Another solid game made by Ninja Theory with a few flaws. One of the few games to address mental health well.

Firstly, this game is pretty. The atmosphere is amazing. The beginning moments are very eerie. The voice acting sells this game. Playing it with headphones is an actual benefit.

Be warned though, this game can be triggering. The story is beautiful. It deals with a lot of heavy topics. Don't let that stop you.

Combat is a bit simplistic. It is still fun though. Some fights can be a bit infuriating. But once the game clicks, it has a great flow.

The rune puzzles are fun and not fun at the same time. At first it is enjoyable to find the runes. Later on it gets really hard and frustrating. Nothing like walking around for 10 minutes because you can't find the vague shape of a rune off in the distance.

Puzzles do vary throughout the journey. Enemies are based on areas. Each area has a gimmick. Some are better than others. Near the end there is a set of challenges that can bite me. Some are simply not fun and annoying.

Trophies are easy to get. It is one of my few platinum trophies. Look up a guide for the collectables. Everything else is a freebie. It's also a short game.

This is such a unique game. A game that should be played with headphones. It's a joy to play. I just hope you like looking around for runes. Because you will be doing a lot of that.

I did not enjoy this game. It's not a bad game though. I just hated it for many reasons. This more like Sekiro than Dark Souls. Don't let people fool you.

First off, the game is pretty, mostly. Character models are not great. Especially the faces. This is kind of at the point when facial capture was the standard and both Horizon and the game for some reason did not use it. It's pretty obvious and jarring. Landscapes are pretty though. Enemies are varied and well crafted.

The story is fine. It's nothing special. Although there are a few great moments I won't spoil. It's a mid tier Star Wars story.

Gameplay is where I had a problem. Everyone was like "it's Dark Souls!" No, it's Sekiro without the posture bar. You are more incentivized to parry than to dodge. Dodging is frankly not good. The whole game has a lack of polish and jank. The worlds get tedious to traverse as well. Platforming is slow, tedious and jank though. It's not a bad game. It just is not what I was lead to believe. It also just lasts a bit too long.

If you like Star Wars, but don't want a challenge, play it on easy. I will say fighting Storm Troopers is fun. Reflecting bullets back at them is satisfying. Hitting things with a lightsaber is fun. Platforming is not. Your little robot buddy is cute too. Not a bad game, I just didn't enjoy it. Story is worth playing for Star Wars fans.

What a neat little walking sim. It really keeps you engaged with the story. Very mysterious.

This game is pretty. It is stylized. The music is nice.It has great vibes. But also can be triggering.

This is mostly a walking sim. It has light puzzle elements and a few collectable. It is easy to get all the trophies. There is no platinum though.

The biggest issue here are the order puzzles. Finding all the clues needed to start the puzzle is the issue. Sometimes they are just stupidly well hidden. The order can be a bit obtuse as well. The last thing is that, as is tradition with walking sims, you are slow.

The story is neat. It's not a long game. May last a little too long but still short. Just know that it def can be triggering. It's not a happy game.

It's a great 1 time experience. I would only recommend playing it again if you want to clean up the optional collectables. You will find most on your first playthrough so it won't take more than a few minutes to clean up the rest of the trophies.

What a cute little action RPG. Has one of my favorite characters I've seen in awhile. I have only played Mint's Story.

This game still looks pretty good nowadays. It's bright and colorful. Very stylized. And surprisingly well voice acted.

There are 2 main characters. You can choose either Mint or Rue. Mint is a magic/spell based character while Rue is a monster capturer. Both can be grindy. From what I have heard, Rue more than Mint.

This is a brain off game mostly. Kill monsters and get to the end of the level. Grind money and exp if you feel like it. As I said before it might be a bit grindy. But it's also short. The Lock on is not great. Nor is platforming, but remember it is a PS1 game. It does better than most games of the time. The combat is basic but fun.

Story is different for each character. They go to different areas at different times. They cross paths on occasion. The story is fine. Nothing special. Rue is boring but Mint, omg Mint is the best part of this game.

Mint is a little Gremlin of a human. She is just unapologetically selfish. She does not grow. She is funny from start to finish. Her interactions with other characters are great. Her voice actress did a fantastic job. Especially for it being a PS1 game.

