There is a narrative in Frontiers and I have to hand it to them, it was the most invested I've been in a Sonic story since, ever, and actually was pretty appropriate for the series. Given the nature of Sonic, blowing out a full story that measures like other games isn't really possible, because that's not what people play the series for. They want to go fast and do things, not sit down and watch cutscenes where the characters go and do what heroes in an epic story do, there's seperate media for that. Frontiers gives exposition to the struggles of a pre-existing civilization that has seemingly been wiped from the planet inhabit, and what the Sonic team must do to prevent that from happening again. I didn't feel bad per se for the previous society, but I did collect that they were a victim of a tragedy that I was motivated to prevent.

The vibes of Sonic Frontiers are immaculate. The first trailer I saw of this game didn't necessarily sell that idea too well, as it felt like they were really trying to "BotW" the Sonic franchise, and while that isn't really untrue, they did it in a way that works for Sonic. Gone is the mostly linear level design of previous Sonic games in favour of large open world missions that are filled with incredible vistas and a plethora of things to do and accomplish, enemies to fight, and allies to converse with. I never, ever, thought I'd have that "Witcher 3" moment that I had in Skellige in Sonic where I would stop running around like a buffoon and just take in the sights. They nailed the post apocalyptic meets Sonic that they set out to tackle so well. While the worlds aren't really teeming with life, they have a suave to them that makes them feel great to just run and run and run around in. Sonic Team accomplishes the sense of scale of these worlds, encouraging the player to trot in Sonic's trademark red shoes around this world with sky-high structures and well designed flora.

Mechanics of Sonic Frontiers aren't too different in the end from other Sonic games, as you're running along the same speed boost squares and jumping off jump pads, but that's honestly alright, the game does enough things differently that it doesn't matter in the end. While you spend a majority of this game in the open world segments, the Cyberspace areas that you use to get resources to advance the main story were pretty neat and a nice ode to Sonic of years past. These are completely linear levels that see you run and jump in isolated levels like the famed Green Hill Zone and Chemical Power Plant (among others.) They don't occupy much time, and beating the time/ring challenges was quite easy, but were a nice change of pace from the open world courses and challenges.

Music man, this might be the biggest surprise for me out of the entire game. I remember Sonic Adventure 2's soundtrack quite fondly, as I still to this day play it quite frequently, but I didn't know if Sonic Team had preserved that commitment to making the sound of their games as good as it was in Adventure 2. I can't even put into words how happy I am to report that the soundtracking of this game across the board is nothing short of phenomenal. From the ambient/light orchestral sounds of running along the countryside, to the drum and bass/dubstep cyberspace courses, to the metalcore of the boss fights, I was head bopping and messaging everybody I knew about how great the music was. I'm going to be listening to these songs for a loooooooooooooong time. I'm kind of against writing about music for the most part because it's so subjective, so I won't do that here other than to tell the reader to listen to the soundtrack if they can (on the condition that they don't intend to play the game, otherwise they should experience it there.) This has easily catapulted into one of my favorite OST's of any game... ever. Recency bias be damned.

It's not perfect but damnit Sonic really nailed this one, my 4/5 stars signify a hope that Sonic will continue to take risks and go down this path of intricacy and trying to do something new for once. The writing wasn't great, and Sonic doesn't change enough in its core gameplay loop (like a Mario does,) to make this game a must play piece of history, but I had a lot more fun than I ever could have imagined.

This review is probably riddled with typos, but sometimes that's what happens when you defend Sonic from decades of your own criticism at 4:50 AM on Thanksgiving. On behalf of Sonic Haters Anonymous, I am sorry.

