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.

Metal Gear Solid 3 is a game unlike any other. While I would say of the series I probably enjoy MGS2 more, MGS3 is still an absolute masterpiece. There are still things I’m thinking about even as I type this, from the characters, to themes, just to everything about it. It’s really been a long time coming for me to finally getting around to playing MGS3, but I’m so glad that I did.

One thing that I immediately loved about MGS3 was how much of the game was dedicated to stealth. While I loved MGS2, I wish more of the game allowed for stealth sections, it didn’t feel like there were enough for what I was hoping for. In MGS3 on the other hand, stealth is absolutely the name of the game. Being able to create disguises to help increase your camouflage, sometimes even needing necessary disguises to progress. Being able to hide in the grass, or just blend in with the environment is so fun. I think the general jungle setting of MGS3 really helps with how refreshing the stealth feels. Not only that, but with enemies wearing green, they too can at times, blend into the environment, which is really cool.

The Stamina and Curing mechanics are really cool too. I thought they were going to be a bit of a nuisance at first, but I really got attached to them as I played through the game. Needing to use surgery or medical equipment to actively heal wounds feels much more realistic, and while yeah, it can make things difficult or annoying at times, that’s the point. I also think Stamina as a mechanic feels the same way, purposefully frustrating, but because of that, realistic. If these mechanics weren’t there, the game would have an entirely different, and probably weaker feel. Even then, they’re not as bad as they seemed at first, though maybe cause I was playing on easy they just didn’t affect me as much as they would on higher difficulties.

As well, the bosses of MGS3 are interesting. I say that because I don’t know if they’re my favorite set or not. If we were looking at them from a gameplay and actually fighting them sort of perspective, yes, they would be. They were probably the collection of bosses I had least frustration and the most fun with, and I was actually excited to fight certain bosses. But it gets complicated when looking at their characters. Obviously the ones that are well written are amazing characters, I don’t think I need to explain how The Boss is one of the best characters made for a videogame. But early bosses like The Pain, or The Fear don’t feel memorable as characters, only memorable as fights. It’s hard to say whether or not this is purposeful though, I have some interpretations that could explain why it’s a purposeful choice, but that’s simply an interpretation, not fact.

But god, the story of MGS3 is a masterpiece. It didn’t hit me as hard a MGS2, but beginning to end, MGS3 is a downright perfect story. So much so that, much like many other games I adore, I’m not saying anything about it. MGS3 is probably one of the most important games of all time, and I feel like it’s one of the games that must be played in a person’s lifetime. Of course, that would also require playing MGS1 and 2 beforehand, don’t jump immediately into MGS3. Even though it is a prequel, and the earliest game in the Metal Gear timeline, it’s far more rewarding to play it after 1 and 2 with the knowledge you know from those games, and not before. The ending is one of the best in a video game ever, and I’m so glad I got to see it with my own two eyes.

And just, what a thrill Metal Gear Solid 3 turned out to be. I’d give my life to play MGS4, but that’s stuck on PS3, and I don’t have any way of actually playing it. But I do really hope that I’m able to see this series through to the end in my time, as I’ve just constantly been blown away by each entry. I still technically have some other games of the franchise I could play, I do want to at least try and play the Metal Gear games, since I technically jumped ahead when starting with MGS1. But going back to the topic at hand, which is MGS3, this game is a genuine masterpiece, and I’m glad I was able to play it finally. I haven’t gotten over the ending at all, it’s like I’m still in a dream of some kind, I don’t if that makes sense.

I wonder how I’ve gotten here. If you were to ask me my general thoughts on Persona, I’d be rather neutral, I had only played one game of the series, and I didn’t like it. Then, not even a month ago, I played Persona 5, and it rewired my brain in a way, I found a Persona game that I loved. I loved it so much that I immediately bought Persona 3 Reload, and I played through it immediately after. Of course, it took me longer to beat it, I didn’t have as much free time, as unlike Persona 5, I was in classes at the time. From what I’ve heard about FES and Portable, I’m glad I chose Reload over them, there were some design and gameplay decisions in those versions that I’m glad aren’t here (though I would’ve loved FeMC). Persona 3 Reload has further rewired my brain, making me love this series even more.

Of course I don’t want to go too in-depth into all of this. While Persona 3 has existed for over a decade now, Reload released barely over 2 months ago (at the time of typing this). Saying anything even somewhat specific, even now, might be too much of a spoiler, and I’d like to try and avoid it as much as possible. Especially since Persona 3 as a game is something that I think deserves a blind experience, I want to avoid saying anything too revealing. But I will say as much as I think I can.

Combat-wise the game is amazing. One Mores are as amazing as a mechanic as ever. The adaptability, switching between your teammates in battle to help hit certain weaknesses, or heal if need be. I still love that enemies benefit from this system as well, it makes enemies feel more dangerous, especially if they luck out with crits. It’s interesting how there’s three different types of physical attacks, Slash, Strike, and Pierce. Each character’s regular attack differs too, being one of those three types which I think is really cool, and can help determine your team composition.

Social Links are interesting in Persona 3. If I hadn’t played 4 and 5 beforehand, I would be fine with Social Links in 3. What I mean by that is that Social Links only give EXP boosts when fusing, and there’s no other bonuses. This critique though is of minimal importance, contextually, Persona 3 was the first to introduce Social Links, so of course it wouldn’t have the things that were added in 4 and 5. But with that being said, I think of the three, Persona 3 has my favorite set of Social Links. The best way I have of describing it is that it’s the most realistic. Some Social Links are just normal people, some of them are unlikeable, and some of them feel meant to be hated. But that in itself feels purposeful, and meant to mirror relationships you may have in real life. You’re not gonna like everyone you know, and I’m glad that this game was able to emulate that experience. One thing that I’m grateful about with Reload though is that you’re not locked into Romance routes with social links.

