I never thought I would return to 3 Hopes after completing 1 route. Since I was so burned out after finishing one path. But here I am after completing the other two and I have to say, 3 Hopes is a welcome return to the continent of Fodlan, seeing familiar and new faces among the Three Houses crowd.

Battling enemies in the usual turn-based engagements? Nope! 3 Hopes operates as a hack-and-slash RPG. More specifically, the musuo-like kind. You also control a new protagonist. Shez. A run-of-the-mill mercenary with strange abilities. It will be up to you to choose which house to ally with. Like in the previous game, 3 Hopes also features 3 main routes to play through. This review was only possible after I finished all three routes. Since I felt making a review when I had only beaten one path, didn't sit well with me.

Anyway, let's begin.

Gameplay is a major shift from the turn-based nature of Fire Emblem. Here, you'll be fighting in a musuo-like gameplay of hack and slash. Elements from the franchise are integrated relatively well. Using terminology from the series and implementing different unit classes having a variety of different professions from lancer, ax, sword, bow, brawler, and mage. Each main weapon class leads to different classes and different abilities. There is even an element of base-building for your base camp. Which provides a nice way to upgrade your equipment. The game is pretty much what if Fire Emblem is a hack-and-slash? A weird thought, but strangely enough it works here, to some extent.

For the most part, I love the change in gameplay to an action hack-and-slash compared to a turn-based game. You get right into the thick of things by decimating countless mobs and eliminating your enemies up close and personally. Didn’t feel bored utilizing different abilities and units to keep the battles fresh. There is impact and it never gets old commanding your allied units for an all-out offensive. The feeling is euphoric and it is awesome watching your army mow down the baddies right alongside you.

However, the same objectives and S-rank requirements got old real quick since you cannot innovate much to keep the battles fresh constantly. Sidequests & paralogues, in particular, do try to reinvent the wheel in some way. Yet, they still conform back to the old formula of killing ‘x’ units within a time limit, Defeat ‘x’ unit, oh wait extra reinforcements, oh here complete this side-mission while you go into battle. Artillery firing at your units? Please eliminate. Enemy forces calling for reinforcements? Stop them from executing an action. Here are some new reinforcements to add to the battle for you to tackle and defend your bases. Oh, you thought the main story quest ends? No way! Here’s another enemy you have to defeat. This formula becomes tiresome to complete again and again. And when you thought you killed an enemy. Psyche. I'm going to retreat until the plot forces me to die. Sure there are several approaches in store for you like escorts, special-type monsters, conquering key strongholds to move closer to your map, etc. But it is not enough.

I feel the game could’ve been more innovative to keep the combat formula from being dull. It's fine in the beginning and middle acts, but once you do a lot of missions, the combat gets stale. And trust me, I’ve finished all paralogues in one route, every single thing I could fight on the map, extra sidequests, extra limited-time quests to completion. Skipped several in the end, due to realizing they offer no real benefit to me. But for the most part, I'd say 95-98% of all missions I completed for the Black Eagle route.

I skipped the filler battles in the other routes using a vanguard whistle which is an absolute godsend. You don’t need to fight every battle. Using the whistle allows the player to auto-complete the battle on the world map. Thereby, skipping the process instantly. Why the heck wasn’t this item available in your first route? Honestly would’ve helped lessen the tedium and rinse-and-repeat battles.

Granted I get it is a Musou Fire Emblem. So I can’t expect great expectations. But it would’ve been nice to have a stellar musou-like game that knocks all areas out of the ballpark. And for me, I feel the element of reusing the same objectives, some maps, and enemies being the same could have been done better. Two specific enemies, in particular, are reused more than several times. This becomes especially egregious when reinforcements are the same enemy types with no real distinct features to differentiate them. Same enemy combat class again and again.

Artificial intelligence, for comrades at least, is decent but could be better. Many times during a battle, I had to micromanage units to attack an enemy then once they were done. My ally will sit in that same spot. Even when I have them set to attack. Orders would’ve been nice for them to follow through. For example, after defeating an enemy, move to a nearby enemy commander. If a player-controlled unit falls below 50% health, tell the healer to heal them. Prioritize map objectives over killing a single enemy.