I strongly recommend anybody who is willing to step out of their wheelhouse to play Sonic Frontiers. The fresh soundtrack, beautiful atmosphere, and enjoyable gameplay loop (heh) makes this Sonic's best entry, and hopefully a sign of things to come for the Blue Hedgehog.

jump to the bottom of this review for the optimal physics settings. game is ass without them. thank me later

frustratingly close to being the best sonic game ever. with proper momentum there would be little contest, but thankfully the freeflowing open world promotes speed and precision above all else. if you're playing the game as it's intended you won't really ever be standing still, and thanks to sonic's, well... speed - frontiers may be the only open world game in the past ten or more years to actually justify its own vastness

regardless, the lack of momentum is still a problem during the few sections that are strictly 2d. i have no idea why there are levels that depend on inertia in a game where your character literally grinds himself to a halt every time you're not holding forward. all of this could be fixed if sonic only stopped after gradually losing speed or when holding a braking button or something, but because nothing like that is in place there's a few especially jarring sequences here and there

momentum aside, my only other complaint is the deceptive progression and noticeable lack of budget. i was really eager to see all five islands and what kinds of biomes they'd cover or what other characters may pop up. unfortunately the last two are pretty disingenuously labeled. think of the actual zone count as 3.5 and you wont be too underwhelmed - the first three are pretty massive areas anyway. i just wanted more. it's been a while since i've played a 30+ hour game that i didn't want to end

i'm incredibly eager to see what comes next. i hope sonic team picks up on frontiers' slack and puts out the actual best game in the franchise next time

optimal settings:

starting speed: 60
initial boost speed: 90
turning speed: 100
boost turning speed: 20
top speed: 100
steering sensitivity: 100
acceleration: 50
bounce height: 100

the most important things here are the third, fourth, and sixth options. sonic steers like a fucking tank otherwise. i'd recommend dropping the camera distance to 40 and upping its speed to 70ish but that's up to preference

edit: with the update this all stays the same. you'll just want to also turn deceleration completely off and keep the deceleration rate somewhere around 90 to 100 depending on what you prefer. i'm not a fan of stopping completely on a dime, but anything below 90 gets real stupid real fast

My first actual horror game playthrough, and damn does it hold up well. Silent Hill offers an ominous and devoid experience, paired with incredible ambience and a uniquely chilling atmosphere. The plot, while pretty basic, was delivered quite well with a good balance of gameplay and story elements. The controls which seemed clunky at first, were easily adaptable and served in favor of the gameplay and especially in high tension moments such as multiple enemy encounters and boss fights (While sometimes a bit frustrating, you have to cut the developers some slack, the moveable camera alone was quite impressive). Overall the presentation and execution, especially for an entirely 3D PSX title, are only praise worthy, and I can whole heartedly say that Silent Hill lived up to all of my expectations. Despite some instances of repetitive level design and enemy types/encounters, these pale in comparison to everything else the game has to offer. Very much looking forward to continuing this awesome series.

I think one big prefacing must be made when tackling Scorn, and that is that your enjoyment of the game will be all dependent on whether you go into it knowing you are not gonna experience a high-octane horror shooter or not.

This is a comparison that has been made before, but it bears repeating, Scorn is less an Alien Isolation type of game and more of a Myst experience if Myst was a nightmare of flesh and sexually suggestive imagery.

Scorn is willingly obtuse and silent, no line of dialogue is ever exchanged, no item description to be found, and no logs or notes to fill in the voids of what is going on (as a matter of fact, any and all mentions of backstories are found in the game's artbook, of all things). This is, understandably, frustrating, yet serves its purpose well in creating a sense of mystique and oppression. Scorn isn't here to make the player at home, feel easy, and comfortable, quite the opposite. Every step in the game is taken with dread, wondering what horrible creatures and sights await you. Or more often than not, if where you are going is the right direction.

Scorn's almost religious replication of H.R Geiger's style is both one of the game's greatest strenghts and one of it's greatest weaknesses: if the meaty, organic, sexual look the surroindings give the game it's own unique identity, one that sticks with you and is sure to stay in your mind for a long while, it also makes exploring the world at times a touch confusing. Sometimes environments look similar enough for you to get lost in them, less in a "wow this world is so engrossing" and moreso in a "where the fuck am I supposed to go now" kinda way. At times the puzzles the game throws at you aren't the ones that require the most mental sprain but rather navigating the world put in front of you. More times than I want to admit I found myself in a situation where the path to progress was right in front of me, but it meshed with the architecture, making me waste more thant needed.

