Started this way back in August but it took me forever to finally finish it clearly. Over 100 hours poured in puts it among the longest games I’ve played, though I guess I’m kinda glad I went so slowly given Larian would add another new patch whenever I decided to turn it back on

It’s been a while since I’ve played through the Divinity games, but given how great Original Sin 2 was I’m not surprised that this is as highly acclaimed as it is also. BG3’s a very impressive RPG in design and presentation, managing to maintain the level of depth traditional to this style of top-down CRPGs, but with immense AAA production values to match which for the genre sets it apart from everything else in that regard. I’ll admit I’m not really familiar with tabletop D&D and its rules (nor have I played the first two Baldur’s Gate games yet), but as a standalone experience I wasn’t lost and it’s amazing what they pulled off here. The closest I guess I can compare it to is like a more ambitious Dragon Age: Origins, which is awesome

There is just so much here, you’ll probably spend dozens of hours in the first act and its opening areas alone cause of how dense with content it is. Basically all of it (while being mostly optional) is worth doing which made it very easy to sink a lot of time into, and given the game’s many different quest variations and choices you’d likely get a lot of replayability out of it too. Graphically it looks fantastic, but what Larian really shows off is how dialogue is done with unique cutscenes instead of text boxes, using full mocap for literally every single NPC you can talk to. Given how BG3 is no less massive in scale, that’s a pretty remarkable advancement from their previous games

The main story itself is good, and the stakes with trying to remove the tadpoles in your head keeps it compelling. But I will say narratively I think it peaks with Act 2, as Act 3 gets a bit less focused to me and wasn’t really a fan of how rushed parts of the ending felt. I did like the epilogue and how it wraps everything up but as far as I know, that part wasn’t even in the game at launch and had to be added with a patch

The characters and their performances are largely top notch though. Some of your companions are more fleshed out than others (Shadowheart and Astarion were my favorites), but for the most part they’re all memorable and their personal quests do a good job developing them throughout. Personalization for your main character is strong too, though will probably depend on whether you choose a custom background or an origin. I made the perhaps ill advised decision to do my first playthrough as “The Dark Urge” which is considered an evil path, but I found it really interesting to roleplay as someone trying to be good despite that. It adds a very cool amount of connection to your character and the story, and really liked how varied your dialogue options are so you can still shape how you respond to your own actions and past. It seemed to affect quite a lot especially in Act 3 too so can’t say how much is changed without it, but would recommend for sure. Whenever I decide to replay I’ll try going full evil next though >:)

Combat is of course turn based with the standard fantasy classes you’d expect to choose from, and since this is D&D based all actions and skill checks are done with dice rolls. The RNG tied to this can be annoying (will not deny I have a long list of quicksaves), but I enjoyed its usage in gameplay and decision making. Will say combat can get really slow at times though, why they never have a way to speed up turns in these games is beyond me, you’ll frequently fight numerous enemies at once and having to sit through every single move they make gets a bit tedious at times. I also felt like a lot of the loot/equipment you find was a bit unrewarding, I ended up using armor and weapons I found in Act 1 for most of the entire game cause I didn’t really have much reason to switch them out. But that may just be a D&D thing with progression, especially since the level cap is 12

Besides that the only notable problem for me was performance, which could be better… It’s definitely been improved with all the patches, but at release you could tell it still needed much more polish and even now it’s not exactly stable. I’ve actually played this both on PC (Steam Deck) and PS5, though both weren’t ideal for different reasons. On Steam Deck it ran fine for most of Act 1 and Act 2 at 30FPS, and with FSR 2.2 (this wasn’t added til later tbf) it looks pretty great now also. Act 3 really starts to push it though, it’s the most impressive part of the game on a technical level given how packed the area is with so many NPCs, but clearly the least optimized as I had near constant FPS drops and more noticeable bugs like frequent animation lags or quests being easier to sequence break. That said, those with much better hardware for PC probably won’t have as much of an issue

PS5 in comparison runs as it should, even Act 3 mostly holds 60 FPS in performance mode from what I’ve played which is great. This would be the obvious way to play BG3, if not for the insane amount of crashes I’ve had on it that crippled the port for me. I haven’t played something that crashed this often since Cyberpunk at launch, past a point I couldn’t even open my saves anymore without getting kicked off and some of them even started saying they were corrupted somehow, rendering it basically unplayable on there (thankfully there’s cross save support). This is still not fixed in my case and not sure if it’s just my PS5 or something to do with the game on console, but regardless wouldn’t advise buying it on there. Some don’t seem to have as much of a struggle with it though so YMMV on that I suppose

