It’s been probably about two years or so since I played Pokemon Colosseum. While I really liked it, I wish it was a little bit longer, it felt like it ended too soon. Fast forward to now, and I’ve finally gotten around to playing the game’s sequel, XD: Gales of Darkness. Practically any issue I had with Colosseum is gone, and this game is such a great time overall, I’m so glad I finally got around to playing it.

Shadow Pokemon are so fun, even just catching them is super engaging. Having to catch them in Double Battles, where you also have to pay attention to the second field on the enemy’s field. Eventually you’ll have to catch multiple Shadow Pokemon in the same battle, making it a far more delicate balancing act. It’s also really nice that there’s a pretty safe way of trying to get a Shadow Pokemon again, if it faints in the first battle. I haven’t played Colosseum since I played it the first time back in 2022, but I don’t remember it being as forgiving. I was able to get every single Shadow Pokemon obtainable in the game, and I purified them all as well, to boot.

Purifying them as well is so fun. Of course you have the original way, going to the relic in Agate Village once a Shadow Gauge is empty, and purifying it. But the new Purification Chamber is such a handy tool, though it was definitely a learning curve to figure out how it works. The Purification Chamber allows you to purify up to 9 Pokemon at a time, being able to do other things while they purify in the background. You’ll need already purified Pokemon to help them purify though, and that’s where the nuance is. You can place 4 Pokemon around the Shadow Pokemon in the Purification Chamber, and the order that they’re placed in can increase the purification rate. It took me a long time to actually figure it out, In a clockwise order, each Pokemon must be weak to the one placed before it, and doing that for the full circle maxes out the tempo. Doing so is really fun, especially once you get each Purification Chamber Slot at max tempo, and being able to purify 9 Pokemon at the fastest possible rate.

I also think the introduction to Wild Pokemon is also interesting. There’s only 9 Wild Pokemon you can catch, which is fine, but it is quite limited. On it’s own, it’s not very interesting, but I do like how they did it. Simply just placing down a PokeSnack at a spot, and returning once you get notified of a Pokemon Spawning is really interesting. This, alongside the Purification Chamber, are really good ways to add mechanics that can fit naturally alongside the normal campaign of the game, and I really like that.

I think one of the best things about Colosseum and XD is the Pokemon you’re allowed to use. Typically in a Pokemon game, you’re likely to use similar Pokemon, and there’s often some Pokemon you’ll like never be able to use. One of the first things I think of is how in the Gen 2 games, a good number of new Pokemon (Slugma, Houndour, Larvitar) are postgame exclusive. In XD, I had a really fun team, especially with what Pokemon I was allowed to get early on, I think I was about halfway through the game when I finalized my team. My team for XD was Jolteon, Ursaring, Houndoom, Walrein, Dusclops, and Aggron. It was so fun to use pokemon like Houndoom, or Dusclops, pokemon that I’d otherwise be unlikely, or unable to use.

The battles of the game are always fun. Just like Colosseum of course, all of the battles in the game will be Double Battles. I just think by the nature of them, they’re just naturally more engaging. Having to synergize the two Pokemon you have out on the field, and be aware of the Pokemon your opponent is using as well. Sometimes your opponent will just have something you wont expect, and I think it’s really interesting. For a good majority of the game, I didn’t really need to grind all that much, the game was relatively balanced level-scaling wise. Most of the time, I grinded a little bit in order to help Shadow Pokemon I caught be on par with the rest of my party. The only problem I have with the game is the one bit of level scaling that I wish was improved, which was the final location of the game. In there, most of the Pokemon you’ll be fighting are about mid-30s to low 40s at best. But this jumps highly with the last handful of battles, bringing out Pokemon that are mid-40s all the way up to 50. I think it’s a noticeable spike, and I wish it was ironed out a little bit more, probably just adding some more battles to that final dungeon would honestly be enough.

But even then, I absolutely adored this game. As I mentioned prior, I went out of my way to fully obtain and purify every single Shadow Pokemon in the game, I didn’t even do that for of Colosseum. I haven’t even acknowledged Shadow Lugia up to this point, and I am an absolute sucker for that design. I don’t know if this makes any sense, but Shadow Lugia has a similar level of coolness design-wise that I see in Shadow the Hedgehog. I know it’ll never happen realistically, but I’d love to see it appear someway or somehow. It’s so cool to see a Shadow Pokemon be transformed by the shadow experimentation, instead of just getting a shadowy aura. But yeah, I can see myself replaying this game again at some point, it’d be fun to try the game again with a new team, and new eeveelution. Or maybe I’ll try to see if I can beat the 100 battle challenge in the save I do have. This game is an absolute blast.

