When I first booted up Cuphead a few days ago, I was greeted with a brand-new title screen and song. It was for The Delicious Last Course and honestly, I like it a lot more than the new title screen. This was a sign of good things to come with the new DLC and I'm happy to say it's pretty great.

I actually used one of the new weapons a ton in my replay of the base game but crackshot really is amazing. It's basically chaser but better and it was my primary weapon in this DLC alongside charge shot. Converge and Twist-up were the other two new weapons and I wasn't really a fan of either so I barely used them. There were also some new charms that were added as well. Astral cookie let's you play as Ms. Chalice, the ghost that awards you your different supers in the base game. She can be kinda broken since she has 4 health, an invincible role and a dash that parries. I also found it kind of weird to use her so I used Cuphead for the most part. The divine relic is one you need to put a bit of work into. It starts as a broken relic which you can basically activate by defeating this weird secret graveyard boss. Once you do, you can start defeating other bosses to eventually turn it into the divine relic. While you do, all sorts of effects happen like starting at 1 HP, having your normal attack change constantly and having an in-consistent smoke bomb. Once you defeat enough bosses tho, you get the divine relic which can be incredibly OP if you're skilled enough. The changing normal attacks are still a thing, which is why you need to be skilled enough I said, but you get a normal smoke bomb, the axe parry move and you have an ability where you get health on your 1st, 3rd and 6th parry which can be crazy broken. The last charm is basically just that last parry effect on its own and its the one I stuck with throughout the DLC, it can make A and S ranks stupid easy to get.

Speaking of Ms. Chalice again, I did use her a lot in one area of the game. The king's leap is a series of parry challenges and she is super useful with her dash parry. This one one of my favorite parts of the DLC ngl, it was really fun. I even did The Gauntlet which has you doing all of the challenges in a row without a break in between. It wasn't too bad and the executioner was definitely my favorite of the bunch. Also the presentation of the castle and it looking like it's made out of clay was amazing.

Now onto the meat and potatoes once again, the bosses. Yeah, there's only bosses now and no Run and Gun stages. While I do prefer the bosses a bunch, with there only being 6 total this DLC just flies by and is one of my biggest criticisms tbh. Idk, I just wish this was a little longer because what's here is great, you can just beat it in no time is the problem. Anyways onto the bosses. It has some of the best bosses in the entire game and some alright ones. The Howling Aces was easily my least favorite when I first played and that was all because of the last phase where the screen rotates. It felt cheap at the time and I really did not like it but now after S ranking it (yes this is the one and only S rank I got funnily enough) if you turn your head and understand that the dog bowl color lets you know what they will do, it's not that bad. I'm still not the biggest fan of it tho. Esther Winchester was the only flying stage and I thought it was okay. I just found some of the later stages really annoying but again funnily enough, it was another one I was able to expert in the end. Mortimer Freeze and Glumstone the Giant I don't really have much to say besides they were both pretty good. I didn't expert either, Mortimer especially is a pain in the ass on expert. Chef Saltbaker was definitely one of the best in the game even though his fight can be a real bullet hell at times. The spectacle of it really did it for me and he was another one I didn't expert. I saved the best for last and while the fight is fun, the presentation alone made this my favorite. Moonshine Mob was easily my favorite fight just because it was so creative. It's a mob of bugs that all play a part in the fight. First off the announcer was different this time and it was one of the members of the mob which was great. The spider and the light bug were both fun and very expressive. The music is also sung by the light bug which is a nice touch. Then near the end of the fight, we find out the head of the mob was actually the announcer from the beginning..the snail. He's teaming up with an anteater which is so brilliant because you know he uses the anteater to scare or even kill other bugs. Then when you defeat the anteater there's a fucking fake knock out screen that can actually trip you up since I thought it was just a quirky little change up like the initial announcer was but the fact it's a fake out from the snail, it was the cherry on top of the already incredible presentation in this fight. Like I said, easily the best in this DLC and may even be the best in the game. This was another fight I was able to expert as well.

I got all trophies which only required me to S rank one boss so I didn't expert everything like I said. I just don't find expert mode too fun so I don't think it's a huge deal. Either way, great DLC overall. I think I do like the base game more just because this DLC was really short and I didn't love every boss here, but what was good was really damn good so I definitely recommend every Cuphead fan plays it.

