Let's address the elephant in the room, yes, the islanders designs are pretty racist, and there's no good excuse for it. Does that mean you should disregard the entire game? That's up to you, personally I can look past that sort of thing, so long as it's not being outright malicious. I was never playing Shiren for the story or world, I came for the mystery dungeon stuff, I don't think the people playing these games looking for anything other than that. But I do think it was a bad move, regardless of it being a Japanese exclusive. It's just a shame that as soon as the English patch for this game was released, most of the buzz about it was about this rather than the amazing translation work or the game itself.

With that out of the way, I had fun with this one. I think the other review here is right, it's a bit easier compared to 5 and other games, but I don't think that's a bad thing. I'm currently on holiday in a tropical island myself, so the game being a bit more lax suited me as I melted under the blazing-hot sun in Bali. It's still challenging enough to be engaging, and if you're a newcomer, then it'll keep you on your toes. It doesn't do much to surprise you, but there's a few mechanics that can put a spin on your run.

There's not much to say, if you're familiar with Shiren or other Mystery Dungeon games, you know what you're getting into, and you'll have a good time here. If you're looking to get into the series, there are better options such as Shiren 5, Shiren 2, or even Shiren GB. But if you're dead set on playing this one like I was (I wanted to see the translation as well as play it on my RG505 lol, looks great on an OLED screen), you'll enjoy it.

First game of 2024, this game was long overdue for me.

Despite being a huge Capcom fan, a huge RE fan, AND a huge fan of yokai-themed body horror, I had never played any of the Onimusha games. I think I had gotten into my head that this series was something completely different, thinking it was closer to the Basara series or something, rather than what it actually is, Resident Evil but with Samurai. It's funny how your brain can write something off for years, and then randomly change its mind.

I'm glad it did, because this game was awesome, Onimusha got so much right on its first outing. The combat felt good, the backgrounds were cool and readable, and the designs all around were great, especially the demons. It all felt conventional, but well polished with a clear identity, to replicate a classic Samurai film with the Capcom flare of the era. Another thing that was surprising to me was how good the facial animations and mocap were, while it does have those early mocap exaggerated gestures, it still felt believable, and there were games on this system which came out way later that looked worse.

What really impressed me was the release, let's put this game into perspective. Coming out in 2001, the PS2 has only been out for a year, and within that 2000-2001 timeframe, Capcom developed Onimusha, Code Veronica, Dino Crisis 2, and DEVIL MAY CRY. That's insane! Sure, they all borrow elements from each other, but considering the level of care this game had as a new IP is crazy. That's just covering the RE side of the company too, Capcom was such a powerhouse in the late 90's.

Anyways, the game was fun, if not a little short, but it didn't need to be any longer than it was, the game covered everything it needed to, and laid the framework for the rest of the series. Really excited to play the rest, especially 3.

It's probably going to be a long time before I actually finish this game, and this is one of the few instances where that's a good thing in a game. This game is exactly what I wanted it to be, a new excuse to pour hundreds of hours into fusing monsters, and this time I get to fuck around with the DQIV canon, which is my favorite DQ game. The fact that they pulled TOSE out for this is awesome, and having played through the original DQM again not too long ago, you can still feel their influence here.

That is to say that not much has changed, and I'm thankful for that, the formula was already so addictive and fun, all it needed were a few QoL and gimmicks to pull me in. I'm over 30 hours in, and I just became the Manslayer, that just shows where my focus is. I want to collect all of the monsters, and get the best traits for my favorites, that can take a really long time, to some people that will be a major downside. But for me, that's the whole point of these monster RPGs, the grind that comes with team building is so cozy to me. I can shut my brain off after a long day, turn on a podcast, and spend 5 hours building up my Fat Fuck Slime (L). If Pokemon was about the story, then people would treat it with the same reverence that they do with Telefang or some other generic monster RPG.

It's about spending time with the weird fucked-up little guys, and Dragon Quest is FULL of charming little fellas. But if they aren't enough to keep your interest, then this game (and this entire genre tbh) isn't gonna be for you.

Wow, just wow.