But that isn't the biggest flaw the game is cursed with is also, perhaps, what many would've wanted the game to nail the most: the shooting.

Combat in Scorn is not good. No one two ways about. Scorn's guns don't feel bad, per se, as they are punchy in sound and are visually as disgusting as you'd want them to be, but moving while aiming makes your accuracy plummet, requiring you to be at a standstill to make sure your shots hit their target, this is to say nothing about the fact the avarage enemy requires a good number of shots to put them down and ammo is scarse enough to make you not want to use it (not counting the starting weapon, a weird utensil that acts as a meele weapon of sorts and isn't even remotely fit for the task). All of this is bad enough, but coupling this with the fact most enemies are actual aimbots, and aggroing them makes running away from them without getting hit almost impossible.

But maybe that's the point? Barring the few times later on in the game where combat encounters are necessary, it's preferable to let the enemies go about their business, let them walk around a bit and wait for them to enter their alcoves, then proceed. Combat is bad, perhaps, to make sure you don't engage in it, after all the creatures will not actively try and hurt you if you decide to give them space. Failing to do so will probably result with your death and following that, a reload of the previous checkpoint, which can be few and far between (not helping matters is the game's lack of a manual save feature).

So, if the game suffers from all these issues, why the high score? Well first off I don't like scoring systems like this cause I think they are too minimal and inprecise, but also because I genuely think that under all these problems, there lies a fantastic, gruesome and unique experience; one that is an acquired taste, for sure, but one that will stick with you for days to come, a virus of sorts, a fleshly creature sticking to your back and not letting you go. Doesn't sound pleasant, does it? Well, it isn't, but it is not meant to be. In its ugliness, it's unpleasantness, it becomes one of the most unique and shockingly beautiful experiences you can have with a game, of that, albeit short (the game only has 5 chapters and can be completed in a few hours if you don't get stuck), will be sure to not be forgotten, for better or for worse.

Summer of Musou long over, the wind gets cold, Dynasty Warriors forever

After spending over a hundred of hours and playing ten titles in spanning most of Omega Forces's mainline library of series barring from the most popular and titular Dynasty Warriors, the lesser known sister series Samurai Warriors to one of the newer collaborative titles with Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes. A long summer finally overdue for a personal closure as Dynasty Warriors 8 will be the last musou game I play for a decent while and it's the best way to close out this small and personal project of mine in terms of trying to play as many musou games I can. What many fans consider to be the last great mainline before they try to reinvent the series again with the next installment to a lackluster reception and I think Omega Force feel like at this point they can only do so much having to remake the Romance of the Three Kingdoms in the same genre time and time again. With that said, Dynasty Warriors 8 finally feels like a refinement of 7 which was already step in the right direction with a few caveats that I think was due to a lack of focus in this specific area.

The yellow flames of rebellion burning brightly, the Han dynasty is finished.

A hard pill to swallow in terms of how the story is presented is that for those coming from 7's more intricate and quality presentation comes with a quantity over quality approach for how the story is told here. The lack of narration is sorely missed here for starters and the lack of specific events despite knowing that the first battles of the Yellow Turban Rebellion are probably overplayed to death at this point are kind of missed. The way the scenes are portrayed take a down turn too and take a less cinematic approach like not changing the control of playable officers every now and then going for a more traditional approach. The quantity comes in spades here is that's a lot of stages here to go through including hypothetical situations and actually allowing you to pick from a variety of characters for each stage compared to just one singular one for each stage. There's just so much to unpack here that after tens of hours, you'll still find stages and scenarios you never played yet.

History forever changed against the odds as Cao Cao's fleet turns red with the flames of Wu and the winds of Shu.

There's never been a huge assortment of moves and movesets in a mainline Dynasty Warriors game before and it truly shows here. Being a refinement of 7's dual and open weapon system, each character now has a completely unique weapon granting each of the eighty three characters something of their own. This is also not mentioning that each character has two unique ex charge strings for their unique weapon and three type of musou attacks not including their rage musou attack too. I really do like most of these moves as they do a great job of somehow still making each character unique and fun barring a few movesets that are inevitably not gonna be as good as other but there's such a healthy roster here that it'll be extremely easy to find a few characters you'll love here.

