more like Queen Peach i tell you hwat

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As stated in my last review on Super Princess Peach, I was very excited for Showtime. Like, way more excited than I ever thought I would be. Just off of the first couple trailers, I was enamored by the charm and promise that was being presented, what would essentially be a full game's worth of watching Peach undergo magical girl transformations and exploring different set pieces with her new abilities. I was in it for the style, and nothing else. As time went on (and as Nintendo kept spoiling all of the fucking costumes on their Twitter...), in an unusual turn of events, my excitement only grew. The demo drops, I play it, and I'm locked in, pre-order and all. I got what I came for, and I enjoyed every second of it.

almost every second of it.

Obviously, the costumes are all fantastic. It is such a breath of fresh air seeing such a major character for the series in all these different outfits, especially since Peach doesn't usually get to do much in the first place. Of course she has all of her spin-off designs, but Showtime does so much more with everything, experimenting with all sorts of aesthetics and colors, not one of them failing to impress. That really was all I was expecting for this game, so to move on to the actual gameplay...

It's fine enough? Peach doesn't get much of a moveset, the game only ever utilizes a total of three buttons, and I think they did fairly well with such limited controls. Not every gimmick is a winner (lord knows I never want to play another patissiere level again), but I thoroughly enjoyed what they came up with, the big stars being the detective, mermaid, and ice skater plays. (sorry, ice world bias.)
I have to admit, though, and it never really makes itself known upon first playthrough, but holy hell is this game slow. Again, it's never a problem as long as you can finish up everything you need to in one go, collecting all the Sparkle Stones and Ribbons, but, say you miss one of those collectibles, either by simply not exploring enough or failing a certain task; in order to go back and try for it again, you have to do everything from start to finish a second time. Your newly made progress won't be saved after exiting the stage like in the previous Peach game, so instead you'll have to repeat the whole stage, and by then, you'll notice that most of your time in each level will be spent completely motionless as some dialogue fades in and out of view. You aren't given the option to skip any of it, either. Text is placed on screen by itself, accompanied by animations that you have to wait for the end of before you are allowed to start moving again. As I said, not a big deal on the first playthrough, but it gets excruciating having to see it any more times than once. god forbid you spend 30 damn minutes on the second patissiere level like i did

I see where everyone else is coming from. Yes, Princess Peach: Showtime! can feel incredibly easy, handhold-y, linear, whatever else you might have heard. It is not complex in the slightest, but that's not what I was looking forward to. I was looking forward to the cute costumes and the fun worlds to look at, with the added bonus of some new personality for the princess herself. With such little expectations, of course I was going to have at least a little fun. Not the "game of the year" I was maybe (somewhat ironically) psyching myself up for, but I'd say it's considerably better than everyone else is giving it credit for. Again, though, that could just be my low standards, made even lower after recently finishing a much worse Peach oriented game.

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peach's next smash moveset could be killer if you think about it now holy shit

This was my second Tales game (Tales of Berseria was my first) so it was kinda weird at first seeing how limited it was in terms of camera movement and the overworld but the charm of it eventually won me over. One of my biggest issues with ToB was how large a lot of it environments were which lead to the game feeling like it dragged on in areas, while with ToV the overworld in particular it was the perfect size to keep the pace going at a rate I enjoyed (though I did find myself getting lost more easily)

I've found with the Tales games that the gameplay isn't really that captivating, especially the real time battle system (it can be fun at first but for a JRPG the battles can start to drag after a while) but what really hooks you in with these games are the story and characters and my gosh did Vesperia hook me in

The story touched upon a lot of really interesting themes for me. Are the laws really punishing the worst people? Is it right to take the law into your hands? Are those at the top of class system only looking out for themselves? Could we give up a source of power that we've always relied on to save our world? So much of Vesperia's story was really interesting and I loved how they used the main party to explore some of the conflicts that can happen from these ideals. Yuri and Flynn, Judith and Rita in particular have really interesting clashes because of their ideals and it makes for a really good group dynamic.

Speaking of the characters my gosh they are so good. While I think Velvet from Berseria is the stronger protagonist, Yuri has a lot of really great moments that help his character shine. Judith came in and shook things up and I love the way she pushes Estelle to make up her mind on things. Rita was fantastic with her sarcastic attitude but also her dynamic with Estelle was so good. Ripede was a million times better than Bienfu. Karol was a really solid younger member of the group that really tied in the guilds well. Flynn was an excellent foil to Yuri. I can't really go into a lot of Raven's stuff without spoilers but I did enjoy the party calling him old man all the time and Patty.... well Patty had her moments but it was off putting having Yuri switch VA around her because Bandai Namco couldn't be bothered asking Troy Baker to come back to record new lines.
Finally there's Estelle who is easily my favourite character in the whole game. While she might be a princess, I found a lot her character to be really relatable. She has her wants and desires but tends to put herself behind others. The amount of times where it feels like she's just following the group decision because she feels like putting her opinion in can be a burden (I really love that Judith comes in and is immediately like "What do you want to do?" and Estelle is like.... i... i... dunno because she's so self conscious aaaaaaaaaaaaaa) I also love how when she's made her mind up on something it's near impossible to break her from it and her instinct to help others is so good. I love that the game tests her on that instinct with what I will call the "Estelle depression arc" that takes place in the game's second arc. Seriously, if you love Estelle as a character a lot of that second arc is gonna hit you hard, like I struggled through some of that my gosh.

I need to mention the ending. The majority of the game is so good and then the ending has to be one of the most anticlimactic and flat endings I've ever experienced. It doesn't ruin the game but it does leave with a big "is that it?" and that is the biggest mark against the game I have.

Overall, while I think Tales of Berseria has the higher highs with it's cast and story, I ended up enjoying Tales of Vesperia more due it's better pacing and that I ended up enjoying Estelle's character in particular a lot.
One last thing...... Ristelle is life

It's like P3, but better. I was so excited for this remake and it delivered like I thought it would.
Amazing QoL updates (no tartarus fatigue lol) are very welcomed, and the character redesigns by Azusa Shimada are incredible. New music also bangs and is on par with the original, and all the added scenes with teammates give even more depth to the already well-written cast.
Voice acting is impressive as usual (I played with JP voices as always with Japanese anime games, but from what I heard the dub is also very good, way better than the original's), and there are much more voice lines than I remember.
Combat is also improved, with P5-style baton pass mechanic (but less broken), and addition of Theurgy, characters' ultimate attacks. It's really neat seeing the animations for these; and some hit really hard, like Junpei's second one...

I had a much better time with this than I did the original. The atmosphere maybe SLIGHTLY loses out to the original's, but it's hard to explain.
The ending is 10/10, no question the strongest of Persona's. I cry.

My biggest gripe with the game is the antagonists. Strega is good, don't get me wrong, but some missed potential I think. Ikutsuki kind of just exists. The pacing is also VERY slow, especially at the beginning. Luckily, it's Persona, so it still never feels actually boring.
Nothing like minmaxing your efficiency with social links and stats etc.
Good game, absorbed weeks of my life.