Played Co-op. Not the improvement on the first game I was hoping for. RCG1, while not nearly some kind of original or inventive masterpiece, at least was still charming to me when it first got released. But I still had some issues with it, mostly relating to combat. And with the increased pricetag of RCG2, I was hoping for a much improved game, but that did not end up being the case. The novelty has worn off and I actually had a worse experience with this game than I had with RCG1.

Besides a few balancing adjustments (for example, not losing half your money upon death), there aren't any new additions to the game that added any value to my experience. Mostly it comes down to me that for a beat-em-up, the combat is just not good.

While there is a tiny bit more variety in the enemy AI compared to the first, you still approach and deal with every enemy the exact same way. You can just punch-punch-heavy any enemy and it will knock them down without any risk. Don't face them during their wake-up animation, and just stand below or behind them and do the combo again. Outside of bosses I never changed my playstyle, because this simple combo will just always work.

Bosses are the most significant downgrade compared to the first game. They love wasting your time with overly long attacks/animations where you avoid their attacks and can't hit them. After you've beaten the second boss, the game never gets any more difficult. Even the final boss we beat on our first try, and I was sure another phase was about to happen but instead the credits started scrolling by.

And there are a few more other issues i have, including:
- Basic movement has inertia.
- Throws are useless. You can only do them when enemies are dizzy, and they don't give i-frames.
- Enemies feel like they take much longer to kill compared to most other beat-em-up or belt scroller. And since they aren't really a threat it mostly ends up being boring.
- Enemies will just walk into your attacks, instead of trying to actually break your combo.

I'll keep it at that for the beat-em-up part of my review. They've expanded the RPG side some more. The map feels like it's a lot bigger, and more interconnected. With new sidequests and NPCs that will help you fight in exchange for some money. I ended up never using these much, since they weren't neccisary, but it does add more charm to the game.

The presentation for the game is mostly on par with RCG1. I prefer the OST of the original, but the sprites and other visuals are still pretty nice. Personally I wish the artstyle was more consistent across gameplay and UI, but I understand this is now the 'modern' look people have come to expect from retro-inspired indie games.

The writing is really not my cup of tea. The humor they're trying to go for feels really predictable, cliché and obnoxious. And the main characters feel like they're more settling in their own stereotype than they were in RCG1. Kyoko is now just an complete idiot in this game, and Misako is significantly more hot-headed.


Having said of all that, the new additions like new playable characters, minigames, and some sidequests don't really do it for me. The moment-to-moment experience is just too dull. It's not like if they made RCG3 with more content, and RCG4 with even more content, that eventually I'd give it a 5 star rating. It's not like I'd ever consider some boring Ubisoft sandbox to be a 5/5 because it has a lot of content™. And same here.

My favorite out of the original triology, and probably out of the whole franchise. The only one I've yet to play is the second british spin-off that everyone on this website loves apparently. Although I didn't like the first one much, I do want to play it sooner rather than later.

Probably why I enjoy this one so much is the incredible pacing. No investigation of court sections feels overly long. With even the final case only taking me around 4-5hrs first time I played it.

I think this game is also the funniest out of the entire series. Pretty much all the characters are fantastic. With special shoutout to the prosecutors. Don't wanna start spoiling, but the prosecutor from the final case is still the only one I found legitimately intimidating from all the ones I've seen so far.

I've had mixed feelings on the bonus case over the years, and while I don't think it's perfect, I think I've come around to liking it. Especially as it moves forward I end up liking it more and more.

I have to confess to not be a big fan of the original Daioujou. It lacks a lot of the style and appeal the original DDP had for me. Very muted and boring colors, enemies and especially bosses look like glorified trashcans, and it lacks a lot of the imagination found in bullet patterns you see in other Ikeda games like Ketsui and Progear. Even though I'm sure it has more mechanics, it feels dumbed down and especially Black Label with its even longer combo timer doesn't keep me on the edge of my seat like Donpachi and DDP always do.

