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.

Ugh, this is a difficult game for me to gather my thoughts about. Megaman Battle Network is a game I want to enjoy. There’s a lot of good stuff here, and a ridiculous amount of charm. But there’s so many issues that kept me from properly enjoying this game. And its frustrating because the highs of this game are really high, but as the game continues, the lows become really low. But this all makes Megaman Battle Network an interesting game to examine.

I would say until the end of the game, particularly the final few battles, the actual combat of this game is top notch. Dodging around spaces shooting at enemies and waiting for the next set of cards, it’s high action and really fun. I think sometimes enemies dealt a bit too much damage, but that’s only a minor thing, the general combat is really fun. Though I think the final few bosses of the game are bad. The penultimate boss does my ultimate pet peeve of boss fights, which is just spawning enemies at a ridiculous rate, leading to the fight just being an unfair bullet hell. I had a lot of fun with most of the other bosses, even the ones I struggled with, like the optional Woodman fight, but the penultimate boss I think is just outright bad. It’s impossible to save between the penultimate and the final boss, and if you die you have to do both. I’ll be honest and admit, for the last 2 bosses in the game, I used Buster MAX. Only there, and in random encounters, I’ll explain for the latter later on. I was just so tired by how frustrating the game became that I just wanted to be done with it as soon as possible.

And overall the game itself is really charming. I like how each sort of chapter in the game has its own little plot going on, like an episode of a TV Show. The characters are all super charming, both the main characters and the villains. I’m not super well versed with the Megaman series as a whole but I really love the altered designs of pre-existing megaman characters. It’s all really nice I have to say. I also really like the internet aesthetic the game has going on. This game overall just has a lot of charm to it.

I’m not going to hold back here, this game has some of the worst dungeons I’ve ever had to deal with in a videogame. The best dungeons in the game are fine at best, but they still suffer from the same flaws that the rest of the dungeons have, the issue just isn’t as bad. First and foremost, these aren’t dungeons, they’re labyrinths, mazes, if you told me you got through the game without a guide, and never got lost, I’d believe you were lying. Navigating each dungeon is terrible, sometimes you can be going for a couple minutes before winding up at a dead end. A map could definitely solve this, but then the later dungeons come in and make things worse. There’s an ice dungeon with slide floors, which would be fine but positioning yourself to slide diagonally is ridiculously difficult. There’s a dungeon that would’ve been fun where you had to find count certain parts of the environment and answer with the number, but it gets to a point where you don’t get a hint and just have to randomly guess the number.

The absolute worst dungeon though was the Powerplant. One of the most convenient parts of Mega Man Battle Network is that you can fully heal after ever battle. However in the Powerplant dungeon, there’s constantly a ticking timer going down, and when it goes down, you lose the ability to heal. On top of it, not only is this dungeon labyrinthian, but a good number of the dungeon is invisible paths, which makes it a guessing game to figure out where to go. And to top it all off, the dungeon has these really bad battery placement puzzles where you have to guess where these batteries go, and the game barely indicates how correct you are. If you get placement right, good luck knowing which of the 3 batteries is placed correctly. This dungeon is awful, probably the worst I’ve dealt with ever in a videogame.

And I’m not even done talking about the navigation in the game. For the most part, it’s fine. It gives you the general idea of where to go, and sometimes it’s specifically pointed out. But there’s some times where you’re given zero clue where to go.

I can’t think of another game with as bad of random encounter rates as this game. It felt like every 5-10 steps I ran into a battle. And while most battles aren’t too lengthy, particularly most take under a minute to beat, the constant repetition of being put into another battle when you’re trying to get through the poorly designed dungeons make things far more frustrating. And there’s no easy option to flee either, fleeing is only available through a chip, and you have to be lucky enough to draw that chip in order to flee. It basically means you’re forced to battle, as getting that option to flee is nigh unlikely. It’s not even too beneficial to fight every random encounter. There’s no EXP, you can get new chips and money, but I found myself not really using them. It’s why I chose to use Buster MAX in the last bits of the game, the game bombards you with somewhat pointless random encounters and I got extremely tired of it.

Yet again, I really want to like this game. There’s so much good in it, but this game is so rough around the edges I can’t fully enjoy it as much as I should. The combat for most of the game is addicting, but those last few sections of the game took away the joy that I once had. I would like to play the later Battle Network games though, I’m hoping they improve upon this game, and provide a better experience overall.

I don’t know how to describe it, but I think this game has affected who I am as a person. I can’t exactly describe what, or how, but I know for certain it’s affected me. Very few games have left me this speechless, trying to comprehend what all just occurred. I say that in a positive manner though, it’s amazing what this game is able to do in not even 3 hours of playtime. It’s all just completely outstanding.

Now, with most of my reviews, I know I’m rather lengthy. I go into a ridiculous amount of detail about how a game plays, and what I both love and hate about them. But this game simply has to be an exception to that rule. This game without a shadow of a doubt is one that must be played completely blind, with as little knowledge of it as possible. The less you know, the better.

I can’t help but recommend Slay the Princess. I can’t guarantee that it’ll have the same effect on others that it does to me, but even then it’s such a masterly crafted game. I wish I had more words to describe why, but yet again, the less known about the game, the better. This game is really something else.

I swear, I always forget how much I love Shin Megami Tensei. My first entry was SMT IV: Apocalypse around early 2017, and I’ve played a few other titles since then. Seeing that my first ever SMT title was a sequel to it, it’s a genuine surprise to me that it took me this long to finally play Shin Megami Tensei IV. Playing through it all, it reminds me just how much I love SMT, and this game was amazing.

One of the first immediate things about SMT that I think about is the Negotiations. SMT is a monster tamer after all, and it has such a unique way of actually taming the monsters. Having to hold a conversation with Demons, and trying to convince them to join you is so interesting. It’s far from easy, but I find charm in that, Demons can suddenly attack you, leave the battle, give you items. You’ll also have to hope you respond correctly, and even if the demon has a specific personality, there’s still a level of randomness to it. It always stings when it seems like a negotiation goes as planned, but instead the demon runs away instead. This all creates such a unique way of creating your party, especially with how many demons you’ll be able to hold by the end of the game.

And in a similar vein to this, Fusing demons is ridiculously engaging to me. Sometimes I could spend up to a full hour trying to plan and fuse demons. You can craft entirely unique builds for each demon, and the more demons are fused, the more built up one becomes. With how there’s a level requirement for fusing demons, it also makes gaining each level all the more exciting, which very few RPGs make me excited for single level gains. With how aside from the player character, the other party members are demons you’ve gathered, there’s an immense level of connection to the party, as you made them all. And as well, if a demon learns all of its skills, it can teach the player character the skills it knows, which allows for immense customization of the player character as well.

