I would say that like 90% of why I like this game is the art direction. I love grimy, slimy, sweaty, dirty ass aesthetics like this. Real Texas Chainsaw Massacre vibes with this game’s visuals. It’s a strong contender for my favourite RE art-wise. It’s also the most grotesque RE by far, which I love.

I think the first half of the game captures the spirit of classic RE relatively well. I really like it. I can’t quite explain why, but the second half is a lot less interesting to me.

I love the tone, too. Quite Evil Dead-esque.

A nice return to form after 6, if not as good as it could be.

It’s really fun until the guys with guns start showing up. The quality of the game dips pretty hard at that point. Additionally, as fun as it is, it’s very similar to 4, for better or worse. I find the writing to be disappointing after 4 as well. Gone is the goofiness of 4; it’s replaced by a much flatter script overall.

I wanna shout out how beautiful this game still is, though. I genuinely like the green filter. It adds a lot of character. It’s clearly made with it in mind. And I also think this has some of the best motion blur in a game. It looks awesome. Things like this draw a lot of ire from gamers, but they can be used well, and I think the implementation here is proof of that.

It’s a great romp, particularly with a friend. Definitely recommend.

It’s not a stretch to say this is one of the most influential games ever. It still possibly has the best gunplay of any third person shooter. The pacing is excellent. There’s tons of variety. It still looks really nice. The story is really fun. This shit is firing on all cylinders. It’s also perfect for when you can’t think of anything else to play. It gets a little weaker at some points on the island, but given how consistently brilliant the village and castle sections are, I can excuse those faults. And the island is still mostly really good, anyhow.

Good game.

I kinda stink at fighting games, and I can’t play them at all anymore due to seizures, but when this came out and the mere thought of having to press more than one button at a time WASN’T enough to kill me, I had a great time with this game. I do miss the absurd complexity of the past games in the series, and a lot of the personality from those games has been lost as well, but Arc Sys have still managed to make something pretty compelling, and they’ve added a lot to it since launch. It was the only fighting game I bought at launch so getting to be part of the initial wave of everyone figuring things out is really special to me.

I think this is one of my most replayed games ever. I typically like my character action games a little more punishing than this one, but I would argue it’s a near-perfect gateway into the genre as a result. The skill ceiling is high enough to keep you coming back, and the skill floor is low enough that more casual players kinda can just mash their way through most of it. On top of that, you get all the Platinum hype that you expect. This probably still has the best parry in a game besides Third Strike, too.

Neat little run-n-gun, with a bit more focus on the platforming compared to other run-n-gun games. All the weapons are fun to use, and the game makes great use of all of them. It’s got a very charming style, and a nice, simple story with a well-communicated point. The unlockable hard mode that dramatically redesigns every level in the game is genius. It feels more like an expansion or a sequel than a simple change in difficulty. However, the real star here is the level design. Daisuke Amaya freed himself of level design duties, leaving that responsibility to Kiyoko Kanekawa, and it shows. It’s simple, but everything that should be conveyed to the player in a game like this, is done masterfully.

One of my favourite games I’ve played in the last couple years. I believe it’s quite cheap as well, so give it a shot.

To get the bad out of the way first, I think it’s a tad long in the tooth and I’m not a big fan of the way they changed skill inheritance in this one. Combat is expectedly great for an SMT game, but I prefer Persona’s ‘one more’ and SMT’s ‘press turn’ systems over Strange Journey’s alternative. I would’ve liked a little more focus on story, and the main characters are too transparently just manifestations of the different moralities.

The best things about the game are its dungeon crawling and its atmosphere. I expected the dungeon crawling to become tedious before long, but they throw new ideas at you frequently enough that I never felt it became tiresome.

They do a great job at making the world feel really hostile and alien. Everything is out to kill you, even the world itself. It’s a crude caricature of earth. It’s super cool. And Shoji Meguro’s orchestral OST is the perfect accompaniment. The first area theme is the most evil sounding shit ever.

Other than that, it excels at basically everything you expect an SMT game to excel at. Play this, it’s really good.

Might have actually been my most played GameCube game as a kid. The weird humour and just general insanity of it has always resonated with me. Super easy to pick up and play, with or without other people. Tons of variety. It certainly works better as an handheld game, but otherwise it’s kinda perfect.

Even though I loved it at the time, I probably took it for granted. You can never really know how valuable things like this will be (personally or monetarily) without the benefit of hindsight. Now, however, it’s one of my all-time favourites and I hold it close to my heart. One of the best Christmas gifts I’ve ever received.