Back in Junior High, I had this duo of friends who would not stop talking about Dark Souls whenever we were at our table at lunch. Dark Souls 2 had just come out and they were obsessed with it. This is the first time I ever even heard of Dark Souls, and with them always nerding out about it, it did intrigue me a bit. Fast forward to March 2017, I had just gotten a PS4 a couple months prior and I was itching to get into all these types of games I never did before. On a whim I decided to pickup both Dark Souls III and Bloodborne. Boy was that timing perfect, because the next day it snowed big time and it wouldn't let up for like an entire week so I was playing Dark Souls III nonstop. A couple weeks later I then moved on to Bloodborne. I love Dark Souls III, as you know from my reviews of that, but Bloodborne especially really captivated me. I ended up beating it months later during my thanksgiving break I think (sadly getting the bad ending and missing out on the final boss) and thought it was really great. Fast forward again to like March 2019 I think? I on a whim felt like playing Bloodborne again. I really sucked at first, struggling immensely with Gascoigne, but once I got the hang of it again, I honestly had an absolute blast and knew it would be one of my favorite games ever. The platinum and several playthroughs later, here we are and yeah it's back in my top 5 again.

The very first thing the drew me into the game, and I honestly think it's hands down the best aspect, is the Gothic-Horror Lovecraftian aesthetic and the art design as a whole. It's my absolute favorite aesthetic in any game next to Automata's post-apocalyptic world. That's like one of the main reason's I rate this game so highly tbh, it carry's so hard imo. From Central Yharnam, to Cathedral Ward and even something like Nightmare Frontier, I don't dislike any area's aesthetic. Cainhurst is the absolute highlight, just exploring a creepy gothic castle while it's snowing outside...hoo baby. Like even something like Byrgenwerth, which is absolutely tiny, is an area I like going to everytime because of the seaside aesthetics. Plus it's really lore important which is rad.

Speaking of lore and the story of the game, it's the absolute best in the Soulsborne series imo. It just makes the whole world feel so alive, first starting off with basic stuff like the hunt and then eventually delving into cosmic horror by the end. I was never too into Dark Souls lore ever but this game? Yeah I'm totally into it, the horror aspect just intrigues me way more.

Next in the combat and yeah it's a total blast. Instead of hiding behind a shield like in Dark Souls, you're totally defenseless and can only rely on your dodging skills. That may seem like it's tougher, and yeah it is but it rewards you for being super aggressive. The rally system allows you to get some HP back for a short time after being hit which means you can be more risky when fighting enemies. I just find this combat system way more fun than the souls games personally and is another reason why this is my favorite. To go along with the combat, you of course have the weapons. Unlike the souls games, Bloodborne has a much smaller batch of them but I think that's much in the games favor. Every weapon is viable and every weapon is memorable. That paired with the transformation mechanic, where if you press L1 you essentially have two weapons in one, just make these weapons the best ever imo. I usually use the kirk hammer, then Ludwig's Holy Blade and then maybe I switch it out for one of the DLC's weapons and yeah this playthrough was no different.

As I said, I really love the look of every area and that's not all, the actual areas are quite good for the most part. The beginning areas like Central Yharnam or Cathedral Ward are simply some of the best level-design wish because they're so interconnected with other areas. It's not quite Dark Souls 1 level of interconnectivity but it's really a nice change from something like Dark Souls 2 or even 3. By the end it does get more linear, but since the first half is well connected, I didn't have much of an issue with it. I think one of the most memorable moments is when you're all the way into the forbidden woods. You find this path down into a poison cave, you climb up a ladder and you end up at the very beginning of
central yharnam. You unlock the first gate you ever see when playing and I just think that's so cool. The game has several moments like this, like Yahar'Gul connecting to Old Yarhnam after you defeat Darkbeast Paarl, but no moment will be as good as the aformentioned Forbidden Woods interconnectivity.