It’s been probably about two years or so since I played Pokemon Colosseum. While I really liked it, I wish it was a little bit longer, it felt like it ended too soon. Fast forward to now, and I’ve finally gotten around to playing the game’s sequel, XD: Gales of Darkness. Practically any issue I had with Colosseum is gone, and this game is such a great time overall, I’m so glad I finally got around to playing it.

Shadow Pokemon are so fun, even just catching them is super engaging. Having to catch them in Double Battles, where you also have to pay attention to the second field on the enemy’s field. Eventually you’ll have to catch multiple Shadow Pokemon in the same battle, making it a far more delicate balancing act. It’s also really nice that there’s a pretty safe way of trying to get a Shadow Pokemon again, if it faints in the first battle. I haven’t played Colosseum since I played it the first time back in 2022, but I don’t remember it being as forgiving. I was able to get every single Shadow Pokemon obtainable in the game, and I purified them all as well, to boot.

Purifying them as well is so fun. Of course you have the original way, going to the relic in Agate Village once a Shadow Gauge is empty, and purifying it. But the new Purification Chamber is such a handy tool, though it was definitely a learning curve to figure out how it works. The Purification Chamber allows you to purify up to 9 Pokemon at a time, being able to do other things while they purify in the background. You’ll need already purified Pokemon to help them purify though, and that’s where the nuance is. You can place 4 Pokemon around the Shadow Pokemon in the Purification Chamber, and the order that they’re placed in can increase the purification rate. It took me a long time to actually figure it out, In a clockwise order, each Pokemon must be weak to the one placed before it, and doing that for the full circle maxes out the tempo. Doing so is really fun, especially once you get each Purification Chamber Slot at max tempo, and being able to purify 9 Pokemon at the fastest possible rate.

I also think the introduction to Wild Pokemon is also interesting. There’s only 9 Wild Pokemon you can catch, which is fine, but it is quite limited. On it’s own, it’s not very interesting, but I do like how they did it. Simply just placing down a PokeSnack at a spot, and returning once you get notified of a Pokemon Spawning is really interesting. This, alongside the Purification Chamber, are really good ways to add mechanics that can fit naturally alongside the normal campaign of the game, and I really like that.

I think one of the best things about Colosseum and XD is the Pokemon you’re allowed to use. Typically in a Pokemon game, you’re likely to use similar Pokemon, and there’s often some Pokemon you’ll like never be able to use. One of the first things I think of is how in the Gen 2 games, a good number of new Pokemon (Slugma, Houndour, Larvitar) are postgame exclusive. In XD, I had a really fun team, especially with what Pokemon I was allowed to get early on, I think I was about halfway through the game when I finalized my team. My team for XD was Jolteon, Ursaring, Houndoom, Walrein, Dusclops, and Aggron. It was so fun to use pokemon like Houndoom, or Dusclops, pokemon that I’d otherwise be unlikely, or unable to use.

The battles of the game are always fun. Just like Colosseum of course, all of the battles in the game will be Double Battles. I just think by the nature of them, they’re just naturally more engaging. Having to synergize the two Pokemon you have out on the field, and be aware of the Pokemon your opponent is using as well. Sometimes your opponent will just have something you wont expect, and I think it’s really interesting. For a good majority of the game, I didn’t really need to grind all that much, the game was relatively balanced level-scaling wise. Most of the time, I grinded a little bit in order to help Shadow Pokemon I caught be on par with the rest of my party. The only problem I have with the game is the one bit of level scaling that I wish was improved, which was the final location of the game. In there, most of the Pokemon you’ll be fighting are about mid-30s to low 40s at best. But this jumps highly with the last handful of battles, bringing out Pokemon that are mid-40s all the way up to 50. I think it’s a noticeable spike, and I wish it was ironed out a little bit more, probably just adding some more battles to that final dungeon would honestly be enough.

But even then, I absolutely adored this game. As I mentioned prior, I went out of my way to fully obtain and purify every single Shadow Pokemon in the game, I didn’t even do that for of Colosseum. I haven’t even acknowledged Shadow Lugia up to this point, and I am an absolute sucker for that design. I don’t know if this makes any sense, but Shadow Lugia has a similar level of coolness design-wise that I see in Shadow the Hedgehog. I know it’ll never happen realistically, but I’d love to see it appear someway or somehow. It’s so cool to see a Shadow Pokemon be transformed by the shadow experimentation, instead of just getting a shadowy aura. But yeah, I can see myself replaying this game again at some point, it’d be fun to try the game again with a new team, and new eeveelution. Or maybe I’ll try to see if I can beat the 100 battle challenge in the save I do have. This game is an absolute blast.

This is without a doubt a vast improvement upon the original Mega Man in practically every aspect. While I had an absolutely dreadful time with the original Mega Man, I actually had a pretty pleasant time with Mega Man 2. It wasn’t some stand out, blow me away type game, but for what it is, it’s honestly pretty fun.

