I actually beat this game a while ago, but I've been really struggling to put what I liked about it into words.

So I'll keep it as simple as I can:

- The environments are gorgeous and far more varied than the first 5 or so hours will lead you to believe.

- The characters are—far and away—the best written and most interesting in Bethesda's entire library.

- The combat feels great. The stiffness of Fallout gunplay is a thing of the past, and Starfield's unique twists on encounters are often subtle but deeply appreciated.

- The creative freedom in character customization (and everything great that entails) as well as ship building remained rewarding through my entire experience.

- As everyone will tell you, NG+ is extremely clever, and I'd argue it's almost worth the price of admission in and of itself.

As someone who has never liked Fallout, I had so many worries about Starfield. It has its rough edges, but overall, I'm extremely impressed with what Bethesda built here. It's just a great time.

Stunning in every sense of the word.

While the tutorial feels a bit slow, the game finds its footing as soon as you hit your first boss, where every mechanic clicks into place, and it rapidly becomes something very, very special.

Sea of Stars is not only fun to play, not only perfectly streamlined, but it also has the best visuals and OST of any game released this year.

The sensory experience of this game is something I have a hard time expressing: every screen is a work of art; every track in the OST is so energetic; the characters are well-written and expressive. It all comes together to create a warm, heartfelt, comfortable hug of an RPG for all 30+ hours it'll take to reach the end.

Sea of Stars tackles every idea with supreme confidence and execution. While the narrative is mostly straightforward, the characters, their motivations, and their relationships with each other will kick down the door of your heart without hesitation. The combat is a perfectly crafted puzzle that rapidly becomes second nature even as it grows more complex throughout the game. It even has a fun mini-game to play in the town taverns.

Everyone is spending this year talking about the wealth of AAA RPGs that are releasing, but even more prominently, 2023 is such a huge year for indie RPGs. With the addition of Sea of Stars, they only continue to populate my favorite games of the year.

Please play this game.

Exactly what it says on the tin.

It's just a short, sweet little indie adventure with a few really good jokes and a simple, beautiful OST.

A swell way to spend 2 hours.

I've finally finished all of the main content (all unlocks, not secrets), and I genuinely don't know how I feel.

On one hand, I put a lot of time into Vamoire Survivors across many months. On the other hand, I uninstalled it immediately after finishing it and felt nearly nothing.

It's got a cool hook, and I appreciate everything it does, but I also think I somewhat resent the lack of "gameplay" in that, once you reach the point where you understand the item combinations and the flow of the game, it's nearly impossible to lose on most attempts.

I understand why everyone loves Vampire Survivors, and I can't say I didn't have fun, but I also don't know if I actually liked the time I spent with it.

I don't know how much I can say about Chicory that others haven't already said, so I'll keep it short.

Chicory is a warm, beautiful meditation on art, acceptance, and imposter syndrome all with a backdrop of a stunning OST and an immaculate art direction.

It never shies away from the heavier parts of its message, and it never makes the player feel guilty for taking as much time as they want to explore and color in the world.

I also have to note that it has a great deal of extremely heartwarming. considerate queer representation that brought tears to my eye more than once.

Please play Chicory. It deserves all of its praise.

(I'm only reviewing the main game. I have not played the post-game content.)

Tales of Vesperia is only my second Tales game, and the other one I've played (Arise) is an all-time favorite for me, so my expectations were probably too high.

Even then, Vesperia met them. It doesn't reach the same emotional, gameplay, and character heights of its successor, but Tales of Vesperia has the most important quality that an RPG can have—It has something to say.

While the gameplay is a bit dated due to its age, the storytelling aspects of Vesperia hold up astoundingly well to modern scrutiny, leading to a stellar fantasy experience with its own opinions on: the definition of justice, the use of fossil fuels, WMDs, and even finding community in spite of society.

This is a game that is unafraid to take stances, and it's unafraid to interrogate what the characters think, which—after playing both Vesperia and Arise—seems to be this series' major strength. There is a devoted love of its own characters, especially with the conversations and skits outside of major plot moments, that adds a necessary depth to certain interactions that might otherwise come across as shallow.

Playing in 2023, I can't help but take half a point off because I know how good the gameplay and combat will eventually get, but otherwise, Tales of Vesperia is the platonic ideal of an RPG: it takes cues from its contemporaries, focuses on its ensemble cast, earns the weight of its storytelling, and most importantly, it has messages to deliver.

