Short Review: the fact that I abandoned this game for Dishonored 1 and had a blast, understanding what a real stealth game is supposed to be, should tell you everything about this game.

Long review: Man, this game... I really wanted to like the new Assassin's Creed. I stepped away from the series due to its lack of stealth, which was its core element (plus the incredibly poorly written plots). So, upon the announcement of Assassin's Creed: Mirage, a game focused on stealth rather than combat, I was genuinely excited. The lower price indicated an attempt to offer a smaller title to capture attention.

Unfortunately, yet again, I recalled why Ubisoft games often have some of the worst stories. Assassin's Creed: Mirage immerses you in a character's tale, and then... things happen. You end up killing people with no attachment, no real connection (neither hate nor compassion for them—they're the most two-dimensional cardboard villains ever). I'm tired of repeating this, but the FIRST GAME OF THE SERIES was superior in every aspect of story (and if you ask me, gameplay too).

Assassin's Creed made me intensely curious about its world, the unfolding in the second, the past, and more. However, this latest iteration is just dull. The first game made me recall the name of every person I assassinated, their backgrounds, and the reasons why they were either bad or good under certain circumstances. But not now. Nowadays, Assassin's Creed simply showcases evil guys doing evil things for the sheer pleasure of being dark and edgy. Basim lacks charisma, lacks interest. The city becomes tedious to traverse, especially through areas patrolled by guards that inexplicably block only you, making travel between zones annoying.

The combat is some of the worst I've witnessed in a game. It's worth noting that the creators didn't intend to design a fighting mechanic that you're supposed to excel at. However, in multiple segments of the game, it somewhat forces you into combat, making it incredibly difficult for the player to avoid. Also, it's clunky. Very clunky controls, something I'm surprised about in 2023.

It's apparent that the foundation resembles a game more inclined towards 'let's fight,' akin to Valhalla, yet used in a stealth-based game that should be as precise as a clock. Please, just revisit (or experience for the first time) Dishonored 1 and 2.

I decided to play The Coal out of morbid curiosity, thanks to everyone making this game out to be worse than Satan and @ZeusDeeGoose's disdain for the writing. Putting aside the creator's creepy, barely disguised incest fetish with the two mentally ill protagonists flirting, the gameplay is dull puzzle schlock, and the dialogue is something only a middle schooler could enjoy. How am I expected to take this "horror" game seriously when it doesn't even take itself seriously, or have anything of substance to say? Everything's just shocking for the sake of it. Satanism? Murder? Cannibalism? Shiver me timbers!!!

Sorry if this becomes a rant, but i think this is a legitimately disastrous game. Maybe partially due to my complete exhaustion with the Ubisoft-ified open world genre, but on top of an open world game design I do not like, there are so many decisions that detract for no reason. Disclaimer: I did not finish this game; I played about 20-25 hours. Why do I need a high level skill in order to take mods off my gear? Is that not a reasonably basic expectation, that I be able to remove and replace modifiers, in a game featuring dozens of them? Why does fast travel require resources, but few enough that it essentially doesn’t even matter? Why not just make it free like most games released in the past 10 years? Why is the melee combat so fucking bad?? Why is the voice acting SO BAD for a first party Sony game? The world is cool and the visuals are nice, and the ranged combat is decently fun, but I really did not enjoy my time with this game and I don’t plan on ever returning.

So I actually played both Judgment and Yakuza 0 before this. I loved them both and was excited to dive into the Yakuza series in order. Well I'm happy to say I do like this game overall, but it definitely has issues imo.

First things first, yes I did play this on my PS2 so I played with the dub. Honestly, it isn't absolutely terrible. I did actually think some moments were effective even with the voice acting. Plus John Dimaggio is in this a lot so that's epic. Obviously though, the dub can be bad a lot of the time too. Sometimes in very funny ways which really works in humorous scenes...and sometimes it happens in very serious scenes which does stink.

The story...was good overall I'd say. It does throw a bunch of lesser little fetch quests and stuff near the middle of the game and then saves the crazy stuff for the very end, which makes it feel a bit unfocused... but it does have some genuinely good moments I feel. Kiryu was surprisingly emotive in this game compared to Yakuza 0, thought that was interesting.

The combat is honestly solid. Once you get used to your entire move set, it's pretty fun. I really like the chunkiness Kiryu has in this game, it feels really good to punch dudes. The encounters can be annoying though, mostly if they have guns. The game feels a but unbalanced where if its a one-on-one fight with a brawler only enemy or boss, it's usually easy. However, if its an enemy with a gun it can be very frustrating. That 2nd to last battle was incredibly annoying, but at least the final fight was fun albeit too easy.

I didn't do many side missions but the ones I did were cool. The fixed camera in Kamurocho was kind of cool, made the town more atmospheric. I liked the ps2 feel this game had compared to Judgment or Yakuza 0.

While I cannot say I liked this nearly as much as Judgment or Yakuza 0, I did enjoy my time with it even if it's pretty flawed. If I played it subbed, it might be a 7 idk but with how I played it...I'll give it a 6.5.

