My first experience with The Legend of Heroes series and damn, what a game.

If you're looking for a fresh JRPG with some of the best writing, this is what you want. Literally every NPC has thought-out dialogue that changes throughout the game, making the world that much believable. No more ignoring every person because they blabber on about nonsense. I made an effort to talk to everyone to make sure I didn't miss a thing.

I also think this has some of the best character development in JRPGs when it comes to the party. Learning about small details of the crew and seeing them bloom and grow in a playthrough made seeing their individual growths and journeys that much more impactful. I'm also finding it hard to pick a favorite character as I've grown to love them all.

As for the story, obviously can't say much, but starting as a lil rag-tag group of people helping around the small town to evolving into the final moments in the game is batshit crazy.

Anyways, go play this. It's far worth the sixty hours-ish. I promise 😘

In my opinion, this isn't the best step forward for the new generation of Silent Hill. I think if this game didn't have the Silent Hill title on it, it would be a fine indie horror game. Granted, I also wouldn't of thought highly of it still, but I don't think I'm the target audience for it.

The Short Message deals with a teenage girl who suffers from some pretty serious mental health issues, so as a 31 year old dude, I find it difficult to talk about since I've not been in the same situation as the one portrayed in this game.

I think they laid it on quite thick with really hammering it home this girl has some issues. To a point where the elements of the story becomes a little hokey because they're not giving the player any credit. I don't need thousands of sticky notes with words like LOSER, DUMB, SLUT, LONER, etc to get the point that she doesn't think too highly of herself. I can gather that by the way she holds herself, how she thinks, etc. and that's really my main complain here. The themes are so in your face 24/7 that the value of learning about the darkness of this girl's mind and her hardships are lessened, to an extent.

The beauty of Silent Hill for me is how well story elements are portrayed in the environment, enemies, situations, etc. You can always pick up something new you didn't see or notice with additional playthroughs. I will never play this game again and if I did, I don't think I'd get anything out of it.

Lastly, the combat is just running away from a dude in narrow hallways with slight rng or poor patterns (I can't tell tbh). These parts suck and they've nothing of note.

Overall, for a free game, it could be worse. For the first new game in a beloved franchise since 2012, it's abysmal.

I didn't realize how much Resident Evil DNA is within the first Onimusha game, but now it is one of my favorites! Between the puzzle-solving and navigating a dense map, this really feels like the developers went "What if Resident Evil was set in feudal japan?". The game is originally from the PS2 and has all the elements that comes with that, which I personally love.

Overall, definitely a fantastic experience and I wish the other entries on the Onimusha series stayed with this formula, but they did not.

An atmospheric horror game that came out of nowhere. There's been a serial killer going crazy recently, but you NEED to get your laundry done at the local laundromat. During this time, you'll meet the store owners and shoppers at the local strip mall while your laundry is washing. You'll be reading newspapers and learning from conversations that something dark happened here, but it's up to you to find out what really happened.

For being a relatively short game (I clocked just under 2 hours), I've found myself thinking back in it quite a bit. Definitely recommend if you're into quick horror experiences that are still quite unsettling.

SMTIII: Nocturne is a game I’ve been meaning to play for the longest time, but kept putting off for how hard I’ve heard it is and how poor the remastered port was. Well, good thing I personally believe both of those facts are incorrect now that I’ve completed my first play-through.

It really irks me how all I heard about the game was the difficulty. I didn’t hear anyone talk about the world, how desperate it is, and what costs are needed in order to shape the world into what the player believes is the correct choice.
The difficulty debate stems from, what I can gather, one main boss: The Matador. Now, to be fair, I’ve played my fair share of SMT titles before this: Persona 3-5, SMT:IV, SMT:V, and a few of the many PS2 spin-offs. I’m only stating this because the battle system in these games are VERY similar (which is a growing complaint of mine). What I am trying to say is that it’s possible I am very familiar with the battle system and that’s why I had no issue with the Matador. To sum it up, the Matador has high resistances to your attacks and you need to utilize support spells to get your party though the encounter. This boss fight is basically a check to see if the player has this knowledge. Evidently, a loud minority seemed to not.

Now that my difficulty complaint has been addressed, let me talk about the game. Gameplay wise, it’s a familiar experience. There are random battles, you can convince demons to join your party by multiple types of payment, and you level up your stats. The biggest difference in the battle system is the addition of the Magatamas. These little things you can inject and they alter the main characters stats and what moves they will learn while leveling up. There’s a few other elements to the Magatama, but that’s the gist. You can switch these out anytime you’re outside of battle. I did like this system, as it gives the player more options to tune their character based on the encounters at hand.