Level Design is where the game vastly improves, though I definitely would say it’s not 100% perfect. There’s some areas that conceptually seem fun, having to dodge or avoid instakill objects, but they’re vertical segments, and the transitions between sections interrupt the flow of things. I think the parts of levels that I disliked most weren’t cause of platforming this time around, but more so enemies. That one bird enemy that drops an egg that spawns like, 10 baby birds is the bane of my existence. And as well, this is just a major pet peeve of mine, but enemies respawning off screen was annoying at times, especially if its one of the tougher enemies, like the Sniper Armors in Flash Man’s stage.

Almost every boss is pretty solid as well. Much like with the first game, typically the first robot master you fight is going to be the hardest, as you won’t have their weakness. I honestly can’t imagine not doing the fights without that robot master’s weakness, sometimes it feels absolutely necessary. Especially in the case of Quick Man, he feels way too fast to deal with without his weakness. The Wily Castle bosses are just as easy, aside from the boss of I believe it was stage 4, which that boss just feels cruelly designed. That boss requires some thinking to figure out how to hit all of the sirens, which is fine, but every so often each of the sirens will shoot at you, and it was way too fast to react to. Aside from this and the one robot master though, the bosses were actually kind of fun to figure out, even if they were slightly on the easier side.

And I’m so happy E Tanks are a thing. Just being able to heal back to full as long as you have one is really nice, and can help ease some amount of difficulty that the game has otherwise. They seemed somewhat generously placed throughout the game, which helps a lot too, even if you can only hold 4 at a time.

Yet again, this game is a vast improvement upon the original in practically every aspect. I actually had fun playing Mega Man 2, though that being said it didn’t blow me away in any degree. I do wonder what the next Mega Man games would be like, I’ve heard complicated things about Mega Man 3, but I don’t know anything beyond that. But Mega Man 2 was a pretty fun time overall.

Without a doubt, I feel like this is a perfect videogame. Everything that this game does, it does perfectly, and at times it feels like it does more than it needs to, but it all just adds together into something amazing. Years ago, I was planning to play this as my first entry into the series, and I’m so glad that never happened, and I started at the beginning instead. The build up and improvement of each subsequent game made Devil May Cry 5 an absolute masterpiece.

Of course I’m already a bit biased here, I love Hack’n’Slashes. They’re easily one of my favorite videogame genres, what on the surface looks like thoughtless slaughter of enemies is actually thought out, rhythmic, all to counter each enemy and raise that combo rank even higher. I’d be lying to say that this gameplay loop isn’t addictive. DMC5 may just be the pinnacle of this, it’s ridiculously stylish in presentation, and I’m left in awe at the end of each and every battle. I think this was the DMC title where I got the most S ranks in normal battle. And the fact that the music builds and changes as your rank increases from D all the way to S is immaculate. I absolutely adore this feature, and it makes each of the main music tracks so memorable because of it.

And I adore the main playable characters of the game. I didn’t play as Vergil so I can’t really say what he plays like, but Nero, V, and Dante are super fun characters. Nero is both mostly the same as how he plays in DMC4, and also drastically different. His main shtick, Devil Bringer, is completely replaced with Devil Breakers and they’re amazing. Being able to switch between different arms that can have unique effects is really fun. Though I’ll be honest, while playing I barely lost any of my Devil Breakers, so for 90% of the game, I just had 3 of the basic ones, too afraid to destroy them as I’m afraid of losing resources. The fact that Nero can just grapple enemies to force them into the air, or just bring them closer to him is really fun.

And much like Nero, Dante is about the same as DMC4 too. He has his styles, and he has his weapons which you can switch with the triggers (I don’t remember if switching weapons like this is new to DMC5 or if it was introduced in a prior game, but if it is new, I adore this change). Dante is sort of the gold standard of hack’n’slash combat to me, no matter what he’s always ridiculously fun to play as, and he was my favorite character to play as in this game generally.

And V is really unique compared to the other 2. He’s more of a summoner, conjuring spirits to attack enemies for him, but he has to be the one to finish enemies off. There’s a sort of balancing act, where he can’t stay far away from enemies forever, either to help recharge his summons, or get in for the finishing blow. He was the character I got the most S ranks with, without a doubt, though he’s not my favorite to play as. That being said though, whenever they do a DMC6, I really hope they have a character that plays like V, his playstyle is refreshing compared to the likes of Nero and Dante.

There’s also just so many nice little things in the game. Practically every level in the game has a boss for it, which is always one of the highlights of a hack’n’slash. And the fact that nearly every boss is completely unique is amazing, and I’m so glad they were able to pull something like this off. As well, the game features a sort of multiplayer, where you can see other people playing a different character’s perspective if there’s an overlap. One level someone’s playing as V when you play as Nero, but when you play the same events as V, someone else is playing Nero. Sometimes even, the game will record you inputs and play that back instead, which is really cool.

