Persona 3 Reload is a game that I was super excited to play the moment that it was announced, even though I only played P3P for the first time last year. The worst part of the original, to me at least, was the combat. P3R fixes this by pulling from all of the best aspects of P5R and putting those aspects into this game. I am of the belief that, in terms of the vanilla story, Persona 3 has the strongest, so now that I feel it has the strongest story and comparable combat to P5R, I think that P3R comes close to being the best game in the franchise.

In terms of what this Persona games best, there are a couple of things. I think that the main narrative and the way that it weaves all of your other party members in works better than the other Persona games that I have played. It made me more invested in the stories of all of the SEES members. Another thing about the game that was particularly strong was the voice acting. A big reason I feel this way may be due to the fact that a majority of the game, including all of the social links, are voice acted. This made some of the characters, especially Yuko's, stand out much more to me than when I played P3P. Really all of the voice acting in the game with all of the new cast was great. I also enjoyed the little easter eggs with a majority of the original cast of P3 and even some of P5 making little appearances. The update combat is nice as well, with it being more streamlined than ever making the long Tartarus grinds feel less tedious than before. The addition of Theurgy is pretty cool too, with it being super fun and overpowered at times in the game.

Another that P3R does exceptionally well, like all of the Persona games, is the music. The soundtrack for P3 was already great, but with several new tracks and remixes of almost all of the old ones it may be the best music the franchise has to offer. The new night time theme Color Your Night, new Iwatodai Dorm theme, new battle theme It's Going Down Now, and new opening Full Moon Full Life are all some of my favorite songs in all the Persona games. The only song that I didn't enjoy as much as the original was Mass Destruction, but by the end of the game due to all of the upgrades you can get it was rare to hear this one over It's Going Down Now since that was the song when you went into a fight with an advantage.

Though a lot of little things were changed in the game, I would argue that this is about as faithful as it gets when it comes to a remake. They did make a lot of things easier to do and added some elements from other games to make this the definitive version, but the story and social links remain mostly unchanged. I did like that we were given time to spend with the male SEES members, which was previously only an option when playing as the FEMC in P3P. Another small change that was made that I enjoyed some was the visual changes to Tartarus. This wasn't a huge change even if it did help the tedious grind just a little bit. I did expect them to change a little more, but it didn't make the game any worse by not making any major changes.

The lack of change didn't hurt, but after replaying P5R last year it does kind of make some of the original lows of the game stick out a little more. Some examples of this are some of the lulls in the story, particularly when the characters were on break. There wasn't enough social links available to do in those breaks when the game wasn't forcing you to watch your character do something like go to a track meet. Also towards the end of the game the night time segments are still lackluster with all of the night social links maxed out and no more stats to raise. Lastly, though I love the story, it does take a little bit to really get interesting. The first half of the game is just a lot of grinding your way up Tartarus and doing social links, but once you have all of the SEES members it really picks up.

Overall, Persona 3 Reload is the best way to play Persona 3. It does so much right and has just enough changed to feel like a more modern game while till staying incredibly faithful to the original. The story, combat, voice acting, music and just about every other aspect of the game is as good as it gets. I love Persona 3 Reload and I feel it is as close as you can get to the quality of Persona 5 Royal without making any drastic changes. The game is a masterpiece.

Super Mario RPG is a game that I have wanted to play for a very long time so its needless to say that I was excited when a remake was announced for it. I got the game the day it came out, though it took me a little while to actually get to it. The combat was exactly what I was expecting, which isn't a bad thing, and the story was short and sweet. The writing had tons of jokes that landed for the most part. I can see how this inspired the Paper Mario Series. I wouldn't have minded if the game had a little more in terms of how characters could be built, but that doesn't bother me too much since, from what I understand, this is a pretty faithful remake. I'm glad I finally got to play Super Mario RPG, and I really appreciate the amount of effort that went into this game as a remake.

Baldur's Gate 3 is the first CRPG that i have ever finished, and unfortunately it is so good that I will likely never play another game in the genre that will live up to it. The quality of this game should be the standard going forward for RPGs, if not just all games in general. Imagine the reception of Cyberpunk had it had the amount of care put into it that BG3 has. Another game that comes to mind that I wont be completing any time soon because of how disappointing it was, even more so now that I'm comparing it to this game, is Starfield. I was disappointed before that with that game and now I'm even more disappointed.