Tartarus as a dungeon is another interesting aspect of the game to me. It made me further realize why I don’t like the dungeons in Persona 4, and I apologize for the oncoming tangent. Persona 4 in a way is a mid-transition, between the randomly generated dungeon of Tartarus, and the personal dungeons of Palaces. While Persona 4’s dungeons are meant to represent certain ideas about relevant characters, they only really do it aesthetically, but because of it being randomly generated spaces, it still feels impersonal. It makes them all blend together, aesthetics alone don’t feel enough to differentiate the dungeons of Persona 4. Now bringing this tangent back to Tartarus, it feels purposeful that Tartarus is like this. It’s long, it’s randomly generated, it’s purposefully impersonal. It’s meant to feel like an uncomfortable, otherworldly place, and I think it does that really well. And honestly it never felt too long. Sections are unlocked over time, and usually you unlock about 20 floors at a time. As well, it feels clear to me that while I did it this way, I wasn’t supposed to clear each section in a single day. The game gives you a good number of checkpoints, so if you need to, you can take a break, and come back another day.

And what can I say about the story. The answer, really? Nothing. I’m saying nothing. This is the part of the game that the less you know, absolutely the better. The story itself is why this game is probably my favorite of the Persona titles that I’ve played thus far, and I don’t want to potentially ruin that for anyone else. Yet again, at the time of typing this, the game came out barely over 2 months ago, so there’s still some recency here. What I can say though is that it’s absolutely amazing, and also Fuuka is my favorite character. That’s all I’ll say here.

I don’t think there’s much else I can really say here. I absolutely adore Persona 3, I haven’t played the other versions of the game yet, but I can’t imagine any would be better to play than Reload. I swear, I’ve drastically changed my tune on the Persona series in less than a month thanks to this game and 5, it’s somewhat crazy to look back on. I already bought the Expansion Pass for Reload, so it’s assured I’ll hop on The Answer as soon as it releases, and I can’t wait. Reload may be a pretty expensive buy, 70 dollar base price is a lot, but if you can afford it, please get it. It’s just such an amazing game.

Minecraft is an unreviewable game. Each review of Minecraft is paradoxically, both true, and false. The experience one has with Minecraft is one of the most personalized experiences ever made for a game. This is to a point that any description of mechanics, systems, and characteristics of the game in truth, just don’t matter. What matters then is the personal experiences, the history, and the memories made by Minecraft. While there is an “ending” for Minecraft, Minecraft is a game with no absolute ending, the world, story, and game go for as long as you play. While I have had Minecraft for practically a decade now, I only now finally got to see the game’s “ending”, and only now does it feel proper to describe my experiences with Minecraft.

Minecraft is a game that helped birth new creativity within me. Be it Survival, Creative, or even custom made adventure maps, I loved seeing, or even building my own little worlds with their own history. Even in my single player survival worlds, it felt like I had crafted my own narrative, starting from nothing, and making a true home for myself. I remember my first set of rudimentary houses, before I got better at building, learning, and finding new materials in order to create something even better. I remember venturing off into the wilderness to find stunning land generation, running into new structures, or new biomes. I remember the moments I stopped to farm, craft, and plan what the next little chunk of progress I wanted to work on was. And whatever I did, whatever narrative was told, I was the one telling it. All of those experiences were caused by my own actions.

For me, Minecraft holds a lot of memories. I remember back before I even had a full copy of Minecraft, demos allowed you to play really old, like Beta 1.3 versions of Minecraft for free, and I did that a lot. I remember getting Minecraft proper around Release 1.7, for a time frame of reference. Even after a decade now, Minecraft has still stuck with me. It’s a game I play whenever I’m stressed, and I need to relax. It’s a game I play if I’m feeling creative and I want to build. It’s a game I play with friends when messing around online. Minecraft is so much to me, even if I don’t play it as much as I did as a kid.

And it’s weird, right? This review, this general examination of Minecraft may not, likely will not, remain true. Minecraft as a game is ever changing, when I put this out, Minecraft is seemingly close to releasing 1.21, while I played on 1.20. There will always be more to see in Minecraft, Minecraft when I was a kid is wildly different than Minecraft as it is now, and even then, I still end up falling in love with it all over again. In the next ten years, when I’m in my 30s, who knows how different Minecraft will be, and how different I will be as well.

It is a little bit of a wonder to me too that it took me this long to finally “beat” Minecraft. Minecraft isn’t too difficult of a game, and if you know what you’re doing, the Ender Dragon isn’t that hard of a fight. I think the reason why it took me this long to finally do it was because I just never prioritized it. I always focused on other things, building, farming, exploring, those sorts of things are what I loved to do. Only once I set out to finally fight and beat the Ender Dragon did I finally do it. And with how long I’ve had Minecraft and it taking over a decade for me to finally “beat” this game, I had a feeling that I haven’t felt in such a long time. It felt like beating my first ever game all over again.

I used to be really bad at videogames, I’ll admit. My first ever videogame was Pokemon Diamond, I got it around its release date, and I could never beat it for years. I think the 3DS was already out when I finally beat Pokemon Diamond for the first time, and it felt amazing, refreshing, and it felt like a book closed that has been longing for this moment. I felt a genuine sense of joy and sadness when it was over. Even looking back further, the first game I ever beat proper was Pokemon Ranger: Guardian Signs, so with the general frame of reference there, it took me 4 years from my first videogame to the first time I beat a videogame. With the fact I had Minecraft for over a decade, this joyous, and sorrowful sense of closure has hit me once again.