So someone looked at this and has a brilliant idea. What if we make this game again, on lower quality hardware, and put animes in it. Voila, Saidaioujou. But if I just left it at that, I'm afraid I'd give off an impression that's too positive for what this game actually feels like to play.

This game is unique in that it's the only Ikeda game that just feels really shit to play moment-by-moment. Despite the bullet count only going up from game to game. The hitbox is made bigger, and it just feels worse overall. It's hard to put my finger on it, but deaths often feel unfair to me in a way that doesn't happen in other Cave titles.

The visuals? The whole game looks similar and flat. SDOJ is going for this blue futuristic look with everything having the default Photoshop outer glow effect. Every stage looks the same to me. And the worst crime a shmup can commit? Bad explosion graphics.

The music and sounds? The crunchiest. Part of this is because of the cv1k hardware, but even other cv1k titles like Futari sound better than this. Usually developers get better at this the more familiar they get with the hardware, but somehow this is a big downgrade from Cave's previous titles. It might actually be the worst I've ever heard a game sound.

Scoring? That's fucked up too. Because it's basically impossible to break the chain if you know what you're doing, the goal now is to get that chain number as high as possible. And on stage 3 & 5, you can get the overflow glitch, where if the combo goes up high enough, you get a shitton of points for each additional hit. The world record replay doesn't even have 'splits' for the other stages and focuses on getting the overflow as fast as possible. So the one part I still like about Daioujou has been reduced even further in this game.

So while I personally thought this was a huge disappointment, if you're just here for the bullet patterns and you have an above average tolerance for the animes, it still plays like any other Ikeda game and if that's all your care about, give it a try for sure. But for me I don't think I'll ever play this again, while I can play literally any other Cave title.

My favorite STG from my favorite shmup series. It sits right in the perfect spot before the psikyo games turned into bullet hell slop that look cooler than they actually are to play. And it's after they finally ditched that power loss mechanic after you shot a couple of times. It's also more consistent with it's patterns and revenge bullets than those previous games. You have to get really unlucky to encounter pattern combos that make you feel like you got screwed.

Even compared to other entries in the series, I think the creativity with the different ships you can pick between is just right. They all cater to a different playstyle, while not just falling into some boring formula like you'd see with Cave games. Like in Dodonpachi, where you just have the straight shottypes, and the wide shottypes. With less or more bombs depending on which power lever you want. It's functional, but that's it and nothing more. Here all the ships are just right for each playstyle while also having unique and cool features.

Do you like sitting safe at the bottom of the screen? Pick Hayate. You can put options on screen that will stay in place for around 10 seconds and destroy and enemy that comes on screen.

Do you prefer a more tank-like ship? That's slow, but powerful and defensive? Pick Mosquito. You get missiles that pulverize any enemies that dary come near you. And if you're in trouble, you can use the best bomb in the game that clears bullet and provides with helper planes that will grant even more coverage long after you used a bomb.

Rather play something fast and agressive? Pick the Flying Pancake. While funny-looking, it's the most energetic and flashy ship. You get homing shots that will take care of any small fry, while you move all around the screen killing big enemies before they become a problem. Pancake played well is a sight to behold.

I could go on for all the other ships, but they all have cool features that give that little extra umph you can't get from more basic ship selection methods.

Scoring in this game is always balanced just right. No one trick or milk is going to ruin your run if you don't get it. Medal timing is an aquired taste, but the game allows for several more ways of increasing score. Being able to survival longer during bosses, stacking bombs and lifes for score bonusses, powering down strategically to summon more enemies in certain areas, just to name a few. There are even some glitches that really test your expertise on the second loop bosses, like getting a Double K.O. without losing your resources. This game has it all!

I wouldn't have minded if the presentation was more expressive and creative. While I love Psikyo's style of taking a seemingly normal aircraft and phase by phase turning it more into some intimidating mech, that's where most of the creativity in this game ends. All games in the series suffer from this unfortunately, but just the sheer joy and excitement they provide while playing more than makes up for it.

