The good news is that Persona 3 Reload is a faithful remake of a fairly landmark game, retaining what's great about the original while adding smart quality-of-life features that streamline the experience, making it much more enjoyable to play. The bad news is that Persona 3 Reload is a faithful remake of Persona 3 original, meaning much of the later P3 content has been largely ignored, and aspects of the game's design feel trapped in the era in which it was conceived.

To the credit of Atlus, they've done an admirable job of trying to fill in some gaps created by the dissonance of what Persona games were in 2006 and what they are now. Combat, in particular, is where most of the QOL features can be found, with full party control and baton passing now standard, along with the addition of super attacks called Theurgy (which can kinda trivialize battles at times but at least they're fun). Pulling up your item menu in battle also defaults to the item you most likely need in that situation, which blew my mind; if your ally is poisoned, the curing item goes to the top of the list, or if the enemy is weak to fire, then here's the fire gem. Why don't more games do this?

P3 was also very limited in scope in terms of its world and activities, but there are some new ones here sprinkled in, and engaging in them with your party members can also unlock new passive abilities in combat. Anything that reinforces the core theme of these games that the bonds you form with people are your strength goes a long way with me. Still, much like the originals, you'll probably find yourself lacking in things to do toward the end of the game, defaulting to a lot of the same activities and locations over and over.

That feeling carries over into the core gameplay loop of Tartarus, which has also seen changes - but ones I don't think go far enough. Sometimes random little events would spawn on a floor to keep things interesting, and they've spliced in new ones like giant rare hands to chase down or side paths you wander in to fight harder enemies for shiny loot. They even gave every block of Tartarus a facelift, and your party regularly engages in conversations to help distract from what is largely the same tedious grind of the original P3. It's not that I don't enjoy a good dungeon crawler, and Persona's excellent combat system goes a long way in mitigating the monotony, but Tartarus still comes up well short of the standard set in Persona 5 with its bespoke, handcrafted dungeons. And there are still too many damn floors.

I know perhaps it was unrealistic to expect a full overhaul to bring Persona 3 closer in line with what Persona 5 offered, as their goal was rather to present the experience largely as-is, just with a modern coat of paint. There's value in that, but it's frustrating to think that even with Reload, you still cannot say with absolute certainty this is the definitive version of Persona 3. You're always going to have to qualify that with "Yeah, you should play this one, but..." I know it would have been a lot of effort but the Portable campaign with the female protagonist should have been here. Hell, that arguably has the better social links, and while Reload does offer a replacement in terms of its Linked Episodes (featuring new storylines for the party members who don't have social links), it's still absolutely baffling that half your party is missing from what is the core conceit of these games.

All this is to say that yes, Persona 3 is still a great game, with a strong story featuring an extremely well-developed cast and the continued gold standard for turn-based combat. Reload does an excellent job of capturing what you enjoyed about the original and presenting it in a more accessible form. However, it's still a shame this era of Persona remains as convoluted as ever, and if someone ever asks me what version of 3 they should play, I'm likely to throw my hands up in the air and walk away.

I have put maybe an hour or two into Silent Hill 2, and I know it's a game that I need to finish at some point. I know the great twist, I've had that spoiled for me god knows how many times. I honestly put it into the same camp that I have movies like Alien in: even if there's something in there that surprises me, having the big moments ripped off like a band-aid purely through pop culture osmosis dampers my curiosity somewhat. All of this is to say, while you may not personally be excited for new Silent Hill games, I'm just curious to see something new. Since I was only really around for P.T. once that was spoiled for me, too, I'm not counting it—which leaves me with the newly released The Short Message.

I did not get the hate that this got over its leaks, and having finally played it, I still don't. Having seen those leaks, I actually have more of an appreciation for this; I know now that this was pretty cohesive in its themes and intention when it needed it to be and never deviated from that. I don't mind a lack of subtlety, as long as the bluntness of what you're working on is there for a good reason, and I found the reasoning for it here to be acceptable. It's laser-focused on what it wants and needs to say from beginning to end, and this focus is echoed throughout the spaces you explore. Although I can see someone being a little irritated that this is linear to the point where doors don't unlock unless you read certain notes, most of those notes serve the story and not the lore. There are notes that serve the lore, but they all feed you the right amount of information while giving you space to think. What impressed me on an immediate level were the cinematics. I genuinely can't tell if they were live-action or rendered, although I know that they were likely rendered. It's uncanny as hell, but it's equally impressive. What impressed me throughout, however, is how well this serves as a mood piece. Each and every location, whether it was important or minor, made me feel something. This is more of a vibes game than something substantive or scary, and while that might be disappointing if you're going in expecting serious scares, it kept me hooked. One concern I do have, if this is the playable teaser many are making it out to be, is that the only area where I noticed evident performance issues was when I was near fog. If the new Silent Hill games are all going to lack the fog or run like shit because of it, we might be in for a doozy. But regardless of that one scene, the rest of this was pretty solid! ...for the most part.