Despite the gripes (and extreme annoyance at the PS5 version), I really enjoyed BG3 and was sad to see it end after all the time I spent on it. More than anything though I’m glad it’s such a massive success for Larian, despite their positives isometric CRPGs are usually seen as having niche appeal so it’s cool to finally have one break out into mainstream like this has. Hopefully bodes well for the genre going forward

A murder mystery VN set in a 1482 monastary (kinda reminds me of Pentiment actually but more of a direct kinetic novel than that was). As a “Volume One” entry the central mystery it’s building toward is sadly left incomplete for now, but I would highly recommend it on its own anyway as its character writing and presentation really set it apart

While the cast overall is pretty compelling, it’s the protagonist that really makes this for me. Centered on Hedwig, an Anchoress who lived most of her life in total isolation, who’s suddenly forced out her cell by her Superior and given the goal of secretly trying to solve the murder of one of the convent’s Sisters. What makes Misericorde really interesting so far is not exactly the mystery itself (though the potential is definitely there), but seeing how completely unprepared Hedwig is for such a task and having to overcome her poor social skills as a result. Her internal dialogue is really well written and descriptive, watching her clash so heavily with trying to interact with the other Sisters while also playing a “detective” really makes her compelling to follow

This VN also looks and sounds really cool. The use of a monochrome aesthetic for the sprites and (I’m assuming) real photos as the backgrounds works really well in giving the monastery an unsettling gothic atmosphere. And while there’s no voice acting the music is excellent too, kind of hard to describe but it’s like lo-fi or trip hop sounding which seems like an odd mix but it’s actually very fitting

My feelings on it may change when I can think on it as a whole, but as is it’s really good and I’m very excited to see how it continues for Volume Two. Shows a lot of promise if it can pay off from all the build up

This is a 30+ hour RPG that was mostly developed entirely by one person, which is very impressive for the amount of content it has. Though I wouldn’t say I loved it quite as much as some other RPGMaker games I’ve played as I felt the combat brought it down a bit. An interesting system with the numerous forms Jimmy can turn into and clearly meant to be more difficult than the norm, but the frequent enemy encounters literally every few seconds and heavy grinding needed for bosses was excessive, it dragged the game on longer than it probably needed to be. The characters (Jimmy’s family and occasional others that join the party temporarily) were all pretty bland to me also which was an issue when the game’s so heavily focused on them in the story

But aside for those issues it’s still quite good and clearly made with a lot of heart. Has a creative world with plenty of varied islands/continents and a meaningful amount of optional areas to explore. Given the kind of games this is obviously inspired by, its mix of light hearted and horror aspects was well done, and while the characters were a weak point for me the story it tells was intriguing nonetheless. The music’s great too! Lot of unique tracks all over the place and I never got tired of listening to the overworld theme

While they’re all talking dinosaurs, Goodbye Volcano High’s characters felt more like genuine teenagers just trying to figure themselves out as high school comes to a close, before tragically having to come to terms with their futures being cut short. In the face of their inevitable end (in this case a looming asteroid), what matters to them is making the most of their lives in the moment and appreciating their loved ones and passions. It’s a bleak premise from the outset but largely a sweet and heartfelt game, enjoyed it a lot

And though it’s mainly narrative focused with dialogue choices, the rhythm game sections where your band play on stage were nice and connected me more with Fang and their dream to be a successful musician. The soundtrack in general is nice too

I’ll readily admit I’m biased when it comes to Persona 3. FES is a game I hold very dearly, still remember first playing it a decade ago now and having no idea about Atlus games at the time. In a way it was even transformative for me in how much it helped grow my interest for anime/JRPGs in general, and one of the rare few games I feel leaves an emotional impact. So Persona 3 Reload, a genuine from the ground up remake for it and not just a basic port (like Portable’s recent release), is like a dream game I didn’t think we’d ever actually get until it was really announced last year. It’s not perfect of course, but the nostalgia and how strongly it still hit me is the same as ever