Okay I swear my next review will be Chrono Trigger. I keep putting it off and I really got to get back to it 😭

Back in 2017, around when the game first came out, I was a Junior in High School. I remember watching YouTube videos on all the bosses in the game while I was in my computer class and thinking it looked awesome. Only problem is, I didn't own an Xbox (and still don't). Fast forward to 2019, the game comes out on the Switch and I buy it. Now I rarely buy digital games but I figured it was a big game I've always wanted to play and that it might not get a physical for a while, so I purchased it. Me and my girlfriend at the time played it for a bit and I myself got up to Grimm Matchstick but eventually dropped it. Fast forward again to 2022, on a whim I decide I want to play it again. I restarted the game and went and beat it for the first time finally. I thought it was really awesome! Once I heard they were coming out with a physical copy, and with the DLC included..I knew I had to buy it again. And that's what I did, so I decided to replay it once again. Not only did I beat it again, I beat every boss with an A- or higher and not only that, I beat every boss on expert difficulty and got the platinum trophy!

I'm just gonna start with the absolute best aspect of the game. You all know what it is, the presentation and art style. It's the main reason this game is loved, it's immaculate. The attention to detail in replicating old rubber hose cartoons is just amazing. The game is just pure eye candy and it's wonderful. This game will always hold the test of time because of this one aspect alone...but luckily there are other great aspects about the game as well.

Accompanying the amazing artstyle is the soundtrack. Now, it may not be an OST I'd listen to a ton outside of the game but wow it's a treat. It's upbeat, it's jazzy, and it's all orchestrated. It just makes the game feel more grand and way more authentic in it's homage to the time period these cartoons came from. My personal favorite songs would have to be the the Isle Three theme, Murine Corps and Floral Fury. The Isle three theme especially is my standout favorite. Idk man it's sooo jazzy I love it.

Now were onto the real meat and potatoes, the gameplay. It's a run and gun shooter and it's pretty simple. You have your normal attacks, your special move, your maxed out special, a dodge and a parry. Pretty simple move set but it works well with how chaotic the game can be. You can choose from several different normal attacks, special moves and charms. Charms just give you an extra ability. For most of the game I just had the charge shot and crackshot, the 1st special and the smoke bomb charm. I feel like a ton of people love the charge shot and smoke bomb especially since I've seen a ton of people have those in their arsenal.

What levels do you use these moves on? Let's start with the run and gun stages. They're alright! They are not the main focus of the game, and apparently were only added because of fan outcry but they're decent overall. If the game was just composed of these, it probably wouldn't be nearly as well liked as it is cuz people seem to not really dig these stages. Which I can see, they are definitely the weakest part of the game I think. However, they aren't the main focus of the game. Those would be the bosses.

The bosses on the other hand are awesome. These were gonna be the main and only focus of the game and it makes sense. They're pretty much all well done and a lot of fun to go against. Here's where the visuals are at their peak too because one of the most fun things is to just see all the different boss animations. This is why I wanted to play this game so bad back in 2017, the bosses are a sight the behold. This is also why I'm so excited for the DLC because I've barely seen any of it as of now so I'm ecstatic to see all the new animations contained in it. Anyways back to the bosses, like I said they're awesome. Some of my favorites were Captain Brineybeard, Werner Werman and Sally Stageplay. I guess I just really like Isle three lol. There were also some very brutal bosses. Back in 2019, Bippi the Clown gave me the hardest time and he was still tough nowadays. Dr. Kahl's robot can be brutal for newcomers and he gave me a hard time. However, the hardest for me still was the devil. I dont think I died quite as many times as I did back in 2022, but it wasn't far off. However in expert mode, he was absolutely ridiculous. Expert mode in general could be really crazy, mostly the plane bosses, but the devil was on another level at least for me. Either way, I beat em all and got the platinum in the end which I still can't believe. Never doing expert mode again lol. Also never ever doing the one pacifist trophy again fuck that one.

Glad I replayed this again cuz it was still an amazing time, even if going for the platinum made me lose my sanity at points lol. Definitely one of my favorite indie games now. Can't wait to dive into The Delicious Last Course!