Yeah, those chase scenes, man. I'm a little biased because I already don't like chase scenes, but something about them here felt either like filler or downright infuriating to deal with. If it weren't for the last chase sequence, my rating for this would absolutely be three-and-a-half stars because the vibes were just that immaculate for me. But no, god, no. I don't know if I ever want to go through that again. Put it this way: the game doesn't make a big deal about which rooms you go into because of its linear trajectory until the final chase sequence, where it expects you to remember the layout of the map like the back of your hand while elements of it feel completely different. It expects you to find five photographs in this mess without giving you a map or checkpoints. At a certain point, the stress I was intended to feel gave way to frustration. The only reason I didn't stop playing there was because I wanted to see the ending. That was it. The ending was nice, and there was a cute little tune that played over the credits (way more people worked on this than any other free game I've ever played), but I don't think that forgives it. It was that bad. At least the creature design was cool, though—although I found it to be scarier in the leaked concept art than I did in the final product. Consequences of having that kind of stuff leak, I guess. Whoops! Feel bad for the developers on that front, because I'm probably not alone in that.

What I liked about this, I really liked. If a new Silent Hill game is made from this mold, I wouldn't mind, actually. The Silent Hill 2 remake being a horror game that needs to have a trailer dedicated to its combat should say something about how skeptical I am of that, but I might also check it out when it's on sale. If this and that trailer is Konami's way of getting people back on the Silent Hill hype train... I mean, I wouldn't call this embarrassing. This was cool. But, 7/10.

Excelent game with an awesome and interesting story, and with an impecable art direction. The characters are very fun and cool to talk to. The investigation and puzzle-solving might be easier to a few, but to the general public, including me, it's spot-on. Definely underrated Nintendo franchise.

However, some parts such as the beginning may be really boring, so try giving it a chance a bit further (the initial parts of the game are specially odd and not that interesting in my opinion, and it took me some time to really get the passion for it). The movement of the protagonist may be a bit wonky. If you get lost, there are many accessibility options that can help you out, no need to search for a youtube tutorial if you can't solve a puzzle.

It's a really well-done remake of the original games for Nintendo DS and Wii, so it's worth a shot. However, as you can see, the game is not very long, lasting around 13 hours on a casual play and around 15 to 16 hours if you want to search and scan all the "origami memories".

Despite recently writing in my Persona 5 Tactica review that games like this weren't my cup of tea, along comes Marvel's Midnight Suns, a tactical RPG that does just about everything it can to win me over - and succeeds. In fact, it's more akin to a trading card game than anything else, mixed with a healthy dose of social simulation - a fact I probably would have been way more enthused about sooner if this game was at all marketed properly. Instead, I'm coming to the party late, but nevertheless happy to be here.

While this game comes from the makers of Xcom, I would actually describe its closest comparable as Fire Emblem: Three Houses. However, a couple of key changes in design turned it from something was largely carried by its non-gameplay elements (as Three Houses was for me) to one that almost perfectly married combat and social sim in execution. The card-based nature of Midnight Suns was one part of it, although the lack of a grid for movement was a bigger deal (positively!) than I expected. While there is a limited number of moves in a turn, you have the freedom to move anywhere on the board, meaning strict positioning plays a much less prominent role. No worrying about being on the wrong tile and having the entire enemy team gang up on you, especially because (aside from bosses) all enemies telegraph which of your units they'll attack. There are no surprises, meaning you're free to concentrate on crafting your strategy from the cards in your hand.

These enemy encounters also have a lot of different win conditions present, resulting in no shortage of variety to combat, especially when you factor in that each Marvel character you control also has their own unique playstyle. Some characters, like Blade, are built around inflicting status effects like bleed on enemies, while others such as Wolverine and Spider-Man are about chaining together attacks on multiple enemies, either with your cards or by using environmental hazards on the battlefield. If I had one complaint with this part of the game, it's that there aren't a lot of unique enemy units - you'll be staring down hydra goons and green demons for most of your playtime. The DLC adds an entirely different set of units to fight (vampyres), but those DLC missions also bring in an additional problem I'll touch on later.

