After the underwhelming release of the Kickstarter game yooka laylee this masterpiece was about to end its entire career. Hat in Time is an amalgamation of things you've probably played before all put into one, solid little package. If you're big into 3D platformers then this game will satisfy you to no end. This game oozes charm with its title cards for each episode and I can't remember a game ever going through the length this one does in its presentation. A masterpiece in 3D platforming taking after its uncle Mario.

Oh my god. They- They did it. They fixed every problem the original Judgment had. I almost can't believe it, never before have I played a game where they took everything from the first game and improved upon it in every single way. If you're new here I made a review on Judgment saying it was lost potential, but this game, dare I say the potential was found. Every criticism I had from the original Judgment here was taken and beaten over with tiger style. We've finally escaped the clutches of Kamurocho being the main setting and now this game mostly takes place in Ijincho, the area in Yakuza 7. I'm fine with them reusing because this place isn't as overused as Kamurocho is to the point where we're sick of it. It even offers the player a fun way to traverse via the skateboard. The combat is the best we've ever gotten in a dragon engine game, so fluid, so fast, so much fun. And we did it, boys, we found Yagami's 3rd fighting style, Snake. Reminds me heavily of Tanimuras fighting style from 4 but improved upon every way and is really fun to chain combos with the new combat system. We've reached DMC5 levels of combat with how fast you can style switch here, hell, even Yakuza 0 couldn't manage to do it this fast. They also removed the stupid mortal wounds mechanic and now the pace is perfect but the game still incentivizes you to avoid heavy attacks despite the risk not being that high anymore. This is a good trade-off for having fun combat that doesn't punish the player severely for just playing the game. The combat is beautiful, but what about the side content, well, you're not gonna believe this jimmy but this game features things we've never done in any other Yakuza game. Boxing, Skateboarding, Robotics, Bike races, Dancing, so much variety that it will leave you wanting to do it all. Not only did they add in more minigames but there are entirely new stealth sections and wall climbing sections that add more to the overall gameplay. For the first time ever these stealth sections actually don't suck, with how much you can do. THEY EVEN FIXED TRAILING MISSIONS, no longer are you forced to scramble trying to find out where Yagami can hide he will automatically hide if it's a reasonable spot to hide in. Along with giving you more options to save yourself should you get caught.

So they fixed the combat, side content, trailing missions, and detective content, what else did they do? Well let me you tell you, this story is even better than what the first game did. I feel like with the school setting we get more realistic situations other than a crime drama, bullying is a serious theme this game loves to discuss, and the way they handle it is done so masterfully that if the game's antagonist makes you stop and think then you're doing something right.

I almost still can't believe how much of a glow-up this was from the first judgment, I didn't think they could pull it off but they did it. Now I have no idea how they could top this one off with the next game but I suppose we'll find out in the future. Play, this, game, it is amazing, if the original judgment lost you, then this game will find you and bring you back into the realm of peak fiction.

After having played every Yakuza game before this release I was highly optimistic about a brand new IP in RGG's lineup. What we ended up getting was instead lost potential. I think this is one of the weakest RGG titles we've gotten, but I guess I should explain myself. For a new IP I would have hoped this game's setting was taken place somewhere else but what we got was the same overused kamurocho area again, with none of the new additions that Yakuza 4 added. Everything in terms of side content has been reused from Yakuza 6 or Kiwami 2, there's not something here you'll find that's unique other than the drone races and VR game board. The combat is missed potential because we not only have 2 styles to work with, one is clearly superior to the other. There's no reason to use crane style when everything just dies with the tiger style. The one thing that really annoyed me playing was the mortal wounds system. In other RGG games, if you get hit with a powerful attack your character gets up no problem, in Judgment if Yagami gets hit with a powerful attack then that's it, you lose part of your health bar that can only be recovered if you waste large amounts of money on health packets that are located in the sewers of Kamurocho. Some may argue this incentivizes you to play well so you don't get hit but I think it's more of a pace breaker. As it is the game is not hard and is only difficult if you limit yourself. The detective side stuff is really underwhelming and handled poorly, trailing missions constantly plague this game as one of the most boring and uninteresting parts of this whole experience. When you try to find a good hiding spot there's a blue light to signify what things you can hide behind, problem is it only shows up if you're right close to it. So those times where you're scrambling to find a hiding spot because the target spotted you, good luck redoing that entire section. For a detective, you sure don't do much. Lock picking and safe breaking can only be so fun after a while, cause then it starts to get tedious.

If you made it this far congratulations, you now get to hear the things that I DID like from the game, isn't that nice. One thing that RGG has always done well is the story, this game for what it's worth has a very interesting narrative with a lot of twists and turns and it's almost enough to make you forget you're playing a mediocre game. I tried thinking about what this game does differently than any other to give it its own identity and the friend system comes to mind. In Kamurocho you're able to befriend local residents and get to know more of their own life and even open up new side quests for you to do revolving around them. This system was what gravitated me to completing all that I could because Yagami's character interactions are all so charming and hilarious. The music itself is also pretty good but I can only really remember a few tracks, a lot is mostly background noise.

I really didn't want to hate this game but I just don't see the need to replay it whenever games like Yakuza 0 provide a much better experience with better side content and combat. If you like this game, more power to you, but unless they can fix what was established here into a possible sequel.
Then hey, maybe it'd be one of RGG's best.

Before Splatoon, there was de Blob, and before that, there was another game about coloring I don't know. De Blob is one of those no thoughts head empty kind of games where you let the flow of it take you along as you paint the city in all kinds of colors and bring life back to it. I enjoyed my time with it but for completionists, I think they should pass on it, it takes hours just to do everything and the game doesn't do a good job of showing you what things you missed. It's more of a hassle to get 100% than it is fun.

Cuphead is one of those games you will never see done again, it truly has its own unique identity. The game was a test of skill and patience, but throughout it all there would always be the constant thought of "ok just one more time" right when the game reveals to you how far you got on a boss. I don't think I've ever played a game where I just wanted to keep playing until I mastered it. The 200% completion is a huge hurdle to jump over, but once you do you'll feel like you really mastered the game.

Celeste is addicting. These three words come to mind when I think of this game. The amount of time and effort that was put into making the game feel good to play is amazing. The controls are super tight and responsive, never was there a time where I blamed the control's fault for every death felt like it was my lack of understanding of the level. This game is hard, very hard, you'll need a lot of patience to even withstand most of it, but the game never once makes fun of you for constantly failing. It encourages you to do better and for the ones who are constantly struggling the accessibility, the option is there. I only 100% games that I feel deserve to be experienced front and back, and Celeste was one of those titles for me.

I was never a soulsborne kind of guy, I knew about this game's existence and dark souls in general through youtube and other kinds of media. But for one reason or another I never really thought of trying it out for myself. Having beaten it twice I can safely say that I'm a fan, of everything about this game whether it's the gloomy atmosphere, the setting, the characters, or the absolute freakish creatures you fight here, bloodborne satisfies. I love the feeling of getting stronger the more you play and in Bloodborne, it's never been more satisfying going to a common enemy you fought at the beginning to completely decimate in one shot after returning to another area. If you're thinking that bloodborne may not be for you like I originally thought, I highly encourage you to try it, you might be surprised.