Continuing on with S rank requirements I feel there is a missed opportunity to do extra. Like erasing the whole concept of s-rank. And only set different requirements such as: Manage 500 hits. Use ‘x’ warrior specials. Cannot use a single healing item during battle. No dodging. No switching to a different unit. Female/Male characters only. Use a single unit only. Use certain classes only. Fight with only disadvantaged units. And so much more I could list. Heck, the handicap battles you fight in each chapter, the developers could’ve taken handicap battles and implemented some of those handicaps for S-rank requirements. Instead, we are left with killing “xxx’ units by ‘x’ time while taking “xx%” damage.

One thing that I immensely enjoyed was strategies. At the end of a chapter, you will have to face the final chapter battle and it is here and only in this battle can you implement strategies. Various parameters can weaken the enemy, from giving your army reinforcements, allies to heal, units to protect, or special units to advance on the enemy, magic bombardment, special formations, and unique types I won’t get into because that's spoiler territory. But suffice it to say, I was very satisfied with how the developers implemented strategies to work in favor to spice up every final story battle in a chapter. These parameters you can activate greatly turn the tide of battle and can lead to one of Fire Emblem’s aspects of making a unit join you. Some strategies can even be unlocked by completing filler battles on the world map. So it pays to finish everything on a map to unlock more strategies.

Support conversations are such a relief, and a delight to see the Three Houses cast again. Which expands and greatly answers some lingering questions I had in the past game. And while this entry is contained in an alternate timeline. Pretty much all support conversations I’ve seen are an extension of what occurred in Three Houses or some cases provide much-needed context into a character’s background or relationship with other characters. It's one of the biggest backbones the game has to offer. And I laughed so hard in one conversation. Amused in some, puzzled in others, gained much-needed insight into the relationships and backgrounds of characters I rarely use, and broke a smile during moments of wholesome and endearing moments. The game also had plenty of quality-of-life enhancements like fast traveling to any unit, location, and building making it easy to get to the unit you need. Along with seeing current support levels with any unit during any activity requiring the two of them. This feature is a godsend in particular due to not needing to go back and check which unit is currently at a certain rank and then back to the food hall in FE3H.

My playthrough lasted over 93 hours and to be frank without the support conversations, I feel that number could’ve been cut by more than half if I didn’t pay attention to grinding for these conversations between my units as much as I possibly can. A buddy of mine took over 130 hours to complete all paths in the game. So your times may vary depending on how much or little you do in your base.

Storywise. Each route felt distinct enough with cool cutscenes, sweet character development with each house leader, and more. And each path had enough content to interest you further. However, each route did use a bit of copy-paste formula. Leaving me a sense of samey vibes a bit. But this occurred mainly in the middle ground of each path. The game makes up for this by displaying scenes you wouldn't otherwise see in each route. So if a major event is glossed over in one route, you will see the full extent in another route. Which makes comparisons between each path easier to conjure the bigger picture. While I do have some reservations about each route, the final act is a pay-off, I looked forward to. Could it have been better? Certainly, but the game accomplishes this in a manner I find good enough.

Overall, I feel 3 Hopes is a decent FE spin-off game. Could be better regarding objectives, AI, map design and a bit on the plot of each route. Nonetheless, the excellent support conversations, adequate base-building, and character conversations hold the game up strong. The soundtrack is fantastic and I love the new arrangements and new tracks. Especially the leitmotif dropping here and there. I feel the game does justice in some ways to three houses in that if you’re looking for more of the world of Fodlan you’ll find that here. Some plot points which were left unanswered there are answered here. So. If you’re looking for more Fire Emblem Three Houses content. And don’t mind the shift to action rpg hack and slash. Look no further than Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes. I hope you’ll like it just as I did. And if not, well that’s fine too.

8/10

It recently dawned upon me that Teslagrad 2 came out about a week ago, but then I noticed that the main character, Lumina, was actually one of the starting characters from World to the West, a mostly forgotten title that was dubbed "a standalone followup of Teslagrad." I find this description to be rather misleading despite the relationship, because I don't think the two play or feel similarly at all. The original Teslagrad was a fairly compact and straightforward 2D metroidvania platformer; sure, it wasn't anything groundbreaking at the time and some of the boss fights were annoying, but it knew exactly what it wanted to be and accomplished just that in its short runtime. World to the West on the other hand, is much more ambitious, focusing on the exploration of a sprawling map in a connected top-down overworld (think: 2D Zelda dungeoneering set in a faraway landscape), but with its own twist of simultaneously utilizing four different protagonists to thoroughly comb the different environments and save the world from imminent destruction. Unfortunately, the game suffers from a glaring fundamental issue: at no point does your gang of four ever feel like a cohesive unit.