The story of Nocturne is the real winner. The world is facing an apocalypse and you’re a huge component of it. You’ve changed into a demi-fiend: half human, half demon. This gives you powers and survivability over regular humans. This also gives you enough power to alter the plans of bigger parties looking to change the newly shaped world for their benefit. I won’t go into too much details here, but there are multiple endings and some are insane.

Nocturne is definitely darker that other entries in the SMT franchise (especially the Persona spinoffs) but it’s still worth being played today. Oh! The remaster is also a totally fine way of playing it as well. It’s cheap enough now that the main complaints (30FPS lock and no new content added) don’t really matter too much. I picked up a brand new copy for $20 at the beginning of 2022.

Overall, with ~50 hours put into this bad boy, I recommend it to those familiar with PS2 RPGs (since this originally released on that console) and are willing to sometimes slog through some shitty dungeons for the gripping story and world that is crumbling before your eyes.

I have discovered that Death Stranding is my “cozy game”.

I don’t think I’ve gotten such fulfillment from a video game as I have with Death Stranding. The actions you’re taking in the game actually feel like they matter. You’re delivering these packages to people who are, well, stranded by themselves and they are actively relying on you. Whenever you fuck up by either tripping on a rock, not taking your time down a slope, or running into a B.T. infested area a little to fast, you feel awful. That responsibility that was on your shoulders weighs SO heavy after little mistakes like these.

Listen, I get how people don’t like this game: You’re just walking everywhere delivering packages… where’s the gameplay? How can you like this? Aren’t you bored? Nope, I’m absolutely loving my time spent in this game.

Let me ask this: When’s the last time you’ve seen a triple-A game take a risk? Take a change on something completely new? I’m not saying Death Stranding is absolutely revolutionary, I don’t think it is. However, its core mechanics are a new idea I haven’t seen in another game on this scale. Needing to watch your path while running in order to not trip and ruin packages, organizing your loadout for max efficiency, planning out your path either using the fastest route or a route that hits multiple locations, all of these things I love! There’s a lot of preparation you can do and, most of the time, it pays off. Add all the preparation to the acts of service you’re providing for those in need and that’s where I get my fulfillment from.

With all these interesting elements, adding in a batshit unique story that we still don’t have all the answers to make this a game right up my alley. Kojima knows how to build a world and knows how to make the player question certain elements that need explaining, but do they actually need explanations? I won’t get into the story at all here, but it’s a trip and extremely engaging. Plus, all the emails and documents you are able to read build the world incredibly well. Definitely recommend you read everything the game has to offer to get the most out of it.

Overall, I’d recommend this game to those with an open mind on their experiences. You won’t win over people who stick with what they like and don’t venture out past that, but if you find yourself craving something different with depth, this is the one for you.

Resident Evil Revelations 2 is, oddly enough, the black sheep in the Resident Evil franchise for me. For the uninformed, Revelations 2 adapted to an episodic release which means the game was separated into 4 episodes originally digital-only. Now that the game has been fully released, there is a complete physical copy. While this is odd, it’s not the weirdest factor of the game. (The previous Revelations game was also an oddity as it was originally an exclusive to the 3DS.)

Personally, I never hear anyone talk about this entry in the great RE franchise. I hear fans give scathing words to spin-offs like Umbrella Corps and Operation Raccoon City, but I haven’t heard much on this title so I decided to check it out for myself.

As I was playing solo, I did not get the opportunity to play the game in co-op. This may change in the future as I believe this game might be meant to played with a partner. Regardless, since I am playing solo, this game reminds me of Resident Evil 0, but definitely with better execution on the partner aspect.

You play as two groups of partners. The first, Claire Redfield and Moira Burton and the second group of partners are Barry Burton and Natalia. Claire and Barry are your main characters. These two hold all the firepower and play as you would expect. However, Moira and Natalia are the support characters with their own special abilities, though very similar. Moira is “on flashlight duty” and she can find hidden items scattered throughout the levels by shining her torch on sparkly areas of the map. She can also blind enemies with said flashlight and also wields a crowbar to bonk the unsuspecting zombie. Natalia is a little different. She can see the auras of the zombies: Yellow auras means the enemy is unaware and red auras means the enemy is aware of the player’s presence. She can also see the sparkly areas meant for hidden items, but doesn’t need a flashlight to find them. Instead, she just kinda points at the items in order for them to spawn in. Lastly, she doesn’t always wield a weapon, but she can find bricks and use them via melee or throw them at enemies.

When you boil it all down, the gameplay goes as follows: You’ll use the support characters in order to find items whenever the area is clear. Whenever you’ve encountered enemies and are about to enter combat, just switch over to the main character to deal with the zombies. Overall, it’s fine, but could use a little more variety.