I have no doubt I’ll return to Minecraft. I don’t know if it’d be on the same world, or on a new save, but I’ll be sure to play it again. Minecraft is a game to relax, and reflect when the world outside becomes a bit too much. It’s a game where you can truly test the limits of your creativity. It’s a game where communities can be formed. It’s a game where stories are told, and memories are made. It’s a game that’s always changing. It’s a game where everything is possible.

I’ve had Persona 5 in my library for way over a year now, and playing it has been a long time coming. I was honestly somewhat apprehensive to, I really disliked Persona 4, so even though I’ve heard nothing but great things about Persona 5, I was afraid something similar would occur. My main motivation to playing Persona 5 in the first place was that one of my friends started playing it, and I didn’t want to be spoiled. This entire preamble is to lead up to this; for the past 8 days I have done nothing but play Persona 5. 104 hours total, beginning to end. My perception of time has been fundamentally altered because I was so engrossed and invested into Persona 5, these past 8 days have all blurred together into some amalgamative mass. If it isn’t already obvious by all of this, I absolutely loved my time with Persona 5.

Way before getting into where this game just absolutely works, I love how much style is put into this game. UI, animation, music, everything in this game has this particular style to it that’s addictive. Even when I’m 20, 40, even 60 hours into the game, I hear certain music tracks, or see certain animations, and I get that same level of excitement that I do seeing them for the first time. And in a similar vein, the game’s UI is absolutely stellar. It took a little bit of time getting used to each button being a battle command, instead of having to scroll through a list of actions, but once I got used to it, it really felt great.

I also absolutely love Palaces. They feel like properly planned out and designed dungeons, and I love how they’re able to fully and completely fit the theme they’re going for. I’ll try to avoid comparing Persona 5 with Persona 4 as much as I can, but I want to highlight that I really didn’t like how the main dungeons of Persona 4 were all procedurally generated, it made Palaces such a breath of fresh air. I love the stealth mechanics, being able to hide from enemies and ambush them from the shadows always felt great to do. I would say most palaces are rather good, with only one not being as strong as the others, but that’s mainly because the puzzles in that palace are rather basic. It might be contrarian to what I mention prior, but I also really love Mementos as a dungeon. It is procedurally generated which would make it seem like I would dislike it, but I think it’s the balance between Palaces and Mementos that allows me to actually enjoy Mementos. It’s a dungeon you can take at a sort of piecemeal way, as you’ll be able to slowly gain access to lower parts of Mementos as you progress with the story. You can then alternate between Palaces and Mementos, allowing for a sort of balance between them, which I really appreciate.

I’m also really enamored by the combat system of Persona 5. This is the first MegaTen game I’ve played that doesn’t feature the standard Press Turn system, so it was definitely another thing I had to get used to. Even then, Persona 5’s gameplay system is absolutely masterful. Persona 5 does sort of feature a press turn system, though not in the exact same way. One More functions about the same as a Press Turn, but of course it only activates when downing an enemy. There’s also of course a specific turn order in battle, instead of player and enemy rounds. But going back to One More, it leads into one of my favorite mechanics in the entire game, Baton Pass. Baton Pass works basically as a free switch to an ally to use their action, but you can chain it up to a total of 4 times. Increasing power, recovery, and even lowering the cost of skills if you chain it high enough. It becomes an absolutely addictive system that I love both utilizing, and in a way, abusing.

And this leads me into what I think is what kept me playing all this time. What allowed to sit through and play 104 hours total of this game with only sleep being a break. That of course is none other than the game’s story. Immediately before the game even gets going, it has absolutely one of the best cold opens I’ve seen in a game, and it serves well as a tutorial section too. It sets up so much intrigue that made me want to see more and more of what is going on in the game. As well, the character writing is so good. The main party’s dynamic is really good, and it feels like they’re a proper group of friends. As well the villain of each arc can at times be cartoonishly evil, but I think that exemplifies the world and the themes that Persona 5 is trying to go for. This idea of young rebels fighting against a corrupt society that allows for these cartoonishly evil villains to avoid punishment, and forcing them to realize their actions and live with the understanding of what they’ve done. It’s something immaculate. There’s also just so much else I could talk about here, though I won’t as I don’t really want to spoil anything specific here. The last few arcs of the game are amazing, I love the Royal story content, and the end is absolutely perfect. Persona 5’s story is everything I really hoped it to be, and more.

Goro Akechi

Unlike in Persona 4, where I went only for the Social Links of the main party, I actively engaged with as many social links I possibly could in Persona 5. I’m not going to go into elaborate detail into all of them, that would be the absolute death of me. I would say for a good majority of them, they were really good, and I love how some sort of tie into Mementos and doing Mementos Requests. Its nice that the game opens up a lot of night options to allow you to try to at least get 2 social link rank ups in a day if you plan well. There were definitely some characters I didn’t feel as strong about, but there were few, if any characters I actively disliked. I tried my best to get as many social links done as I can, and I’d estimate I probably got about 90% complete. I completed 18 social links, but I was pretty high in the other ones, ranging between ranks 5-8. I also really like the bonuses that some social links give, some of them are absolutely busted too. One of Ryuji’s bonuses particularly became the perfect level-grinding method. Though it does feel weird examining the mechanical reasons to raise Social Links, it feels good to raise social links not solely because of the mechanical boons, but because I care about these characters.

I’ll say this as well, but I wish I was able to really compare the differences between base Persona 5 and the content exclusive to Royal. While the last major arc of the game (if you unlock it) is Royal exclusive, there’s noticeably differences solely based upon certain characters existing. Maruki and Kasumi are Royal exclusive characters, but they exist through nearly the entire main storyline of base Persona 5. What is it like when those characters aren’t there, what changes? This thought makes me wonder what other changes exist in Royal, and since I don’t have a way of playing the original Persona 5, I have no way of comparing. I should specify I’m not saying this as a negative, it’s more just a thing I’m curious about more than anything.

