Nanaya
2003
I was seriously impressed that Ubisoft of all companies managed to make something this good once upon a time. BGE has a surprisingly great soundtrack, fun gameplay, smooth setpieces, likable characters, well-written dialogue, and a compelling story. Collecting pearls is enjoyable, especially since they provide substantial upgrades, are frequently necessary for progression, and rarely require going through repeated or uninteresting content. Taking pictures of animals is also fun since the creatures are pretty unique and it gives you pearls. The combat is simple and most of the game is pretty easy to breeze through but killing enemies feels good enough to make up for the lack of difficulty. The stealth sections require more thought and balance out the braindead nature of the combat. The game has a nice enough artstyle for a gamecube game and the atmosphere of the world when traveling was wonderful. There were some frequent audio bugs where voice lines would overlap or cut each other off. The only other issues would be the game not really telling you that you need to get a flight stabilizer before the domz would attack the lighthouse, the last phase of the final boss being a big pain in the butt, a tad too many stealth sections, and the game ending on a cliffhanger that probably won't be resolved any time soon.
Generally a good sequel but also disappointing in several ways. While the narration of the action scenes still isn't up to snuff, S is far less reliant on fights in general and the ones that are there have a lot more visual flare to make them more exciting. S adds a lot of new characters and while they're all pretty fun in their own ways, only the select few who got their own routes got much time to shine. I enjoyed the new routes, particularly Kokoro's, but the routes in S typically spend too much time on H-scenes and not enough on building up an impactful story so I ended up preferring the first game. I also just generally prefer spending time with the Kazama family and they really took a backseat in this one. I appreciate them adding a route for Koyuki but making it a retcon of the past feels like a real cop-out. I realize it's a lot of complaining but the eccentric fun of Majikoi is still certainly present throughout the game so it was still a real fun time.
2003
This review contains spoilers
Horror B-movie schlock made to appeal to teenagers. Saya no Uta has an interesting premise, and at the very least it made me want to play to the end and find out what happens, but the writing is subpar, the short length leaves no chance to get attached, and the main characters are completely impossible to feel sympathy for. The most interesting part of the story, Saya's background and the science behind her, is relegated to a very small 5 minute section so they could make more room for sex. The awkward sex scenes are very clearly just there to sell the game to coomers who equate their lust for saya with quality. Frankly the best part was Koji beating Fuminori with a steel pipe and Ryoko blasting Saya with a 12 gauge Resident Evil-style.
2021
Excellent new metroid and probably my favorite in the series, definitely my favorite 2D one at least. Solid classic gameplay with a very satisfying parry mechanic, fun new bosses and great level design. It looks surprisingly good for a 2.5D switch game as well. The story isn't anything noteworthy but the cutscenes are really cool and do an excellent job with their portrayal of Samus. The EMMI fights are tense but end up feeling pretty same-y since their gimmicks don't really do a good job of distinguishing them from each other. The progression is very linear but I prefer that guidance since I hardly ever replay games and I'd rather not spend hours wandering aimlessly looking for a new path. I will say it did dull the sense of exploration a bit but not really enough to hamper my experience. Also I really liked the surprisingly fast rate at which you gain new abilities which really reinforced the sense of progression.
Pretty standard gacha. The girls are cute and the lively konosuba atmosphere is fun but the writing isn't nearly as enjoyable as it is in the anime and the limited roster takes away the joy of collecting that other gachas have. I like the new pink idol though.
2020
Its more puyo puyo tetris. I'm glad to have a way to play cute girl tetris on PC and Marle is a cute new addition to the cast, but the story sucks so it kind of is just a way to play tetris for me. There's a few cute lines and voice deliveries thrown in there but the actual writing has the simplicity of a fighting game story and the way everyone forgot about the first game just so they can waste time re-introducing all the characters is really annoying. Also I suck at puyo puyo.
1995
A very short, pretty cool rail shooter. The 3D saturn graphics have a neat look to them and the stages are atmospheric. The soundtrack is also pretty good but it can be hard to hear over all the shooting. The story is simple and not very interesting and the intro cutscene goes on for too long but the dragon and rider designs are neat. The gameplay is pretty standard fare for a rail shooter, though it's cool that you can rotate 360 degrees at all times. I'm never a fan of movement being tied to aim but it's only really an issue in the tighter spaces. I don't really have a problem with the length since I didn't pay for it but I do feel they ramped up the difficulty to compensate for it and that can get annoying.