Every character essentially acts on their own; they have their own separate health gauge (with any health augmentations only applying to the character that collects said powerup), they all have their own save data of collected totems that can be used as fast travel/checkpoint poles, and you can only control one character at a single time. To switch between characters, you must backtrack to any totem and switch-off at those points to other characters which may be located anywhere across the map depending on where you left them beforehand. The result is that World to the West feels less like a Cookie & Cream like, which requires simultaneous juggling of multiple entities on the same screen to clear paths, and instead functionally resembles Donkey Kong 64 and its respective character-swap system.

It's a real shame, because on paper, it's actually pretty fun controlling each individual protagonist. Your four different characters all have different abilities and physiques to take advantage of varying scenarios across the map. Lumina the Teslamancer can quickly blink through bars/over gaps and power switches, Knaus the orphan can tunnel under hazards/walls and ice skate across water, Miss Teri the explorer has a scarf to grapple across ledges and can mind-control local wildlife to do her bidding, and Lord Clonington the pugilist can shatter barriers and quickly scale walls. In practice, however, the circumstances often interfere with your degree of control; every environment should be navigable by each protagonist, but that doesn't mean that every protagonist can reach that destination within each particular sector of the map alone. Oftentimes, the different paths that the protagonists must take are greatly stratified to the point where individual characters must backtrack several rooms down to access a completely different path for the same destination. The resources for all characters are too spread apart here for everyone to fully function as expected on each screen, and this flaw is further exacerbated because many of the necessary paths are gated by character specific obstacles that require you to travel out of your way to steer other protagonists that already have their pathing figured out elsewhere. The map is also quite bare and doesn't show any symbols to indicate specific protagonist-coded obstacles, so you may want to keep a notepad on hand so you don't forget about what lies in the way and can clear the necessary obstacles as soon as possible.

To sum this issue up, obstacles are often strewn about "unrelated" paths that block off other characters, and are not telegraphed in advanced or even marked upon discovery, which means that you have to further backtrack to totem poles to switch characters. That's of course, assuming that you've already made it to said totem pole with the necessary character to break down said barrier, because totem pole progress is character-specific, so chances are, you'll have to figure out another path just to get that character to the necessary checkpoint to begin the process anew. It's this vicious cycle of having to constantly check the scant map and slowly moving characters back and forth between new checkpoints that you know exist but don't have saved (because the story chapters just focus on one or two characters moving around specific sections of the map at a time), and then ferrying across every single character to slowly inch across the overworld once you figure out your new destination or need to collect another battery (15 required to unlock a mandatory gate) to progress the plot. Do you enjoy playing the same map four different times just to get your whole party from point A to point B? That's what this felt like the entire time.

The payoff just isn't there to justify this padding. Outside of the scripted story events where a couple characters interact at any given time to unlock new abilities, there's never any sense of camaraderie between your four protagonists; you can talk to any unused character while they're resting at a specific totem pole, and that's all the extra dialogue you will ever get. Since characters generally end up traveling their own paths between each destination (with the common exception of removing barriers for other characters, one step at a time), there's never any sense of cooperation outside of those scant moments and it feels less like Dungeon Duos and more like Octopath Traveler. The pacing feels like the final nail in the coffin here, with the first eight chapters just focusing on one or two specific characters at a time and making sure the player understands the abilities of each character; you don't really get let loose until chapter nine, which ends up taking over 50% of the run time since it then becomes mandatory to more thoroughly explore the overworld with the full party available to reach the final chapter. It's over in a flash once you've reached this point of no return; the final boss is fairly straightforward (and I would argue, easier than many of the story fights earlier on) and the dialogue-free ending cutscene afterwards leaves a lot to be desired.