Attacking his own family, Liu Bei makes a hard decision which will decide the fate of everyone around him and fully form his own empire.

Apart from the standard free mode and challenge modes, there is one unique mode called Ambition Mode that is pretty important to go through if you value overall progression into the game itself. Ambition mode works like a very light premise from the original Xtreme Mode is that you essentially go through a gauntlet of mini stages gathering resources and recruiting officers in that all the progress is kept even after losing or ending a run early. You essentially get materials as well from this mode which is used to upgrade the shop for better weapons, facilities that grant you more gold and facilities that provide experience to your officers which you'll need if you want to level up all your characters quickly. I mostly enjoyed this mode until the second half when you go into the Xtreme Legends version of this mode when you lose a lot of your officers and the flow of gameplay completely changes into singular battles to fill out a subjugation percentage. After fully completing this mode, there isn't much of a reward other than the facilities which were already given at this point so I'd say just only really do this mode if you want to grab all the achievements or wanted a way to get experience for all your officers eventually.

A bitter betrayal leading to the god of war's demise, him and his sons fight on until the bitter end.

Despite the original title looking nine years old today, I have to say Dynasty Warriors 8 is still one of the best looking titles in the genre yet. This might be my huge personal experience playing the PlayStation 2 titles talking but it really feels like the characters and the overall designs look more simple running away from the complexity of the past two titles at least. The soundtrack also give Dynasty Warriors 4 a huge run for its money with some of the biggest battles having some of their best themes here. Not also mentioning you can freely select music from previous games as well making the whole package feel like a celebration more than a mainline unlike Warriors Orochi will usually do.

Entrusting his legacy to another, he takes the mantle one last time against Wei on the Wuzhang Plains.

A long road finally finished, history turned into dust itself. I can understand how people looked upon this title fondly as the last great Dynasty Warriors title and the fact that it's been nine years since a title like this is a bit sad. Finally given the complete retrospective view of everything, I can safely say this one is one of my favorite titles just for the sheer amount of content and things to do that make it fun. I've spent around fifty hours and only beating the story modes and ambition mode that I felt like I scratched the surface. If you somehow ever wanted to get into the series, definitely play this one. Experience the history and the feelings of truly overcoming the odds against what once was.


Under a new fourth kingdom, they would finally defeat the ever fervent Shu and the rest would follow as the chaotic era of the Three Kingdoms would truly be over. Peace would finally reach the land and the sun now rises into something new. Will the story ever be truly retold again or is this how the legend ends?

Scorn is both a masterpiece and a massive mess simultaneously. The world design and art direction are truly phenomenal, some of the best the horror game genre has ever seen. The H.R. Gieger look is fully committed to and executed brilliantly, and there is a ton of creative Cronenberg-esque body horror as well. 5/5 on the visual side of things.

The gameplay is where everything falls apart. I didn't mind the puzzles personally but also didn't find any of them particularly engaging; they're fine. The combat is the element that needs a major overhaul. The combat is beyond frustrating and feels like it wasn't playtested before launch. The combat encounters are begging for either a dodge button or less accurate enemies. Almost all enemies fire projectiles that are pin-point accurate, and your move speed (especially your strafe speed) is far too slow to avoid them. Even if you turn and sprint away from the enemies, their range is long enough to hit you anyway. Serpentining isn't exactly an option, and your only real recourse is to put the environment between you and the enemies, but the problem is that too many of the combat encounters happen in narrow corridors with no cover and no room to avoid the projectiles. Combat becomes a bit less frustrating once you gather additional weapons, but the game is pretty much over by that point. The checkpoint gating is also fundamentally flawed. I was almost outright prevented from completing the game because I happened to hit a checkpoint with only 1 health block left and no bullets, and one of the big BS combat encounters was right at the start of the checkpoint with no resources to be found. I only got past that by cheesing a glitch that made 3/4 of the enemies go away.

If the combat was going to be this bad, they shouldn't have even put it in the game. Scorn would be better off as a walking-sim with some puzzles.

