Gameplay:
Mainline Shin Megami Tensei is known for its combat, and V delivers on that front. The Press Turn System is fairly similar to how it works in past games, but does have some new wrinkles, with the biggest addition being the Magatsuhi Gauge. This gauge charges up every turn, and once it's full you can use a variety of special abilities. I only ever used the default ability, which guarantees that every attack your party does that turn will be a critical hit. I think the Magatsuhi Gauge is a good addition on the whole, but I do feel like it incentivizes players to play more passively until it’s fully charged, which to me makes the combat feel a bit more boring at times. This is much less of an issue later into the game though, since as time goes on you will gain abilities that make the Magatsuhi Gauge fill much faster. One other aspect of the combat I’d like to mention is that bosses are definitely pretty spongey in this game. Again, it was less of a problem later once my character was well-optimized, but even then some fights could last for somewhere in the range of fifteen minutes.

In the out of combat gameplay department, I find SMT V to be a major step up from previous entries. This might not necessarily be the case for diehard SMT fans, but personally I’m just not a huge fan of dungeon crawling. What I am a huge fan of is Xenoblade, which the open environments of this game remind me of. There’s a ton to explore, and the various things you can find really make taking time to look around feel worthwhile. There are only two main dungeons, both of which are in the later portion of the game. Overall I found this part of the game to be a massive improvement on past entries.

Story:
To be frank, the story of SMT V isn’t great. There are a lot of interesting ideas, but it takes a long time for the story to ramp up, and even then I didn’t care about many of the characters. Also, for some weird reason a couple of characters who prominently feature in the main story at points are relegated to having their stories wrapped up in side quests.

It might seem like this would be a big issue with the game, but honestly I can’t say I care much. Mainline SMT isn’t exactly known for its storytelling (for the most part), and I wasn’t expecting much going into this one either. If the story took up a lot of the game then that would be one thing, but it never feels very intrusive aside from towards the end of the game, so it’s not a huge problem for me personally. If you’re looking for a JRPG with a good story though, go play something else.

Visuals and Music:
Visually I find SMT V to be a beautiful game. It does unfortunately suffer from performance issues, but they never actually affected my gameplay, so I don’t think they’re a huge problem in the grand scheme of things. And as always, the demon designs are fantastic. I especially love the designs of the Zeus and Odin, hopefully they will turn up in future games too.

The music is also great, which again is not very surprising if you’ve played any other SMT games. I’ll need to listen to the soundtrack again before making a final judgement, but I could see it being my favorite soundtrack of the mainline games.


Conclusion:
SMT V is a great game. If you like JRPGs specifically for combat and exploration, you will probably love this game. More story would have been nice, but ultimately that doesn’t hurt the game too much for me. My biggest gripe is definitely the health of the bosses; some fights just felt like they’d never end, and in some cases I went through multiple SP restoring items on my main party members in a single fight. Overall though, I had a great time with SMT V and I’m looking forward to seeing how the series evolves from here.

Score: 90/100

Gameplay:
Fire Emblem is known for its strategic combat as well as some social aspects, the latter of which have been focused on much more in the newer games. Since Path of Radiance is fairly old by now, most of the gameplay takes place on the battlefield, which personally is what I prefer. As for the gameplay itself, I think it’s fun but a bit too easy. I’ve played a majority of the Fire Emblems games, and since I had heard this one was rather easy, I tried playing on the hardest difficulty. Even then, I found that very few of the maps presented much of a challenge. Some of the early maps might be a little bit tough, especially since on some of them you don’t get access to Titania, but once you get her as a permanent character, the game becomes very easy. Titania is a mounted unit with ridiculous stats, so she can handle most enemies thrown at her, even on the highest difficulty. She falls off a bit later on but is still good even in the endgame, and by then Ike and potentially some others will have replaced her as your new broken unit. Ike could solo every map by the time he got promoted in my playthrough, which occurs about two-thirds of the way through the game.
All that being said, the game itself is still pretty fun. There aren’t a ton of standout maps but I didn’t have many I outright hated either, and the majority definitely were enjoyable in my opinion. The combat between individual units is not as interesting as it is in the newer games, but it’s still enjoyable. I also appreciate that this game features an enemy range toggle, though I’m not sure why they didn’t think to include an option to enable it for every enemy as opposed to making the player turn it on for each one individually. The Laguz (people who can transform into animals) are also a cool addition, but I felt like using them was usually not worth it since they cannot fight unless transformed. The one exception which I used extensively is this game’s equivalent to the dancer you normally get in Fire Emblem, who can give another action to a unit when untransformed, and gives another action to all adjacent allies when he is transformed. Skills are also present in this game and are fun, but a lot of them don’t seem to do much, and I wish that units didn’t have to permanently lose a skill in order to make space for a new one. The only other thing that I think is worth mentioning about the battles are the atrociously long enemy phases. The animations in this game are generally just way too long, and there not being an option to speed them up is really unfortunate. You can always turn them off, but as someone that does like to see the animations it seems like there’s no good option.
Outside of battle, the player’s time is mostly spent in the preparations menu, which is quite a bit more involved than in most of the FE games prior to this one. This is where you can access the weapon and item shops, the convoy, your characters’ supports, as well as some other features. One particular thing I really enjoyed about this part is the information tab, which lets you talk with a couple different characters between chapters. Sometimes there are rewards for doing so, but either way it provides some more context and characterization, which I’m always in favor of. Supports are also present in this game, and I liked the ones I saw. I wouldn’t say any of them were truly ground-breaking, but they were all at least decent. My only complaint with them is that they have the five supports per character limit in this game. I understand why it’s there for balancing purposes, but the support bonuses are already really strong as is if you’re getting all of the ones available, and if nothing else they could at least let players view the other supports in game and just not give extra stats for them. One feature in this game that I really like is the Bonus Experience. Maps will give you some Bonus Experience for beating them, and some will give you a bunch extra if you fulfill certain objectives, such as not killing certain enemies. When you return to the preparations menu, you can give some of that Bonus Experience to your units to level them up. It makes it much easier to invest in someone who you want to use but that you haven’t used before, or even just to get someone up to speed if you had to bench them for a chapter.

Story:
The story and characters of Path of Radiance are probably the best part of the game. While my personal favorite story in Fire Emblem still remains that of Genealogy of the Holy War, this one is a contender for second place. Ike is a fantastic protagonist with a lot of personality and growth. His story focuses primarily on him becoming a leader, which is not exactly the most original premise, but it’s executed very well. He’s capable of feeling multiple emotions too, rather than simply being one note; he wants revenge, but he also wants to protect his friends, and he wants to prevent the Laguz and Beorc (an in-game term for humans) from continuing to fight. And Ike is just one of many interesting characters in the game. Soren and Elincia also have similarly compelling growth, and other members of the main cast like Titania, Nasir, and Reyson are great too. The game has a lot of plot threads and themes, and aside from one or two things, almost everything is resolved. The topic of antagonism between ethnic groups is hugely important in this game, and honestly I think it’s handled pretty well, which is especially surprising considering that there are some physical differences between them. One last element of the story that I’d like to highlight is the world-building, which is far better than most games in the series. There are tons of little details thrown in now and then that really make the continent of Tellius feel real, and none of it ever feels forced.

Visuals and Music:
Objectively speaking, this game looks pretty bad. Despite being a late GameCube release, the visuals look more like a less blurry PS1 game to me. That being said, for some reason I actually like how it looks. I don’t know why, and I don’t have any nostalgia for PS1 games since I never played any when I was younger, but something about it is charming to me. The character art is really good too and definitely up there with the best in the series for me. On the music side of things, I think that it is pretty good. Not my favorite in the series by any means, but it works for the game itself. The midi quality seemed bad from what I could tell, but I’m not an expert by any means on that stuff so I can’t say for sure.

Conclusion:
Fire Emblem Path of Radiance is a good game with some problems here and there. The animations are way too slow, the game is too easy, and it’s visuals have not held up well by any stretch. However, the core Fire Emblem gameplay is still plenty fun here, and the story and characters are some of the absolute best the series has to offer. I think this game would be good for people who are only starting to get into Fire Emblem as a series, though it is missing a lot of the quality of life features present in the games that came after.