The actual combat of SMT IV is super engaging as well. I absolutely love the press turn system and how it works. You have as many moves as you have characters in battle. So basically, if you have the player character and 3 demons, you have 4 moves per turn. But if you get a critical hit or exploit an enemy’s weakness, you get an additional move, up to a total of 8 moves per turn. Enemies as well have this exact same system, which can make battles far more dangerous, and in turn, really thrilling. It made a lot of the early game really difficult because of how little options you have compared to the enemies. As well, I believe SMT IV introduced Smirks as a mechanic, which can increase the power of skills, or make regular attacks likely critical hits. Yet again both you and the enemies have access to this feature, which is so fun.

Shin Megami Tensei games always have intriguing stories to me. They’re always super philosophical, asking questions that not many other games do in the same way that SMT does. I really love how SMT IV opens, compared to the other ones that I’ve played, it opens in such an interesting way. Even though this game is far from new, I don’t want to reveal the opening act of this game, I find the reveal really cool. As well, I love the main cast, and how they grow and encapsulates the three major alignments typical of Shin Megami Tensei. Jonathan, Walter, and Issabeau are all really great characters, and I love how you get to understand each of them as the game progresses, especially if you go down a different path than them.

Now I’m not going to spoil it at all, but the nature of how endings work in Shin Megami Tensei is so interesting. Throughout the entire game, every choice you make determines your morality and that morality is what leads you to your ending. Unless you’re following a guide you’re likely not going to control what ending you get. And because of that, it makes what’s typically the best ending for SMT games, the Neutral ending, to be the hardest one to obtain. Especially as the window to obtain this ending is so small, and it can be easy to lock yourself into one, and be unable to change it. Somehow I stumbled into it on my first ever playthrough, though I imagine that others would likely not encounter a situation like I did. Though as well, no ending is the true ending, each ending is equally canon, which is always interesting when games do as such.

It’s really interesting going back to Shin Megami Tensei after this long. I play them so rarely that each time I play one it feels like I’m playing the series for the first time again, for better or worse. Every time I play one, I’m enthralled by how good these games are, from both a story and gameplay perspective. I really need to get myself to play more of them, as I would like to eventually try them all out. Though I know the earlier ones are odd, and I’m not sure if I’d be able to beat those in particular. Though back to Shin Megami Tensei IV specifically, I absolutely adore this game. There’s so much I wish I could talk about in particular to its story, but with a game such as this, I feel it better to see it for yourself. I can’t help but recommend SMT IV, I don’t know if it would be a good entry title to SMT, but as a game I think it’s worth playing.

Yo-Kai Watch is an odd game to me. I remember playing it a long time ago, and enjoying it so much I went out of my way to complete the medallium. But it’s been so long since I played Yo-Kai Watch that I completely forgot what the game was like. I’m a big fan of Monster Tamers, and I’ve just been in the mood to play some good ones, so why not finally replay Yo-Kai Watch?

Firstly, one thing I absolutely adore about Yo-Kai Watch is how cozy it is. You’re in a small town for the majority of the game, exploring around, seeing whatever silly hijinks occurs with Yokai. While I definitely enjoyed exploring the world of the game, I also just found it really relaxing. The game’s story also adds to the sort of cozy nature of the game. Until the last chapter of the game, it’s very low stakes. Honestly, each chapter feels like a single episode of a cartoon you’d watch on a Saturday Morning as a kid, and not many other games I’ve played had this sort of vibe. While I didn’t grow up with this game, the structure of the game’s story still gave me a sense of nostalgia.

And mechanically, Yo-Kai Watch is a really interesting game. I think this is the only Monster Tamer I’ve played where you don’t directly control the monsters themselves. And I can see how people don’t like that, there’s a bit of luck that goes into this as you have to hope that your Yokai do what you want them to. Though I sort of like this. It makes the Yokai feel like alive in a way, at least more alive than the creatures in other Monster Tamers. And on top of all of this, there are ways that you can impact the battle. Rotating out which Yokai are in battle, using items, or making your Yokai use special moves. The battles in Yokai Watch are really interesting, though only some of the late game bosses made me heavily focus on them.

And as I described somewhat earlier, I really like Yo-Kai Watch’s story. It’s not anything too complex, in fact it’s extremely simple. But that simplicity works so well for the general vibes that Yo-Kai Watch has. Honestly the final chapter of the game kind of came out of left field, it’s much more serious compared to the rest of the game. Though yet again, I think it’s good, and the actual ending of the game is kind of unique in a way. The story creates this nice vibe that I think I’ve done my best to describe. It’s really cozy, and it does feel like I’m on a Summer Vacation.

I’ve described this earlier but I’m a big fan of Monster Tamers. My first ever game was Pokemon, and I’ve also played the likes of Shin Megami Tensei, and Digimon. One of my favorite aspects of Monster Tamers is the aspect of collecting them, trying to get as many as I possibly can. And that’s where I have a bit of confliction with Yo-Kai Watch. It feels so difficult to actually befriend Yokai. It’s already a bit hard to find specific Yokai you’re hunting for, and actually befriending them is much harder. Sometimes it takes 20 minutes just to hunt a single Yo-Kai, and I’m unsure if that’s a skill issue on my part or not. The odds just feel ridiculously low, even after having a friendship boosting yokai and giving the yokai its favorite food. Though this being an issue for me is probably not that big of a deal. The game definitely seems to push the player to relax, and take things slow, which is something I’m unable to do.

As well, the actual cast of Yokai in Yo-Kai Watch is odd. There are some absolute amazing and creative designs in Yo-Kai Watch. Though saying that, it’s really unfortunate to me that a lot of my favorite Yo-Kai are locked to postgame only, so I don’t get a chance to use them. With this in mind, there’s a noticeable amount of Yo-Kai that are reskins of other Yo-Kai. The first noticeable one is Castelius, that has 4 different versions. But theres also like likes of Illoo, Wiglin, and Heheheel. While in a typical RPG I’d be completely fine with enemy reskins, in a Monster Tamer I’m not particularly fond of it. Unfortunately, it motivates me less to complete the game’s medallium, as part of why I enjoy trying to find every creature in a Monster Tamer is to see each unique design. Ultimately this is a personal thing, but I want to at least acknowledge it.

Yet again, Yo-Kai Watch is a really interesting Monster Tamer to look back on. It’s not perfect, and I imagine that the later sequels polish the game in some form, but Yo-Kai Watch is still a really fun game. I think once I get around to playing them, I should be able to better my perspective from having played this one. I’m just glad that I finally got around to replaying this game, it’s such a unique little title.

Pseudoregalia is a game that absolutely blew me away, it’s easily one of the best Metroidvanias I’ve played. I honestly think it’s a near perfect game, I’d honestly say there’s only one major issue that’s preventing it from being completely perfect. Regardless, I absolutely loved playing Pseudoregalia.

