I know the original Resi 4 was considered a game-changer back in the day and caused a storm among anyone with even a passing interest in survival horror, but I wasn't one to heap praise on to it. I did like it, it was a solid 8 outta 10 for me, but its kitchen sink approach to storytelling and tonal whiplash really worked against it for me. It was a game that wanted to be a legit horror experience and a batshit Looney Tunes cartoon at the same time, and that didn't sit right with me. I came for the gameplay, but I sure as hell didn't stay for all the nonsense surrounding it.

This remake goes some way to legitimising Resident Evil 4's core story. While the goofiness remains in places, it manages to be a lot more cohesive in tone. The acting performances across the board are far stronger (with one notable exception), and there are some moments of genuine pathos to be found; a rarity in a franchise that often demands to be taken seriously, but is far easier to laugh at. The adrenaline-pumping second fight against Krauser, the uneasy bromance between Leon and Luis, the mutual respect that Leon and Ashley gradually find for each other - it's all unequivocally improved here. The horror works better, the comedy works better, and the silly absurdities that remain are easier to forgive.

In terms of pure gameplay, it's hard to think of a survival horror that plays better. The original was no slouch in this department, but the remake manages to take everything that worked before and refine it to perfection. Tackling the hordes of enemies that swamp Leon from all directions, the strangely addictive inventory management mini-game that is Leon's suitcase, the shooting gallery that showcases just how fundamentally satisfying the controls are... REmake 4 really is a joy to play from start to finish.

If I have any qualms, it's that Ada and Leon don't have near the same kind of chemistry in this that they had in REmake 2. How much of that is specifically down to the much-maligned acting performance of Ada's new actress I don't know. Maybe she received bad direction during recording. Maybe the devs missed an opportunity to flesh out her character more this time around. I get that Ada Wong is meant to be a morally-dubious ice queen, but all her lines are delivered with a wooden, almost lifeless quality. It's a shame, because the interplay between Leon and Ada was an undeniable highlight of REmake 2, and I would've liked to see that built upon. Also, the merchant never shuts up. He just keeps on prattling on, and by the second half of the game I had enough of hearing him repeat the same lines over and over again.

Those are mere nit-picks though. If REmake 4 doesn't quite represent the high-water mark of the entire franchise (that honour is still bestowed upon REmake 2), then it comes incredibly close at least.

I’ll readily admit I’m biased when it comes to Persona 3. FES is a game I hold very dearly, still remember first playing it a decade ago now and having no idea about Atlus games at the time. In a way it was even transformative for me in how much it helped grow my interest for anime/JRPGs in general, and one of the rare few games I feel leaves an emotional impact. So Persona 3 Reload, a genuine from the ground up remake for it and not just a basic port (like Portable’s recent release), is like a dream game I didn’t think we’d ever actually get until it was really announced last year. It’s not perfect of course, but the nostalgia and how strongly it still hit me is the same as ever

What it does well

- The most immediately striking improvement from the PS2 original is the presentation overhaul to Persona 5’s standards, bringing with it full scale character models with the very stylish art and UI that made P5 so dazzling. Here P3’s aesthetics have been beautifully updated and the menus are especially immaculate, never getting tiring to look at and browse through. While it can be argued the original’s moody atmosphere is diminished a bit with the new vibrant style, it still wholly fits the game’s somber tone to me

- A big change with Reload that I appreciated actually has to do with the English voice acting, as compared to FES and Portable there’s been an entire recast for the characters (barring one exception with Elizabeth). It’s fair to be apprehensive over this after being used to the original voices for so long, but I felt Reload’s cast did a fantastic job bringing new life to the characters and really making them their own. I’d even go so far as to say this is one of the best dubs Atlus has done, as not only are pretty much all the performances consistently excellent, this is also the first Persona game where every single side character and their Social Link events are fully voice acted! Something that really made a huge difference in how invested I’ve always been on spending time with them. It’s an impressive effort and I hope that’ll be the case for future Atlus games also

- As far as story goes, it’s faithful to the original with the major beats being unchanged, but there’s many new scenes added with better opportunities to bond with the characters now. The dorm feels more like a true home in Reload where you can just hang out and it helps attach you to them in a way that wasn’t quite as fleshed out before. A big omission in FES (the lack of any Social Links for male party members) was also addressed with Link Episodes, which are similar in that it gives them further development but instead ties their events to the story as you progress. They’re not quite the same as full Social Links like with Portable, but it’s a very appreciated change that felt natural and added a lot to their growth

- Tartarus has always been a divisive like it or hate it kind of thing with P3, and it’s more or less the same dungeon with literally over 200 generated floors to climb in Reload. That said it’s been improved with much larger scaled floors and QoL additions, it looks a lot better design wise, and they did add some nice improvements that made it less of a bore to get through like Monad doors (challenges to fight stronger enemies throughout). Combat now also takes directly from P5’s battle system and is basically identical, which gets no complaints from me. There’s party control with new mechanics like Shift (similar to Baton Pass) and Theurgy, it’s really stylish, and it’s much breezier to fight shadows and fly through floors than before which is pretty much all I wanted there. Merciless difficulty was pretty fun too, not very hard but not a joke either which is better than how they had it for P5 Royal, would recommend trying it if used to the combat in these games