Needless to say, I could not be bothered to 100% this game. There's a nice little backstory regarding the land's lore revealed from collecting all the different batteries, but I was absolutely exhausted from having to play the same areas over and over again within such a short time span and my goodwill only eroded every time I had to backtrack further to find alternative paths of travel. It definitely doesn't help that a lot of the unlockable treasure chests scattered throughout just provide coin that as far as I can tell, serve no use other than buying maps to find more batteries that I'd naturally stumble upon through discovery anyways. The lack of meaningful interaction between the cast and the underwhelming send-off was just the cherry on top of this unrealized jumble that could have been so much more. Thankfully I'm still looking forward to Teslagrad 2 from the little I've played so far, but as it stands, this will remain the tale of how the West was lost.

This is how a sequel should be! This game was amazingly fun to play and di everything right, the worlds are expansive, the power ups are interesting, the boss fights are very creative, the story while good is nothing really "new", the music is amazing as well as the graphics.

If I had to explain the difference between Blaster Master Zero 1 and 2, the best way to put it is, Blaster Master Zero is obviously a remake of the original Blaster Master on NES and expands upon it and does it very well.

Blaster Master Zero 2 you can tell is very much it's own game, I mean it's a sequel of course but you can tell the developers said "well now we don't have to stick strictly to a format like the remake." So they just went all out and made an amazing game that shows their creativity.

I will admit, my first hour into the game I wasn't crazy because the balancing of the difficulty felt waaay harder than the first game because it has new mechanics and how it wants you to tackle things, but after a few hours and some adjusting I totally fell into this game and it's world.

I truthfully was not ready for how much of a direct upgrade this game was over the first. Now given full control to make whatever game they want Inticreates immediately capitalizes on this by creating an entirely unique entry that blows the first game out of the water for me. This game follows immediately after the ending to 1 where Jason and Eve created a new Sophia to travel space and try to find a cure to Eve's constant mutantification.

The sidescrolling gameplay in Sophia is a lot more refined in this game, giving you a new energy bar that doesn't automatically recharge (unless you run full out of energy) and can be charged by falling far distances without hovering, which removes a lot of the frustration of the first game where at some points you just had to sit there and wait for your energy bar to recharge. In the 3d section a lot has changed, with Jason getting a few tool changes to his gun levels that fall more in line with Megaman Zero. Wave has also had a nerf in this game so it gets weaker when spammed which gives incentive to try out other weapons, but it's still pretty strong on its own right anyways. Both segments have new QoL in the form of Fred who will now create wormholes to take you out of a dungeon when you finish it or warp back to the Sophia in a sidescrolling section so you don't risk getting softlocked or immediately killed by outside enemies.

By far the best parts of this game for me is the new layout of exploring, characters, and story. Instead of going through one giant web of connected zones with a bit of backtracking the game is broken up in sectors on a world map now, with a major planet in each sector to replace the Zones of the previous game and some bonus smaller planets that are usually mini challenges to get some optional upgrades. There are also some new MA pilots and I adore all of them for different reasons, plus it's just fun to see what MA's they pilot. And finally the story starts off strong and only gets better as time goes on, with all the cool fights building up to a climax in the final battle that genuinely gives me chills because of how cool the whole segment is.

If I had one gripe, it's once again the fact you need to do some extra work to get the true ending. It's not nearly as bad as 1, only requiring 3 items, but it is pretty easy to miss them if you don't know what to look out for. If you don't mind a small hint, you start the process to get them all by going back to a planet with a MA pilot after finishing the story objective there to start a new sidequest.

Overall, if you even so much as enjoyed the first game a little bit you'll absolutely love this game. It really endeared me to Jason and Eve in particular, but also a 3rd character you'll meet in the journey across space :).

When people try to imitate noir, they often lean too much in the wrong direction. What direction that is depends from story to story. Sometimes they center too much on the private detective aspect, forgetting that noir is more than just a gritty mystery drama. Its complex factions, con games, tense rivalries, ambiguous moralities. Sometimes it goes too deep on the gritty tone and doesn't think to have fun with the crime and mystery aspects. But more often than not, its a private detective in a hat solving a mystery and monologing. Sometimes I'm alright with that being the genre parody we get. Its good fun.