I just beat Gwyn and I'm sitting here in awe. The area design in the game up until the very end was just perfect. I wish I could walk around in these places. There are these taut moments where every roll counts, yet there's also an eerie peace that cuts through everything. I think my favorite moments were when I could just stare into the game world and well, vibe. And mannnn that fire link music just oooo perfect stuff. Shout out to the onion armor guy you rule, but I stole all your honor....and shout out to the sun guy sorry I let you die too...but hey we made it! next playthrough I'll save the sun guy I swear. Oh and my favorite area would have to be Anor Londo that place just rules oh and the Darkroot Forest Sith was so sick oh oh and honestly the undead burg just for the memories kind of was missing that place in the last quarter! :) But yeah I liked it a lot, gonna need to watch all the lore videos now :p

for all its messy sci-fi tangles and caustic irony and sprawling mythologizing this felt raw and tender in a way that kind of really hurt. doubles down on the eminently alien as a ruse to make its naked human ugliness more potent when the time comes, presenting a scenario where the essence of all stress, tension, and threat is mundanely, terribly, crushingly adolescent at heart

a wealth of increased design hospitality baits a hostility that draws from acrid power dynamics, self-destructive altruism, loss of autonomy, strained health, and the uniquely miserable feeling of being a fucked up teenager. that its concluding act leads with its most insincere, grating posturing only to directly pivot into end times earnestness makes for one of the most convincing tonal portrayals of angst and isolation I can think of

instant teencore classic (deeply affectionate)

showing up to the bank with a note that reads

"darksiders is my favourite 3D zelda"

aghast, the teller knows I can't be reasoned with and Sir Robert Bordens flood my sack

there's something particularly grimy about this one that wasn't present in the others. something instigating and coarse and spiteful and reactionary. "language as a virus" as interpreted in the most corrosive way possible. characterized by emptiness; overwhelmingly pro-nothing

HC2 was positioned like an anaglyph where the heightened elements were layered just askew of the seen&felt "human" elements despite their differences, and when paired they were able to speak earnestly to lived experience. HC3 bristles at the very thought; too suspicious and cynical to allow anything to resonate so cleanly; too preoccupied with how earned it is; too uncomfortable with its own audience; too busy wagging its finger at ghosts

this is a work defined by unpleasant, uncharitable metacommentary; the shock of gore, body fluids, and pointlessly cruel backstories amounting to little more than a yawning (bored, boring) void. violent death of the author offered the instant every page's been torn to confetti. one last mean little joke from a particularly mean little game

a neurotic stormcloud reckoning with creation and voyeurism and expectations and consumption. the reclaiming of catharsis thru punishingly overcorrective countermeasure. a last gasp chance to weaponize itself against that what came prior, itself, and the "puppeteer". denouement as calculated sabotage that can't be walked back

rpg maker's BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea - Episode 2 (2014)

First review of 2024 baby! What a first game to start the year. I first played this back in 2019 and absolutely loved it. I beat all of the chapters, both A and B sides but never did any of the C sides nor did I get all the strawberries. This playthrough I did tho and man it felt good. Before I get into that let me talk about why this game is so great.

Why don't I just get right into the story first. When I first played, I remember being blown away by the story and absolutely loving it. While I do still think it's good, there was something bothering me throughout and it may just be a me thing. Theo, he's not a bad character but why all the mentions of selfies and his social media 😭. I hate to say it but it was really taking me out of the story at points. It was definitely the biggest issue I had when replaying this. Otherwise though, the Madeline side of the story is really good. I like how anyone that plays this game can at least relate to her need to overcome her personal demons and I think the fact they made it so she accepts them for what they are instead of just trying to bury them completely, I like that execution way more. They portrayed anxiety and depression super well and I think that's the game's strongest aspect when it come's to story.

The soundtrack is pretty solid, tho I remember loving it back then which I wouldn't say I love it now. Don't get me wrong, it's good and there are some standout tracks in certain chapters but I didn't like it as much as I did in 2019 I think. Maybe it was because I was more focused on playing the game and didn't pay attention to the music too much this time around? I also maybe wasn't a fan of the voices they gave the characters. Idk some of the time I found it kinda annoying which is a shame.

As for some of the biggest positives, the game is amazing visually. The pixel art is pretty much perfect the whole way through and the backgrounds in some of these chapters are breathtaking. Golden Ridge I think was the standout especially, it was gorgeous.

