Not worth getting. In short, this game is extremely boring and somehow made the ocean feel absolutely lifeless.

Endless Ocean 2 was one of my biggest childhood games growing up so I was looking forward to a new game in the series finally, but this game takes everything 2 did right and chucks it in the trash. The main thing to do in this game is explore and that’s just about the only thing to do, but exploration in this game is painfully boring with the randomly generated maps. The Veiled Sea is interesting for maybe about 30 minutes and then it quickly becomes apparent that the vast majority of what you get to see is the same flat seafloor over and over again with nothing new. I’m pretty sure each map has 1 designated “special” region, so you might get a map with a big iceberg you can enter, or a deep sea region, or a freshwater region. These are the most interesting places to explore but once you’ve explored them once, any magic they had quickly vanish once you roll them again. There’s nothing new to do in any of these regions. You’re either aimlessly scanning fish to meet scan quotas or aimlessly swimming to try and find 7 random arbitrary fish to spawn a UML or find something for the mystery board.

The story mode is one of the worst parts of the game. Each chapter is maybe 30 seconds to a minute of gameplay and you’re completely locked out of leaving the extremely limited story space you’re stuck in. Often times there isn’t even any marine life in these story segments despite all the coral around. It’s kind of jarring. And the story itself is laughable. The story mode as a whole is so shallow it could be entirely removed from the game and pretty much nothing would be lost.

And if you do want to actually complete the story mode, and you know, complete the game, it’s locked behind the ludicrous requirement of clearing the mystery board. 99 things you have to search for in randomly generated maps that aren’t even guaranteed to have what you might need. You can spend 2 hours searching 1 map and just find repeats for things you’ve already found. You can spend up to an hour trying to find random fish to spawn a UML only for it to be a repeat that you’ve already found. You can swim for up to 20 hours or more and never find the big circle that wants you to take a sawtooth shark to it. The game doesn’t even tell you what you have left to find to clear the board. The only thing to do in this game is swim and hope.

You’d think that at least discovering all the different species of fish would be interesting but this game butchers this as well. The game tries to throw pacific, atlantic, antarctic, deep sea, freshwater and prehistoric fish all in 1 big body of water and it makes no sense. It’s not immersive when you’re finding chinook salmon swimming alongside giant squid in a coral reef.

Rare creatures are especially dumbed down, you’ll find something like Thanatos and it’ll be a special moment - only to realize that there’s about 10 more of Thanatos on the same map. And repeat for every single legendary creature taken from Endless Ocean 2. Cocoa Maharaja, Gugnir, Apollo, Phantom, they’re all very common. One time I spawned into a new map for the first time and right next to me was a Singing Dragon. UML’s take the place of legendary creatures but they all have the same extremely disconnected requirement to spawn and before you can even make your way over to it you get a cutscene from across the map showing it in full detail.

You might think, that can’t be it, right? There has to be more. But besides playing the same gameplay loop in multiplayer, yes, that is literally it. Once again, you just swim, scan, and hope you find stuff in randomly generated maps.

Overall an extremely disappointing game and a waste of time to try and complete in full.

Oh boy... this is going to be quite a disappointing review to have to make. Mortal Kombat 1, the little game that could've but so far definitely hasn't. When this game was announced I was most interested in how it's based around the new timeline created by Fire God Liu Kang at the end of MK11 Aftermath. I'm all about alternate interpretation stuff and 'what if' scenarios are especially interesting, the premise for this game seemed right up my alley! How is it? ...I already used the word disappointing. So that's probably a tell. Even more of a tell is how unmotivated I felt to actually make this review even after sitting down to start it (for reference this began around the time of Peacemaker's delay and is only NOW being picked back up after the Ermac trailer dropped!)