There's so much potential in Scorn. Honestly, these huge issues are things that could probably be solved with a patch if that's something the developers would be interested in, and then this would really be something fantastic.

Rebuilding life

I find it difficult to describe Terranigma to someone that has no idea what the premise of the title is about. It definitely feels like Quintet's culimination of efforts after Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia. In an era where SNES JRPGs are considered the absolute peak of the genre, Terranigma earns its place there with some of the best.

The story is great as it shows the duality of how the light side and dark side came to be. In stories where characters develop, the world also truly develops with you as well. This is what makes the games special in my eyes. Life itself progressing based on your actions. Ark wasn't the greatest of people in the beginning of his story, he starts by having to apologize for things he did before and even when you try to help people, the game won't let you initially. The narrative starts slow but it builds up in scope the more the world itself builds back up too.

Traversal through the world and defending yourself is pretty simple to a benefit and a fault. I think the combat is simple but it also feels extremely fluid, each attack gives you a specific benefit over a specific type of enemy and gives you a bit to go over. The magic system is not the greatest but it does an okay job. Leveling up is never a problem and overall dungeon design is overall good here. A bit of backtracking but it doesn't really dilute the experience too much. I wish the combat had a bit more to it, another type of weapon maybe but it works well and the game doesn't overstay its welcome.

The sprite work for the game is great as Ark not only feels fluid but looks fluid too in his animations. Seeing all of the creative designs including the modern stuff is great. The soundtrack is great to boot with some somber and some emotional pieces that are hard not to have an emotional response to. Elle's theme just does that and hearing the overworld theme for the first time after a bit to signal the adventure was truly beginning.

A great action JRPG that feels extremely solid in a variety of places. I was a bit bored with the combat and backtracking after a bit but I think that's really the most personal worst parts about the game for me. Everything this game offers is unique and something a fan of JRPGs should definitely play at least once.

Content Warning for Attempted Suicide, Terminal Illness, Death, and Chronic Illness

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It’s September 2011 and I’m seventeen years old when I try to kill myself. There are two ponds near my parent’s house. It’s like 4 AM. I like to be out this early. Nobody else is awake, and they won’t be for a while. It’s like the whole world belongs to me. I wander around between the neighborhoods, along the roads, and in the fields. In ten years these will be fresh real estate properties but today they’re still farmland. This hour and a half is the only time the anxiety quells. The real world never knows peace. There’s a dread that accompanies every action and every moment; living in that house, going to school, hanging out with my friends (are they my friends? They are but I won’t be able to understand that until I’m healthier). I’ll always have to go back home. I’ll never be able to articulate what’s happening to me. The pressure is too intense. I don’t plan it, but, the pond is right there, and it’s deep enough, and early enough that no one will hear me. Not having a plan is what saves my life. Turns out impromptu self-drownings are difficult to pull off when the water is still and not THAT deep. So, it doesn’t work, and I’m soaked, and grateful to get home and hide the evidence before my parents wake up, but I don’t feel BETTER. I feel despair, still. There’s no way out. I wish I could just climb up the stairwell, out of this. I wish I had the clarity to understand what was wrong with me.

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What do you even say about Silent Hill 2? To say that it’s one of the best video games ever made feels simultaneously obvious and like I’m underselling it, right? Fuckin, uhhhh, Resident Evil 2 is one of the best video games ever made. Ace Attorney 3 is one of the best games ever made. Come on! When we see people talk about old games that they like they’ll so often say stuff like “it holds up really well for its age” or some similar comment that implies that progress is the same as quality. This is, of course, nonsense. I wouldn’t say video games are better as a medium in 2021 than they were in 2001; on the whole and in the mainstream I would say they’re demonstrably worse in almost every way – how they look, how they sound, how they feel. Silent Hill 2 was a AAA game. What do we get now instead? Far Cry 6? The fuckin, THE MEDIUM? We’ve lost everything in pursuit of bad lighting and looking like a mediocre episode of whatever was popular on HBO three years ago. Silent Hill 2 looks great and sounds great and fuck you it plays great too it feels good and even the puzzles are MOSTLY FINE. MOSTLY. Listen I’m saying this is the all time best video game I’m not saying it fuckin ended world hunger.