I'm pretty excited for Yakuza 2 cuz I heard it improved on a lot of shit in this game and that it's peak.

So my dear friend BungVulchungo absolutely loves this game, to the point where he couldn't stop talking about it after he played it. So it had me pretty excited to play it myself. While I can't say I loved it as much as he did, I did have a really good time.

I'd say the absolute best aspect of this game is its presentation. Its absolutely spectacular and was something I definitely loved. Really makes the game feel unique in that aspect. I also really enjoyed the exploration and puzzles. Every time I got to a new section, I was excited to just explore the place. The OST is pretty nice too, minimal for the most part but it works. While I didn't totally understand everything about the story, I thought it was told in a pretty cool way.

Sadly I did have some issues/nitpicks that hold it back from being amazing. I honestly didn't find the game that spooky. Idk, it definitely had some nice atmosphere but as a horror game it's definitely weak on the scares. I said I really enjoyed exploring each area, and while I do...they also dont feel too memorable because they aren't connected like for example the Spencer mansion or even Luigis Mansion 1 lol. Idk, I just prefer how those games did it personally. While I didn't dislike the combat, it's not amazing and can be annoying when multiple enemies are around. In those instances, I usually tried to evade them. One last little nitpick is while I liked reading the optional notes and texts, whenever the nation stuff was brought up..I just didn't care. I cared more about the Replika and Gestalt way more. Also this game did have some boss fights and I can't say I loved or disliked any of them. They were fine I felt.

I did really enjoy this game but it does have some faults I feel. I got the promise ending and I'm kinda thinking about going back to get the true ending once I replay Luigi's Mansion. Maybe I will maybe I won't idk but I did enjoy this game overall.

7.5/10

Last year I decided to replay Luigi's Mansion after having first played it back in 2018. I had a fantastic time and decided I would replay it every October. Well, Spooky season is now back so it's time for the annual replay. Yeah it's still a ton of fun.

As I stated before in my other review, the short length of this game makes it an ideal one to replay every year I think. I beat it in a day which is perfect since I'm a lot busier than I used to be. The shortness combined with the unrivaled atmosphere, funkiness and control scheme makes this the definitive Luigi's Mansion game in my eyes. There's just little things I love about this game that the other's lack. Like the funky jingle that plays when you pickup keys and stuff or how when you're not interacting with anything, Luigi calls out to Mario when you press the A button. He even has different calls when you're low on health. The one here at 0:04 is my absolutely favorite, has me laughing every time.

This game has that weird 6th gen GameCube charm that I love. 2 and 3 while not bad, both feel sterile in comparison. Idk, nothing is as raw as that ending where Luigi just starts crying and laughing at the fact he's finally reunited with Mario, it's genuinely so heartwarming I love it so much.

As I said in my other review, it does have its faults. I don't particularly like Boolossus. I just think they made it way too tedious to hit the boos with the ice. The high HP boos are also still somewhat annoying, though I feel like they weren't too bad this time around. Again, if they just didn't give them massive amounts of health...or even better just don't let them fly into different rooms, then that issue would be alleviated.

In the end though, I do love this game. Definitely a game I'd like to continue to replay every October and definitely one of my favorite GameCube games. After this I plan on playing Dead Space and Silent Hill, hopefully I'm able to get them in before Super Mario Bros Wonder comes out cuz I'm definitely playing that day 1 lol.

P.S: Oh yeah, this time around I decided not to get all gold portraits. Last year I did and while I'm glad I accomplished that feat, having to gold Sir Weston again doesn't sound like a fun time. I did get mostly golds though which is cool. I also didn't forget the gold diamond in the plant this time around so thank god. Because of that my score was 122,000,000 something which aint half bad. I also forgot to mention I played the hidden mission this time around. I wanna say I played the hidden one back in 2018 as well but i forget if I beat it back then. Enemies do more damage, there's more of them apparently (I didn't really notice a difference) and your vacuum sucks way faster now which was super fun and helpful with those portrait ghosts.

Overall, I thought this game was decent. While it did get somewhat tedious by the end...and I didn't really think it did anything too too special, it had some cool aspects.

The combat is fun but nothing amazing imo. What elevated it a bit tho were the weapons. Obviously the Plasma Cutter is really cool, love the mechanic of cutting off enemies limbs. However the real MVP was the The Ripper, that thing destroyed almost every enemy. Especially after I filled in every power node. The other weapons for the most part were cool too, I liked how they weren't just your generic weapon types. I also really like how your health UI is just built into the suit. Comes across as really natural and unintrusive. The final boss and ending I quite enjoyed as well.

However, as I stated...it did get tedious by the end. Going from level to level, doing simple tasks and then going back to the start of the stage. Idk man, I think it would have been cooler if the whole game was interconnected and you had to explore the space station like Resident Evil or something. The space setting is cool I guess (especially with the zero gravity sections tho they can be a bit disorienting at times) but I wish they did more with it because 90% of the time you're going through hallways that look and feel the same. Whenever they switch it up it's cool, just wish they did it more. Another thing is, I really didn't find this game scary personally. The only time I got spooked, and it was a jumpscare, was the ending. Otherwise, yeah didn't find it that unnerving. I also honestly didn't care about the story at all. The ending again was cool with the scenes that played out, otherwise the story was just there.