I think outright the best aspect of the game is the movement. When it comes to Metroidvanias the aspect I love the most is all the movement options you can get. Having so many ways to traverse the level feels great, and Pseudoregalia does this in strides. Sybil’s main move is her air kicks, where she can kick off of walls, or in the air. The game limits you to three air kicks while midair so its never broken. I think what makes me think of the air kicks first is the sort of learning curve that comes to properly using them. At first, they feel weird, and difficult to pull of properly. But as you progress through the game, and learn how to use them more and more, they feel so good to properly pull off. This already feels great, but there’s so many upgrades to Sybil’s movement that are absolutely amazing. By the end of the game, I was quickly blasting through rooms, pulling off awesome maneuvers.

And as well the game is built so perfect for Sybil’s movement. There were so a lot of challenging platforming sections that I absolutely loved trying to figure out. I’ll be honest, I don’t know if I did any of them in the correct way. Sometimes it feels like I did things correctly, while sometimes I feel like I cheesed my way into the solution. And honestly, I really like that! The fact that there’s so many ways to clear a platforming challenge is really something, and it made each one really fresh.

The game does feature combat as well, though it’s very simple combat. While some may be bothered by that, I honestly prefer the more platforming-centric design of Pseudoregalia. Yet again, when the movement it satisfying like it is here, all I want to do is move, not fight. There’s only 2 bosses in the game as well, and neither of them were really difficult. In fact, I never died at all during my time with the game, though I did get close on some occasions. I honestly found the final boss to be run too.

And god, Pseudoregalia is a visually stunning game. I absolutely love when games try to emulate the style and look of N64 or PS1 games, and Pseudoregalia does this amazing well. And to add to it, the music is amazing. Tied with the fact that Pseudoregalia hs a very dreamlike aesthetic, everything fits so perfectly well. Each environment feels great to explore, and the aesthetics of each major area are amazing. The first that immediately comes to mind is the solemn atmosphere of the Empty Bailey. The Library and the Theatre are amazing locations as well.

But as I mentioned, I think there’s one thing sorely missing in Pseudoregalia. And that simply is a map. It’s so easy to get lost in Pseudoregalia. The game has so many intersecting paths that it’s easy to end up in an entirely new location rather easily. I don’t need a map to know where I’m supposed to go. Rather, I need a map to remember how to get to where I’ve already been. I really do think that a map alone would make this game perfect to me. And mentioning this, I’ve heard that there will be a future update that includes a map, alongside other bonuses which is amazing to hear. I definitely plan on replaying the game once the update with the map releases, so we’ll see what happens then.

Regardless though, I absolutely adore Pseudoregalia. It’s such a good, short and sweet little 3D Metroidvania. The movement is top notch, and it feels amazing. There’s so much that it does right, this game is just simply amazing. I’m probably going to wait for the update to release, but no doubt I will be replaying this game. Please play Pseudoregalia.

I’ve been meaning to play through the Spark the Electric Jester games at some point, and of course it’s reasonable to start out with the first game. I’m not too knowledgeable about the series, but I know that this is the only game in the series that’s a 2D platformer, so it’s rather unique in comparison to the other games. That being said, I had an absolute blast playing this game for the first time. It had a couple rough moments, but overall this game was great.

First and obviously, I love this game’s speed. It’s a simple thing to compliment, but I really think this game’s speed feels so good. Some sections in levels were definitely difficult due to how Spark moves, but most of the game felt amazing. When you’re just moving at high speeds, blasting through the level and doing loops, it just feels amazing. There’s something really satisfying about it that I wish I could better describe.

I also really adore how Spark plays as well. Of course, Spark is ridiculously fast, but there’s more to his moveset that I really like. To add to his speed is a dash, which just feels really nice. As well, depending on what power up you have, you’ll be able to double jump, or air dash, which of course just adds so much more. And there’s so much in the realm of combat as well. This as well can change depending on what power ups you have. You have basic combos, directional attacks, and charge attacks as well. I found that the charge attacks can also impact movement, sometimes boosting you further in the air. Spark’s moveset is really fun.

And man, the powerups are really fun. As said prior, they can change Spark’s movement, or what attacks he has, and this is all really fun. This isn’t to mention that you can hold two power ups and alternate between them, which allows for so many options, especially as some powerups have unique movement options. I think my favorite ones plaything throughout the game were Wind, Cool, Hammer, and Magical especially. I also noticed some really interesting interactions between some power ups and the levels themselves. Primarily I noticed that cool makes it so that you skate on top of the water, it was a nice touch that I really liked.

I didn’t realize how combat centric this game was. Particularly, nearly every level in the game had a boss fight, and many had 2, maybe even 3 bosses. And honestly, most of the bosses aren’t too difficult, though it does ramp up about halfway through the game. When the boss fights get hard, they were really fun. The speed of both Spark and the boss fights really makes the boss fights really tense in a good way. There were times specifically where the bosses didn’t have health bars of any kind, and I think those were some of my favorites due to the lack of knowing how close I was. I think because of that, the penultimate boss fight was my favorite in the entire game.

There’s a lot I really like with this game, and it’s a reminder to me that I need to play more 2D platformers. I wouldn’t say this game is perfect, but its absolutely fun. I would like to replay this game sometime in the future, there’s more modes that I didn’t play around with. I really would like to try the harder version of the main campaign especially. I can’t wait to play through the other Spark games, but this was an absolute great starting point.

Pokemon Yellow is a rather interesting game I feel. Until with recent generations, there was always a third version of mainline Pokemon games. Crystal, Emerald, Platinum, etc. But this whole trend started of course with Pokemon Yellow. It’s interesting then to look back on them, not only when comparing them to other third versions, but comparing them to the games it originated from. This was the first third version of a Pokemon game, so it’s interesting to see what they did.

Obviously the big thing about Pokemon Yellow is Pikachu. It’s the one of very few Pokemon games with an unconventional starter (and the others are remakes of Yellow as well). It was the first ever time a Pokemon could follow you, and there were interactions tied with how close you were with Pikachu. This mechanic also allowed you to get the original Kanto Starters, which was really cool. Though I will say I didn’t use any of them while playing this time around. The only issue with this I feel is the fact that Pikachu cannot evolve into Raichu. I understand why, Pikachu is the mascot of Pokemon and as well, Ash’s Pikachu never evolves either. But with the inability to evolve Pikachu into Raichu, Pikachu is eventually going to not catch up with the rest of the game, being far weaker than everything around it. For the last bit of the game, I just had Pikachu in my party because it felt right to have it there, but I never used it, because I had better Pokemon.

