The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was the best open world game I've ever played. Early on in Tears of the Kingdom, it was clear that it was better than its predecessor. Not only is this game the best open world game, it dethrones Twilight Princess as the best Zelda game for me. The amount of fun I was having playing this game is on the level I would expect more from the Super Mario Bros. series than Zelda. It's also one of the best puzzle games I've ever played. They find so many creative ways to play with these new abilities and the physics of the world. I was regularly in awe of what I was able to do. This game really expanded how I could interact with its world in comparison to the first game, but also in comparison with every video game. I've had a few times playing other games and had to remind myself that I do not have the Ascend ability. This is easily one of the greatest games ever made.

A shorter, more streamlined Like A Dragon game. I was happy to get this after Like A Dragon: Ishin! The combat was much better here. The new agent fighting style really helped with large groups. Being able to use the Spider to grab multiple enemies and fling them around was fun. I really liked the new character Akame, and I appreciate how they set up the side missions through her network. It made everything easy to track and tackle at my own pace. I ended up doing most of the missions which is more than I usually do in these games. Even with that, it still ended up being a much shorter game than the other ones I played which I appreciate. I was done in under 30 hours. I wish the franchise would keep going in this direction, but they've already released news that the next game is their longest.

It's a solid story, but I feel this is the worst the combat has been for the series. I mostly used the wild dancer style for normal enemies and swordsman style for bosses because my attacks did more damage with that style. I would've only did the wild dancer style if it didn't make boss fights take forever. The gunman style was just boring, and the short reach of the brawler style was annoying. I surprised myself with how invested I got into the farming part of the game. I was proud of how efficient I got with it, and I amassed a fortune doing it. The writing still remains the highlight with plenty of enjoyable side quests. It's an interesting time period in Japanese history too with the Western world moving in.

I was frustrated at the first two episodes because getting to know the characters on your ship was locked behind difficult-to-find collectibles. I had to use a walkthrough on the second episode, and some of this stuff I would have never found without a guide. As the story played out over the remaining episodes, I realized there's nothing new here. I love the show. I love Camina Drummer. This story just seemed to retread conversations and storylines similar to what I've already seen on the show. This is a forgettable side story not really worth the time. I do at least like the new approach to QTEs where there's a time limit to press the correct button that doesn't instantly fail me when I press the wrong button first and then the correct button within the time limit.

It brings back the deduction mini games of Danganronpa with a more ambitious structure. It's a semi-open world with side quests. Each chapter has me teaming up with a different detective. Each one has their own unique ability that adds a gimmick to shake things up making each chapter stand out. It's still mainly focused on murder mysteries which is a little disappointing since Master Detectives can be used to solve any kind of mystery. The stories are still compelling though obfuscating just enough so even if I've guessed some of the answers, I still won't know the whole picture until the end. The story is good. It focuses on the damage that hiding the truth can do on a micro and macro level. The characters are fun, but they still managed to create a gross character that creeps on all the women. I don't know why this writer finds that so amusing. They managed to do enough things that are exciting and different that they managed to create their best game since the original Danganronpa.

I started the series with Pikmin 3. I was surprised to find it to be the only RTS game I've ever liked. The focus on collecting and efficiency hooked me. With Pikmin 4, I'm surprised to find the only Tower Defense game I've ever liked. The new mini games are fun and challenge your skills of managing Pikmin efficiently to collect all items on the map. This game was hard to put down, and I kept pushing my self to be better going for higher medals and higher percentage gains in a day. These games can still get their hooks in me. It even effected the way I go about tasks in real life.

It took me a little while to remember how to play this game since I haven't played since December. Once I got back into the swing of things, I remembered why I liked this game so much.

This new story DLC doesn't add much new that wasn't already in the main game. There's one new enemy type with the Biorobot. These are fine. They are tougher than regular enemies and dispel electricity to prevent you from staying on top of them. The new melee weapon is the star. The Kinetic Hammer is much stronger than the Stun Baton. It allowed me to tear through regular enemies in a very satisfying way. It also has an area of effect attack to knock back groups of enemies to give me some space. The final boss fight is really good.

There isn't much of a story to this. It really only serves to fill in backstory for Dr. Mauhler and the shadowy cabal behind the UJC that Cole reported to. All of this is told through logs you find in the game. All of that was really good. The actual story of Jacob finding a way out of Black Iron isn't noteworthy outside of how it ends.

I enjoyed my time with this DLC because of the combat and lore. It is disappointing that it has me walking through the same type of environment as the main game. I wish there was more new to make this a more memorable experience.

Team Ninja continues to make the best Action RPGs I've ever played. The combat feels incredible. It's flashy, intense, and fun while making me feel cool as hell. Sticks to Nioh structurally, but the combat system is new making it stand on its own. The enemy variety is small like in Nioh, but it doesn't get old. They still keep me on my toes during the entire game. The bosses are great. There's not a weak one in the bunch, and the game gets playful with them. One of them even evoked Super Mario Galaxy. The level design gets creative like Nioh 2 with more ways to reward exploration with the new flag and fortitude system. Managing morale and spirit add extra elements of tension to combat making me worry about more things than just my health. It's such an exciting game. I'm not really a fan of soulslikes or action RPGs in general including From Software's, but Team Ninja's games are just undeniable. They are the masters of this genre.

Fire Emblem Engage might be the best strategy game I've played. I've always loved the series and their weapon triangle that's included in most games. The new Emblems has been the most substantial new addition I've seen in the series so far as they add special attacks, skills, and abilities. The game is balanced to make them critical to my strategy. I've got out of some tough spots with clever usage of Emblems. They also add a lot more unit customization since Emblems can be set to any character, and the characters can inherit skills from them after raising their bond levels with the Emblems that they keep even after the Emblem is removed. This is the best looking Fire Emblem yet as Intelligent Systems fully embraced 3D graphics. The characters and maps look so good in this game. I am finally okay with them moving on from 2D sprites. The writing of the characters are pretty charming, funny, and sweet with Goldmary and Etie being my favorites.

The original Resident Evil 4 is the greatest horror game I've ever played. It was also the first horror game I've ever played. The remake was the first time I've played the original game before, and I have a mixed reaction. It's not as good as the original, and it sticks pretty close to it in a way that makes me think there's no reason to play this instead of the original. There's a part of me that could be harsh and give it a 3 star or lower review because of this. It does manage to recapture most of what Resident Evil 4 was though, and it ends up being a great game because of this. When it deviates from that though, it bounces between pleasant surprise and disappointment. The strongest inclusion was the new knife actions, and even that is held back by frustrating knife durability. Some of the boss changes are cool while others just feel dull or awkward. There's more story, but it's not better. They try to ground these characters and give them more of an arc, but I don't think they go far enough to make much of an impact. Leon, Ashley, and Luis come off well mostly here with Ashley and Luis getting beefed up roles, but Ada was the most disappointing part. She's so forgettable in the remake after being the coolest motherfucker I've ever seen in a video game in the original. The game does look fantastic and ups the gore in some gnarly ways. As a horror fan, I can appreciate that at least.

With the addition of stealth and limited resources, the game ends up feeling a bit like Shinji Mikami's last Survival Horror game The Evil Within. There's even a combat encounter that feels ripped straight from that game. Sadly, this game doesn't commit to stealth as it was rarely an option, and I only felt the limitations on my resources in the final few chapters on Hardcore mode. I think The Evil Within ends up being the better game too.