I was blown away by Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective. Every element works in perfect harmony. The unique gameplay mechanics (two buttons, Ghost and Trick? Amazing.), Shu Takumi's clever writing, bold art direction, and banger soundtrack all support one another and build off each other's strengths. A perfect example of a video game that could only be a video game. Also, can't comment on this game without mentioning the all-time great video game dog, Missile. This has immediately entered my personal canon.

This is probably the "best" of these games so far but the formula is starting to feel a bit stale to me. The open world is still littered with boring activities and the combat is simplistic to the point where I'd kind of zone out during fights, until the endgame where they try to make it harder by ratcheting up enemy density and boss health bars. Those complaints aside this is still an awesome game. Traversal is better than ever and they really take advantage of PS5 tech to deliver a technical marvel. The narrative is miles better than the previous games as well, with some deep emotional currents and a focus on second chances.

I tried so many times but I cannot find the motivation to finish this. Believe me, I tried. Zelda is one of my favorite game series and I've played every single title to completion at least once, many of them several times. But I was lukewarm on BOTW, and TOTK straight up feels like DLC. It's a really big expansion pack that adds a bunch of shit to BOTW, but the new shit is only interesting in isolation and none of it adds up to a cohesive experience. The story sucks, gameplay is repetitive, the shrines are somewhat better than BOTW but they're braindead easy, the map is essentially the same except for some random floating rocks and an empty dark underground that I felt no incentive to explore, you've seen and done it all before in BOTW. The worst thing for me is the dungeons. The content leading up to each one is fantastic, but the dungeons themselves are somehow even worse than the barebones BOTW dungeons. I legit feel gaslit by the praise for this game, and I feel sad thinking about the future of the series.

I have put countless hours into Bethesda games in my lifetime, so it brings me no joy at all to say this game blows. It flops right from the start. More games need to open with cool shit. This opens with you underground in a mine following the slowest walker and talker of all time. And it doesn't improve. The core loop is so boring that I turned this off to read a book instead. It also looks like shit. The engine is way out of date and it's time to move on. Worst of all? Exploration is essentially gone. You can't wander into something cool. You can fast travel from quest to quest or jump around on empty planets. I haven't been this disappointed by a game in a long time. It has the soundtrack of the year though, that's not nothing.