"Wanna know the name? Devil May Cry"

As someone who has always heard amazing things about this franchise - as someone who even owns the whole series including the reboot - honestly it's still pretty surprising to me that I can finally say I've beaten a Devil May Cry game.

Besides the fact that I have a never ending backlog I tend to gravitate towards games that aren't universally loved as nothing saddens me more than getting high expectations from everyone who swears by a game or not loving a game quite as much and not fitting in with everyone else. I also often don't even finish the games I really love anyways, maybe because I don't want them to be over. Beyond that, I'm not generally fond of playing games known for their difficulty. Even more so I have a hard time adjusting to and being able to play old classics (from the PS2 era especially) and usually that goes hand in hand with the first problem. I gave the first and second games a chance a few months ago and they did not leave very great impressions at all. I was worried that this series would be another beloved thing I "just don't get". So to say I beat DMC3 and really liked it is quite the relief! Now even saying that, DMC3 does fall into some of the trappings that drag it down and stop me from being able to say I love it as a whole, but there is still stuff about it that I love.

In gaming I am usually a story over gameplay kinda gal, and it often annoys me when plots are too vague, convoluted or confusing for me to figure out. I know DMC3 is a prequel but I definitely feel like the larger plot overall was lost on me. Strangely enough this really didnt bother me much this time around and I think a large part of that is the strong cast between Dante, Virgil and especially Lady. Another big factor is the cutscenes are all the perfect amount of cool as shit and utterly fucking ridiculous. The over the top action is by far the best part of the game and if it was strictly story and action this game honestly could of had a 5/5. But it's the stuff inbetween that sours the experience overall for me.

Whether it be fighting games, beat-em-ups, hack n slash games like this or hell even stuff like Sifu and Yakuza I am absolutely terrible at games with combos. I'm a tried and true button masher and Im just never gonna be great at them unless i put a lot of time and effort but I don't really want to do that lol. It's not a genre of combat I particularly care for. Obviously learning the combat and being rewarded for pulling off cool combos is a big part of this game so it was never gonna hit as well for me as others but I still had fun with this games combat. The Special edition blessed me with easy automatic difficulty and gave me the kind of experience I prefer. Blasting through shit and not having to lose more years off my life by stressing and getting angry is much more fun for me. And the combat is still great. A lot of the enemy designs are really cool, and to my surprise a lot of the boss fights felt really balanced and not unfair. Some enemies like the spinning shield dudes are very annoying to deal with, and theres a lot of stunlocking and knockback in later sections that wore my patience a bit. But the real great thing about the combat is there's multiple different weapons and movesets that all play differently. I usually stuck with Agni and Rudra the whole game while dabbling in the others. All the variety plus the scoring system for each mission (not to mention the new playable character in this edition) lends to a lot of replayability and even if its not something I'll take advantage of it is admirable. But, while for me the combat was very easy and fun I still got quite a bit of frustration about the other parts of the gameplay. If i tried to beat this on normal difficulty while dealing with everything else this would be like a 3/5 at best. For one, I really don't like the setting. There are some really cool locations outside of it near the beginning, middle and end but most of the game takes place in this really big tower. I just did not like it at all. It felt a bit boring. There's not really backtracking necessarily but the way the tower is all connected means you'll be going through some of the same locations more than once and it just really wasn't great. The game isnt very clear about where to go most of the time either, and so for me I was running around a bunch trying to find whatever the hell item i was supposed to place wherever the hell else. Idk, there isnt really many puzzles in this exactly but the amount of times I had to look up a guide because the game was being too obtuse was a constant pain in the ass from the beginning. It really doesn't help how so much of it is just the same "find blank and put in blank" stuff either.

So that's all my thoughts on Devil May Cry 3, basically. Too much of the gameplay dragged for me to put it up there with other Nancy Certified Hits but the rest was really amazing. If 5 really is just this but without PS2 jank I think I'll love it. I don't know if i care enough to go back to the original two but I just might.

Man, Lady is epic as hell. And just the way that line (that I quoted at the beginning of this review) is delivered is so raw.
I'm still working on my Balan Wonderland review but who knows what Ill randomly decide to burn through next. Thanks for reading <3

Nancymeter - 83/100
Trophy Completion - 21% (14/34)
Time Played - 10 hours 44 minutes
Game Completion #147 of 2022
Game Completion #1 of December

Days Gone isn't a particularly good game; however, I had no illusions of that going in. It's perhaps the ultimate culmination of the incestuous nature of Sony's first-party development - a game full of systems and storytelling that have been aped from other places internally and executed better elsewhere (seriously, this game even steals the "talk to the gravestone of your loved one and update them on the story's events" gimmick of Horizon Zero Dawn). It's a title that desperately wants to punctuate itself with moments of quiet poignancy but instead hits you over the head with what feels like the unhinged ramblings of a madman. It's a game I would describe as unflinchingly competent but inherently uninspired.

