(Writing this after a fresh playthrough with a new translation by GreenGoblin, I have also played and finished it on PS1 with the original translation)

Final Fantasy 7 is one of my fav RPGs in general not just for the flexibility of the magic system, but I genuinely enjoy the very mind-screwy plot in which what you think things are, are not. On top of a gorgeous soundtrack and really well made locales, I just genuinely enjoy the breezy pacing letting you take in sights and enjoy exploring these little spaces that feel not far from what we have in reality.

Also I just wanted to make note of how great the overworld models are with their little gestures and how they cut into battle with really nice quality models which gives such a gorgeous contrast to what we can imagine and what we can actually see. I love visual tricks like that so much.

Also every summon animation is so god damn gorgeously done considering the limitations they were working with! This whole game is a treat of simple but doing a lot with that simplicity.

A cute, quirky, self-aware dungeon crawl action-RPG with some serious depth in its stats and customization. While it's writing leans very much on the more goofy side, it never feels like its going overboard on being reference-heavy or patronizing to its player. The story exists genuinely as just the baseline goal for you to overcome and the rest is for you to fill in yourself. It really is a game that really lets you make what you want out of it besides the actual core story and even its gameplay to a degree.

A big draw of this game is being able to not only make your own characters with a fairly robust little pixel art editor, but give them relations to other characters and dress them up however.

Does this do anything mechanically?

Nope!

It's all just for show and to get you hooked into making something more out of this game than its base story of "get out of this pocket dimension." I honestly adore this to no end as I like to make my own tales when I play dungeon crawlers like Dungeon Encounters and the Etrian Odyssey series.

The gameplay itself is a dirt simple action-adventure style affair akin to Zelda 1 with jumping, sliding, and various weapons which affect not just your elemental stats but your swing speed, crit rates, and even the ratio of how much damage you'll do. On top of the equipment there's probably the most insane part of the game which is Magic Circles.

Magic Circles are this game's form of a party system where you have a set chart you can set your characters on and by doing so, you can augment them together with various skills and stats to unlock parameters like HP UP, faster movement, extra MP recovery, and so on. The flexibility of each class in-game having their own set of Circles plus the benefits/dangers of using certain circles really opens up more customization for the player. How you want to tackle any floor is entirely up to you and the game absolutely encourages it, even in failure.

This game also features, in the most bizarre twist of things, a full MML programming feature where you can code your own music to dungeon crawl to. It even lets you save and share these songs online as a standard save file! I've NEVER seen a game have this before and I honestly have nothing but appreciation that I've seen people get into it just because of this game.

While it can get a bit stale and its VERY overbearing at points learning all the tips and tricks that this game has to offer, once you get into it, it's a great time just making your own tales and whackin' monsters for fun and profit. Make some bonds, grab some tools, and get to huntin'.

Take every Ridge Racer game from the start to about 2006 and mesh it together with not only wonderful visual flair but a love for each source and you get this game.

An unabashed love letter and compilation of the best the series has to offer with clean visuals, wonderful UI work, a banging soundtrack, and some of the best racing controls I've felt in my life.

Really the downside with this game is you're going to be racing on the same set of tracks a lot and the only variants available are mirrored versions of the same tracks. So the main tour mode with set track racing does tend to overstay its welcome.

However, outside that quirk, this entire game is a joy and a half for any Ridge Racer fan and a fantastic entry point for anyone wanting to get into the series and need a good idea of what it has to offer.

The last actual Pokemon game I played following an almost 20 year gap from playing the original Pokemon Silver.

I thought this was pretty damn nice! While the visuals and graphical assets struggle on the Switch hardware (and due to lacking development time), it does have a very nice look to everything really bringing the trainer/pokemon designs to a light I thought was charming.

All the gym leaders were great, the difficulty scaling was solid. I found myself having to juggle a lot more of my team and adjusting levels/skills in order to make it through even the final set of gym matches.

Really my biggest shortcomings with this is the story tacked onto the game is very much forgettable and honestly...

