A very interesting game. I heard a lot of shittalking about it but having beaten it, I can say I enjoyed it. Fighting with the exp system was very memorable. They really put the tools in your hand to choose how you want your characters to be. Firion was a swordsman/buffer, Maria was a black magician/healer, and Guy was a physical brute with status spells. They let me create my adventure, and I did exactly that. They story isn’t amazing or anything but I did enjoy the tale of the Emperor, he was pretty cool. It’s nice having an overarching figure that builds up and you can eventually slay with satisfaction. Except if you have the blood sword. That weapon ruined the ending for me since I took out the emperor in 3 hits. I loaded up a save right after I won and tried the whole fight over again and eventually was satisfied. So do yourself a favor and give this a shot. It might not be as polished as later entries but it’s certainly the Zelda 2 of FF.

A game that truly wowed me. Played this a few months after beating the original game and just had to say, what they’re creating is incredible. This is the first part of a 3 game series and the fact they made a 5 hour section of the game into 35 hours is incredible. I truly loved this game. They’re laying down a foundation for what could be some of the greatest rpgs ever made. The active/command battle system, beautiful visuals, engaging new story different from the original while still calling back, music, this is just amazing. I can’t wait for what Rebirth has in store.

A very solid dlc. Lasted me a bit over four hours in which I’m highly satisfied about compared to some past dlcs I’ve played. This expansion took one of the most underrated characters and one of my personal favorites and put her in the forefront of her own journey. Completely intact with her quirkiness from the original game, this dlc shines with the combat. Yuffie Kisaragi is very fun to play, as well as her partner Sonon. Their chemistry in battle had me timing up synergies and comboing Shinra goons into oblivion. The story wasn’t anything crazy but I do appreciate the callbacks to what I found out was Dirge of Cerberus, a game I have yet to finish as of writing. Overall, I highly recommend this dlc for anyone who’s played the base game. Even if you think it’s a dumb side story, you’re gonna wanna stick around for the scenes at the end.

A game I hyped so much. Everything caught my eyes. The Kaneko designs, cel-shaded graphics, Meguro music, all that good shit. And while it had all of that, I had placed a little too much hope in actually liking what I played. The gameplay system has potential but just feels overall clunky to play today but I do like the devouring system. The music is one of the saving graces, Shoji Meguro is a mastermind. Every ten steps is a random encounter, kind of annoying and you need to grind in this game, even when you fight every encounter. A lot of this is fixed in the sequel but this game would definitely benefit from a remaster with quality of life changes such as a reduced encounter rate, toggle on/off, and fast forward. Knowing Atlus, one or none of those will be included, but we can hope.

2023 goty, wish it was longer. Had so much fun playing this one. Gameplay is buttery smooth, graphics look amazing, and the story is awesome. It’s everything you could want from a new Spider-Man game. Fluid combat is a very important thing to me and Insomniac never disappoints. Swinging is 2X faster and never felt better. I’m a performance over fidelity guy and the game still looked great so I wouldn’t even bother with fidelity. The story had me engaged from start to finish. I love Spider-Man but don’t even know all the different villains from the comics so I appreciate Insomniac bringing out these enemies for me to learn more about. I really felt for the characters. Hearing evil Peter was funny as hell but it was fucking awesome when I heard the venom sounds coming from the controller in combat. I only have a few nitpicks like bugs, length, and certain side missions. I encountered quite a few bugs throughout the game that made me restart my checkpoint such as getting stuck in certain spots and Spider-Man turning into a white cube, funny enough. A few of the side missions were boring such as the Brooklyn Visions and the catching bees. I don’t know, it just kinda took me out of the fast paced story. I know I’m not forced to do them, so I saved them for after I finished the story. And last but not least, the length. I really wish the story was longer. It felt about half the length of the first game which is kinda sad since they improved so much. Hoping for some dlc!