What it does well

- The most immediately striking improvement from the PS2 original is the presentation overhaul to Persona 5’s standards, bringing with it full scale character models with the very stylish art and UI that made P5 so dazzling. Here P3’s aesthetics have been beautifully updated and the menus are especially immaculate, never getting tiring to look at and browse through. While it can be argued the original’s moody atmosphere is diminished a bit with the new vibrant style, it still wholly fits the game’s somber tone to me

- A big change with Reload that I appreciated actually has to do with the English voice acting, as compared to FES and Portable there’s been an entire recast for the characters (barring one exception with Elizabeth). It’s fair to be apprehensive over this after being used to the original voices for so long, but I felt Reload’s cast did a fantastic job bringing new life to the characters and really making them their own. I’d even go so far as to say this is one of the best dubs Atlus has done, as not only are pretty much all the performances consistently excellent, this is also the first Persona game where every single side character and their Social Link events are fully voice acted! Something that really made a huge difference in how invested I’ve always been on spending time with them. It’s an impressive effort and I hope that’ll be the case for future Atlus games also

- As far as story goes, it’s faithful to the original with the major beats being unchanged, but there’s many new scenes added with better opportunities to bond with the characters now. The dorm feels more like a true home in Reload where you can just hang out and it helps attach you to them in a way that wasn’t quite as fleshed out before. A big omission in FES (the lack of any Social Links for male party members) was also addressed with Link Episodes, which are similar in that it gives them further development but instead ties their events to the story as you progress. They’re not quite the same as full Social Links like with Portable, but it’s a very appreciated change that felt natural and added a lot to their growth

- Tartarus has always been a divisive like it or hate it kind of thing with P3, and it’s more or less the same dungeon with literally over 200 generated floors to climb in Reload. That said it’s been improved with much larger scaled floors and QoL additions, it looks a lot better design wise, and they did add some nice improvements that made it less of a bore to get through like Monad doors (challenges to fight stronger enemies throughout). Combat now also takes directly from P5’s battle system and is basically identical, which gets no complaints from me. There’s party control with new mechanics like Shift (similar to Baton Pass) and Theurgy, it’s really stylish, and it’s much breezier to fight shadows and fly through floors than before which is pretty much all I wanted there. Merciless difficulty was pretty fun too, not very hard but not a joke either which is better than how they had it for P5 Royal, would recommend trying it if used to the combat in these games

- The music is fairly different having been fully remixed with Lotus Juice and a new singer Azumi Takahashi doing vocals, while also adding some original tracks as well. I’ve seen mixed opinions about the OST changes, but personally I got used to it quickly and still think it’s an incredible soundtrack. The new songs “Full Moon, Full Life”, “It’s Going Down Now” and “Color Your Night” are easily among my favorites in the series now too

What could be better

- Obviously Atlus made it clear with Reload they were only focused on remaking P3’s main game with the male protagonist, which means it doesn’t include both The Answer (an expanded epilogue introduced in FES) and the extensive route for the female protagonist that Portable introduced. It does still include smaller additions from both those versions such as Aigis’s Social Link or missing persons to save in Tartarus, but I can understand why people are let down by the major exclusions especially for the price, as without them you might as well say P3 still doesn’t have a true edition that brings all its content together. However as of now The Answer’s currently rumored to be made for Reload as DLC at a later date, so have to see how that pans out I suppose

- While I adore the presentation, there are a few odd quirks to its visuals. Most areas look nice and it even supports 4K/60 with ray tracing on PS5 which was a surprise to say the least, but some areas look sorta… off. Either with its strangely flat lighting (the dorm being an example) or being static to the point of seeming unintentional honestly (calling out Club Escapade in particular). Perhaps it’s due to budget or just cause it’s using Unreal Engine instead of P5’s proprietary one, but feel there could’ve been a bit more polish there

- I’m a bit mixed on cutscenes compared to FES. As rough as they were, the anime scenes did have a very cool grungy 2000s direction to them that made up for the graphics at the time. Instead Reload uses both new anime and in-engine cutscenes throughout similar to P5, which for the most part are fine (I actually like the in-engine ones quite a bit with how nice the 3D visuals are now), but the quality of the anime scenes take a hit in my opinion, more up to date with them being done by Wit Studio but also looking kinda bland in comparison. How they decided between one or the other for story moments is inconsistent also, why is the awakening scene done in-engine and not as anime for instance