Now on to the bosses, I think they're generally pretty great. Early game definitely has the more consistently good bosses, tho endgame definitely has some bangers like Gehrman and Martyr Logarius. The mid to end game definitely does have some not great bosses gameplay-wise, but some of them do have other aspects that make me not hate them. Witches of Hemwick is pathetically easy but the especially creepy atmosphere and semi-interesting way to defeat her, I really enjoyed. Plus she had one of my favorite songs in the game. Rom is somewhat annoying but at least has a beautiful area to fight her in. The one reborn is really easy too but I like the callback to Tower Knight. Celestial Emissary is um, yeah I can't really defend this one but it sure is a goofy boss. Micolash was probably my least favorite in the game before, and even tho I had a much better time with him this time, he still isn't great. What really makes up for it tho is he has hands down my favorite dialogue in the game, god it's so entertaining and goddamn whoever voiced him is amazing. The rest of the bosses I either like or love, and again even some of these I do like because of certain other aspects. I know a lot of the bosses aren't perfect but I'm surprised I never outright hated any of them, can't say the same for something like Bed of Chaos or Dragon God lole.

Don't really have much to say about the OST besides the fact it's great like most other souls games. My favorite tracks were the aforementioned Witches of Hemwick theme, the Cleric Beast theme, Micolash's theme, the hunter's dream theme and Gehrman's theme. Those were definitely the standout songs.

My take on the Chalice dungeons are they're a nice distraction from the base game but I probably won't play them again on future replay's. I only dived into them on that playthrough in 2019, and while they were cool they do get tedious if you're going for them all. It is nice how they have unique bosses in them, but yeah not super keen on them. Tho I never hated them like other people and I don't think they detract from the game because it feels more like a side thing which I'm fine with.

Before I end of my review, I just wanted to list off a couple issues with the game. Blood vials are obviously a big point of contention for some people and yeah it is annoying how you might have to eventually grind them if you run out, I never really had an issue with this personally. It's really easy to get them naturally and there's a really good early grinding spot right next to the first lamp in the game lol. Speaking of lamps, I guess people find it annoying how you have to warp back to the Hunter's Dream every time and then warp to another place from there? I guess it's a minor convenience but it never bothered me ever. Now this being 30 FPS is definitely jarring when going from games like Dark Souls III or Sekiro (I know I was taken aback when I came back to this after DS3) and while it would be so awesome if a remaster came out (please no remake dear god) I again never had a major issue with it. People saying it makes the game unplayable, I don't get you lol.

Anywho, this was another long ass review from me but I just absolutely adore this game despite some small flaws. It just gets even better with the DLC which I also beat this time around. Look out for that review very soon!

Thank you @Eggsandwhich for recommending I play this after my month of NieR. Also a shoutout to @ptcremisi cuz he loves this game too. I'm happy to say, despite some issues I had that do hold it back from me rating it higher, I really enjoyed this game a lot.

Though tbh, at first I wasn't really enjoying it all too much. The beginning cutscene really got me interested but by the time I got to the first level in the game, I started noticing issues I had. First off, I don't think the first level is that great of an introduction. I found the level design to be too simple and it's definitely my least favorite stage in the game. That plus some other issues I had while playing, really didn't help my engagement. I found the combat just okay, it got the job done but it wasn't great. The platforming too could be a little wonky. I found the ledge grab really inconsistent (tho I got used to it later on). The figments were hard to see a lot of the time and they seemed like they'd be quite annoying. It also didn't help that I played this on my PS2 and it ran poorly a lot of the time and even rarely slowed to a crawl. That combination of things, plus the poor intro level, it just wasn't doing it for me. Also later on, you start to fight bosses. While it's cool to find out how to beat them, they're often not that fun mechanically because of the clunky combat and are usually too easy on top of that.

As I played on tho, a lot of these issues were lessened a bunch cuz I blew them out of proportion. Because of this, I learned to really love the fantastic things in this game. Probably my absolutely favorite aspect would be just the game concept as a whole. Going into people's minds is just so awesome, and they really utilize it to it's fullest. Your collectibles are absolutely brilliant. Figments of your imagination, emotional baggage, cobwebs (in your head). It's just all so good and really makes the world feel so well thought out. Like the health pickups are literally called mental health, that's amazing!

