Among all the different approaches Atlus has had to Megami Tensei since 1987, Digital Devil Saga has to be the most interesting one, it already differentiates itself from the mainline games heavily and builds its own identity by focusing the teological themes and references on Hinduism, everything from the architecture, names to even in-game systems draw heavy inspirations from those beliefs, and the more well-versed you are on that, the more meaning Digital Devil Saga will have, the game makes really intelligent parallels and references to Hindu religions.

But a game can't live on just symbolism, and it's in the gameplay part that Digital Devil Saga starts to show its flaws, they tried a different take on levelling and demon summoning, here, you no longer fuse and summon different demons, but instead, each party member has a set entity they can transform into, which in and off itself is a interesting idea, but the effect it had on levelling up is massively negative, because you no longer change demons (or magatamas) they had to implement a new system for skill learning, or the game would become very staple and with little variety if you could only learn pre-set skills to those entities, and this system comes in the form of Mantras, which is kinda like the magatama system from Nocturne, as in both revolve around different "equipment" that you can equip on the human characters and each one will have a type of skills for the player to learn while they level up, the problem is: in DDS, it becomes very grindy, especially if you want to defeat the optional bosses, in Nocturne, you still needed to grind if you wanted a specific skill, but as long as you had a general idea of how you wanted to build the Demi-Fiend you could just equip Magatamas that teach the types of skills you needed and have almost no need to grind, but in this game, if you want to make every party member you use somewhat decently strong, you must grind different mantras for each skill you want, and it quickly becomes tiresome.

The other major gameplay factor in Megami Tensei games are the dungeons, and i like the ones present here, they aren't as complex as the ones in Strange Journey or as trap-filled as the ones in Nocturne, instead, they have a more puzzley approach, and are pretty well thought out, i understand the criticisms some have towards them, but i personally like it.

It's hard to write about only DDS1's story without taking the second game into consideration, since everything seen here is just build up and character development for the REAL events that take place in the sequel, but for what it does, the world building is quite interesting, you get to see a bit of each faction of the Junkyard and how they operate, and the characters, both main and side, are very good and don't take long to capture your interest, it's a good story as it is, but i don't like the idea of making a whole game just to build up the sequel.

The soundtrack here (as usual in Atlus games) is amazing, super atmosferic and distinct, i think this duology's OST might be my favorite works from Shoji Meguro, and that's saying a lot, considering i really like most of his music, the visuals are also very good for the PS2 and the art direction is one of the best in gaming.

Overall, Digital Devil Saga is a solid game and a respectable attempt at a new take on Megami Tensei, even if it has major flaws, it's still an experience i enjoyed a lot, my rating is a 4/5 for the reasons i mentioned above, but i can easily see it being a 4.5 or even a 5.

Well, Trails has finally truly impressed me. This is definitely my kinda series after all.

3rd has decent pacing of things happening the entire time, though that is partially helped by its shorter length. The dungeon structure is preferable to FC's and SC's for me, and there is way less backtracking. It has a complex main character and a personal character-driven story. The combat system is mostly similar to FC and SC, but the way it ties into the story here more often is cool. Most of the 3rd music is the best in the series so far for me, especially the final boss theme and the OP.

Every problem I had with FC and SC have been fixed. Nobody is annoying anymore; a lot of the story is a love letter to the Sky games in general. Hell, some characters are better in this game than the previous ones. I even care more about Joshua and Estelle in 3rd than I did in FC and SC.

It's also got the majority of the emotional and dark moments (especially that one door) of Trails in the Sky. I genuinely cried to a few of them, which hasn't happened with Trails so far.

I will be continuing onto Crossbell with high expectations.

An utter failure of a work.
Elden Ring completely misunderstands its own essence, what it means to be a Souls game, in favour of empty, superficial, unrewarding level-design and combat.

Ugly, angering graphics - the high-fantasy style creates controversies at every corner.
A bland soundtrack, with only a handful of decent songs among a hundred.
A completely generic story that has nothing to say - as if the former Souls Games, misunderstood by their own creators, were stripped of all their essence.
And gameplay that is so weightless, so unpolished, filled with horrendous scaling - from random encounters hitting as strongly as literal Gods - that its ridiculousness is simply baffling.
Clearly, all of these changes appeal to a wider, mainstream audience - one that favours superficiality such as the game's high-fantasy visuals over true thematic depth - but with these changes, the Soul-Series becomes nothing more than another series of Marvel Films.

And the worst flaw of all: The utterly shameless repetitiveness.
The beauty of Dark Souls 3's true ending, ruined to create one more empty, boring, badly written boss called Radahn.
Mechanics and designs of the previous games, used for the eight time in a row, without even understanding the initial intentions behind them anymore.
Merely mindlessly following the formula that previously brought success - and the mainstream audience loves it.

I fear for the future of Souls games.

Essentially: One of the most intelligent, significant pieces of art in the history of humanity turned into yet another Marvel movie, one that has nothing to say, is as safe as possible to appeal to the widest audience possible, and will ultimately be forgotten. Labeled worthless by the flow of time.

Insulting on every level. One of the worst works of art ever crafted.

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Perhaps taking an offshoot route to play Nayuta in my not-for-the-faint-of-heart journey through the Kiseki series when I was and am admittedly dying to reach Cold Steel/Reverie/Kuro was a bizarre decision to make. End of thought.