And speaking of, I always enjoy sharing my teams when I play Pokemon. It’s fun as I find it a part of the journey I had with whatever Pokemon title I play in particular. For this run of Yellow, my team was Pikachu, Primeape, Venomoth, Dugtrio, Starmie, and Dragonite. My team was really interesting, especially when getting to the end of the game. Pikachu was bound to be outclassed. Primeape, Venomoth, and Dugtrio were really good Pokemon for a time though they as well eventually got outclassed. It’s outrageous just how much better Starmie and Dragonite were in the last few sections of the game. I practically swept the entire Indigo League with Starmie alone, only needing to switch to a different Pokemon about 3 times. It’s interesting how clear the best Pokemon in my party was, I’d say Starmie was even better than Dragonite.

There’s a good number of changes to Pokemon Yellow. I already described one of the big differences earlier, with Pikachu. However there are still some really nice changes here. There are some subtle changes. Primarily some Pokemon have changed move learnsets, and some learn new moves entirely. Some examples include Venonat, who can now learn Confusion, or Diglett, who can now learn Cut. It takes a while in the games for Pokemon to have really good move learnsets, so the more moves they get the nicer it is. There’s also some really noticeable changes, though they don’t impact the game mechanically. That basically is the change of Pokemon sprites. Pokemon now have a more uniform set of sprites, instead of how they looked back in Red and Blue. While each generation had unique sets of sprites for each Pokemon, Yellow changed the sprites to be more like how we see them today. Yellow also has colored sprites for each of these Pokemon, which is super nice. One of my favorite changes in third versions, and Yellow too is the change of encounter tables. I really love that you can obtain Pokemon like Mankey before the first gym, and Venonat before the second. I like the ability to have Pokemon early on that typically appear late, allowing to have more unique teams like this.

I think the change I’m most conflicted on in Yellow though is the change to gyms. I’m completely fine with the change to their teams. I think it makes Yellow more unique, it’s fun that Surge only has a Raichu, or how Giovanni has a Persian. Why I’m conflicted is the sudden increase in levels for these Gym Leaders. This is most obvious when looking at the level gap between Erika’s and Koga’s Gyms (gym 4 and 5 respectively). Gym 4’s highest level Pokemon is level 32, Gym 5’s highest is level 50. It’s a sudden increase of level that is unique only to Yellow. And because of that, it somewhat feels like it interrupts to general flow of the game, and with how the levels of the Indigo League don’t change, it feels odd increasing the levels here but not there.

And of course there’s a whole slew of issues in Yellow as well. Though these aren’t issues unique to Yellow, as Red and Blue share these issues as well. It’s still clear that Psychic type Pokemon are ridiculously unbalanced, and this doesn’t really change until gen 3 realistically. The fact that Psychic is immune to one of the two types that it’s supposed to be weak to, alongside every bug and ghost type being weak considerably. Status moves like Sleep, or attacks like Wrap are still mechanically flawed. And gen 1 is a poorly aged game, there’s probably a lot more that I’m forgetting to mention here.

I’m unsure if I’d return to Yellow anytime soon. It’s probably the version of Kanto I’d play the least, though I do really like a lot about it. I find more charm in the OG Red and Blue, and if I’d want what I think is the best version of Kanto I’d go to Fire Red and Leaf Green. That being said, I do think Yellow is a really interesting game. Since it is the first third version, it’s really unique compared to the others, and it was great to see it through to the end. What an interesting game overall.

Why do I do this to myself? It’s been years since I played Persona 4, I think I played it back in 2020 in my first semester of college. I’ve had countless hours to sit and really marinate on my thoughts on this game, and figure out just how much I dislike it. But I can’t write a proper review for a game I played almost 4 years ago, so I chose to bite the bullet and replay Persona 4 again. And frankly, I still don’t like it. It feels insane to feel this way because I see boundless praise for Persona 4, and yet I look at this game and I see countless issues. I really want to express why I dislike Persona 4 as much as I do so that I can close the book on this game for myself, and allow myself to move on.

Before I get into the negatives though, I do want to mention what I do like about the game. There are a few, and I think it’s important to mention them, so that I don’t seem fully negative here. First of course is the game’s music. Persona as a series just seems to be on point with the music, and I don’t think there’s ever a time that I heard a bad music track. There’s some locations where the music is really cozy, especially in the times where that’s meant to be the vibe. I think if anything the only issue I have with the music is that one track gets overplayed a lot, and is a very quick music track so it oftentimes feels repetitive, but even then it’s a good music track all the same.

And of course because this is an Atlus RPG, it’s mechanically really fun. Combat is really good, and I do really like the idea of the other party members not being controlled by you. Sometimes it backfires, one of your allies using an attack that the enemy reflects or absorbs, or an ally not using the skill that would be best. While these occurrences can be frustrating for sure, they also create interesting scenarios that likely wouldn’t occur if you could control them yourself. And of course I absolutely adore the fusion mechanics. Being able to fuse Personas to create a stronger Persona is really fun, especially in how you can customize these fused Personas. As well, the fact that there’s multiple types of fusion is another fun aspect as you have so many options to how you can fuse your Personas. I spent a good while just fusing Personas to craft some really fun ones.

I also really like the idea of the day-to-day life that the game has. I’ll describe why I specify the idea of it later on, as I don’t want to get into the game’s negatives yet. Either way, having to do a daily routine each and every day, interacting with people, doing activities, etc, is all really nice. Yet again it creates this sort of cozy setting that I think Persona 4 is going for. Especially as it’s located in a small town, it creates a unique vibe that not many other games pull off. And in a similar vein to this, I like the idea of the Social Links, and how that ties in to the day-to-day life of the game.

And of course there’s still a couple other positives I’ve yet to mention. I really like the aesthetics of Persona 4, and I love the look of late 2000’s games, so graphically the game is charming to me. I really like how the dungeons look especially. But I’ll be honest this is all the praise that I can give towards Persona 4 without having to acknowledge everything I dislike about it. And believe me, there is a lot, so let’s just start.

While I think the dungeons are visually great, that’s really the only positive I can give them. I like the idea that dungeon’s layouts are randomly generated, but that also makes the dungeons suffer as a result. For I’d say 90% of the time you’ll ever be in dungeons, the dungeon will be empty hallways with nothing going on. Visually the dungeons are diverse, but exploring them you see that that’s really the only major difference. No matter the dungeon, you’ll be going through about 10 floors of long corridors and the occasional small room until you find the stairs to the next floor. On rare occasion though there is an idea in these dungeons. One dungeon has a single floor where the light go out, another dungeon has a single floor where you get booted out if you fight an enemy. It makes those floors in particular really interesting, and I would’ve loved to see more of these. But because they’re so few and far between, the dungeons feel needlessly long and really boring.