The other best thing this game has going for it are the quirky/funny moments and it's memorable cast. I couldn't even count just how many times this game made me chuckle, it's so weird and I love it. It really felt like a Cartoon Network or Nickelodeon show from the early 2000's which is great because that's the era I grew up with. Feels like the love child of Billy and Mandy and Invader Zim if I'm being real. As for the cast of characters, most of kids were whatever (tho I did like Dogen and Lili) but the main cast of Psychonauts were all great. I do wish they had more screen time, because in the 2nd half due to certain events they're mostly absent, but what we do get is great. Also, a shoutout to Raz himself, what a great protagonist. He's so quirky and sassy yet likeable.

At first I was a bit iffy on the camp setting but once I explored the overworld, I really enjoyed it. It feels a bit nostalgic for some reason, and I never even went to camp as a kid. I also think the overworld had overall better level design than the actual levels. The levels are cooler and more out there than the camp setting but the level design is more linear, while the camp is more open and explorable which is fun.

Another thing I enjoyed were the Psi badges. While I wouldn't say most of them were super fun to actually use, a lot of them were used on puzzles throughout the game and are just cool conceptually. I will say though, levitation is an absolute blast and is easily the best badge in the game. Glad you get it early on because from then on, I used it all the time.

Idk why I thought this was a kids game all this time (I probably would've loved this as a teenager) but it definitely isn't considering they cuss throughout the game and the game can get pretty dark. Seriously, some of the mental illness stuff can get pretty realistic even if there is a goofy undertone, but it's still handled with tact. The vaults are another collectable in the game and they hold some of the darkest shit I swear. Milla's hidden vault 😢. But I really love how they flesh out each character even more.

I said the figments were annoying because they're hard to see, and while that is still a criticism of mine, they weren't annoying enough to the extent I didn't want to get them all. So I went and 100%ed the game and that was mostly hassle free. Some stray figments here and there and some of the milkman's conspiracy gave me trouble but that's about it.

So overall, while the actual gameplay is usually just acceptable to subpar, the charm this game has with it's cast of characters, it's quirky humor and just the awesome concept of going into people's minds won me over. This game is flawed but really enjoyable. I'm giving this a 7.5 rn only because the sequel seems to fix the gameplay issues I had. From what I've heard, 2 starts off right where 1 ended and that's just so cool I can't wait. Anyways, on to my Secret Santa game next...Metroid Prime 2!

7.5/10

I know this is a little late now but Merry Christmas everyone! I would've put this review out on Christmas but I was busy and also timed my playthrough of this game a bit wrong. Either way, hope everyone had a great holiday! I definitely did and it also ended with a bang since I played Rez.

I kinda don't have a lot to say about this one at all. The main takeaway is this game is an absolute treat visually. That's the main appeal of the game and I'm telling you, it's insane. You really just need to play it and witness it yourself cuz it's amazing and the biggest reason I'm rating it so high.

The OST is very good. I wouldn't listen to it outside of the game personally, but alongside the gameplay it's perfect and very much fits the game I think.

The actual gameplay is pretty simple actually. It's an on rails shooter that has a single powerup you can use when you obtain them and you level up and down depending on if you get hit or not. It's extremely straight-forward so it may be lacking to some people who would want a more complex game mechanically but for an audio-visual delight of a game like this, it's perfectly fine.

The game is also only like two hours long but tbh I think that's an absolute perfect length for a game like this, otherwise the wow factor might wear off if it was longer.

Like I said before, you really need to play the game yourself to see just how damn impressive the visuals are because...man they're absolutely insane. Another Dreamcast banger, this console's on fire so far!

8.5/10

It was my first time playing a roguelike!

The weapons allow for a variety of different gamestyles, and each one seems well balanced. The bow was my favorite throughout the game. And I was also a big fan of Zeus shield when I eventually unlocked it near the end-game.

There are game mechanics that incentivize you to change weapons & thus game-styles regularly. Everytime you go back to the main hub, one of your weapons will have a bonus on the amount of darkness you get, so you'll often be tempted to switch.
Another thing that motivates the player to experiment different builds are the quests available in Zagreus room; the ones that require purchasing every upgrade at least once.
It helped me to realize how strong some upgrades are, because I was willing to try them out to complete those side quests. It made each run quite different. (at least during the first few hours, but I eventually stuck to the bow near the end of my adventure)

Most weapons & spells have auto-aim whenever you use them, which is very appreciated. It made the game a lot more forgiving.