Now we come to my favorite part of the game, the gameplay. This is easily one of the most fun 2D platformers I've ever played. It's just so polished and the level design is so good. One of my favorite things was just finding all the secrets, there's a ton of them whether it's hidden strawberries or crystal hearts or B side tapes or even that one hidden indie game screen I somehow found by doing the wavedash (that was insane) they're all really fun to find. I also really love just how many different techniques you can perform. A lot of them aren't explained until late late game or not even at all and they can really break the game sometimes, it's awesome. Celeste is also extremely difficult I'm sure you know. Indeed, some of the later levels in the base game can get super duper hard. The B sides and C sides especially, some of those were nuts. As I said, I did everything in the base game...everything except for the golden strawberries. I got the one in chapter 1 A side but that was it. They just don't feel too worth it since it's not new content...just surviving an entire chapter without dying which isn't too fun imo. As for the hardest part of the base game, that hands down has to go to Chapter 7 Side C. Jesus Christ that last fucking screen took me 3 hours in-game time and exactly 1152 deaths. None of the other chapters came close to that many deaths and you know what, I'm so glad I did it. I'll never do it again mind you, but I told myself that if I did it...I'd bump this game to a 9. So for now that's what I'll do tho I may bump it down to an 8.5 who knows.

I do have some issues that are more a me thing but this game is super fun and definitely a top tier indie in my book.

Oh and as for farewell...yes I'll be doing that next and yes I am very scared. I got up to the point where you're required to wavedash back in 2019 and then quit. I've heard it's extremely brutal in the 2nd half so I'm nervous but I will persevere boys. Wish me luck!

Yup. I did it. I never thought I'd ever beat this thing back in 2019 when I attempted it (wavedashing filtered me) but not only did I learn that mechanic totally, not only did I beat Farewell...I got the moonberry baby! It took me over 8 hours and almost 3000 deaths but I did everything the DLC has to offer (besides the golden strawberry ofc).

I mentioned the visuals being lovely for the base game and in farewell it's on another level. I love the use of color used in this stage and the cosmic jellyfish look is super awesome. I also think the mixtapes floating through space was a really nice touch aesthetically.

The OST is still solid but it actually has my favorite song in all of Celeste and it's right near the end too. The song that plays on the last screen is so so good and fits really well. It's the end of a super hard super long final chapter and the song is all triumphant and emotional it's so good.

Speaking of that final screen, I honestly didn't think it was too bad. The fact I had to do it several more times after beating it to attempt the moonberry run made it actually quite easy. There's another infamous room where you have to wavedash into a wall bounce off a moving block and that one was definitely hard but it didn't take me long...only like 15 mins I think? The final screen from 7-C was still hands down the hardest and most time consuming screen imo. Either way, besides some really difficult screens, farewell wasn't absolutely soul crushing like I was expecting but it was definitely a lot of fun.

The story this time around has Madeline having to cope with the loss of granny and I think it was really well done. It was emotional, especially near the end, and the reveal that Theo's grandpa and granny were friends was a great reveal. I also loved how young granny looked just like Madeline, that and the fact they both went to climb Celeste made them being friends more believable.

So yeah, this DLC chapter was awesome and I still can't believe I beat it and got the moonberry! I was thinking an 8 at first but like the base game will give it a 9 for now. This one has a higher chance of me bumping it down but like I said, for now it's a 9. Also, sick ass game cover btw, it's awesome.

At this point, I feel like I’ve been playing Journey for half of my life. I’ve played through underwater Journey, forest Journey, air Journey, space Journey, cat Journey, and even boring Journey. Yet upon my yearly ascent in the original Journey on New Year’s Day, I find myself just as floored as when I first picked it up years ago, in spite of clone after clone exhausting my goodwill. What exactly then, is present in the original’s realized game design philosophy that every other spiritual successor has found themselves bereft of?

To answer this question, I want you to imagine a world where Journey doesn’t exist. A world where the formula to indie developers meant something more than just mindlessly tilting up on the left joystick to walk towards the next checkpoint while some narrator waxed poetic in the background. Before Journey, before Flower even, the closest ancestor we had was Ico. Fumito Ueda described his game as an execution of “boy meets girl,” and what it boiled down to was a minimalist adventure game with some puzzles cleverly disguised as platforming and timing segments. Occasionally, you also whack a few shadows while protecting and pulling your female companion Yorda through vast and still castle ruins. It wasn’t a perfect game by any means; the combat was frankly tedious, Yorda lacked much of an identity outside of pointing at objects of interest/opening doors/getting kidnapped, and at the end of the day, there really wasn’t much in the way of a balanced and developed relationship when the player was calling all the shots, but it was still the start of something beautiful. It wasn’t mechanically complex or esoteric in any fashion, but it was different. It was different, and it felt dangerous.