- For Social Links the writing is one thing I wish was touched up on more. There’s some notable differences here and there (and thankfully made it so you aren’t forced to romance every girl to complete them), but overall it’s mostly the same and you can easily tell they’re the earliest iteration on the formula with the weaker Social Links still sticking out (Kenji for one). But as mentioned the voice acting elevates them nonetheless, and I still love particular ones like Akinari’s

- You’ll easily max out your social stats and unlock all the extra skills for party members with plenty of time to spare, which means you’ll probably be lost on stuff to do at night in the late months with still only 2 social links available the whole game. There’s a new computer with software to use, but eventually you’ll make full use of that also which basically just leaves Tartarus or stat building for Personas at the arcade. This was an issue with the other versions too and was hoping they would try to adjust it, but guess not

Overall

Some aspects could’ve been improved upon further overall, but really couldn’t be happier this remake was made. As someone who’s played FES, Portable, and watched all the movies (even owning the box set lol), Reload genuinely felt like I was able to experience P3 for the first time again. It doesn’t try to change the original experience at its core and can be said it’s faithful to a fault, but it still develops into a story that remains the most emotionally resonant among the Persona games for me. Where it succeeds is how well it carries over that story to current standards for both new and old fans, doing just enough to expand on it and modernize the gameplay while maintaining why it’s so beloved. Even knowing how it comes together after all these years I was still greatly affected, and given that it remains one of the most meaningful I’ve played

It’s better than whatever Silent Hill: Ascension was at least (as low a bar as that could be), but still just… exists I guess. Another short “PT” style thing but focused on mental health and bullying through social media. It’s a genuine topic to explore for SH to its credit, but the execution is extremely heavy handed, and its poor dialogue and voice acting let it down further. From a gameplay standpoint the chase sequences were more annoying than anything also, especially the last one. While it’s free and takes just about 2 hours, I’d still hesitate to say it’s worth the time

Ubisoft’s best game in years! I had hopes I’d enjoy it a lot given this is by the team that made the exceptional Rayman Legends (a decade ago now oof), but this managed to surpass expectations even and as a Metroidvania it genuinely stands next to Hollow Knight and Ori as my favorites in the genre. Having fantastic combat and boss fights with strong focus on combos/parrying attacks, very fluid platforming controls and traversal powers with razor sharp challenges throughout, and great level design as you explore the large and varied map of Mount Qaf

There’s some minor gripes, had a few crashes and felt like the story it was telling was fine but nothing very noteworthy either aside for the characters just making for cool bosses. Also since backtracking could be frequent, I kinda wish fast travel was a bit less limited and let you move between save trees. But otherwise this was a joy to play and the 25 hours it took me to finish flew by (still have plenty leftover for 100% too)

With a renewed interest in big fantasy RPGs as of late (mainly cause of Baldur’s Gate 3 which I still need to finish admittedly), I got a craving for it and considered crawling back to playing Skyrim or Oblivion once again seeing as how there’s still little else like those until… Avowed I guess? Or just waiting for the next TES game 5+ years from now…

Somehow though I’ve only just recently heard about Enderal: Forgotten Stories, a free “full conversion mod” for Skyrim that’s actually considered a whole separate game you can download on Steam. Very curious, instead of replaying Skyrim for the 10th time I decided to give that a shot to see how it differs. Now that I’ve finished, to say I’m impressed by it is an understatement

The main thing to point out about Enderal is that calling it a mod is doing it a disservice honestly. While it of course plays the same as Skyrim and uses its assets, it is most definitely its own RPG and a dense one at that, set in a completely separate world to explore. It has its own unique world-building and lore, a main questline that’s actually pretty compelling and far more involved compared to Skyrim’s own, more fleshed out characters especially with the focus on two central companions throughout the story, has dozens of good side quests to do, and it has full voice acting with its own soundtrack. Needless to say for something that costs nothing aside for just owning Skyrim, I was immensely caught off guard by how extensive it really was. Almost like playing a TES game for the first time again, I got lost in it and have over 50 hours now with the story done but still plenty left to do and explore

There are criticisms to note though, for one as much as they try to rebalance its systems, if you didn’t care for Skyrim’s combat then this won’t really be much different. If anything I found the change to buying learning books for leveling skills instead of natural progression with use to be a bit too limiting after a while, though it did make money more useful and kept the game more challenging given there’s no level scaling. Quests can be prone to breaking also which is an issue for main ones especially, occasionally having to reload older saves to progress cause nothing would happen otherwise. And the voice acting, as varied as it is which was appreciated for something like this, ranges from pretty good to kinda amateurish most of the time. Though on the whole it’s hard to fault this given how huge of a game it is, and that it’s just using Bethesda’s engine which is inherently janky