Beginning with some positives, I guess. I quite like the gameplay here even if it's not too hugely different from your typical Mortal Kombat approach, but the addition of Kameo fighters makes it feel that little extra bit fresher. Getting to mix-and-match fighter moves alongside Kameo options gives the game a huge level of versatility to it even if some characters naturally pair together much better than others. For someone like me who just enjoys having fun with the game rather than sweating over tiers, though, it's very enjoyable to hop-in with different combinations and find pairings that I enjoy most. Graphically, this game is pretty good although some of the character faces hit that 'uncanny valley' effect where they're realistic but something is quite obviously still off about them. But for the most part this game has some nice visuals, and I say 'for the most part' as it all blends together very nicely in motion but in stills and less action-packed moments you can see more of the cracks in the art-style. Nothing I'll deduct much credit for though. Last point of praise I'll give the game is the roster, which although divisive I'd say I like a fair amount of? You've got the must-haves alongside fan faves and obscurer 3D-era picks who haven't seen the light of day in years so there's a good amount of visual and characteristic variety, alongside just about everyone feeling distinct from one another in a good way. Combine this with the unique feels among the Kameos and you can pair most characters together in quite the satisfying manner.

And that's quite honestly all the positivity I can muster for this one because holy moly is the rest of this game a huge nothingburger. It's quite unfortunate as well how this game continued to the worst trend of the previous NRS-era games by having DLC announced prior to the game's release, not only offering a fan favorite as a pre-order incentive but having a full pass planned and announced before the game would come out. Except unlike previously, the DLC was announced quite ahead of schedule; with MKX at least (I'll be damned if I remember anything from MK11, I tapped-out during that gmae's pre-release) it was only around a month before the game launched. But with MK1, we knew about every upcoming DLC character/Kameo before we knew much about the game itself which I hopefully don't have to go into detail about why this is such a bad thing? This pursuit of financial greed extends to the in-game economy, or rather what may as well be a lack of it. This game is such a charmer that you not only have to grind for the funny fake currency that gets you fancy-looking skins, but said funny fake currency is actually not infinitely obtainable... unless you pony-up cash to buy more from the shop, for fucking real. But it's also announcer packs and even low-quality bonus fatalities! So unless you paid too much for the special editions that came with bonus currency or are willing to pay money for more after already dipping what was likely full-price on the base game, you have to manage your currency carefully like some broke ass college student. Whilst this is lucky for me- someone who doesn't give a hoot about skinconomies at all, nevermind in fighting games -the practice is undeniably shitty regardless. It's not targeting me and won't work on me but that's not even the point of it all, because the point here is that they seriously implemented this system to begin with. You can instead dip the shitty "free" currency into a gacha system to POSSIBLY unlock certain cosmetic rewards that way though, except most of the time you're more likely to get concept art for stage NPCs and other guff. So god forbid you have impulses related to gambling because this is really going to be a tough game to stomach, in fact I'll say right now that you should actively avoid this game if you know you're likely to fall for predatory microtransaction garbage like this.

The monetization is crap but that's only part of the game, sure. I'd debate it's problematic enough to be a bigger part of the game than most will admit though, between locking-behind story important characters as DLC (one of them is even day one DLC because NRS are that stupid) and forcing you to pay a considerable amount of money to get extra costumes in a full-price game. This is a practice that really makes Street Fighter 6 look flawless, except I can at least say that game (will get to covering it eventually... probably) had a good amount of base game content to chew on. Whilst that doesn't stop the microtransaction system from being needlessly greedy and a notable blight on an otherwise excellent title, there is at least a good amount of stuff in the game to do without paying for extra shit. MK1? We get "World Of Light at home", the very contentious Invasions mode. I'll be real, at first I didn't understand why this mode was getting lots of crap thrown its way because the introductory stage of Cage Mansion was a lot of fun! And then I completed it and was sent off to the actual 'season' of the mode and boy oh fucking BOY did it fall apart quickly. I already made the World Of Light comparison but it rings so true that it's kind of insulting to the original mode. World Of Light was never said to be anything like a huge adventure mode despite the theatric reveal trailer it got, whilst a lot of hype was placed on Invasions only for it to be "go and uppercut Lv.1 CPUs until you have to fight a boss who you will either cheese with items or get steamrolled by LOL repeat a few times". Invasions is where you get a third type of currency used to unlock temporarily available skins themed around the current 'season', each season itself being tied to a certain existing MK character and themed around them. This is, in theory, an awesome idea! ...but they put the bare minimum effort possible into the cosmetics for this mode, with some characters eating super well and others barely having anything worthwhile. You can unlock even more simple cosmetic shit through playing the mode but just like the ones you have to pay for, they're incredibly hit-or-miss and rarely worth anything (hence them dumping so many on you and leaving the more detailed things locked behind premium currency). This currency is actually given out at an insulting high rate too, to the point I had way more than I wanted or needed by complete accident! But if you want to actually finish a season of Invasions, it feels like a very sluggish grind that never really improves as they have continually removed ways of speeding-up the grind despite previously claiming "those are features". The best season so far has been the cryomancer season, because it bugged-out and let me unlock everything without playing the actual mode so I didn't have to do jack fucking shit.