I cannot recommend this game enough, and it still impresses to this day.

Exoprimal is more fun than it has any right to be, frankly. The core loop is fun, the game runs shockingly well, the presentation is great, and the monetization doesn't seem too intrusive.

Some caveats:

- The production level is very high, but a multiplayer-only game like this shouldn't be full price, so definitely enjoy this one through Game Pass if you can.
- The game mode and map variety currently leaves a bit to be desired.

Overall, Exoprimal is fun, and I recommend trying it for yourself because it seems to be cool thing to be mad at online right now.

I've been putting off this review for 2+ weeks because I simply cannot put all of my thoughts about Cassette Beasts in order. As such, I'm just going to break it all down into different pieces.

The Vibe: While there are many, many monster taming games out there—especially in recent years, as the Pokémon Outrage Machine (tm) continues to roll on—it's generally agreed upon that the most successful ones (Pokémon, Dragon Quest Monsters, etc.) capture a very specific sense of adventure, wonder, and self-expression. Cassette Beasts delivers on that in spades. Between Metroidvania-esque overworld abilities, character creation, 100+ exciting monsters, and an energy I can only describe via the 3rd generation of Pokémon, the excitement sets in from the moment the game begins.

Characters/Writing: The greatest compliment I can give Cassette Beasts is that the writing—both in terms of characters and flavor text—is undeniably clever and charming. It immediately introduces an adult-oriented tone, with actual thought and stakes behind everything happening, without ever stepping into the all-too-familiar self-depricating or edgy territory of lesser games. Cassette Beasts proudly declares "Our characters are adults, with adult feelings and adult problems" while tactfully avoiding becoming an Adult Swim parody of the genre it's living in.

Mechanics: This is probably the simplest talking point. Anything you could want from a monster taming game is here—a focus on weaknesses, evolution, capturing a whole horde of creatures, etc., and Cassette Beasts handles those things with complete confidence. Where it becomes its own game, however, is in its unique mechanics and how it layers them, creating a tactically-interesting and, oftentimes, genuinely difficult experience that requires the player to be present and pay attention to every battle.

Narrative: As I've already mentioned, the fact that the writing and world take themselves seriously goes a long way toward making the story enticing. The world building is handled exceptionally well and the overall narrative is a fun, creative, thought-provoking ride that ends with a few well-earned messages and morals.

Presentation: There's not much to say here other than that the music, artstyle, and SFX are stellar. The developers obviously had a well-defined stylistic approach, and they absolutely nailed every aspect of it.

Representation: This is the big one, my friends. This is the aspect that took a great game into a must-play into my favorite game of 2023 so far. The gender, sexuality, and racial representation in Cassette Beasts is among the best handled I've seen in the entire medium. At no point do any of those things become spectacles, at no point does a "wait, what???? You're GAY?!?!?" dialogue option appear. Every character just exists and are given the absolute freedom to just exist, with representational aspects coming up when relevant, in passing, or in even more subtle ways like a decoration in a character's house. They're written like real people, and they're given the respect of real people, especially in the relationship building aspect of the game. When you create your character at the beginning of the game (or change it at any point throughout) the pronouns you choose are represented appropriately in conversations, are never questioned, and are embraced completely by the writing. There are one-on-one moments with characters that are so heartfelt and validating in a way I've never seen in a video game before, especially not toward a player-created avatar. This is a difficult thing to describe without having experienced it, but believe me when I say that Cassette Beasts is inclusive in the purist way—by wanting players to feel represented, to see themselves in characters, and to be themselves among those characters. It's a truly incredible thing, and to me, it's the new standard for the medium.

In case it wasn't already obvious, I think Cassette Beasts is a miracle. It does what every newcomer to a genre should: it takes enough influence from its predecessors to know what works while also doing enough new that it becomes its own fresh, unique piece of art. This is my favorite game of 2023 so far, and it's permanently placed Bytten Studio on my radar. I can't wait to see what they do next.

At this point, I think it goes without saying that The Witcher 3 is one of THE great RPGs of our time.

I'm currently doing my first ever replay of this game (my first time was in 2020), and it really hasn't aged a day. The enhanced visuals and framerate are just extra polish on an already-brilliant work.