And speaking of needlessly long, I feel the game’s pacing is ridiculously slow. And this is what I mean when I mentioned that I liked the idea of the day-to-day life. I think conceptually it’s really good, but the game does not execute it well. The game sort of has two halves, the Murder Mystery plot, and the day-to-day life. While it’s easily possible to have both, I feel as if the day-to-day life of the game is far more overwhelming than the murder mystery plot. And at least to me, the murder mystery plot is far more interesting, but it’s not able to really develop because of how much of the game’s time is focused on the day-to-day life. The murder mystery plot moves at an absolute snails pace, taking until the game’s third dungeon until you have any proper hint or clue about the nature of the murderer. And on top of it, the only real twists of the murder mystery plot are red herrings, which would be fine if there were any other interesting twists. I don’t really think the reveal of who the murderer is is interesting either, I’d honestly argue one of the red herrings has a far more interesting motivation.

And yet again I feel like I need to reiterate, I think the day-to-day life conceptually is really good. I just think there’s too much of it. Sometimes it takes over a month of in game days for the game to return to the murder mystery plot, making it feel improperly balanced. There are some great character moments in the day-to-day life sections, but there’s also some really bad moments too. I just think the game should’ve done more to balance out the time spent with the day-to-day life, and time spent with the murder mystery plot.

I think now it’s time to finally describe one of the most complicated aspects of the game, and of course the one where I have the most issue with. And believe me, I’ll be going in depth with this, explaining every single issue I have here. And this of course is about the characters. The main cast of Persona 4 has a ridiculous amount of potential, when they shine are great characters, they really are great. But outside of those great moments, they often get flanderized, or have character arcs that feel antithetical to the idea of what Persona 4 is about, which is (to me) facing the truth and becoming one’s true self. The best way I have of describing it is that these characters are victims to the game’s narrative, not being allowed to be as good as they could be. And yes, I’m gonna list the entire main cast here, and my issues with all of them.

Yosuke… I really want to like Yosuke. He’s the sort of archetypical best friend character that can really work in games like this. I think his Social Links are some of the strongest character moments in the game, but outside of the Social Links, he really suffers as a character. For a lack of a better term, he becomes a horndog, though not the worst example of one in the game (I’ll get to him later). But what makes Yosuke suffer is how blatantly homophobic in the game as well. There’s little to no acknowledgement of his homophobia. I know that there was plans for Yosuke to be a gay romance option, which would entirely recontextualize all of Yosuke’s homophobic remarks, but because the plans to make him gay were scrapped, he’s just simply homophobic.

Chie is a character that I really don’t have much to talk about. After the first dungeon her presence in the game sort of fades a bit, taking less of the spotlight than she should. She’s a character that definitely gets flanderized as the story progresses. Outside of her Social Links, she’s mainly characterized as a carnivore who’s aggressive and that’s really it. Her Social Links are pretty good, but that’s really all she gets.

I wish Yukiko was in a better game. Yukiko’s character arc had so much potential, but it all gets ruined by what the game’s narrative decides for her. Her whole arc is about being able to make choices for herself, not being trapped in tradition, being able to write her own narrative. Hell, her Shadow explicitly mentions that she doesn’t want to inherit the inn, and the Shadows are the repressed thoughts that the characters don’t want to accept. This all could lead to a really strong character arc for this character, and has potential to really say something. But then the social links for her really ruin it. It starts out great, by having her job search, and try to figure out what she wants to do in life herself. But then she fails one time to a comical degree, and after stopping a rumor TV show from making an episode about the inn she doesn’t want to inherit she then decides “well I guess it’s better if I inherit the inn!”. Which is entirely contradictory to what her whole deal with her shadow was about, and it feels like she’s sort of regressed a character.

Kanji is probably the best character in the game writing wise. Even then there are issues tied to him that I wish the game didn’t have. I really dislike how the game deals with his shadow. In particular, they characterize Kanji’s shadow as an offensively stereotypical gay man, which truth be told I don’t even know why. Kanji’s whole character arc though is about figuring out that he doesn’t have to be overly masculine, and he can still be respected if he doesn’t have masculine traits. But this constantly gets messed up by the game making him the target of not only homophobic jokes, but just a lot of jokes in general. It feels as if the narrative doesn’t respect Kanji, even though his character arc is about how he won’t be disrespected by having the interesting he does.

Rise is another character that in a better game, she would be allowed to have a proper character arc. Much like Yukiko, her character arc has ridiculous potential. She’s a celebrity who wants to get out of the job because it’s destroying her sense of self. This alone could lead to a really good arc for her character if the game allowed it. First off, once you’re done with her dungeon, she immediately becoming heavily flanderized. Basically, outside of her social links her main character trait is being attracted to the player character, and not really much else. And her Social Links are a worse version of Yukiko’s. It ends her with going back into stardom, but the social links also noticeably guilt trip her into doing so. There’s multiple times where the game basically tells Rise “think about how sad the fans will be!!!”, and convinces her to not prioritize her own wellbeing. It’s a really bad conclusion for this character.

How has Teddie not been imprisoned for Sexual Harassment? While I say that somewhat jokingly, that is also the innate issue with Teddie as a character. He is the ultimate horndog, constantly trying to get women in revealing clothing, constantly flirting with women, and overall purposefully causing problems for others. There’s a scene during the Summer Vacation where Teddie actively tries to forcibly undress the female characters, and he gets zero comeuppance for it. I have to ask, am I supposed to find this endearing? I can’t help but hate Teddie because of the actions that he continues to do throughout the game. And his social links are at least interesting in the vein of him trying to find out who he is and what his identity is, but I couldn’t bring myself to care much about him because of how perverted he is.

And probably the most complicated character of the game is Naoto. Naoto has a similar situation to Rise and Yukiko, where Naoto’s character accepts something he doesn’t want, than try to become his true self. And in the case of Naoto, it’s far worse. It feels safe to me that Naoto’s character arc is completely transphobic just down to its core. The game so clearly lays out that Naoto has gender dysphoria. The fact that Naoto’s ideal detective, and which to him would be his ideal self is a man I think lays out enough. And I have to question why exactly they chose to go down the route for Naoto? They could’ve easily just examined how people don’t respect him for being a child detective, as he’s not an adult and there would be an interesting character arc with that alone. Adding all of the transphobia there is just, really gross.

And that’s really a problem that Persona 4 faces with these character arcs. The game feels like it’s unable to actually say that these characters should embrace their true selves, and if they do (in the case of Kanji) they noticeably suffer because of it. It feels like Persona 4’s message isn’t to accept your true self, but to resign yourself to the bad parts of life, and don’t try to change things. And if you do try to change, be prepared to be ridiculed. Character arcs like Yukiko, Rise, and Naoto all suffer from this, and it makes me wish they were in a game with a narrative that properly allowed them to grow.