I was always excited to find out which upgrades would open up to me after I cleaned a room, and whether or not I would get Epic, Heroic, Duo, or Legendary boons.
The RNG involved in those rewards made each run really exciting!
It was especially fun to get the Hammer upgrade because it would vastly modify your weapon sometimes.

The game has great voice acting. I really dig Megaera's voice. She has the raspiest voice I've ever heard, it was butter to my ears!
Along with Nyx, she was my favorite character, and there's a nice chemistry between her and Zagreus.

I like how the roguelike aspect is related to the story, with how Zagreus can revive as much as he wants because he's in Hell and he is linked to the Underworld.
They also gave an explanation as to why Zagreus has to restart from the beginning everytime you finish a run, it's due to the sickness he gets whenever he reaches Greece.

After discussing with Persephone a couple times, we get to learn more about their family issues. She fleed the Underworld after Zagreus was stillborn, allegedly. She couldn't handle the shock and decided to live in Greece, far away from everyone. Seeing her reunite with her son & husband at the end was heart-warming.

Despite that, I wasn't really invested in the story because of the way it was told. But since it's a roguelike, I don't know if there would even be a better way to tell it. I know for a fact that it's one of the rare games in this genre to have a focus on its story tho, so I'll give it that.

The last hours I spent with the game left a sour taste in my mouth. I wish the last runs I did felt less repetitive. At some point, I only kept doing runs because I wanted to see the ending, by successfully completing 10 runs.
But since I wasn't engaged in the story and felt I had already experienced most of the gameplay features, I felt it dragged on by the end, and I was slightly disappointed.
I should definitely have stopped the game earlier, instead of forcing myself through the main ending.

There is another ending, but I need to play a lot more if I want to unlock it. And I need to drop dozens & dozens of nectars to unlock new dialogues with each character.
But I kind of had enough with the game, so I'll leave it at that. It was a nice experience nonetheless!

----------Playtime & Completion----------

[Started on October 28th & finished on November 13th 2023]
Playtime: 40 hours
I stopped after completing 10 runs and unlocking the main ending.

Back in the day, I had this game on my Wii, and I desperately wanted to play it in coop with my older brother. Unfortunately he never wanted to, and as a result I never played the game... (I didn't want to play it in singleplayer at the time.)
I was so frustrated about it for so long, and I promised myself to play through it one day, even if it has to be in solo. And this day has finally come! Mind you, it doesn't mean my expectations for this game were really high.
Oh and btw I haven't played any other game in the PS2 trilogy. So I don't have any prior knowledge of the events that happened in A New Beginning & The Eternal Night.
The only other Spyro games I've played are the ones on the PS1.

As it's often the case with those PS2 games, the camera is janky and systematically decides to reposition itself without asking me. So it makes the overall camera movement unbearable.
It's a nightmare during combat. You'll always find yourself running in circles to try and get a better angle of the enemies.
And don't get me started on the enclosed/underground areas where the game doesn't allow you to move the camera freely, but always gives you the most horrendous camera angles.

It's a shame because the combat system is quite fun. It's a Beat'em up where you fight with 2 characters, Spyro & Cynder.
And you can switch between the two whenever you want.
Each of them has 4 different elements that you can upgrade throughout your adventure, and some enemies are only vulnerable to specific elements, which means you'll have to choose your spells adequately.
So the combat can be enjoyable, but it's spoiled by this one very annoying issue with the camera.

I was pleasantly surprised with the area themes and the environment aesthetics. Twilight Falls and Valley of Avalar have that mystical vibe that was really appealing to me. And the music always hit right.

I'm not a fan of the chara designs, whether it's Spyro, Sparx, or all the cheetahs. The only one I liked was Cynder's, she looks so stylish. She was the only cool character in the game to be honest.
The voice acting is really goofy at times, and Sparx is one of the most insufferable characters I've ever seen. All his lines are attempts to be funny, but it fails miserably everytime. I wish he was silent like in the PS1 games..

Flying was so-so. They did a decent job with the controls, but the invisible walls and the fact that you can't change your altitude made flying very clumsy. It's also very slow whenever you try to land, which was quite irritating.
There are some platforming segments that were really unintuitive aswell. Using the boulder spell mid-air to destroy those walls in Ruins of Warfang was so annoying.