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It’s October 2012, I’m nineteen and I’m sitting in a business communications class when I get the text confirmation that Sam’s brain tumor is back, again. It’s not the first time, and I know that there’s nothing left to do, he’s going to die. It’s fast, untreated. He’s one of my best friends, and the only person I know from home who went to the same college as me, but we live really far apart on a big urban campus and I haven’t seen him as much as I’d have liked to. Now he’s gonna spend the rest of his time with his family back home. When I see him next it’s at a hometown charity event for his family in December. He’s unrecognizable physically, and he can’t speak. The event is at our old catholic elementary school, in the gym, where in the years since we graduated they’ve painted a giant tiger on the wall. It’s the school mascot. I feel incredibly awkward around him and spend most of the time away with our other friends. I only speak to him briefly, and when I do it’s a stupid joke about the tiger mural. These will be my last words to him. I do know this will be the case, I think. Later that month I’ll be one of his pallbearers. I spend a lot of time angry and ashamed of myself for not being better to him, not knowing how to act or what to say. I’m about to drop out of school for reasons financial and related to my mental health.

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So what DO you say about Silent Hill 2? That it’s a masterpiece? That it’s the most well-conceived and executed video game ever made? That every detail of it dovetails into every other in a legitimately perfect cocktail story, presentation, and play? That the performances, cinematography, soundscape, all of it are untouchably top of their class? That when Mary reads the letter at the end I WEEP because it’s one of the best pieces of acting I’ve ever heard? That if I ever meet Troy Baker it’s ON SIGHT? These things are all true. We all know it. Everybody knows this. It’s Silent Hill 2.

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It’s August 2019, I’m twenty-five and I’ve just managed to graduate college in time to move to a new city with my partner as she enters her third year of medical school. That’s the year they kick you out of the classroom and you start going to the hospitals to do your real hands-on training month to month. I’m job hunting unsuccessfully and we’re living exclusively off her loans, when what seems at first like a pulled lower back muscle becomes a fruitless early morning ER trip (five hours, no results, not seen by a doctor) becomes an inability to get out of bed becomes a forced leave of absence. Without a diagnosis she can’t get disability accommodations. While on a leave of absence we can’t have her loans, and in fact we have to pay them back. We’re getting desperate, thousands of dollars in debt, and I take the first soul sucking job I can find. It takes almost a full year of visits to increasingly specialized physicians but eventually my partner is diagnosed with non radiographic axial spondyloarthritis, an extremely rare condition that culminates in the fusion of the spinal column. We can treat the pain, sort of, but it’s only a matter of time until it’s likely to evolve into a more serious condition, she’ll never have the strength or stamina she had before, and the treatment options are expensive and difficult. Her diagnosis doesn’t even officially exist as a recognized condition that people can have until September 2020.

Suddenly I am a caretaker and everything is different now. Obviously our mood is stressed from the financial dangers, but she’s in pain, terrible pain, constantly for months. She can’t sleep, she can’t eat. There’s nothing I can do. It’s exhausting to live like that. She’s depressed. On good days we try to walk outside but good days are few and far between, and grow fewer over time, and her body makes her pay for the walks. She’s on drugs, a lot of them. Do they help? It’s unclear. They don’t make her feel BETTER. Nobody knows what’s wrong with her. Her school thinks she’s faking, they’re trying to concoct ways to get her kicked out. She wants to die. It breaks my heart. She’s everything to me, all that there is. She has literally saved my life. And I can’t help her. But it’s exhausting for me too. I don’t want to admit this, not even privately, to myself. It is hard to be the person who is leaned on, especially when the person you love can’t give anything back. I’m tired. I’m not angry, and I don’t think I’m resentful. But I’m tired. I feel shame for thinking about it, for acknowledging it. I know it’s silly to feel the shame but it’s there. I do find a job eventually, thankfully, but it’s still a long time before we get a diagnosis, much less an effective treatment. Even after things settle somewhat, it’s a hard year. And there are hard times to come.