Enough about other games, what make Baldur's Gate 3 so great? Well for starters, no two playthroughs are alike. When talking to friends about certain parts of the game they usually are surprised because they may have done something a completely different way than i did. There are so many choices in this game that lead to so many different outcomes, it is insane. This wouldn't have worked as well without the game's outstanding writing. It is so well written that there can be dozens of story lines that weave in and out with each other depending on the decisions that you make and they all work. It is amazing. The closest thing I have experience to this is in the Mass Effect series, which was made by the company that made the first two Baldur's Gate games.

Another aspect of the game that is great, mostly in part due the writing again, is the characters. All of the companion characters have complex and compelling back stories that make you care deeply for them (or despise them in some cases). There was one decision at the end of the game that I had to make that would drastically alter the outcome of one of my favorite characters and I literally took ten minutes trying to decide what I wanted to do. There are big decisions that are made with all of the party members that drastically change both their story, as well as the game's story as a whole, that makes this game just that much more compelling. The side characters in the game are just as good as the party members as well. They also have their moments to shine in the game.

Next I want to talk about some of the villains of the game. Most of them are worth of being the main antagonist of a single game, but we get many different ones in BG3. One in particular is Raphael, who can either be one of the main antagonist or even just kind of a side antagonist depending on how you play the game. I almost didn't do the missions that involved him because I was trying to avoid upsetting some certain character's, but I sure am glad that I did. The missions that lead up to his boss fight was so enjoyable, and the boss fight was even better (largely due to the fantastic music). I wont spoil anything about it, but I just wanted to be known that I loved that portion of the game.

I guess I have to find some sort of gripe with the game, which there is, though they aren't changing my opinion of the game as a whole. Almost all of my issues come in Act III of the game. I think this part of the game is the best part even if it has the most issues. There were more visual bugs, the fights didn't run as smooth, and the final boss kind of felt like a step down when compared to the ones leading up to it. That being said, Act III is just as long as the first two combined so if those are my only gripes with it I'd argue that its still great.

Baldur's Gate 3 is one of those generational games that I feel like everyone should give a shot. It can be played in so many different way that it should give everyone something to like about it. It has a great story, great characters, great music, really great everything. I might nitpick Act III a bit, but honestly that doesn't just keep Baldur's Gate 3 from being one of the best games of 2023, but one of the best games of all time.

Back in Junior High, I had this duo of friends who would not stop talking about Dark Souls whenever we were at our table at lunch. Dark Souls 2 had just come out and they were obsessed with it. This is the first time I ever even heard of Dark Souls, and with them always nerding out about it, it did intrigue me a bit. Fast forward to March 2017, I had just gotten a PS4 a couple months prior and I was itching to get into all these types of games I never did before. On a whim I decided to pickup both Dark Souls III and Bloodborne. Boy was that timing perfect, because the next day it snowed big time and it wouldn't let up for like an entire week so I was playing Dark Souls III nonstop. A couple weeks later I then moved on to Bloodborne. I love Dark Souls III, as you know from my reviews of that, but Bloodborne especially really captivated me. I ended up beating it months later during my thanksgiving break I think (sadly getting the bad ending and missing out on the final boss) and thought it was really great. Fast forward again to like March 2019 I think? I on a whim felt like playing Bloodborne again. I really sucked at first, struggling immensely with Gascoigne, but once I got the hang of it again, I honestly had an absolute blast and knew it would be one of my favorite games ever. The platinum and several playthroughs later, here we are and yeah it's back in my top 5 again.

The very first thing the drew me into the game, and I honestly think it's hands down the best aspect, is the Gothic-Horror Lovecraftian aesthetic and the art design as a whole. It's my absolute favorite aesthetic in any game next to Automata's post-apocalyptic world. That's like one of the main reason's I rate this game so highly tbh, it carry's so hard imo. From Central Yharnam, to Cathedral Ward and even something like Nightmare Frontier, I don't dislike any area's aesthetic. Cainhurst is the absolute highlight, just exploring a creepy gothic castle while it's snowing outside...hoo baby. Like even something like Byrgenwerth, which is absolutely tiny, is an area I like going to everytime because of the seaside aesthetics. Plus it's really lore important which is rad.

Speaking of lore and the story of the game, it's the absolute best in the Soulsborne series imo. It just makes the whole world feel so alive, first starting off with basic stuff like the hunt and then eventually delving into cosmic horror by the end. I was never too into Dark Souls lore ever but this game? Yeah I'm totally into it, the horror aspect just intrigues me way more.