The game had a lot of interesting puzzles with enjoyable game design. I liked the ones where you need to get one of the protagonists on a platform, and then pull it with the other dragon, thank to the chain that is shackling Spyro & Cynder together.
There's also that puzzle in Ruins of Warfang where you need to swing yourself with the chain to light the flames around the wheel. Pretty clever!
More over, the game expects you to experiment & figure out some mechanics by yourself. For example, you can get through iron gates using Cynder's shadow spell. It was satisfying to find this out without help!

If I had to summarize this game in one sentence: It's sprinkled with good ideas but bad execution.
The game is usually well paced, except on some occasions when the beat'em up parts drag on for too long (whether because there are too many enemies to defeat in a row, or because an enemy is too tanky).
The part on the Destroyer was a cool idea, when you need to break all the crystals one by one, and then go inside the beast to destroy its core crystals and escape before it implodes. But since flying is so inconvenient & clumsy, it makes this part a bit tedious, which is quite unfortunate.

The game ended on a bright note, with the Final Boss fight being very fun.
The story was really cliché but it didn't bother me. Like I said earlier, what bothered me were the cheap voice acting & bad chara designs. It looks like the Elder Dragons are ALWAYS smiling in any situation. It's kinda eerie.
And if I could throw Sparx in the volcano myself, I would do it without hesitation.

Anyway, flawed game but I had a good time nonetheless. I'm glad I finally played it!

----------Playtime & Completion----------

[Started on December 30th & finished on December 31st 2023]
Playtime: 13 hours
Main story complete.

This is a pretty nice fan remake of the original Half Life. Really enjoyed the weapons feeling more competent (except the shotgun), glad I don't have to magdump the SMG on an enemy an pray it was enough to kill them. This game feels a lot more easier to beat than the original because of the weapons rework though I don't mind but I'm sure there's a purist out there who dislikes that. absolutely enjoyed their reimagining of Xen visually and gameplay wise. I think if this was a 1of1 modern remake of HL1 I probably would have rated this lower simply on the premise that the original game had a lot of design choices that weren't really fun to play. Would be interesting to see their interpretations of the Gearbox expansions as well if it was in their interest to.

One of these games that has a fantastic foundation due to it's movement and gamefeel but suffers from structural issues.

There not being a map seems like a mistake. It doesn't even need to be a very detailed one, but just roughly seeing where each of the different areas are in relation to the others would've gone a long way.

I feel like some of the later areas could've benefitted from more challenging jumping passages or even an optional area akin to the Path of Pain in Hollow Knight, but overall the game offers enough opportunities to use your entire moveset on. The "shot" ability just seemed pointless to me. It just blocked my progress arbitrarily at one point and doesn't get much use otherwise.

Would love for this to get a sequel that expands on what is there. The moveset is fantastic already, so getting to use it on even cooler levels without the confusing progression would be amazing.

I could also mention the combat, but it's just ... there. It didn't bother me but it lacks complexity.

Would definitely recommend it since 3D Metroidvanias are super rare and this one does a good job.

A huge step-up from the first game. The added crouching and knocking on walls already give this a way more engaging stealth feel, but also the bigger levels, the radar and the different screens, guards can walk between, makes it feels way more like a huge place you're infiltrating.

The progression is not quite as cryptic as it was in Metal Gear 1 ... there were some instances where I looked at a guide real quick, but I'm confident you can beat this on your own without taking ages.

The keycard system luckily got a little better. There are now cards that combine multiple levels, so that you don't have to switch between all of them to try them out on a door. And generally the map/radar helps getting around the map a lot ... I never got lost, like I did in the first one. It's all really neat stuff.

Bosses are pretty well done in this game. Not all of them are great, but you can tell they tried to give all of them a unique gimmick and some of them require a specific strategy to overcome them. The Running Man in particular comes to mind. It's just a bit of a shame that the final onslaught of story-relevant bosses are kind of a cakewalk and especially the last one feels pretty lackluster in terms of gameplay.

The story still isn't nearly as intricate as they'll become later in the series, but there are a decent amount of twists and character moments and I'm pretty fond of the 4th wall breaks, even if they went a little overboard at times.

Good time, I can see myself replaying this one some time.