I've had an eye on Stellar Blade since it got shown off in the September 2021 PlayStation showcase as it looked like something that had the opportunity to fill the action game void that has somewhat been growing throughout the past decade or so, and it looked a lot like NieR Automata, like, A LOT like NieR. Following this the game kinda lodged in the back of my head and I kind of forgot about to a degree until a couple months ago when more and more trailers and pre-release material kept coming out it became one of the most anticipated games of the year for me. I thought it could follow in the footsteps of recent masterpieces in the genre like Stranger of Paradise: FFO and cement itself as a really worthy title in the genre. After just coming off of finishing it, did it?

I'd say so, its a really fun title with a really solid combat system and surprisingly solid level design and platforming. However, one of the biggest observations from the initial reveal would end up being the games biggest fault. It really, REALLY, wants to be NieR so bad to a detriment. The world, soundtrack (which is still very good), and especially its story can come off as a straight-to-DVD ripoff regardless of how well they do it. I'm not exaggerating in the slightest when I say this game literally has the same exact plot-twist of the NieR games (and Adam must want to be Genesis from FF7 so bad because he seems to have studied his yapping classes real well). Which sucks because the game is very much at its best when it decides to do its own thing especially environmentally. Some of the late game areas of some of sickest looking areas I've ever seen but then they decide to have both the more open areas to just be somewhat generic desert areas.

Combat is as expected the highlight of the game. The skill progression is pretty well done until the last third of the game where you kind of already have all the cool abilities causing combat to get slightly repetitive near the end. I think more weapon types would have greatly added to the combat in giving more variety. The late game bosses were beating my ass but they provided a very fun and fair challenge.

It actually reminds me a lot of Sonic Frontiers, its very fun and mechanically strong but lacking in carving out its own style and identity. Somewhat unrelated but finding different outfits was a very fun way to reward exploration and something that I almost find under-utilized in the modern gaming landscape.

And that last line I feel sums up my thoughts, while it wears it influences on its sleeve a little too much, it still feels like a breath of fresh air from the recent gaming landscape and SHIFT UP should be extremally proud of what they created especially given its their first full console title and one of my bigger takeaways is that I really hope Sony rebuilds their focus on the Eastern market they've really seem to have lost over the the past console generation so we can get more titles like this and hopefully a sequel of some sort that can be an all-timer if focus is put in the right areas.

(blame the scatter brained review on the brain damage i received once twitter got their hands on the game)

NO COLORS
NO JAPANESE RPG WRITERS
NO PLOT BEATS

100% PURE UNCUT 7TH GEN ROCK

--A WORLD BEYOND SPEED--

"Hidden Gem" is a term I believe to be thrown around way too frequently in the gaming community, rarely ever being used in a way I would say its "properly" applicable.

Racing Lagoon is a Hidden Gem, and also straight up one of the coolest video games ever made.

Finally being playable in English thanks to the hard work from the people over at Hilltop, Racing Lagoon is a stylish, raw, and just phenomenal racing based RPG made by prime Square during their insane PS1 days. Presentation is off the charts visually and sonically. The stealing parts mechanic keeps the gameplay engaging throughout the games whole runtime and the world kept opening and expanding to a point where I was just like "why did I only hear about this a month ago?"

The world of Racing Lagoon might be its most notable aspect. Yokohama just feels like home and all of its inhabitants are just so charming. The writing and story, while they go some out there places by the end, is consistently engaging and overall is just a very fun ride, with all your shenanigans you would expect from a Square RPG from this era.

if at any point you read me rambling about my love for this game and found it interesting, then please, do yourself and the game a favor and give it a shot, we need more Lagooners in the world.