I never agreed with how others felt about the combat, and my current playthrough (on the hardest difficulty) only confirms that the combat in The Witcher 3, like most action games, shines brightest on high difficulties. The game truly encourages you to use every possible mechanic in every single encounter, making even random points of interest thrilling and challenging.

If you haven't played this game, it's on sale constantly, so you really, really should.

While Soul Hackers 2 doesn't reach the heights of the best the SMT franchise has to offer, I still think it has a lot going for it.

To address some shortcomings, I'll point out what many have: the dungeon designs are pretty bare bones. They have a lot of good ideas in the functionality therein, but when a game like Persona 5 has already perfected RPG dungeons, it's tough to endure something so seemingly uninspired in comparison. This applies doubly to the Soul Matrix—the game's main optional dungeon—which has some interesting structural ideas but is ultimately kind of a slog (although, the rewards for progressing it, which I'll address shortly, do kind of help).

On a lesser note, the overall narrative, while certainly good, has some severe pacing issues. It's very strong and driving at the beginning, absolutely thrilling near the end, but it struggles to find its footing in the middle sections of the game.

Now, for the positive: The excellent SMT combat is all here, taking some clear inspiration from more recent entries in the franchise and making it a relatively smooth—but more punishing than Persona—experience, which subsequently makes boss fights feel extremely rewarding.

The highlight of Soul Hackers 2, beyond any doubt, is the core cast of characters. To me, it's very obvious that making sure the characters, the performances, their motivations, and their growth (both together and individually) was the primary narrative focus in the development of this game. While the plot occasionally stumbles, character motivations and interactions are always crystal clear and intentional, allowing what would be otherwise trite or uninteresting story beats to feel genuine and heartfelt, including the emotionally-charged finale.

Soul Hackers 2 won't be for everyone, and honestly, I'm not shocked so many people fell off it, but at the end of the day, it's a good game. It goes for a specific vibe and nails it. It cares about its characters, and by the final act, it seems to actually have something very real to say about grief, communication, and human understanding.

If you have access to Game Pass, give it a fair shake.

Here we have yet another successful venture in the Voice of Cards series, featuring all the telltale charm from the first entry, as well as some improvements in the presentation and quality of life features.

While "The Forsaken Maiden" lacks the stellar pacing of "The Isle Dragon Roars", it instead focuses on its characters and refines its mechanics, leading to a genuinely thrilling and heartfelt third act that feels earned in every sense.

As always, Yoko Taro's projects hit a very specific, beloved part of my brain. I can't wait to eventually tackle the next Voice of Cards entry when I get the chance.

I'm not done with Redfall yet, but I do intend to finish it.

I feel the need to get out in front of the exaggerated responses this game is getting. It is not unfinished, bad, or some sign of Arkane or Microsoft failing.

Redfall is totally fine. It's not the most inspired game in the world, it has some technical issues that can easily be fixed in a future update, but it's stable, the gameplay loop is fun enough, and the game looks pretty good.

Some games can just be middle of the road. That's okay. The exaggeration does nothing for anyone, and I don't know why we all fall for it every time a game is less than a 10/10.

Things I like so far: The gunplay is good with some adjusting in the controls (i recommend increasing the controller delay and the sensitivity to tighten up the aiming), the loop is familiar but cleanly executed, the player characters are surprisingly fleshed out,, and I find the constant need to swap weapons for different enemies as thrilling as ever.

Give Redfall a try for yourself. The hot takes are exaggerated, and with a game this readily available, why take some random Twitter blue check at their word?

A worthy companion piece to one of the greatest games of all time.

It's not the best feeling Warriors game they've ever made, and its gameplay loop is pretty slimmed down and simplified compared to both Persona 5 and later Warriors games, but the vibes? Perfect. The writing? On nearly the same level as Persona 5. The story? Better than it has any right to be.

Persona 5 is a game that should be impossible to create any sort of sequel or epilogue for, and yet, Omega Force actually made it work, made it feel natural, and made it a worthwhile new adventure with one of the greatest JRPG casts.

One note: Unless you REALLY like the mechanics, most people will probably have more fun with this game by playing on easy. It eventually balances out on normal, but the beginning of the game can feel needlessly punishing in moments.