The only other problem are certain bosses are frustrating. They are jank and have bad hitboxes. Sometimes being a bit too hard. Especially those that require platforming.

I really suggest playing this for Mint alone. She is great. Rue is fine as a character. But Mint is the star of the game. Def worth going through her story. I think if you beat both stories you get a final act or true ending. But I cannot bring myself to play as Rue. His story is different but all the areas are the same.

Worth a one story playthrough. Maybe one day I'll beat the other half. If I ever do, I'll update this.

This is a beautiful game with a decent story, only let down by slow animations.

Let's start with the art style. This game is beautiful. The hand drawn look suits the game well. It is also well voice acted.

Gameplay is fine. Nothing special. Your typical 2d puzzle platformer. It also has decisions that kind of effect the story.

The biggest problem are the animations. I understand why they are slow. But that doesn't stop it from being tedious. Especially if you continue to miss a jump.

The story is neat. Nothing mind blowing of course. But it suits the gameplay. The music is good too. Helps drive the story.

This is a neat little game. It's short but also longer than you would expect. Maybe lasts a little too long. But still a good game. It's worth a one time playthrough for the art style alone.

Don't play this unless you want to see the most unintentionally funny story/voice acting ever. It's not nearly as terrible as people say it is. But it still isn't great. Bad writing does not make it unplayable, mediocre at best story, Hilarious voice acting, it is not a broken game as some claim, the world does vary more than they claim too, and quantity over quality style of open world is it's biggest flaw.

Where to start. The story is the most unintentionally funny thing I've seen in awhile. The writing is pretty terrible. It's a bland story. The voice acting ranges from terrible to hilarious to mediocre at best. The only good voice acting is Cuff. Frey is so cringe. It's really funny how cringy and terrible her delivery is.

Frey has bad delivery of her lines. She talks like a pre-teen trying to act cool. Cursing at every moment she can. When the game tries to be funny, it is not. But a lot of the time, it is unintentionally funny. You get second hand embarrassment by her acting. It hurts because it's so cringe. And it's a great experience to laugh at.

The game looks like a PS4 game at best. I played it on quality mode. There are aspects that look like a PS5 game. But character models are not great. Someone environments are pretty while others are bland. Graphics are not that important but this was noticeably lower.

Controls are not great. If you must play this, I highly suggest turn on auto lock on. The aiming is terrible and you willl struggle to hit things. The parkour system is kinda neat though. Although a bit unruly at times.

The biggest issue with this game is the map. OMG it's too big. There is no reason it needed to be as big as it is. It's so big, that half of your main quests are guiding you to an area, just for it to instantly move the waypoint. I guess it was their way of making sure you don't get lost.

The story barely uses the the map. It's a short story and you don't explore a lot of the map. They took a quantity over quality approach. What is there to do on this map? Collect hundreds of chests, get lore journals, get stat boost, get familiars, and equipment. There are a few other things but none of it matters. It tells you exactly what you will get for doing something. A lot of it is lore journals. It's very repetitive. Either you just scan until you find the lore to complete the area or you kill enemies to complete it. THAT'S ALL.

There is no variety. They try to create an illusion of variety by changing the area and what your reward is but believe me, there is no variety at all. Another thing proving the map is too big is when you unlock a tower and only 3 meaningful things pop up followed by 20+ chests. What's the point of having such a big map if you are not even going to fill it. A lot of the icons on the map are literally just walk up to the thing and get your reward. No different than the 20+ chests that also unlocked. It's not worth doing.

I love collecting things. I love brainlessly completing maps. I completed Elden Ring. Did like 95% of the stuff on the map, but this game not only overwhelmed me, I actually just could care less after I realized how big the map was.

The magic is neat. Some of it is really cool looking. Probably the prettiest aspect of the game. You are constantly able to find currency to get new magic. The music is pretty decent too.

The accessibility features are really good except for a lock of a photosensitivity mode. Made the game playable. Made the terrible controls not nearly as bad. I played this on easy, with auto evade, low damage taken, auto lock on, and a few other things. It was an easy experience. THIS GAME IS NOT WORTH STRUGGLING ON.

I had fun with this but I cannot recommend this game. If you must play it, know what you are getting into. Play it on easy. TURN ON AUTO LOCK ON. I cannot stress that enough. Make it a brain off experience. I only suggest you play this by making it as easy as possible. If you want to witness the story, it's like 8hrs tops. Just zoom through it without challenge. Get a few good laughs at how terrible the story, writing, and voice acting is. And never play it again.

