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.

Cool game, but that kinda goes without saying, this game is oozing with style and pizazz. I dunno why I held out on playing it for so long, I didn't realize how short it was. It was fun, but it's a little bittersweet, as cool as Grave and his world are, I would've much preferred to have that Trigun game RED was also making.

To have a Trigun game with this kind of crazy balls-off-the-wall shootout style cel shaded type beat would've been the tits, but it just wasn't meant to be. Hopefully we'll get a beta build someday, or maybe we'll get a shitty Bamco game with the new TikTok fuckboy Vash...

Here Comes The Rain....

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.

Not the best Wario game but still a damn good puzzle platformer when compared to other titles on the Game Boy. What I was really shocked about was the differences between the GBC version and GB version, I think I prefer the GB version because of the shading on the sprites. You can just tell that this game was designed with a monocrhome look first, as the GBC version is washed out and boring looking, even missing some details such as the skull on the flag in Chapter 3.

If that wasn't enough, you can't even use the same save if you decide to switch systems, which I've never heard of before. Why can the Pokemon games share saves when in GB mode, but not this game?