I don't envy anyone who has to develop a new installment in a popular, on-going franchise with a passionate fanbase. But I personally believe in the philosophy that "less is more," and in the case of PERSONA 5 ROYAL, Atlus went all in on MORE, to the detriment of a great core concept and strong JRPG gameplay.

Compared to PERSONA 4 GOLDEN, my franchise entry point, P5R offers a longer story, larger cast, actual dungeons with intricate designs, a sizeable overworld, expansive amounts of confidants to befriend, dozens of activities to maximize stats, and an entire RNG mini-dungeon mode for loot grinding. P5R never leaves you bored, but for me, it often left me frustrated at how all this content is so poorly paced or optimized that the size of it all starts to feel less like a wealth of options and instead it feels like bloat.

The chief culprit is the narrative, which shows its best hand in the opening episode and never reaches that height again. The Komishida arc has such high stakes, an intense ethical conflict, and conveys it all through a unique dungeon, that the rest of the game's enemies and heists almost feel tame as a result. It also doesn't help that as the game goes on, it frequently throws up inconsistencies in tone that undercut a lot of the emotion it's so desperately trying to mine.

As this all plods on, the narrative structure gets SUPER tiring. P5R is eager to tell you everything at every moment. The flash-forward cutscenes tell you who the next bad guys are, the visual novel conversation scenes keep reminding you of the stakes and the rules, the CONSTANT in-game text message chains between you and your party keep hammering out the same points over and over. It's no surprise I'm bringing up INCEPTION, which P5R has a lot in common with: Not just its concept of altering one's cognition by invading their minds, but also the fact that the cast never stops dropping exposition, even into the climax of the story.

The turn based combat rules. Baton passing is an ingenious concept. I love the new elemental types and I think there are some fights in here that just go buck-wild once you get a good system of attacks and buffs into a rhythm. The system wherein you "hold up" defeated enemies at gun point to rob them is an ingenious mechanic, and it shows a lot of commitment towards making sure the stylistic and thematic ideas of the game make their way into the gameplay.

On the social simulation side, I enjoyed the new means of buffering your stats: Watching DVDs and reading books to get better skills, being able to work out or meditate to increase HP and SP. The one downside is that the game offers you so many ways to increase your social skills that I never bothered to get a part time job like I had to in P4G. There was no point in my mind: In-Game battles leave you drowning in cash, and playing an NES game will get my kindness up, so why the hell should I serve coffee? TOO MANY SYSTEMS at the expense of others, IMO. Additionally, once certain stats are maxed, activities like Baseball or Fishing just seem fruitless. Wish there had been more incentive to keep going with all of the activities.

There are winners and losers amongst the Confidants and they make the bulk of the side-content worth exploring. But the big anchor around the neck of the side quest system is how a majority of them are tied into Mementos, the RNG overworld mini-dungeon. I truly disliked how you would get text messages about people you've never met having problems, go find the correct RNG floor with the side quest boss, beat it, and then get a text message going "Good job, that person is happy now!" It's so impersonal and boring, despite the game's efforts to add emotional weight to every instance. A more intimate side-quest system where you actually meet the people you're helping would've felt more satisfying.

The amount of critical acclaim P5R gets ultimately puzzles me, but I guess sometimes "more is more." It's certainly one of the most captivating games in terms of design and UI aesthetics; but the ROYAL content feels very shoe-horned in, less like a meaningful extra chapter, and more like an awkward re-do of the first ending (and IMO, the two "endings" going back to back really reveal that they should've just picked one, as Maruki's plan is just the original threat, with extra steps).

I spent 82 hours on this, and I know others have spent hundreds. It's not a bad game, not by a long shot, and for your purchasing value, it's certainly something that will give you your money's worth. But I also think it's a game that's too long and unwieldy for its own good. It’s fitting, considering that the mark of an expert thief is ensuring a mark is so distracted that they never realize they're being robbed.

I love, in no particular order: 3rd person shooters, objective control modes, horde modes, co-op with friends, collectathons, strong satirical tone, great atmosphere, orchestral music, and destroying bugs. HELLDIVERS 2 gives me all of these things, in one package, and with such strong design and atmosphere choices, that's it's hard for me to think of the last time a game spoiled me so lavishly.

It sucks that it's basically unplayable as a single-player experience, but with friends this is one of the most fun gaming experiences I've had in some time. My greatest fear is that they'll fuck up the long term rollout of content and this will turn into a graveyard. But for now: LET FREEDOM RING!

I think this is my favorite implementation of the 2D Zelda formula to date, even if it's a bit easy to complete and short in duration.

Giving Link a Souls-Dodge-Roll and a wide, 180 degree sword swing makes combat a lot more accessible and strategic than LTTP or the other handheld 2D adventures. I got into some tough-ass fights which felt thrilling, especially toward the endgame. The dungeons can vary between "slightly difficult" and "a cakewalk," but the overworld itself has a lot of tricks up its sleeve that encourage you to think critically as you try to get from one plot beat to another.

I was there when the internet went up in arms over "Celda," but I think it's hilarious that not only has the Toon Link visual style prevailed, but that it probably looks the BEST in the 2D top down format. Even under the pixelated constraints of the GBA, this has a wonderfully distinct look that charms and delights.

I regret sleeping on this for as long as I did. A wonderful and pleasant adventure!