Score: 86/100

Gameplay:
For the first time since the series started, Pokemon has finally stepped out of its gameplay comfort zone in Pokemon Legends: Arceus. Unlike the previous games, the main gameplay loop of this entry revolves more around exploration and catching Pokemon. While there are still some battles required in order to progress the story, hardly any of them were challenging, especially when I was overleveled from thoroughly exploring an area before fighting its boss. Each of the game’s five areas is large enough that fully exploring them will take several hours, although that is not necessary to progress the main story. The basic gameplay loop comes down to exploring an area, catching that area’s Pokemon and collecting resources used in crafting Pokeballs and other consumable items, fighting the area’s boss, and then moving on.
Exploration is one of the most-improved aspects of this game compared to past Pokemon titles. Running through the large, open areas of this game is quite fun, and there is a lot to do in each of them. The main attraction is catching Pokemon, which can now be done in two ways: whittling down their health in battle (like in previous games), or catching them outside of battle. The latter tactic can only be done if the Pokemon has not become aggressive, so it is much easier to catch them if the player is stealthy and goes unnoticed. I really like this addition, since it made catching Pokemon far less of a hassle. There are also a variety of tasks required to fully fill out each Pokemon’s Pokedex entry, and the removal of having to battle a Pokemon to catch it makes this both more palatable and more fun. And moving through each area of Hisui is made even more fun with the use of the rideable Pokemon, each of which provide some unique form of transportation. Some are more useless than others, but on the whole they are great to have.
Battles have been reworked somewhat as well in this game. They now take place in the overworld, which is a great change even if it does not really affect the overall experience all that much. The biggest changes to battle come from the rebalancing of nearly every move in the game, as well as the introduction of Agile Style and Strong Style moves. Once a Pokemon has leveled a few times after learning a move, they will master it, which allows them to use Agile Style and Strong Style versions of that attack. Agile Style makes the attacking Pokemon more likely to act again before the opponent can at the cost of reducing damage, while Strong Style does the opposite (increasing power but diminishing speed). Agile Style and Strong Style are another great change, as they greatly add to the options available at any time, which has always been an issue for Pokemon as a series. However, this change does seem to have come at the cost of held items and abilities; neither of those mechanics are present in Arceus. I really do not see why they felt the need to remove those aspects of combat, but I do still think that this game’s battles are superior to those of the previous games. My biggest gripe with battles in this game is that there are not as many as I would have liked, and most of them are ridiculously easy. This is in large part thanks to the fact that most of the people the player battles only have a few Pokemon, so they will hardly ever face someone who puts up a real threat. There are stronger Pokemon you can fight and catch in the wild called Alpha Pokemon, but they do not totally make up for the lack of challenging story battles. I also think that level-scaling or some other form of balancing to prevent accidental overleveling would have been nice.
Crafting is a new feature present in Arceus, and while it is not complex, I do think it adds a necessary element to exploration. If exploring was only for the purpose of catching Pokemon and progressing the story, then it would start to feel same-y after a while. Grabbing crafting materials adds a secondary goal to exploration and breaks things up, while also creating a nice feedback loop since Pokeballs and healing items can be crafted in this game. My only complaint on this front is that the inventory size feels too small even once it has been significantly upgraded. Furthermore, there is not any good reason why there needed to be a size cap on the inventory to begin with; the player will need to return to camp regularly anyway to heal and update their Pokedex. Ideally, I think that the inventory should have had a size limit (since items can be crafted on the fly with whatever the player has in their inventory), but any items obtained after reaching the inventory’s limit should have been sent back to the player’s supplies chest.
The bosses in this game serve as a sort of replacement to gyms, and while I did enjoy them, I do still miss aspects of the old format. And as I mentioned before, there aren’t many story-required battles outside of the bosses, and even fewer which require any real skill to win.

Story:
This is definitely one part of the game that could have used some work. For the most part, nothing happens until the last three or four hours, so the story never was very engaging. The characters are all likable enough, but none of them are particularly interesting or complex. I appreciate that Game Freak put more focus on the facial expressions in this game when compared to something like Sun and Moon, but the expressions in Arceus are a bit too exaggerated and lack variety.

Visuals and Music:
One look at this game shows that it looks straight-up bad. The resolution and frame rate are surprisingly decent, but the textures on anything that isn’t a character or Pokemon model look mediocre at best and atrocious at worst. I primarily play Nintendo games and really don’t care about graphics all that much, but there were several times while I was playing Arceus where I was taken aback by just how awful the game looked. The graphics are certainly the game’s biggest flaw in my opinion, and they make me wish that Game Freak had gotten at least a few more months to improve things.
On the other hand, this game’s music is surprisingly great. Pokemon is known for having good music, but I feel that it has been a bit hit-or-miss since X and Y, so hearing the music of this game was just great. There’s a lot of references to and remixes of music from Diamond and Pearl, but I never felt like those were being done in poor taste. My sole problem with the music comes from the way it is handled with regards to wild Pokemon. When a wild Pokemon becomes aggressive towards the player, the music that is currently playing will be interrupted and replaced with a rather boring song that quickly becomes repetitive. The same problem also happens when you are near an Alpha Pokemon, though it is less of an issue there since that does not happen quite as much.

Conclusion:
Pokemon Legends: Arceus is a huge step forward for Pokemon as a franchise. It makes a lot of good changes, and for once, I actually wanted to catch every Pokemon. Moreover, this feels like the first Pokemon game that needed to be 3D. Every 3D entry prior to this one played like a 2D, which always seemed like a missed opportunity. Arceus does not fall into this trap, as it takes advantage of its 3D nature to make catching Pokemon and exploring more engaging than ever before. This game certainly has its problems, most of which are made all the more frustrating by the fact that they could have been fixed with another year or so of development, but as is Arceus is my favorite Pokemon game since Black 2 and White 2.

Score: 86/100

Gameplay:
Rating an Ace Attorney game on gameplay and story separately seems sort of pointless to me since those two elements are so inextricably linked for these games, but since I am already committed to this arbitrary review format, I will be rating gameplay and story separately. I should also note that I had only played the original Ace Attorney trilogy prior to playing the Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, so there may be some features from those games that I accidentally attribute to being new to this one.
Gameplay-wise Ace Attorney is sort of like a visual novel, although the court sections feel more involved. During the investigation portions the player will visit different locations, talking to characters and finding clues that will later be important in the trial. The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles also has a new feature during these portions of the game, that being Herlock Sholmes’ deductions. During these deductions he will examine a scene and come to an incorrect conclusion about what happened, and so the player must correct his mistakes in order to discover the truth. The deductions are a great addition, since they are both fun in their own right and help to break up the investigations, which in my opinion can become a bit monotonous at times.
However, where Ace Attorney has always really shined is in its trials. During the trials the player will have to defend their client by examining witness testimony and presenting evidence which contradicts said testimony. There are also plenty of parts where the game deviates from this formula, such as when it requires the player to put forth a new theory on what really happened during the incident that led to the defendant’s arrest. This formula is mostly the same as it was in the original trilogy, although now multiple witnesses can take the stand at once, allowing for them to interject and provide new information at times. Personally I had no issues with the relatively similar gameplay, since that has always been a large part of what makes Ace Attorney great. There is something immensely satisfying about breaking down a false narrative and proving what really happened, especially when the odds are stacked against you. In that regard, The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles delivers in spades.
The biggest addition to the courtroom gameplay is the jury system, which almost acts as an entirely different portion of the game, much in the same way that the investigation and trial are distinct. At times the jury will unanimously vote guilty, and when that happens, the player has to begin a summation examination. During the summation examination, each member of the jury will present their reasoning for voting guilty, and the only way for the trial to continue is for the defense to compare two of the juror’s statements and prove them to be contradictory, which will prompt the jurors to change their votes. Once a majority of the jury changes their minds to a not guilty verdict, the trial will continue. I am a bit torn on this mechanic overall. In a vacuum it is fun and provides a nice diversion from the typical Ace Attorney gameplay, but oftentimes when I was doing a summation examination, I found myself wishing I was doing the usual gameplay instead. The last three trials use the jury far less than the ones prior to them do, and I feel like they were much better for it. Maybe there is a way where the jury system could be implemented without breaking the pace of the rest of the trials so much, but as it stands I think the jury mechanic is fun but flawed.

Story:
The original Ace Attorney trilogy has one of my favorite stories in any video game, so I had high expectations going into The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. Thankfully this game delivers an equally fantastic story, so much so that I honestly can’t say which I prefer on the whole. The Great Ace Attorney does start off a lot slower than the original trilogy, and ultimately I think that is its biggest weakness. The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is made up of two games, and the first is devoted mostly to introducing the characters and setting. While it does a great job of that, the format does mean that the story itself is not nearly as engaging as other Ace Attorney games, with this one being my least favorite of the five I have played. All of the cases were fun, but the last of the first five is the only one which I would count among the best Ace Attorney cases.
That being said, the second game more than makes up for the slow start of the first. The first case is easily one of the best starting cases in the series, the second is a fun continuation of a case from the first game, and then the third, fourth, and fifth are one wild ride. The last three cases are flat out some of the best in the entire series, and easily the single most compelling story arc Ace Attorney has produced thus far. The last part of the game alone is worth playing all the rest for, and at this point I can say that the second game, The Great Ace Attorney 2: Resolve, is my favorite standalone Ace Attorney game. However, much like the spectacular final game of the original trilogy, the context of The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures is 100% required in order to appreciate the second game.
The characters in Ace Attorney are always a large part of what makes them great, and that is the case here as well. The main cast all are fun to watch, with the protagonist Ryunosuke, his assistant Susato, and their friend Iris all having good character arcs. The prosecutor Barok van Zieks also has a great progression as the story goes on, but his mysterious apprentice is probably the most compelling character of the entire duology, and the resolution to his arc is well-done too. The legendary detective Herlock Sholmes doesn’t change as much, but I enjoyed the humor he provided to the game, and he still can be serious when the story necessitates it. The supporting cast is also good across the board, with my favorite probably being Inspector Gregson, a detective that Ryunosuke comes across frequently during his investigations. I do think that at times the cast can feel a little bit too similar to their counterparts in the original trilogy, especially when comparing Ryunosuke and Phoenix, but on the whole the story is different enough that I never had too much of a problem with that. The antagonists in this entry are fun as well, although I do think that the original trilogy does have better prosecutors and antagonists.

Visuals and Music:
Visually The Great Ace Attorney looks good. The character models do have some traces of their 3DS origins still present, but I would say they are categorically good across the board. The backgrounds are similar in that regard as well, and while I do miss the fantastically animated 2D sprites from the original trilogy, the animation here is still full of personality. Most of the game does not make especially prominent use of the third dimension available to it, but I will say that Herlock’s deductions take full advantage of the 3D space that is available.
The music in these two games is nothing short of spectacular. The original trilogy has a fantastic soundtrack, but I would say that this one manages to surpass even that one. Somehow the song writers were able to transplant the traditional Ace Attorney musical style into a soundtrack which uses orchestra for all of its music, creating a plethora of songs which perfectly accentuate the sharp twists and turns of the story.

Conclusion:
The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is without a doubt a fantastic game. While the first game in the duology is a bit slow, it is still plenty enjoyable in its own right, and it also does a great job in setting up the sublime narrative of the second half of the collection. The investigations are better than ever here, and while the game feels like it might have been better without the jury system, I cannot say I dislike it either. The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles is not just great, it is exceptional, and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good story, particularly if they already know they like the gameplay of Ace Attorney.