It feels weird being done with Persona 5. Yet again, I must reiterate, I have done nothing but play this game for the past 8 days. I really do feel like for me, Persona 5 is an unforgettable experience, not only because of the game itself, but because of the environmental circumstances around me that not only brought me to play the game, but while I was playing the game as well. I don’t know if I can bring myself to replay the game anytime soon, it was over 100 hours long after all, but maybe a few years from now I’ll revisit it. I’m glad to have played a Persona game I ended up absolutely loving.

Its not often that I go out and play a Castlevania game, but every time I do so, I feel a genuine joy. I absolutely adored Portrait of Ruin, there’s so much that’s really unique to it that sets it apart from other Castlevania titles. It’s not one that’s hard either, so I do think it’s one that I can really suggest as an entry point to Castlevania, while also being really good.

To me the first and most obvious aspect of Portrait of Ruin is the dual player character system of the game. Being able to switch between 2 characters on the fly, and summon the other character either to help with combat or puzzles ended up being really engaging and fun. Honestly, I wish there were more puzzles that involved switching between the two characters, there were only a small handful, but they were really well done. I also loved playing as both of the characters in the main campaign, though I definitely did prioritize one over another. Throughout most of the game, I played as Charlotte. I loved switching the spells she used, adjusting to whatever I was facing, especially since some spells are better than others for certain bosses. Only at the tail end of the game did I switch to Jonathan, but he’s also another great playable character. He has the same general abilities of other vampire hunters in the series, and because of that he is really fun. I know it’s possible to use different weapons, but it felt only right for him to use a whip, so I didn’t experiment as much with Jonathan as I did Charlotte.

And of course, the other part of Portrait of Ruin that I think is super interesting is in the namesake itself, the portraits. While the game is located in Dracula’s Castle for a good chunk of things, you can also enter portraits throughout the castle which take you to wildly different locations. And I completely adore this, it allows for you to go to locations that otherwise wouldn’t be possible in a typical Castlevania setting. My favorite area in particular is the Pyramid, which I find really cool to be able to explore in a Castlevania game. I also really love how there’s sort of remixed versions of the portraits later on in the game. I’ve always loved the sort of “upside-down castle” idea that most Castlevanias have, and the portraits being remixed is a really fun way of doing things.

I mentioned this earlier, but Portrait of Ruin isn’t too difficult of a game either. Even if there’s a boss or room that is difficult, the game gives an ample amount of healing items, so you’ll never have too much of a worry. Though, I have played a good number of other Castlevanias, some notably harder than this one, so I may just be more used to them, and this is easier to me than to others, who knows. I imagine the challenges I did have were brought upon by myself though. I remember one boss that I struggled with hard because I didn’t realize that you could jump as many times as you wanted while underwater. Though at the same time, it’d be hard to know that, as that, to my knowledge, is the one time you’ll be underwater during the entire game. As well, some bosses probably would have been slightly easier for me if I summoned the partner character more often, and it might’ve been easier if I switched to Jonathan more often as well.

With the multiple locations in the game, exploring and trying to find every little nook and cranny is really fun. I think I got nearly 900% map completion, which is really funny to type out here, I didn’t explore the final area of the game, which is why I’m not close to the full 1000% map completion. It’s mainly because I saw on a guide I was looking at that the bosses in that final are connected to a different game, Dawn of Sorrow to be specific, and I didn’t want to see them until after I had played that game. As well, it’s primarily a boss rush, and completely optional, so I wasn’t too motivated to clear it. Whenever I get around to playing/beating Dawn of Sorrow, I would like to go back to that final area and see what it’s like.

And I most assuredly will replay Portrait of Ruin. There’s multiple additional playable characters that unlock upon getting the game’s good ending, and they have some interesting play styles to them. Theres one where the combat is done entirely on the DS touch screen which I wonder how that’ll play later in the game. With the little bit I tired of it, the game seems ridiculously easy with those characters. Though of course I’d have to wait and see.

I absolutely adore Portrait of Ruin. The ideas this game has are really fun, especially for a series like Castlevania. I love the environments that the game features, and with how much of a sucker I am for multiple playable characters, a game structured around switching between 2 characters is really fun. As I mentioned in the last paragraph, I’m almost assuredly replaying this game, as I want to play with the additional playable character sets, and see what they’re like. This isn’t my favorite Castlevania, but it’s definitely up there, I can’t help but suggest it.

When I beat Metal Gear Solid 2, I was left in absolute awe. It felt like I was left speechless, though there was so much I wanted to talk about at the same time. It’s been about a year at this point since I played the first Metal Gear Solid, and I adored it, though of course some of its moments I feel are heavily flawed. My memory is a little rusty on the first game due to the gap of time, but it sort of came flooding back as I played through MGS2. And I still can’t believe just how much of a masterpiece this game really is.

I was a bit scared when first starting up MGS2. Particularly it was because the game went over almost every single mechanic that you can do. At first it felt like I was being overwhelmed by loads of information, however I didn’t have as much of a problem as I thought I would. The game and its level layouts really helped teach me everything I would need to know, to the point where I was able to naturally understand what to do. Though of course it felt wrong seeing the switch buttons be shown on screen.

A small note more than anything but I do wonder why you’re able to select one of the episodes before doing the full main story. For a first time run of the game, you should only be able to do Tanker-Plant, so I just wonder why the game allows you to choose either Tanker or Plant before beating the game for the first time.