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Ever since I first played it as a teen, Silent Hill 2 is a game that has haunted me through life, like a memory. It struck a deep chord with me when I was too young for that to be fair, too young to identify why I could relate to these people and their ghosts. I used to think this was a special relationship that I had with the game, the way you kind of want to think you have these when you’re younger, but the older I get the more I recognize this as part of growing up. Silent Hill 2 doesn’t resonate with me because I’ve encountered situations in life that closely mirror that of the protagonist. I mean, Angela’s story resonates deeply with me despite little overlap in the specifics of our family traumas. Silent Hill 2 touches me – and most of us – so deeply, because it has such a keen understanding of what it feels like to be Going Through It. It is a game that knows what it is to grieve, to despair, to soak in the fog, and also, maybe, to feel a catharsis, if you’re lucky, and you do the work.

I’ve been Angela, parts of her. I’ve been Laura too. I’ve had more James in me than I would prefer. I suspect all of us have these people, these feelings in us, to some degree or another. We collect them as we get older. That’s just part of it. Silent Hill 2 isn’t a happy game, but it’s one that Gets It, and lets us explore those spaces in a safe and cathartic way. It does this about as well as any piece of media I’ve encountered, on top of being so excellent at all the cinematic and video game stuff. But that’s really what makes it what it is. The empathy, and the honesty. I think it’s beautiful.

Three Hopes should feel like a personal home run in the making. Three Houses which was one of my favorite games of 2019 blending in together with the Warriors/Musou formula to make something that hope to replicate the magic of the previous title. For the most part, it does. The game is pretty fun and seeing the characters again is pretty great in a brand new perspective but the way the story goes in this one, the overall gameplay and the structure of how this game progress really hampered my experience to the point it felt needlessly padded.

Golden Wildfire (the route I went) was overall just okay but kind of disappointing considering if you know how Claude is already by the time you finish his route in Three Houses. It kinda feels what I can describe is what the writers did to Tyrion Lannister during the later seasons of Game of Thrones. The events themselves are decent with some really cool moments I should add but they are very few and far between. The characters are essentially the same with a few of them still being one tone like Raphael and one of them I actually ended up liking more which is Lorenz of all people. Shez feels like an actual character as well despite being an self insert which is kind of refreshing as well and they bounce off everyone pretty well especially with the dynamic between them and Byleth. If you're expecting more Byleth, then I'll just say don't expect too much sadly in terms of the story department that is which was kinda disappointing. On the topic of their new designs, I can't really say I like most of them. A few upgrades here and there but few in far between.

With any Warriors spin off title, you play as a team of playable characters against a huge horde of enemies. Mowing down legions of soldiers never gets old and this iteration is really no different. The main difference is the light strategic element in that you can take your officers and actually have them do specific things instead of just standing around since AI in musou games can be pretty bad unless you have them specifically do something. The cool thing is that they actually can get stuff done by themselves sometimes too which reduces the work you have to do. You essentially have a powered up mode called Awakening, special musou attacks which are called warrior specials, the standard move sets for classes, combat arts which are special abilities you can use and guard break which will all sound very familiar if you played a warriors collaboration title before. The only time I didn't have much fun actually in the battles was when I played an archer or a mage character since they felt incredibly clunky and slow compared to the other classes. Another personal opinion is that I feel like classic doesn't really fit with the high action gameplay especially on hard where your uncontrollable units can get one shot and removing playable characters from the roster for your entire playthrough feels kind of annoying considering there's no free mode or anything. Don't know if the original Fire Emblem Warriors was like this too since I haven't played that one. The actual act of playing the game is actually pretty fun for the most part but that's where the positives stop for me.