Score: 91/100

Gameplay:
Persona Q2: New Cinema Labyrinth’s gameplay is primarily dungeon-crawling. The player will traverse through various dungeons, slowly mapping out their progress by hand as they proceed. During these crawls, the player’s party can be attacked by enemies via random encounters, and that is basically all there is to Persona Q2. Of course, both of these two components have a fair amount of depth. Dungeon maps are drawn by hand, with only floor tiles being filled out automatically. This means that the player will need to pay attention to their surroundings, which is important since each floor contains a powerful item which can only be accessed once that floor’s map is filled out. While this system of manually drawing the map can be fun, I feel that more often than not I was simply looking at the map instead of my surroundings, which I think is generally a sign of poor game design. But the dungeon floors themselves tended to look somewhat samey. While each dungeon was distinct in of itself, only one of them presented any major design changes to its floors part way through. I found the dungeon crawling to be decently fun early into the game, but by the end it got to be a slog. I think this issue could have been avoided if the game was a lot shorter, or if the dungeons had contained more involved puzzles to contend with. They all have some kind of gimmick, but the only one I found particularly interesting was the fourth dungeon’s mechanic, which involves the raising and lowering of pillars to make or block a path.
The combat of Persona Q2 is actually very fun, at least in a vacuum. Each character only has one main Persona, which learns a set of skills as the character levels up. However, every character can also equip a sub-persona, which can be won from some battles and fused together to create new sub-personas with different combinations of skills. This allows for a party in which every character plays a distinct role, but also can be customized as much as the player wants, which is great since the player can already pick from every playable character in Persona 3 Portable, Persona 4, and Persona 5 (not Royal, however). I would go so far as to say that this system is superior to what the main Persona games currently have; I would love to see something like this in Persona 6. All-out attacks return from the main series as well, occurring when the party has knocked down all of the enemies (which can be done with a critical hit or by hitting the enemy with an attack it is weak to). And the last main mechanic to mention is boost. This happens to a character when they land a critical hit or attack an enemy’s weakness, allowing them to use a skill on their next turn at no cost. However, they will lose the boost if they take damage before their next attack. Boost is fun to use, but I cannot say that I felt like it added too much to the gameplay. There was never a situation when I felt like I had to use boost in order to win. Overall the core combat is quite fun, but it is brought down quite a bit by other factors. For one, the random encounter rate is annoyingly high. It seemed like I was always being interrupted in my dungeon crawling, making battle more of a distraction than anything else. Additionally, the game requires a lot of grinding in order for the party to stand a chance against the dungeon bosses. This can be alleviated for the most part by the use of a DLC item that grants 3 times the EXP to all party members in battle, but that item also breaks a lot of the game’s balancing in other areas (such as persona fusion). Overall, the gameplay of Persona Q2 is fun many times, but some frustrating design choices waste a lot of the player’s time, unfortunately.

Story:
To be honest, I feel like the story of this game missed most of its potential. The only character from the main series who actually gets any large amount of development is the female protagonist from Persona 3 Portable. She is a fun character who does have some pretty interesting ideas explored, but her story is spread pretty far apart by the dungeon crawling. The only other character with any significant development is Hikari, who is an original character. I enjoyed her arc, which focuses on how she feels trapped when she tries to be herself, but it was hardly anything profound. The other problem I have with it is that she barely gets any focus until the fourth dungeon. In fact, it feels like hardly anything of note happens prior to that dungeon; the party is mostly just focused on escaping, with a few character interactions being mixed in. However, even those felt like missed opportunities. Most of the inter-game character interactions are saved for the side quests, but because of the annoying nature of dungeon crawling in this game, I didn’t want to do any of them. The story and character interactions had a lot of cool directions to potentially go in, but overall this story mostly missed the mark for me.

Visuals and Music:
Visually, I actually liked this game more than I expected. The chibi characters look much better than I’d anticipated, and the environments look good too, though they get a bit repetitive after exploring them for hours on end. The music here is also fantastic, with some of the best battle themes in the entire Persona series. Even if you have no interest in this game, I’d recommend checking some of them out.

Conclusion:
This game feels like it was really close to being something great, only to fall apart a bit in a few key areas. The music, visuals, and combat are all great, and work fine as is. I think that if the story had been consolidated, then expanded a little bit, and the dungeon crawling had been greatly reworked to be less time-wasting, this game could have been more like twenty-five or thirty hours, and much better for it. As of now, it is a fifty hour game that has a lot of good and a bit of bad in it. I feel pretty conflicted on it overall, and I would not recommend it unless you think the dungeon crawling sounds up your alley.

Score: 60/100

Gameplay:
Kirby and the Forgotten Land marketed as a 3D platformer, but I think it actually falls more closely into the category of a 3D action game. The player will move through mostly linear levels, each of which is filled with a variety of enemies, objects, and power-ups that can be interacted with. The goal of every level is the same, that being to get to the end, but the developers have managed to take advantage of that simple structure about as much as one could expect. Every level explores a different idea, iterating on it in a satisfying way. Sometimes it felt like the game was almost going through ideas too fast, but I enjoyed the brisk pace; nothing felt like it even came close to overstaying its welcome. While none of the levels left my jaw on the floor, I legitimately enjoyed all of them, which is not something I can say for many games. The only main levels which significantly deviate from this formula are the boss battles, all of which I found to be thoroughly enjoyable. None of them were especially hard, but the later ones did provide a little bit of challenge. That can really be said for the whole game; unless the player is trying to go for 100%, not much is going to yield a real challenge. I only died twice my entire playthrough, and both of those were intentional deaths done in an effort to not have to replay portions of levels which I had already completed. That actually leads into one minor gripe I have with the game design when it comes to replayability. Every level can be beaten in just a few minutes if side content is ignored, but if the player is looking for a collectible in a level they already explored a fair amount of, it can get tedious since the clues provided on where to find them are fairly vague. I like that there are a lot of things to collect, and I don’t think the game should spell out exactly where everything is hidden, but it still feels like there has to have been a better system.

The only other main sources of gameplay are the Treasure Roads and minigames. The latter are not too interesting outside of the arena, which offers some boss gauntlets, but the Treasure Roads ended up being one of my favorite parts of the game. Each one is essentially just one challenge designed around a specific power-up, be it one of the classic-style ones or a Mouthful Mode (a transformation which completely changes how Kirby plays). The Treasure Roads themselves are rarely too difficult if the player just wants to reach the end and get the Rare Stone, a currency which is used to upgrade power-ups. However, they can still be somewhat challenging, and that difficulty is greatly increased if the player wants to beat the Treasure Road in the target time. On the whole, Kirby and the Forgotten Land is just plain fun to play. The game does not provide too much of a challenge unless the player seeks it out, but as is I still found it to be tremendously satisfying to beat.

Story:
As with most Kirby games, the main campaign does not have too much story. There is a good deal of environmental storytelling, but in terms of actual plot, not much happens until the boss of world four, and then again at the end of the sixth world. The last area of the game is extremely strange, in typical Kirby fashion, but I would have liked it if a little more time was devoted to that portion of the game. At the end of the day though, I cannot say I was disappointed by the story since I did not expect much outside of some fun worldbuilding, which the game does provide.

Visuals and Music:
I think the art style of Kirby and the Forgotten Land is great. It is vibrant, which makes it great at setting different moods. I honestly have no real complaints when it comes to the look of the game, but I do wish the performance was a little better. The main issue is just that enemies which are somewhat far away from the camera will only move at half the FPS of everything else on screen, an effect which I find to be quite jarring. I know the Switch’s hardware is underpowered, but the weird FPS changing did take me out of the experience a bit. It seemed to be less present as the game went on, but I am not sure if the developers got better at hiding it, or if I just got used to it.
I knew the music was going to be good in this game; it is Kirby, after all. However, I still was completely blown away by just how incredible the soundtrack is. This game is an easy frontrunner for best soundtrack of the year, though it will certainly have some heavy competition (especially Xenoblade Chronicles 3). The music perfectly complements every level and scene, adding to the fantastic sense of atmosphere already established by the visuals.

Conclusion:
Kirby and the Forgotten Land is just an all-around great game. I don’t think it does anything especially revolutionary, or even better than other games, but that does not make it any less fun. It is a great evolution for the series, and I can confidently say that I am thoroughly looking forward to the next game.

Score: 84/100

Gameplay:
Like most JRPGs, Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht (which I will be shortening to Xenosaga I for brevity’s sake) has two main types of gameplay, exploration and battle. The overworld segments in this game are generally pretty mediocre. Some of the environments look pretty interesting, but I think that most of the mechanical areas, like the spaceships, look relatively bland. This can sometimes make it difficult to even know what is going on, which also is not helped by the fact that sometimes the depth of objects is unclear, usually when the camera is positioned overhead. To make matters worse, this problem is present for the majority of the game, because most of it takes place inside of a couple of spaceships.
In terms of exploration, the game is pretty linear. There are a few side quests and minigames to mess around with, but nothing that will eat up too much of a player’s time. Some might be turned off by that, but I personally did not mind, since I was mostly interested in the main storyline. One other bit of side content are the decoder doors, which can only be opened with special keys that can be found scattered throughout the game. Some are obtained just from playing through the main story, but most have to be sought out. The quality of the rewards from them does vary somewhat, but overall the decoders provided a nice way to incentivize exploring a little bit more.
As mentioned before, the other main part of the gameplay is the combat. The system here will be familiar to those who have played this game’s spiritual predecessor, Xenogears, because it is largely a refinement of that game’s combat system. Each character has two basic attacks they can use, using either the square or triangle button. Every attack costs 2 AP, and each turn a character gets 4 to use as they wish. However, if a character saves up 6 AP, then they can use a more powerful attack called a Tech Attack. These can also be used for only 4 AP later on, after they are upgraded. Tech Attacks are the main way of dealing damage, but AP can also be used for Ether abilities, which cost 4 AP and a set of EP, or items which cost 3 AP to use on one character, or 6 AP for all 3 characters. On top of all of that, some characters have access to mechs called A.G.W.S. that can be used whenever they want. A.G.W.S. have more health than a normal character and deal more damage with basic attacks, but cannot use Tech Attacks, Ether, or items. The last major mechanic of this system is Boost, which is charged when a character attacks. Boosting costs one point (up to three can be stored), allowing the character who Boosts to act next.
On paper, I think this system is really great, and even as is I would not say I dislike it. I also really like the fact that Xenosaga I eschews random encounters for overworld encounters, where the player has to run into an enemy to initiate battle. Unfortunately, this game’s combat does have some glaring issues. The biggest one is that the game is just too slow. Tech Attacks are the main problem here, since they all have a unique animation, usually lasting between 5 and 10 seconds. That might not sound bad at first, but remember that once you have upgraded your Tech Attacks, you will be firing them off almost every single turn, especially during normal enemy encounters when Ether and items are not all that important. The animations just eat up way too much time, and end up making even the simplest battles take enough time that I would get annoyed. Another problem, albeit not as important, is that A.G.W.S. just do not feel worth using most of the time. I could be completely wrong about this, but in my experience they were basically always inferior to a normal character, moreso in the latter half of the game once the party has access to a host of powerful Ether abilities. One other issue I have is with the in-battle music, but I will save that complaint for the music section of this review.