Then you have the social aspect of Marvel's Midnight Suns, the thing I had no idea was even present yet becomes the star of the show. A big part of this game's enjoyment comes from simply hanging out with your favorite Marvel guys. Want to go fishing with Blade? Play video games with Spider-Man? Join a book club with Captain Marvel? Go on friendship dates and give presents to Iron Man? If so, you'll be spending a lot of time doing that. Talking with all these various Marvel characters and learning their stories forms a core part of the gameplay loop, as doing so also helps you level them up and gain better cards/stats. This is ultimately an RPG, after all, but being able to see a different side to these iconic characters than most games allow is genuinely cool.

So who's doing all this, you ask? Your very own Marvel OC, of course. Also something I had no idea about, but when you start the game, you create your own character, dubbed "The Hunter" by others. This could easily be something cringe or forgettable but they actually took the time to make Hunter their own character, complete with voice acting! Yeah, you're super OP so you can stand alongside the giants of the Marvel universe but they somehow make it work. Speaking of voice acting, this game has a TON of dialogue. A little too much, in fact.

See, if I have one major gripe with Midnight Suns, is that there's almost TOO much content. This is factoring in the DLC, mind you, since I got the complete version on sale, and those characters and the entire DLC storyline are integrated almost seamlessly into the main narrative, so you'll be doing those missions as you work your way through it. This game took me over 60 hours, way more than I was expecting, and while I don't mind long games, Midnight Suns really drags towards the end. As I said, there's a lot of dialogue - characters usually have something to say after anything that happens - and while you can skip or ignore it, there are opportunities for friendship points in nearly every conversation, so it pays to pay attention. That said, by the end, I was almost entirely checked out as I pushed towards the final mission. Believe me, it's a lot.

The story itself is also pretty blasé. It's your pretty standard Saturday Morning superhero affair, with a bunch of good guys banding together to fight a mystical evil with mostly PG language and scenarios. It's also about these two groups - the titular Midnight Suns and the Avengers - being forced together to deal with this threat and the constant internal conflict these bands of heroes rub against. In theory, it works, but again, not nearly for the runtime of the entire game. There are three chapters and the repetitive nature of constant bickering between the two groups does wear on you well before they put their differences aside for good at the end. There is at least some really good character work for the individual heroes here and there, however, and if you do have the DLC, I would even say Midnight Suns features the best-written version of Eddie Brock ever put forward in media. Another surprise!

Nitpicks with story and length aside, I really adore Marvel's Midnight Suns. This game went overlooked by a lot of people, myself included, but there's so much here that I can definitely say it's worth your time, at least if you're into Marvel. Hell, I didn't even get into the fact this game has a hub world, with third-person exploration! Fucking wild! How did they not market this shit better?

Overall, this game just makes me sad. Not because of an emotionally strong ending or anything, but because there's so much potential here that goes to waste. First of all, despite the title, there's barely a thread of connection between this game and the original Soul Hackers. I really like the Sabbath system but I don't like that the rest of the battle system is basically just modern Persona but you can change the demons for each character. Speaking of characters, I think they actually do a pretty good job when it comes to writing them, but there once again could have been so much more. And don't even get me started on the day one DLC which should have really just been part of the base game in the first place. At the end of the day, I really like this game, but there's much better entries within the Megami Tensei series to play than this one.

I LOVE SAME TURN REINFORCEMENTS!
I LOVE FATIGUE!
I LOVE GETTING CAPTURED/DESTROYED BY UNITS IN FOG OF WAR!
I LOVE LOSING HALF MY SHIT IN THE PRISON CHAPTER!
I LOVE SUPRISE REINFORCEMENT BALLISTAS!
I LOVE 6 CON LIFIS THAT CANT STEAL A GODDAMN THING!
I LOVE CAPTURING EVERYTHING BECAUSE I HAVE NO FUCKING MONEY!
I LOVE BEING SLEPT/SILENCED FOR THE REST OF THE CHAPTER FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MAP!
I LOVE RECRUITING XAVIER!
I LOVE SAME TURN REINFORCEMENTS!
I LOVE SAIAS AND HIS TEN (10) LEADERSHIP STARS!
I DEFINITELY DIDNT WARPSKIP CH22!
I LOVE SAME TURN REINFORCEMENTS!
I LOVE THRACIA 776!

Great game though. I got a fucking E rank. Sorry for not rescuing you Eyvel. I was NOT gonna play that chapter.