A sequel that fails to live up to the it's predecessor in many ways.

I want to say this is by no means a bad game. It just fails to meet the level that GOW 2018 set. It still has very good combat. So we won't really talk about that.

The first problem is that a new mechanic with the arrows/spells is simply not fun. It slows pacing down to a crawl. It is used way too often. I know they wanted a new puzzle mechanic but it was a failure.

The biggest problem is story. This should not have been 1 game. It should have been 2. It would have been paced much better. It would have not felt rushed. More time could have been spent on developing new characters.

The first games ends foreshadowing something and they just drop the ball so much. No one in this game feels like they are at any risk. At no point did I feel like Kratos was at risk of any real harm. They also dropped the ball on character development. This game should have been only about preventing Ragnarok. Sadly it does not end there and it decides to rush the conclusion to all of it.

I'm all about not making trilogies out of everything. But this series deserved better. It should have been a trilogy. This game should have spent it's time on Rognarok and the character responsible for it. You only see that character 4ish times in the game and 2 of them are in passing. They barely get characterized. And then things happen and you move on. The next game could have been all about the other 2 major villains. There was no reason to jam all this in one game. The pacing is terrible. The story was such a let down.

As for accessibility. It's really good. It breaks on occasion, but you just rest to fix it. There were so really cool new features that I hope more games do. For example, a true photosensitivity mode and a way to ping sound off of waypoints when you look at them. It's so cool.

Sadly though, I was very disappointed by the story. Thus why I gave it what I did. This reeks of the same failed experiment Star Wars Ep 7-9 had. Changing directors does not work. It ruins the vision. Then things get very messy. That's what I blame for the utter disregard to storytelling that the first game set up so well.

A beautiful story that resurrects a tired old franchise.

The story in this game brought me to tears near the end. The character development throughout the story is a very touching. This game not only is a good standalone story but also honors it's predecessors. There are so many great set pieces that harken back to the originals.

However this is its own game. It rewards knowledge of the originals but it is not needed. Combat is still uniquely GOW but with a twist. It's a very solid and fluid system. It feels great.

There are very minor issues. Like the game is a little too long. Navigating can be slow and tedious. But in general just a great game.

This is the best Sony has to offer.

An interesting lore driven world let down by bad design decisions.

We are gonna start negatively here but I gotta say this. There is no need to shame people with a note from the devs when you turn on God Mode. And there is no reason to turn off auto aim at any point. There is a target range that holds an essential move and they turn off the auto aim and give it stupidly tight timing. Get your ablest act together Remedy. You are lucky I'm not giving this game a 0.5 for that reason alone. You do not shame the disabled for turning on accessibility and you do not turn it off randomly. There is not excuse for that.

Now after that, let's talk about world. The world is really neat. You are always curious about everything. There is so much mystery in it all. The characters are really neat as well. Some set pieces are fantastic.

Gameplay is fine. A bit jank but fine. The biggest issues here are 2 very bad decisions by the devs. The first being that there are no waypoints. Now this is not a problem if you map is good. Sadly though, this game has the worst map of all time. It makes it so hard to find out how to get somewhere. It's infuriating. Get ready to be lost.

Side note the AWE DLC is terrible. It recycles rooms from the end of the game. Makes you repeat the same things over and over. Find bad guy, turn power on, chase him, repeat. It was lazy.

The story is mostly great. But in true Remedy fashion, they have no idea how to end their games. The end is a let down.

I like and hate this game to be honest. I had a great time with it until the devs got lazy. Once the game starts being less about the world and more about a singular issue and relationship within that world, it just lost my interest. Like the last 2 chapters is where it no longer is fun or interesting. Despite one really fantastic set piece.

This game is plagued with bad design and not friendly to the disabled. I think that's why it disappointed me so much. It was tired.

A great spiritual successor to Castlevania in the classic-vania style.

I have never beaten a classic-vania. They are too hard and punishing for me. Nor am I really interesting in doing so. This however has been modernized for those who want to play a classic-vania, but without all the intensely frustrating elements.