There’s also a lot of other characters that I haven’t interacted with. There’s a social link for every single major arcana in a Tarot Deck, and aside from 2 of them, they’re all tied to unique characters. I primarily focused solely on the investigation team, so there’s a good number of characters I simply never met. I bring this up to acknowledge that there may be some amazing character arcs I’ve never seen, or some potentially horrendous ones. But with how much I dislike the character writing of the main cast, I wouldn’t be surprised if the writing is fumbled for other characters as well.

And I’m still not done examining this game’s story. When it comes to the shadows of these characters, primarily Kanji’s and Rise’s, I really have to ask, why are they as sexualized as they are? Even in the case of Rise, it doesn’t really fit with the arcs that these characters go through, or the truths about themselves that they’re too afraid to admit. Especially in the case of Kanji, whose whole arc is about being okay with not hiding his interests if they’re not masculine. The sexualization of their shadows don’t really provide any substance to the arcs, and feels like the game is being sexual for the sake of being sexual and nothing more. Adding the fact that the ages of these characters range between 15-16, it’s really gross.

And outside of the shadows, the game still has this issue to some extent, but tries to hide it under the guise of comedy. Which at least me, makes it even worse. I already expressed one of those moments when talking about Teddie, and to some extent, I think Yosuke’s homophobic remarks are intended to be comedy as well which is… weird to say the least. There’s just so many moments like this that I not only just find unfunny, but I have to ask why this is here in the first place. It makes characters like Yosuke and ESPECIALLY Teddie extremely unlikeable. And there’s no way to avoid these sections either. The game gives you the illusion of choice, having a dialogue option where you’re reasonable but the game still drags you into these scenes. These scenes really take away from the actually good character moments that happen during the game, and it’s really disappointing.

And Persona 4 has so much potential to do a lot more I feel. Playing the game again, the actual concept of The Midnight Channel and its connection to the Murder Mystery plot feels severely underutilized. There are some characters who speak rumors and such, but aside from the occasional mention, there’s nothing that comes from it. But there’s a whole lot of potential there! The idea that murder victims appear on TV before they get murdered, there could be an examination of the voyeuristic nature that comes from it. People are already voyeuristic about crimes that occur in real life thanks to True Crime channels, that idea could be examined here, too. They could delve further into the rumors brought about by the Midnight Channel, or they could examine how those who survive are affected socially with what’s seen on the Midnight Channel. There’s so much potential that’s simple not there, and it’s really disappointing. And I think that’s what bothers me a lot about Persona 4, it has the potential to say a lot, but it ends up saying very little.

At this point I’m just glad I never have to touch Persona 4 again. I can see the aspects of the game that people like so much about it, but there’s so much I dislike, and so much wasted potential that I simply can’t ignore. Yet again, I feel insane for disliking this game as much as I do, when I see constant praise for it. I wish the character writing was better, I wish the dungeon design was better, and I wish the game actually allowed its characters the growth they deserve. I do hope that I’ll have time to play the other Persona games, I honestly think I’ll enjoy them much more than I did Persona 4. I’m honestly just glad to be done with this game for good.

This is my first foray into Star Ocean, I’ve never really seen much of the series before, and only with the likes of this game did I finally give it a try. I had an absolute great time playing it, I don’t play many Action RPGs, so when I finally get around to playing a good one, it feels great. There’s really a lot that I adore about this game, and a lot that I think is really strong about it, though as I’ll describe later one, I feel as if this game has one major flaw to it. Star Ocean: The Second Story R is an amazing game, though at least to me, there’s one aspect that keeps me from loving it as much as I could.

First off, I really like the idea of having two protagonists you can start out with, and for reference, I chose to play as Rena. With how the game structures itself, the character you start out with will have unique story moments. I really like this idea, especially as there could be some aspects of the world left unexplained in one storyline, answered in the other, and vice versa. If anything, I wish this happened more. Aside from a couple cutscenes, it felt like there were only 2 or 3 moments where these characters were separated, it’d be nice to have some more moments like this. Especially in the second half of the game, where it seems to happen even less so.

The game’s combat is excellent, though then again I’m sucker for Action RPGs like this. I love fighting around in arenas, absolutely combo-ing enemies. And with how you can break enemy shields after dealing enough damage, it’s even more satisfying. I tend to play as the more fast paced melee characters in action RPGs, and Rena isn’t exactly that I’ll be honest. Rena has melee options, and for most of the game they’re really good because melee in general is ridiculously powerful. But spells as well are really good I find, especially Rena, who seems to be the only character who can heal allies. Though I’ll be honest that’s also where a lot of the difficulty I had through the game came from, I forgot I was the healer, and I forgot to heal my allies. I also really like the Assault Actions, though it’s another mechanic that I rarely used. Being able to summon your allies to help in battle is really fun, though I mainly used it either once an enemy’s shield was broken, or to help break an enemy’s shield. The combat still is amazing, and with how fast most battles end, they’re always a rush.

I found that some bosses fluctuated in difficulty until around the last leg of the game. That last leg of the game is a proper challenge, but everything before then fluctuates from easy to hard. One boss that I don’t particularly like is the one where it’s a stationary, but attacks only with revenge damage. The thing is, that revenge damage is guaranteed to do half your allies’ health, even if they’re at the maximum total. It took me a couple tries, but I eventually figured out a strategy to beat it, and that strategy was to just completely overwhelm it with damage, and I still needed to heal multiple times. I think that boss is what allowed me to beat every following boss in the story, as I planned better, used everything I had at my disposal, and used spells a lot more, which I didn’t do as much. Most boss fights that were difficult were ones that had multiple enemies in it at the same time, but that’s probably an issue I had.

I also adore how much you can upgrade your characters in this game. If anything, I do wish it was easier to obtain the points required to upgrade these skills though, as some skills have heavy point costs. Even then, there’s so much you can upgrade. You can upgrade character skills, which can increase stats, or allow characters to gain new skills. These skills can introduce modifiers to help in certain ways, introduce crafting systems, or open up new mechanics like fishing. There’s also Battle Skills which give stats boosts during battle, or modify how your characters acts during battle which is really good. And you can also simply upgrade your in-battle attacks, though those can only be upgraded once or twice. The level of upgradability is really nice, especially as it can help build characters in some way.

And I mentioned it in the previous paragraph, but some of the modifiers you can get while playing this game are absolutely absurd. Particularly, Train, Enlightenment, and Bodyguard. Train sacrifices a percentage of a character’s stats for an equivalent percentage boost to their EXP yield. This in turn is already great. Enlightenment sacrifices a percentage of money you gain after a battle for an equivalent percentage boost to the Skill Point yield. These two modifiers combined are already spectacular, and they help so well in the early game grind. But what makes things far crazier is Bodyguard. Bodyguard is an overworld modifier that gives aa chance for one of your allies to run over to a weak enemy and instantly kill it, instantly giving you the EXP yield without having to fight. This simply means that if you’re in an area of exclusively weaker enemies, you never have to fight a battle and you can still gain levels. It’s absolutely absurd how convenient and time saving not having to grind this much actually is. Though I will say, I don’t want every game to feature this sort of system, especially with how early on you can feasibly obtain Bodyguard. While I appreciate how convenient this all is, sometimes I’m fine with things not being heavily convenient like this. It just feels like it removes a whole lot of the challenge, if that makes any sense.