This write-up is not intended to be a critique of Ico, nor is it meant to imply that games proceeding Team Ico's philosophy of “design by subtraction” have since been inferior. Rather, I bring up Ico in particular, because there seems to be this general perception that minimalism results in a crippling lack of mechanical depth. That is, many seem to believe that discarding and minimizing a game’s various elements results in a dearth of tangible mechanics or imagery to cling onto, and thus appears to result in an empty and vacuous experience with little to justify further replays or deeper dives. To me though, this line of thought fundamentally misunderstands the purpose of addition by subtraction. It was never about creating mechanically deep systems with limitless possibilities like an immersive sim or a sandbox. Rather, the philosophy aimed to remove excess layers that distracted from the game’s “more realistic feeling of presence”, such as removing optional bosses and landmarks in Shadow of the Colossus or reducing enemy types in Ico to just a single design. In fairness, the goal wasn't just to remove extraneous elements that made something feel overly “gamey,” but also to marry mechanics in a way where the invisible layer of intended design never made itself too apparent (i.e. hiding the user interface in Shadow of the Colossus outside of fights). It was not just addition by subtraction; it was also addition through illusion.

To that end, I firmly believe that Journey is the best Team Ico game that Fumito Ueda never directed. Journey’s design philosophy was not necessarily revolutionary for its time, considering its predecessors in the forms of Flower and Ico, nor was its ultimate goal of reaching a final destination via walking/jumping/flying mechanics particularly exemplary. What was exemplary was its level of care and precision in how it implemented said minimalist design philosophy. Every time I play through Journey, I pick up more subtle details through its fusion of audio-visual presentation and gameplay that seemed so clear and intuitive that I had taken their presence for granted. There are the obvious strengths, like how Journey wordlessly conveys your path forward by keeping the shining peak of the mountain visible at all times while outside, or how it uses consistent visual language through cloth creatures and strips to demarcate safe zones where the player can recharge their scarf. But there’s more beneath the surface; what about the game's sneaky introduction to the sand-sliding mechanic from the introductory dune so it’s no longer unfamiliar during the exhilarating and committal descent, or how there’s a section of the underground that’s filled with these scarf jellyfish tinted in blue allowing you to remain in flight that evokes the feeling of being underwater, foreshadowing the next section as a tower ascension where the player must continually breach the surface to “swim” and escape? Sure, everyone knows about how the bitter cold disempowers the player by slowing their movement and lowering the scarf’s energy gauge, but I usually don’t hear about how strong winds can chip away at the scarf’s capacity itself or how it reduces the volume and area of effect of your shouts, making it far more difficult to restore your energy gauge from the growing frostbite.

There’s also the overlooked audio aspect of Journey. Granted, everyone loves to discuss the soundtrack’s thematics, like how the final chord of Journey’s motif never resolves a single time in any track until the end of Apotheosis or for that matter, how all the instruments are never fully present until that final ascent, when the entire orchestra finally comes together as one only to slowly fall away as the player and the world fade away. Yet, the sound design regarding Journey’s implementation of said soundtrack often goes underappreciated. Again, there are plenty of clear strengths that have been widely discussed, such as the punctuated stillness of the desert dunes providing room for the piddle paddle of the player’s footsteps amongst the vast desert winds and eventually swelling into triumphant bursts of adventure. But again, there are little subtleties that speak to the soundtrack’s interactivity, like how the backing drum during the aforementioned underwater section gives the track the impression of being muted and seamlessly drops this filter once the player breaches the surface, or how the player’s shouts are always in the key of the backing track’s scale, meaning that the introduced notes remain within the game’s tonality. It’s these little things that further round out Journey’s experience; the music is so seamlessly woven in that it takes a discerning ear to pick out every specific detail, in such a way where it feels like the soundtrack is organically supplementing every memorable moment of the game.

Of course, it’s not enough to just handle the basics well, even if there’s a master’s touch present to carefully disguise these additions so silently. As I mentioned before, popular works need compelling hooks to draw in an audience, but they also need an element of danger to keep that audience engaged. In the case of Journey, Thatgamecompany tackles this through their stealth multiplayer. This is where Journey easily outclasses its successors and may in fact, even have one-upped Ico. If Ico’s main limitation was a lack of autonomy for any non-player characters, then Journey circumvents this problem entirely by replacing the AI with real players instead. The loose implementation adds a catch: nothing in the game aside from the final completion screen listing your companion(s)’ name(s) ever hints on this, and not once is the player given instructions or suggestions on how to interact with said players. The only obvious mechanical incentive from cooperating with other players is the ability to recharge one another’s scarves via proximity/shouts, and there’s no consequence to merely abandoning random players or quitting in the middle of a session. It’s what makes this multiplayer so compelling; many times you’ll find other players just wandering about by themselves, despawning, or quickly rushing ahead without care towards your presence. There’s no guarantee that they’ll cooperate… which makes that one instance where they do that much more memorable. In this sense, I think Jenova Chen and his team solved two problems at once: the aforementioned challenge of granting outside elements a degree of realism, and his own personal challenge of creating a minimalist environment where players had no incentives to act in bad faith despite never having any major incentives to cooperate either, resulting in seemingly organic interactions.