Story:
The story is without a doubt the main appeal of this game. To start with, all of the main characters are pretty interesting, although some of them do not get explored too much. Shion is a compelling protagonist who shares some traits with other Xeno protagonists, but on the whole I would say she is the most unique main character in the series thus far. I also enjoyed Junior’s character quite a bit, and there are plenty of great supporting cast members too. The antagonists are more hit-or-miss, mostly since there really is not a main one for a large portion of the game. That said, Albedo is fantastic and really steals the show once he is introduced.
While the cast of Xenosaga I is all-around great, I do think that the plot falters a bit more. After the inciting incident of the story, the game is essentially just one long trip to the planet of Second Miltia. There are certainly a number of interesting story developments as the game goes on, but the plot is undoubtedly carried in large part by the characters. The first ten hours in particular were not too great, since the beginning stretched on for too long, and the sections after felt a bit aimless.
Though the plot has problems, I do think this game’s worldbuilding is pretty good. Even with just this game, I think Xenosaga I’s world is probably the most fleshed out of any Xeno game, aside from maybe Xenoblade Chronicles X. I appreciate that the world building is usually not directly explained to the player, instead being mentioned in conversation by the characters, although this does sometimes have the unfortunate effect of being too confusing for the player to fully understand, most notably in the early sections of the game.

Visuals and Music:
Xenosaga I’s visuals are mostly good. I am not too familiar with the PS2 era, but from what I have seen this game looks fairly good for the time. The only main complaint I have is that I think some characters’ eyes look sort of weird. While some characters have relatively small eyes, others’ take up half of their face. I just wish there was some consistency, but overall it is not a huge issue.
The music in this game is a classic example of a fantastic soundtrack being squandered by poor use of the songs included. My two biggest gripes are with the battle and overworld music. Every battle save for the final boss uses the exact same song. It’s already a meh song, but when used for every battle save one, it just becomes grating by the end. The overworld music’s problem is that it mostly does not exist. Only a few areas have music, so for most of the game the player is just left to wander through areas with only some background sound effects. Music is probably the single best way to build atmosphere, so to see the opportunity squandered is disappointing. To give credit where it is due, the cutscene music is generally very good, and the two vocal themes at the end of the game are both excellent.

Conclusion:
Xenosaga I is a mixed bag. Most elements of the game feel like they just missed the mark, leaving the game itself to mostly be carried by its excellent cast. That alone was enough to keep me interested, but the first ten hours of the game in particular were tough to get through. I would recommend the game, but honestly I think most people would be better off just watching a let’s play or all of the cutscenes on YouTube. And though it did not really bother me, I can see why some people might not enjoy the fact that this game’s story and characters largely feel like set up for the next one; very little is actually resolved by the end of Xenosaga I. The game is enjoyable on the whole, but I think it could be a whole lot better with even just a few minor tweaks.

Score: 78/100

Gameplay:
Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Böse (which I will refer to as Xenosaga II for the rest of this review for the sake of brevity) picks up right where the first game left off. The gameplay, on the other hand, does not. To be fair, the overworld gameplay is largely the same as the first game’s. The player moves through the overworld as whichever playable character they want, fighting enemies which will run towards the player when they spot them, as opposed to using a random encounter system. Treasure can be found, usually in places that require the player to search around, and there are also special doors hiding powerful items that can only be opened when the player has found a corresponding key, incentivizing players to return to previous areas. It is all fairly standard stuff, nothing especially bad, but nothing mind-blowing either. Where the gameplay truly shines is in combat.
Battles in Xenosaga II share some similarities with the first game, but still require a lot of learning on the part of a returning player. Like in Xenosaga I’s battles, all combat uses an active time battle system akin to the PS1 Final Fantasy games or Xenogears, where turn order is determined by the participants’ respective speeds. Additionally, the random event wheel and Boost system of Xenosaga I return, albeit in different forms. The wheel is similar but has four slots this time, one of which actually switches to a unique effect every time it comes up. The wheel’s effects can be pretty useful, like giving a character a higher critical hit rate, or increasing the amount by which the Boost gauge fills when a character attacks. Speaking of which, Boost is back, but this time the gauge is shared by the whole party. I think this was a good change; since the cap is still three, it makes it harder to always have a Boost available, especially when accounting for other elements of the combat.
In this game, ether (AKA magic) is learned via the class system. Every character has access to all the same classes, so no magic is restricted to specific characters. This gives the player a huge amount of customization to play around with, which I found quite fun. It might seem like this would limit the uniqueness of every character, but they all still have a unique set of regular attacks, so I did not find that to be an issue. Speaking of which, every character has basic attacks that they can do. Normally they can only do two per turn, or one in the case of Shion and MOMO, but everyone can do up to three additional attacks by using the Stock command. Each character can hold three Stock, with each one allowing them to attack one more time. Attacking more times also allows the player to take advantage of an enemy’s weakness. Almost every enemy has a Weak Zone, which is a set of attacks they need to be hit with in order to take more damage for the rest of a character’s turn. For example, an enemy might have a weakness of BC, which would require them to be hit by Square, then Triangle. By using Stock, the player can have a character use more attacks to take advantage of the enemy’s weakened state, which is called Break. An enemy which has been broken can also be inflicted with Air or Down, both of which cause the enemy to receive twice as much damage as normal. Xenosaga II also has elements, and when attacks of the same element are used together on the same turn, every subsequent attack will deal extra damage as well. Furthermore, Boost can be used to extend these combos, allowing every character to participate. With proper preparation, a well-made team can easily wipe out most of a boss’s HP in one combo.
I can understand why some people may not enjoy the combat of Xenosaga II. It requires a lot of set up to unleash the sort of combo I mentioned before, and that can be frustrating at times. More importantly, the combat does sometimes feel a bit slow during normal battles. However, I still think the regular battles are decently fun too. There are not too many of them to balance out their longer length, and at times they can be decently challenging. I never died to one, but I almost did a few times, and that is something I find refreshing. Most JRPGs are afraid to wipe the player’s party outside of a boss fight, so I appreciate the challenge Xenosaga II provides, especially for people who underestimate normal encounters.
One last element of the combat I should mention are E.S. battles. In some portions of the game, the player controls an E.S., which are this game’s mechs. Though they are not quite as fun as the regular battles since the Stock system is not present, I still think E.S. are reasonably fun to play as, and a huge improvement over the A.G.W.S. of Xenosaga I.

Story:
As I said before, this game’s story picks up right where the first left off. I do not intend to get into specifics so as to avoid spoilers, but I think this game’s story is absolutely fantastic. While Xenosaga I had a good story, at times it felt like it was all setup and no payoff. Xenosaga II feels a lot smaller in scope in some ways, with the plot focusing on the conflict between Jr. and Albedo for most of the game, but I think that was a smart move. Rather than overwhelm players with tons of interesting concepts that do not get fully explored, Xenosaga II spends most of its time on developing its characters and their motivations. Though Jr. really feels like the main character for most of the game, every single party member gets some development, though one is still mostly a mystery at this point. The antagonists in this game are also great. Albedo might be my favorite character in the entire game, and he gets plenty of time in the spotlight throughout the story. Margulis, though certainly not as present, still gets a good amount of exploration, going from a generically evil guy to a strong enemy who has a deep connection with Jin, this game’s new party member. The plot itself also feels like it moves along at a good pace, never leaving the player time to get bored. All in all this game’s story is just fantastic. I have only finished the game recently and may need to think on it some more, but it may actually be my second favorite in the entire Xeno series at this point.

Presentation:
Another area where this game has seen some improvements over the first is the presentation, for the most part. The visuals are a good bit better here; the first game’s were good in some areas, but often were a little too dark and drab in my opinion. This game is both clearer and brighter, making the experience more enjoyable in my opinion. On top of that, the models and textures are generally of a higher quality here.
The music is also amazing in this game. Xenosaga I had good music, but suffered greatly from not using it in many areas aside from cutscenes. Xenosaga II amends the issue by having music in the overworld, which greatly adds to each area’s ambience. The regular battle and boss music does get old after a while, but overall the soundtrack is great.
One other thing I would like to talk about is the voice acting. Though there are some characters which I found to be downgrades from the original game (since a lot of characters were recast), I still think everyone involved did a good job on the whole. Jr. and Albedo in particular are both brought to life immaculately by their voice actors.

Conclusion:
A lot of what I have said in this review is a direct comparison between this game and its predecessor. As a sequel, a game has the difficult task of not only maintaining what was good about the original, but improving it too. With that said, I think Xenosaga II is one of the best sequels to a game I have ever played. Practically everything feels like a direct upgrade from Xenosaga I, from the gameplay, to the visuals, the music, and even the story. Really, the only reason I would not recommend this game to more people is because it requires the player to complete Xenosaga I if they want to follow the story. Though I still enjoyed Xenosaga I on the whole, it had a lot of glaring flaws, most of which I feel Xenosaga II addresses in a satisfying way.