The story of Star Ocean The Second Story R is rather interesting I’d say. First things first, I really like the setting and the characters. I really like this sort of blend of Fantasy and Sci-Fi, having a couple of characters who are Sci-Fi characters, but trapped on this alien planet that’s more fantasy in design. It’s a really interesting and fun blend of the two. It really feels like two worlds combining into each other. And as well I really love the character writing. Aside from the main two, the main cast of characters you can add to your party aren’t anything too complex, but they’re really fun. While I got a full party of 8, the main characters I used throughout the game are Rena, Celine, Precis, and Welch, so those were the characters I got most attached to. I also really like the idea of the 99 potential endings of the game. It’s not entirely accurate to say that the game has 99 endings, there’s really only 1 actual ending. Those 99 endings are little character endings, that describe what the characters are up to after the events of the game. It’s a fun way to incentivize playing the game again, especially if you want to play the opposite protagonist’s route. Though I will say, I don’t see myself replaying the game so many times in order to not unlock unlock every character, but to see every single ending. But what I will say is that the game’s main ending itself is really interesting, and rather dark as well.

And that brings me to that one fatal flaw that I mentioned all the way back in the introductory paragraph, that being the pacing of the game’s story. For a game such as this, the pacing is ridiculously fast. This is most prominent in the second act of the game, where it feels like there’s very little time to breathe until you’re in another dungeon, fighting another boss. Especially with the major character revelations that happen during the second of the game, I never felt like I was able to fully process what was revealed, and I was suddenly brought into another dungeon. Some of these revelations are extremely drastic too, which makes the little time to digest the information all the more jarring. The biggest moment of this is the ending of the game itself, aside from those little character epilogues, the game just ends. There’s no real moment to see what happens after that final moment. I think if the game allowed itself to be slow in that second act, it would be a lot better paced, and fix a lot of issues I had with the story, though that’s just me.

Pacing issues aside, I really enjoyed playing Star Ocean The Second Story R. Action RPGs are still really good to me, and it felt so good fighting battles in this game. There didn’t seem to be too many music tracks, but they’re also really good music tracks so I don’t mind too much. And I really love the characters of this game, and when the story is good, it’s really good. Even though it’s not a perfect game, I still do recommend it, it does a lot right, and it’s a really fun action RPG. I’m unsure if this game particularly was the best entry point for me to get into Star Ocean, but it definitely hooked me in, and I plan to play more of this series.

I couldn’t help myself, I needed to replay Signalis. It hasn’t even been a whole year since I first played it, but it’s always lingering in the back of my mind. Without a doubt, it’s my favorite horror game, and one of my favorite games EVER. After experiencing other horror titles, especially Silent Hill 2 and 3, I really wanted to revisit Signalis just to experience things all over again. And even still, it’s still as amazing as it was prior.

One of Signalis’ immediate strengths is its aesthetics. It’s easy to compare it to the likes of PS1 survival horror entries, the original Silent Hill and Resident Evils 1 through 3 come to mind. While that comparison is true, it doesn’t feel 1-1 with PS1 graphics, somewhat of a modernized version of PS1 graphics, if that makes any sense. Having the key elements of how PS1 games look, but not being limited by the limitations that PS1 games had to abide by. As well, I absolutely love how the environments of the games look. I absolutely love the mix of futuristic buildings combined with a sort of natural rot. It’s this blend of artificial and organic creating a unique horror environment that I don’t see much elsewhere.

As well, the game’s atmosphere is amazing. One thing that really sells me with Horror in general is atmosphere, especially the ambience. The droning sounds of machinery, the pulsating sounds of flesh, or the echoes of empty halls. A strong atmosphere really strengthens a game, and Signalis’ atmosphere is amazing. The ambiance is amazing, but when an enemy targets you and it plays the combat track, it’s amazing. I just absolutely love Signalis’ OST. Some tracks are amazing ambient tracks, but some tracks just are, to me at least, complete earworms. The first that immediately comes to mind in this regard is Cigarette Wife. And as well, the harsh sounds of most of the game’s OST makes when the game is calm, playing more classical tracks, hit so much harder.

What makes the game so interesting to me is the ridiculously small inventory space. You only have 6 inventory slots ever. Your inventory never upgrades, from beginning to end you have 6 inventory slots. And while it caused me a little frustration while playing it, having this small of an inventory system is absolutely genius. Think about it for a second. Typically in most games, you’ll want to have extra ammo, multiple weapons, healing items, all because they’re important. But that takes up the majority of your inventory slots, meaning you’ll only be able to get 1, maybe 2 items. And there’s very few locations where you can store items, which means if your inventory is full, you have to go all the way back to store whatever items you got. It creates a need to store some items that would be extremely helpful in order to grab more items to help progress through the game. And on top of that, since you have less items to protect yourself, the game is in turn, more dangerous, more terrifying. This inventory system is absolutely genius in strengthening the horror.

As well, one aspect of the inventory that I only figured out upon replaying the game is how holding ammo, or any stackable item works. Simply put, you can’t have multiple slots of the same item. So for example, pistol ammo stacks up to 20 total. Alongside the 10 ammo loaded into the Pistol, you can only ever hold a maximum of 30 Pistol Ammo. And of course, this total only goes down for even stronger weapons. So even then, the game limits how many resources you can hold at a time, making things even more tense, which I think is absolutely genius.

One aspect that I completely adore in Survival Horror games are the puzzles. I mention this so many times, but when a game requires me to write down information to solve puzzles, I love the game even more. Even though I’ve played this game before I wrote down a full page worth of notes about puzzles in this game. I think that’s just a showcase of how well designed some of the puzzles in this game just are. As well, being able to solve these puzzles myself felt really good. Some of the puzzles that I loved figuring out were tied to the radio, as those especially aren’t as obvious as other puzzles in how they’re solved.

And one of the most important aspects of Signalis I believe is the game’s story. In my previous review of the game, I described my confusion with the game’s story. But that was my initial review, I’ve had nearly a full year to linger on it, and I’ve come to my own satisfying conclusion. Though with that being said, I can’t bring myself to mention specific details here. In one degree, I don’t want to spoil the game for anyone, I think this game is best experienced with as little knowledge as possible. But as well, I feel like this game is more impactful if you’re able to have your own interpretations on what happens in the game, and what it all means. I really love the story of Signalis, and there’s so many aspects of it that I love to examine, but I think it best to experience it for yourself, and not have me preach it to you. What I will say though is that the game has an absolutely genius moment that occurs as a transition between the second and third act, and I wonder how many people were deceived by it.