But speaking of GRIND, I hope you love to GRIND because this game is full of GRIND. Gotta grind your account level to unlock Kameos, gotta grind each individual character level to unlock more recolours specific to them as well as some gear pieces, grind both to unlock banner pieces related to that character, then you also have to grind each Kameo to unlock their own cosmetics and banner pieces, oh and make sure you keep GRINDING those characters and Kameos to unlock the ability to read their fucking movelist in-game (not the ability to use those moves, just to see the inputs in-game). Grind, grind, grind, griiiiiiind... this game is one huge grind and does not respect your time as a player; it sees you as a payer instead, either sinking extra cash or all of your time into this bland, live-service game in hopes of you sticking around to enjoy what little content there actually is to play with. I think the breaking point of this grind for me came in two parts: Okay, so like most EXP systems the requirements go up the higher your level. Sure, fine, whatever, but this game really took that concept and ran with it way too much because the climb becomes very steep very quickly. So this incentivises swapping characters and Kameos around often, right? No, because eventually those characters will also reach the steep point in the grind leaving you at a bit of a stand-still. Whilst your reward for getting a character up to "mastery" is a small helping of premium currency (except none of the DLC characters do that because NRS can go fuck themselves) the grind did not feel worth it to me ONCE, as in I only did it once and didn't feel like doing it again after realizing I wasted my time playing Omni-Man since he wasn't hiding any magic crystals up his ass. If this was only half of my breaking point though, what was the other half? EXP is not gained in local matches. The grind is fucking terrible already and even when playing on a Discord call to have people to talk with I was finding myself quitting partway through to play something else instead, but I can't even progress ANY of this grindy shit whilst playing with my friends? Actually inept. Whilst this is, once again, a cosmetic structure I don't care for the idea that they disabled EXP gain for local matches is very stupid. Fighting games are best enjoyed with friends, the online play community for MK in particular is incredibly uninviting, but my options here are to grind the shitty solo modes or grind the online modes that I don't find fun. Yaaaaaaaayyyy...

I haven't even mentioned story mode and I'm surprisingly less angry about it than one might expect from my previous uses of strong words. The story mode is forgettable and disappointing despite having a cool idea. It just doesn't really do anything at all with what they decide to set-up, trying to force-in all the characters they can even when they have nothing much to do in the grand scheme of things. Leading to some very pathetic-looking matchups that make should-be strong, intimidating characters a problem to be theoretically circumvented. The writing is pretty buns but that's honestly to be expected at this point, it ain't like either of the previous games (nor Aftermath) were known for their stellar writing. Story mode is repetitive and just kind of 'there', but it's over very quickly and has a fun final chapter at least. I can't really go into any details without spoiling said final chapter's gimmick but it does add to the disappointment of Invasions, having all these extra NPCs they could be using instead of pitting me against the same few recoloured fighters and giving them generic names. Story mode is a mediocre one-and-done mode in the grand scheme of things which is far less offensive than being a painfully terrible grind, plus you at least get to unlock Havik for getting through it the first time. The final chapter once held some replay value during the game's early days when everyone was discovering how deep the chapter went, but nowadays it's all really well documented. Oh well, it's still a fun novelty to think back on.