There are 2 modes you can choose from. One that plays exactly like the original classic-vanias the other one removes lives, adds checkpoints, and removes knockback. What a nice accessibility mode.

Yet again, story is fine. It adds to the Bloodstained lore. Well in my case it does. I was unaware this came out before Ritual of the Night. it looks great for what it is. The music is yet again, fantastic. There are multiple endings so you are incentivized to play again.

Gameplay is mostly the same as classic-vania. The biggest change being you can swap between 4 different characters. Each play in their own way. Each are fun to play as.

With the modern mode the game was really fun and not that difficult. It can be beaten within a few hours. There was only one room near the end that was a bit frustrating as the timing was way too tight in my opinion. The final boss is a bit hard as well. But having checkpoints prior is a huge help.

This is a great game. We may not get another Castlevania, but at least we have Bloodstained.

Although not perfect, this a great spiritual successor to Castlevania and a vast improvement on the monster ability systems from AoS and DoS.

If you read my reviews of AoS and DoS, you know how I really don't like them. The main reasons being they don't reward exploration and the monster ability system is a detriment to exploration.

I'm happy to say, both of these have been fixed...mostly. Exploration and traversal is so much fun in this. Traversal moves are pretty unique as well. There are plenty of secrets. Hitting walls is worth doing.

This time around, all but 1 ability key ability is gain from bosses. They still do fumble once though. It's still bad game design. At one point in the game you must kill a common enemy to gain the ability to swim. The drop rate for this is very high. But not 100%. And if you accidently don't kill the enemy or skip the message of what it does, you will be blocked from progression. It's stupid and bad design. This is why I can't give it a five star. The game does not tell you that you need to kill that enemy. I had to look up how to swim in the game because I wasted a lot of time trying to figure out what I had missed.

It's a beautiful game. You can even customize your look. The backgrounds, enemies, characters, etc all look great.

Story is pretty good but still basic. Voice acting is very good. Music is fantastic.

Another small complain is that some key abilities must be equipped in order to use them. This requires a decent amount of menuing. And that is kinda tedious. I wish those were just turned on by default and did not need to be equipped. I know you can set different loadout and swap but that is also not my favorite solution.

Grinding for monster shards(abilities) is purely optional. Some can take a long time though. There are a few shard doors that won't open without you having the shard. Annoying yes, grindy yes, but not that terrible. Crafting, upgrading, and cooking are all fun but can be a grind. Very unnecessary but a nice litlle optional quests.

For the most part the game signposts itself well. You know what you need to progress. Only 1 or 2 moments when it is a bit cryptic.

This games just plays really well. It is what Castlevania should be but has it's own identity and charm. It has a steady difficulty curves. The final boss is a bit much but still mostly fair.

We may never get another Castlevania game again. Bloostained is a great successor to the series. Not only the metroidvania style but also classic-vania.

A sequel to AoS except it does everything even worse.

Yet again, another overhyped game that ended up really disappointing me.

All the problems with the Aria odf Sorrow return in this even worse game. Do you wanna grind for abilites again? Gotcha covered. So you want to be lost to find out a common enemy holds the ability you need to progress with no indication that is the case? Gotcha covered. Want to feel like exploration is even more a waste of your time? Sure thing! Want even less secrets to find? Here ya go! An even smaller map? Sure thing!

Oh but it gets worse. You want a stupid difficulty spikes and bad designed bosses? This game has it.

The final nail in the coffin, do you want the worst designed final boss in metroidvania CV? Oh let's talk about it. The first phase is laughable. If you have the right abilities you literally do not have to even move. The problem lies in phase 2. Do you want a boss that continues to summon enemies that do not die quickly? Do you want a boss arena that is way too big so you cannot hit the boss at times? Do you want oddly specific hit boxes for you to hit but the boss contact damage hit box is absurdly huge? Do you want a boss that can literally corner you and then stunlock you to death just because it wants to? Do you want to try and fight it normally like any other boss for an hour to realize it's actually a gimmick boss? I SURE DID! You get an ability late game that you don't realize is key to beating this boss. It fires in a straight line. The only way to hit this boss easily to be honest.

CV is known for it's different builds and play with whatever weapons you want. Play how you want. Not for this boss! It wasn't designed for that. It's a gimmick and there is no telegraphing that it is.