One of the most charming games I've ever played. It's more or less a tribute (or ripoff) of several well-known entities. Most obviously Blade Runner and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Nonetheless it to me feels like it's own thing and it's very engaging throughout. It's also surprisingly violent. Basically every version that has come after this has been censored quite a bit. And I think even modern games would not go to lengths that this game loves to visit.

I'd recommend the Sega CD version. It's the first time the story is told in it's entirety, and in my opinion it's also by far the best looking version. And really, with a visual novel you really want to play the version with the best graphics if you ask me.

Even though I'm completely used to how the game works, it's undeniable the design of the menu and especially progression is not very good to put it politely. Sometimes to progress you have to interact, look or use a couple of specific things before the game allows you to continue. And if you didn't investigate one of the key parts, enjoy going back and checking everything and reading every line again until you finally see some text that hints you can progress now. Like if Gillian says 'let's go somewhere else' and you realize you can finally continue. Luckily during the most intense parts this might only happen a few times. And it's mostly during downtime that you're likely to get 'stuck'.

I'm a big fan of the mario RPGs for not just being menu battles, but actually allow you to time attacks and blocks in different ways per attack. It makes every new enemy and chapter feel like something completely new. In some RPGs I just know the best strategy or combo that will essentially take care of every battle. Here it doesn't work that way.

While the first game felt like it needed to stick to the original mario series by mostly copying it's worlds and characters. There are some exceptions like the Shy Guy Toy's Box, but I think it's fair to say it was not the game's main strength. With TTYD it finally feels like we're seeing some fresh settings and new iterations on already existing characters. Not to say that it's good because it's new. I like it more because the game as a whole feels more charming, diverse and enticing. Which it much harder to do if you're sticking to an already familiar formula.

The badge system deserves to be mentioned as probably a key reason I really love the first two Paper Mario games. Where upgrades feel more meaningful than some stat buff to a specific attack or something. They are upgrades that will change mechanics, give you new attack abilities, or increase your damage, but with a significant downside. It feels a lot more like picking a playstyle instead of just a build that simply maximizes your damage for your the playstyle you already have been using in dozens of different games. And you'll probably be changing playstyles a lot during your playthrough. Which is good since this game has a lot of very blatant padding, and allowing you to change your combat style reduces my frustration with the poor pacing a lot.

This might be my most replayed game at this point. I'd guess over the past 20 years that I've played it somewhere between 15-20 times, and it only gets better with each playthrough.

I'm a huge fan of Shu Takumi's work, and this is his style perfected. Consistently engaging and hilarious. The mystery that unravels throughout the story is more creative and deep than any Ace Attorney case.

For most of the game I keep thinking "it's not getting any crazier than this, right?". And every time it suprises me in a new amazing way. Despite how many twists and turns it takes, it never feels pretentious or confusing in the slightest.

Not to mention the 'puzzles' in this game are their own rube goldberg machines that feel amazing to solve each and every time. I'm trying to remain vague in this review so that anyone who wants to potentially play it has the same experience I got when playing this. Where I more or less knew nothing going into it. Please give it a try, it's not that long too. It's shorter than the average length of a final case in a modern Ace Attorney game, but infinitely more satisfying.

All Clover Studio games are masterpieces in their genre. Every time I play it again it feels like I'm more and more convinced it's just the perfect game for me. It's so unambiguously a PS2 game at it's core, with it's simple yet extremely satisfying combat, the story is just one long excuse to travel all different kinds of places, and of course how hard it leans into it's own art style.

It succeeds in setting a serious tone, presumably to respect the folklore most of the stories in this game are based on. But especially on my last playthrough I was reminded just how funny the game is. And at no point does it feel like these two different tones clash with eachother.

The PS2 version is my favorite, as it gets the closest to that painting look the game is going for, and it includes that amazing credits song that sadly no other version has. Although hilariously you can still listen to it on the Wii version via the sound test. The PS4 version is also fantastic, and probably the version that is easiest to recommend.