Even now, after all of the games I’ve played since then, Signalis is one of my favorite videogames of all time, and it’s probably my favorite horror game. There’s so much to it that appeals to me, and there’s so much that’s absolutely genius. While I was uncertain about how I viewed it after my first time beating it, having it linger in the back of my mind, and finally replaying it after all this time, I feel like Signalis is a perfect videogame.

I had never heard of Another Code, or its sequel until Recollection was announced only a couple of months ago. The trailer alone though completely sold me, I’m a massive fun of puzzle games, and I was really intrigued by this one. While I could’ve played the original versions of the two games, I chose to wait for this to release, just cause. And honestly, I really loved playing this game. While it is a collection of two games, it feels like it neatly connects the two together, into one complete whole. As well, it’s just really nice, filled with charm and this inexplicable cozy feeling.

When it comes to the actual puzzles of Another Code Recollection, I find them super charming. Most of them, if not a large majority of them are really simple, but I still get that little bit of satisfaction from solving puzzles, even if they’re extremely simple. As well, when the puzzles become even the slightest more complex, they’re really fun. This is definitely seen more in the second half of the game, though it still has the issue of a lot of them being rather simple. There are some mechanics, especially with the DAS that I wish was used at least a little more often, sometimes only being used once in the entire game. The only puzzle mechanic that seems to repeat over time are motion-control puzzles which are really fun, but I am a bit glad they still used it quite minimally. I feel like I would’ve been a bit tired if they were way more apparent. But still, while I do wish the game had more puzzles, the puzzles in the game are still really fun.

The story of Another Code Recollection is interesting. I’ve heard that the first half of the game is basically a faithful adaptation of the DS game, while the second half notably diverges from the Wii game. It bears repeating again that I’ve never played the original titles, I mention it again so it’s known I can’t really compare the two together. I really love the story though, especially the second half’s. Another Code’s story is all about memory, and what it means to remember, forget, to learn, and to be remembered. It’s all about the nature of memories and how it all connects to life, and the human experience. And it’s also the story about growing up in a family that’s far from perfect. The lack of a parental figure, having a complicated relationship with your family, but also learning to love even the imperfections of your family. The story of Another Code is very heartfelt, and while it never goes too complex, it’s still able to really pull at the heartstrings.

And how it’s able to do that is through the characters of the game. Ashley is an amazing protagonist throughout both halves of the game. The dynamic between her and her father is excellent, I rarely see the dynamic between them in other media. And so many side characters are amazing. The entire interconnected story of the Edwards Family, and every single person you meet at Lake Juliet. The characters are all nice and really charming, and each interaction is just really fun.

And yet again, there’s something about the game that I just find really cozy. It may just be the vibes I get, the Another Code games were released around the time I started playing games, so it has that same general feel that those games have. I was particularly reminded of 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, but that’s also mainly because that’s another DS Puzzle game. But I think one aspect of why this game is as cozy to me are the environments. One thing I do know that’s a difference between the recollection and the original games is that you couldn’t physically walk around in the environments. And I think that’s what really makes it cozy for me. The game areas are large, and even when running it takes a while to get from place to place. Because of that you’re really able to take in the sights and sort of be immersed in some regard. A beautiful forest, an old mansion, a lake resort, the environments, even the ones that are meant to be unsettling, are really cozy.

For me at least, it’s hard to get a full grasp on how to review this game in particular. It’s a remake, and to review a remake properly, you should at least have some information on the original titles. In this case, I simply don’t, which is my fault for sure. Even then, I still really loved this game, the characters, the story, and how cozy this game was was really nice. I’m not sure if this is the version I’d recommend, mainly because I haven’t compared it to the original versions, but this still is an amazing game that I’m glad was able to release. I won’t forget this game, I’m glad I was able to play it.

Hylics is a game I don’t know how well to describe. I mean, it’s an RPG, but its such a surreal experience that I don’t know how best to describe. Mechanically speaking, Hylics isn’t too complex, but it has some really interesting ideas that I really like. But I think what I enjoy most about Hylics is how mesmerizingly surreal the game is from beginning to end.
Combat wise, Hylics is your standard turn based RPG, there’s no better way to describe it. But there are some aspects of combat that I find really interesting. First and foremost, there technically isn’t grinding. Enemies are static encounters, and never respawn once you beat them. You also don’t gain experience from combat encounters, so the only way to increase your stats (aside from health and MP) is through equipment. While that would seemingly make combat encounters pointless, a majority of fights drop meat, an item which can be used to increase the health of each character. As well since you don’t gain levels throughout the game, the spells the characters learn are gained through interacting with televisions that appear throughout the world. Another thing is that there really isn’t much lost when losing a battle, unless you use items. While a minor inconvenience because you’ll have to walk at least a little bit to get back to where you were when you died, it solves a frustration I have when playing RPGs, where it sends you back to the title screen once you game over. While the general combat of the game is simple, the elements around it are really interesting.
As well, I really find the general order of events in Hylics really interesting. I use “order of events” because I’m really uncertain what the narrative of Hylics is. While that sounds like a bad thing, the surreal nature of it makes me really like it. That aside, the order of events seen in Hylics feels like the game is able to condense the entirety of a classic RPG storyline into a 2-3 hour experience. It’s primarily because it’s my favorite, but the order of events in Hylics really reminds me of Final Fantasy IV, though that might not be intentional, it may just be me making a connection that wasn’t really there.
And while I’ve mentioned it in passing multiple times before, but I love how surreal Hylics really is. A majority of text is randomly generated, not only meaning that each individual playthrough is unique (in this regard), but it makes the world feel alien, and I love that sort of feeling. It’s like peering into a world not of your own, but everything seems natural except to you. And the aesthetic of the game is so fitting for a game such as this. The clay molding and shifting, melting, reforming, creating unnatural shapes that the player does not understand. That alongside certain attack animations that use real footage, such as eyes or explosions. The aesthetic of Hylics is gorgeous, and it fits so well in this surreal, somewhat alien world, and I absolutely adore it. This as well is paired with some amazing music that yet again fits well with the general vibe of the game.
Hylics isn’t a long game at all, as I previously mentioned it’s about 2-3 hours in length. And it’s able to do so much in that time. Aesthetically it’s gorgeous, and I love how surreal the world is. I love exploring around the environment, and just taking in the sights. I think the only thing I’d like to see is a more fleshed out combat system, but that’s really it. I still really enjoyed Hylics, and I really should get to its sequel at some point.