There were, however, a few things I took away from Days Gone for which I will give it credit, even if by accident:

1. Despite this being one of the most unpolished AAA games I've ever played, it did result in at least one amazing glitch. After catching a stray Molotov, my character became engulfed in flames and remained in that state even after technically putting it out. I spent the next several hours with this visual glitch ostensibly cosplaying as Ghost Rider, and it carried through several of the game's most important cutscenes until I had to reload my save.

2. Days Gone actually lets you kill children. Zombie children, granted, but most games of this nature kind of pretend kids don't exist or lock you out from hurting them, so I'm glad they had the balls to let you do it.

3. One of the few games brave enough to have part of its core message be "Revenge is based, actually." Kudos.

I very much enjoyed playing this game. Great combat, great graphics ( I played on balanced ), incredible soundtrack, and found the story to be fine.

Combat is probably what I loved the most in this game, parrying and dodging feels very satisfying, and the final few bosses can genuinely be hard.

Soundtrack is incredible, hanging around the camp and hearing the music just feels very nostalgic for some reason.

I liked the level designs, but felt that it peaked with the first area ( Eidos 7 ). Character designs are great, and I love Eve's outfits.

I played on balanced mode, and while the levels are mostly 60fps, in the main hub and in like two boss areas, the frame drops can be pretty noticeable.

Story is fine, but a bit on the shorter side. Can definitely complete it in about 10-15 hours.

Balatro cracks the code of what a good, simple, and addictive video game should be. I've already lost more hours to this in the span of a few days than I care to admit, and I'm sure to spend many more collecting all 150 Jokers to complete my Jokerdex. That isn't even a joke.

If I could file one minor complaint, it's that Balatro isn't the greatest at explaining the finer nuances of its design; you're bound to lose a few runs in frustrating fashion while learning the ropes. One particular confusing element is that there are three separate facets of the game that all use the term "hand" - the number of hands you can play per round, your current hand of cards, and the hands of poker you score with. So when I came across a blind that said "You can only play one hand" I mistakenly assumed it meant "one type of hand" (ie full house, two pairs, etc.) and not "You get one hand to play, beat the score or lose the whole run." It's a minor frustration to be sure but one that could be mitigated with a little more clarity.

Now someone please make this game but with mahjong instead of poker and I can die a happy man.

Nintendo fans have been waiting years and years for Peach to finally get the spotlight starring in her own console game. It's finally here, and was the wait worth it?

Princess Peach Showtime is overwhelmed with spectacle. So much spectacle which unfortunately leaves little room for substance.

The game is pretty much a Action/Adventure in the most restrictive sense, where I'm almost inclined to call it an on-rails game. Coming from the freedom and fun that was Super Mario Bros Wonder, Princess Peach Showtime is the antithesis of that where your hand is held the whole way through and are forced to partake in scripted segment after scripted segment.

Levels are structured like stage plays, each one having their own genre, where in each one Peach gets a cool transformation to suit the genre of the stage play. Cowboy, Ninja, Chef, Mermaid and much more. At a core level, all stages are 2.5D platformers, but some stages gimmick involve more unique gameplay like cooking or singing.

Showtime's biggest strength is in it's subtitle. The game is filled with glits and glamour. So many cool and amazing looking segments, I could swear the game had a bigger budget than Mario Odyessy. Unfortunately most of these cool segments you find in each stage barely qualifies as gameplay and is more of a cutscene where you are lucky if you're even given the opportunity to press a button.

I honestly feel like this game was targeted towards an even younger audience than the typical Mario game for all ages, which is fair, but honestly Peach deserves better.

One top of all of this, the game somehow runs even worse on the Switch than Tears of the Kingdom did which is baffling considering that this is a much smaller game in scope.

Princess Peach Showtime is one of those games I'll play through once and probably never pick up again. Once you've seen everything spectacular about it, there's no reason to go back and experience again as the gameplay itself barely has anything to offer.

It's still a well made game however... maybe this game was not made for me, but something your younger sibling might enjoy.