It's the same game as its been since 1998, and I'm fine not touching another Pokemon again. Even if this really made me feel a bit like I was a kid again playing through a unique little experience.

Finished with all 3 endings as of 9/7/23

Hot damn what a wild return for a dormant franchise. Had me sweatin' from start to finish just to see what new mech and boss I had to fight next and seeing where the scattered, yet interesting plot threads were going. I love all the characters, the customization, the more simple structure of missions being a couple objectives and that's it. Dirt simple pick up and play action.

And it looks amazing doing it too. All the mech designs are on point and every emblem and paint option is perfect.

The only things I'm not hugely in love with are some of the bleedover of Dark Souls/Bloodborne mechanics into this game with some of its bosses and overall combat structure, plus the difficulty feels really front-loaded and never seems to stabilize until you get into NG+. Also this game desperately needs a balance path as a good 40% of weapons are rendered useless and the AI is...more than exploitable at points with specific set ups.

Otherwise, the game's a good return to form for Armored Core and I hope if we get another one (or a side game, even) it tunes more towards how older Armored Cores were instead of 5/VD or having this Soulsborne DNA overlap into it.

While lacking in the vertical world design of JSRF and the bolder use of color and style from JSR, this game does a great job standing on its own while feeling like an in-between of the games it emulates.

Also Faux looks like the kind of guy who sells you bitcoin and shows you "dank memes."

ADDENDUM (10/26/23): After a recent replay of both BRCF and JSRF, I definitely have to bump BRCF a bit more just due to being a far more concise game and really keeping the meat of its story/pacing strong without roadblocking the player constantly. While it's open world is very sparse and lacking, the trick system and learning how to combo an entire map really does bring it closer to Tony Hawk in a lot of ways. This game's aging nicely already.

I love the original Gunstar Heroes a lot. I used to love this game a lot, was surprised it was a sequel on the GBA of all things. Going back to it in recent years has been a very dampening experience. A lot of the game design was traded in favor of more gimmicky levels, player input with less individuality, and a focus on spectacle that doesn't feel that impressive on the hardware.

The biggest gripes I have is how both playable characters have restricted weapon choices rather than being more free-form in the original game. Whereas each character in the original had a choice of Free movement while shooting or Fixed positioning while shooting, in this both characters have access to both styles rendering a lot of their uniqueness out. On top of this, the expanded moveset is fantastic but given how both character splay exactly the same, it doesn't quite feel unique having to play the same game twice with only the slightest of gameplay changes.

The stages themselves are of a mixed bag, using multiple gimmicks in stages which I feel drags the game down more rather than relying on the more expanded gameplay offered. A big part of this is the shmup stages where you're often locked to one position or using the helicopter with the slowest movement options. The restrictions often placed on the character's movements really make it more frustrating since you're caught for about 5-15 minutes doing these sections (quite often if you play on harder difficulties) when the game keeps scaling the damage up. That said there is some good with some of the gimmickry going on with the fun Sega shoutouts like Flicky in the second planet. Also returning bosses like Melon Bread are a sight to see.

However, there is some good here. The aesthetics this game brings is so early 2000s and bright that its immensely charming to look at. The new character artwork, while feeling a tad generic, does really zone in on giving each a unique personality and flair that the original game had a slight bit of. All of the planets and areas you visit look unique and have incredible set-pieces for the boss arenas, my particular favorite is the Teddy Bear boss in the board game dungeon.

The expanded story is something I'm mixed on. Both Red and Blue have their own story paths that elaborate differently depending on not only who you play as, but what difficulty as well. The harder the difficulty, the more plot and backstory you're given. On paper this is neat, but given that Hard often feels unfair with the absurdly high damage scaling, it makes for a more frustrating experience trying to get the most out of this game. I do genuinely enjoy the expanded story and it gives some interesting ideas that I feel could use some more exploring.

I wish this game was a lot better, I know Treasure can make a lot better. All of what I said plus the lack of co-op I feel puts this game in a position where I can see so many improvements that would've made this hold the test of time. Instead it feels more like a curiosity in Treasure's more strange era of trying to push technical edges on hardware that was more than capable.