Score: 90/100

Gameplay:
Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra (which I will refer to as Xenosaga III for the rest of this review to save space) is the final game in the Xenosaga series. This means that, for the most part, it offers a lot of improvements over the previous installments. The only real exception to that, in my opinion, is in the gameplay. That is not to say Xenosaga III’s gameplay is bad, but rather that the second game’s is just a little more unique.
While the first two games used an active time battle system, Xenosaga III is more of a traditional, turn-based JRPG. Each character participating in a battle gets one action each round, though the order can change depending on their stats and what skills have been used. As is the case in most JRPGs of this sort, each character has a variety of things they can choose to do in a fight, such as attacking normally, guarding, using an item, or a skill (which are divided up into two types, ethers and techs). One new addition to the battle system from the last two games are Special Attacks, which cost Boost points to use. Boost is a system returning from the previous games, mostly unchanged from how it was in Xenosaga II; the Boost gauge charges each time an attack lands, to a total of three points. For one point, a character can move ahead and get in an extra action before the next character, be it a friend or foe. But, as I mentioned before, there are now Special Attacks that characters can perform, each of which costs at least two Boost points. While I think the Special Attacks are interesting and I used them a lot, I feel like they disincentivize the use of Boost for regular abilities most of the time. Special Attacks can become absurdly powerful once they have been leveled up (which is done just by using them in battle), so I rarely used Boost, prioritizing my most powerful Special Attacks instead.
Another fairly large addition to combat is the break system. Every character has a break gauge, which increases when they take a hit. Some attacks also fill the target’s break gauge faster than others. Once an opponent has been broken, they can be hit for a ton of damage, so it can be worth it to focus on breaking enemies. That said, I found that breaking seemed like it was added more to help the enemies than my party, since party members have much lower break tolerance than bosses do. Regular enemies can be easily broken with break attacks, but it is not really necessary since they go down relatively quickly anyway, and for most bosses, the break gauge is so large that it is more efficient to ignore breaking entirely and just focus on pure damage.
In terms of quality of life in battles, I would say this is easily the best of the three Xenosaga games. Though there are more encounters (all of which are in the overworld, not random) than in Xenosaga II, the animations are across the board way faster, making non-boss battles breezy.
Like Xenosaga II, this game also has a separate system for mech battles, where the characters pilot their E.S. crafts. Though not as complex as regular battles, I still think the E.S. fights are fun. Each mech has a set amount of energy to use per turn, which can be used to execute a few different attacks that can be changed based on the mech’s equipped weapons. Attacking also charges the E.S.’s Anima Gauge, which can then be used to do a powerful attack that will instantly kill basically all non-boss enemies. In essence, the Anime Gauge replaces the Boost Gauge, though each E.S. has its own. Otherwise, E.S. battles play out largely the same as normal battles, where every enemy must be defeated in order to win. One thing I liked here more than in Xenosaga II is that the E.S. are utilized a lot more; in the last game, it felt like I barely ever used them.
While I have covered all of the main points of battles, there are also some things outside of battle that play into fights. Each character can be made more powerful with equipment, like in most other JRPGs. Additionally, every character has a skill tree that can be upgraded to unlock new abilities and increase their stats further. The skill points used to upgrade the tree, and the experience points used to level up characters, are earned from winning battles. One feature which I liked was that finishing a battle with a Special Attack (or Anima Attack in E.S. fights) rewards the characters with more EXP and SP. I also appreciate that characters not being used in battle still get plenty of EXP and SP, so no grinding is necessary if you want to try out a different party set up. My only main complaint with the EXP system is that, by the end of the game, the party hardly earns any EXP from normal battles, making them largely pointless. I ended up ignoring most of them in the last area, since there are a lot of bosses there, all of which give enough EXP for at least one level up per character.
Moving on from combat, the only other major gameplay aspect is exploration. This remains mostly the same from the last two games, where the world is mostly linear. People who enjoy having a lot of side content to do might prefer other JRPGs with more of that sort of thing, but as someone who usually sticks to the main story, I did not mind it at all.
On the whole, Xenosaga III has great gameplay. Battles require the player to think and take advantage of the tools at their disposal, although the lack of difficulty for most of the game does somewhat negate this. That being said, I do still miss the complexity of Xenosaga II. Most people will probably prefer the relatively more straightforward and refined gameplay of this one, but there is nothing in Xenosaga III’s combat which is quite as satisfying as pulling off a well-executed combo in Xenosaga II.

Story:
Simply put, Xenosaga III has one of the best stories of any game I have ever played. This game delves incredibly deep into the mind of its protagonist, Shion, providing the player with a character arc that, despite its fantastical elements, feels brutally realistic. And Shion is not the only character to see some growth; every party member (and several other important non-playable characters) gets at least a scene or two dedicated to them. Everyone gets to experience closure in regards to their individual storyline, and I thoroughly enjoyed all of them. The ending in particular is incredible; there are few video game stories which have gripped me as hard as Xenosaga III did during the last ten hours of the game.
Praise aside, I do have some complaints, though they are relatively minor. First, I wish that a little more time had been spent explaining what happened between Xenosaga II and this one. There is some supplemental material outside the game which explores what happened in the in-game year between the two, but figuring out the full story without knowing about that, like me, requires the use of the Database, which is basically an in-game wiki. The Database is a useful feature for sure, but having to rely on it for a lot of the early story did make the beginning of the game feel a bit stilted. My other main complaint with the story involves heavy spoilers for both Xenosaga II and III, so I will keep this brief and phrase it such that it will not ruin anything for those who haven’t played the games yet. Basically, I do not like the existence of the White Testament at all. I think that character should have not been in Xenosaga III at all, because the few scenes involving them could easily have been rewritten not to include them, and their presence undermines a lot of what made Xenosaga II’s story so amazing. My only other minor complaint was that Jr. was not relevant for most of the story, which felt weird after the second game. However, he still has plenty to do at the end, so it did not feel like his character was entirely dropped.
Despite my criticisms of it, like I said before, Xenosaga III has an absolutely phenomenal story. Though it does leave some room for a sequel which now seems like it will never happen, as-is every character had a perfect ending to their respective journeys.

Presentation:
Graphics-wise, this game is very impressive. Despite being made for relatively inferior hardware, I would say that this game looks better than even most Wii games, including Monolithsoft’s own game, Xenoblade.
As was the case for the first two games, Xenosaga III has a great soundtrack. I am not sure if I like it as much as the second game’s, but it is still good either way, featuring tons of powerful boss and cutscene themes.
The last element of the presentation that stands out is the voice acting, which is good across the board. The voice actors are all able to capture a lot of emotion for even the most intense scenes, breathing even more life into the characters than the writing already provides. Though I already found it to be solid in I and still decent in II (if a bit spotty), Xenosaga III easily has the best voice acting in the series.

Conclusion:
Xenosaga III may not live up to Xenosaga II in every way, but I think it surpasses it in at least as many fields. The combat, while simplified, is still plenty of fun, the presentation is very good, and the story is simply sublime. I know playing through two other games just to get to another is a big ask for anyone, but this game’s existence alone makes it worth checking out the first two entries, which are enjoyable in their own right. Overall, Xenosaga III is just a fantastic game that more people should check out.

Score: 91/100

Gameplay:
It would probably make more sense to rate the story first when it comes to Ace Attorney, seeing as how that is pretty much the main draw of the series. But I’ve used this format for all of my reviews thus far, so I am going to stick to it anyway.
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney has more or less the same gameplay loop as the original trilogy, albeit with some minor additions. There are exploration sections and court sections, and in the former the player gather evidence for the latter. To start with the exploration, it's not much different from how it is in the previous games. The game takes on a visual novel format, where the player travels to different areas and talks to eccentric characters in an attempt to gather clues, sometimes looking around the scene for information. There really is not much else to it, though this game does add in the ability to examine some items in a 3D environment, a feature which was only in the bonus case for the first game before this one. That said, examining items feels like an underutilized mechanic. Perhaps it’s just because I played The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles first, where examining items is key to solving each case, but here it really is only used for some flavor text, barring one or two examples. There are also a few times when the player will use some more unique new mechanics, like checking for blood or looking at fingerprints, but those are not very common either.
In the court sections, the player will use the gathered evidence to prove that the defendant is innocent. Again, this is nothing too different for those who have already played the original trilogy, aside from one major addition. The player will question witnesses, looking for contradictions in their testimony. Once the contradiction has been found, the previously gathered evidence can be used to prove it. It sounds simple enough, but that loop is definitely one of the best parts of the Ace Attorney formula. Alongside that, there will also sometimes be sections where the player has to provide some additional evidence for one reason or another, which helps to break up the gameplay somewhat.
The previously mentioned major new mechanic in Apollo Justice’s trials is called Perceive. Using this, the titular attorney can find a weakness in the witness when there is no contradiction in their testimony. In practice, this takes on the form of having the player look for some sort of tell when the witness is reciting their testimony, which Apollo will then bust the witness on. I found this mechanic to be decently enjoyable, and I like that it adds another different element to the courtroom gameplay. My only real complaint is that one of the witnesses in the final trial has a tell that is obscenely difficult to locate, but that is a minor gripe in the grand scheme of things.