Perhaps it is cheating to state that this spontaneous element is what gives Journey a step-up over its peers, but I also can’t deny that this same feature is exactly what lends the game its identity. It’s hard to provide drastically different experiences for focused single player games after all; no matter how much Fumito Ueda may have insisted that he was inspired by emergent gameplay mechanics and player autonomy to allow for more diverse experiences, there remains an upper limit upon how far those experiences can unravel. However, Thatgamecompany’s take upon the “single-player odyssey” alongside the game’s cyclical nature and short runtime means that Journey is a far more replayable experience while remaining every bit as compelling as its competition. Even after multiple trips up the summit, I continue to be amazed by the thoughtfulness shown to me by other players. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve fallen down the temple from being blown away by the wind, only for my companion to jump down with me, or how many trips through the blizzard were spent slowly trudging together mashing my shout, just like strangers on a cold winter’s night huddling together for warmth while shouting cries of encouragement to take one more step forward. In essence, Journey didn't need an intricate or elaborate story told with fanciful cutscenes and voice-acting; it simply needed to provide a backbone with no other contradicting elements, allowing players to form their own stories by experiencing the game on their own terms.

Journey isn’t mechanically rich or wildly innovative in terms of its scope, but it doesn’t have to be. Rather, it’s a deceptively simple yet meticulous and thoughtfully different approach upon a respected design philosophy, which aimed to further refine said formula by whittling down any elements that detracted from the game’s constructed sense of reality. Similarly, it doesn't feel the need to present a grandiose narrative, instead stripping away any specific contextual layers as to allow players to create memorable experiences with no conflicting moments in-between. I should be sick of this formula after tackling so many misguided copycats, and I can't deny that I was afraid to label yet another old favorite as propped up by nostalgia. Thankfully, my fears have been assuaged. I keep waiting for the day where I’ll finally be content putting this down forever… but that day has yet to come. I was not the first adventurer to embark upon this pilgrimage, nor will I be the last. Maybe I just need to get over my cynicism and accept that there was never anything to be cynical of to begin with. I’m sure more developers will continue to lazily carbon copy one of my favorites until the end of time, but that doesn’t mean the good times have to end.

Thanks for reading, everyone. Happy new year, and here’s to another journey around the sun.

glass syrup, moon tears, and primordial soup: the lunar restaurant in forever stasis. chit chat turns to noble chit chat turns to desperate chit chat as hours slip past by the dozens, hundreds, and thousands

melancholy gives way to a peculiar sort of idealism. not the sort where everything works out swimmingly and all outcomes are optimized to perfect mathematical parameters, but a more material state where the possibility for more and better is present and included; the swells of grief, guilt, regret, loss, and forgetting existing in purgatorial space where they can be unwound and untied and unfurled and worked out. where given enough time, anything can find adequate closure and resolution — a mirror placed in opposition to eternity's ability to persist in unfettered rack and ruin

hopeful and kind and unassumingly warm. peculiar and off balance and stark in its duo toned sketches and sheepishly brief musical loops and soft little jokes and heartfelt excavations of personhood and unpersonhood and everything in between

time unspooled as radiant promise and mending touch

there's a divine sickness here

kaleidostepping thru wormholes and slipgates as glass contortionist. future ghosts looming in red silhouettes. shapeless forms ticking down toward birth. a remote viewer orbiting above a shrinking planet. a killing field itinerary. liquid gold warping into sinister geometries as you try to claw sand back into a broken hourglass

so thoroughly enveloping as to be transportive; the exit back to common sensation being as disorienting as the ominous entrance. delayed anxiety and nausea upon release from cruel hypnosis. rewriting neural pathways with everything you don't want in your brain