I could complain a bit more about how the DLC Kameos eat so much better than the base game Kameos, but that short statement alone kind of speaks for itself; base game Kameos still have their uses but the DLC ones so far have had a LOT more put into them, making them far more appealing options. I only have a limited amount of DLC to-hand since I'm basically taking the scraps my brother has purchased. In fact he's kind of the only reason I have this game at all, I was about to skip out on it until both his girlfriend and our parents got him MK1 for his birthday. So I pretty much got a free game that day, and whenever he's bought DLC I've been able to get that through console sharing. Yet even as someone who has not only gotten this game for free, but also been able to enjoy the pre-order bonus for free AND been able to use some of the DLC characters and Kameos for free, I would not recommend this game in its current form. I would go further as to never recommend it in any form if you're especially vulnerable to predatory microsanction practices. MK1 is a game that had, maybe still has, a lot of potential and it's been squandered by what is most certainly a rush development cycle that has been made to instead focus on getting as much cash from players as possible. The worst part is I will still say that the DLC trailers they create all look super hype, the marketing team for these games always know how to push their products well but I am long past the point of buying into it. I'll happily take a fast-paced fighter with less single player content to grind out online rounds because the gameplay there is far more engaging and rewarding, whereas even with the reworks to the gameplay here MK1 is still not the kind of game I'll be playing by myself. Hell, I haven't even brought it out to play locally with friends since January. Perhaps in a few years when they've done all the expensive DLC and you can buy the game as a truly complete package for a couple of bucks, this is a game that'll be closer to something I can recommend getting. But unless you are an absolute Mortal Kombat diehard I don't think you'll get much from this one. Disappointing game turned into an experience ruined by the push for a live-service grind and emphasizing microtransactions, not that it comes as a huge surprise these days. Maybe I'll come back some day, though I currently don't even care enough to think about trying this game again.

For most of the game, ff7r2 feels like more of the same, but drawn out from 35 to 90 hours. The new fighting styles are fun and when the story is actually retelling the og ff7, it's amazing. The exploration, on the other hand, feels like a bad Assassin's Creed game. With that, I would've given the game 4/5 stars....

However, the ending is so horrid that not only did I knock off a star and a half, I believe that it ruins ff7r (2020).

If you haven't gotten ff7r2 yet, wait a few years till ff7r3. Or at the very least, wait for a sale.

It's always a weird experience to not connect with a game that everyone else seems to love. But this game just did nothing for me. I really had to force myself to finish it, to be quite honest. It's just... too... long. Everything takes longer than it should. So many unskippable and incredibly slow animations. Every quest is padded to an insane degree. The entire design of the game revolves around justifying the bad decision to break a single game into three so they can charge you triple the price. The open world filler stuff is truly dire. The story has already devolved into pure anime nonsense after two games. There were so many points during my playthrough that as I pushed onward, I sat there thinking, 'man I really wish this was an RE4R style remake that was just the same game but better.' I guess it just wasn't for me. The music is amazing and some of the cutscenes were incredibly well-directed, but on the whole... this just isn't FF7. It's a Kingdom Hearts game (with all the negative that entails) with a FF7 total conversion mod on it. Ironically, this year's Like a Dragon IW is a far, far better Final Fantasy game than the actual FF game we got.

A great game that throws charming character interactions, goofy minigames, varied environments, cool boss fights and compelling cutscenes at the player constantly. The only big flaw is its bizarre desire to copy the absolute worst aspects of AAA western games with its insanely dull and repetitive open world side content. I think the most important aspect to get right when you want players to fill out an open world checklist is making traversal of said world smooth and enjoyable and Rebirth's is neither. It's really easy to get stuck on the environment and the stiff, slow animations for simple things like climbing rough terrain or going over chocobo-specific obstacles makes exploration feel jank and awkward. Thankfully it's almost all optional, but it was a tad annoying thinking about all the EXP and materia I was missing out on. The game also forces a ton of slow walking segments which don't end up wasting a lot of time overall but it ticks me off personally, especially since the PS5's SSD is supposed to make this completely unnecessary to hide loading times. The combat is still good and the synergy attacks are a nice addition. It's really cool seeing the inactive party members on the sidelines and I like how the game constantly switches up your party composition to make everyone feel more involved. I'm still not really sure what to think about the new story material since the time ghosts still feel rather unnecessary and Nomura really needs someone to rein him in for those ending sequences, but overall I had a very good time.

Rebirth fails to clear the lofty narrative bar Remake set for itself, settling instead for walking back every interesting piece of setup from the previous game. It fails to accurately represent the characters, reducing most of them to Flanderized shells. It fails to provide an interesting open world, settling for rote checklist work that drags and drags. Aside from the finely tuned combat and inventive music, this game is an utter failure on nearly every imaginable front. At this point, we’re confident in saying we won’t be back for Reunion or whatever the fuck they end up calling it.