It's a shame that this game's legacy is that it was a huge flop and more or less jumpstarted the HAL-Nintendo partnership, because in my opinion, those are the LEAST interesting things about this game, and the Game deserves to be celebrated outside of those factors. As someone whose first console was the NES, I was obsessed with any game that had cutscenes. I've always been fascinated by 8 bit games that push the limits of the console in order to enhance the storytelling, as it leads to both the designers and the player having to use their imagination. Metal Slader Glory destroyes those limits.

Everything from the massive sprites, multiple colour pallets, fluid animation, and even the intricate/dynamic sprite layering, it's all INSANE. I found myself stopping the game and just watching the little details of the characters faces, like how Elina would get upset when you'd talk to Catty, and smoothly shift back to a smile when you talk to her. Or how the characters would react in the foreground to things in the background.

"But the story is predictable, and the antiquated adventure game design is clunky/boring!" - Some jerk off

Look, I don't know how you ended up here if you can't cope with old adventure game tropes or 80s sci-fi anime plots. If you know about this game, you must be VAGUELY interested in one of those things, otherwise, what the fuck were you expecting from such a niche game? And even then, this is by far one of the most polished adventure games from that era, especially out of the Famicom ones.

It's a great game, and I'm glad I finally finished it. Shout-outs to Her-Saki and FandChill, their translation patch was a much needed upgrade, the updated font and more energetic translation made the game that much better.

This game blows my mind on so many levels. An ancient Sonic SATAM fan game, made for DOS before fan games were really even a thing, ported to the GBA. It's a game that's from a bygone era of the Sonic community, when there wasn't a clear distinction between the mainline and the tertiary media. An era of fansites and watching rips of the show on RealPlayer while people fought about Sally versus Amy.

It's an honest game, and while that might be a bit off-putting at times (it can be pretty edgy), it's done in an earnest way, clearly made by a late 90's teenager. As a slice of history and passion, it's great, as a game, it sucks, and that's okay. I'd much rather a game boldy pour its unrefined heart out to me and fail.

I miss this kind of thing, too much media these days feels the need to be self aware, too afraid to be genuine just in case it comes off as awkward. As if the creators need me to know "Don't worry, we know it's silly!", and fill their work with patronising or ironic jokes. I'm fucking tired of it, give me more games that have scenes where a character tries to kill themselves, the main guy responds with "That's mundo uncool", and it's not played for laughs.

You know, the older I get, the more I appreciate the Dragon Quest series. Despite the stories, characters, hell even the battle system not being very complex, the older I am, the more and more I like it. It knows what it is, it understands what a JRPG is made of, and it delivers the highest quality on every front. Sure, it's not as experimental as Final Fantasy or as complex as SMT, but it's not trying to be that. Dragon Quest as a series has always been about mastering what they already had, and experiencing that level of mastery after playing so many RPGs that drop the ball in one or more departments feels so relieving.

It's like eating your grandma's stew after eating takeout for months. The takeout has more variety and can be more exciting, but often lacks a factor X or Y. You're probably eating it by yourself or in a claustrophobic restaurant too. But your grandma's stew came from years of making the same recipe, mastering the process. You know all of the ingredients, but it's so well made and packed with love, it beats out everything else...

...Though that being said, you wouldn't want to eat that hypothetical stew every day, and that's why I tend to play Dragon Quest after it's been a while. It's nice to come back to when the world's getting you down, when you've exhausted yourself with too much psychological stuff, when you need something warm and familiar, but is still engaging and polished.

Anyways, great game, still my favorite Dragon Quest game, if you're Russian and you look like Alena (or Borya, yeah I roll like that too bitch), hmu.

I learned about moon in the same way I learned about The Silver Case, finding the OST back in like 2008 on Youtube. They were both so mystifying, their styles so unique, and as a kid who couldn't read Japanese, nor understand the plot, I was left to just hope to play them some day.

Eventually the Silver Case got translated, but it would be another 5 years after that until we even got a mere mention of a moon translation. I stalked the Onion Games website from 2019 to 2020, and when it finally came out...I didn't play it.