Next in the combat and yeah it's a total blast. Instead of hiding behind a shield like in Dark Souls, you're totally defenseless and can only rely on your dodging skills. That may seem like it's tougher, and yeah it is but it rewards you for being super aggressive. The rally system allows you to get some HP back for a short time after being hit which means you can be more risky when fighting enemies. I just find this combat system way more fun than the souls games personally and is another reason why this is my favorite. To go along with the combat, you of course have the weapons. Unlike the souls games, Bloodborne has a much smaller batch of them but I think that's much in the games favor. Every weapon is viable and every weapon is memorable. That paired with the transformation mechanic, where if you press L1 you essentially have two weapons in one, just make these weapons the best ever imo. I usually use the kirk hammer, then Ludwig's Holy Blade and then maybe I switch it out for one of the DLC's weapons and yeah this playthrough was no different.

As I said, I really love the look of every area and that's not all, the actual areas are quite good for the most part. The beginning areas like Central Yharnam or Cathedral Ward are simply some of the best level-design wish because they're so interconnected with other areas. It's not quite Dark Souls 1 level of interconnectivity but it's really a nice change from something like Dark Souls 2 or even 3. By the end it does get more linear, but since the first half is well connected, I didn't have much of an issue with it. I think one of the most memorable moments is when you're all the way into the forbidden woods. You find this path down into a poison cave, you climb up a ladder and you end up at the very beginning of
central yharnam. You unlock the first gate you ever see when playing and I just think that's so cool. The game has several moments like this, like Yahar'Gul connecting to Old Yarhnam after you defeat Darkbeast Paarl, but no moment will be as good as the aformentioned Forbidden Woods interconnectivity.

Now on to the bosses, I think they're generally pretty great. Early game definitely has the more consistently good bosses, tho endgame definitely has some bangers like Gehrman and Martyr Logarius. The mid to end game definitely does have some not great bosses gameplay-wise, but some of them do have other aspects that make me not hate them. Witches of Hemwick is pathetically easy but the especially creepy atmosphere and semi-interesting way to defeat her, I really enjoyed. Plus she had one of my favorite songs in the game. Rom is somewhat annoying but at least has a beautiful area to fight her in. The one reborn is really easy too but I like the callback to Tower Knight. Celestial Emissary is um, yeah I can't really defend this one but it sure is a goofy boss. Micolash was probably my least favorite in the game before, and even tho I had a much better time with him this time, he still isn't great. What really makes up for it tho is he has hands down my favorite dialogue in the game, god it's so entertaining and goddamn whoever voiced him is amazing. The rest of the bosses I either like or love, and again even some of these I do like because of certain other aspects. I know a lot of the bosses aren't perfect but I'm surprised I never outright hated any of them, can't say the same for something like Bed of Chaos or Dragon God lole.

Don't really have much to say about the OST besides the fact it's great like most other souls games. My favorite tracks were the aforementioned Witches of Hemwick theme, the Cleric Beast theme, Micolash's theme, the hunter's dream theme and Gehrman's theme. Those were definitely the standout songs.

My take on the Chalice dungeons are they're a nice distraction from the base game but I probably won't play them again on future replay's. I only dived into them on that playthrough in 2019, and while they were cool they do get tedious if you're going for them all. It is nice how they have unique bosses in them, but yeah not super keen on them. Tho I never hated them like other people and I don't think they detract from the game because it feels more like a side thing which I'm fine with.

Before I end of my review, I just wanted to list off a couple issues with the game. Blood vials are obviously a big point of contention for some people and yeah it is annoying how you might have to eventually grind them if you run out, I never really had an issue with this personally. It's really easy to get them naturally and there's a really good early grinding spot right next to the first lamp in the game lol. Speaking of lamps, I guess people find it annoying how you have to warp back to the Hunter's Dream every time and then warp to another place from there? I guess it's a minor convenience but it never bothered me ever. Now this being 30 FPS is definitely jarring when going from games like Dark Souls III or Sekiro (I know I was taken aback when I came back to this after DS3) and while it would be so awesome if a remaster came out (please no remake dear god) I again never had a major issue with it. People saying it makes the game unplayable, I don't get you lol.

Anywho, this was another long ass review from me but I just absolutely adore this game despite some small flaws. It just gets even better with the DLC which I also beat this time around. Look out for that review very soon!

My absolute favorite FromSoftware game, and the first I completed. I tried this when it originally came out, found it too challenging, and gave up. Years later, I picked it up again, determined to learn the Soulslike formula. I did, and absolutely loved it. The world of Bloodborne is so interesting, and the Gothic, dark fantasy vibes kept me wanting more of this universe. The bosses and enemies are amazing, the level design is immaculate, the music is incredible, the trick weapons are a lot of fun, and this game has one of the best DLCs ever made. 5/5. Would recommend.