Yeah, the game does do some really cool things I feel but also never blew me away and was a bit tedious by the end, tho I'd say I enjoyed it overall. Next on the agenda is my Symphony of the Night replay and Silent Hill. Hoping I'm able to fit those in before Mario Wonder comes out!

Well, beating this on my birthday sure was a nice surprise! Especially since this was a pretty great game overall. It was my Secret Santa game in fact, which was something me and my discord fellas participated in. I'll link the list I did for that here.

Any who, yeah this was really good. I beat Prime 1 last year for the first time and thought it was awesome. So I was excited to see how 2 fared and I was not disappointed. I do think 1 was better overall as 2 has higher highs in some parts of the game and lower lows but it's still really good even compared to 1.

When it comes to straight up improvements, there's a couple things 2 did extremely well compared to 1. Loading times are all faster, it takes like half the time for you to get to a new area now. Scans now go from red or blue to green when scanned and are much easier to see if they've been scanned or not. The scanning especially being a lot better than 1's would definitely make me miss it when I replay that eventually lol.

Obviously the game's big mechanic is the dark and light worlds and honestly, I thought it was awesome. I've heard some people say they found it tedious, and I never really had an issue with it. I thought it added a cool spin on Prime's gameplay and made you think. It could make the game difficult somewhat, especially when fighting some of those dark world bosses but I liked that.

Speaking of the bosses, they're very interesting in this one. Overall, I'd say they were an improvement from 1 tho there were a couple that were a pain in the ass. Spider Guardian obviously being the main culprit for most people. I didn't hate it but man was it frustrating trying to figure out what to do while fighting it cuz that one can be brutal. A lot of the bosses were actually pretty tough, they were certainly more complex than 1's bosses. Those last few tho, the 2nd Dark Samus fight...Quadraxis and the whole set of final bosses were easily the best in the game and better than all of Prime 1's bosses. At first I was a little disappointed with the boss roster in 2 but after fighting the endgame ones, overall I do think 2 has better bosses than 1.

Now the biggest thing I think that's holding this game back from being better than 1, is its world. Prime 1 was basically Super Metroid in 3D. You had a very interconnected world to explore that was more into showing not telling. Prime 2 is more similar to Fusion with its bigger focus on storytelling and more linear world. The game is definitely not quite as linear or focused on story as Fusion, but it definitely feels like it took inspiration from it. The world is broken up into 3 main areas to explore and 1 overworld type area you go back and forth from. Rather than exploring at your own pace like Prime 1, it feels more like you're guided around slightly as you have to go back to the hub to unlock each new area. Eventually the areas do have elevators that connect to other areas but even with that the world isn't as tightly designed as 1's I feel. The area's are all cool, especially Sanctuary Fortress...that one is awesome, however I feel there weren't as many "aha" moments whenever I saw areas connect like in 1. I also feel like the game wasn't as atmospheric as 1 was, at least not the atmosphere I dig as much. Still, the world does interconnect by the end, I just think compared to 1 it just aint as good.

As for other miscellaneous things, the OST is pretty solid tho I do think its a downgrade compared to 1. I love how the classic item room theme is back, that's sick. I enjoyed the connections the game made to 1 near the beginning. Dark Samus was awesome to see in this game finally and it seems like it comes back in 3 so that'll be cool. Pirate commanders suck ass and were easily the worst enemy in the game. They're basically Chozo Ghosts from 1, except instead of locking the doors only some of the time, they lock them every time they appear and they're tanky as fuck which Chozo ghosts weren't. Weird change tbh and was just tedious every time they popped up. Navigating menus in this game feels clunkier than 1, they tried to make it all cool but it feels like it takes longer to find a certain file if you wanna read it again. It was interesting to see the screw attack in this game and while I warmed up to it by the end of the game, I still can't help it felt a little lame compared to how it was in prior games. Also again, one of the best parts of the game was just getting collectables and seeing what puzzles you have to do to get/find them. That was still really fun to do in this game, especially with the Dark/Light gimmick. I did get every item, which is of course a Metroid staple, and got a good chunk of the scans so I'm satisfied.

Overall, this was very good despite some issues I had. I do like Prime 1 more but this was definitely a worthy sequel I feel. Thank you @QuentTheSlayer for having me play this as my Secret Santa game, had a jolly good time! Next is gonna be the original Klonoa. A nice short game will do me good methinks.

So chill. Gorgeous visuals, such a well crafted world. The climbing mechanic is phenomenal - really translates the feeling of looking for handholds in actual rock climbing, and alternating the triggers whilst moving becomes almost hypnotic after a while. Procedural animation is phenomenal also, sells it so well. The game is short but sweet - completed it within 3 train commutes and it did not outstay its welcome. Story was scant and I'm not the greatest fan of piecing backstory together via letters, and I did find myself sometimes wishing there were more meaningful interactions with the environment, but that's not what this game is and I accept that.