However, there is another mode within Revelations 2 that is crazy fun for what it is. Raid Mode has you playing as some of your favorite RE characters with fan-service costume available. In Raid Mode, you jump into missions that usually just consist of killing all enemies in the stage as fast as possible while fulfilling certain challenges. This will reward you with XP to level your characters and items you can find to appraise or sell. If you appraise them, they unlock items (guns, gun parts, etc.) that grow stronger. If you sell them, it fuels your pockets in order to buy more stuff to upgrade your characters. This mode has a very entertaining gameplay loop and I can see myself sinking more time into this mode in the future.

Writing and story-wise, it’s all fine. There’s nothing too crazy here to praise as this game does play it safe. I do think the addition of Moira Burton is fantastic and she is easily my favorite character in this game, though my boy Barry is right behind her at 2nd favorite.

This game came out 8 months before Resident Evil 6 and the combat here definitely doesn’t feel as fluid as 6 did. Honestly, this game does feel like more of a budget title than another full-fledged entry in the Resident Evil legacy, which I guess makes sense since it was an episodic game at launch.

Overall, I think this game is fun and is worth picking up since it’s relatively cheap nowadays, but I wouldn’t expect anything life changing. It’s more than likely more enjoyable in co-op, but I can’t attest to that just yet.

Donut County is a very silly short game.

The entirety of the experience is you playing as a small hole in the ground needed to devour what you can in order to grow and devour larger items ranging from a brick to a full sized house. I found it very satisfying to start small and end up engulfing entire buildings or a highway’s worth of cars, a la Katamari Damacy.

While the gameplay is usually pretty one note, the levels are short and the writing & story I found entertaining as well. One of the main characters is a raccoon named B.K.. Technically, that is the player character as B.K. is controlling the hole via an app on their phone. Turns out, he’s used the hole to suck the whole town into the ground and they all end up in a cavern-like area. While talking around the campfire they’ve all made, the player relives the stories told here while playing as the hole.

Overall, this is a very short game (~2 hours) that is endearing and doesn’t overstay its welcome. I definitely recommend this on a sale, as you could finish it in a night. "

I didn’t know what to expect when I started What Remains of Edith Finch, though I can comfortably say it is my personal favorite walking simulator out of the ones I’ve played.

Touring though this VERY much lived in house that has houses stacked on top of it just shows how much love, people, and stories those walls hold. You play as Edith Finch, the last remaining Finch around, and you decide to go back to your family house to reminisce. During your time here, you will run into multiple rooms of your family members and experience a part of their life. These stories range from extremely emotional to downright funny. While experiencing these stories, the gameplay or visual style of the game changes, which I found to be a welcomed addition to the usual lack of mechanics in the genre.

The house that holds all of these intriguing stories is also built in a way to keep the player engaged. They could have just had the whole house opened up and give the player the freedom to explore as they please, but they made the call not to. Instead, you’ll find all of the bedroom doors are sealed without a way to gain access through the usual means. You’ll come across interesting ways to access these rooms in order to experience the stories told within.
Once you do gain access to the family’s bedrooms, if you take the time to observe and learn, there is plenty of details left years ago to give insight as to what the past resident was like. It’s small touches like these that really give the feeling that a large family actually lived here.

Overall, this is a game that needs to be experienced. Once I finished my initial playthrough, a wave of emotions hit me. Sure, I shed some tears and had some goosebumps while I was experiencing the game, but the ending really brought it all together. Though, I must give credit where it was due, the game had a small moment during the credits that made me laugh through the tears, which really was a nice touch."

Sayonara Wild Hearts will 100% be the new game I recommend whenever an individual has trouble understanding how video games are art.
With its vibrant color palette, absolutely killer soundtrack, fast paced arcade-rhythm gameplay, and the fact that it is just OOZING in style, it's really hard keeping quiet about this experience.

Your performance on the 23 levels have a grade from Bronze to Gold. The levels also have silver coins that are scattered and need to be picked up and collected. Without a doubt, the game wants you to reply these levels multiple times in order to achieve the best score while also finding those silver coins. I never felt like these tasks were a chore. In fact, I was looking forward to my next playthrough as soon as the credits rolled on my first. I will enjoy every single second I will put into this experience.

Superliminal was a great breath of fresh air in the puzzle-game space. It brings creative puzzles mixed with altering the size of items based on your perspective means you get tons of unique puzzles and solutions. To add to this, the humor and story elements really make this game have its own personality. I won't lie and say I completely understand this game's story, but I did really enjoy the bits I comprehended. The interesting story beat of this game turning into a horror game was definitely up my alley (and the secret dog ending was GREAT). Overall, this game goes on sale for ~$10 usually and I can definitely recommend it at that price point. Tons of fun.