- The music is fairly different having been fully remixed with Lotus Juice and a new singer Azumi Takahashi doing vocals, while also adding some original tracks as well. I’ve seen mixed opinions about the OST changes, but personally I got used to it quickly and still think it’s an incredible soundtrack. The new songs “Full Moon, Full Life”, “It’s Going Down Now” and “Color Your Night” are easily among my favorites in the series now too

What could be better

- Obviously Atlus made it clear with Reload they were only focused on remaking P3’s main game with the male protagonist, which means it doesn’t include both The Answer (an expanded epilogue introduced in FES) and the extensive route for the female protagonist that Portable introduced. It does still include smaller additions from both those versions such as Aigis’s Social Link or missing persons to save in Tartarus, but I can understand why people are let down by the major exclusions especially for the price, as without them you might as well say P3 still doesn’t have a true edition that brings all its content together. However as of now The Answer’s currently rumored to be made for Reload as DLC at a later date, so have to see how that pans out I suppose

- While I adore the presentation, there are a few odd quirks to its visuals. Most areas look nice and it even supports 4K/60 with ray tracing on PS5 which was a surprise to say the least, but some areas look sorta… off. Either with its strangely flat lighting (the dorm being an example) or being static to the point of seeming unintentional honestly (calling out Club Escapade in particular). Perhaps it’s due to budget or just cause it’s using Unreal Engine instead of P5’s proprietary one, but feel there could’ve been a bit more polish there

- I’m a bit mixed on cutscenes compared to FES. As rough as they were, the anime scenes did have a very cool grungy 2000s direction to them that made up for the graphics at the time. Instead Reload uses both new anime and in-engine cutscenes throughout similar to P5, which for the most part are fine (I actually like the in-engine ones quite a bit with how nice the 3D visuals are now), but the quality of the anime scenes take a hit in my opinion, more up to date with them being done by Wit Studio but also looking kinda bland in comparison. How they decided between one or the other for story moments is inconsistent also, why is the awakening scene done in-engine and not as anime for instance

- For Social Links the writing is one thing I wish was touched up on more. There’s some notable differences here and there (and thankfully made it so you aren’t forced to romance every girl to complete them), but overall it’s mostly the same and you can easily tell they’re the earliest iteration on the formula with the weaker Social Links still sticking out (Kenji for one). But as mentioned the voice acting elevates them nonetheless, and I still love particular ones like Akinari’s

- You’ll easily max out your social stats and unlock all the extra skills for party members with plenty of time to spare, which means you’ll probably be lost on stuff to do at night in the late months with still only 2 social links available the whole game. There’s a new computer with software to use, but eventually you’ll make full use of that also which basically just leaves Tartarus or stat building for Personas at the arcade. This was an issue with the other versions too and was hoping they would try to adjust it, but guess not

Overall

Some aspects could’ve been improved upon further overall, but really couldn’t be happier this remake was made. As someone who’s played FES, Portable, and watched all the movies (even owning the box set lol), Reload genuinely felt like I was able to experience P3 for the first time again. It doesn’t try to change the original experience at its core and can be said it’s faithful to a fault, but it still develops into a story that remains the most emotionally resonant among the Persona games for me. Where it succeeds is how well it carries over that story to current standards for both new and old fans, doing just enough to expand on it and modernize the gameplay while maintaining why it’s so beloved. Even knowing how it comes together after all these years I was still greatly affected, and given that it remains one of the most meaningful I’ve played

Ubisoft’s best game in years! I had hopes I’d enjoy it a lot given this is by the team that made the exceptional Rayman Legends (a decade ago now oof), but this managed to surpass expectations even and as a Metroidvania it genuinely stands next to Hollow Knight and Ori as my favorites in the genre. Having fantastic combat and boss fights with strong focus on combos/parrying attacks, very fluid platforming controls and traversal powers with razor sharp challenges throughout, and great level design as you explore the large and varied map of Mount Qaf

There’s some minor gripes, had a few crashes and felt like the story it was telling was fine but nothing very noteworthy either aside for the characters just making for cool bosses. Also since backtracking could be frequent, I kinda wish fast travel was a bit less limited and let you move between save trees. But otherwise this was a joy to play and the 25 hours it took me to finish flew by (still have plenty leftover for 100% too)

With a renewed interest in big fantasy RPGs as of late (mainly cause of Baldur’s Gate 3 which I still need to finish admittedly), I got a craving for it and considered crawling back to playing Skyrim or Oblivion once again seeing as how there’s still little else like those until… Avowed I guess? Or just waiting for the next TES game 5+ years from now…