2004
Best in the series so far. The levels are smoother and more fun than in 1 and 2, there's more boss variety, the cyber elves being split into options and usable items makes them much more interesting, and you actually get some nice upgrades like the double jump and auto-charge. Story still isn't really worth caring about but it was fine. The new tonfa weapon is kind of lame since it doesn't really act differently from the z-saber besides pushing enemies back at the cost of less speed and range. Also the ability to finally skip cutscenes is VERY much appreciated.
1999
Really cute game. I love the artstyle and the animated cutscenes and the premise is great too. However, while the gameplay is decent unfortunately after about 5 matches I was already tired of it since the matches felt too same-y. Not being able to understand the story in japanese didn't help either.
Great visuals and soundtrack with some fairly emotional post-boss cutscenes and solid metroidvania action. The spirit customization is pretty fun and it's cool having some small context behind all the weapons you get but aside from that the game brings very little novelty to the table. Starting with the catacombs the difficulty really ramps up and aside from a few annoying rooms here and there it's not too bad until the verboten domain takes it to obnoxious territory. I do not enjoy every enemy taking off more than half my HP per hit or being one-shot by a boss if I don't play perfectly. I could've done a lot of grinding to try and balance the damage out but the mobs were annoying to fight so I really didn't want to and it made me wonder why the game even has levels in the first place. But hey, overall nice game.
2001
Killer atmosphere, fun action-packed gameplay, great dialogue, what more could you ask for? Well I guess the nightmare platforming sections can be pretty annoying and it does feel like the game expects you to quicksave every 10 seconds but overall it's not that much of a hassle.
This review contains spoilers
Between this and Beyond Good & Evil I'm starting to see why people cared about Ubisoft back in the day. PoP has really satisfying platforming that feels like a more advanced version of the modern Uncharted/Tomb Raider climbing with some additional parkour elements like wall running and jumping. The ability to rewind several seconds of time really helps to negate any frustration as a result of missed jumps or control mishaps as well. The combat is solid too though it can be a bit repetitive. The enemy types requiring a combination of vault and wall attacks, as well as the time dagger which can reduce the hectic nature of the tougher fights by freezing the more dangerous enemies but at the cost of sand which can only be taken from defeated enemies creates a fun, balanced combat system that allows for stylish and intense battles sometimes. Plus when you get the last sword and just start decimating enemies with single blows it feels great. The puzzles are fun to solve and never too difficult, though I did have trouble finding a safe way down after solving a few of them. The game is really well-paced as well. You never really find yourself doing any one area for too long but it doesn't feel rushed. The story is good enough, has a solid premise and setting. The dialogue is well-written and there are some nice cutscenes here and there. It actually manages to tell a pretty decent romance as well, though I would've liked if the prince and Farah had a few more conversations that weren't just bickering. Also the final boss was kind of lame, but I really liked the ending and how the whole story is framed as the prince telling Farah about their journey after the fact.
One of the best artstyles in the industry, a wide variety of cool and unique characters, and of course super satisfying fighting. The tutorial also has a lot of work put into it that I really appreciate even if I knew a lot of it already. I also really love all the work put into characters intro/victory screens and instakills. Arcade mode is pretty much what you expect but MOM mode is a bit too complicated for me. The lobby system is really cute as well. My only standout issue with Xrd is that some of the voices are annoying for me like May and Jam's. Jam's voice in particular pretty much makes her unplayable for me. Rollback would be nice.
Pleasantly surprising VN from everyone's friend ryukishi. I was weary of starting this one because I'm generally tired of the cartoonishly evil nature of japanese bullying stories but the yokai aspect of Higanbana makes the stories much more interesting. It also helps that, unlike ryukishi's other VNs, Higanbana is a relatively compact anthology of short stories instead of an 80 hour mystery so the pacing is quick and no topic overstays its welcome like in RGD. Of course while this does have its pros, it also has it's cons like having few characters to get attached to over a long period of time and the stories themselves being of varying quality. While some of the stories are weaker than others, I wouldn't say any of them are really bad (though the needlessly grotesque one with the rabbits comes close) and the best ones are pretty good. It definitely doesn't reach the heights of ryukishi's other works, even Ciconia, but its unique structure and solid pacing make it an enjoyable read in its own right.
2019
The story is standard fighting game fare in that it's a mess that constantly jumps around all over the place with little to no context. Cutscenes are all 10 seconds long or less and characters fight over absolutely trivial things. The fights are also all only 1 round each and super easy. Honestly I would've preferred if they dropped the silly Raidou plot and just stuck with having goofy character interactions throughout the tournament. The gameplay is fun and the girls are cute but sadly the content is lacking. Even the costumes are irritating to unlock considering you can only get them RANDOMLY while playing the lackluster DOA quest mode. While it's still a decent fighting game, the 3DS game was better at providing a complete quality product.