long live the new flesh

Played this game back when it launched initially on PS4 and loved it, but over the years I've come to develop some retroactive opinions on it that soured it in my mind. A friend recently gifted me the game for PC however so I decided to take the time to re-assess how I feel about it and I came out of it pleasantly surprised. Here's a hodgepodge of my feelings towards the game split into positive, neutral, and negative sections.
+ Still arguably the best story RGG has ever written, everything's so well thought out and the mystery that's built and slowly unraveled is intensely interesting at all times. Nothing that is mentioned is forgotten and everything ties up really neatly by the end.
+ The final long battle and final boss segment is one of the best in the series, the stakes feel incredibly high for Yagami and the stormy setting fits the tone perfectly. I'm also a fan of the little story bit in the middle since it brings the plot back around from Yagami's start, but I know that part's a bit divisive.
+ The English voice cast is amazing and I struggle to think of any particularly bad line reads. The main characters have great chemistry and the VAs definitely seemed like they enjoyed themselves while recording. Yagami, Kaito, and Sugiura are standout performances but I also loved Ayabe and Saori too. All of the antagonists also do an incredible job at being conniving and downright evil at times.
+ The theme of the importance of friends and allies really shines, even with 7 directly following it and using a similar theme. Building up your reputation through both the story and side content really makes Kamurocho feel like it's important to Yagami and vice versa. Scenes like the one after the amour fight or the Golden Mouse side case are great examples of that.
+ The SP and money grind weren't nearly as bad as I remembered, if you're using growth extracts during the story you'll get tons of SP and only need to chug a dozen or so of the expensive hug bombs to top off the required SP.
+ The OST is insanely good from beginning to end, better than most games in the series. Standouts include Destination, Alpha, and It's Showtime, but I'd say every track is really good at worst.

= The combat isn't as frustrating as I remembered but your options are more limited than I remembered, there aren't a lot of heat actions and comboing is limited due to the lack of any useful juggle setups without the use of EX mode and style switching being incredibly slow. Wall grabs are also incredibly overpowered and it feels like you're meant to rely on them waaaaay too much.
= Extracts are cool but their use is still pretty limited, I wish there was more variety and the materials for making them were both less rare and less frustrating to get while also letting you hold more.
= The story pacing is very inconsistent, the first half of the game is glacial in pace (most notably chapters 1, 2, and 3) while the second half is in constant "go-mode", which is when it's at its best.

- Street fights are fucking incessant and never end and the extract to get rid of them is too costly to craft constantly. To add to that, the Keihin Gang system is awful and doesn't add to the game at all. It needed a toggle once you completed a certain side case so you aren't forced to engage in it.
- Damage output is incredibly inconsistent and unbalanced. Having no damage ups in the early game was fine but midgame I needed at least one for a few notable battles. This lead to a certain mid-late game boss getting decimated while the buildup to him was an actual challenge. Late game I decided to max out my damage for Amon and proceeded to crush the final boss. Most Dragon Engine games have this issue, having damage ups as an upgrade is never good.
- Side content sucks in general, the selection of minigames is incredibly weak, uninteresting, and unrewarding. The side cases don't fare much better, I'd argue 3/4 of the side cases are forgettable at best and downright boring at worst. There are a handful of standouts but I'd say they don't outweight the bad ones.
- Yagami's characterization in the side content is incredibly inconsistent. They sometimes just decide he's a perverted creep for no reason and act like it's a funny joke, then you play the story or do another activity and he's nothing like that. The girlfriend system also sucks and none of the women are written in an interesting way, plus it feels creepy for 39 year old Yagami to be dating a 19 year old.
- Some incredibly important skills are unlocked waaaaaay too late, with chapter 5 and 6 being the main point for a lot of them with the requirement of Quickstarter. I shouldn't need to go through almost half the game to be able to increase my Heat Gain or get Re-Guard, and I can't imagine how frustrated I'd be if I missed getting Double Quickstep since if you miss it in chapter 1, you can't get it until chapter 5.
- Tailing is downright miserable and used far too much. I don't think a single tailing mission is fun despite the fact you do more or less at least one per chapter in the story alone. The one you do in chapter 12 is a desperately miserable example of the mechanic at its worst, with the tailing mission lasting nearly ten whole minutes.
- The Amon fight is terrible due to inconsistency. His gimmicks are neat but he's either a brick wall that's a frustrating ordeal to even get to phase two or he decides to be incredibly docile and you can nuke his ass from orbit in seconds. The reward for beating him also isn't worth it since you can easily get ¥1,000,000 from a single good King Koro-Nyan in VR.
- Too many enemies have too many stun attacks. Some bosses can decide to stunlock you by repeating them over and over and you can't even block them with Re-Guard once you've been hit by the first one. Some of the Keihin Gang members and the final boss are notable examples of this.
- The completion process is downright terrible. KamuroGO formats store completion TERRIBLY and makes it annoying to keep track of every location. I desperately wish it was an alphabetized list instead of a grid, but it's at least separated between restaurant and minigames. City completion is even worse, with garbage requirements like "Defeat 1000 enemies with each style", "Play 300 minigames", "Destroy 1000 objects in battle", and "Use EX Actions 300 times". I love 100%ing this series but I genuinely did not enjoy 100%ing this game both times I've done it.