Somehow though I’ve only just recently heard about Enderal: Forgotten Stories, a free “full conversion mod” for Skyrim that’s actually considered a whole separate game you can download on Steam. Very curious, instead of replaying Skyrim for the 10th time I decided to give that a shot to see how it differs. Now that I’ve finished, to say I’m impressed by it is an understatement

The main thing to point out about Enderal is that calling it a mod is doing it a disservice honestly. While it of course plays the same as Skyrim and uses its assets, it is most definitely its own RPG and a dense one at that, set in a completely separate world to explore. It has its own unique world-building and lore, a main questline that’s actually pretty compelling and far more involved compared to Skyrim’s own, more fleshed out characters especially with the focus on two central companions throughout the story, has dozens of good side quests to do, and it has full voice acting with its own soundtrack. Needless to say for something that costs nothing aside for just owning Skyrim, I was immensely caught off guard by how extensive it really was. Almost like playing a TES game for the first time again, I got lost in it and have over 50 hours now with the story done but still plenty left to do and explore

There are criticisms to note though, for one as much as they try to rebalance its systems, if you didn’t care for Skyrim’s combat then this won’t really be much different. If anything I found the change to buying learning books for leveling skills instead of natural progression with use to be a bit too limiting after a while, though it did make money more useful and kept the game more challenging given there’s no level scaling. Quests can be prone to breaking also which is an issue for main ones especially, occasionally having to reload older saves to progress cause nothing would happen otherwise. And the voice acting, as varied as it is which was appreciated for something like this, ranges from pretty good to kinda amateurish most of the time. Though on the whole it’s hard to fault this given how huge of a game it is, and that it’s just using Bethesda’s engine which is inherently janky

So overall I think it’s a great game in its own right, but as a free fan project it’s a pretty amazing achievement, even going so far as to say it surpasses the game it’s taking from in most aspects. If anyone’s looking for something that revitalizes Skyrim’s style of adventure or just wants a new fantasy RPG to really sink into, then give this a try for sure

Man, this game just perfectly exemplifies how big the divide is between a 4 star score and a 4 ½ star score, because Lies of P is slap bang right in the middle. Too good for the former, but not quite hitting the heady heights that one would attribute to the latter. The quintessential 8.5 outta 10 if you will.

Lies of P takes heavy inspiration from From Software and the Soulslike genre that Miyazaki and co are recognised for creating. I say "inspiration," but really, that's just a polite way of saying that developer Neowiz have copied the Bloodborne formula wholesale, added a pinch of Sekiro, and used their own nonsensical retelling of Pinocchio as the main means of distinguishing their game from its forebearers. In terms of story, this dark fairytale aesthetic is some bobbins that can safely be glossed over from the onset. NPCs have several longwinded (and very one-sided) conversations with the titular 'P', often droning on long after the player's attention has drifted elsewhere. I was quite happy to ignore the narrative stuff for the most part. Where that aesthetic really comes into its own though is in the visuals and locations. Lies of P has a level of polish and fidelity scarcely seen in a From game. There's little of the technical inadequacies like Bloodborne's infamous frame-pacing issue blighting the experience here. The city of Krat is often handsome to behold, from the glossy and Art Deco-esque hub location to the atmospheric, Parisian cityscapes of the initial chapters. Without resorting to hyperbole, Lies of P could pass as a generation ahead of Elden Ring, but maybe that's not the most fair of comparisons. Point being, it looks pretty dang tight for a game of this genre.

But where the game truly shines is, unsurprisingly, in its core gameplay. As established, Lies of P is cribbing from a long-established formula, but we've seen other developers try and fail to capture that From magic before. Neowiz don't fall victim to being a pale imitator however, and have managed to replicate the much-adored Souls experience to a tee. It's a game that feels inherently satisfying to play on all levels. There's a myriad of different mechanics here, and they all feel good to use after sufficient time spent in the trenches, from the Fable Arts to the Legion Arms to the overall movement. The parrying system is less forgiving than the one found in Sekiro, and the player will quickly realise that spamming the block button isn't a fast track to victory, but put in the practice and learn the enemy combos and it becomes a very viable way of removing huge chunks from your opponent's health bar. It's a tough game, but it's fair (mostly), and in true Souls fashion, it's the boss fights are the undisputed highpoint, frequently straddling the line between exhilarating and stress-inducing and delivering that huge dopamine rush that only comes after toppling a big baddie and removing the barrier to progressing onwards.

It's enough to make you quickly forgive the fact that Lies of P barely has an original bone in its entire body. Rather, there's something oddly heart-warming about a studio, with an unproven track record and hailing from a country that's more known for its MMOs than strong single-player experiences, tackling a genre that's new to them and absolutely knocking it out of the park. South Korea's gaming industry appears to be an emerging international market at this particular point in time, and Lies of P gives me hope that Stellar Blade and Little Devil Inside (and hopefully more of their ilk) will deliver on the expectations set by their strong promotional material once they finally see the light of day.












But seriously though, Little Devil Inside is so cancelled.