Story:
As I said before, the main attraction in Ace Attorney games is the story and its characters. On that front, I believe that Apollo Justice does a great job at distinguishing itself from the earlier games, while still holding on to some familiar elements. As in the original trilogy, the player controls a young defense attorney, in this the titular Apollo Justice. His assistant, or whatever the official Ace Attorney term is, is Trucy Wright, Phoenix Wright’s daughter. Together they solve a variety of cases and help prove the innocence of Apollo’s clients, interacting with the detective Emma Skye, a variety of wacky characters, the judge, and of course, this game’s prosecutor, Klavier Gavin. I think the main cast of this game is quite strong, despite Phoenix, and to a lesser extent Emma, being the only major returning characters. Instead of relying on old characters, Apollo Justice fleshes out all of its new cast, making them a joy to follow in their own right. I will say that this game’s main cast is probably the weakest out of the three main Ace Attorney stories I have played (this one, the original trilogy, and the Great Ace Attorney duology), but that is more so due to those other games having more time (and games) to develop their casts.
Another thing I liked about the plot itself is that everything tied together rather nicely in the final case. Typically, Ace Attorney games will have at least one case which feels more or less tangential to the main plot, but in Apollo Justice that is not the case (pun not intended). The only one which really does not directly tie into the main story in a plot sense is the second one, which still serves an important purpose as the introduction to most of the game’s main characters (with the first being a tutorial that takes place entirely in court, like in the other games). Out of all the Ace Attorney games I have played, only Apollo Justice has managed to make every case feel relevant, and that is something I was especially pleased by when I had finished the game. Honestly, my only real criticism of the plot is that Apollo Justice does tend to have more noticeable instances of a plot point being sort of swept under the rug and not fully addressed. There are a few minor examples, but the biggest one in my opinion is that the ramifications of the situation with the Chief Justice are never explained after the third case. Without going into spoilers, that part of the story is not the focus of that case, but it feels like something that should have been addressed. I think it could also be argued that Apollo Justice is lacking some of the oomph of past stories in the series because it is not as much a part of a larger narrative. However, I also can appreciate that it is perfectly enjoyable as a stand-alone story, so I do not think it is worth holding that against the plot.
Overall, I think this game has a great story and characters. They may not be quite as good as in the other games, but I still thoroughly enjoyed watching Apollo, Trucy, Klavier, and everyone else.

Presentation:
I played the 3DS version of the game, so the art is in-line with that of the Ace Attorney Trilogy. That said, the game looks great. The backgrounds are nicely detailed, and the characters just look fantastic. The classic Ace Attorney animations are here in full force, providing everyone with tons of personality. My favorites of this game have to be the true criminals’ breakdowns at the end of each case, as well as Klavier’s air guitar solo.
While I would need to listen to the soundtrack outside of the game to say for certain, I am fairly sure that Apollo Justice has my favorite soundtrack in the series. There really is not a bad song on the track list, and the best ones fit the situation perfectly. Klavier and Valant’s theme songs fit each to a T, and Apollo’s theme, which plays when he makes an objection, may be my new favorite song in the entire series. If nothing else, I highly recommend that anyone even mildly interested takes a look at this game's music.

Conclusion:
Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney’s creators made a somewhat bold choice when they decided to make the game a soft reboot of the series, but I believe it fully paid off. Just about everything in this game is fantastic, and I really did have fun with it the entire way through. The writing is as excellent as always, the gameplay is great, and the music is sublime. I don’t think this one quite reaches the heights of Trials and Tribulations or Resolve, and more generally those subseries, but that it even comes close is a huge compliment in and of itself. If you enjoyed the original trilogy, you absolutely should take a look at this game.

Score: 90/100

I hate Lubba.

Gameplay:
Super Mario Galaxy 2 marked a shift for the 3D Mario games, as it was the very first direct sequel to any of them. This meant that it felt much more similar to its predecessor than past 3D Mario games had to theirs’. Mario controls in pretty much the exact same way as in the original here, and the graphics are also quite similar. As it turned out though, this merely meant that the developers had an already good base to build off, allowing them to create a fantastic game bursting at the seams with creativity.
Galaxy 2’s gameplay is really the main selling point of the game, and it does disappoint in any sense. As I said before, this game is absurdly creative. Every level (or galaxy, as they are called) introduces at least one entirely new (and usually exclusive) mechanic, and the ideas built around those concepts are nothing short of incredible. I do not think it would be an exaggeration to say that this is the single most creative game I have ever played, if such a thing can even be quantified.
I do think that some credit here should go to the original game; Mario’s physics are just about the same from what I recall, and some of the mechanics on display here were created for the first game originally. But I do not think that either of these points take away from this game. Mario already controlled excellently in the original, so tweaks were unnecessary, and the returning mechanics from the first game are not only used in new ways here, but were generally used as well if not better than in their debut game.
One other important point to mention is Yoshi, who is playable in a fair number of levels. This is my favorite implementation of the green dinosaur in any Mario game I have played so far, for a few reasons. He feels neither overused nor underutilized, appearing in just enough levels to keep me interested in using him. Additionally, his normal controls are just as tight as Mario’s, meaning it is fun just to run around and jump when controlling him. Most importantly however, Yoshi has a number of unique mechanics relating to him, namely the different fruits that he can eat. Each affects him in a different way, providing an entirely new dynamic to each level they are used in.
The way players travel between levels is also different in this game, and in my opinion it is an improvement over the original. This game uses a world map to travel to levels, as compared to the hub world of the first three 3D Mario games. While I enjoyed the hubs to varying degrees in all of those games, I think getting to levels is just easier and more convenient here. There is still a small hub to play around in, though it might have been interesting were it a little larger.
All in all, Galaxy 2 is a masterpiece of game design. Unlike the original, which I feel comes off as unfocused at times, this game’s level design always keeps the player interested. Losing the element of freedom more present in earlier 3D Mario games may turn off some, but personally I feel that it allowed for a much more well-made game, at least in this case.

Story:
This is the only area where this game is a clear downgrade from the original Super Mario Galaxy. In that game, there was a subtle storyline which explained the backstory of Rosalina, which did make the game mildly more interesting. That is gone here, replaced with nothing in particular. The only character that really talks is the Luma captain Lubba, and while this should be saved for my next section, I must say that I really do not like his design at all. I would go so far as to say that it is comically bad.
That being said, the lackluster story of this game does not bother me in any significant way. As is the case for most (I assume), Mario is a series that I play almost entirely for the gameplay. A little bit of backstory can be fun, but I cannot say I was crushed by its absence here.

Presentation:
Super Mario Galaxy 2 has some of the best, if not the best, presentation of the entire library on the Wii. Visually, it is a great looking game with a beautiful art style. The low resolution is obviously not great, but I think this is a classic Nintendo example of having art direction and style so good that it makes the lack of a higher resolution mostly a non-issue.
My favorite part of the presentation has to be the music. This game’s prequel already had a great soundtrack, but this one is even better. It might sound weird, but the music of this game is best described as epic. It perfectly conveys the majesty and uniqueness of each galaxy, always elevating the atmosphere far beyond what visuals alone could achieve.
This game does technically have some voice acting, but it's just the usual Mario character noises; nothing to get too excited about, but nothing out right bad either.

Conclusion:
Super Mario Galaxy 2 is an impressively good game, and one of the best direct sequels I’ve ever played. It improves on the first game in nearly every conceivable way, culminating in an undeniably magical gameplay experience. The difficulty is not especially high most of the time, but there is enough pushback that it does not feel as though the game is handing you everything. In the presentation department, everything that matters for a Mario game is spot on, and were it not for the existence of Lubba, this would be a perfect game.
In all seriousness, this game is excellent and worth checking out for any platformer enjoyers who haven’t tried it already. Hopefully we can get a modern port of it one of these days, since it didn’t make it into 3D All Stars for whatever reason.

Score 91/100

Gameplay:
I should probably preface this review by mentioning that prior to this playthrough, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past was already my favorite game. For that reason, I am coming at this from the perspective of someone who is already well-acquainted with the game’s quirks and general flow.
As is the case with most video games from the (relatively) early days, the gameplay is by far the main draw of A Link to the Past. As was the case in the original Legend of Zelda, the world is viewed from a top down perspective, with the player moving Link through it. Link’s main tools are his sword, shield, and items. The sword is a simple swing in front of him which deals damage, while the shield automatically blocks some ranged attacks. Items are obtained as the game goes on, allowing Link to do all sorts of things: bombs can break cracked walls, the lantern and fire rod can light torches, the bow can hit enemies from afar, and the boomerang can stun most enemies. Though Link’s moveset is relatively simple, the various items (and the ways they can be used in tandem) make for a character which is always satisfying to control, no matter the situation.
Good fundamentals are nothing without a good game to use them in, but luckily A Link to the Past provides just that. The overworld is filled to the brim with all manner of secrets, so it pays to explore just about everywhere. The meat of the game, however, are the dungeons. Each of them is wholly distinct, providing unique enemies and challenges that take advantage of certain items and mechanics. There is a lot that I like about them; for one, they are all relatively short, so they never get old, as is the case for some of the longer dungeons in other Zelda games. Another thing I really enjoy about them when compared to other titles in the series is that they do not tend to overuse one item. I understand the point of the idea—by making the player use the item they obtained in that dungeon (or sometimes that last one), it adds a sense of progression. But personally, I find that oftentimes Zelda dungeons will over rely on a new item for puzzle mechanics, to the point that it becomes too predictable. A Link to the Past does not fall into this trap, since most of the more complex puzzles require the player to consider the overall shape of the dungeon and how the rooms are layed out. The dungeons in this game feel very labyrinthine, which I think is how they should.
There is not much else to say on the gameplay side of things, though I would like to mention combat. It is not as developed as in other Zelda games, but I still think it can be fun due to Link’s large arsenal of items. Most regular enemies can be defeated in a variety of ways, so the player has plenty of room to experiment. The bosses are the main exception, since most can only be damaged in one or two ways, but I think this change in dynamic keeps the game more interesting. In a sense, the boss of each dungeon is the final puzzle the player must conquer before they have truly won.

Story:
Like I mentioned at the beginning of this review, the gameplay is the main focus of A Link to the Past. Because of that, the game’s story is exceedingly sparse, though not non-existent. Rather than build a grand narrative, most of this game’s story comes in the occasional bit of lore mentioned by random characters. While I would have liked a more fully-fleshed out story, I do enjoy this approach as well; it gives the world a very lived-in feel, providing Hyrule with lots of history. Link and Ganon did not just suddenly appear to fight one another, rather their battle is the culmination of years of strife.
While not directly related to the story, I think I should also mention the writing in this section. It is not anything especially notable on its own, but I do appreciate how this game gives even random NPCs a lot of personality, more so than in even some of the recent games. Much like the lore I mentioned before, it just makes the world feel a little more alive.