All-in-all, Judgment is really damn good. I think the game's a must play for the sake of the story alone and it stands as a really solid entry in the series, but the side content isn't something worth bothering with aside from a handful of decent side cases. Definitely a solid entry in the series but I'd struggle to find where I'd place it in order from best to worst.

With this being a sequel that released only one year after the first one, it makes sense it's basically just more of the same. That's not a bad thing because Jumping Flash! was fun, however the wow factor the first one had with it being one of the first 3D platformers goes away here, especially since Mario 64 came out two months after this and was something completely different. That's not to say everything in the game is the exact same.

There's now a jump meter that let's the player know how high they are into their jump and makes triple jumps easier to perform. There's now voice acting in the levels itself whenever you collect items. It's alright, it kinda makes the levels less atmospheric compared to the first one but it's cheesy fun. The cutscenes are also more abundant and definitely more entertaining so that was cool.

I think I do like the first one a bit more because the OST also wasn't as good in this one and it's just not as impactful since it's basically more of the same besides some additions. Either way though, just like the first one it's a fun time!

Also, this may be the last game I play this year. Probably not as I'd like to fit one more game in, but if this is it, it ended on a good note at least

All the way back in 2017 on Christmas, I got an SNES classic. I already owned an actual SNES before that, but I figured since they were big that year and it had a buncha game I did not own, a classic would be a fun gift to ask for Christmas. One of the games on there was Mega man X. Before this, I had only played both Mega man 1 and 2 that same year but didn't really enjoy them. So, while I did play a bit of the first stage in X, I didn't really give it much of a chance and quit. Fast forward to 2021, and I decide to actually go back and beat the game. I do so and enjoy it but thought it was just good overall but not great. However, last year I decided to do a classic Mega man marathon which then turned into a Mega man X marathon. I of course wanted to replay X1 before going into the other games, and what do ya know, I ended up loving it. I figured since I played it two years in a row, why not make it a tradition and go for a third year. So, I indeed did fit in one more game this year, and luckily it ended off with a bang.

If I'm gonna be really upfront, the number one reason I love this game is it's OST. It's the difference between giving the game a 7 or 8, it's that damn good. Every single song is a banger, which I can't say for any of the other X games personally. Some of my absolute favorite songs are Sting Chameleon's stage theme, Boomer Kuwanger's stage theme, Spark Mandrill's stage theme, the opening stage theme, the password screen and more. It's all just so masterful, can never get enough of it.

Another reason this one is my favorite is probably the level design. Besides X4 which has some of the best level design in the series too, none of the other X game's I played were as solid in that department, I think. The addition of levels changing based on the player defeating certain Mavericks was very awesome..and the backtracking in this game is way more manageable compared to future games (I'm looking at you X3). Also, I initially did like this more than any classic game and while I still do, a big reason for that is having a dash just makes the X series way more fun I think. This is the one that introduced that mechanic obviously, so I definitely have to praise it for that.

I gotta say as well, the X series on the SNES specifically looks amazing visually. It may have some of my favorite pixel art in any game, it's so visually appealing.

I was originally gonna give this a 10 because I do love this game a lot...but going through it again I did forget how bleh those Sigma stages can be. Apparently in my last playthrough I had no problem with them but this time around, I did notice how shitty they could be. Definitely the worst part of the game and a downgrade from the regular levels but at least the final fight is good.

This was fun to replay as it always is. Maybe the next time I replay it, I'll feel like bumping it up to a 10? Who knows, either way..I'm posting this on New Year's Eve and won't have another review out until after the New Year so I want to wish all my followers and anyone who sees this a very happy New Year. I also want to thank everyone that supported me this year. My account grew an absolutely insane amount these past couple months specifically... and I still just can't believe it! Thank you all so much, I love you guys! I hope everyone that sees this has an amazing 2024, keep on gaming gamers and decrease that backlog!