Raiden as a character is one of the aspects of MGS2 I don’t want to go into full detail about. I often repeat this, and I wont stop repeating this, but I like to leave my reviews as spoiler-free as possible. Raiden is such an important character to the game’s story that so much of him is intrinsically tied to spoilers, leading me to be careful in what I say. But what I can say is that he’s an amazing character. The more I learned of him, and the further I came to understand him, I grew to love him as a character. I love how complex he is, though of course I can’t really explain here why that is the case, sorry about that. It does make me wonder why people back in like, late 2000s-early 2010s internet hated him. Did they not give Raiden a chance? It feels so clear and obvious to me how amazing Raiden is as a character that it makes me confused how people missed it and hated him instead.

There’s a lot of first person mode use in this game, far more than in MGS1 from what I remember. And I do think it’s better, and a lot more polished. It still has that little bit of an issue with aiming on a controller never feeling fully accurate, but I think that’s more the nature of aiming with a controller in general. It isn’t necessarily only an issue that MGS2 has. Yet again keep in mind, I did play the Switch version, so that could also have some involvement and explain why there may have been some issues. There’s never anything as bad as the first Sniper Wolf fight in MGS1, so thank god for that. There was a little bit of a learning curve for me particularly with first person aiming, since I’m not fully accustomed to it. Though when I was able to fully figure it out, it felt pretty good. One of my favorite guns in games is Sniper Rifles, I love being able to stealthily shoot from a far distance, not being noticed by enemies. In MGS2, because of first person aiming, even the regular SOCOM pistol has that effect that I love with Sniper Rifles, and it’s amazing because of it.

The bosses of MGS2 are also pretty good I’ll say. At worst, they’re just a tad bit annoying, but once you get the flow of those they’re pretty manageable and kind of fun because of it. Yet again it’s another showcase of how well written the character in this series are. The members of Dead Cell are expertly written, even though they get so little screentime compared to the likes of Raiden. They’re so memorable, and very few games are really able to do that.

And I do admit there are parts of the game that frustrated me. Certain sections were a bit difficult, oftentimes it was because there were a lot of insta-death moments. As I said before, the first person mode controls are a little finnicky as someone who usually plays first person games with Mouse and Keyboard. Some bosses can be a little annoying if not in the proper flow. I don’t know if the game intended for my interpretation of it, but it feels like all of these annoyances or frustrations are purposeful. There is meaning behind getting upset, there is meaning by struggling through it, to see it to its end, and it was absolutely worth it.

Much like Raiden himself, I’m not going to talk too much about the story here for the sake of avoiding spoiling anything. For one, I definitely still am unraveling the story in my head as I type this, and it’ll be a while before I fully grasp everything. There’s so many interconnecting webs and ideas that I haven’t fully comprehended, but I so want to. Even so, I absolutely adore this game’s story. It’s so masterfully crafted and every single moment it blew me away. It’s crazy to realize just how correct Kojima was in predicting certain aspects of the internet age and political ideology, though I won’t go too in-depth in what I mean by that here. And all of the story lead to an absolute masterpiece of an ending, one that I think will stick in my head for years to come.

I should’ve played this game such a long time ago. I had no idea that game was as perfect as it was, and it left me awestruck. Metal Gear Solid 2 is an absolute masterpiece by all degrees. Even though there are some parts that I admit are frustrating, the game feels like it’s able to turn that around and make it purposeful, and make that frustrations mean something more. I’ll be honest there’s a lot more I could say about Metal Gear Solid 2. There’s so much of the game’s story I want to discuss so much, but this isn’t the place for that, and I’m not the one that should tell you it. Of course, play the original Metal Gear Solid first, but please, please play Metal Gear Solid 2.

Each time I play a Devil May Cry game, there’s this immense joy I feel. I don’t play hack’n’slashes often, but each time I do, for the most part at least, I absolutely adore them. Of course the same is true for Devil May Cry 4, it’s another amazing hack’n’slash. A lot of the changes and new additions to Devil May Cry 4 in particular are really good, but I do think it has some rough patches to it.

I adore Nero. As a character both writing-wise and playing as him, Nero is ridiculously fun. I think that’s primarily because of the Devil Bringer, I love being able to grab enemies and throw ‘em around. It also introduces some amazing segments of each chapter, I love how it becomes a sort of grappling hook. It’s a thing I’m a bit of a sucker for really. How you’re able to chain the Devil Bringer with Nero’s sword is really fun. And it makes combat super engaging to me. I’ll be honest though, there was something I knew that Nero could do, it looked like he was charging his sword, but I never really used it, and I don’t fully understand what it does. That though is assuredly on me.

And Dante is just as awesome as ever. It’s been a while since I played Devil May Cry 3, but I don’t think Dante has changed all too much. In fact, I think Devil May Cry 4 improves upon the one aspect that I didn’t care much for in DMC 3. Being able to switch styles on the fly by using the D-Pad was the only thing that Dante needed, and it made his abilities absolutely perfect. As well, I absolutely adore each weapon Dante gets throughout the game, though I didn’t utilize them much because I just think the sword is really fun.

The story’s pretty good. I wouldn’t say it’s as strong as DMC3’s but it’s still one that I really like. The villains throughout the game are really neat, though I wouldn’t say they’re super memorable. Unfortunately I think the same rings true for the main villain too, not memorable at all really. Even then, I think Dante and Nero are such strong characters that they absolutely carry the game, what they can do and the interactions between them and bosses are so captivating, they just rock.