Now musou games in general can be grindy in general but it does not work at all for Three Hopes. Each chapter feels way longer than it should be with the mandatory side battles you have to do which personally kinda kill the pacing pretty hard. The missions are short but they're extremely repetitive in nature that it feels like you do the same three mission types throughout the entire game and never really changes in variety. Keep in mind it took me a whopping 35 hours to beat a route and that's with me kinda checking out at the end because I was tired of this format a lot. I think making each route shorter would have extremely worked in the game's favor as it also extremely incentivizes you to replay it and you'll actually be more inclined to do so but I don't think I can put up with another grindfest to get the tolerable story out of this. Something I dislike too is how the class system works with this title in that everyone mostly just feels like a clone and kind of disincentivizes you from trying out other characters that specialize in those classes. Granted you can make any character any class and work off the complete freedom of that but it just feels you'd have to pool more resources as it is to do that. This doesn't help that half of these classes are just weaker versions, mages and archers which aren't that much fun to play already as it is. Each character has a unique musou attack and some unique perks and attributes but that's really where it ends. You get a few more unlockables when you beat the game but I'd kinda be relegated into playing the game again which I'm already finding it to be a tough sell.

With all that said, I found Three Hopes to be pretty enjoyable overall nonetheless. The grindy format of the whole game rubs off the wrong way to me but it was cool seeing the characters, the gameplay overall was pretty fun with incredible music you'd expect from Three Houses too. If you enjoy Three Houses, it's essentially more than that and the musou gameplay is pretty fun in this one if you never played a musou game. If you love musous but never played Three Houses or enjoyed it, it's a little bit of a harder sell since I feel that's the main appeal of this one. There are better Warrior games for musou fans to play but Three Hopes is probably the best you can muster if you're a Fire Emblem fan too.

A true warrior of the Three Kingdoms

It truly was a long time coming, the retelling of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms time and time again. Putting down the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the siege at Hulao Gate, desperate times at the Red Cliffs which is to be know as the battle of Chibi leading up to the final battle at the Wuzhang Plains. Romanticizations and the dramatics of this age of turmoil forever engraved into my brain, one of the final classical titles in the musous that is Dynasty Warriors 5 manages to provide one final swan song of a performance for the PlayStation 2.

The individual stories make a return here and they feel more personal as they go for a more point of view perspective including going over some unique cutscenes and events for every character along with the characters in the same faction responding to your own situation that really helps puts you in their shoes in a much more effective manner. I actually kind of like this method of story telling even though it feels a bit disjointed depending on who you start with and what exactly happens but it gives a better understand of what each warrior is coming from along with some great voice acting here which is already a far cry from previous titles. Stories that will forever live on time immemorial past this life and website.

The art of war has never been more refined and fluid. Gone is the dreaded lock on and now allowing you to turn mid combo and move sets have been more refined and varied. Last ditch efforts know as true musou attacks have been improved twofold giving each attack a final flourish apart from what we already know. Musou rage is your trump card, faster attacks and allowing for an extremely powered up musou attack for a limited time. The only notable difference is the game's difficulty has gone down a fair bit with soldiers dying fast and aren't as aggressive with retaining that difficulty in the officers and the main commander with the health of a super boss even on normal. Weapons have a weight class as well with light class being weaker but faster to execute with heavy being slower to execute but does more damage but I think the heavy isn't worth the power up so you should end up using light or medium for a better experience. Even then, I'd still prefer this by a huge margin. Something cathartic about being a bit mindless in the chaos we're trying to stop which is the reason we're fighting in the first place.

Apart from the standard free mode and challenge modes, creating your own officer is much better this time around and the progression of items is a bit more intricate as well. Orbs and mounts are received from doing very specific conditions in battle and weapons return to being item drops in the field but a bit more streamlined in the sense if you find two boxes next to each other, odds are it's a weapon and item drop together. The soundtrack this time around feels a little more subdued and really relies on heavy guitar usage but still a pretty solid sound overall with great tracks like Fate Corrodes Me.

History repeats itself with every entry and yet there's a different twinge of nostalgia after beating this one. I never actually played the base game and only the Empires variant of 5 which I loved to death. There's something about this one that's just fun and streamlined that makes it easy to get into one. If you want to get into the vast mountain range that is musou that I would highly recommend starting with this one as Dynasty Warriors 5 is one of the many peaks of this himalayan genre.

"These tales, passed on for generations, have endured the tests of time and continue to fascinate their listeners even today."