Presentation:
The overall quality of the presentation here is excellent. To start with, the music is great. I would have liked if there was a little more (the whole soundtrack is less than an hour long), but what is there works great and always sets the mood wonderfully.
The visuals are the other main pillar of A Link to the Past’s presentation, and I think they have aged incredibly well. The pixel art still looks great, and though the animations are relatively simple, I think they have plenty of charm too. In fact, I would say this is still the second best looking 2D Zelda game, only beaten out by the beautiful art of The Minish Cap.
One other thing I should mention about the art is that it works very well to set the tone of the game. This is the first Zelda game to really use its art style to its advantage (mostly since it was on better hardware than the first two games), and it shows. Each dungeon has a unique look to it that really makes each feel distinct, and the contrast between the Light and Dark Worlds is just perfect.

Conclusion:
Rating games is a strange thing, because if someone were to read this review, they might not think it would warrant a perfect score. I'm not really sure myself what score it “deserves”, but ultimately, I just try to go by my gut feeling and explain my rationale after. There is so much to love about this game, from the sublime level design and fun items to the catchy music and gorgeous art. There is a very distinct flow to A Link to the Past that few other games have, and that is why I always have a great time whenever I play it. If you somehow have never touched this game, please give it a shot.

Score: 100/100

Good game but small Mario needs to never talk again.

Gameplay:
Super Mario 3D Land is the fifth (and seemingly oft forgotten) 3D Mario game. Most notably, it was the first 3D Mario game developed specifically for a handheld. Perhaps due to that reason, it is structured quite differently to the other 3D Mario games. 64 and Sunshine both used an open-ish level format where the player could collect whichever Power Star/Shine they wanted, while the levels of Super Mario Galaxy and its sequel went in a more linear direction while still keeping some aspects of the original formula. 3D Land goes even harder on linearity in its game design, to the point where the basic gameplay loop feels very distinct from the 3D Mario games which preceded it.
I think it’s gameplay is best described as the 2D Mario formula in a 3D environment. For every level, the goal is the same; get to the end and jump on the flag pole, just like in the very first Super Mario Bros. In fact, a lot of the game feels like it was based primarily off of the older games, especially Super Mario Bros. 3. This is noticeable in the overall level design, as well as in the presentation (which I will get to later). It’s sort of difficult to pinpoint exactly what makes this game’s levels feel so similar to Super Mario Bros. 3, but I think it comes from the degree of complexity, which is not that high. Everything is pretty easy to grasp, but the game is kept fresh since it regularly introduces new mechanics, and to a lesser extent, enemies.
Thus far I have talked a lot about how this game stacks up compared to other Mario games, but there are some things specific to this game that should be mentioned. One thing I had forgotten about until my most recent replay is just how short every level is. I don’t think any of them took me more than 10 minutes, and at least half of them were probably more in the range of 5 minutes. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, since it means the game always feels like it’s doing something new, but it does sometimes feel like certain ideas did not get enough time to be fully taken advantage of. The levels can take longer depending on their length and the amount of big coins the player wants to find (there are three in each level), but none of them are anywhere near the length of a typical level in the past 3D Mario games. The big coins themselves are a nice addition though, since they add a little extra something to do in the otherwise predominantly linear levels. I did find it a bit strange that you needed them to unlock mandatory levels later on, but the majority of them are extremely easy to find, so it was never an issue for me.
As is usually the case in his games, Mario’s controls are excellent. He just feels great to run around as, which is always good. The number of power-ups in this game are somewhat lacking (the only regular ones are the Super Mushroom, Fire Flower, the Tanooki Suit, and the Boomerang Flower), but the ones present are fun. Mario’s move set does feel somewhat reduced compared to the previous 3D games, which is disappointing, but I get why they had to go that route given that the size of the 3DS might have caused cramps if there was a lot of movement options.
In my opinion, this game only has one major weakness when it comes to its gameplay—the enemy variety. Perhaps it was just me, but it felt like I was only seeing the same five to ten enemies in every single level of this game, which did get to be a bit stale after a while. The same is true for the bosses; Bowser, Boom Boom, and Pom Pom are the only bosses fought during the main campaign, though the final version of Bowser is completely different, and actually one of the better final battles in a Mario game.

Story:
If Super Mario Galaxy 2’s story was anemic, then this one is a skeleton. There is quite literally no story whatsoever, save for the simplest possible Mario plotline of Peach being kidnapped. I do like how it is communicated through a series of postcards, but otherwise there is nothing to discuss here. I cannot say I was particularly disappointed since I don’t care about the story in my Mario games, but it is almost comical how little story there is in this game when compared to Super Mario Galaxy.

Presentation:
To the surprise of no one, this game looks great and has good music, at least for the platform it is on. The visuals aren’t as good as any of the other 3D Marios aside from 64 (due to inferior hardware for both games), but it still looks nice. I was actually a little surprised by how good it looks for a 3DS game; even compared to a lot of late-gen titles on the system, this one looks pretty good. I think that has more to do with this game’s artstyle, but overall the visuals work well. As I mentioned before, it reminds of Super Mario Bros. 3 quite a bit, probably because of the colors and generally simple-but-charming designs.
The music in this game is nice too. It goes a little bit too hard into the remix/nostalgia-bait world for my liking, but the new music and arrangements are all good and fit the game perfectly. The music also seems to have taken inspiration from Super Mario Bros. 3, but that is fine with me.
The only main qualm I take with this game’s sound design is weirdly specific, but it honestly bothered me quite a lot. The problem is that the noises Mario makes when he does not have a Super Mushroom really annoy me. I’m 95% sure that they are just the normal Mario noises pitch shifted to be higher, and because of that they are not only annoying, but sound kind of cheap too. Luckily the game is very easy, so you rarely will hear small Mario’s infuriating sounds, but it still bothered me enough that I thought I should mention it.

Conclusion:
It feels like this game gets forgotten most of the time when people discuss 3D Mario, which is a shame. I do understand why: it was handheld exclusive, hardly revolutionary, and got an HD sequel only relatively soon after it was released. But that does not reflect on the quality of the game itself, which I find to be fairly high. If you enjoy Mario at all, I would suggest giving it a go. It’s not the best, but it is a fun and breezy game to sink a few hours into, perfect whether you need to kill a few minutes or are going on a long car ride.

Score: 80/100

I don’t really have a good joke to start this review with, this game is just (basically) perfect.

Gameplay:
As is the case with most JRPGs, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 has two main modes of gameplay; combat and exploration. However, in keeping with the gameplay of the rest of the series thus far, Xenoblade 3’s two types of gameplay transition into one another seamlessly. Combat is started by targeting an enemy in the overworld, drawing your weapons, and attacking. Once the battle has begun, there are a ton of options to choose from, more than in any Xenoblade game prior. First off, each character performs auto-attacks, which are the most simple way of dealing damage. Auto-attacks won’t usually do very much, and are actually more or less Xenoblade’s equivalent of the time-meter in Final Fantasy, or turns in other JRPGs. This is because each auto-attack will also fill up the meter for a character’s arts, which are their more powerful attacks. This only applies to three of the arts your character will use, though; the other three will recharge on a set time cooldown. Auto-attacks can only be done when your character is stationary, so time cooldown arts will be more useful if the player likes to reposition your character often. Three of your arts will come from your character’s class, selected from a pool of five total. These arts, and the class they are using, can be changed freely from the menu, although new classes must be unlocked by completing side quests. Depending on where the class’s original user comes from, the arts will either be recharged by time cooldown or auto-attacking. This adds a good deal of variety to how each class plays, in addition to the fact that each class has a whole set of unique arts, and unique passive skills. What really makes this combat system shine, however, are master arts and master skills. After using a class enough, a character can learn its master arts and master skills, which are taken from the class and can be used on any other class. So in addition to the three basic arts and four passive skills every class has, they will also get three master arts (only from the nation opposite the class’s), and three master skills. Because of this, every character can be customized to play completely differently, despite mostly having access to all the same abilities. And amazingly, there is still more to the combat system.
In Xenoblade 3, there are seven party members, six of which are static. They each form a pair, and each of those pairs can use an ability called Interlink to take on a powerful Ouroboros form. These mech-like forms become more powerful when Fusion Arts are used, which can be done by using a regular art and a master art at the same time (by either one of the two characters who form the Ouroboros pair). When Interlink is used, the two characters fuse into one Ouroboros, each of which has its own powerful arts and skills to take advantage of. While I do feel like the game does not necessarily incentivize the use of the Ouroboros forms as much as it could have, they are still loads of fun to use, and at the maximum Interlink level of 3, they can absolutely melt through enemies. The final critical element of combat is the Chain Attack, which takes on a radically different format compared to the first two games. They almost play like a turn-based JRPG, where each round the player can use their characters once to deal damage to the target. However, each character’s attack will add to the TP bar at the top of the screen, and once it goes over one-hundred percent, that round of the Chain Attack will end. The higher the percentage, the more of the characters which were used up will be reactivated for the next round. There are also other factors to consider, like which character’s order is used (which will add an extra buff to every attack for the rest of the chain), and if a character is an Attacker, Healer, or Tank. Each class falls into one of those three categories, generally describing how they play, and how their powerful Talent Arts (arts which can only be used during regular combat, not Chain Attacks) are charged. Additionally, the seventh, non-controllable member of your party, known as a Hero, will have entirely unique effects that your main party cannot do. Chain Attacks are super fun to execute because they allow the player to hit ridiculous damage numbers, and they also serve to switch up the gameplay a lot. All in all, the combat of this game is obviously very layered, but it is extremely satisfying once it comes together. Xenoblade 3 also does a pretty good job of explaining everything and introducing mechanics at a reasonable pace, so players are unlikely to feel overwhelmed or bored, even in the early game.
Combat is only half the experience, with the other portion all generally falling into the category of exploration. Xenoblade 3 is what I would consider a semi-open world game; there is a set path that has to be followed to progress the main story, but there are always optional paths to be taken, some of which lead to entirely optional towns and quest lines. In addition to fighting enemies, the party, which is led by whichever of the six main characters the player wishes to use, can pick up collectibles and interact with some objects to proceed. Exploring in and of itself is highly enjoyable, because the landscapes of this game are simply beautiful. There are always secrets to be found, whether it be an especially powerful Unique Monster, a Ferronis Hulk where treasure lies in wait, or even a new quest. Speaking of which, this game has three main types of quests. First, there are the main story ones, which have to be beaten to progress the main storyline. Then, there are side quests, which are more or less your standard JRPG fare. A requester will ask the party to kill some monsters, deliver them some items, go to a certain location, or some combination of the three. They are usually nothing too special, but I will say that these ones tend to have fairly interesting stories attached to them, making them among the best in the series. Finishing them also increases your affinity with the town (or as the game calls them, Colonies) that the quest comes from, unlocking more quests and passive exploration bonuses like increased running and swimming speed in the process.
The final and most interesting type of quest in Xenoblade 3 are Hero Quests. These are the quests that must be completed to unlock new Heroes to use, or improve their class’s rank to its maximum level. What makes these quests so great is that they are comparable to the main story in terms of quality; they get fully voice-acted cutscenes, and the missions are usually fairly unique too. Unlocking new Heroes and their classes is also awesome too, since it expands your combat options greatly, so I found myself always completing Hero Quests as soon as they became available.
In my opinion, Xenoblade 3 has a near-perfect gameplay loop. Complete quests to unlock more quests, Heroes, and classes, which in turn improves your combat, making that side of things even more fun, and making it possible to take on higher-level quests. The whole thing remains fun for the entire duration of the game, even if the player does every single one of them, like I did. It took over one-hundred and thirty hours, but I enjoyed every second of it. And perhaps most surprising of all, I still have not even touched on the phenomenal main story this game has to offer.