When it comes to the levels of the game, I’m somewhat conflicted. I would say a majority of them are really good, but the few bad moments are really bad. I’m particularly reminded of Chapter 19. This of course isn’t the first boss rush of the series, I remember DMC3 had it at least, but this is probably my least favorite thus far. While it’s not a bad issue, I do think it’s a little annoying that for a good number of these bosses, you’re fighting them for the third time. It gets a little repetitive though it’s not terrible. My main issue is the moments between the boss fights, when you’re rolling the dice. I felt lucky to even get the correct rolls to pass through each section, but man, if I was even slightly less lucky, I could’ve been stuck there for so long.

As well, some of the bosses in the game I think are just generally underwhelming. One boss, which was fought around halfway through the game, was more annoying than anything else. Its main ability was just running away from the player, and it was more a nuisance than an actual challenge. As well, the boss in Chapter 18 was really boring. Yet again, it’s not bad, it’s not frustrating by any means, it’s just kind of boring. And honestly I was kind of hoping for more with the final boss. Presentation and Story wise, I think it’s fitting, but I wish the actual fight itself was something more. I think it’s because I’m comparing to how amazing the final boss of DMC3 was, and this game’s final boss just isn’t as good.

But still, Devil May Cry is such a fun series and DMC 4 is another example of how great these games are. As the series continues the combat really seems to get more and more polished, and DMC4 by far has the best gameplay I’ve played so far (keep in mind currently I’ve only played 1, 3 and 4). Nero has such a great introduction here, and I can’t wait to see more of him. Though, I don’t know when I’ll get around to actually playing DMC5. I’ve been absolutely adoring these games though.

Shin Megami Tensei V is rough. I first got the game years ago, and I played it for a bit, but distracted by other new releases. Because of that, I’ve always wanted to actually continue and finish SMTV, but only did I get around to doing that. Now obviously, I think the game is good, of the SMT titles I’ve played though, this is probably my least favorite. The short and sweet of is because while this game’s gameplay is ludicrously good, I don’t particularly like the game’s balancing, and the story is really weak.

I definitely think as a series overall, SMT has always shined in its gameplay and combat. Press Turns are as fun as they are in other titles, exploiting weaknesses to get additional turns is always really fun. I think the Magatsuhi mechanic is interesting, though I never really utilized it, maybe it’s just me but between using my regular abilities and using Magatsuhi, my regular abilities always seemed to be more useful in battle. Having this system affect both enemy and your turns is really fun, especially when you dodge an enemy’s attack and suddenly they lose two of their turns, though it can also happen in the opposite order. It’s a great battle system to having great tension and it’s exhilarating.

And the new essence fusion system is really interesting, though I’m not 100% confident if I particularly like it. Essences aren’t bad, however I think I prefer the Demon Whisper system from SMTIV. While they function nearly the same, as it grants you abilities learned by specific demons, my confliction comes about how you find them. Rarely, a demon will give you them upon level up, though yet again that’s rare. You can also guarantee finding them by doing certain quests, or finding them in treasure littered around the map, while these aren’t bad, sometimes it’s just hard to get to them, and sometimes they wont have the skills you need. Compare that to Demon Whispers which are guaranteed to happen once your demon learns all of its skills, for me at least, I prefer it more than the essence fusions.

While I love the press turn system, and SMTV’s combat is solid, I don’t particularly like how SMTV is balanced. I’m no stranger to the franchise, I’ve played and beaten SMTIV, IV:A, and Strange Journey to name a few, I’m not an expert of course, but I’m not new to it. However something about V’s difficulty balancing and scaling is off to me. Even while playing on casual, the game’s difficulty scaling is littered with constant jumps upwards, instead of a more smooth ascent. And even though I was only slightly underleveled (1-2 levels below the boss), I was completely destroyed by them. If I have to hypothesize, I imagine there’s a system in place where there’s a hidden modifier that weakens a demon if it’s lower leveled than one it’s fighting, and for a game like this I don’t particularly like that. Maybe it could work, but it feels too drastic, and it became more of a nuisance than anything actually challenging. Around halfway into the game, where I was around level 44, I switched to Safety, which sucks because I love the challenge of SMT games, and to me, what I was experiencing wasn’t a challenge, it was an annoyance.

With the discussion of gameplay and combat done, now it brings us to the aspect of SMTV that is the most rough, incomplete even. I’m of course referring to the game’s story. For general reference it took me about 38 hours total to beat SMTV, though if I didn’t switch to Safety halfway through it probably would’ve taken longer. I would say the game has 5 chapters to it, though the 5 chapter is shorter than the others as it’s centered around the game’s finale.

When it comes to the overall story, I think it really peaks at Chapter 2. Chapter 2 is a really solid isolated storyline, centering around a specific character, and seeing their arc through that chapter, and the main boss of that chapter is arguably one of the more memorable aspects of the game. Though Chapter 2 also shows one of the biggest problems that SMTV’s story has, which is the characters. SMTV’s characters could be so much better if given the allowance to. Particularly, for a majority of the game, they’re absent, not apart of the story itself. At times they actively tell you to go somewhere else, isolating you from them. There’s a point in the game where a character disappears and is gone for the entire following chapter, and even though they do return, even though they should become more important they take a sideline. One character who you meet at the start of the game is entirely sidelined until you do a very specific set of sidequests, and they only become relevant for the final sidequest in that set. And I think the most egregious examples are the characters that are meant to represent Law and Chaos, while they do appear more often than the two prior examples, they still don’t appear enough. Their character arcs don’t feel fluid enough, and it makes it difficult to properly care about these characters and how they change, even though the game feels like it expects you to. There are some great character moments in the last bits of Chapter 4 and all of Chapter 5, but they don’t feel deserved because these characters did not have enough time to feel as important as they should. I’m certain if the game allowed there to be more time with these characters, I would care about them, but I just am unable to with how little time you get with them.