Nayuta is a strange little game that, as someone who hasn't progressed past Azure and has only heard of things from this game's story loosely tying into the main Trails canon, there's really no set time or need to play it to understand the main Trails story. More of an "aha" moment if you see something in a future game that calls back to Nayuta, but doesn't feel like a major gap in the Trails experience if you miss out on it. I only really know this as many of my friends who are caught up with Trails skipped Nayuta and didn't enjoy the story of the games any less.

There's something interesting about how it's chronologically the next game in the series after Azure and before Cold Steel if you go based on release date, but that doesn't detract from the fact that Nayuta is largely its own thing and can be experienced anytime, whether that be before Sky FC or after Reverie if you really wanted to. I really had no clue what I was getting into other than a friend of mine (shoutout to @Stormowl0 for this recommendation and for drawing god tier Rixia Mao art) telling me it was really good.

Rather than being turn-based strategy on a grid, this is a full-blown action RPG with sword combos, magic spam, dodge rolls, and blocking galore! I could understand this as it is what Ys seems to be like (author's note: still need to play Ys), but what I was not expecting for it to be just as much of a platformer as it is an action JRPG. Turns out innovating the series by adding a jump button was done for more than show as enemies are often fought in a linear level-by-level format with precarious jump, traps, and pits you have to make your way around in the environments. I can't remember where I've heard this but I remember someone comparing it to Kirby 64 strangely enough, and I honestly find it very fitting for both games have a similarly whimsical worlds, a balance of combat and platforming in their level designs, and a silly little fairy girl that follows the protagonist.

Nayuta definitely isn't as easy as Kirby however and this is where I think some of its greatest gameplay strength lies: in how fast and frantic combat can get when you're in a pinch. It's not necessarily the most deep or thought provoking combat out there, you can spam magic quite a lot of the time to negate some challenges and swinging your sword mindlessly doesn't heavily punish you and is even encouraged at times. But playing on hard mode still required me to respect what enemies could do and at least know how to position myself and pull off timely dodges/blocks to not get obliterated by the high damage. Bosses were some of the most demanding parts of the game where magic spam was largely ineffective and you have to rely on playing aggressively to open up a weak point you can slash. The bosses in general were fantastic. While it may sound like average good video game stuff based on what I described, let me put it like this. Remember Twilight Fossil Stallord from the Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess and how, despite being another use-the-dungeon-item boss, the second phase had his head come off and you chased him down on your spinner in a thrilling, high-speed encounter? Imagine if nearly every boss had a cool twist like that, but was never gimmicky to the point where the base combat you know first and foremost isn't shafted (except in one boss which was the worst in the game because of this lmao).

The story while not connecting to the rest of a series as is often seen as a strength of the Trails series above other JRPGs, Nayuta has a similar general structure to its plot going from very, very, humble beginnings and then turning into Xenogears by the very end. It's much faster paced than even the shortest individual Trails game, so the characters don't quite the same level of screentime they would in Trails, but it was still enough to tug at my heartstrings and even get me misty eyed in some of the later scenes.

I'm very well aware at how disorganized and all-over the place these thoughts are, but it's honestly just kind of hard to sum up what kind of game Nayuta is. It takes so many elements from other games as it creates this fascinating JRPG-platformer hybrid with wild creativity and endearing characters and storytelling. It's something that, while not blowing me away quite to the extent that the Trails games all have so far with their jaw-dropping narratives at times, really clicked with me and carried the experience.

I don't think I have ever had my opinion of a game change so drastically while playing it. After finishing the first Xenoblade with middling opinions, the technical and gameplay improvements in the second were refreshing and fun. For the first 25-30 hours of this, I did genuinely love it.

Once I reached a certain point (probably around chapter 6 or 7), everything really started to fall apart for me. The repercussions of so many glaring design flaws really started to shine through (field skills nearly saw me quitting the game at least 4 times) and I realized the story wasn't going in any direction that I really cared for. The tone and pacing of the first Xenoblade was dark, serious, and thoughtful. The second devolved into a sort of low-quality immature anime that used its half-baked plot purely to prop up flashy action sequences and tit shots.

Speaking of tits... the level of fan service in this game is borderline pathetic. Male characters and blades are given cool, sometimes monstrous designs, and yet nearly every single female character is reduced to cleavage and scraps of fabric concealing maybe a half-inch of their skin, as if all of their designs were thought of by a 13 year old hentai addict. Coupled with the fact that some of these characters look like genuine children, it's unsettling to say the least. My favorite character "truly finds herself" or whatever later in the game and that entails... a magical girl transformation which pumps her boobs like 2 sizes and leaves her in fancy panties.

Such a massive disappointment, going from a game that I genuinely loved in the beginning to a game I absolutely hate. I initially planned to play the entire trilogy, but as of now this entry has really soured my attitude on the entire franchise.

Interactions in this game usually go like this:

Voice from off screen: “Hey Van, you called?” (Camera pans to reveal Blorpko Shitface, VA: John Voiceactor, returning from Trails Up Your Butt. You haven’t seen him in over 500 hours of gameplay.)

Van: Ah, Blorpko the Cum Drinker, good to see you.

Agnés: (Wait, the cum drinker? I’ve seen him in magazines before, didn’t he help out in the Bay of Poms incident?)

Blorpko: This is paying you back for helping me during Trails of Cold Steel 4, which I was notably absent from.