MintsJams
I intend to write more on this game later, but overall I find it disappointing. I think the aspects that made the original Dark Souls brilliant are lacking in this game, even though this game improves on some things. Like the first game, your experience will improve once you know how to conquer it, but after a bit over 100 hours to get the platinum, I don't intend to return to this game unless I do a trilogy marathon.
2009
This game may be my ultimate guilty pleasure. It is undoubtedly a mess, but the strong points really hold me and I honestly can't bring myself to dislike this game even though it is a bit of a failure. I think this game is aesthetically fantastic. Everyone always talks about how good the graphics and music are in this game, but it really is true. The battle system is pretty hated, but I honestly enjoy it quite a bit. It is too slow (something the sequel improves on), but I think the Auto-Battle and Paradigm systems themselves are right for this game, and I enjoyed crafting new paradigms to suit the challenge that was put in front of me. The story here is not amazing, but it takes the characters to interesting places, and having the party members so at odds with each other for a large part of the game is an interesting dynamic that makes their uncertain journey hit harder. The characters range from mediocre to good, with Sazh being my favorite. The world-building is great in my opinion, which is honestly a bit of a double-edged sword, considering the ways this game fails. The linearity of the game is not ideal to say the least, but it allows each area to be beautiful. The areas may have my favorite aesthetic of any FF game I've played. The contrast between the unique futuristic urban areas and the immense and unknown wilds are very well-balanced. The hand-holding until halfway through the game is infuriating, and probably its worst aspect. If this game allowed any sort of free movement near the end (i.e. the ability to return to Pulse before the final dungeon), then I think it would fare much better. Despite all the drawbacks, I still enjoy this game a lot. I don't know if I can call it a good game, but every time I boot it up to play it, I personally enjoy it.
2024
A definite improvement over 4 and 6, Garten of Banban 7 is a solid entry in the series as far as Banban games go, but doesn't rise far above the hellhole of laughably bad design that plagues this franchise. Barring a couple exceptions, puzzles are once again either obscure and horribly thought out, or brain-dead easy. I found the story incredibly boring and meandering compared to the peak that is Banban 3, but its still better than the filler slop of 4, or the infuriating melodrama of 6. One thing I will commend is the area design: It is easily the best in the series, and actually has a good amount of atmosphere and scope to it. The drone control mechanic is a cool development in concept, but it gets stuck so easily that it is laughable in execution. There are also invisible walls everywhere, which attempt to keep you from going the wrong way, but just end up being a hindrance. This game has much more thought put into it than the others up to this point, and I think it is the best-made game in the series up to this point on a technical level, but I was not as entertained as when I was playing 3. My main takeaway from this game is that if the Euphoric Brothers take more than a couple weeks to work on a game, and mix that with entertaining events in the story, they could make something that is not absolutely horrible. That isn't what this game is, though.
2.5/10
2.5/10
boring mobile game slop at its RAWEST. i played this game while plastered and downloaded every single app i got an ad for. it was peak.
This game takes the issues I had with Remake and stamps them out, and the result is an incredibly rich and immersive game with a superb combat system and peak character interactions. I think the game is a bit bloated, and I'm not really sure what to think about the direction the story has gone until it all wraps up, but I love these characters and world so much and this game honestly feels made for me. This game is Final Fantasy in its purest form: Huge world and stakes, great characters, entertaining scenarios, and a ridiculous amount of fan-service. If you love the original VII like I do, and you love expansive words and bizarre twists on stories you know, I think this game will satisfy you. If you're a story continuity purist, and you don't like having a lot of side content to engage with, this game will likely disappoint you. I may write more regarding this later, but overall this will likely be my pick for game of the year. I enjoyed nearly every moment of my 80 hour playthrough, and think it pulls off everything it goes for. Its not a 10/10 imo but its probably a 9.5 or 9.6.
2007
Really cool game. I found it really immersive and the cast is varied with interesting stories. I think its really easy and also the pacing falls apart in the middle, but overall its really effective and memorable.
2023
This game is so fun with friends. It has a unique style and the gameplay loop is satisfying and leads to ton of silly shenanigans. The game has AWFUL performance though, a game that looks like this should at least be a stable 30 fps on my system. I might look into optimization mods... I also run into glitches constantly, but I am playing modded, so that might contribute to the problem.
2017
This is a super tight and enjoyable Metroidvania. The combat is fluid, it looks great, progression is fairly natural. Most of the bosses are very well designed. It wears its Dark Souls influence on its sleeve, I was reminded of DS1 throughout. I kinda wish I loved it more, it really is solid, but I don't think I'd care to replay it much.
2023
Stupid, boring, and melodramatic. This game takes itself way too seriously and it feels like they haven't really been learning from their mistakes.
2023
This game is siiiiiiiick. Every level is off the wall and full of charm, the movement is fantastic, the soundtrack is very exciting, and the game has a very unique and fun sense of humor. The kinda exaggerated ugly character designs aren't really for me, but wow the animation in this game has so much work put into it that its absolutely ridiculous that the game plays as well as it does. I will give this room to grow on me, but for now its a solid to high 8/10. You should absolutely not miss out on this.
1999
Really solid game. The atmosphere is on point and I actually found the puzzles really fun. The difficulty was also perfect, I was constantly close to dying but actually died very few times. The story is a little confusing but I'm not very smart so that explains things.
2023
I'm so sad man, I thought these games were getting better after 3. this game SUUUUCKS, its a bunch of forgettable nonsense with a new cast that has no sticking power and doesn't develop on the previous games at all. The story was nonsense, the puzzles were not fun at all, and 5 minutes from the end of the game I passed out drunk on my bathroom floor and had to play the lame as fuck ending this morning.
2005
I played this game in Japanese with the PS3 HD Remaster and its pretty dang solid. Its got a great aesthetic and the story is tight, probably the easiest to follow in the series while still being interesting. The side content that this series is known for is only here in small servings, and the substories are few and tend to be pretty dramatic, which is both an upside and a downside. This is the Yakuza game with the worst combat, but Kiryu's moveset still feels pretty good and you can absolutely tear through enemies if you know what you're doing. Overall there are reasons to like the original more than its much meatier remake, but I think both have their advantages. Glad I played this, and I will be hopping on 2 at some point.
2023
Finally these games stopped being the worst thing ever. This game is very silly and its goofy scenarios actually go over decently well. The game's padding is ridiculous, it looks awful, and I don't think there's much improvement on the voice acting front, but at least the puzzle design isn't absolutely broken like in the second game. It still sucks, but way less than the first two.
This game is the reason I fell in love with Zelda and honestly its goddamn incredible. I've gone back and forth on it over the years but it is so memorable and well designed and fun. I know this game so well that I was able to find 91 skulltulas on my own without a guide, and I haven't played this game vanilla in probably 6 years. I think at this point it is my third favorite Zelda game. The item progresion in this game might be the best in the entire series, everything has its place and very few items feel useless. The dungeon design is top notch and I have a hard time picking any that I don't like. This game is legendary and I love it so much.