Story:
For many, the main appeal of Xenoblade as a series are the incredible stories each game has to offer (Xenoblade Chronicles X notwithstanding). This game is no different, with by far the darkest premise of any game in the series yet. Xenoblade 3 takes place in the world of Aionios, where two nations are locked in an endless war. Everyone in these nations has only ten years, or terms, to live (being born at what is the human equivalent of ten years old), although the vast majority of soldiers die long before they reach their final term. The main party is composed of six individuals, three from the nation of Keves, and three from the nation of Agnus. After initially fighting one another, they find that they must work together to reach a place called Swordmarch, freeing colonies from the endless war in the process. My intention is to keep this review as spoiler-free as possible, so I will only talk about the story and characters in generalities.
In my opinion, the story of this game is absolutely fantastic. The strongest elements are the six main characters, all of whom feel very well-realized. Most JRPGs tend to leave at least one or two party members who never get as much development or screen time as the rest, but here, everyone feels like they were treated well. Although Noah, and to a lesser extent Mio, definitely get the most focus of the six, being the two main protagonists, Eunie, Taion, Lanz, and Sena all still feel well-served by the main story and the Hero Quests. Thematically, this game is also ridiculously well-made. The game goes well beyond the typical “war is bad” narrative, delivering a tale which not only highlights the absolute depravity of those who hold power in Aionios, but also a uniquely meta ending that feels like a direct commentary on the way we enjoy long-form media. The lore is also as deep and interesting as always, although some people may be put off by the fact that some notable questions are never directly answered. This game’s approach to lore is more in line with Xenogears and Xenosaga than the Xenoblade games, where some fairly big lore elements rely on the player making inferences in order to figure out the exact way it worked. There are no obvious plot holes or anything like that, but it does require the player to pay a lot of attention, and to think through most of what happens.
I already touched on Hero Quests before, but I will mention here that they also have a lot of great character moments, both for the main party members, and the Heroes who are the subject of them. Overall, the story remains compelling throughout its entire runtime, and in a few instances, delivers some of the most devastating moments I have ever witnessed in fiction. I still prefer the story of the original game a slight bit, but this one is also exceedingly well-crafted.

Presentation:
As a Nintendo Switch game, one would expect that this game’s scope would be somewhat limited by the hardware. However, that is not the case in any meaningful sense. Each of the game’s four main areas is massive, some of them larger than other game’s entire overworlds. Though the resolution sometimes takes a hit, the game almost always maintains thirty frames-per-second, and the astounding vistas tend to make up for the sometimes poor graphical fidelity (as is tradition at this point for the series). And while it is not directly related to graphics, I would also like to take a moment to appreciate the sheer scale of the world in this game. I was initially worried that a more normal world (compared to the first two games on a conceptual level) might limit how impressive the world was. One of my favorite aspects of Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles X is how massive they feel; the player can really get a good feel for how tiny they are compared to the overworld, especially in the first game, where Shulk and co. run around on the body of a colossal dead god. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 somewhat lacked that feeling, but luckily, Xenoblade 3 does not disappoint. The world just feels impossibly huge, especially when looking at the enormous Urayan Mountains, or the gigantic Sword of the Mechonis.
To the surprise of no one even slightly aware of the series, Xenoblade 3 has a godly soundtrack. The battle themes are as hype-inducing and epic as ever, and the cutscene music is always great at setting the tone of a scene. The biggest departure for the series in a stylistic sense is the overworld music, which tends to be much less bombastic than in previous games. However, I feel that the new style fits this game to a T. The world of Aionios is a tragic place, so generally somber and less-blood pumping music fits better. I will say that, at the moment, this soundtrack is probably my least favorite of the three main games, but I have listened to those other two soundtracks innumerable times by now. Even so, this soundtrack is still amazing, and among the best I have ever listened to.
The last thing I want to touch on is the voice acting. Xenoblade 2 rightfully received a lot of flak for its mixed voice acting. While a lot of the voice actors did a good job, it was clear with even the best performances that there was just not much direction given to anyone involved. Xenoblade 3 remedies this issue completely, providing some of the best voice acting I have ever heard. Every single one of the main characters sounds great, and Noah in particular has some simply sublime moments, especially during the end of Chapter 5 and the start of Chapter 6. It has a few odd deliveries here and there, but overall, it sounds great and marks a huge improvement over its predecessor. And as always, the nice mix of accents from the United Kingdom really makes the world feel more unique and alive than your average JRPG.

Conclusion:
Xenoblade Chronicles 3 has what I think may be the best gameplay of any JRPG I have ever played, and one of my favorite stories to boot. I can understand why not everyone would like it: the combat may seem off putting, the lore is not always explained directly, and there are not a lot of direct connections to the first two games (something which many existing fans were hoping for). In my opinion though, this game is a must-play for pretty much anyone who enjoys massive RPGs and compelling stories. It’s dense, action-packed, emotional, and perhaps most impressively, it manages to surpass its excellent predecessors in a number of ways.

Score: 95/100

The developers clearly never played Super Smash Bros. because Donkey Kong is very OP.

Gameplay:
Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle: The Donkey Kong Adventure is a DLC for the base game, but in many respects, it is more of a mini-sequel. While it does not differ from the base game in too many notable respects, it still has a few things that set it apart, most notably in the gameplay department. The basics are all the same, mostly: the game is a strategy game in the same vein as XCOM, where the player controls their team by moving them along a grid-based map. While the enemy side will have a number of opponents that must be defeated, the player only has three characters. In the DLC, the total roster is only three characters, so there is no option to switch around who is in the party. The three members are Rabbid Peach (who remains more-or-less identical to how she was in the base game), the titular Donkey Kong, and Rabbid Cranky Kong. The latter two are both new, and each has a good number of interesting abilities. While Rabbid Cranky Kong mostly takes his various tools from different characters in the base game, Donkey Kong sports two entirely new weapons, and a number of other powerful abilities. Not only can he pick up and throw allies and enemies alike, but he also has access to incredibly powerful DK tiles, which allow him to travel across large portions of the map instantly. They are sort of like the pipes that allow for easy crossing of the map, except that only he can use them, and he can also climb up ledges as well. Although he does feel rather overpowered, and the DLC is nowhere near as difficult as the base game, I do think that the developers were able to account for that decently well. DK’s high mobility and health encourage the player to send him deeper into enemy lines than the other two, often without assistance. It adds another layer of risk-and-reward to a game already brimming with it, and on the whole I think the DLC is about as fun as the base game was. The upgrade system and weapons shop are pretty much the same as they were before, just faster to progress through, and aside from that, there is not much else to be said. The core gameplay of Mario + Rabbids is loads of fun, and the Donkey Kong Adventure manages to retain that.

Outside of combat, there is also some overworld exploration. It’s nothing crazy, but I did think it was fairly fun in both the base game and DLC, and the puzzles, while mostly simple, are also fun to play through.

Story:
This probably doesn’t come as a surprise, but this game doesn’t exactly have a masterpiece of a story. The rabbids were surprisingly mildly amusing in the base game (as opposed to being insufferable, which is what I’d anticipated), and as I have said about a lot of things in this review, it’s more of the same. I remember the base game being a little bit more charming, but it has been over a year since I last played it, so I could be misremembering on that front. Otherwise, there is not a lot to be said here; this DLC (and the main game as well) is 100% to be played for the gameplay.

Presentation:
The graphics and art style of this game are generally pretty good. The resolution, while not noticeably good, was certainly never terrible either (though I played the whole game in docked mode, so handheld may be another story). The art style leans more towards Super Mario 3D World, and I would say that it looks nice in general. Sometimes I wish it was a little less plastic-y, but I would be lying if I said I did not like it most of the time. I also want to call out the final battle in specific for looking rather stunning.

The music is also rather good. I would not say it is among the greatest game soundtracks ever made, but it always fits well, and there are some standout tunes. My biggest complaint with the music was in the final battle, where for some reason it only plays during the enemy turn. I think they were trying to go for something a bit more cinematic there, but it did not work well for me.

Conclusion:
If you liked Mario + Rabbids, I imagine you will enjoy the Donkey Kong Adventure, and vice versa. I liked it well enough myself; the gameplay was always engaging, and the presentation was quite solid as well. Really, I do not have any major complaints. If anything, the DLC’s biggest weakness (which applies to the main game as well) is that it isn’t quite amazing at anything. It is absolutely worth checking out if you enjoy strategy/tactics games, but it will not be a revelation.

Score: 80/100