This final boss is such a slap in the face to Castlevania. Gimmick boss with one strategy to beat it reliably. Even with this strategy, it still is a frustrating fight. With the respawning enemies, bad hitboxes, and the stunlocks into death.

AoS and DoS are very uninspired. It felt like the devs forgot what makes CV fun. Exploring that makes you feel rewarded for doing so. Combat that feels good. And well designed boss fights. I will never play this game again. AoS and DoS only good contribution to metroidvanias as a whole is that they heavily influenced Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. A fantastic game that finally fixes the problems of the monster ability system.

You can like what you like. AoS and DoS are not bad games. I just hate them. They are mid at best imo. After a long time of making metroidvania CV games, I feel like this was their low point.

I did not like what AoS and DoS turned the series into. It would have been better if certain key abilities were given to you instead of you having to magically know a normal enemy drops it. It's bad game design to say all bosses give you things needed to traverse the world. But then have to kill random guy over here 30x times to unlock more traversal options. Even if they are only needed for optional areas. With a genre based on exploration that is a sin to do.

At least the music is good.

A very mid Castlevania game that does not reward exploration.

Let's get this out of the way, this game was overhyped for me. Everyone said, "wait till you play AoS, it's so good. Near SotN levels of good." I was dumbfounded by how mid this game ended up being. How frustrating it can be. How grindy it can be. How much it really doesn't reward exploration.

My biggest problem is the the monster ability system. You get passives and actives by random drops from monsters. It's fine. Bosses give you key abilities needed to traverse the world. All fine and dandy until a normal enemy holds something needed for exploration. You are not told that either. Super flawwed and stupid design. Grinding abilities sucks too.

The other big flaw, is that this gaves doesn't reward you exploring. Doesn't reward you hitting walls looking for secrets. You know, kind of a major trope in CV and metroidvanias as a whole. It lacks secrets. Far less than the other games. The map is smaller than previous titles as well. It's just disappointing.

The story is also worse than normal. Even more bare bones and basic.

It's not a bad game. I just was let down by it. Music slaps doe! This is a hot take, but I have no desire to play it again anytime soon.

A decent first handheld entry after SotN. Not a clone like HoD.

I enjoyed this game for what it was. It tried new things. It is a metroidvania. But plays more like classic-vania.

You have your classic whip and then armor. After beating the game you can play with other characters with different playstyles.

The big change here is the card system. You equip certain cards to give yourself certain abilities. Each card has a combo that changes it's abilities. So for example, the top card allows your whip to have elemental damage. The bottom row of cards that pair with it are the different elements. One for ice, fire, poison, etc.

The problem is that cards are random drops. So you gotta grind for them. Some may drop on their own. But a lot, you will have to grind. I specifically went out of my way to grind to get the passive healing card combo. It was the only way I could beat the game.

This game is stupidly hard and quite frankly, unfair. It is a frustrating experience. You don't have a lot of healing options. Your best bet is to grind out the healing cards. It makes the game a lot easier as you can stand still and heal if you need. The final boss is also infuriatingly hard.

It looks like a GBC game. Exploring is fun. Traversal can be annoying at times. It's a bit slow. But as per usual, the music is all bangers.

A great first attempt at something not like SotN. Sadly it's major flaw is its reliance on the card system. Something you have to grind for. A trend that will continue in later installments. But even more frustrating as they are required and you don't even know it. But that is for another review.

Play it if you like Castlevania. Avoid it if you want a well balanced experience with minimal grinding. I cannot express how difficult and punishing this game is. The hardest of the metroidvania type CV games.

Yet another banger in the Castlevania series.

This is pretty much SotN again. It literally is just more. As easy if not easier than SotN.

As usual the music is all bops. The game looks surprisingly well on GBA. I was actually surprised by some of the backgrounds. Had no idea the GBA could do that.

Story yet again is fine. Don't play any of these for the story. Getting the true end is as cryptic as SotN. Yet again, kind of annoying.

Exploration and traversal is fun. It is literally the same as SotaN. No complaints here. After beating the game you unlock boss rush. It takes your character's stats and weapon from the last save. A surprisingly fun bonus mode.

Like every flaw I mentioned in the SotN review is here. It's just more of the same. Good game. Not a 5 star, but a solid 4.5. Turns out SotN but on a handheld translates well.