So overall I think it’s a great game in its own right, but as a free fan project it’s a pretty amazing achievement, even going so far as to say it surpasses the game it’s taking from in most aspects. If anyone’s looking for something that revitalizes Skyrim’s style of adventure or just wants a new fantasy RPG to really sink into, then give this a try for sure

✅ Positives:
• Creative meta elements to its story
• Good atmosphere and music
• Well done supernatural premise and lore
• Very detailed descriptions in Files and Persons of Interest made it easy to keep track of all the info you learn throughout the game

❎ Negatives:
• A bit… dull I suppose? The game has a strong start with its horror focus on curse bearers trying to gather soul dregs off each other, but then the game goes to daytime and just kinda drops that since the curses only work at night. Basically means the majority of the game from there is just a more predictable detective story, not bad but also not as compelling with its characters personally
• The mysteries were interesting but the endings were underwhelming
• Minor gripe but having to click the same dialogue option multiple times until it exhausted all the text to proceed got annoying

✅ Positives:
• Unique pencil drawn art style
• An interesting concept beyond simply slaying a princess (though difficult to explain without giving away given how short it is)
• The variety of branching paths was cool, and evidently there’s quite a few more to look for past a first playthrough
• Entertaining dialogue/voice acting between the narrator, princess, and your character

❎ Negatives:
• While I liked the reactivity of the choices and different princesses, having so many variations did make the paths a bit shallow. Probably would’ve preferred fewer of them that were more focused
• The final endings were kinda underwhelming. There’s an overall story but felt it didn’t really come together quite as well

✅ Positives:
• I haven’t played many games with atmosphere quite as oppressive as this felt, almost suffocatingly so. From the get go you’re set off in a town that’s immediately out to get you, with the game getting much worse to manage as a deadly plague starts to set in, supplies run low, and districts fall into disarray. As the town’s doctor, you’ll be tasked to try and keep the people there and yourself alive as long as you can, which gets more miserable with each passing day. While there are difficulty settings to choose from, at the start it’s said to keep it on an “intended” level as a way to really understand the almost unbearable world they’ve made here, and I’d say it does work very well even if it can be exhausting to play after a while
• With the survival systems and timed deadlines you’re pretty much forced to always be doing something, and I liked how the characters, quests and points of interest are structured with a “thoughts” map which made it easy to keep track of things. You’ll rarely be lost cause of this which was appreciated
• The majority of the game is spent talking to the town’s residents, and dialogue is well written. And while he’s not voiced I liked how personified they made the main character’s dialogue options too, endearingly emphasizing his stress with the situation and other characters as he tries to find a cure
• I liked how the barter system works in the game. Ordinarily you can go to stores to buy supplies but that’ll start getting expensive very quickly. Instead you can trade a bunch of general items you have with NPCs for anything they’re carrying to keep you going, like food or medicine. This makes all the random items you find useful when they wouldn’t have much value otherwise
• The music is understated but does a great job making you feel very uneasy as you go around town and things continue to get worse

❎ Negatives:
• Didn’t like the combat. I get that it’s supposed to be avoided as you barely have any means to defend yourself or heal, but in those cases where you have no choice or get overwhelmed by multiple enemies it’s very janky to deal with. On top of this, the game does this thing where you get punished if you die by taking away a piece of your overall health across all your save files, meaning you can’t just reload afterwards from what I could tell. With how fast combat can kill you in general, I felt this wasn’t really necessary on top of everything else
• You will be walking through the same town districts A LOT, there is only a limited way to fast travel with boats and you need finite items to use them (and eventually they’ll ask for more at once too). Didn’t really care for this and felt it just took up more time than anything
• Assuming you play on the intended difficulty, you will constantly be starving. This works as the means to keep you active throughout the game, but at times I felt it was a bit unbalanced as water was comparatively much easier to find and stock up on. Don’t think I ever had a point where I was really in need of that, meanwhile your hunger meter barely lasts a couple hours before having to look for more (and it gets expensive to do so)
• Performance on Steam Deck was okay, but couldn’t really handle it past 30 FPS. Probably should only play this on an SSD also, as it loads every time you enter interiors and I’ve seen it can have extremely long wait times otherwise