I had built up the game so much in my head, after years of anticipation, I was just too scared to actually play it. "Gotta be in the right headspace, not now." "Don't want to play it on the Switch." " I want to play it with this person." Excuse after excuse.

Then, a moment of clarity hit me, bought it on Steam, sat down, and played it.

It consumed me, it had my complete attention. It made me feel like a kid again, playing through Chibi Robo, making an agenda, connecting the dots. It's been so long since I've felt that, without any outside noise or motivation. I was playing it because I wanted to be there, I wanted to find everything. Nobody was forcing me to do that damn fishing contest, nobody made me buy all of the CDs and listen to them all in my house. It was all so organic, so natural...

But with that said, the game can be really damn obtuse, thankfully there are plenty of guides that play by the "three strikes" rule, giving you hints before outright giving you the answer. I managed to figure out a lot of the puzzles on my own, but just couldn't figure out the exact timing or way to execute them. But that's half the fun, immersing yourself and noticing new things with every area.

Artistically, it's unmatched. I mean, wow. Everything from the sprites, the backgrounds, even a simple animation like the Birdman's guitar and hat. And to hear the OST in game after all this time, building a playlist just like I did all those years ago, so awesome. Love and charm was put into every facet, you could feel just how much of every team member's heart went into the game, a true melting pot of artistic integrity.

So yeah, it was brilliant, and for Love de Lic to get it so right so early on, managing to make it on par (or even better in some cases) than their later games is astounding.

My main takeaway:
Enjoy life, enjoy its weird intricacies, don't take them for granted. This world is strange, funny, beautiful, sad, scary, frustrating, open, closed, it's all of that. When you're stuck in life, it won't be like that forever. It's only a matter of time before you figure things out, or things figure out themselves. In the meantime, put on some music, meet up with an old friend, or just reflect for a while.

Maybe you'll see something new.

Not even being ironic here, I loved this game.

This game reminds me of GARAGE: BAD DREAM ADVENTURE, you're not in it for the gameplay, you're there for the uncanny, oppressive, and disgusting atmosphere. As games, they're tedious, clunky, and not fun in the slightest, but as art pieces, as worlds, they're very unique.

Though Funny Pizza Land captures a very different kind of fear, the fear of being trapped in a 2000's Eurojank shareware game. There were so many horribly jank platformers/adventure games that you'd get on a CD from your Eastern European uncle back then, games that were unintentionally unsettling and awful. FPL is definitely trying to be weird, but not overtly creepy, it's trying to be ugly and quirky, but comes off as horrifying.

If you grew up in the 90's or 2000's and played a lot of shareware, play this game. It will take you back to an era where this was all you had. You had to invest your child mind into this grotesque world, dealing with its disgusting looking characters, awful controls, and buggy collision. We don't see this kind of earnest attempt anymore, if FPL were made today, it would be some lame "analogue horror" wannabe and have no real meat to it other than trying to play off of your childhood fears. FPL never set out to do that, it just naturally IS fucking awful.

Here's another game I played as a kid, really liked it, but put it down because I found it a bit overwhelming. But coming back to it as an adult, it's much, much easier, which isn't a bad thing. I think that the way the game describes its mechanics sometimes can make them a little more confusing than they actually are, which is probably my only gripe with the game. The art direction is practically unparalleled, it's hard to think of another platformer from the time that was this stylised without sacrificing anything. I also think the way this game deals with mental illness and trauma is really commendable, there were some pretty serious topics here, and they managed to have fun all while recognizing the real world implications they have. I'll be very impressed if the sequel can live up to this one

This game feels so much better on the PSP for one major reason, the god damn load times. I would've never beaten this shit if I had to reboot my PS2, go through the UI, wait for it all to load, then get instakilled because I forgot to equip floating legs. In this version, everything's snappy and instant, if I fuck up, it's a matter of seconds to restart.

Besides that, amazing game, it's been a long time since I've felt such a gratifying learning curve. Insane how this game nearly perfected the mecha experience despite all of its limitations, and built something deeper/rewarding than most games would even dream of going, especially within its genre of mecha action games, which is a smaller pool of (good) games than you'd think.