I think what impressed me about Lockheart Indigo is, for all its goofy 8-bit aesthetics, it hits such a nice noir tone. Beatris, the cyan 1960s detective, is explicitly disinterested in finding justice. She's a woman with a sick sister and bills to pay. She's here for money first. When shit goes sideways, her interest doesn't shift to heroism, it shifts to survival. Getting paid is crucial, getting the killer is crucial, but her central focus is providing for herself. While characters try to demean her for it and its certainly portrayed as a flaw, the narrative understands noir enough that its not a flaw she's going to be able to grow past. Its just how she has to live.

Pairing her with the far more self-obsessed Volkov family adds for a good contrast. Its an immediate nest of vipers, rich assholes climbing over each other to cling to their fortune. The gameplay involves straight-forward interrogations. Butter them up, chip at their ego, whatever tactic suits their personality. The different egoisms or anxieties of the cast make for good variety and help establish how easy it is for them to turn on each other to build their own fortune. It helps make the noir tone land. If you find the killer, what's left? The survivors will keep fighting and killing and striking at each other because its the only tools they understand. They can pretend to take a moral high ground against Beatris' own self-interest, but she can't match a candle to their own cycle of destruction. Beatris' "victory" earns her a 10k paycheck, 50k less than she was promised, and the survivors just have to stew in their mutual hatred. No one's happy. Its noir, baby.

The other key factor of the game is just how stylish it is. Locating colorful keys to match colorful keys to encounter color-coded characters to see colorful interrogation graphics. Its a stunning effort for a free rpg maker game. You gotta admire it.

Solving a sidequest unlocks a strange little post-game segment. The game lightly touches on the Volkov family backstory and the various times the family has circled the same patterns of murder. You get to walk around the manor of the early 1910s, observing just how similar the previous generations of the family acted to the modern ones. Still gossiping, still sniping, still letting jealousy rumble beneath the surface. It doesn't add much to the main plot of the game, but its just kind of a charming way to add more layers. To just demonstrate how constantly the family falls into these patterns. Its just good narrative hooks. I like to see it unravel. And a cozy little indie rpg is all I need for that sometimes.

What is a Metroidvania? A badass little pile of secrets!

Games with a mountain of hype behind them scare me. Heaps of 10/10s and 5 star ratings form a vast shadow of adoration, and it can be difficult to tell how much of it is genuine evaluation, and how much of it is baseless nostalgic ramblings. But I'm playing every Castlevania, so I couldn't exactly skip Symphony of the Night, now could I?

....yeah, damn, I guess y'all were right.

Symphony of the Night was apparently inspired by titles such as Zelda, with absolutely no inspiration from Metroid whatsoever. I can't help but call bullshit, because the gameplay format is borderline identical. Fully explorable map, differing biomes, hidden upgrades, save rooms, blue-grid map screen, all adapted into a gothic horror setting. Simply trade Samus' trusty arm cannon for a myriad of magic and melee weapons, and that's SotN. And while I do enjoy a good Classicvania, this was such a breath of fresh air that remained somewhat familiar, yet far more lively.

There's a lot more story than normal to go around, though not enough that anything drags. Opening on an incredible, playable recreation of the final part of Rondo of Blood, the main game follows on some time afterwards. Seems as if Dracula is being resurrected a little earlier than usual, and his son Alucard isn't too big on that. As such, he seeks to storm the castle and slay whoever he needs to, even his own father if need be. It's a decent follow-up to Rondo, and while not to get into deep spoilers; the bad ending to this game presents a rather interesting narrative idea that would've been nice to see in more detail.

As with other Castlevanias, the gameplay and platforming is slow, but deliberate. Alucard struts forward at a fairly slow pace, but has a lot more freedom of movement than past protagonists. Between this and the horde of enemies to fight between each room, moving around takes quite a while to become exhausting. Discovering shortcuts, secrets and curious little secrets always keeps things exciting, and you're never far away from adding to Alucard's limitless pockets. That being said, while exploring, I found myself somehow missing the all-important save rooms almost every single time. Technically my bad, but I kind of wish they were telegraphed just a little more.

In spite of breaking with many Castlevania traditions, sub-weapons return. As always, they're powered by hearts, which still drop from candles and certain enemies. Even better, like Rondo, picking up a new sub-weapon drops the old one on the ground, just in case you want it back. Even if you mess up on that front, sub-weapons always spawn in the same place, so if you remember where to check, getting it back isn't too hard. Unlike most of the classic games, I felt comfortable to use up hearts on enemies here, rather than saving for the bosses every time.