The other aspect of SMTV’s story that I wish was better was the game’s worldbuilding. There’s so many interesting aspects to the world of SMTV, and stuff that I would love to see further explored. But there lies the problem, it isn’t as explored as much as I feel it should. From what it feels like, you get only a quick glance at most aspects of SMTV’s world, which hurts because these aspects could provide so much cool stuff to them. And with that as well, the game continuously introduces ideas throughout the game, which not only means there’s less time to explore those ideas, but also it makes other ideas have less time to be explored as well. Even when you’re fighting the final boss you’re introduced to a new aspect of the world that, because you’re fighting the final boss, there’s very little time to explore that aspect of the world as well. I think if the game shrunk it’s scope of its world, or if it spent more time exploring ideas and aspects of the world that are interesting, this wouldn’t be as big of an issue as it was.

And it’s so odd. Difficulty balancing aside, SMTV has some of the best gameplay in the series, and its mechanics are really fun. This game has so much potential, though I don’t think it was able to execute all of its potential properly, unfortunate as it is. Though with that in mind, I’m honestly really excited for SMTV Vengeance, and I do plan on playing it when it releases. My hopes are that its new story improves upon the game, and the changes to gameplay improve upon the aspects that I felt aren’t as good as they could be. That of course is wishful thinking, as we won’t know what it’s like until the game comes out, but I like to dream. I’m glad I finally got around to playing SMTV, but I don’t think I’ll be replaying it anytime soon (excluding Vengeance of course).

Little Nightmares is an outstanding little horror title. It’s noticeably short, on this replay it took me barely over 2 hours to beat it, and I probably could’ve done it faster. But in that short frame of time, the game is expertly crafted, creating an amazing horror experience and a really memorable one as well. There’s so much style to Little Nightmares, and I absolutely adore it.

This game already starts strong with its aesthetics. I like the sort of nightmare child book aesthetic of the game, I don’t know if that accurately describes it, but that’s what it feels like to me. The distorted proportions, and how the adult characters are designed its amazing. As well, the scale and size of The Maw is outstanding. So often I was just in awe by the size of some locations, this game is visually stunning and it’s already an amazing strength.

And gameplay wise, Little Nightmares isn’t anything too complex, but it’s still amazing. It feels purposefully clunky, it’s not smooth movement or controls, but it makes perfect sense to why. You’re so much smaller than the world around you, it can’t work around you, you have to work around it. I absolutely love the chase sequences in this game, having to run from the game’s monsters are really cool, chase sequences are genuinely some of my favorite moments in videogames. I also really love the game’s puzzles, while they’re most of the time not anything too complex, Six’s movement makes each puzzle really fun. And the fact that a good number of puzzles include the monsters lurking around makes them so fun and tense too.

Another thing I want to mention is how fun dying is at times. The game is able to create some great moments of horror, and some moments are really tense because of it. But Six as a character ragdolls most of the time when the player dies, and it’s really funny. While that could be considered a critique by some, I really love it, it balances the game a bit mood wise, it’s sort of dark comedy in a way I feel. I remember a time I was absolutely launched into a death pit cause I was swung off a door handle, and it was really funny.

I didn’t play the DLC mainly because I don’t have it, so I can’t really judge it’s quality, but if I had the chance to get it, I’d gladly play it. Little Nightmares is a really fun game, so the more I can play of it, the better.

I really love Little Nightmares. It’s such an amazing little game, and it’s honestly kind of surprising that not only did it get a sequel, but it’s getting a third game as well. There’s so much I adore with Little Nightmares, it has one of the best aesthetics I’ve seen in a horror game, and I can’t ignore the scale of it. I haven’t played Little Nightmares 2 yet, but I really should.

I’ll admit, from a complete gameplay perspective, I don’t think Ender Lilies would actually be a 10/10. I still think it’s an amazing game, however I have so many personal connections to Ender Lilies and it’s genuinely one of my favorite games ever. I remember playing this game back when it first enter early access, and I absolutely adored it. I then played it again when it fully released, and I nearly completed it all, though I couldn’t beat the true final boss. After all this, with news of this game getting a proper sequel, I really wanted to replay Ender Lilies, and this time I was able to completely 100% Ender Lilies. And the more I played of Ender Lilies, the more it grew to be one of my favorite games of all time.

Now, I’m already biased here. Ender Lilies is a Metroidvania, and those are some of my favorite games ever. Ender Lilies is absolutely a fantastic Metroidvania, from its aesthetic, combat, and especially its mechanics. There’s so much that I adore in this game. Ender Lilies has one of the best quality of life additions for a Metroidvania, but at the same time I’m unsure how many Metroidvanias actually have this feature. Specifically, on the map it shows when you complete each room in an area, switching between Blue and Yellow, which is really nice. It helps direct you to know when you’re done in an area, or if you’re trying to 100% the game, to know where you need to go to further progress. Some areas are harder to find specific treasures, but when you’re able to succeed in getting them, it feels so good. There’s one that requires you to climb between 2 tall towers, and jump across the large gap between them. It was really difficult, but it felt so good to actually do.

And I absolutely adore the exploration in this game. Yet again this goes back to my bias with Metroidvanias, and how much I love them. I love getting lost in games, wandering and stumbling upon things, important or otherwise. Aside from very few games, There’s so many fun little nooks and crannies in Ender Lilies, alongside great platforming and combat challenges. The game doesn’t really point the player in a correct direction either, which is really nice. It shows you where exits to rooms are, but you still have to find your way to that spot, and even then, there isn’t even any markers telling the player where a sort of ultimate goal is. The player just finds it themselves, which I really love. With the near lack of direction that Ender Lillies has, the player is fully able to get lost and immersed in the world, which I adore.