But of course because of the multiple playable characters, and how perfect they feel to play, I already think gameplay-wise 5 is the best of the series. But where I think DMC5 goes to propel it to being a perfect videogame is its story. It’s the grand culmination of 4 games before it, all leading up to this grand sort of conclusion to this arc, and showing us what comes next for each and every character. I know that’s a bit grandiose and vague, but there’s of course reason to my madness. I don’t want to spoil a game that I love, so why would I say exact events or plot beats for a story here, even if it’s pretty well known what happens in it. The journey to get from Devil May Cry 1 all the way to 5 may be rough in the beginning, but it is no doubt worth it.

Yet again, I must reiterate, I think Devil May Cry 5 is a perfect video game. There is zero wrong with it, and every moment I played of it, I was absolutely amazed. I don’t know how many times I said, “Dante is so cool”, but it’s true, in every single instance. I’m so glad I finally got to experience this game, and the entire story with it, it was so worth the wait.

Dragon Quest XI is a game I have a little bit of a funny connection with. For years now, I’ve been wanting to get it, but fate just chose otherwise. It went on sale a month or two ago at this point, and right as I was about to buy it, I found out that I got robbed, and couldn’t buy it. Only thanks to a friend buying it for me was I able to get, and finally play Dragon Quest XI. I don’t have much experience with Dragon Quest, I’ve only beaten 8, and I’ve played a small bit of 9, so I don’t have much familiarity with the series. But I had a great time with Dragon Quest XI, though I know I haven’t seen all of it.

I have to say, first and foremost, having a game with simple turn-based combat like this is really nice. And I like how you’re able to walk around the little arena as well, it just adds a nice amount of juice into something that’s rather stagnant in other games. I’ll be honest, I don’t know if the position of your characters matter or impact things in some way, but even if they don’t its fun just to move them around. And I was able to try out each of the playable characters in this game, and honestly they’re all really good. I think the general structure of the game allows you to try out each character enough to get used to them. Especially for me, the characters you get first in Act 2 were the ones I passed on using in Act 1. It may have just been coincidence for me, but it was a really smart choice all things considered.

And I adore exploring the game’s world. The main overworld of Edrea is certainly massive, but it creates this wonderful sense of scale that makes me enjoy just walking through it. The dungeons are also really fun to explore. Since (outside of the sea) enemies aren’t random encounters, it makes exploration feel so good. Especially since you’re not interrupted by random encounters all the time. That was one of my biggest pet peeves with Dragon Quest 8, so I’m glad to see that not being an issue here.

As well, the level grind didn’t seem too bad. In fact I don’t think I level grinded at all during the game, though I don’t know if that’s for better or for worse. By the end of Act 2, I was level 53, with the other characters being between 49-51. I had some challenge with the end boss of Act 2, so it’s hard to say if I was underleveled or not. This is more a feel thing than anything, but it really feels like it takes a long time for a character to level up, oftentimes taking so many battles before even one character levels up. Yet again this isn’t a negative, as I said I never needed to grind in the first place. It’s just odd in a feel sort of sense.

One of my favorite little options in Dragon Quest XI is Tickington. Being able to explore locations from previous Dragon Quests is really cool, even though I’ve only played 2 of them. And since it incorporates the 2D Mode that you can switch to, it’s nice to see all of the spritework made for the game as well. It’ll be funny when I finally get to the other Dragon Quest titles, and recognize the locations I saw from this game.

I also really love the story of the game. I wont go into too much detail here, especially with what occurs during Act 2, but there’s a lot that I really love. I think the main playable cast of Dragon Quest XI is absolutely perfect. There’s genuinely nothing I would change about them. Their growth, their personalities, everything. I just think particularly, I adore everything about Act 2, from the story, characters, and just general events.

When it comes to Dragon Quest XI, I know technically I’m not “done” with the game. But I’m satisfied with the ending I got, and I don’t really have much of an interest in playing Act 3. Honestly, with what I’ve heard about the general premise of Act 3, it would probably leave me unsatisfied, and I feel like I’d prefer ending the game at Act 2. Is that sacrilegious? Probably. But I’ve been playing this game for 60 hours now, I think I’m Dragon Quest’d out, and I did get an ending, even if it isn’t the final ending. Maybe after a decent break I’ll return to play Act 3, but I do feel like I have beaten the game regardless of playing Act 3 or not.

But I will say though, I really enjoyed my time with Dragon Quest XI. It’s probably been 2 years since I’ve been trying to get it, so to finally get around to playing it feels like a dream come true. I really would like to play the other Dragon Quest titles at some point, though I definitely need a bit of a break from them, this one took me quite a while to beat. Yet again, I may return to DQXI to play Act 3 at some point, but not today.