Speaking of bosses, god damn, they feel like they're everywhere. You'll be walking down a corridor, then bam - a tell-tale stutter for a second or two that indicates that a boss room is loading in. Usually, if you recognise that, you can just turn around and leave to get in a better state, but yeah - so many bosses. I'm a little bit mixed on the bosses overall - there are good ones and bad ones. Mostly they feel like a DPS check for the area, but some do at least move and attack like a traditional 'vania boss, rewarding you for weaving between their attacks.

Graphics are absolutely gorgeous. Spritework, taken to incredible heights with minimal use of 3D to enhance the world around the characters. I enjoy early 3D polygons a lot more than I used to, but this still stands above it in my mind. Everything looks fantastic, enemies are distinctly designed and are easily recognised. Some even exist just for fun, like poor Yorick, a skeleton who kicks his head around like an idiot. If anything, perhaps the castle could've used a little more variety in appearances, but what it has is perfectly adequate. And that music? Sublime. While it's worlds apart from the sort of tracks that made the older 'vania soundtracks so memorable, what's here takes it in a direction that's just as enjoyable, if slightly less memorable.

As far as flaws go, I do have several criticisms to raise. Chief among them is the inventory; you pick up so much stuff over the course of the game. Tons of weapons, single-use spells, and every damn type of food ever served. Seriously, forget wall meat (which is still in this game!), there's so many different types of food that there's an entire item dedicated to giving you a random one. Annoyingly, though, to use food, you have to equip it in either hand, like you would a weapon. Then, you throw the food down, then walk over it to eat it. I assume this was done so as to make health restoring riskier during a battle, but scrolling through all your items to find the food you want to eat is tedious and awkward. And by the time you're in the endgame, you have so much shit in your inventory, and most of it is probably useless by then. Despite the presence of a shop, as far as I can tell you can only sell rare gems, not outdated gear. I might be missing something, but it wasn't a pleasant experience.

Difficulty is also a bit of a weird one. Arguably, it's fairly easy, especially coming off the back of the other Castlevanias. It's pretty hard at first, and there's also a sharp difficulty spike when you start the second half of the game. But between those points, you'll just walk through a lot of enemies - literally so if you get the Medusa Shield to drop. Half the joy of a Metroidvania is the power trip feeling in the endgame, being a nigh-invincible killing machine, but you'll be one-shotting things well before that point. Bosses are usually harder, but like I said before, a lot of them are DPS checks anyway. The RPG mechanics also mean that you can always grind to get through easier, though I doubt you'll ever have to.

Getting the good ending is also kinda cryptic. You're probably not going to get it without reading a guide, or going out of your way to explore every nook and cranny possible. I explored everything I could the first time around, but still managed to miss both key items. Annoying, but ultimately understandable - definitely not even close to the level of cryptic in older games like Simon's Quest and Ys.

Altogether, this is absolutely one of the greatest PS1 games, and is worth a try by all means. If anything, though, I feel almost disappointed that almost the entire rest of the series was nothing but attempts to recapture this game's magic. If only there had remained a consistent balance of linear and exploration-based games, rather than just SotN clones. Still, I hope that I can find them somewhat enjoyable. Or, if all else fails, I could just replay this - I don't normally replay games, but perhaps this could be an exception.