And when it comes to the movement abilities, while they’re not completely unique, they’re of such a high quality, and there’s some really fun ideas thrown into the mix. Particularly I adore how this game works with the mechanic of dashing. At the beginning of the game, the player starts out with a rudimentary dash, though it’s purposefully not good. The player falls to the floor, and has to pick themselves back up. It’s good early game for dodging attacks, but not horizontal movement. But later in the game, the player gets an upgrade to their dash, which turns it into a more archetypical dash for a Metroidvania. And that Dash becomes one of the best movement options in the entire game. The other movement abilities are also really fun, and they’re all utilized so well in the game’s environment. Genuinely all of them are amazing.

I also really like the spirits you unlock throughout the game. Aside from the starting soul, you get them all from bosses, major, and minor. There’s so many spirits, and you can practically equip 6 at the time, though you switch between sets of 3. And there’s so much customizability with them, and you can create some really fun builds with them. Back when I played the game for the first time, I really liked using the summonable spirits, having a Summoner build. While this time around, I went primarily with melee build, focusing almost solely on the beginning spirit. I also really love how some of the spirits can help with movement, sometimes necessitating using them to find some of the rarer treasures. The spirits are so malleable and customizable, and I really love them.

The relics as well are really fun modifiers you can include as well. I will say, I think objectively the best one is the one that heals you slightly every time you damage an enemy. There’s also simple ones, such an increasing health, damage, or defense, and there’s also some other good ones, like increasing your healing usages. It’s also well balanced, by limiting how many you can equip, though increasing how many you can hold as you find certain treasure. I absolutely love it.

Combat is mostly simple, but man it’s really fun. The further you get into the game, when the enemies get noticeably harder, it becomes really fun. There was a section in the game where you climb a tower as enemies appear as you climb up, and you have to fight them all to unlock the path forward was really fun. Some enemies are annoying at times, but they all become manageable eventually, and it feels so good going back to an area where you originally had trouble and you steamroll it because of how much you’ve progressed. And I absolutely adore the bosses in this game. Most were relatively easy for me, I beat a majority of the bosses between my first to third tries. I remember when I played this game when it first released, Hoenir was absolutely the most annoying boss day one, he spawned other enemies at a ridiculous rate, though it was patched and became a more balanced boss. For me though the hardest boss was Ulv, he moved so fast, and his attacks were brutal. It probably took me 20-30 tries to actually beat him, but it felt so good to actually do so. An interesting thing though is the boss that actively prevented me from beating the game, the final boss, I beat on my complete first try, barely having any difficulty with it. It honestly was mind blowing to me for that to occur, but it feels so good to have that happen, it feels like I’ve improved so much between then and now.

And I can’t ignore Ender Lilies’ music. This game introduced me to one of my favorite bands of all time, because that band worked on the game’s music. Mili is an amazing group, and all of the music that they made for the game showcases that. I’ll admit as well, the credits music made me tear up, after everything that I’ve experienced within and around Ender Lilies, hearing that end credits music really impacted me, and cemented my love of this game.

Yet again, I can’t guarantee that you would have the same love for Ender Lilies that I do. There’s so many personal experiences that connect me to Ender Lilies that I know other people wont share. However to me that is an important factor on the love of a game, those connections, the impacts that a game have. And because of that, Ender Lilies is downright one of my favorite games of all time, even if you don’t love it as much as I do, please give this game a chance. It may not be a masterpiece for you, but it is a masterpiece for me.

This was… rough. I remember playing this game on my phone when I was kid, and I honestly don’t know how I beat it then. This time around I played the game in the Mega Man Legacy Collection, and I can’t deny that this was one of the most dreadful experiences I had in a game recently. I completely believe that later Mega Man games heavily improve upon this one, however god, this one was a pain. I think one of the few positives I can note is the game’s short length.

The big problem with this game is absolutely the level design. In some areas, the game feels poorly designed. In that regard my first immediate thought of this the dropping platform sections in the Guts Man stage. If you don’t jump soon enough, you’ll fall immediately, and likely a lose a life because something is wrong with the game’s gravity. Though while I see some areas of the game being poorly designed, a lot of feels designed maliciously. Thin corridors with jumps you need to make to avoid taking damage, pits you have to fall into and hope there aren’t spikes underneath, enemies spawning in platforming sections that if you get hit by them, you get knocked back into death pits. With how often it occurred, it felt less like a skill issue on my part, and more so the game being maliciously designed. I’m so glad that the Mega Man Legacy Collection allows you to save at any point, while yes I did save scum a lot, it felt like an absolute necessity.

Bosses are an interesting case I’ll say. The 6 robot masters are a joke. The first one is usually the hardest as you wont have their weakness, but it’s not too challenging. Then the other robot masters are jokes because of having their weaknesses. But then comes the bosses of the Wily Castle stages and they’re rough. I only got through a majority of them because of a pause exploit with Elec Man’s ability, where spamming the pause button makes that ability do damage again. I can’t imagine even trying to fight Yellow Devil normally. I don’t even know what the final boss is like because I just used the exploit, at that point in the game I was so tired I just wanted to beat the game, whatever it took.

Genuinely, I have zero clue how someone would beat this normally, without the saving thanks to the Legacy Collection, and without the pause exploit to fight bosses especially Yellow Devil. Though ignoring the bosses, the game just has really frustrating level design, and sometimes it feels evil with some sections of the game. I’m glad I got the legacy collection for this, it makes things so much more tolerable. Is that wrong of me? Maybe. Though I’m confident that later games wont have this problem, I know that later games improve a lot upon this one.