My first Vanillaware game! The artstyle and design are what initially drew me in to Odin Sphere, but the gameplay and story made it more than worth it. It now stands as one of the best games I've ever played, and stands high on the list of games that made me cry the most.
The environments are gorgeous, encompassing everywhere from an aurora-cast city in the clouds to a glowing fairy paradise deep in a forest. The enemy design and animations aid in making every location feel alive, and the respective characters you meet in every locale adds to the fantastic ambiance of Odin Sphere that never gets boring.
2D side-scroller action games are something many consider played out and stagnant, but Vanillaware has a way of standing out with Odin Sphere's combat. It's easy to get the hang of, highly customizable, fluid, fast, and fun. Getting to experiment with each character's abilities and upgrading those that fit your playstyle allows for extremely satisfying combat. Additionally, the animations for many actions are masterfully done and simply add to how gorgeous every aspect of this game is.
The dungeon style of Odin Sphere is extremely unique, and it keeps the game fresh and fun while also being extremely simple to navigate. Exploration aspects like finding all items in a room and the clues given to you about chests with hidden psyphers was a perfect compliment to the well-made combat.
Cooking is the third mechanic that stood out to me. Collecting ingredients throughout levels, growing fruits and vegetables right there on the battlefield, and using your own power (phosons) to help them grow and give you EXP was lots of fun, and using what you grew at Maury's travelling restaurant while discovering new recipes in every chapter added to an already rewarding experience.
The original PS2 Odin Sphere was criticized for its difficulty, and I understand why. Playing the game on Hard (which was Normal difficulty in the 2007 original) was a challenge, and the easier difficulties added in Leifthrasir makes the game as a whole much more accessible and enjoyable.
Content-wise, you can play through the main story in somewhere between 25-40 hours, which felt sufficient for the story being told. I found it really cool how there are multiple final bosses, and you can fight any one of them with any of the main characters. Postgame content is almost nonexistent, except for a boss rush "Churning Rift of the World" mode.
The story in Odin Sphere is one of the best in any RPG (or any game ever) that I've seen. A main premise of five interconnected stories initially seemed like there wouldn't be any room for good development, but by the end I was extremely attached to all the characters and even a few of the antagonists. Furthermore, I never felt the pacing was reset or lost with the start of a new storybook and the beginning of a new character's story. Mercedes' ending is genuinely one of the most emotional moments I've experienced from a video game, although every protagonist was extremely well written and voice acted. The design of the main protagonists and many of the side characters is also top-tier, creating a cast of unforgettable characters that stand out immensely.
The music in Odin Sphere, while good, is simply standard. It doesn't stand out like all the other aspects of the game - with one exception. The main theme/credits music is a beautiful piece that fits the vibe of the game and adds to its beauty.
Odin Sphere is a game I will not soon forget, and a game I will soon return to and replay. Vanillaware's magnum opus, a masterpiece of writing, gameplay, and art combined into one. Absolutely worth a playthrough, or two, or more!

Brilliant game. Awe-inspiring presentation (it's Vanillaware), fun combat (especially as Velvet and Mercedes). I own and played the original ages back but never finished it.

The circular maps are a good touch though they can sometimes make things easy to miss. One thing I really appreciated was the ability to "listen" for items as your character runs along the ground - the item name popping up on the screen makes a sound as do the mandragoras, and it's very helpful for combing over areas you've missed.

My only complaint is that the story and general pacing felt a bit overlong, but the structure works well and justifies it if you can stick with it to the end.

I loved every protagonist, I loved the framing, and I intend to go back for the plat. Vanillaware is a gem of a studio and I'm thrilled to have spent time in this storybook. Not a 10 for me but pretty damn close.

Tinykin has to be one of the best surprises for me this year; I finally decided to give it a go when prompted by a friend, and once I was a level in, I couldn't put it down.

You play as a lil guy who's found himself in the vestiges of an abandoned house teeming with intelligent bug life, and have to traverse the rooms solving everyone's problems while searching for parts to escape. The game was marketed to me as a 3D platformer with Pikmin influences, and it turned out to be even better than that. It's a very chill time, because there's no timer or lives system to put pressure on the player, and unlike the Pikmin games, you don't even have to micromanage your Tinykin via specific pathing or keeping a close eye on them to make sure they don't die; they'll just stick with you, and the targeting system automatically picks the Tinykin you need for each situation. The movement is pretty simple for a 3D platformer, but the controls are very tight and it honestly feels really exhilarating sliding around and scaling all the rooms; there are plenty of back-up ropes and silk lines to slide across to make backtracking much easier, and you can even grind along edges if you feel like optimizing your movement or just want to have a good time.

The only complaint here is that trying to get all the pollen in each room can be a bit annoying when it's very difficult to tell what pollen you've missed out on, and I do wish that there was a radar or some other kind of tracking mechanic to better figure out the locations of any pollen not already collected. Nevertheless, I was thoroughly engaged for a solid six and a half hours and I'm glad I took the time to check this out on Game Pass; I'm always down for a solid 3D platformer with Chibi-Robo vibes, for Tinykin more than delivered with no excess fat to be found.